Please excuse me, I’m feeling a little bit sorry for myself. I wrote a post yesterday about all the things I love about Beijing, but today I can’t seem to let myself post it. I’m moody. I’m wondering when exactly our lives will be totally back on track. The waiting period of the last three months played havoc with our routines and our livelihoods. We’ve been told to be patient, we’ve been told that answers will come. In the meantime, we brood. Since we’re not 100% sure we will stay in Beijing, we’re reticent about totally assimilating into life here. (I realize that is a vague statement and the first you’ve heard of that particular fact. We’re confident we’re staying in China, we’re just not sure which base will be our home.)
Uncertainty is a part of the expat life. You’re never certain you’re saying the right thing in the crazy foreign language you must use. You’re never certain you’re paying an actual fair amount of money for the vegetables you’re buying off the guy on the street corner. (And god knows where this mysterious fellow and his vegetables have come from!) You’re never certain what’s in the package of “salt” you just picked up at the supermarket. You’re never certain the taxi driver really knows where he’s driving you, even though he grunted his affirmation that he does. And you’re never quite certain where you’ll even be living in a few years time. In our particular situation, we’re uncertain where we’ll be living in a few weeks time or even what kind of work either of us might be doing. Sigh.
The DH and I are both currently in China on tourist visas. We’ve decided to embrace our status and have been taking walks around the touristy Beijing sites, camera in hand. We did attempt to bike around, but then the DH had a bike-tastrophe. Until he can find a repairman, we walk. While the summer temps are still in full-force, they are considerably lower than the high 30s-low 40s of August, making our adventures a wee bit more tolerable. I have been fully aware of my Northern European stock each time I set foot outside this summer. The pasty white girl with the bright red face, furiously fanning herself? Yeah, that was me. I am more than ready for autumn, which just so happens to be Beijing’s best season.
So as we wonder what the autumn will bring, I will attempt to fill you in on my Beijing summer happenings. It has been a “one day at a time” kind of summer, and I’m thinking that this philosophy will have to extend to my blogging as well. Bear with me as I slowly ease back into the one routine I can fully embrace.
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
hang in there. i can understand the unknown and the uncertainty (and the frustrations that go along with that!).
naomi´s last [type] ..WHATS WRONG
Heather, es lo mejor que puedes hacer, tomarte la vida día a día y disfrutar de Pekín. De todas formas estoy segura de que se resolverá pronto y será para bien.
Keep on telling us how your life goes on
unlike! I’m so sorry
I can’t remember–did we talk about Beijing on Foot Guides. I think you would love them as a distraction right now.
Should have come to the bookworm today—it was all about dinosaurs
Great minds and all that – we were using the Beijing on Foot cards for our walks.
You are speaking my language! Best of luck to you guys, hang in there!!!
Yo Heather- hang in there! Have a couple of drinks (as long as its not sketchy Chinese moonshine that makes people blind) and enjoy Beijing. Beaming positive vibes and good wishes from San Francisco
It’s interesting… I’m reading Agatha Christie’s autobiography at the moment and her travels…
Then I listened to Cecil Lewis, taped off BBC Radio 3. He flew in WW1 and wrote “Sagittarius Rising” which is a briliant book… After the First World War he went to China to Peking to teach the Chinese to fly in Avro trainers and Vickers Vimy bomber/transports.
What Cecil Lewis wrote about training the Chinese then (or trying to) rang true for me too from BPIAA days…
You are living your life, you write your experiences down and share some of them with us and that is a wonderful thing to do.
You do as Agatha and Cecil did and in the future people will learn from your experiences.