May 28, 2007

Beijing (CHINA)

Visiting Tsinghua University and Meeting Fellow REU Students

I am at the point where I feel guilty sleeping past 8am, but today I decided to be audacious and didn't start my day off until 9:00 - my  body simply cannot get enough rest these days. For breakfast, I grabbed a curry baozi (shown to right) from a street vendor, and stopped in a quickie mart for a bottle of orange juice. Every time I visit China I force myself to make a conscious effort to get enough vitamins and minerals, and orange juice is the best-tasting method.

I spent the next couple hours touring Beijing's few remaining hutong districts (traditional Beijing homes that are now protected to preserve the country's rapidly vanishing culture). Afterward, it was back to Tsinghua University where Max served as my campus-guide. One of the first things we decided to do was visit the newly constructed lecture halls and look in on a few classes.

Funnily enough, as we left the building I ran into a friend I made while studying in Hong Kong! I hadn't seen or heard from him in nearly a year so it was a remarkable coincidence.

Who was it that said "lightning never strikes twice"?

Well, only fifteen minutes later I heard a bike come screeching to a halt as Jessie, another friend of mine, ran over to chat. She was off to a laboratory and couldn't join us for lunch, but we couldn't believe our good fortunate in running into each other. I promised to return at the end of the summer so we can have a proper chat, and I could not help smiling at having such amazing friends.

Max and I ate lunch at one of the campus cafeterias, but the food was somewhat disappointing (as university food so often is). He then continued showing me around campus, including his dormitory - which is a room divided amongst four people - and the campus library. I found the library particularly interesting because the only economics and government books I could find dealt with socialism and communism. The few novels that were on display had publication dates from the 1950s, and they had the wear-worn look to prove it.

By 4pm I was in a taxi with all my bags heading for the hotel where I would rendezvous with the other REU students. The group of 14 students spent several days getting to know one another in New York, so I am well behind the curve. Fortunately, they are a great bunch of people who took the time to find out information about me and it was like we never missed a beat.

After settling into the hotel room we went out for a group dinner at a local restaurant. There were a couple vegetarians at my table, which is always an interesting experience when trying to order food in Chinese. I was too worn out to worry about such things, and when I finally hit the bed after at 11:00pm I quickly passed out.

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