Back to school. Well it’s back to school here in Beijing, and that means people everywhere and more traffic on the roads. And there goes the quiet. Some people were wondering why I didn’t go anywhere for this winter break. To put it simply, I refuse to pack. January 1 marks 6 years that I’ve been bouncing around the world doing whatever it is that people with no attachments do. I’ve tried the nomadic life and I’ve had my share of packing and unpacking, securing my stuff, haggling with locals for the best price, airports, the stories of other foreigners, cell phones and sim cards, wifi and coffee, western food and drinking water. The list goes on. Temples, mountains, “culture”, language. I’m at the point that I’d just like things to stay the same for a while so I can gather my thoughts and figure out what I did. Working and travelling all over the place (you’ll recall that China is Country #24 for me) and I’ve simply become opposed to packing. I was offered a flight back to Canada but I looked at the temperatures there while mulling over the prospects of jetlag and decided to simply stay put.
All that considered, this semester will be an interesting challenge as it will be the first time in a very long time that I’ve literally stayed in the same place and worked the same job for more than three months! Even “digital nomads” have more consistency in their jobs than I have.
Shopping. So I’m going shopping for some new clothes. You’d think that the country that manufactures a large percentage of the stuff the rest of the world uses that it would be cheaper to buy it here. Nope. The good stuff is exported while the crappy stuff is sold here. There are some Western names brands but they are even more expensive here. I did buy a pair of shoes that I’m mostly happy with, except for the fact that they dig into my heels, but they have served me well.
Bought some more books. Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong, which won the Asian Man Booker Prize in 2007. I’ve flipped through it a couple times at book stores but was never convinced of it until I saw that it had been made into a movie. It’s said to be one of the best modern Chinese books written (and translated) so I figured I’d give it a shot. It was worth the purchase. It’s a fictitious story set in Mongolia during the Chinese Cultural Revolution in which whatever was old (customs, art, etc.) was thrown out and replaced with the new. The first chapter is has the main characters bunkered down in a snow drift trying to avoid the notice of a nearby pack of wolves while telling the background story of wolves in Mongolia and their characteristics. That chapter alone had me thinking I was on the hunt with them.
I also bought Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore which comes highly recommended. I’m looking forward to this book being my “relieve my brain from reading essays” book. I hope it was a good choice.