I had a new alarm clock for a couple of weeks. YI are YI! Yi are YI! …. YI! ARE! SAN! SUH! YI! ARE! SAN! SUH! Which is Chinese for ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR! It’s much, much louder in person. Marching orders, that is. Of course, no one bothered to tell me and so one bright and early Tuesday morning they start running around at 6 o’clock in the morning screaming one two three four and then doing their roll call. This went on for about 40 minutes until another troupe raised the flag at 6:54. I asked if they were preparing for war but no one laughed. Apparently it’s some sort of military training that they run twice a year.
And now it’s hot outside. I don’t recall there being much of a spring at all but maybe that is because I was really busy this past semester. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel and now I’m told I will be returning next year so…
Summer vacation. What to do? I’ll have two months until I have to be back in China. This past winter vacation I opted to stay in Beijing and had a look around, and I was fine with that. But now there is a slight tingle of desire to move, but not much. Paul’s Theroux’s Great Railway Bazaar helped a little but then I’m quickly reminded that I still have to make the trip… and pack… and deal with visas… and… and… and… And that makes me think twice about going anywhere. On another note, I just finished Theroux’d other book, Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, so that had me thinking of moving around again.
And the sun and the heat mean it’s umbrella season! What’s that you say? Does it rain that much in Beijing? No. But instead of using sun cream, which is both costly and expensive here, Beijingers opt to use an umbrella to cover themselves from the sun, also known as a “sunbrella”. I think it is a good idea and so I asked my students if I should get one. They laughed and said it’s only for girls, not men. The girls told me not to get one unless I was sharing it with a girl which, if you’ve ever been to Asia, often stirs questions and comments such as “I saw you sharing an sunbrella with a girl. Who is she?” And so on.
The other reason I think the sunbrellas are a good idea is because Beijing has been rainy lately. It doesn’t rain much, so I’m told, and you can usually see the clouds forming for a few hours before it actually downpours. Other than that, it’s relatively dry. The problem with sunbrellas, however, is that they aren’t waterproof so they’re useful to get to shelter and that’s it.
I’ll leave it there for now. Back to planning my summer vacation.