It's pretty hot in the hutong I live in.
Two weeks ago it was 35 - 37 degrees Celsius by 8:15 in the morning every day. That's about 95 to 98 degrees Fahrenheit. That's pretty hot. Luckily I could flee to an office building with central air during the hottest part of the day. I spent last week teaching sailing in Qinhuangdao and living in an apartment with its own bathroom, shower, and cool termperatures (though still no air conditioning, the sea breeze was enough), and it was definitely hard to come back to place in Beijing.
But then I bought a new fan, and a nice one too, not one that you can bargain for at a local market. It's a Midea fan with great power. I pretty much leave it running whenever I'm home and it's doing a very good job of keeping my apartment cool. It seems like I'll make it through the end of my contract, which expires on August 5th.
What started as a test and challenge has turned into the place I live and love. When I moved into this place in February I did think about what the summer's hot temperatures would be like, but my mind was more preoccupied with the freezing cold weather of winter. And I think there was a good part of me that didn't even think I'd make it to summer. But as I have lived here longer I have learned to love every part of life here. Not just the apartment I live in, or my neighborhood local restaurants, but the fact that when I walk down the street I joke with locals who all know me.
It's a good atmosphere in the middle of the city, and life moves even slower than Beijing in general--which is already a very slow capital. The sense of humor is darker and colder than outside the second ring road. It's definitely affected my speech, which is now better Beijing dialect than Mandarin, but I can still communicate in Mandarin, but it's a lot more work than letting all my words slur together and come out as a giant gargle in Beijing dialect littered with local Beijing expressions and words.
As I get closer to the August 5th end of my lease, I wonder where I'll move to. Part of me doesn't want to look for a new place, and just spend the rest of the summer and fall in my apartment. But then again, what kind of professional lives without a private toilet bathroom or shower? And a washing machine would be nice. I know I can find a place with all those in the hutongs of Beijing, but it just seems so fake, living in this old style housing. There are the people who live in refurbished hutongs, and as you walk deeper into the place I live you find that most places are being fixed up and set up to be more livable. But still, when you talk to people who also use the same public toilet, who don't have a private place to shower, who live in a small place buried inside a "complicated courtyard house" with upwards of ten families living in the same general area, it just doesn't seem right to tell them you pay 2500 a month for a room in a courtyard house and you have all the modern comforts.
It's weird to think of leaving all the friends I have made in restaurants and stores and the old people that sit on the corner, but then again a washing machine and shower would be an excellent change, especially as every day is hotter than the day before. It seems that as the weather conditions keep changing I think more and more about the ammenities that most people can't live without, and would never choose too. What started as a challenge for myself definitely became a true love... Now I definitely wouldn't consider it a test or a challenge, it really is the place I live, my neighborhood and my life in Beijing. I Still have about two weeks to try and decide what to do with the living situation, but have to start searching soon, if I do end up moving. Maybe a change in conditions, and a new area in Beijing would bring a new view of Beijing culture, which never ceases to have new facets to be explored.
