Hello I am in Beijing and not too jet-lagged thanks to these magic pills. They are unbelievable and I highly recommend them for any travel that crosses time zones. Anyway, my trip was off to an interesting start as soon as I boarded my flight to Beijing when a little boy was seated next to me and started jabbering to me in mandarin. I discovered that 赵润邦 (Zhao4 Run4 Bang1) is a 10 year-old kid from Beijing with an affinity for Batman and 北京烤鸭 (Peking Duck). He was traveling alone after spending one month at his 姑妈's (aunt, specifically father's sister) home in Toronto. His parents are both professors, and his mom knows six languages. Even though my mandarin was off (and boy is it humbling to have a 10 year-old correct your speech), we also talked about Canada’s Wonderland, haunted houses, and the relative merits of Superman vs. Batman vs. Spiderman (he likes Batman best because he is rich, dressed in black, and has lots of gadgets) over the next 13 hours. He taught me the mandarin for Winnie-the-Pooh, I explained to him the meaning of “double-double” – which he heard people ask for all the time at Tim Hortons. Actually, I really only understood half of what this kid kept going on about, which was sad because he kept telling jokes and stories but I’d lose the meaning before the punchline. He always laughed so hard and looked so pleased with himself after telling me that I didn’t have the heart to say “uh, 我不懂” – I don’t understand – so I’d just give and enthusiastic nod and big grin instead which seemed to make him happy.

More mandarin practice when I landed. My uncle had asked a friend of his in Beijing, who I call 刘叔叔 "Uncle" Liu to look out for me this year so he and his son Rick were at the airport to meet me and wait for my mom's flight to arrive (she couldn't get a seat on mine). Uncle Liu only speaks mandarin but Rick was able to help out when my mandarin became hopelessly garbled because he also speaks english, and cantoneses so we'd actually use all three languages in our conversation.

During the drive into Beijing, the first things that struck me are the heat and smog. It's muggy and humid, like a summer in Washington DC, but whereas DC is just sticky the air pollution makes everything kind of... dirty. A thick haze is everywhere and the difference between a sunny day and a cloudy day is whether the haze is yellow or grey. Even the trees along the highway into the city looked like they were covered with a layer of dust. Add in humidity and 30+ degree celcius temperatures and it doesn't take long before you start feeling pretty icky.

It took about 40 minutes to get from the airport to my school, 北京语言大学 which is is located in north-west Beijing in an area called 五道口 Wudaokou in 海定区 Haidian District. It's actually quite far from the heart of the city, about a 40-60 min subway ride away from the Forbidden City/ Tiananmen Square. It's a hectic area and, like the rest of Beijing, cars, bikes, and pedestrians compete for space on the roads; right-of-way doesn't exist here so you gotta watch out for cars and bikes unexpectedly sneaking up when you are walking around. We stopped by the school to reserve a dorm room before checking into a nearby hotel.

But more exploring tomorrow. Uncle Liu is taking my mom and me out for dinner - incidentally, for 润邦's favourite Peking Duck.