The changes that have come in just one week have been incremental, yet life-changing. For one, I now have most of the essentials I still needed: comfy shoes for schlepping, a camera for photo-documentation, a visa and Pepto-Bismol (for obvious reasons...) The most important and least tangible, though, is a place to stay! For July and August, my family friends are so generously hosting me in their spare apartment. Having a room for those two months, though, meant that I needed to find somewhere to live in June. I have spent the last month contacting homestay agencies, responding to online ads, researching hostels and apartments, all in the pursuit of housing that was convenient, affordable, safe. The most important criterion in my mind, though, was food. Primal, I know, but when considering that I've never lived on my own and have predominantly relied on others to feed me, figuring out how I'm going to eat for two and a half months has been constantly on my mind. What's more, while I know I can rise to the challenge, the prospect of going to a Chinese market, finding ingredients I recognize and can use, potentially bartering for products in Chinese, finding utensils to cook with, etc. on my own sounds overwhelming. That said, Chinese restaurants are extremely affordable and abundant by Western standards, so many of my Chinese friends have advised against even attempting to cook for myself.
In short, the horror of starving alone drove my search to find a host family who will feed me, love me, correct my Chinese, let me play violin, and be close to my internship site. Call it fear of commitment, but the idea of signing up to live in someone's home based on such superficial knowledge of him or her (location, occupation, number of rooms in the home, the assurance that "you will be safe anytime in his house") is a huge leap of faith. So over the course of a month, I emailed back and forth with agencies and my own contacts, trying to find a situation that didn't require me to a) work as a maid, b) spend a certain number of hours per week volunteering, c) commute for over an hour.
After changing my mind at least four times, I rejected all of my options and wrote to a woman whose homestay offer I originally decided against because it was outside my budget. She wrote back that she had already agreed to host another student, but could contact her friend. Seeing as at that moment I had no leads and ten days to figure out where I would be moving to, there seemed to be no downside to asking. As it were, her friend's home is quite close to where I'll be working, she is happy for me to practice violin, her rate is much lower--and it includes meals. Here's what sealed the deal for me, though: the friend is a nutritionist and reportedly makes "very authentic" and "delicious" Beijing cuisine. To quote Elsa Schiaparelli, "Eating is not merely a material pleasure. Eating well gives a spectacular joy to life and contributes immensely to goodwill and happy companionship. It is of great importance to the morale." I would argue that having authentic and delicious Chinese food is imperative if I am to succeed this summer.
It's no guarantee that this homestay is going to be completely smooth sailing, and I'm optimistic I'll learn a lot from my host family members as well as my own mistakes. From their messages, they seem very kind, and even if the homestay goes terribly, I have a back-up couch to crash (and as always I'm sure it will make for some interesting stories). Nevertheless, I can't fully explain what what an incredible relief it is to know that I at least have a place to go when I arrive in Beijing.
On a slightly different note, recent incidents involving foreigners in China (a British tourist's sexual harassment of a Chinese woman, and Russian cellist's mockery of a Chinese woman on a train, both captured on video) has sparked Chinese national outcry, and perhaps xenophobia. After the former incident, many Chinese micro-bloggers voiced angry opposition to foreigners in their country, most notably CCTV host Yang Rui, who wrote that those who can't find work in the US or EU come to China to "grab our money, engage in human trafficking" and called for his country-fellows to "cut off the foreign snake heads." Now, the Chinese government has launched a 100 day campaign to drive out foreigners who have entered and work in the country illegally.
Disturbing as all of this is, from what I have heard, the anti-foreigner sentiment hasn't manifested itself in the form of violence; if anything, the police are just profiling passerby (what else is new?) and randomly demanding to see passports. It's unfortunate that the stories about conflict between Chinese and foreigners are the ones that are being highlighted in China (for there are many positive stories that are under the radar) but it makes sense that the Chinese government encourages it as a way to set the country apart (and over) the West. Personally, I'm just hoping that xenophobia doesn't further escalate in the pursuit of a unified China. My new goal is to show at least one person in China that foreigners aren't all that bad.
(Six days until departure!)
Audrey
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