Second time back to Summer Palace (Yi He Yuan) and once again I’m none the wiser. Throngs of people, high heat — what do you expect from Beijing in July?

This trip was an outing sponsored by my language school. I about dodged out of it but my classmates managed to convince me to alter my plans. As per the last outing, my teachers had the customary homework sheets ready for me to interrogate the unsuspecting masses with.

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I love Beijing for its virulent growth.

You won’t find a city with as many construction cranes dotting the skyline. As others have said before, it is the fast changing nature of the city that makes Beijing a place unlike any other. For its beauty and the scars it took to make it what is is — and is becoming — I wanted to share a few of my photographic observations.

Here is a short pictorial of how the city’s looked through rain, darkness, smog and sunshine this past summer.

Friday was a much welcomed reprieve from our normal class schedule, or so we thought. Our teachers planned an excursion to 大觉寺 (Da Jue Si) — a thousand year-old temple located about 1.5 hours outside of Beijing.

Their goal was to advance our exposure to Chinese culture and customs.

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Words to describe: Loud, bright, loud, overwhelming, very loud. Did I mention loud?

It’s a literal war zone and an impressive one at that. The Chinese don’t have any elite or exotic fireworks — ironic given this country originally invented them — but what they lack in creativity they more than makeup for in relentlessness.

Every city block has between 3-5 peasant groups firing them off creating a literal firewall sweeping across the skyline.

When I asked a friend why this was allowed by the government, he laughed and stated all the buildings were made of concrete and not to worry. And technically speaking they don’t allow it; they just can’t be bothered to enforce those specific laws.

Oh those lovable commies.

They know how to have fun, for one day a year at least.

Given that learning Chinese is my primary focus while studying abroad, I felt keen to comment on my progression.

Simply put, Mandarin is a completely new way of communicating. Unlike English, vowels receive the most enunciation focus. The basic A-E-I-O-U sounds are different requiring tongue to be strategically place in the middle of the mouth or touching the upper or lower teeth ridge line. Once the four tones come into play the sounds become even more problematic.

Thankfully, my mind is slowly adapting. In another couple of weeks and I feel confident that I’ll have this aspect — along with the “initials” and “finals” combinations — down.

My personal goals of keeping up with homework assignments have been met so far. My teachers are praising my progression whether by merit or their desire to maintain my 200RMB an hour clientèle.

What’s been forefront on my mind is how deep down the rabbit hole I wish to go. I’m living in a bubble — all my friends are Westerners and I’m still primarily communicating in English. If this train of thought is followed to its logical conclusion, I’ll know the technical aspects of the Chinese language by the time I leave but I won’t be natural or comfortable speaking it.

Where and with whom to speak is therefore the quandary I need to resolve.

Do I downgrade my apartment plans and find local flatmates?
Do I find a housemate for my current apartment plan?
Do I just launch myself into communicating with every street vendor and person who seems inclined to listen to me?

(I have Faye, but I hate burdening her when her life is busy enough as is.)

Between work, school, life and church my hands have been busy and this precarious juggling act I’ve been pulling off is taking its natural toll. I can handle it, but with little things like this apartment snafu and church responsibilities, my breathing has become decisively more pinched.

For this week, I intend to maintain the status quo. The brief reprieve will do nothing to hide the reality that there is a significant number of decisions rapidly approaching that will in great part determine the integrity of my China experience.

After spending three years in Hawaii, I am often asked what was the most difficult and challenging hike I completed. My response normally entails a narrowing of the eyes, followed by a far off look with my voice becoming extremly grave. On occasion, I’ve even been told I look like a Vietnam veteran going through some kind of horrendous flashback.

The hike was the “Haiku Stairway,” as the locals tend to call it. Everyone else on the face of the planet simply refers to it as the Stairway to Heaven.

On my first attempt, I was unable to finish the hike and it almost killed me.

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In Laie, Hawaii there are bands of rogue chickens that roam the streets searching for unsuspecting prey to terrorize. Getting used to cohabitation with these flightless wonders is something that took some getting used to. For an entire year, these midget-demons from hell would wake me up at 4am and camp outside of my window.

And yes, their numbers are many.

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