My Semester Abroad

Yesterday I went with Eric and Elijah to the Dashanzi artist commune here in Beijing. We had been there the day before on a class trip but we felt like we had not gotten chance enough to explore all of the galleries there.

It's a remarkable place. It used to be a giant factory but that went out of business and the land, which was on the edge of town, was purchased very cheaply by artists. Since then it has blossomed into a cool, quirky neighborhood with studios, exhibitions, and even artists' residences all inhabiting the dusty warehouses.

Two days ago, my group made what might be our last expedition together. We piled into a rented bus and drove four hours to the Great Wall of China, passing through the city limits out into the dry northern border of Inner Mongolia. We arrived at our nearly deserted hotel before dinner, and, finding nothing else to do with ourselves, took over the karaoke machine in the hotel restaurant.

The sound system was a disaster and the song menu was lacking, but although the Chinese version can't quite compete with the Japanese (who invented it, after all), we have a few singers in our group who can transform even the blandest karaoke setup into a night to remember. I think the two greatest hits of the evening were a solo version of "Stand by Your Man," by Claire and Julia, and "Eye of the Tiger," performed by a chorus of the guys.

My roommate, Rob, and I woke this morning to a city covered in fine red dust. We had heard that in the spring, strong winds hurl the sand so fast that at times it's painful to go outside unprotected but we hadn't seen it in our two weeks in the city. Luckily for us, the storm struck at night while we were safe in our seventh-floor dorm room.

But Beijing's annual sandstorms have been getting worse, according to my acquaintances who have lived here for a while. They're caused by the desertification that resulted from the heavy logging and pollution of the Great Leap Forward in the late 1950s.

Although China's ecological future seems bleak, my friends and I were able to take advantage of the present situation and had lots of fun drawing pictures with our feet in the dust on the university's outdoor basketball court. This scenario is par for the course of my nine months in Asia as part of the Pacific Rim Travel Study Program: a balance of changes, contradictions, and possibilities that I have learned about during my time in Asia. I have one more month, in China, so I'm hoping to make the most of it.