In Beijing, things change rapidly. You can go away for a week or two, and when you return the ATM you used to frequent has vanished into thin air. The escalators in department stores change directions weekly, like something from a Harry Potter book. You can go to the food court for lunch as usual to find your favourite noodle place has been replaced by a help-yourself hotpot one. As an Aihua teacher, this extends to work as well. The semester lasts six months (that have a tendency to fly by), after which you can find yourself faced with new classes, new co-teachers, a new schedule, and even a new centre to work at. Foreign friends you’ve gotten to know over half a year may go back home, and like me, you can move to yet a new apartment after only six months.
Bewildering as all of this can be, it has great advantages. Like when you discover an ATM you never knew about that’s closer to your home. Or when you find you actually like the new hotpot place. Naughty classes can become someone else’s problem, while you have the opportunity to start fresh with a new set of kids. You can make plans to visit the foreign friends in their native countries, and meet some great new ones from other places. And the new apartment has been the best change yet!
On some days, the feeling that everything is temporary and unpredictable really sucks. On others, life seems full of exhilarating possibilities and potential. Mostly, though, it keeps life interesting, and clichéd as it may be, living in Beijing is teaching me to value what I have while I have it, as I never know what tomorrow may bring.