An Irish Relapse

Another random note, this one describing what I did today (remember,  I did warn it was going to be a mundane week!), here goes...

Today was a rainy and dreary day. As I sat at my desk, trying to work up the motivation to continue recrafting a PhD chapter for publication, I looked outside and was reminded of my days in the lab in Dublin. Never mind the Asian architecture, the combination of an impenetrable grey sky and the pattering of raindrops against the window might as well have been a transport back in time to the fall of 2010. By the time lunch rolled around there was no shaking the memories of Ireland and the thirst for a pint of Guinness. That was it, not only was I going to find that Guinness, I was going to make a stand for having ANYTHING other than Chinese food for the first time in a month. Within moments, thanks to the omnipotence of Google, I was checking out a subway map to navigate the quickest route to Paddy O’Shea’s Irish Pub; the only Irish owned and managed pub in Beijing! 

This was posted in the men's restroom...just in case you forget where you are when you're in there.

I have been flying solo a lot these days, as in not having a Chinese shadow to help prevent me from getting lost, insulting the locals or otherwise stumbling into deportation-worthy troubles. To be honest, I haven’t needed one given that I have been living in the same building that I work in and I spend most days at the computer (a boring existence described in the previous post). A couple of weekends ago I was invited to a special dumpling lunch, hosted at a friend and colleagues home (a topic for another post very soon!). To ensure that I made it there safely and did not get lost, I was accompanied by another Chinese friend, using the Beijing subway system. Given this experience, I knew it wasn’t an entirely scary place, but I tend to have a difficult time learning when my hand is being held through the education process, and so after that experience I was still not certain as to exactly how the subway system worked. I guess I was gawking at all the riff-raff in the subway tunnels? 

The foreignness of my surroundings sometimes intimidates me. The inability to communicate, often even at an elementary level, with the majority of people around me, imposes a force against which a particular level of motivation is required to be successful (another topic for a later post). On "down" days I don’t bother leaving the confines of my office/apartment; but on "up" days I love the challenge of going out and through whatever means necessary (often a comical combination of gestures, charades and my 4-5 words of Mandarin) interacting with my environment. Today, with a pint or two of Arthur’s St. Jame’s Gate brew on the line, it is definitely an “up” day, and so I head out, alone, to command victory over the Beijing subway system.

Queues for arriving trains are separated from the tracks by a sliding door system. Guess that makes it harder to throw yourself into oncoming traffic.

 The result, in spite of my drawn out melodrama above, was a near flawless commandeering of a mass transportation system. Surprise, surprise, one of the world’s largest cities, and recent host to the Summer Olympics, has a simple and straight-forward subway system. There really is not much to say, it’s not as putrid in odor as New York City’s MTA, but not as aesthetically pleasing as D.C.’s Washington Metro (the only other subway systems I've used more than once). Quite simply, other than the cars full of Chinese people, it could be anywhere. 

Sometimes I wish I was in Japan so as to ease the ability to throw out appropriate Godzilla quips.

 

I jumped on at the East Gate of Peking University and fifteen stations and one transfer later I found myself emerging into the rain, nearer the center of Beijing in the district that contains various embassies from around the world. This region of Beijing, partly because of this, is a popular tourist area, and offers a huge, multinational, variety of shopping and dining options. As a consequence, there is a much higher density of foreigners here than elsewhere in the city. This brings up an interesting side note that I was recently discussing over beers while waiting for hotpot with my (American) friend Jack. We had both noticed that in Beijing, and really in many foreign countries, that when you cross paths with another white person, they often act aloof, avoid eye-contact, and otherwise do their best to pretend you don't exist. We proposed that, perhaps, by acknowledging the existence of another American (for example), that that somehow is perceived as invalidating the depth of the immersion into the alien experience; kind of like when you think you're hiking through a remote forest but then emerge onto a busy freeway. Alternatively, maybe they're all Europeans and really dislike Americans, so it's just me :). Either way, I've always given a smile and nod to anyone who makes eye contact on the street, equal opportunity for all! Yet today I was surprised as I tapped into that anti-white people vibe. As I wandered the streets en route to the pub, I was distinctly annoyed at all the white people imposing upon my adventure through the streets of Beijing!

Regardless, nothing was going to get in the way of my mission, or dampen the joy awaiting me at O'Shea's. I knew from my google sleuthing that I need only to head down the road immediately outside the subway station and Paddy O’Shea’s would be waiting for me just across the street from the Australian embassy. A quick walk down the nearly empty boulevard and there it was; not necessarily the ambiance of Dublin’s O’Donoghue’s, but with Guinness on draught and a menu full of Irish classics, it was damn good enough!

Oh sweet nectar of the gods!