I’m sitting in a coffee shop next to the Beijing Drum Tower in the hutongs of old Beijing. I literally love this coffee shop - it’s only 3 minutes bike ride away, does some of the best espresso I’ve had and has a really good base of regulars, both ex-pat and local. Amongst the ex-pats in particular include a nice international crowd from NYC and Paris of writers, artists and journalists.
Part of being an ex-pat means that, when you do meet fellow ex-pats, more often than not they’re very interesting people with similar interests or outlook. Whilst I’ve found this occasionally isn’t the case, (e.g. in France a lot of the ex-pats are just old retired couples who move for the weather) in Beijing it’s another matter. Even ex-pats approaching retirement age would be required to have a certain amount of tough-skinned resilience to withstand the day-to-day excitement and challenges of living in China!
I’m going to sign-off for now as I’m actually supposed to be using this time to learn about a million new words that I’ve been given as homework. I’m annoyed with myself that I STILL haven’t written any new articles yet! I’m still not quite adjusted and into a proper routine yet but, once I am, I’ll blow the cobwebs off the surface of my brain and get writing!
