Thursday was agonizingly slow for me as it was results day. The week at work involved a lot of induction activities that happen every 3 months here at the British Council for new employees so I participated in order to learn more about my role and the charity. On Thursday, however, I was not concentrating very much in anticipation for my 5pm result release. Fortunately my results were what I had been hoping for and I was able to celebrate with my friends at the Chinese acrobatics show. There were 8 motorbikes whizzing around inside a sphere at one point and this was a real high for me this week. Following the show, we went for a celebratory meal and my friend bought me a cake to say congratulations for my results. It was so lovely to realize that I have made such good, lifelong friends here. To continue celebrations, on Friday the HR team and I went for lunch followed by drinks after work in order to greet the Recruitment Agent for Asia as he was visiting Beijing from Singapore. This was a nice opportunity to get to know work colleagues within my department better outside of work and we went for pizza for dinner.
The weekend was a public holiday called ‘Dragon Boat Festival’. Although there were not many boat races in Beijing to watch, it still meant there was no work on Monday. For this reason we decided to have a relaxing day to unwind from the week of work and do some sunbathing in Chayong Park as there was an extra day and we didn’t feel as though we had to jam pack events in. When we arrived there Saturday morning, we were not expecting so much action! There was a theme park, Ocean Beach festival, sports section and flower park to see and do. This was a really enjoyable day and everyone was feeling positive and refreshed. We decided to travel to the Pearl market to buy some souvenirs. I managed to buy fake Converse for 45 RMB (roughly £4.50) and an Urban Decay palette (eye shadow) for 40 RMB! Pleased and content with my buys, we decided to stay in on Saturday with an Italian takeaway.
The intentions for Sunday were to go to the National Museum, Tiananmen Square and then the Olympic Park. Once we had explored the first two, however, the latter was not squeezed into the agenda and we have rescheduled this for next weekend. I managed to find some postcards (there is a real gap in the market for postcards in Beijing) in the National Museum as well as coming to grips with some of the history and view some art. As Tiananmen Square is very close by we also went there, although we became the main tourist attraction and I must be in about 20 photos that I will never see again.
Sunday night consisted of an Irish bar which provided great entertainment until early Monday morning. When we arose, we decided to stay local and explore the 798 Art District in which the apartments are located in. There were many shops and cool art galleries (which are all free entry) and there were quite a few western restaurants that I shall be returning to in my remaining time here. In the evening we went to a restaurant called Blue Frog in the shopping mall close by as there was an offer on the menu.
Although I did not venture far and wide this weekend as some interns chose to do, I feel as though sometimes it is easy to miss what is close to home by trying to tackle big adventures in such a large city all the time.
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