One of the wonderful things about living in Beijing is the
interesting people you meet. People
from all over the world come here, and the international enclave tends to be a
diverse mix of people from all four corners of the globe. The Chinese attitude towards foreigners
goes a long way in reinforcing the vibrant expatriate scene here in
Beijing. Natives don’t usually
make distinctions between foreigners based on their country of origin. A foreigner is just a foreigner whether
they are from Europe, America, Africa, or Asia, and in some cases this includes
Hong Kong and Taiwan. As a result,
I have quite a few friends from other Asian countries, including Hong Kong and
Taiwan, but only a small number from mainland China. Since the vast majority of my friends are other foreigners,
my circle of friends has a transitory nature. People move here, stay a little while, then they move on
with their lives.
Having a friend, and in this case also a roommate, move away
isn’t necessarily a sad event.
You’ll miss them, but you know they are off to bigger and better
things. Also, the second they get
on the plane out of Beijing, th
eir chances of getting
lung cancer drop by 85% (this is not a real statistic, but it is completely
believable). It usually hits you
that someday you’re going to be the one getting on the plane and leaving
Beijing……although likely two to four hours after your scheduled departure time
(Beijing Capital is the world’s most delayed airport). Over the past few months, I became good
friends with a few of my roommates.
Our mutual hatred of our shady landlord brought us together, but I know
that I lucked into a pretty good situation here, especially considering all the
horror stories out there about “roommates from Hell”. So even though you’ll miss your friend, you know they are
going on to better things and that makes them leaving sort of a happy event.
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