Eric's Beijing Diary

I got a refund on my library card today. I had paid a 500RMB deposit for a library card, but one of the office staff said that because I was "the foreign people," I would not be allowed to get a regular library card. I would be issued a special card that would allow me to look at books in the library, but not check them out.

"Why can't I check out books?"
"Because you're the foreign people!"

Yes. The foreign people. Shifty. Unreliable. Not to be trusted. Actually, what probably happened is that some irresponsible English teacher took off for the States with a handful of books. I ran into the same problem when Bulu took me to the National Library of China. In that case, I turned down the card, because the National Library is quite far from here. But the campus library is right in the middle of everything. I usually pedal by it at least twice a day. So perhaps it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for me to sit there and read whatever books they may have. Which is another thing. Beihang is a very, very Chinese University. It does not have the same international focus as many of the universities in this area. So I am not optimistic.

I have obviously been spoiled. Funny how habits change over the years. When I was an undergraduate, it was nothing for me to sit for ten hours in the college library. When I was in graduate school, I started going to coffee shops in the Regina area. I particularly remember an A&W restaurant where I could get bacon and eggs and coffee for two dollars. But even at the University of Regina, I spent many hours in the library. Not any more. I haven't read in a library for many years. I go there to get books; to browse. But not to read. To read, I go to coffee bars. And I'm picky. The coffee bar needs to have an outlet for me to plug in my laptop. And there better be plenty of reading lamps. I don't like to be stuck with whatever light the room has to offer. And the coffee has to be good. And really hot. And the music should not be too loud. But not too quiet, either. Funny how a luxury becomes a convenience, and then a matter of life and death. In Arizona, it was Coffee Plantation, Starbucks, the old Goldbar on McClintock and Southern, IHOP, or the new Borders on Mill. I knew which table to sit at in each of those places, in order to plug in my laptop. Here, there are a group of coffee bars in Wudaoko which cater to the same type of student clientelle. Here in the northwest corner of Beijing, there are more students in one area than in any other area in the history of the human race. Probably half a million.