Editor’s note: David Pinck is currently a Sac State graduate student in Criminal Justice, and has been since Spring 2004. He is studying Mandarin and Chinese culture at Beijing University for one year, and is conducting research for his thesis which concerns the Chinese Police system.

He grew up in Tracy, Calif., and earned his Bachelor’s degree in Physics from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

There are many reasons why a single week can seem like an entire year when you’re studying in Beijing.

One possibility, some might argue, is boredom. Ignore these people, because they’ve never been to China, and they’ve certainly never been to Beijing. Finding yourself bored in Beijing is like finding yourself indifferent to a two-sided Kandinsky, or unmoved by a Chopin polonaise. It would be, in other words, far easier to levitate across burning coals, to read Hume’s “Treatise of Human Nature” at a Rammstein concert, or to actually get good food at a Hooter’s restaurant than it would be to find yourself bored amidst the mystifying disarray that is China.There are many reasons why a single week can seem like an entire year when you’re studying in Beijing.

Another possibility is vegetarianism. People of the vegetarian persuasion should by all means execute the most thorough of possible research endeavors before coming here, because they will otherwise be guaranteed a reckoning of almost biblical proportions. The food here has, in other words, managed to best my wildest musings concerning what is edible, to subjugate my liberated and notoriously adventurous inner epicure, to parry and outflank all of my notions regarding pasteurization, refrigeration, and preservation.

Through its ingenious employment of almost every part of nearly every animal, real or imaginary, the food here has shown me that it is indeed possible to waste nothing, and to make such an exercise taste good (that is, of course, until you discover just which animal you happen to be eating at the time). While there do exist vegetable dishes here, trace amounts of miscellaneous animal products can be found everywhere, which is why ordering food, especially for a vegetarian, might seem like it takes a year, if not an eternity.

By far the most enigmatical aspect of studying here is how patient everyone is. Patience ?” perhaps some of you have noticed ?” is not a virtue valued by many Americans, which is why any trip to the bank or post office will seem like it takes a week, a month, or even a year. What’s really amazing is how it all fits together ?” people with their environment, patience with time. Beijing’s cityscape is an extraordinary construct, visible to any who wish to hazard its many risks for its many benefits. Citizens negotiate the endless paperwork of infinite bureaucracy just as easily as they manage to waltz through the nightmarish quagmire that is the transportation system. Parents and their children fill all of Beijing’s many parks after work. They talk. They admire their environment. They stare at the weird foreigner who’s watching them admire their environment.

The people here entertain epic conversations with one another, and they actually listen. They have the patience and the consideration to occupy themselves with human interaction, to show people like me remarkable hospitality and endless kindness, to appreciate interesting ideas, and to value the role that everyone plays in the larger scheme. Why do I find this so unusual? I believe it’s because it is unusual, at least in California. The point when you find time slowing down ?” when people around you make eye contact and conversation is difficult to maintain because you realize that the other person is actually listening, is the point when you might consider reevaluating just how connected to the world you really are.

While I have only been in Beijing for seven weeks, I feel like it’s been much longer. I have only recently begun to lower my guard, to try to work with everyone else and not against them, and to listen as much as I speak. There is so much to learn about this country and its people, and while it may take me longer than I’m accustomed to, to understand even the basics, my hope is that my time here will not seem like an eternity, but like a long conversation with a good friend instead.

Look for David’s journal entry every Friday on www.statehornet.com