Insufficient Planning
It is freezing in Beijing and I did NOT bring enough warm clothes. Spending last fall semester in D.C. has inappropriately skewed my perception of fall weather (see: Pulling out the peacoat in late November) and my only source of comfort is the recently-acquired 149 kuai 毛毯 from Carrefour. I was pretty scandalized by the price (I still can’t believe it was that expensive), but you have to do what you have to do and I couldn’t go for another night shivering in bed. If you assume that because Beijing is practically THREE WHOLE LATITUDINAL DEGREES SOUTH of Ithaca, it will be loads warmer, you are wrong. Oh so, so wrong.
The only good thing about the sharp temperature drop as of late is that the leaves are changing colors! It’s one of the things I miss most about New York and I was afraid that Chinese trees didn’t change colors (or didn’t change into pretty colors, specifically). I saw some maple trees on my way to work today as I cut through campus due east, so I’m excited to see the autumnal foliage.