Surviving Beijing Winter

THE SUN AND WARMTH ARE COMING BACK!
I feel like I can write a post about how awful Beijing winters truly are.
I thought that I had been exposed to some pretty blustery, wet, winters before, but Beijing is in a league of her own when Winter hits.
It's October and you go from wearing shorts to fur-lined leggings in a matter of days.

I'm still trying to figure out exactly when it turned from roughly gorgeous and 65 to a windy, freezing, hell in this city. I look back on pictures from Halloween when I ran around in a Sports bra and wonder how I pulled it off. I would have to wear multiple layers of clothes to bed even. One night I wore a regular shirt, a sweatshirt, a jacket, a fleece coat, two pairs of leggings and socks to bed. I'm not even exaggerating. It was that damn cold. Not to mention, the heat in our apartment was finicky.  Knowing that was just the tip of the ice-burg.....

I wore nothing but leggings for roughly three months straight.

From November until roughly mid-February... And it was the best part of winter. They're warm. They're easy to get on and off. I could wear black ones for days and if I didn't spill any malatang on them no one would know they were the same pair from the day before... I bought probably six pairs at Yashow (the local cheap market) and lived in them. No shame here my friends, no shame.

Netflix became one of my closest friends and confidants. 

I binged on more Netflix in the last three months than in the last three years.... combined. I watched far too many pointless documentaries, every A&E real life show and campy horror movies. There were plenty of times I would see my reflection in the screen while the ticker counted down until the next episode and wondered what I was doing with my life.

I spent a lot of time "coping"... and by coping I mean at the local breweries/ running around Sanlitun/ in my room with a bottle of wine.

The bartenders at many places now know my name, my order, where I'm from, how long I've been married, how long I've lived in Beijing, how long I'll stay in Beijing, when my husband is going to be in Beijing, and I've given many people nicknames. Winter is hard. Ok?

I spent too much time dreaming about my amazing vacation.

Luckily, nearing the end of Beijing winterhell was our two week Chinese New Year festival vacation. I spent hours at my desk googling all the amazing places I was about to go to. I'll post about running around Cambodia and Vietnam soon..... But seriously, dreaming about those two weeks of freedom kept me sane.

I got horribly ill for two weeks before vacation.

This was probably my least favorite part about winter. I spent the first two weeks of February in my bed, questioning my life choices and blaming my room mate for introducing picklebacks to me.

Dreaming/ talking about/fantasizing about Summer became an all too frequent occurrence in my life.

My roommate and I would start so many conversations with, "oh when summer starts." or  "Summer was so fun". Dreams of summer will take over your life during Beijing winter. 

I had my favorite local delivery company bookmarked on my computer.

Some times, you just want to lay in your bed and eat a pizza in your underwear. Most of those times are during Beijing winter. I'm pretty sure I got the same delivery guy more than once and he would give me the "oh, foreigner girl don't want to leave the house huh" look. I feel bad, I live on the fourth floor and don't have an elevator. But also,  you can get wine delivered to your front door at 10pm too! 

So, here we are, finally at the home stretch. I'm back in jeans without freezing. I'm ready to retire my Uggs and wool socks. It is getting warmer outside at night. We are all coming off of two weeks of vacation... But seriously Elsa, time to cut the crap.