Good times...

I don't know if anyone still reads this blog....if you do, thanks!  You obviously are putting more effort into it than I have been, and I commend you for it.  I apologize for not posting in awhile...I think I'm actually so settled in that being in Beijing is my life now, and why would anyone be interested in the mundane details of my life?  I find less and less strange and surprising, which is a good thing.  Don't get me wrong, there are things that are still culturally hard to deal with or just frustrating in general, but I just suck it up and move on.

I had been told that I was either going to have to embrace China or leave it and perhaps I've started embracing it....there are still days I'd rather punch it in the face than give it a big ol' hug, but everyone feels that way now and again, no matter where you live.  My good friend from New Zealand who is moving back in May (booooooooo!), kept lamenting that they couldn't stay in Beijing longer (they'd been here 2 years).  I couldn't believe she wasn't thrilled to be going back "home".  She  repeatedly told me, "You will get there.", meaning to a place where I enjoyed my life in Beijing.  Wouldn't you know it?  She was right!

Perhaps some of it has to do with the fact that Spring has sprung and the wind has picked up, which takes all the pollution away.  Makes a BIG difference.  The one complaint I have about the spring is that the Beijing government cuts off the heat about March 15th (remember, Communist government), and it is still FREEZING, especially at night.  A friend of mine told me this morning that Spring in Beijing is like camping, which totally made me laugh.  I could break down and get some heaters, but I have so many contraptions already (air filters, humidifiers), that I just can't see plugging in something else in.  Besides, it looks like it is going to warm up by the end of the week.

Sooo, my last thought is about the absolute best thing about living in China.  Travelling in Asia!  We just got back from Indonesia and already are planning trips for Japan and Thailand.  Seeing these places is just amazing and we want to see a lot before moving back to the States.  I'll leave you with my favorite pic of Oleg in Indonesia.  He was on the beach playing tug of war:

Let's Take a breather......

Ha! I wish I could.  By now, most of you have seen the news reports of the terrible pollution we have been experiencing in Beijing.  It's always been bad(in general, the cleanest days here would still be considered cause for alarm in my hometown of Olmsted Falls, Ohio), but we have hit some record highs the past few weeks.  Which means you get stuck in your apartment with a restless 7 year old all weekend listening to the hum of the air purifiers.  Here is a pic I took the afternoon of the day the pollution hit the highest it has ever been.  Keep in mind this wasn't the worst we saw this day.

The silver lining in the polluted haze is that it got so bad it received international news coverage.  The Chinese government is now embarrassed enough that they are formulating pollution reduction plans.  Those Chinese goods that we Americans purchase so cheaply might not be so cheap anymore, but at least an entire nation won't be walking around wheezing.

I think of all the extra appliances that I have to use to live here  such as the air purifiers, water filters and humidifiers that are all running constantly and using electricity, burning more fossil fuels and adding to the pollution problem.  What a vicious cycle.

The pollution is, by far, the hardest thing about living in China for an expat.  And the Chinese people have lived with it for years.  Older Chinese refuse to even acknowledge the pollution, referring to it as "weather" or that "it's just foggy".  Um, no, it's not foggy, it's a particulate reading of 500.  The younger Chinese population acknowledges it and is finally realizing they shouldn't have to live quietly with this any longer.  I just don't understand how a country that strives to be a world economic leader doesn't have potable water or breathable air.

On a lighter note, everyone is gearing up for Chinese New Year in a couple weeks.  Decorations are up and most Chinese are getting ready to head south to resorts in Thailand, The Phillippines and Malaysia. We've decided to stick around Beijing and actually doing some touring in our own city.  I'm looking forward to it.

Catching Up II- Random Crap

Warning:  This post is not going to be presented in any sort of organized fashion or chronological order.  See title "Random Crap".  

I love Chinese food.  I never liked the stuff that is attempted to pass as Chinese food in the states. I'd always watch travel shows where they talked about Chinese food being one of the greatest cuisines in the world and thought that the tasteless glop served in the US couldn't possibly be what they were talking about.

Well, I'm happy to report that Chinese food is fantastic.  There is so much variety, too. There are actually about 8 distinctly different cuisines within the category of Chinese.  For example, the preparation of Sichuan green beans is different than the Cantonese preparation of green beans.  By the way, I've never liked green beans, but I can't get enough in China.  They are a totally different thing when seared in a wok.  I could go on and on.  Hot pot rocks and Sichuan eggplant is da bomb.  Cantonese steamed buns of every variety are the ultimate comfort food.  Gung Bao (known in the US as Kung Pao) is totally different that what I had in the US and is so, so, so tasty.

OK, next topic.  Back at the beginning of October, my Chinese friend Vivian took me shopping in a hutong.  Hutongs are the ancient, traditional housing in Beijing, which usually consisted of about 4 family homes arranged around a central courtyard.  What's crazy is that people still live in the hutongs. It blows me away that these remaining hutongs in Beijing are literally hundreds of years old.  Hutongs actually originate as early as around 1000 BC, but obviously the remaining ones in Beijing are not quite as old.

Nanluogu Hutong

The particular hutong we went to is now a shopping area with restaurants and bars, but it is still the original buildings.  Really amazing.  Plus we had the best lunch there, Gung Bao chicken pizza.  

Moving on to the last thing because, frankly, I am getting tired of writing and feel like the content is getting a little boring.

I've been thinking lately about how I will adjust to life back in the US when we move.  Granted, I've got awhile but I'm getting so comfortable with all the amenities to my expat life such as housekeepers, ayis, drivers and the amazing international school Oleg gets to attend.  Also, American expats tend to be coddled and treated like giant babies by the Chinese in a lot of ways.  Life can be really hard for an expat, don't get me wrong, but there are some lovely perks as well.  And, let's face it, living in China is exciting.  Everything is changing so fast all around you in every way.

Funny story.  I had this craaaazy notion that I was going to mail something to the U.S.  All the information I could find online about the Chinese Postal system was vague at best.  So, I headed downstairs to reception to ask my girl, Helen Yang, what the deal was.  She literally laughed at me when I said I wanted to mail something.  However, being the lovely person she is she made me the following:

This is a map of where the post office is, plus a statement that says "I would like to mail this letter to California in the United States."  I guess I was expected to tape it to my forehead and hand my letter over to the postal worker.  This seemed, well, strange, so I thought I'd get the expat opinion at the bus stop.  Again, I was met by more laughter.  One of my New Zealand buddies is married to a woman whose parents are Chinese.  They happen to speak Cantonese, but have passable Mandarin and they had to go to the post office 3 times just to get a letter mailed somewhere else in China.  Clearly ChinaPost is not for me.  I figured out a way to do what I needed to do online.  That explains the lack of a greeting card market here.

Until next time.

Catching up-Holidays

Wow, it's been a long time since I have posted.  I don't really have an excuse, except while the Chinese 18th Party Congress was going on, because doing anything remotely interesting on the internet was impossible.  Now that Chinese Congress "elected" their next Communist leader, we can all continue with our normal governmentally- regulated internet lives.

Here's how I'm going to break this down.  I'm going to do a couple of blog posts.  One will be holiday stuff and the other will be random crap that I have found funny and/or interesting about my life in China since the last time I posted.  You, dear reader, can decide what you want to read.  I'm all about choice here, people.

Halloween

Halloween turned out quite a bit more festive than I thought it would.  It's sort of catching on with the younger generation that has kids around here.  We went to a Beijing-Kids (expat group) Halloween party, which was really fun.  Here are some pics:

Pumpkin bowling

We also went trick or treating.  There is an expat compound across the street from us called Central Park in which all the shops are open for trick or treat.  It was pretty good, although some of the treats were a little weird (like, croutons, no joke), but that was ok, it was still trick or treat.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was very nice.  It was actually the first Thanksgiving as an adult that I was not totally stressed out by cleaning, food or family.  We ate at a restaurant called Tim's Texas BBQ and it was great.  Perfect traditional Thanksgiving and all the patrons that day were American.  It was delicious, cozy and quiet.  No one knew each other but we were all sharing this unique experience of celebrating a US-only holiday in China.  There was football on TV and seasonal decorations.  Lots of ND football talk-GO IRISH (sorry, had to put that in there). Very special.  Then we came home and decorated our apartment for Christmas and put up our 4 ft Christmas tree that I found at IKEA.

Thanksgiving Beijing-style.  I don't know why the alcohol seems to be the  focus of the picture.  What? You don't need to drink on Thanksgiving????

All the Christmas decorating photos are on Steve's phone so I can't publish them here. We were using my phone to listen to the excellent Christmas playlist I put together in what I feel was a very productive use of my spare time no matter what Steve says.

Christmas

The Christmas season is turning out to be quite lovely here.  Our apartment is very festive, and there is Christmas music and holiday decorations in all the apartment and major business buildings.  It's actually quite nice as everything just started this weekend, rather than the U.S. cram-Christmas-down-your-throat-until-you-vomit-up-tinsel-and-twinkle lights-style of celebration/capitalism.

All the international schools have Christmas bazaars and they have been really nice.  They usually have a lot of little Beijing-based expat businesses selling their really unique wares plus great expat food from every country.  There is always a charity twist as well which is fantastic.  I've picked up quite a few interesting items, including a homemade bottle of Finnish Glogg (made by the Finnish mom contingent at Oleg's school).

Anyway, Christmas has been much simpler here than the month long stress extravaganza that it can be in the US and although I miss a lot of things it has been nice in it's own way so far.  Don't get me wrong, I CANNOT WAIT to get back to the U.S. on December 15th to celebrate with friends and family, but I'm really enjoying the quiet here.

My Christmas table

Our tiny tree

If you can't say anything nice.....

You know the rest.  This is mantra under which I am operating right now, so I apologize for the lack of blog posts.  Just not inspired to write and am even a couple of weeks late submitting a post for the other blog for which I write.  Maybe it's the holidays, or maybe its because I can't maintain a vpn connection for more than 2 minutes (I've had to reconnect about 3 times just to write this).  I think the lack of connectivity has to do with the change of power going on right now within the Communist Party.  I have done and seen a lot of interesting things, I'll just have to post when I can stay connected for a reliable amount of time.  OK, just reconnected for the 8th time.  I better publish this before it happens again.

Making Halloween Happen

We are approaching the 3 month mark on our assignment here in Beijing and I feel like we are turning a little corner.  Many have told me there is a big change at 6 months, a year, with total acculturation at 18 months. Coming upon 3 months there are several things that make me feel more at home.  First off, Oleg is really happy here, and doing well both socially and academically. He struggled the first few weeks, but has turned things around completely.  I use the subway all the time and if I do take a taxi, I can manage enough Chinese to get dropped off at my building, not just near my building and having to walk the rest of the way. I know where I like to shop and to get the things that I need. We have been venturing to restaurants and shopping in other parts of the city. I can use my infantile Chinese naturally and automatically respond with it.  It's not much, but it makes it all just a bit easier.

Now, onto the subject of this post.  How do you celebrate a holiday like Halloween in a city/country that doesn't at all?  Well, this is what we are doing.  While in Hong Kong, where they do celebrate Halloween, we picked up Oleg a costume and some Halloween decorations.  We have decorated the apartment with what we brought back.  I'm sure the housekeeper thinks we are nuts for having a giant fake spider web in our son's bedroom, but whaddya gonna do?  The biggest expat group in Beijing for parents and kids, Beijing-Kids, is having a big Halloween party/brunch at the Hilton Wanfujing that we will be attending on the 28th.  Finally, we bought a pumpkin and carved it today.  Here are some pics:

Yep, it's gross

The final product

I am really excited because today I turned off the air conditioning.  I was oooovveeerr the heat here.  It is finally cooling down and that improves my mood immensely.  And when I say cool down, it is still hitting 70 degrees during the day.  It's also been pretty windy the past few days, blowing all that nasty smog away.  The pollution here SUCKS.  Just gross.  I walked to the Russian section last week to do some shopping and the smog was so bad you couldn't see the tops of the buildings and my throat was torched by the time I was done.  Definitely one of the more difficult things about living here.

By the way, the Russian section is seriously like being in Russia.  All the signage is in Russian and the architecture changes. The vendors, who are Chinese, speak Russian.  Everyone assumes I am Russian and it totally blows my mind when I'm all ready to speak to a vendor with my crappy Chinese and they start speaking rapid-fire Russian.  I have to switch my "Shi/Dui" and "Bu" with "Dah" and "Nyet". My Russian is worse than my Chinese, if that's possible, so its an entirely humorous situation.  One thing I've found is that you have to be willing to look foolish if you want to learn anything or have any fun in this city.  The thing is, even if you aren't comfortable with that, you are going to look like a big dummy anyway at one time or another, so might as well get cozy with it.  Laugh at yourself and most of the time, people are willing to laugh with you and give you a break.

Lastly, I wanted to share my new favorite thing in Beijing.  There are 2 types of rice wine here in China.  One is a high-powered, clear liquid that you do shots of and I have been warned against by my Chinese teacher called bai jiu ("by gee-oh").  There is another called mijiu ("me gee-oh").  This literally translates to "rice alcohol drink".  I love me some mijiu.  It's a cloudy, slightly fizzy, sometimes with rice still in it, lightly sweet drink that is de-lic-ous.  So refreshing and very low alcohol content.  It's also supposed to be good for women, so bonus!  There is a soup shop across the street that ferments their own and it is super yummy.  You can also buy it in the store.  Fun fact, sometimes it is used in breads instead of yeast as well.  It's been added to my "favorite things about China" list.

My 15 minutes?

Fame-not sure if this is my 15 minutes or I'm gonna live forever, but it's funny.  In the lobby of our apartment building are several advertising screens.  One of the advertisements is for our building's involvement with Shepherd's Field, the orphanage I visited.

Now, while we were there a woman was taking pictures of everyone and they were emailed to me and I thought it was very nice.  But, lo and behold, there I am, having a quiet breakfast in the cafe, and I glance up at the screen to see "me" smiling right back in a brand new ad.  I almost spit out my coffee.

So now I get to see myself while eating breakfast, standing at reception and waiting for the elevator  every day.  It promotes the orphanage program, so it's awesome, but it does make me feel weird while waiting for the elevator with a group of people. Although, no one has gasped and turned to me to say "Are YOU that woman?", so maybe I'm just disappointed?  Anyway...good stuff.