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.

Guest Blogging

Coming soon!  I will be doing some guest blogging in October for www.themiddlekingdom.org, so keep your eyes open!  This blog was a font of information and solace for me before moving to Beijing. I'm so glad I get to be a part of it!

Mooncakes, protests & harem pants

The Chinese Mid-Autumn festival is upon us, and that means moon cakes!  The festival is on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese calendar, which this year is September 30th.  A moon cake is a fruit/seed filled round pastry.  Every day you see people walking home from work with beautifully decorated packages of moon cakes.  Even Starbucks gets in on it.

Mooncake display at a Starbucks

There seem to be varying levels of craftsmanship in these moon cakes, from the individually packaged ones in a Wal-Mart bin to ones made in one of the many awesome French bakeries around the Guamao.  Steve thinks that he got the shaft and got the moon cakes at the office that no one wanted.  I think they are sort of tasty, but not a pretty as some I have seen.

Our box of moon cakes

Onto more serious subjects.  You may have heard of the protests in Mainland China regarding the Japanese trying to take ownership of the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.  The bad feelings between the Chinese & the Japanese is a long story, but things are really heating up here.  Today was particularly bad as September 18th is the anniversary of the Japanese invasion of China in 1931 and the occupation that lasted 14 years.  Friends that have Japanese people working the front desks at their embassies have had to move them behind the scenes for their safety.  People have looted Japanese stores and major car manufacturers have shut down (Nissan, Mazda, etc..) in other parts of China. Its all very government encouraged and controlled so far here in Beijing.  Trying to get to Mandarin class today, my subway stop was jammed (more than normal) and I came out onto Liangmaqiao which is near the Japanese embassy and which the government had closed, right into the middle of a protest.

What you can't see is the sides of the streets smashed with people covered in the Chinese flag and police everywhere.  The military helicopters circling overhead.  It seemed pretty tame on the way to class, but as I approached Liangmaqiao on my way home, there was definitely a different energy. Lots of young men, in their early 20s or so were running down the sidewalks with home made protest t shirts waving the Chinese flag.  They were really amped.  This is obviously all government sanctioned & controlled (it wouldn't happen otherwise), but you could feel that the line between chaos and control was growing thinner and could be crossed by some accidental incident.  I felt perhaps, if the right thing happened, this crowd of pumped up young men could have mob mentality take over.  But, thankfully, I just had to fight my way into the subway past thousands of sweaty armpits and ride home.  I just spoke to one of the other parents at the bus stop about how I ran smack into the protests today and he (a New Zealander), mentioned that I should be a bit more cautious as there is some anti-American sentiment laced in there because the Chinese feel we are supporting the Japanese.  My fault for choosing September 18th to get off at the subway stop on a closed street near the Japanese embassy. On Thursday, I will go one stop further and walk back.

On to MUCH lighter subjects.

Funny thing- I went to get Oleg off the late bus today because he had "iPad games" after school.  This was the first session and he loved it so much he got off the bus playing air guitar.  Cute.

WTH?  I don't know about Cleveland, but MC Hammer -style harem pants have invaded Beijing.  Seriously?  I'm expected to wear these to look fashionable?  They are in every shop I go in, Zara, French Connection, etc... I'm seeing them on the streets among the fashionistas as well. They look cute on the right woman, but on my American arse?  Not so sure....

And by the way, if I see one more willow-thin, gorgeous Chinese woman on the street eating french pastry or ice cream I'm gonna scream.

Well, that's all for today. Zai jian (Goodbye)

Random stuff....

This post is going to be a bunch of random thoughts since it's been awhile.  I'll try and keep it brief and readable, even though every time someone says that it never is (brief nor readable).  Enjoy!

The reason for the absence is that I've been really busy and this past week has been full of...hmmm...let's call them "challenges".  Won't go into detail except for this one... I was"sick" from the horrendous, choking pollution last week.  It manifested as a scratchy throat, but other cold- like symptoms are common.  Oleg has a bit of a cough.  Last week was stiflingly hot & humid and you literally could see & taste the air. My northern European DNA was begging for some relief. All the Chinese women never broke a sheen of sweat, while I dragged myself from place to place, raccoon eyes from melting mascara and frighteningly frizzy hair. Thankfully, storms swept through over the weekend and the air is soooooo much better, the skies are clear, and the weather is fantastic.

Oleg had his first playdate last week.  His new friend Max, from New Zealand, invited him over.  I'm hoping this will boost his confidence and spur on some more friend-making.  He's been having a hard time and feels like no one understands him.  We keep reassuring him that friends will come with time.

Last week I visited a special needs orphanage outside Beijing, Shepherd's Field.  Awesome experience!  We got to spend a lot of time playing with the kids, which is so important for their development.  Here are some orphanage pics-for my adoptive parents that have seen Russian orphanages, the Chinese orphanage was very similar.

Donation from Millennium Residences

Wall of tiny adopted hands

Mangy orphanage dog-I just like his expression of pure boredom

Cribs

HOT POT!
What is hot pot you ask???? Why, only one of the most delicious, ingenious foodstuffs on this planet! Picture this-if you dare!  Scorchingly hot "pots" of spicy broth over open flames on your table, raw beef, lamb, shrimp paste (sounds gross-seriously good) noodles, & veggies just waiting to be dipped into your boiling cauldron.  Delicious dipping sauce of your own making.  Giant jugs of ice-cold Chinese beer.  Sigh.....I could eat this stuff 2-3 times a week.

Enjoying hot pot

I warned you this would be random.

Beijing has the most awesome public transportation system ever.  Not only can you get a taxi at virtually any point in the city, the subway can take you anywhere.  I'm new to the subway and had been spending an average of 15-20 RMB ($3-4) per taxi ride and was feeling badly about it.  You know you are more than a tourist when a $4 taxi ride starts to sound expensive.  Plus Steve & Oleg take the subway all the time and I can't have them "out-beijinging" me. So, today I ventured onto the subway which cost 2 RMB ($.30!).  Why I didn't do this before I don't know.  If you can get over the idea of personal space as well as having to throw an elbow here & there it is the best.  I also love it because I can just go where I want to without talking to anyone.

 The city of Beijing, like any city with nasty water and 20 million plus people generally smells like some sort of burning rubber, dirty butt and vomit combo-EXCEPT during lunchtime when all the food vendors are out hocking their spicy, fried street food.  Then it smells delicious.

Here are some pics of my organic farm delivery hauls & one random pic of my dog, Schnitzel.  Normally the vegetable delivery is bigger, but I only needed a few things this time.

Big white bag is sea salt.  Salt is really hard to find here.  MSG is not. The potted rosemary is the start to my window herb garden.  I can never find anything except for cilantro in the market.  The organic farm has every organic potted herb under the sun.

Yeah, Wondermilk! This isn't my regular delivery amount (usually more). I just pulled a few representative items from my fridge.  The purple box is drinkable yogurt with purple rice in it-sounds weird again, but really yummy.  The little jars are the reason I'm so fat.  Creamy creme brûlée type puddings with a flan kind of caramel-ly liquid in the bottom.  

This is Schnitzel's tiny face photographed up-close to look huge

Water Filters

Yayyyy!  I have my countertop water filter!  I am washing vegetables and making coffee with abandon.   It was a rough road getting here, though.  Last weekend after Steve's failed attempt at getting an adapter that fit our sink, I thought there must be someone in this city of 22 plus million people who can help me install this damn water filter.  In what may have seemed like an obvious 1st step to most people, I emailed the sales rep for Aquasana filters here in Beijing.  Turns out they experience this problem often in Beijing and will install a new faucet and the the filter for the cost of the faucet which is 350 RMB (60 USD).  The installation was scheduled for the afternoon of the morning I emailed them.

This fantastic news was not without its DCS (what Steve and I have dubbed a "Difficult Chinese Situation", which results because of a misunderstanding of Chinese culture and/or language on our part.).  Charlie, the Aquasana rep, explained that I would need to contact maintenance and have them send someone to my apartment at 2pm with tools to change out the faucet.  As Charlie speaks fluent Mandarin and I do not, I asked that he call the front desk and make the request.  Five minutes later, the maintenance manager shows up at my door without any tools.  I explained with my limited Chinese and lots of enthusiastic miming that he was not to come until 2pm.  He left very frustrated.  The front desk must have then called Charlie because he texted me that they will send someone again at 2pm.

2pm rolls around and there is neither a maintenance person nor an Aquasana filter installer.  I get a phone call from the front desk at 2:01 asking if anyone who speaks Chinese will be in my apartment to talk to maintenance.  I explained that the Aquasana installer will speak Chinese.  The woman says to me laughing, "Of course he speaks Chinese, he is a Chinese man!"  Huh?  ( I experienced my most common feeling of lately which can only be explained as,  "Wait....what are we talking about?") Slowly it dawned on me that she was talking about the building's maintenance man.  Anywhooooo...we established that the maintenance man should wait until someone from Aquasana showed up downstairs.

About 2:15, both the frustrated maintenance man (sans tools) and a very nice teenage boy show up at my door.  The teenage boy is the installer and he speaks both Chinese and English.  After some  discussion, work commenced.  Over the next hour and a half, different people filed in & out of my apartment while I sat in the living room with my dog.  Every 15 minutes or so, the teenage boy came out to tell me "Everything was under control".  Finally, the right guy with the right tools showed up and my filter got installed right before I needed to leave to get Oleg at the bus stop.  The moral of the story is that I need to learn to speak Chinese ASAP to avoid DCS.

My beloved water filter:

This water filter is so awesome, the water that comes out of it is healthier than the bottled water.  I love it!

I decided to have one installed in Oleg's shower as his eczema is going crazy since we have been here and it is due to the mixture of chlorine and ammonia that is dumped into the water here to disinfect it.  Totally worth it.

The Great Wall, Our Shipment, Thoughts

We had a really exciting weekend.  On Saturday, we visited The Great Wall at Mutianyu with our driver, Steeven (the 2 ee's is not a typo-he chooses to spell it this way) and a colleague of Steve's that was in town for the week.  It was a bit of a drive, but I'm told it is worth it as the closest Great Wall site to Beijing, Badaling, is extremely crowded all the time.  The Great Wall is amazing.  The part we visited is supposed to be one of the most beautiful sections and I can see why.  I just couldn't believe that I was there.  I really didn't think I'd ever see The Great Wall of China and kept having "pinch me" sort of moments.  We took cable cars up the mountain to get to The Wall, but there were 2 choices for going down.  The first is to take an open, ski lift chair, the other is to go down the toboggan chute.  Oleg was freaked out by the chute, so Steve & our driver took him down in the chairlift.  Steve's colleague Josh and I took the toboggan. It was pretty cool and a surprisingly long ride.  The biggest peril was avoiding the "Slow Down" warning flags that hung at face level across the track in which you could see the dirty outline of millions of sweaty foreheads.  Josh said he took one to the face.  Best not think too deeply on that.  By the way, it was so great having someone else from Cleveland here for the weekend.  A little bit of home.  Josh also brought Oleg some Malley's chocolates (local Cleveland candy maker) which made it even better!

Map at entrance

Oleg loving the cable car on the way up

Inside one of the watchtowers

Later Saturday evening, Steeven picked us all up again and took us to meet Steve's Chinese colleague for Beijing roast duck.  Soooooo good.  Oleg ate duck's foot webbing in a spicy mustard sauce.  The best part is taking the pieces of crispy roasted skin, dipping it in mashed garlic, then dipping it in sugar.  I know it sounds bizarre, but it is crazy delicious.

Sunday morning the first of our 2 shipments arrived!  It was like Christmas! I can't believe another shipment is going to arrive in 2 weeks.  Not sure where all this stuff is going to go.  I'll have to get creative at IKEA.

Unfortunately, Steve wasn't able to get the right adapter for my water filter.  Something about inches and cm and threading issues.  I think I'll call the manufacturer here in Beijing and see if they can help.

Here are a couple of pictures of some random stuff.  The first is a picture of a street cleaner.  They are out every single morning and all they have are these homemade brooms that they sweep the streets and sidewalks with.  It just blows me away.  We aren't talking a quick sweep up, either.  People litter here CONSTANTLY.  It's a big job with an ancient broom.

The next photo is of a man who rides his bike and parks it in the same spot every day.  He collects cardboard boxes from the delivery areas of the buildings and goes through the trash for plastic and glass all day.  As the day goes on, the pile on his bike gets larger and larger.  He then takes it to be recycled at the end of the day I'm guessing, and that is how he makes a living.  In the photo below, it is early in the day, so the pile is small. By 6pm the pile on his bike grows until it is at least 7 feet high.

Seeing people with piles of things on the back of bikes or scooters is really common.  Often you will see a whole family riding one bike or scooter at the same time, including small children and infants.  I'm not sure what my point was in posting these pictures, other than they make me think and it demonstrates  the contrasts between old and new in China.  These people are working in the midst of shiny, modern, mirrored buildings.  China is hurtling into the modern world so fast, there are a lot of areas that cannot keep up.  Lots more to be said on that, but its too much for this blog post.

Organic food delivery & much, much more!

I was talking to some of the other WAB(Western Academy of Beijing) moms & dads at the bus stop about how they wash their vegetables considering the water situation and the sketchiness of the chemicals on Chinese produce when one of them told me a lot of people get their produce delivered from one of the organic farms outside Beijing, including her. Then they just use a veggie wash. I checked it out and it is AWESOME!  I registered with Beijing Organic Farm and they have started delivering homemade organic bread, eggs, veggies & fruits for an incredibly affordable price.  Delivery itself is free.  For example, this week I had a mixed veggie box full of all kinds of gorgeous vegetables (shoulda taken a pic), a box of eggs and 2 loaves of homemade bread for 160 RMB, which is about $26.  Unbelievable.  In the import stores the organic produce is still really affordable, but more expensive than that.  Granted, the box of veggies was so abundant that I'm going to need to make vegetable soup this week -crap, I don't have a stockpot.  Well, as soon as I buy a stockpot, I'll need to make a big pot of veggie soup.  YUM.

So, I took it one step further.  In some of the information WAB sent home with Oleg was stuff about an organic dairy farm that has home delivery.  I have really been struggling with the milk, as it is again quite sketchy in China, plus, in the states I always bought organic milk. I had bought some Australian organic milk that I found, but it was really expensive.  ANYWAY...I signed up for home delivery with the US owned and run organic dairy farm WonderMilk.  Twice a week starting tomorrow I get fresh, low fat milk, yogurts and pudding delivered.  Per week, the total is 107 RMB or roughly $14. I've seen WonderMilk products at a few import stores and fancy deli/bakeries, but it was more expensive.

What is not quite as cool as my new found grocery delivery is the fact that a Chinese ATM ate Steve's US bank card today while I was attempting to withdraw money.  I can't use my card for that account because Chinese banks don't recognize joint accounts.  Steve left the card with me as he has been out of town all week to some more rural areas of China, so he took the Chinese bank account card with him just to be sure he had access to money.  Unfortunately, Steve gave me the wrong pin number and I tried entering it one too many times.  I have cash on me to last until Steve gets home tomorrow, but I wanted to take out a large sum for a grand IKEA excursion tomorrow morning.  I tried calling the Chinese bank that took the card, but it was no use.  Steve will have to call our US bank from wherever he is and get it straightened out.  Ooops.

One last thing before I leave you with some pics.  My apartment building does work with one of the orphanages just south of Beijing near Tianjin.  Next Saturday, they are having a volunteer day of sorts where residents & employees take a chartered bus to the orphanage to deliver money and food as well as spend time with the kids. I know how important that one on one contact is for kids in orphanages and I want to provide that if I can.  I'm all over it and I'll tell you about my experience next week.

Ok, really, this is the last thing.  This weekend we are going to The Great Wall on Saturday. Plus our 1st shipment passed customs and is being delivered on Sunday!

Random pics

View from guest bedroom

Another view from guest bedroom

Oleg in his WAB PE outfit in the morning

On our way to the bus stop

The Tooth Fairy is comin' to China

Look who lost his tooth while eating a sandwich at school today.  He was so excited when he got off the bus!

Neighborhood pics & Peter's Tex Mex review & other stuff

I deleted a post I wrote last night that was really negative.  I realized that it was just one bad China day, and that it's both big city shock and culture shock combining into a negative stew that bubbles over when I am tired or hungry.  I have read a lot about the differences between Chinese & American culture and that helps.  It also helps that I have made the acquaintance of some of the other expat parents of Oleg's school and they have been giving me tips on where to find this or that, where to get a haircut, etc... The one part of Chinese culture I will never get used to is the spitting on the sidewalk or street.  And when I say spitting, I mean a full-on, throat-clearing loogie hock that you literally have to jump out of the way to avoid.  Men & women do it, although I have to say I almost never see it in anyone under the age of 35.  That, among other big city grossness, is why we have taken up the Chinese habit of ALWAYS taking our shoes off when we walk in the door.

I had my first 2 hour Mandarin lesson today and my tutor, Cici, is a real taskmaster!  I came out of that 2 hours with a whole new feeling of confidence.  I'm sure that will grow with each lesson.  I walked all over trying to find the donkey restaurant after my lesson, and finally found it.  There was a delicious aroma surrounding the restaurant and I though "OMG, I must like the smell of roasting donkey flesh", but then I realized the smell was coming from an American BBQ restaurant a few doors down.  Here is a pic.  It's not as good as I would have liked.  It's the little green shop and the sign says "Donkey Flesh Hamburg" and there is a donkey grazing in a field in the background.  Sounds delicious.

Here are some random pics of my neighborhood.  The day I took them was really smoggy (like most days) but then I had a clear day today because of some wind last night and took one more.

Side pic of my apartment building

Across the street from dog poop mountain

The street Oleg & I cross every day to get to the bus stop

In the middle of my street waiting to be run over.  But I can see the sky!

Onto our excursion to Peter's Tex Mex.  We got a late start and got lost and it's a long story, but we finally got there tired and starving.  Typical U.S. Mexican restaurant set up inside down to the Chinese servers all wearing traditional Mexican outfits.  The servers spoke fluent English which is enough in itself to make this place feel familiar.  Chips. salsa (although you only got like a tablespoon) & margaritas were awesome.  The rest of the meal was fine, a little off like all Western food here tends to be.  For example, Steve's shrimp tacos had mushrooms in them which is a little weird and the food was all sort of bland.  However it was all edible and homey feeling and we will definitely return,  even if for the chips, salsa and margaritas alone!

There are 2 things that could happen that would make me really happy this week. 1)If Steve can get my kitchen water filter working this weekend and 2)If our first shipment makes it through customs.  It arrived, and customs has my passport while they attempt to clear the shipment.  This can take 3 days or 6 weeks.  Hopefully, we will have ours on Friday and our stuff will make our apartment feel more like our home. Then I will resume my Beijing shopping bender when I determine what we still need.  More on this in another post, but the shopping here makes me want to cry with joy.  That is for another post on another day.

Dishwasher mishaps, Mandarin lessons

Funny story.  I ran out of dishwasher detergent that I had brought from the States, so I broke out the bottle of Chinese detergent I had bought.  My first clue should have been the hand soap like pump bottle which made getting it into the detergent cup in my mini European dishwasher awkward.  Contortionist awkward. As I was squirting it, I'm thinking "This is wrong.", but I think that a lot these days and it usually ends with me being the one that is wrong.  So I started the dishwasher, and left with Oleg for the bus stop.  Oleg got on the bus, I chatted with some of the other parents, stopped at the bank machine and got some breakfast.

I open the door to my apartment and I can only describe the sound my dishwasher was making as crying.  I turned to look at my kitchen and it was full of fluffy soap suds which were multiplying in front of my eyes. Good news is, I cleaned it up, literally picking up armfuls of suds to put in the sink,  ran the dishwasher again without soap and it works fine! I also have an incredibly clean floor now.  If you haven't guessed by now, I used dishwashing liquid in my dishwasher.  Here is the evidence:

Meow...please don't put me in the dishwasher.

Small dishwasher that was full of suds

In other news, I went to my Mandarin language school and set up my Mandarin lessons.  I will be going Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10-12.  Fun fact.  Right across the street from my school is a donkey restaurant.  Not a restaurant for donkeys, but a restaurant where they serve donkeys.  I will get a picture next week.

Another thing I'm thinking about is that last night (Friday evening about 9pm) when I was walking Schnitzel, there were a bunch of people walking around the neighborhood with bags of fruits and veggies and yummy street food (more on that in another post-street food is AWESOME).  There is a night market somewhere in my neighborhood and I must find it.  I know you are thinking "just ask someone", but unless I speak Mandarin, I'll never find out from the locals.  The people who work in my building that speak English are probably not from this neighborhood so they wouldn't know anything that neighborhood specific.  It's just going to take some investigative work on my part, meaning I need to tail some unsuspecting local person one of these nights. Or learn fluent Mandarin, whichever I can accomplish first.

Steve is coming home this afternoon and we are going to Peter's Tex Mex in Lido Place tonight.  I know this has nothing to do with China or its culture, but I'm just excited. They are supposed to have the best and most authentic Tex Mex in Beijing.  Tacos y margaritas, por favor!

First Day of School

Can I get a "woot-woot!" for the Chinese school day?  Oleg gets on the bus at 7:30 a.m. and returns at 4:15 p.m. Lots of time for getting all kinds of things done.  I'll finally get back to the gym today and I'm meeting my Mandarin tutor and the group class I'm going to join today.  Seriously need to get Mandarin under my belt.  Life will be so much easier being able to say more than hello, goodbye, yes, no & thank you!


In other news, I love walking my dog, Schnitzel around 6am.  The city is so peaceful and beautiful.  This morning, I was enjoying my walk over to "dog poop mountain" aptly named by Steve because it is a large grassy hill where everybody takes their dogs, when 2 little puffball dogs seriously attacked Schnitzel.  He looked like a cotton ball was riding him like a horse. The elderly Chinese woman who was walking them without a leash came over and broke it up and everyone seemed fine, but it was very exciting for that hour of the morning.  No one here walks their dogs on a leash and it seems to work out fine.  Same strange thing with the traffic-stoplights are merely a suggestion.  The largest and most assertive vehicle gets to go first.  Horns are used constantly, not out of anger, but more of a "hey I'm over here and I want to get over there" or "hey I'm in a smart car and your SUV is about to crush me" sort of way.  Yet, there are virtually no accidents or road rage.  The Chinese are doing something right here, people.

Anyway, here are some cute pics of Oleg this morning on our way and at the bus stop.

In front of our building

In front of the bus

On the bus

Orientation

Today was new student orientation at Western Academy of Beijing where Oleg starts school tomorrow.  I can't even summarize on this page all the reasons it is an awesome school, but their focus is on creating "global citizens" for the future.  The facilities are amazing.  Most importantly, Oleg loved it!  He is so ready for school to start (so am I) and the experience at orientation today made really confident about starting tomorrow.  They held a picnic after the orientation.

Fried rice and a hamburger?  Yes, please!

The giant gong is so cool.

I, of course had to stop at the school shop and pick up some gear.

Stylin' WAB Tiger

All in all, it was a great day.  I even made a Greek chicken salad for dinner (hopefully I don't poison us)-I found fresh baked pita bread at Jenny Lou's (the go-to expat import store)!

Food

I am finding it really hard in Beijing to cook at home.  The main reason being that the water is not safe. Our drinking water comes from one of those office style water coolers that sits in our dining room.  I'm OK using that water for say, boiling pasta, except we have been here for 2 weeks and already gone through 2 bottles of water, which is our monthly free allowance of water.  Granted, extra bottles are only about 20 RMB (about $2.30), but I just feel like we are flying through it.

Because of the water issue, I am terrified of even a drop of water being consumed.  Everyone who lives here washes their veggies and fruits in the water, they just make sure they are completely dry before eating.  I made a salad for my family the other day and practically had to get out the anxiety meds for the 4 hours after we ate to make sure I didn't poison anyone.  I purchased a water filter for the kitchen sink, which would make me feel soooooo much better, but I can't install it because I can't find the right size adapter to hook the filter mechanism up.  I even dragged Oleg out to B&Q (Chinese Home Depot) to try to find the right size and totally failed.  I'm hoping the problem is just a lack of plumbing skills on my part and Steve can hook it up this weekend.  He's been at a seminar all week in another part of town and has been staying in a hotel there.

The second reason I am having trouble cooking is sourcing safe ingredients.  I am being very careful about the purchase of meat.  Luckily, there is a German butcher shop chain here that seems to have nice fresh meat in a clean environment as well as a small selection of organic fruits, veggies and other products.  I did purchase chicken at the wet market (market where fruits, veggies & meats are sold) but I was really unsure as the meat tends to sit out.  The girl who sold it to me did take the chicken breasts out of a refrigerator and they were fine, but I think I'm going to stick to the butcher shop.  Let's just say I've been eating a lot of peanut butter sandwiches.  Fruits & veggies are really good, super fresh and usually local.

The third reason is the availability of fresh, yummy, cheap food!  Most of which can be delivered right to my apartment door for no charge.  I've done a pretty decent sampling of a lot of the restaurants in our neighborhood and have been so happy with the variety and quality of the food.  Why cook???

I know I need to get over this and start cooking to make us feel more at home.  I think this is just part of my culture shock and if I keep trying, it will pass.  Steve is seriously going to freak if I tell him I got take out all week.