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.