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.