These past 10 days haven't been as eventful as most, due to the fact that I've had midterms. Chinese schools are big on making one or two exams worth your entire grade, so this past week I've traded in venturing out in Beijing for some quality time with my tutor Wang Miao. As funny as her name is, I really like her. At first I didn't think I would because she's a bit older than me and is definitely a Beida student (i.e., rather serious and nerdy...Beida is the "Harvard of China" for a reason!), so I was afraid that we wouldn't have much to talk about. Our second meeting changed my perception of her though. She took me to the baozi house (which is absolutely my favorite food on campus now because it's really yummy, always open, and costs less than 10 cents!). While we were there, she looked over my homework for the first five minutes, then we just sat in silence for the rest of the meal. This might sound really awkward, but I hate unnecessary small talk more than anything, so the fact that she didn't feel the need to fill the silence with meaningless conversation made me like her a lot.
She's also just a really great tutor. Every time I need to met up with her, no matter if it's even a half-day warning, she's there. Then when we meet up, she'll only talk in Chinese to me. She'll only revert to English if I say "我听不懂“ (I don't understand) multiple times, which is great for my listening comprehension. Probably the thing I like about her the most though is how she always tries to encourage me. Any email she sends me has a little "You can do it!" phrase tacked on to the end, and when we meet in person she'll always say things like "You're so hard working and so clever...I feel really lucky to be your tutor!" It's really cheesey, but it makes me want to work harder on my assignments to make her proud.
So yes, although it hasn't been an extremely eventful week, studying hasn't been all that bad. Wang Miao is pretty awesome and I can now explain such things as Venice Beach, why I love the Rose Garden, my sister Petra, and other random things in Chinese to you if you so desire. I also did really well on my midterms, which is nice :)
Other than studying, I've had a lot of interesting encounters with locals this past week. One that I thought was especially interesting happened in one of Beida's cafeterias. While I was telling the waiter what I wanted, I was bending my meal card in my palm and accidently snapped it in half. This was rather problematic because the guy had already served my food, and the meal card is the only form of payment. So I start digging in my bag for some tape, or stickers, or even gum so I could temporarily put my card back together just so I could pay for my food that was already served up. After a second, I look back at the guy and say, "I'm really sorry, I can't pay for that." And he responds, "No need, that guy just paid for your food." Me, "Which guy?" And the waiter points out to the crowd then just shrugged. I took my food, stoked but really confused. Considering most Chinese people completely keep to themselves when not around loved ones, it surprised me that someone who didn't know me would pay for my food. Then not to say anything at all...? Most people would say something like "Don't worry about it, I'll pay for your food" because they would want recognition for what they did, and if that were an American boy paying for my food, he would likely use it as a lead to "So, how you doin'?" It was definitely a cultural encounter...one that left a huge smile on my face.
Before I end this, I'm trying to think if there has been anything more exciting going on in my life this past week. I did go out to Wangfujing a few days ago, which is a famous street in Beijing known for having crazy snacks. There you can buy scorpions on a stick that are still alive until they fry them right in front of you! Other snacks on a stick include seahorses and starfish. I considered trying a seahorse, but decided to stick with the carmelized strawberries on a stick instead. Maybe next time...
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
YaShow, Hooters...and the Great Wall!
It has been a beautiful week in Beijing. A warm front came in and the weather's been hanging around 17°C. This was unfortunate for Michael, since he wasn't able to sport his John Travolta jacket much, but I definitely welcomed the weather with a smile. For the first time since I've been here I've been able to wear shorts. I must say, shorts are much more comfortable than wearing tights and tall socks under my jeans...
Michael and I started off the week with a lot of shopping. He showed me a market called "YaShow," and I found a few scarfs and bracelets I liked. Besides one incident when two Asian women death-gripped me and tried to trap me in their store, I was finally able to shop without fearing for my life. Shopping at YaShow was also really good 口语 (speaking) practice. Since most foreigners who come in there can't speak a lick of Chinese, all the salespeople were really impressed that I could speak some Mandarin. Since I knew the more legit I sounded, the lower the prices would become, I have never been so motivated to nail every tone. Who knew shopping would bring out my best Mandarin?
One saleslady in particular was really funny. She saw me being attacked, so she offered me a really good deal on a clutch I wanted. I was debating with her about it, and using my "I'm a starving college student, I don't have much money" line, and she asked me where I went to school. I told her Beida, and since Beida is one of the most prestigious schools in China, she knocked 20 kuai off the price.
I've also had a lot more luck finding food this week. Yesterday a few classmates took me to a cafeteria on campus that I've never been to, and I think it's the best eating option thus far. Eating on campus is the best deal because the food is much cheaper than off campus, and this cafeteria lays out plates of food so I can see exactly what I'm going to get. Nothing sucks more than being hungry and expecting something yummy and instead getting a big pot with a chicken's neck in it (true story).
Besides the cafeteria, I found another excellent eating option in Beijing-- Hooters. Ridiculous as it sounds, the food is pretty good (as I type this I am fully aware that I sound like one of those guys who says "I go to Hooters for the wings"). But yeah, Michael and my friend Tony wanted to check it out, so I went with, obviously giving them a hard time about their questionable intentions for wanting to dine there the whole subway right over. However, once we arrived, were greeted with a friendly, Chinglish "Welcome to Hooters!" and also realized students get 1/2 off the food, my opinion quickly started to change. Once my amazing fruit salad arrived, I was suddenly the biggest Hooters fan there. As sad as this may sound, I am now going to be a weekly regular.
Besides shopping and eating at Hooters, Michael and I also did a lot of sight seeing. Our greatest tourist adventure was going to the Great Wall. Our tour guide kept referring to the section we were going to as the REAL Great Wall, which didn't make much sense until we got there and saw the lack of foreigners. Considering I was the only blonde haired girl there and everyone had their cameras out, it's a pretty safe bet that a picture of me at the Great Wall is currently some Chinese person's computer background.
Our Great Wall adventure was all the more better because it didn't end at The Wall. Apparently Michael signed us up for the "package," which was a day long tour of China's finest- lunch in the boonies, imperial tombs, jade factories, and wax museums of Chinese emperors. The tour was definitely not what we had in mind and was overall really strange (especially since it ended in an informercial-esque manner where they tried to sell us jewelry), but even so it was a lot of fun. Definitely an adventure to say the least...
That basically wraps up my week. Here are some other random facts I have learned since I last wrote:
1. It's really hard to find real milk in China, they only have really sweet soy milk. Why? 90% of Asians are lactosentolerent.
2. Coat checks in China will "lose" (steal?) your belongings.
3. Beijing drivers excessively use their horn at inappropriate times, such as when they're waiting behind cars at a red light. It has been decided that there is only one clear reason for this: they are just really excited to finally have their own cars. Every once in awhile they get overwhelmed with excitement and have to give a little toot as a way of saying "Woo Woo!"
4. "Vanilla" flavor ice cream will often be something else, which won't become evident until inspecting the wrapper post purchase. Such flavors include 'natural fruit' and butter. Mmmmm!
5. The trick to the Beijing accent is, as Jon so elegantly put it, "Just make it sound like you're about to vom and you'll get it."
6. I have the best best friend in the world.
Michael and I started off the week with a lot of shopping. He showed me a market called "YaShow," and I found a few scarfs and bracelets I liked. Besides one incident when two Asian women death-gripped me and tried to trap me in their store, I was finally able to shop without fearing for my life. Shopping at YaShow was also really good 口语 (speaking) practice. Since most foreigners who come in there can't speak a lick of Chinese, all the salespeople were really impressed that I could speak some Mandarin. Since I knew the more legit I sounded, the lower the prices would become, I have never been so motivated to nail every tone. Who knew shopping would bring out my best Mandarin?
One saleslady in particular was really funny. She saw me being attacked, so she offered me a really good deal on a clutch I wanted. I was debating with her about it, and using my "I'm a starving college student, I don't have much money" line, and she asked me where I went to school. I told her Beida, and since Beida is one of the most prestigious schools in China, she knocked 20 kuai off the price.
I've also had a lot more luck finding food this week. Yesterday a few classmates took me to a cafeteria on campus that I've never been to, and I think it's the best eating option thus far. Eating on campus is the best deal because the food is much cheaper than off campus, and this cafeteria lays out plates of food so I can see exactly what I'm going to get. Nothing sucks more than being hungry and expecting something yummy and instead getting a big pot with a chicken's neck in it (true story).
Besides the cafeteria, I found another excellent eating option in Beijing-- Hooters. Ridiculous as it sounds, the food is pretty good (as I type this I am fully aware that I sound like one of those guys who says "I go to Hooters for the wings"). But yeah, Michael and my friend Tony wanted to check it out, so I went with, obviously giving them a hard time about their questionable intentions for wanting to dine there the whole subway right over. However, once we arrived, were greeted with a friendly, Chinglish "Welcome to Hooters!" and also realized students get 1/2 off the food, my opinion quickly started to change. Once my amazing fruit salad arrived, I was suddenly the biggest Hooters fan there. As sad as this may sound, I am now going to be a weekly regular.
Besides shopping and eating at Hooters, Michael and I also did a lot of sight seeing. Our greatest tourist adventure was going to the Great Wall. Our tour guide kept referring to the section we were going to as the REAL Great Wall, which didn't make much sense until we got there and saw the lack of foreigners. Considering I was the only blonde haired girl there and everyone had their cameras out, it's a pretty safe bet that a picture of me at the Great Wall is currently some Chinese person's computer background.
Our Great Wall adventure was all the more better because it didn't end at The Wall. Apparently Michael signed us up for the "package," which was a day long tour of China's finest- lunch in the boonies, imperial tombs, jade factories, and wax museums of Chinese emperors. The tour was definitely not what we had in mind and was overall really strange (especially since it ended in an informercial-esque manner where they tried to sell us jewelry), but even so it was a lot of fun. Definitely an adventure to say the least...
That basically wraps up my week. Here are some other random facts I have learned since I last wrote:
1. It's really hard to find real milk in China, they only have really sweet soy milk. Why? 90% of Asians are lactosentolerent.
2. Coat checks in China will "lose" (steal?) your belongings.
3. Beijing drivers excessively use their horn at inappropriate times, such as when they're waiting behind cars at a red light. It has been decided that there is only one clear reason for this: they are just really excited to finally have their own cars. Every once in awhile they get overwhelmed with excitement and have to give a little toot as a way of saying "Woo Woo!"
4. "Vanilla" flavor ice cream will often be something else, which won't become evident until inspecting the wrapper post purchase. Such flavors include 'natural fruit' and butter. Mmmmm!
5. The trick to the Beijing accent is, as Jon so elegantly put it, "Just make it sound like you're about to vom and you'll get it."
6. I have the best best friend in the world.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Operas, Birthdays, and John Travolta Jackets.
Hello friends (+ Daddy),
Wow, what a week! On Monday I went with my program to the Peking Opera as our weekly "cultural experience" field trip. I was warned that it is a bit weird before going, but I had no idea what I was in store for. Even the opera house itself was not what I expected. Instead of a modern, fancy building, it was just a room with a small stage at the front- and the room wasn't heated! Except for a few photo opts, I kept my jacket on the entire time (So much for getting dressed up!). The show was also much different than I imagined it would be. It had much less singing than I thought an opera would have (which was probably a good thing, considering what it sounded like), but it was more geared towards acrobats, costumes, and how long the actresses could go without blinking. The story plot was also very strange. It was about two women fighting off monks (yes monks) to get the elder one's husband back, with a surprise twist at the end that the elder is in fact an immortal snake. When the broken Chinglish came up on the projector with that phrase, you can imagine how much all of us giggled.
Here's a clip of the opera if you want to see for yourself what it's like:
http://www.video4viet.com/watchvideo.html?id=zHPegoquV5I&title=Peking%20Opera
Photos from the opera:
The girls who live in FX Hotel, from left to right: Jessica (my roomie), Kelsey, me, Bailey, Kara, and Chelsea (who went to hs with Novi...small world!)
On Wednesday evening I met up with my tutor Wang Ming. Since I have to meet with her for 3 hours each week, I wrote her an email asking if she wanted to go see a movie together. She wrote me back saying, "Yes, let's see Valkyrie, but the other student I'm tutoring wants to come along with her roommate, I hope that's okay." One of my neighbors Bailey was hanging out in my room when I got this email, so I starting saying to her, "I hope it's not awkward with the other girls. I don't know them at all, and the group of people who study Chinese are a weird bunch, so there's a good chance that these girls are creepy." To which Bailey responds, "Jenna, that's me and Kelsey who are going with you!" It was pretty funny, considering I hang out with Bailey and Kelsey on the regular. Needless to say, seeing Valkyrie with them and Wang Ming was anything but awkward.
Thursday was Cleopatra (a fellow Trojan!) and Ruben's birthday, so a bunch of us- 41 of us to be exact- went to dinner in the Wudaokou area, which is the local hang out district for college kids slash one of the few areas that has yummy American food. We ate at "Grandma's Kitchen," and since it's in a shopping center, we walked around the mall's arcade afterwards. I was walking with my friend Rick, when I looked down and noticed that he was not only smoking a cigarette inside the children's arcade, but he was also taking pulls out of a bottle of wine! The funniest part is that no one approached him to put the bottle away, or maybe into a paper bag- literally no one cared.
Photos from Cleo and Ruben's dinner:
Friday was one of the best days I've had in China so far. I FINALLY receive Adam's Valentine's Day package, which I thought was lost in the postal system forever. As if getting lots of Disney movies, drawings, and love in the mail wasn't enough, Michael also came into town. Petra called him when I was culture shocked out of my mind and told him to come out here stat, so he did! Not only did fly out to China on the dime, but half his bag was stuff for me: protein bars, make up, and ahem, feminine products. What an amazing friend, right? We've been having way too much fun together already. Michael naturally came to Beijing without a jacket, so we met up with his friend Ashley (who is also studying abroad in Beijing) and went shopping. Michael ended up with a pleather, reversible, John Travolta jacket. It's absolutely ridiculous but the non-pleather side doesn't look too shabby, and hey, it's warm.
After shopping, Michael and I went to eat at the Japanese restaurant that's right next door to my hotel. We both got chicken curry, but since I ordered mine without the chicken, Michael asked them to put in more potatoes and carrots. In China, they serve you your food when it's ready, instead of serving the table all at once like they do in the states. So my dish came out first, but it had a skimpy amount of veggies. Michael asked them to put more in, which they did....but when Michael got his curry it was only chicken, no veggies. Apparently they gave me his portion of potatoes and carrots, leaving him with none. Haha Michael is still a bit bitter.
Photos of me, Michael, and Ashley:
That basically sums up my week, but there are also a few other things I have discovered since the last posting:
1. I should avoid shopping here at all costs possible. Unless I am in the mood to aggressively haggle (which will never happen), buying anything here that I do not absolutely need is too much of a trouble to be bothered with. Everyone will tell me 4-5 times the price, and I will only get it down to a reasonable (but still high) price after 5 minutes of debating. Yeesh.
2. I could be getting much worse attention. Although being tall and blond with light eyes equates to a lot of awkward stares, the only people who comment on the way I look are women. Poor Ashley who is much shorter with light eyes and darker hair, seems to get a lot of unwanted attention from men, which doesn't seem fun (I literally had to tell a guy, "My friend does not like you, move on!").
3. Michael is more American than I am, and I am a more Asian than he will ever be.
4. My internet works perfectly if I sit in the hallway. That solves the internet problem, but if only I could get the hotel to stop playing Beethoven on repeat, as well as make the creepers across the hall stop having sex 24/7.....
5. You can communicate basically anything with charades- even such things as "Do you have a travel adapter that will work for my American blow dryer?" or "Where are the Chinese American Idol pins?" (Yes I enacted these scenarios. Think about it.)
Wow, what a week! On Monday I went with my program to the Peking Opera as our weekly "cultural experience" field trip. I was warned that it is a bit weird before going, but I had no idea what I was in store for. Even the opera house itself was not what I expected. Instead of a modern, fancy building, it was just a room with a small stage at the front- and the room wasn't heated! Except for a few photo opts, I kept my jacket on the entire time (So much for getting dressed up!). The show was also much different than I imagined it would be. It had much less singing than I thought an opera would have (which was probably a good thing, considering what it sounded like), but it was more geared towards acrobats, costumes, and how long the actresses could go without blinking. The story plot was also very strange. It was about two women fighting off monks (yes monks) to get the elder one's husband back, with a surprise twist at the end that the elder is in fact an immortal snake. When the broken Chinglish came up on the projector with that phrase, you can imagine how much all of us giggled.
Here's a clip of the opera if you want to see for yourself what it's like:
http://www.video4viet.com/watchvideo.html?id=zHPegoquV5I&title=Peking%20Opera
Photos from the opera:
The girls who live in FX Hotel, from left to right: Jessica (my roomie), Kelsey, me, Bailey, Kara, and Chelsea (who went to hs with Novi...small world!)
On Wednesday evening I met up with my tutor Wang Ming. Since I have to meet with her for 3 hours each week, I wrote her an email asking if she wanted to go see a movie together. She wrote me back saying, "Yes, let's see Valkyrie, but the other student I'm tutoring wants to come along with her roommate, I hope that's okay." One of my neighbors Bailey was hanging out in my room when I got this email, so I starting saying to her, "I hope it's not awkward with the other girls. I don't know them at all, and the group of people who study Chinese are a weird bunch, so there's a good chance that these girls are creepy." To which Bailey responds, "Jenna, that's me and Kelsey who are going with you!" It was pretty funny, considering I hang out with Bailey and Kelsey on the regular. Needless to say, seeing Valkyrie with them and Wang Ming was anything but awkward.
Thursday was Cleopatra (a fellow Trojan!) and Ruben's birthday, so a bunch of us- 41 of us to be exact- went to dinner in the Wudaokou area, which is the local hang out district for college kids slash one of the few areas that has yummy American food. We ate at "Grandma's Kitchen," and since it's in a shopping center, we walked around the mall's arcade afterwards. I was walking with my friend Rick, when I looked down and noticed that he was not only smoking a cigarette inside the children's arcade, but he was also taking pulls out of a bottle of wine! The funniest part is that no one approached him to put the bottle away, or maybe into a paper bag- literally no one cared.
Photos from Cleo and Ruben's dinner:
Friday was one of the best days I've had in China so far. I FINALLY receive Adam's Valentine's Day package, which I thought was lost in the postal system forever. As if getting lots of Disney movies, drawings, and love in the mail wasn't enough, Michael also came into town. Petra called him when I was culture shocked out of my mind and told him to come out here stat, so he did! Not only did fly out to China on the dime, but half his bag was stuff for me: protein bars, make up, and ahem, feminine products. What an amazing friend, right? We've been having way too much fun together already. Michael naturally came to Beijing without a jacket, so we met up with his friend Ashley (who is also studying abroad in Beijing) and went shopping. Michael ended up with a pleather, reversible, John Travolta jacket. It's absolutely ridiculous but the non-pleather side doesn't look too shabby, and hey, it's warm.
After shopping, Michael and I went to eat at the Japanese restaurant that's right next door to my hotel. We both got chicken curry, but since I ordered mine without the chicken, Michael asked them to put in more potatoes and carrots. In China, they serve you your food when it's ready, instead of serving the table all at once like they do in the states. So my dish came out first, but it had a skimpy amount of veggies. Michael asked them to put more in, which they did....but when Michael got his curry it was only chicken, no veggies. Apparently they gave me his portion of potatoes and carrots, leaving him with none. Haha Michael is still a bit bitter.
Photos of me, Michael, and Ashley:
That basically sums up my week, but there are also a few other things I have discovered since the last posting:
1. I should avoid shopping here at all costs possible. Unless I am in the mood to aggressively haggle (which will never happen), buying anything here that I do not absolutely need is too much of a trouble to be bothered with. Everyone will tell me 4-5 times the price, and I will only get it down to a reasonable (but still high) price after 5 minutes of debating. Yeesh.
2. I could be getting much worse attention. Although being tall and blond with light eyes equates to a lot of awkward stares, the only people who comment on the way I look are women. Poor Ashley who is much shorter with light eyes and darker hair, seems to get a lot of unwanted attention from men, which doesn't seem fun (I literally had to tell a guy, "My friend does not like you, move on!").
3. Michael is more American than I am, and I am a more Asian than he will ever be.
4. My internet works perfectly if I sit in the hallway. That solves the internet problem, but if only I could get the hotel to stop playing Beethoven on repeat, as well as make the creepers across the hall stop having sex 24/7.....
5. You can communicate basically anything with charades- even such things as "Do you have a travel adapter that will work for my American blow dryer?" or "Where are the Chinese American Idol pins?" (Yes I enacted these scenarios. Think about it.)
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Finding my footing
Hi everyone!
Keeping everyone updated on life in Beijing was getting a bit overwhelming, so taking a tip or two from Valerie, I decided to start a blog to write about my adventures.
As many of you know, I started off with a really rough beginning here in Beijing. I was having trouble adjusting to the food, the stares, the shoving, the spitting, constantly being photographed, and of course being away from all of you who I love so much!
I'm finally starting to find my footing here though. I went to the US Embassy to get inhalers (thanks for the tip Bonnie!), and the doctor there also recommended telling the waiters that I am allergic to MSG (since when I ask waiters not to put MSG in my food, they will anyways because they can't be bothered, and I'll end up with an intense headache twenty minutes later!). That has definitely helped a lot. So yes, being able to breathe and being able to order food I can eat have definitely helped me feel a lot more comfortable here.
I also bought a rice cooker for 50 kuai (about 7 dollars!), and it's amazing what I'm able to make with it. So far I've steamed veggies, made pasta, boiled eggs, and heated up soup. I also tried to make salmon with it, but that was a horrible failure...just ask my roommate Jessica.
The locals have also been very gracious with helping me find the good produce at the grocery stores. At the CarreFour market on Friday, I was picking out broccoli and this Asian guy standing next to me takes the broccoli I'm holding out of my hand and throws it! And at first I'm like "Hey! Why are you throwing my broccoli?" and he goes "No no, hen bu hao" which means 'very bad' so then he starts showing me which ones are good and which ones are bad. I still don't really see the difference, so I'm just like "oh..okay thanks" and pick up another one, which he again grabs and says "No! Hen bu hao!" He then proceeds to picking up pieces of broccoli for me and throwing them in my bag. He was also with this little girl who was maybe 5 or 6 years old, and she was laughing at me, saying "Te he he he!! Mei guo ren, mei guo ren!!" which means 'American! American!' Then she was following me around the store, trying to be sneaky, throwing nasty foods into my basket. I'd see her running off, then I'd look down and see chicken's feet in my basket! She was such a riot.
Anyway, I have a really great set up here in Beijing. I'm living in a hotel which was only built a few years ago, so it's very modern. There are also maid who come and make my bed and clean my shower every day. The maids are just really amazing in general. They always leave my roommate Jessica and me extra water bottles and green tea bags, because we go through them like it's no one's business. They also always help me call cabs and order pizza, which is amazing.
There's a 7-11 downstairs, and it's nothing like the 7-11s back home. Although the one on Fig and Adams is pretty priceless, the one downstairs has everything- including a buffet of hot food to a full selection of alcohol. There's a Bally's gym downstairs as well, so I only have to run 5 seconds in the cold before I'm there. The workers at the front desk think I'm crazy for going outside in shorts, and they can't comprehend why I'd want to go work out. It's funny to see their reactions when I come back from the gym, a sweaty mess listening to my loud rap music.
Actually the cultural differences between Americans and the Chinese have probably been my favorite part of living in Beijing thus far. Like a couple of days ago, I went to the bathroom at the mall and one of the stall doors was missing. So you know, like any normal American I'm standing in front of the stall with no door, waiting for the next available stall. And this girl comes in and uses the stall without a door. So she's squatting down, doing her thing, and the whole time we're staring each other in the eyeballs. Then she gets up, eyes still locked with mine, and nonchalantly walks away. Only in China!
I also get such a kick out of all the Chinglish phrases everywhere. I was using a Citibank ATM yesterday (which is an American company so you think the English would be perfect, right?), and it started out by asking me to "dip" my card into the machine. Then once I got my cash, it asked me if I wanted "printed advice." Usually I decline a receipt, but how could I turn down advice?
Keeping everyone updated on life in Beijing was getting a bit overwhelming, so taking a tip or two from Valerie, I decided to start a blog to write about my adventures.
As many of you know, I started off with a really rough beginning here in Beijing. I was having trouble adjusting to the food, the stares, the shoving, the spitting, constantly being photographed, and of course being away from all of you who I love so much!
I'm finally starting to find my footing here though. I went to the US Embassy to get inhalers (thanks for the tip Bonnie!), and the doctor there also recommended telling the waiters that I am allergic to MSG (since when I ask waiters not to put MSG in my food, they will anyways because they can't be bothered, and I'll end up with an intense headache twenty minutes later!). That has definitely helped a lot. So yes, being able to breathe and being able to order food I can eat have definitely helped me feel a lot more comfortable here.
I also bought a rice cooker for 50 kuai (about 7 dollars!), and it's amazing what I'm able to make with it. So far I've steamed veggies, made pasta, boiled eggs, and heated up soup. I also tried to make salmon with it, but that was a horrible failure...just ask my roommate Jessica.
The locals have also been very gracious with helping me find the good produce at the grocery stores. At the CarreFour market on Friday, I was picking out broccoli and this Asian guy standing next to me takes the broccoli I'm holding out of my hand and throws it! And at first I'm like "Hey! Why are you throwing my broccoli?" and he goes "No no, hen bu hao" which means 'very bad' so then he starts showing me which ones are good and which ones are bad. I still don't really see the difference, so I'm just like "oh..okay thanks" and pick up another one, which he again grabs and says "No! Hen bu hao!" He then proceeds to picking up pieces of broccoli for me and throwing them in my bag. He was also with this little girl who was maybe 5 or 6 years old, and she was laughing at me, saying "Te he he he!! Mei guo ren, mei guo ren!!" which means 'American! American!' Then she was following me around the store, trying to be sneaky, throwing nasty foods into my basket. I'd see her running off, then I'd look down and see chicken's feet in my basket! She was such a riot.
Anyway, I have a really great set up here in Beijing. I'm living in a hotel which was only built a few years ago, so it's very modern. There are also maid who come and make my bed and clean my shower every day. The maids are just really amazing in general. They always leave my roommate Jessica and me extra water bottles and green tea bags, because we go through them like it's no one's business. They also always help me call cabs and order pizza, which is amazing.
There's a 7-11 downstairs, and it's nothing like the 7-11s back home. Although the one on Fig and Adams is pretty priceless, the one downstairs has everything- including a buffet of hot food to a full selection of alcohol. There's a Bally's gym downstairs as well, so I only have to run 5 seconds in the cold before I'm there. The workers at the front desk think I'm crazy for going outside in shorts, and they can't comprehend why I'd want to go work out. It's funny to see their reactions when I come back from the gym, a sweaty mess listening to my loud rap music.
Actually the cultural differences between Americans and the Chinese have probably been my favorite part of living in Beijing thus far. Like a couple of days ago, I went to the bathroom at the mall and one of the stall doors was missing. So you know, like any normal American I'm standing in front of the stall with no door, waiting for the next available stall. And this girl comes in and uses the stall without a door. So she's squatting down, doing her thing, and the whole time we're staring each other in the eyeballs. Then she gets up, eyes still locked with mine, and nonchalantly walks away. Only in China!
I also get such a kick out of all the Chinglish phrases everywhere. I was using a Citibank ATM yesterday (which is an American company so you think the English would be perfect, right?), and it started out by asking me to "dip" my card into the machine. Then once I got my cash, it asked me if I wanted "printed advice." Usually I decline a receipt, but how could I turn down advice?
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