My first impressions and experiences of my travels to and in Beijing: 27/08/2010
1. Air Canada has the best gluten-free cinnamon raisin bagel I have ever had! That being said, my theory was 100% correct: travelling almost directly West for 13 hours, the sun never moved. It was like I was in a twilight zone. I arrived 13 hours after leaving Toronto and I swear the sun was in almost the exact same place as when I left, like it never set.
2. Everything here is green. This could be the area that I’m living, but there are trees and parks everywhere. Its actually quite beautiful.
3. I’m not going to get as much help as I hoped I would with communicating. Jessie, my assistant, picked me up from the airport with the driver, gave me a couple of instructions of things I needed to do before tomorrow, and then dropped me off at my apartment. She had already arranged for a one bedroom place for me in a compound of residential buildings in the middle of Tongshou, the most residential area of Beijing and where my school is located. As soon as she left I had a mini-freakout; more like “WTF this chick just dropped me off and was like k go down to this store, buy a cell phone and a SIM card, go open a bank account here, do it all before tomorrow okay byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. I can’t even say HELLO in Chinese and she wants me to do all that?? What did I get myself into...” Needless to say I did NONE of it after I saw the state of my apartment: dirty. I sat down, calmed down, and made a list of things I wanted that would make my living state bearable. Now that its clean in here, the place is pretty nice and fairly big, but initially I was shocked.
4. ALL stereotypes about what Chinese people eat are completely TRUE. T-R-U-E. 100%. My goal of buying a bunch of cleaning supplies and possibly some dinner wasn’t too difficult. At the bottom of the apartment buildings is a giant mall that has everything I could ever want in it, including a Carrefour, kind of like a giant Walmart. On the first level of the Chinese Walmart I loaded up on the random shit I thought I needed to clean and cook: pots and pans, dish towels, Mr. Musculo cleaning spray (we had that in Peru!), glade plug-ins, etc, etc. I did NOT buy forks but chopsticks: they had an entire WALL COVERED in chopsticks ranging in price but only ONE fork eight times the price of my chopsticks. Not even kidding. After that I worked my way upstairs to the food level. Honest to God, I was walking around MARVELLING at this place for two HOURS. They had live turtles and goldfish that you could buy where some dude would just chop their heads off and hand them to you in a bag. There were shark fins hanging from meat hooks like a clothesline. People were digging into a giant vat of jellyfish on ice with their HANDS, like “no biggie, I’m just gonna look for a good one.” There were whole frozen frogs, every single part of the chicken on display, tons of weird coloured things boiling in pots, and even turkey necks and spirally pig tails on skewers for the barbeque. I’m pretty sure I’m gonna loose a ton of weight fairly quickly here since I am terrified of everything that they eat. The one thing they did have in abundance though became my dinner: KIMCHEE. I fucking love kimchee. For those of you who don’t know, its this cabbage that they pickle in this spicy sauce and I ate that shit like it was my last meal.
5. Until I learn some Chinese, I am a dumb mute that people pity. I learned very quickly to nod my head rapidly at every request or question and just hope they understand that I have no idea what they want from me. Every single person I’ve dealt with has given me this face like “aww you cute little white girl, you’re new aren’t you?” The Chinese also STARE at me everywhere that I go, as if they are shocked that I exist and live in Beijing. In the end, though, all are REALLY patient with my lack of Chinese skills. So far I can say hello and thanks. Literally thats it. But even knowing that I've managed to buy my groceries, set up a cell phone plan, and negotiate the price of a bike (which I haven't bought yet).
6. I can’t figure out how to work my house. Everything is run on cards that I have to “top up” when they are running low by going to the bank and putting money on it. I have an electricity card, a water card and a gas card which I have to stick in varying places in my house to make shit work. The shower water is run by this gigantic water heater that I have to plug in at least 20 minutes before I take a shower (I learned this by having a very cold shower after cleaning). The shower is about up to my chin, so if I don’t remove the showerhead I’m doing about 20 squats trying to make this shit reach my hair. I couldn’t work the television until this morning (at least it’s a flatscreen). I have NO idea how to turn the bathroom light on or the water for the bathroom sink so I definitely brushed my teeth in the kitchen last night. I’m not living in a building with any other teachers, so I’m going to make Jessie call my landlord to come over and show me how to do all of this stuff. I’ve also decided to buy caulking and seal EVERY part of my house after finding the Chinese version of potato bugs in the bathroom this morning; better than cockroaches, but still not welcome.
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