sports, puppies and IKEA

sorry, we've been lagging on the blogging. it's been a fast couple of weeks and we suddenly realized we'd broken our post-even-if-random rule. i was in HK for work, D had a bigger lecture to give, and we just finished a few days of raucous birthday celebrating for D.

some randomness since our last post...

last sunday, on our way out in the morning, we realized it might take us a bit longer than usual. because the beijing marathon was going past our apartment. literally. here's a shot of the runners. there were a bunch of dudes doublefisting it with chinese flags. pretty impressive. we had to do some circuitous maneuvering with the scooter (over pedestrian bridges, etc.) to get to service on time...sort of.

we finally got our passports back, with residence permits, after six weeks. after all the drama and delays -- including multiple visits to the entry exit bureau and having to have our real marriage license fedexed from the states -- we just walked in, paid, and picked them up. we were very very very thankful. literally just in time, as i was going to HK in two days.

J&M beijingdou organized a bunch of us to go watch the China Open...they strategically bought Men's Quarterfinals tix and we ended up getting to watch Nadal play Safin!! whoohooooooo. it was really fun, especially the random tennis ball dude and guys on stilts. buy one get one papa john's pizza slices. oh and the chinese cheerleaders performing near the entrance (oh mickey you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind...)

been making friends with the old homeless man with the puppies. he told me their names are doudou. both of them. i asked him how he tells them apart and he said they don't mind being the same...or something like that, i wasn't totally sure. they're such good puppies...they just sit under a tree and chill with him all day. i wonder what will happen when they get bigger.

with the weather getting colder, we made a trip to the local IKEA to get a comforter and other assorted necessities. D hates IKEA...not even the ice cream and hot dog (that is strangely white and gross-looking) at the end make it better. i think it's partly because local people treat it like an amusement park ("what do you want to do this saturday? let's go to IKEA and get some foreign food and hang out!!") so it's always ridiculously crowded. here are some folks chilling in a living room display

miss you guys. more later...

weekly roundup: the good, the bad, the confusing

it's been a pretty good week -- most of the country is on vacation through tomorrow (have been since the big national day celebration last thursday). there are mooncakes everywhere for mid-autumn festival (more later) and most people are hanging out. D is actually at a rock music festival with a friend as i type. i've had to work which has tethered me a bit more, but it hasn't been super intense, so good amount of play too.

THE GOOD...

- scooter: we finally caved and got an electric scooter on saturday. i was totally against it when we first came, convinced it was an accident on wheels. until we realized how useful they are, because it's totally annoying to have to walk/take a taxi/bus everywhere, especially just to get to the subway. not to mention the fact that it really doesn't go much faster than a normal bike (M pointed this out early on and I think it swayed me). we debated the merits of getting two bikes vs. a scooter, and realized that it was far more likely for bruise-prone me to get into an accident on my own riding a bike, vs. riding on the back of a scooter that D is driving. so we went with the scooter. it's navy blue. it looks kind of small when D is riding.

gotta admit...the scooter formations we can now do with other scooter people are pretty fun

- dumplings: we went over to our chinese friends' house for dumplings on monday. D is not a picky eater at all, but for some reason dumplings have always made him want to gag. so we were slightly nervous, but didn't want to say anything because they were really excited about sharing culture with us by teaching us to make dumplings. D warned me before we left that i might have to eat more than my usual share. so what's the good in all this? turns out D doesn't hate all dumplings. he actually liked these guys -- the filling was milder than usual, and they cooked them really well. i never knew this trick (or maybe some aunt told me about it when i was little and i forgot), but apparently you're supposed to boil water, then throw the dumplings in and let them come to a boil, then add a cup of cold water and let it come to a boil, then repeat with 2 more cups of water. this way the skin's texture is really good and they don't break. anyways, we had a good time and D ate a lot of dumplings.

- lots of game nites / hanging out - we're really enjoying people here

THE BAD...

- sad scooter rabbit: a mere three days into owning our scooter, someone jacked up the rearview mirrors while it was parked. one is missing and the other is hanging like a sad rabbit ear now. oh well...

- dtrain: i had massive stummick issues again last week...didn't leave the house for 3 days, was pretty much tethered to the bathroom. still don't know what it was, but am slowly realizing it's par for the course with living here, even having always been immune before. go figure. (totally fine now)

THE CONFUSING...

- mooncakes up the wazoo: as far as i can tell, no one really likes EATING these, especially the kind they make here (super dense) yet they sell in huge boxes and we've been given about a bajillion of them from friends, the university, the voiceover people. we have no idea what to do with them...a few of them are particularly hard and dense. some potential solutions: (1) give them to the old homeless man with the two puppies...maybe puppies like them, (2) play jenga, (3) prop up something, (4) feed the chick and the duck

- the one-sided gate monster: we have a double door to our apartment...one regular door, and a metal gate. we discovered this week that if you lock the metal gate from the outside, you can't get out from inside, even if you have a key to it. what the...??

if you can explain this, i'll be really impressed.

Today's Forecast: Rockets and Blue Skies

Yesterday was National Day for China. Sort of like our 4th of July, they celebrate the founding of the CPC with a big parade and firework shows here in Beijing. Yesterday was also the most beautiful weather we've had. Pretty crazy since the days leading up to the celebration were miserable. There was even lightning the night before - the only time cc and I have experienced it here. But like I said, the day itself was gorgeous.

Why? Because they "seeded" the weather! Check out the following article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/world/asia/01rain.html?scp=1&sq=weather%20Beijing&st=cse

Before the Olympics they seeded the clouds by shooting rockets.

This time around they used planes and lasers. They even had a contingency plan for fog.

I don't know what to make of it. :) Josh was telling me how Beijing had a 6-month drought following the Olympics.

the chick and the duck have a boyfriend!

i went out to pay for our internet and electricity at the bank today and found these guys playing in the side grass of our apartment complex on the way back. was surprised to find the chick and the duck have a male companion. in this shot, they don't seem so enamored by him, but you never know.

here's a close-up of the boy. rooster is quite pretty, actually. maybe even a little fat.

p.s. in case you missed it, a few posts ago, we introduced the chick and the duck that randomly hang out around our high-rise apartment building. we like them. i go looking for them on my way home sometimes...but then i found them eating garbage one day and was sad. i still haven't figured out where they live. what will happen to them when it gets cold? this is the first time i've seen them with food tupperwares. so i'm hopeful they have owners and don't eat garbage all the time. what do chicks and ducks eat? should i bring them bread?

The Great Hall

Cc and I got to go to the Great Hall of the People last night for a Foreign Experts Reception celebrating the 60th anniversary of the PRC. When I first got the text from my boss inviting us to go I totally dismissed it. I had been pinged to do a bunch of random things that week (without pay) and figured this was another thing like that. When I told cc about it, she felt the same. But when we told our friends, they were like "You don't get invited to go the Great Hall and NOT go!!" They said it's where the Chinese government welcomes high officials. (President Nixon, too). I had already missed the deadline to tell my boss we would like to go, but she called me again anyway.

It was pretty fun, and definitely the real deal! We heard the vice-premier of China speak, who - if everything happens as it should - will be the next president of China. After he finished (in Chinese) I leaned over and asked my boss how she liked it and she said not at all, that it was 'too political.'

It was good spending time bonding with my boss. She's a little older than we are, and cc and she are starting to gel. During dinner she was surprised that I knew the name for Kungpao Chicken in Chinese (which, btw, sounds basically the same as it does in English). I didn't bother to tell her it's everywhere in the Bay Area. ;)

The one really funny thing of the night was that I wasn't supposed to take pictures. Apparently I didn't get the memo that cameras aren't allowed in the hall. But the security guards didn't take it away when I passed through the check station - and yet they took cc's knitting needles! ...? :) I was taking pictures in the first main hallway when my boss came over and told me to put it away quickly, that I would get into real trouble. I did what I was told, but soon saw some other westerners taking pics. My boss gave in and the next thing I knew the dean and vice dean of my school were asking to "take advantage of my 'mistake.'" I just got done emailing them their pictures. :) Several minutes into the vice-premier's speech cc tapped my leg and told me not to "push my luck." I then realized how awkward it must have been that my arm had been raised like a periscope as I was video-taping.

Now the goods...

This is the main entrance to the hall.

This is a famous Chinese painting of mountains. Mao wrote the characters in the upper left.

illiterate and need to find the amazing hover tool

right about now, i'm kicking myself for not taking more than one year of simplified chinese in college. why...why?

on shorter trips, i used to kind of just force myself to ask for help reading stuff everywhere. it was a matter of saving time, and not too bad, because you were going home in a few weeks. but trying to live life here and having to ask people day after day gets tiring, especially when oh, 75% of the people you ask to help you read something look at you like you're stupid (or maybe kind of cute, in a dumb way) because you can speak perfectly fine, but are pretty much illiterate. if i'm trying to meet people, this is okay, but if i'm exhausted and just trying to find the right thing to order or buy or how to get home, it is not so fun. trying to decipher stuff at the grocery store generally means a shopping trip that takes 5 times as long as it normally should. forget doing it for everything on the restaurant menu.

it's also humbling (although kind of fun) to read with little ones who can read better than you. going with M to a nearby migrant community to hang out with the kids, I find that although i'm supposed to be reading to them, if the book is chinese, it's more likely that they are reading to me.

i know the long-term solution is just to learn more characters, and i'm trying (got a Chinese version of InStyle to learn characters from). but in the near-term i am on a quest to find a pinyin (romanization) hover tool. i did a minor editing job the other day, and their computer had this amazing tool where if you hover over the characters in a doc or online, it gives you the pinyin. it was so great. but being a little muddleheaded, i didn't look to see what program it was and have been googling to try and find one. does anyone have any idea where i can get a tool like this?

P.S. as a non-sequitor update, D's stomach is actually doing relatively okay (most days), but he is rapidly losing weight. he can't seem to get full here. feel free to throw bulking-up ideas our way.

little delights in a fend-for-yourself society

yesterday marked the beginning of our fourth week "living" here. overall, we're really thankful that we have quickly started to feel settled and at home in our place. we've met some great people and are living close to good friends. pretty close to the university where D teaches too.

but there are admittedly some days when I come home feeling a little bit like Chin(ar) just beat me up. be it the guy whose spit particles accidentally hit my leg as I'm walking along (we've taken to night-showering here), or the person at the copy shop that inexplicably says "nope, we can't do that" to everything I ask about (what kind of copy stuff DO you do then?), or the service person answering the phone at the internet company who pretends she's a machine so she doesn't have to deal with my problems (seriously...I'm not kidding). then there's feeling like I'm going to get run over every time I cross the street. or the weird anthem music that comes on around 3:30 every weekday afternoon and blares in our apartment from who knows where for a good half hour. when getting off the subway, D generally has to steer me from behind so I can actually make it through the throngs of people...it is truly a fend-for-yourself society. takes some getting used to and it's not always so easy to "do everything without complaining or arguing."

i'm realizing how thankful i am for the little delights that seem to come along right when I'm feeling a little weary. it doesn't take much, I'm much like a little kid in that sense. stuff like...

tart yogurt popsicles - just when i was really starting to miss tart froyo, accidentally stumbled upon these in the mart downstairs. not really the same thing, but still a surprising delight. a 2.5 kuai ($0.37) ice cream cone from McD will do the trick in a pinch as well.

beautiful bowls for 24 kuai ($3...total!!) -- we're still in the process of buying kitchen stuff, and our new friend took us to this random dish vendor in a nearby outdoor market. could not believe the prices for the beautiful stuff.

the 7 kuai milk foamer from Ikea - runs on battery. actually makes a decent latte at home considering you're paying maybe 1/20 what you would be paying at starbucks or other knock-off coffee shop

our little sun-balcony - my favorite nook in the apartment. doubles as a place to dry our clothes (no driers!) but D ingeniously put one of our random sofa pieces out there so it's perfect for sitting and having some quiet time away from everything


the chick and the duck - these guys just randomly hang out around our big high rise apartment complex. so weird and so happy all at the same time. they're having a conversation here, amidst the parked cars. i'm tempted to adopt them like Joey and Chandler, except they poop a lot and it would be gross.