Beijing Day 3

The culture here is so different compared to the U.S. and Uganda (where I lived last summer).  A colleague asked me how many siblings I had and I responded that I had two brothers.  The person’s eyes got big and she said that I had such a large family since the stereotypical Chinese family consists of one child.  When I was asked the same question in Uganda last summer, everyone told me that I had a very small family and asked why my parents only had three children.  This is just one stark example that I have noticed thus far.  By law, Chinese couples can only have one child and if they have more than one, the consequences are pretty intense.  You get fined A LOT of money for every extra child you have and if you work in government you are lowered in rank (pay) if you dare have more than one child.  In Uganda, the more children the better.  Anyway, speaking of culture and tradition, Oscar and I decided to jump right in and go see the Forbidden City today.  It is absolutely breathtaking, and I had no idea how expansive it was.  From the front to the back, I would bet that it spans for at least a mile.  In other words, I was tired when we finished our tour 3 hours later.  You feel as if you have been thrown into the 1400s when the palace was built. Twenty-four emperors have lived/ruled there, and I am so fortunate that I was able to see it.  However, if you ever go see the Forbidden City, I would suggest you go on a weekday. We went on a Saturday and the crowds were ridiculous.  Be prepared to be pushed around if you go on the weekend.  After we left the palace, we made our way to Wangfujing Street which is east of the Forbidden City.  This is a huge tourist destination with a lot of pricy stores and hotels.  We decided that we really wanted to jump into the culture, so we ate at a restaurant called the Quanjude Roast Duck.  There we got duck heart dumplings, duck wings, rice, Chinese pancakes, and fried shrimp.   The meal was amazing.  We were not so sure about the duck heart dumplings, but they were excellent.  I have found that if you can get past the thought of what of you are eating and just try it, you will be pleasantly surprised.  The same thing happened hours later when we ventured onto the snack street of downtown Beijing which basically consists of hundreds of vendors selling everything from seafood to candy.  Some of the more interesting vendors sold a multitude of critters like fried scorpions, lizards, beetles, mice, chicks, and dragonflies. Oscar and I were brave once more, and both ate a fried scorpion, which to my surprise was not half bad.  We have only been here for three days, and I think we are well on way to becoming natives J.  I also bought a kebab of grapes that had been dunked in sugar that basically resembled a hard candy.  I really enjoyed that as well. I am so glad that I am here and Oscar and I get along great so I cannot wait for more adventures to come.  We start work on Monday, so we have one more day to play and explore.  Talk to you tomorrow.

Beijing Day 2

So I was able to escape from apartment (Jozy came to my rescue) so that I could finally explore Beijing. Oscar got here yesterday, and Jozy took us to get phones and register with the police this morning.  Apparently, in China everyone, even foreigners have to register where they live with the police station.  It was a pretty easy process and we met our land lady who was very nice.  For lunch we went to KFC which was very reminiscent of the U.S. menu except for the Chinese vegetables and fruits on some of the sandwiches and the flan that came with a few of the meals.  I personally felt that the flan was very random for a Chinese KFC (and not good), but what do I know.  Jozy went to work after lunch and Oscar and I attempted to learn the subway and bus lines that we will use to get to work in addition to braving the grocery store.   It is so funny how a very normal everyday activity in the U.S. can be so difficult and intimidating in a foreign country.  The subway is pretty straight forward and easy because all of the stops are translated into English so that you can read where you are.  The bus line, however, is not so simple; everything is in Mandarin so it is impossible to navigate where you are going unless you are fluent.  So we may be taking some unintended trips on the bus until we figure it out.  One cool thing about the layout of Beijing is that Tiananmen Square is the center of Beijing and then there are six big rings (roads) around that center.  The buses stay on their ring and go in circles all day, so I at least know what ring I am if I get really lost. Like the bus stop, most of the items that you buy in the grocery store are written in Mandarin and you would think that it would be fairly easy to decipher what item you are looking at, but take my word for it, it isn’t.  All of the brands are different here so you cannot really tell using American brands, and then there are so many items that we do not have in the U.S., specifically meats, vegetables, and fruits that some sections of the grocery store are very intimidating.  Even an item as simple as lotion is difficult to find.  I bought a small bottle of what I thought was lotion and it ended up being shampoo. Oops! Regardless, it was a fun adventure and most of what we bought was actually what we thought we bought.   We did accidently purchase a pack of tofu thinking that it was cheese until we got home and opened it. That won’t be happening again. To finish the day off we decided to go to bar street which is on the eastern side of the city.  It is a high end street with a lot of foreigners, bars, restaurants, stores etc.  A huge Apple Store, for example, is on this street.  We both enjoyed a beer and people watched for about 2 hours at one of the bars.  It was a good end to the day and we got there without hitch.  The way back, however, was a little bit more interesting.  After taking the subway, we went to our bus stop, but the bus had stopped running for the night, so we grabbed a taxi.  We had asked Jozy to write our address down for instances like this, and the taxi driver took us right to our apartment.  However, when we paid it was apparently 14 Yuan and we thought it was 11 Yuan.  We only had a 100 Yuan bill so the cab driver had to give us change.  Well after 5 minutes of him yelling at us in Mandarin, I called Jozy and asked her to talk to him. After being on the phone for 2 minutes we were all set.  It was a simple misunderstanding, but it just demonstrates how something so simple can become so complicated when you speak a different language.  Overall, we had a busy but wonderful day, and I am already starting to get comfortable with my surroundings.

P.S. My phone number is 13716366647 if anyone wants to call me, but it is expensive.

Beijing Day 1

Arrived safe and sound in the capital of China, Beijing.  Jozy (my director) picked me up from the airport without a glitch and took me to my apartment. The apartment is quite nice; it is a 3 bedroom, two bathroom with a washer and air conditioning.  I am 17 E and this building is great, but older. It was definitely built in the 80s and unfortunately for me I just locked myself inside.  There are two doors for every apartment; the inside door is like a normal solid wood door that you would stereotypically find in the U.S. The outside door, however, is a large metal door that resembles a service door or something that does not look like an apartment door.  I just unlocked the inside door without a problem, and then I manually turned the lock of the knob so that the knob would turn on the second door. I turned the knob and pushed on the door, but it still appeared to be locked. So I got my key out and when I tried to turn it, it broke in the lock. So I am officially locked inside my new apartment, very hungry and a little worried about how I am going to get out.  Other than that I do not have much to say about Beijing seeing that I haven’t really experienced it yet.  It has a lot of apartment buildings, new and old, that sort of remind me of Toronto apartment buildings for some reason.  The architecture is new and innovative, and speaking of Toronto, there is a building outside of my bedroom window that resembles the CN tower.  According to Jozy it is also a radio tower, and if you have the money you can go up and eat in the rotating restaurant.  Thus far, I am impressed with Beijing.  You stereotypically hear that it is dirty and not very aesthetically pleasing, but I have to say that it looks pretty nice.  There are a lot of plants that line the highways and so far it just reminds me of a big city like Toronto or New York.  Now I just have to figure out how to get out of my apartment so I can truly experience the city! Until next time.  J