Lowkey

Today was pretty lowkey. It was so cold I was not really in the mood to walk around much. We went to a library/coffee shop/restaurant called Bookworm that is pretty sweet. It is not far from Alex, has good food and is geared towards westerners. They also have Wi-Fi so it might be a nice place to go with my lappy if I have work to do and want to get out of the apartment. Other than that, it was a pretty simple day, nothing super exciting. Tomorrow we are planning on going to the Pearl Market and the Temple of Heaven if the sky clears up some.

Hairiest man and metal claws

Today was pretty interesting. We started out by taking a cab to the dirt market which is a Sunday market full of all kinds of great things, including paintings, beads galore, sculptures, prints, clothing, pots, furniture and all kinds of random goods. I found these crazy metal torture looking "gloves" that we talked down to $12! So I bought them. There are photos online of these crazy things. Not sure that I will wear them, although they would be great for Halloween. I am definitely going back there for beads, they have a ridiculous amount of jade, coral, turquoise and some stones that I don't know.

After the market we went to the Lama Temple which has an 18 meter high Buddah all carved out of one piece of sandalwood sent in from Burma. The building was built around the Buddah after it was carved. It is amazing and there is really no describing it unless you see it. 18 meters doesn't even do it justice. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take photos inside the temples so I can't show you what it looked like, but I can say that I just stood there in awe for a while.

We decided to take the subway home, which cost about $0.40, and this man walked onto the train. I looked over at Alex and said, "Look, it's wolfman" since this was the harriest man I have every seen. Then she says, "Oh my god, it is! Seriously, this guy is famous, he's been on Letterman!" Sure enough, I googled hairiest man alive and Yu Zhenhuan came up. Apparently 96% of his body is covered in hair. He is no longer the hairiest man alive, there are two brothers in Mexico who are 98% covered in hair. At anyrate, he was standing right next to me on the train and there is no mistaking it. Look up his name online and you can see a photo, I did not have the nerve to ask if I could take one of him.

This evening I went for my first massage (80 minute foot massage, although they do back, arms and neck as well) and it cost less than $10! I can see this turning into a weekly or biweekly thing while I am here. I don't know how I will adjust to American prices after this. Along with the massage, there is a menu and everything is complimentary, so we had dinner and a massage for less than $10. One of the weird things that actually tasted really good was peanut butter French Toast. It's like a peanut butter sandwich that is French Toastified. Also, if you have not tried it, boil Coke and add cut up ginger. It's really good.

Another thing I have noticed but have not fully documented yet is the insane amount of construction in Beijing. Alex has even said that since she left two months ago there are buildings that she has never seen before and they seem to pop up over night. It's insane.

So that was my day . . . not sure what tomorrow will bring but this place keeps getting more interesting.

Pain in chest

So this morning I woke up with a horrible pain in my chest, apparently that's what happens to a lot of people when they first come to Beijing and have to get used to the pollution. Not sure that I want my body to get used to pollution, but I guess it will have to.

This morning two of my roommates were going to go snowboarding but missed the bus, so Alex woke me up and told me that they were going to a restaurant called Steak & Eggs where you can get American breakfast. Normally I would have continued to sleep, but I could not pass it up. Unfortunately they did not have waffles, but they had French Toast, Pancakes, BACON and all other American breakfasty things. The bacon was pretty sweet.

Alex and I went to an art store today and I managed to buy quite a bit in art supplies for only $35. We are going to try to paint and draw on a somewhat daily basis. Another fun translation on a bottle of turpentine was "Keep it out of children." I will be sure to keep it out of children when I am using it. As a little note about mistranslations, I have created another blog just for translations that I find amusing. Again, the link is to the right.

After the art store we went to this little Chinese restaurant for a late lunch. We were the only people there and the menu was entirely in Chinese. Luckily it had pictures, so we tried to pick out some good stuff to eat. Somehow there were some problems with our order and we got slight variations. I don't know if MSG looks like slime, but our broccoli was definitely covered in a gelatinous snot-like substance. I am hoping it was MSG. I did learn how to say "no MSG" today and now I forgot. I am trying to learn some Chinese so I can get around, but it is pretty hard. I really need to get over being shy and just practise speaking.

MCK (a friend of Alex's) and his Chinese friend came over for a bit today and they picked a Chinese name for me. I think it sounds a bit egotistical, but apparently it is common for girls to have names like this. My name is "Luo Mei Na" which means "Beautiful girl." I think I can deal with that.

That's all for today. No new photos. Not sure what we are doing tomorrow, but I think it will involve painting, drawing and maybe more wandering if it is not too cold.

First full day in Beijing

So today was my first full day in Beijing and it's been good. Alex, Sean (other subletter) and I went around to get acclimated to the areas. We went to a cute little market across the street from the apartment where we saw all kinds of cool stuff like teas, beans, seaweed, dried seahorses and snake, and weird clothes. I took a ridiculous amount of photos. Things I ate included really yummy smoked meat. Don't ask me what kind it was, but it was good. I also tried some red thing that looked and tasted like a date and the big adventure food today was jellyfish. I can't really describe it, it's seafoody and slimy with a bit of a crunch. Probably not something I would have again, but it didn't kill me.

After the market we went by the Forbidden City but didn't really hang out there. I saw quite a few Chinese mullets . . . seems like a big thing here. The sky is a permanent beige, so I think we are going to go back on a day when the sky is blue, although I am not sure when that will happen. The smell here reminds me of Cairo, I wonder if all super polluted cities smell this way.

We walked through an area of hutongs which from what I understand are alleyways where Chinese people live. They are tearing these down and turning them into apartment buildings, which kind of sucks. We walked into another market where they were selling all kinds of weird things, like various bugs on sticks. The creepiest thing was that there was a scorpion on one stick that was still moving. The stick was stuck all the way through it and it's little claws were still squirming. If I had not already been turned off by eating scorpion, that pretty much did it for me there.

We went to lunch at a little Chinese place where we paid a ridiculous price for Green Tea. Meaning, we paid $3.50 instead of $1.25. The prices here are wild. We went to this market that has a bunch of fakes but also some good stuff and it's amazing how much you can talk things down. This woman was asking $18.75 for a lamp and Alex talked her down to $3.75 and we ended up not wanting to buy it anyway.

Went grocery shopping and saw that they have Oreos among other American foods. We also went to this place called April Gourmet and it has Ritter Sport chocolates (Thank you THFers for getting me some, but apparently I can get it here too!).

We had dinner at a southern Chinese restaurant and I have noticed that my biggest problem with Chinese food, that I was not expecting, is the salt factor (or MSG). Almost everything is ridiculously salty. Unfortunately it's one of those things I do not want to get used to. I am fine getting used to eating foods I would not normally eat, but preservatives and saltiness in my food I don't count as a good change.

So that was today . . . I am trying to learn some Chinese phrases but it is taking me a while. I also took lots of photos today, so check them out in my gallery.

So sleepy

So here is my first post from China! I have not slept in over 24 hours and am quite out of it. I just came back from dinner and it is 9 PM here. After this post, I am going to bed.

Where to begin . . . Kurt drove me to Newark Airport in a flash, for some odd reason no one was on the roads in NYC during rush hour. There was a Black History Month fashion show in the terminal and they were blasting music, it was very strange. Met up with Alex and I managed to steal her away from her exit row and into a row with me. My plan had been that one of us would get the window and one of us would get the aisle, so we could get the best of both worlds. Unfortunately our row was the one row on the entire plane without windows! So we had to get up if we wanted to get a glimpse of our current location. When we did get to see the view, it was pretty sweet. We flew over the north pole and saw some rather cool ice formations. The weirdest thing was not having night. We went straight from sunset to sunrise. Eternal dusk or Eternal dawn, take your pick. Food on the plane was pretty foul. They fooled us into thinking it might be good by handing out fancy menus. It was the kind of food that does not taste how it smells.

After 13 hours of trying to sleep and shifting around, we made it to Beijing. First thing that I noticed after we picked up our luggage was a Starbucks. Aye! Oh yeah, and KFC too. Bleh.

Made it to the apartment which is nice, I will be living with Alex and two of her friends. I am in a room that has a piano in it. Along with a piano I have a tiny mattress that was supposed to go on a bed frame, however the frame is missing screws, so at least for tonight, I am sleeping on a mattress on the floor. I think I might keep it this way. The lightbulbs in my room are out and I have no closets or dressers. So . . . it will be interesting. Hopefully tomorrow I will get some of this taken care of. However, I kind of like the minimalism of a mattress and candlelight. It just might work.

I also got a cellphone today and you get a card with the phone number on it that has directions. One of the directions is: "Please recharge your SIM card before the last first using time." If you can figure out that the means, I will buy you a chocolate bar.

Anyway, I am going to try to sleep now. There is some weird music playing outside, hopefully it will stop soon. I already miss everyone back home, hope you are all well.

Last day at work

So my last day at work was really nice. Had a nice lunch at Ruby Tuesdays and then Lisa and Michelle S. threw a little party for me in the afternoon. It was very sweet and they gave me this great bag of goodies to get me through China. Most important items being toilet paper and hand sanitizer. Not sure how much use I will get out of the toilet seat covers as from what I hear, there are not many toilet seats. They also made me the coolest little passport looking guide to travel, complete with travel tips from everyone on the interpretive staff. Pretty much the coolest, most creative and nice thing ever! My ex-coworkers rock and I will miss them tons. Oh yeah, and Janet made me the best truffles I have ever had, seriously. They are oreo truffles and I need the recipe. I ate one and was in heaven. They even came in a cute little Chinese takeout box!

Other than that, next week is all preparing for the trip and trying to get a visa. It is looking like I might have to get a tourist visa and then switch to a student visa in China. Not sure yet though, I have to get this taken care of next week. Woohoo, I don't think it has hit me yet that I am actually going, hopefully it will before I land in Beijing!