Tiannamen and the Forbidden City

OK, enough about bodily functions. As I mentioned, there was a group outing to Tiannamen yesterday. The tour was hurried and not too detailed. I decided to subway (地铁）back instead of going on the bus, so when the group was breaking up I doubled back and hit some of the side galleries that we didn't go into. I think we were there during the first initial crush of the day, plus the weather was making everyone crowd together under canopies. Regardless of the reason, it was much, much less crowded on my way back through.

I'll spare you all the details about the emperors and their concubines. Besides, I can't remember which palace was which. Suffice it to say that a: it's a big ass palace complex, b: various pieces have been rebuilt through time, c: it's the place to go for out-of-town Chinese.

This morning I checked out our local park. I sat with a little old lady who said my stomach would feel better if I 'played Chinese kung fu'. She said she had learned a bit of English in primary school. It's remarkable that she remembers it at all. It was very cool to have that conversation, although it would have been even better if I had been able to use more Chinese.



One more pleasant thing I keep meaning to mention: people like to take their birds for bicycle rides and hang out in the park with them.



Here's the photos from Tiannamen.

病肚子

Sick stomach. I'll survive. I'm just sticking close to the room.

I'm guessing it was the dumplings I had at the non-tourist behind the scenes stand at the Forbidden City yesterday. I was really hungry when finishing up my post-tour tour, and knew it was a bit of a hike to my next stop.

But I'm not so sick that I can't give you a slide show of yesterday. I'll start working on the captions now. Let's call it a study break.

北京的肚子。

That's the Beijing Belly. People are dropping like flies (some are already getting better). I'm a little shaky myself. So our word for today, learned at the Forbidden City by reading the icons:

坐侧。 That's a sitting toilet. As opposed to the squat kind. I didn't have the heart to snap a photo. Besides, I had other things on my mind.

I also found myself in the awkward position of almost buying a sanitary napkin instead of TP. Fortunately I have the perfect expression down pat:　不好意思．(So embarrassed).

The last 3 days.

You know what they say about a thousand words.

Eating accidents.

Against my wishes, last night I had pizza made by a Norwegian New Yorker. It was only supposed to be a group of 5 or 6, but it turned into 15. I've noticed that we like to travel in packs. It makes us more than a bit conspicuous. I'm not sure why people are already craving western food: it's been less than a week. But I think that for many, this is their first time away. But revenge is mine: most everyone who drank soda (with ice) was feeling ill today. That's why I stick to the 啤酒 (beer).

And my rant about craving western things is a bit like the pot calling the kettle black, because I was happy to order a $6 Guiness. The leader of the pack refused to re-do her long division when I told her I had a 40RMB beer, so my share of the bill was 30RMB. Thanks for subsidizing my beverage everyone!

Strange things:

• I had my first experience in a restaurant with no pictures in the menu. As I wasn't particularly hungry, I ordered only one dish (the 服员 [fuyuan, or 'service person'] really don't like it when you do that). It turned out to be a plate of mushrooms and chili peppers. Spicy, not something I would usually order, but tasty nonetheless.
• Yes, the baby that hangs out by the watermelon stand does poop right in the alley.
• Tonight my classmate asked for the check and the 服员 brought us two pieces of carbon paper.

OK, must run. Have a great one.

Proof

I was accused of just downloading photos of Beijing from flickr and making up this elaborate story. So, here's a bit of proof:



It would be a pretty elaborate ruse for me to Photoshop that up, wouldn't it? Of course, oversize printing is becoming cheaper all the time, so here's more of a shot with some scenery:



It's a little fuzzy, so maybe I'm still not convincing you. But: that's my tutor Zhang Li, and she's proof that it's a good idea to write ahead to your site director if you are doing a study abroad. I wrote to introduce myself, and low and behold, I have a graduate student in library science as my tutor for 3 hours per week. From what I was able to gather from our 2+ hour conversation, she wants to be a public library reference librarian. I finally had to put a stop to it because I thought my head was going to explode. It was the most intense review session I've had for as long as I have been studying. All sorts of words got pried loose from my memory as I fought to explain myself. I'm totally speaking Chinglish so far, but I think I was getting my point across. To her credit, she pretty well refused to speak English with me except to define specific words. Although her cell phone dictionary let her down when she was trying to explain that there are many different breeds of ATMs to choose from. Although breed works pretty well to describe different brands, so in the end she was also getting her point across.

I have a big list of words and phrases I need to learn before Zhang Li and I meet next on Thursday, so I'm not going to give you a blow-by-blow of today. Instead, let's talk about food.

Today they threw an opening day banquet for us, which was pretty amazing. Just like a Russian party, the dishes kept coming out. We started with 5 or 6 colds dishes, including some pickled melon chunks (although I suppose it could have been sweet potato), a cold sliced fish, preserved tomatoes (I think), tripe, and cabbage. That was followed by a ham and broccoli dish, roast duck (it might have been chicken, because the beak wasn't very long, but I think it was duck because the wings were too big for a chicken. Now that I'm thinking about it though, it must have been a chicken, because ducks have bills, not beaks, right?), another fish (sans head, but with fins and tail), a plate of mushrooms and snowpeas, and probably a few other things I'm not remembering.

Then came a big pot of duck soup (unless it was a goose, because this time the bill was HUGE)
that had the whole thing swimming in it and it was surrounded by jiaozi) and a pile of fried rice. Yum-bo.

I still wasn't very hungry after my tutoring session, so I wandered a bit and decided it was time to stretch my limits. So I stopped in one of the places on the main street near the compound. No foreign students here: I was the only non-Chinese speaker in the place. AND: still they had a picture menu, so it must not be all that far off the beaten path. It's in the area I described the other day as being a bit Blade Runner. If I had gotten a wider view, you'd probably see more easily what I mean:



No air conditioning here, so most folks were sitting outside. It was still about 85F and muggy, so I don't blame them. I went inside, thinking it would be a little quieter, but the Beijingers are chatty folk so it was rather cacophonous. I was still stuffed from the banquet, so just ordered one dish and some rice. For the second or third time since I arrived, the 服务 (waitress) asked what I thought was 'Do you want that hot?' On Sunday I thought the person was warning me that it was spicy--but what I got wasn't spicy at all. What I'm starting to think is that I'm not ordering well, and that I'm ordering only foods that will raise my body temperature. A well balanced Chinese meal is supposed to have both warming and cooling foods. And from what I gather, neither of these categories has anything to do with the temperature at which the food is served nor its Scoville rating. So, I'm going to have to ask around.

Two more observations about dinner. First, it seems like it's perfectly polite to point at someone with your middle finger extended, palm facing down. It's a little bit like flipping someone off, but the gesture is completely different. Second, what they say is true: just spit out the bones / shells / seeds. Right onto the table. Tonight I even saw a grandma do it without even bending over. The students last night at least picked up their plates and sort of pulled the shrimp shells out of their mouths with their chopsticks. Not granny: she shot out that hunk of cartilege like it was a watermelon seed at a Moose Lodge Labor Day picnic.

再见。

The crew has arrived

Before we get started, I just have to say that yes, I really am in China:

And yes, people really like getting their pictures taken in front of the Great Helmsman. And only the white people smile. The Chinese mostly stand at attention and look serious.

Lots of students in the compound now. It's like the first day in the dorm. And now I can totally see what is really happening those first weeks of summer when there are packs of foreign students roaming around campus. It's just like that here, except now I'm on the other side.

Someone got an introduction to a Bei Da student, and she took us to the fancy dining hall. 11 of us ate with a lazy Susan for $50. And that was including a round of beer. I wasn't at all hungry, but went along (I had a late lunch of duck wings, corn cakes, and shrimp jiaozi). It seems like there's a pretty even split between partiers and studious folk. Someone borrowed my textbook to study for tomorrow's placement exam. A couple others just went out to see what those flashing lights are in the distance (it's a Blade Runner beer garden).

I had to switch rooms. That caused a little bit of confusion, but it's all worked out. My roommate is from U Delaware. He's a loud talker like I am, so it should all be good. Most of the people I went to dinner with tonight are more advanced speakers than I am. One was fluent in Cantonese. Others speak well, but can't read or write. Similar to the scene at UO. And then there's me, who can't speak, read, or write.

I'm running on battery since we're short on plugs now. So this might end soon.

I ate in the compound this morning with a group from Tacoma. They're here for 3 weeks. Breakfast buffet was $1.10. No eggs and bacon, but there was a cold sliced sausage that was a dead ringer for smoked kielbasa. Afterwards I practiced characters a bit then walked over to campus. There was nothing actually to do today, so I decided to learn how to use the subway. Went to the Capitol Mall, er, ... Tianamen Square and wandered a bit. Then came back the long way on the train. I had to stand the whole time, so couldn't get a good look out the window when we were aboveground. Well worth the time though.

OK, more on all this later. It's time to clear off the bed and practice a bit.

Caught in the rain.

I promise, there won't always be this much blogging. School hasn't started yet.

I got the interweb turned on in my room. It's about $1.20 per day. It took about 10 seconds to turn it on, so I'm thinking that if my roommate didn't bring a computer, I'll just pay for it on days when I need it. Really folks, you can't expect this level of attention every day.

My free flickr only allows 3 sets, so I attempted to blog today's photos inline. That was a pain, so I'm just going to make one big set for now. So click here to see today's photos. (hey rolodexter: keep your pants on. And who are you? blogspot won't come through here).


Well, that didn't work out either. Obviously folks can see these, because they've already been viewed by someone. But I can't see them to organize them. So I'm going with picasa instead. The only odd thing I found in the Picases setup was that I couldn't use my own GoogleID, I had to change it a bit.

So I had lunch back in the compound, had a bit of a rest, and decided that instead of heading to the Old Summer Palace, I would escape the heat of the day by doing a little shopping in air conditioned luxury. Besides, I was in desperate need of a map. So I headed to the Haidian shopping district, which is directly to the south of campus. There is a large bookstore, as well as a book dealer 'mall' of sorts. On the way I stopped by the 'Silicon Valley Computer Mall'
5 levels of stalls selling everything you could imagine--except software. Although someone outside was selling 'educational' copies of stuff. I didn't see the prices.

L: I can get you a Windows CE handheld with a keyboard for $50.

The bookstores were a hit. It was a pleasant trip. I rested for a bit afterwards with a 'coffee shake', studies my new maps, and then attempted to set off for home. Instead, I almost got caught in a violent thunderstorm and ducked into a restaurant that I had spied earlier
for an early dinner. I think the waitresses thought I was weird. A consequence of the hot day was that I just wasn't very hungry, so I didn't eat much.

So enjoy the photos. It's the beginning of another day. I have to make an appearance on campus today, but I think it's just to sign in. After that, I think I'm going to try to tackle public transportation and head to the Forbidden City and Tianemen Square.

They weren't kidding...

about the smog. Holy crap: it looks like it's about to thunderstorm, except it's sunny out.

Anyway, I'm in freakin' China! 36 hours ago I woke up at home, and now I just finished a rather long walk around town. I'm in the 'Study Coffee House', which for 18rmb is letting me drink coffee and use their wi-fi for as long as I want. That's just over $2.

So I've been walking around town for 3 hours. I woke up at 5am and didn't bother trying to go back to sleep. And breakfast at the hotel (which turns out to be the Post & Telecom Conference Center. No wonder there was a 电 in the name) wasn't till 7, so I thought I'd hit the road. According to the kiwi that I sat next to from Eugene to San Francisco, staying awake all day today is the key.

First observations: It's hot and sticky. Just like Chicago. It smells like some of the more fragrant parts of my hometown as well. Except everywhere. I can't imagine the air being worse in the winter when everyone's heating with coal. There's ice cubes in the glass that just got put in front of me--I'm hesitant to drink it. I think I'll stick with the coffee. I walked around a bit last night in search of a cold drink to take pills with. I walked about a mile, but wound up buying from the guy just outside my gate.

So: the trip. I was 4 hours late getting in due to a volcano erupting somewhere in Russia. So we were routed through Anchorage, which I guess allowed us to not fly over Chamkatka? I'm just guessing on that one. The kiwi was also on her way to Beijing. She works for the Holt adoption agency and is leading a tour of ethnic-Chinese adoptees. She was heading over a couple days early. So the across-the-water flight was a lot longer than it was supposed to be.

I did get a couple hours sleep, but tried to stay awake, as I knew it would be almost bed time by the time I got into town.

Airport was uneventful (and whoever warned about the 'chaos that is customs' was exagerating. It took all of 2 minutes), as was the cab ride, which cost about $15. Somehow I thought I was only paying for 1 night, but it's 2. I'm still trying to figure out how to say: "Will I have to move tomorrow morning?"

Oh, almost forgot: sneaky Google knows I'm in China. The whole blogger interface is in Chinese. I wonder how I change it back?

So the walk last night was most surreal. Very Blade Runner. Lots of small shops with plastic freezer strips hanging off the doorways. Open charcoal fires cooking meat on the sidewalk. Everyone was sitting outside on the 3 streets I walked down. My 'hotel' is actually in a hutong, and there are 4 or 5 places right inside of it to eat and drink, all of which are totally sketch. I can't wait to try.

So this morning, as I said, I woke too early to eat in so just started wandering. I promptly got turned around on the 北大 campus. I'm so glad I brought the compass. I then found my way to where I'm supposed to check in on Monday, which is right across from 6 tennis courts! (and since then, I've found a couple places to buy balls). From there, I went out the south gate and attempted to find the 'book mall' (海淀图书-something) I had the impression from the guide book that it was a well established place, so the bright shiny new high-rise mall that I found took me aback. It was at that point that I started getting hungry, but it was still before 7, and nothing was open. Besides: the only things that looked like they might open for breakfast were a McDonalds and a Starbucks.

I started moving east (that's when I figured out it was actually sunny) and realized that the whole area (海淀）that I was walking through is a just-getting-finished construction zone. There were already work crews out (I thought people here got Sundays off?) putting the finishing touches on all the sidewalks. By hand. On their hands and knees with rubber mallets and carrying bags of sand around. In the last few hours, I've seen more manual labor (including a crew of ten pushing a cart of rebar down the street) than I think I've ever seen in the States.

By this time I was starting to want to gnaw on my arm, and the street vendors were starting to appear. Crepes and fried-doughball sandwiches were on offer, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it for the very first meal here. Walking down Chengfu Lu (成府路), I finally found a restaurant open, and it was crowded. Lots of soup and hanbau being eaten. I walked by three times before I worked up the courage. There was no menu, no prices on the wall, and three seperate folks making stuff: I guy outside operating the fryer, a lady inside making hanbao and jiaozi, and one last lady ladling out the soup. She told me to sit, but when I couldn't tell her what I wanted she brought me up to the pots and uncovered each of three. One looked somewhat heartier, and I would call it a sort of congee (although I have no idea if that's what it's called here). Somehow the word for bowl came to me, so through some pointing and gesturing I wound up with an incredibly bland bowl of soup and some fried dough for breakfast. Maybe I should have had the crepe.

So I failed miserably at ordering my first meal here. But I did manage to ask 'how much' on my way out. Breakfast was all of 2 RMB, about $.25.

OK folks, don't get the idea that you're going to get this kind of detail everyday. The coffee is all-you-can-drink.

成府路 has 2 detailed areas in my guidebook, so I kept with it. The map is already out of date, as Microsoft and Tsinghua University (Google's a tenant too!) have built a research park over one of the intersections. But, the coffee house is still here. There's a bookshop down the block where I'm going to try to buy a better map once my battery runs down. And then I'll gradually make my way back toward home for lunch. In the late afternoon, I'm going to head toward the Summer Palace and try to see a bit more open space. 北大的 campus is filled with ponds and landscaping, but perhaps today I'll go for something a little bit more opulent and formal.

I'm sort of running out of things to say. So I think I'll sign off for now and see if this place has a 厕所.

Anticipatory post

I'm leaving in 36 hours. Back and forth between 'I can't believe I'm going,' to 'I'm totally not ready to go,' to 'get me the heck outta Dodge.'

As I made a similar complaint earlier today, someone said to me , "it won't sink in until you're standing in the customs line."

Random stuff:

• I've got the flickr up and going, but sometimes I send the wrong link. Damn sticky logins.
  
• My array of prescription drugs makes me look like a cancer patient. I'm healthy Mr. Customs official, really I am.
• Just how much gardening will I get done tomorrow?

And the big question: What am I going to forget to take?

My standard answer this week has become: "It doesn't matter, because there's a Wal-Mart a half mile from where I'll be staying."

The sad thing is: I'm not joking.

The un-graduates

Party weekend before leaving for China! Boy, those geographers are good people and the end of the year party was a blast. After missing it for my first two years in the department, I finally made it to one. On top of the 'official' party Friday, a whole pack of classmates came over last night to send me off and to observe the scattering of my cohort. I think we did very well: 5 out of 11 finished in two years.

So anyway, combine the geographers with neighbors and a gaggle of library folks, and we wound up with a yard full of folk. I'm feeling very well wished for my trip.

And with just 5 days until departure, it's really hitting home that I'm about to leave the country for a dang long time. Well, 2 1/2 months seems really long to me. I test-packed my bag this week and dragged it to the Y to see if I was overweight for the airplane (8 pounds to spare); I've got all the clothes I'm going to get (except for a jacket--L is encouraging me to get a space-age REI-type thing like she got a couple weeks ago. I don't want to spend the money); ArcMap is finally installed on the laptop (although the Asia base data really stinks); and an array of cables is laid out on the bed upstairs. I know there's going to be something forgotten. I just hope it's replaceable.

It's not quite all about the sauce.

The verdict is in. In response to the sauce experience, I'd say it's 50% sauce.

We bought unagi at the store and used the special sauce on it. It was far superior to anything we've made previously. YUM BO! One disappointing thing though: it didn't hold a candle to our recent Seattle experience. So: sauce 50%. Quality of eel 50%.

We did an additional side-by-side taste. We bought the cheapest and the most expensive frozen unagi at the store. L did the prep and I got to take the unagi challenge. Turns out I can taste the difference between $20 / pound unagi and $80 / pound unagi.

One remaining question: if the 'expensive' unagi still isn't as goos as what we had up north, how the hell much does the restaurant pay for theirs? And how can they only charge $3.50 per order?

A commenter asked about the second sauce. Yes, I made a balsamic reduction meat sauce a couple weeks ago to go over roasted polenta. The verdict on that one is that it's a keeper. It came from my 'home cooking' cookbook that I picked up years and years ago when I worked at Borders and was Rick Bayless' tender at a book talk one evening. The recipes have all been fantastic, and several have made it into regular rotation. I think I got my fat pasta from there. Garlic-leek soup and herbed foccaccia are definitely from there. I cut the amount of butter in this recipe by about 75% and the results were still fantastic. Again: YUM BO! Even after a week in the fridge and on a completely different dish, it was still delicious. My mouth is still watering.

Basically, it's 2 cups of vinegar, a half gallon of stock, and a bunch of butter.

Now that's a nice map

Just a quick note because I can't let this one go by. Sam the man passed this on to me, and it's another example of why, when someone you respect tells you to go look at something, you should go do it immediately instead of letting the link sit in your inbox for more than a month.

Presidential Campaign Donations via the New York Times