MaoLiu

This is Cathy and me with Mr. MaoLiu, the architect. How you really spell his name, I don't .know, but it sounds like Mario only with an l instead of an r. Mr. Liu lived many years in Japan although he is Chinese and is blending elements from both Chinese and Japanese philosophy into the construction of his fabulous home in the hills on the northern edge of Beijing.

Settling In at Last

The first thing I did after I realized the water problems in my apartment were over and I would be able to stay, was going over to Cathy's and get my wall hanging that I had bought at Yuanming Yuan, the Old Summer Palace. Here it is. It is a cut paper picture called "Going to Market". There are many of these for sale at inexpensive prices, but this one is much better quality than those. The paper is a high grade, almost velour and the quality of the fabric it is mounted on is also better. The walls here are made of extremely hard plaster but there already was a hanger in place over the TV that I never use, so there it hangs. You might ask why I never watch TV; there's only one English language station that broadcasts the same thing over and over again; eventually it's not worth it. Also, I never have time for TV. I do listen to MPR all the time which is a godsend. Since the doors on my closet kept falling off and hitting me on the head, the landlord installed the new ones seen here. They are pretty and make the apartment much nicerI've bought a few other things for t he apartment too, like the comforter for my bed, the large tea lights for Ikea, and the beautiful blown glass vase that I bought at the kwai store for 5 kwai because it has a hole in the side. I bought the ffake roses at

the Ikea. The Swedish Ivy I pinched off some plants one day and put them in a cut down plastic water bottle. One of these days they'll have roots.

We're Going to the Mountains!

Monday, October 27, 2008
The view from the top. Last Friday afternoon I stayed late at school to put the final touches on the Dewey Decimal System. Yes! The library is finally organized. No, we have no card catalog, not the old fashioned kind or the new-fangled computerized database, although that's coming, but we can go to the 590's and find butterflies, and we can go to the fiction and find Cleary! I was feeling pretty good about all this, when my cell phone rang. It was Cathy. Did I want to go hiking in the mountains with Janet and Victor tomorrow? They'd pick us up at 10. Of course, I did. How could I turn down an opportunity to get out of the city and see a different side of China. I had several plans for Saturday, but I'd just have to put them off until Sunday.
At 10 o'clock Saturday morning I meet Cathy out front with my little backpack and water bottle. "Is that all you're bringing?" she asks. "We're staying overnight." WOW! So, I dashed back and grabbed a few overnight things, although not enough as it turned out.
Janet is one of the administrative staff at Beanstalk Academy and her husband, Victor, is with Sun Microsystems. They are originally from Taiwan but have lived in the states for many years as well as Shanghai.We stayed at their country place which is between Xiang Tang Culture Village and Changping. Changping means Prosperity and Peace...auspicious name for a village. But at first I had no idea that we were spending the night any place. I had assumed we were going to a rental, so I was surprised when we arrived at the Jieh's beautiful county home. On our way there we stopped at a housing unit for the elderly and visited with a delightful woman who is 104 years old. Her eyesight and hearing were very good, she said, but sometimes she didn't sleep as well at night as she'd like. We ate at a small country-style "All you can eat" restaurant. The food was very good, mostly vegetarian but also thinly sliced liver and a beef or pork dish. That's Janet and Victor's house to the left. The village is well-known for it's orchards, especially apples, and we bought a couple dozen especially delicious ones to bring home. I hope to make something delicious like apple crisp with them, but my microwave went on the fritz. I'm getting another one from Bill. I've never made apple crisp in a microwave but I've spent a lot of time studying recipes on the internet and am convinced it can be done.

LiGuanXing

The rose at the mountains is PiaoLiang.

At least once a week I try to get a foot massage at Ozone and when I do I always ask for LiGuanXing. There are massage parlors all over the place here and most of them charge less, but my friends and I like it that we can do everything in one place. So I usually make an appointment for a foot massage when I arrive at Ozone, then I workout andshower. LiGuanXing is an excellent masseuse, as any one who who has been lucky enough to have him will tell you. His hands are large, the kind that are made for giving massages, and he loves his work. He doesn't just go through the motions; he finds the problem spots and gently but firmly works them out. But I really like him the best because we give each other language lessons. On a slow night last week I had a two hour foot massage/Chinese lesson while he got a 2 hour English lesson. His English has really improved and I've picked up quite a bit of Chinese that has come in handy. For example, "Where are you from?" Ni lai se nali? I really have no idea how to spell the lai se part, but I have the pronunciation down pat. I know most of the body parts and am getting pretty good at time of day, including greetings like Good Morning, Good Afternoon, and Good Evening.

So far, though, the best use I have made of my Foot Massage/Chinese Lesson is the following story. The past couple times I have gone for a foot massage, the people who work there have stood around me saying, Ni shi hen piao liang. I had no idea what they were saying but one of the women is studying English and she explained it this way. She said, "We think you are very beautiful." I figured I could make good use of that phrase so I took extra care to tuck it away in my memory. Sure enough, when we were at the mountains this weekend, Cathy and I came across a man who seemed to be a guard of some kind, although he wasn't wearing the ubiquitous uniform. He was hands down the most handsome man I have seen in the two months I've been here. Since we were waiting for the rest of our group and had nothing better to do, I asked him if he could speak English. Wo bu dong, he responded. He didn't understand. Well, then, he was fair game. We agreed he was extremely handsome. Wondered if he was married. We asked him what he was doing that night, etc. He really couldn't understand us. Then I remembered the phrase I had been saving for a special occasion. I walked up to him and said, Ni shi hen piao liang. He sputtered a few words including thank you and something about me...I recognized Ni. Cathy and I left him standing there red as a beet. She had no idea what I had said, which I explained to her was something like, "You are extremely handsome". The rest of the day I noticed Cathy frequently pointing at things and exclaiming, Piao liang, Piao liang.

Ms. Sue, Librarian

Last week Amanda Grady asked me to speak to her Grade 2 class about my job as a librarian. I was one of four guests. One of the student's father is an architect for a large firm here and brought large, beautiful computer generated pictures of building they have designed. That was interesting to me, of course. Students had brainstormed for days in advance and were armed with a list of questions worthy of the Today Show. They wanted to know what route I had taken to become a librarian. Did I have special training. Is my job mostly fun or not? What do I like best about my job, and so on. That one is easy...the kids are the best part. I think the kids are

Beanstalk are amazing. They make every day fun and exciting.

Big Grapefruit

It seems everyone at school is getting sick now, so I'm not surprised that I have the start of a cold. Actually, I was doing quite well until a little girl in ESL put her mouth right up to mine and breathed straight into my nose and mouth Wednesday. Then she started to cough and told me she was sick. Thanks a lot, Jenny. Did you have to love me so much? The library is very cold these day too and so is my apartment which doesn't help.

That's why I headed straight to the little grocery store, Sun Market, to buy some citrus fruit on my way home, and that's where I found the BIG GRAPEFRUIT. I've seen these before. In fact, I remember having one last year at Bill and Jeanny's. But I hadn't thought of them again until last week while shopping at Nik's Market at the Lido where a woman was buying one; she told me that it was the last one, very delicious, she said, so I was happy to see one in our little market. I paid $1.70 for it, which is really quite a lot, but less expensive and possibly more effective than vitamin C tablets. I also bought a bunch of mandarin oranges for $1 which is a pretty good deal.

Parade Day I Guess

There are three schools within a few minutes of my apartment. One is Beanstalk, where I teach. Right next to us is a new, very beautiful Montessori Kindergarten. The first day I was here, Bill and I stopped there and were invited in to see it. It was beyond anything I’ve ever seen and some day I want to go back a take a closer look at it. A couple days ago I ran into the young teacher who showed us around. She remembered me and was excited to see me again. Ditto.

The third school is what looks to me like a public Middle School, and it is the closest to Kandu, our apartment building. This morning I heard a sound that I’ve heard a few times before but couldn’t figure out. It sounded like hundreds of voices shouting in unison, and it seemed nearby but muffled by the apartment walls and windows. Then I realized that the sound was coming from the athletic field below me. It seemed to me that the entire school population had to be out there doing some kind of program...reminscent of the old regime...lots of slogan shouting, parading etc. This was around 7:15 in the morning. I grabbed my camera and took this picture. The red in the upper left is the Montessori school.

I Talk Pretty (Chinese) Somdeday

I'm amazed to be saying this, but the truth is I'm beginning to be able to communicate in Chinese a little bit. Today, for example, I said, Wo jiao, Susan. Ni jiao shenme? “My name is Susan. What's your name?” And I can easily say “Good Morning,” Zaoshanghao, every day when I get to school. But after work today I was actually able to exchange thoughts, three times! There is a fellow who parks outside the school every couple weeks and sells big plants potted in beautiful planters. I asked him, Zheige duoshao qian. "How much does this one cost." It was 120 kwai, about $17, and I'm sure I could have bought it for much less, but I wasn't ready to buy a plant today. Before I knew it he was pointed to another plant. I heard him say liang ge and from somewhere in the recesses of my brain I realized he was telling me I should “buy two"--probably get a better price. Wo bu yao mai NOW. I told him. "I don't want to buy now." not knowing the word for now was frustrating. Zaijian, I said. “Good-bye”.
But right in front of me sat a red Jeep Cherokee Sport, exactly like my little jeep back home, minus all the rust and holding together much better. In the Jeep sat a man who was busily working figures on a calculator. I couldn't resist this opportunity, so I stepped up to the jeep and tapped on its side. Wo you RED Jeep IN Meiguo. “I have a red jeep in the United States.” I said. He looked up at me and asked, Ni Maiguoren,ma? “You are American? " Dwei, I responded. And then, using my new vocabulary from Wednesday night, I added, Wo xi huan Jeeps. “I like Jeeps,” beaming and feeling a lot like I wanted to hug the Jeep. This brought a similar response from my new friend, Wo xi huan Jeep blah blah blah. . . I don't know what else he said, but it was evident we both shared an afinity for Jeeps. The Jeep in this picture is not the same one I saw today; it's newer and shinier. I took the picture in the same general location a few weeks ago.

Walking In the Sun

It was a beautiful week in Beijing; every day clear blue sky, mostly, as Garrison Keiller would say. I was amazed Tuesday night when I left Ozone by how warm the air temperature was. And even though I was walking in a city that is reported to be the size of the whole country of Belgium, it was quiet, and the air smelled like country air. It really felt more like a small town, and I suppose that it is in a way. Janice has a name for the Upper East Side, or maybe she doesn't, but she calls the area beyond our boundary China Town which pretty much says everything. We are in a little enclave surrounded by the real Beijing, especially when we go to Ozone, our home away from home. Sometimes it feels like walking in the sun.

But it's not just Ozone or Upper East Side that makes me feel that way. There are many good times, like tennis Wednesday night. Three of us from BIBS, Cathy and Xiao Hong from BBA, and You Qi, who is just plain addicted to tennis. The sun was shining too. After tennis we had a good time eating and talking at The Loaf here at Kandu.

Saturday Patty and I explored the bus routes some more, and I voted at the Bookworm at Sanlitun. Reuters Beijing was there taking pictures and they took a lot of pictures of me voting. I don't know what they did with them. This NBA sculpture is outside the new shopping mall at Sanlitun and is a popular photo op. Sunday was Jane's birthday. We bought a cake and had a party. We went back to the Kwai store, and I scored some more goodies, including a light socket that I plugged into an outlet in the kitchen, which easily makes the room twice as and bright. I had noticed a hardware store near the Kwai store and was hoping to buy a light bulb. The store is maybe 8 feet wide at the most, just enough room for two people to pass down the middle. I showed the owner my light socket, pointed at the empty socket and asked, Ni jou, mah? which I hoped was "Do you have?" He reached behind him an pulled out a box with a little bulb in it. I wondered how much light the bulb would give off, so I acted out "bright light" and he took the bulb out of the box, scewed it into the socket, plugged the socket into a power strip and turned it on. It was very bright. Duo shao jian ma? I asked which is something like how much. He held up 2 fingers--2 kwai. That's about a quarter. After Jane's party we went to Ozone where Jane and I each had a foot massage and Janice got cupped...yup, that's another story. I call it a combination foot massage/Chinese lesson with English tutoring thrown in too. It was a party in itself. It was definitely like walking in the sun.

I've seen enough bad times to know
when the good times have begun
O Lord - Even the blind man can tell
when he's walking in the sun.
I've been in Beijing nearly 8 weeks and have experienced highs and lows. Every day I've had to deal with water problems in my apartment; either I had no water or I had water where it shouldn't be. Every few days a new set of workers came and replaced my water meter, but nothing worked. Once a week my kitchen ceiling turned into a shower when the upstairs tenant washed clothes. Then the pipes under the kitchen sink started leaking all over the floor. One morning I sliced the tip of my thumb off while trying to stay out of the puddles. My closet doors either stuck or fell out on my head. The cupboard doors just fell off. I bought a screwdriver and pliers to fix them. My landlord started coming with his own work crew, trying to fix the problems. None of these people speak English and I don't speak Chinese. The people who do speak a little English don't speak it well enough to be much help/ Last Saturday the landloard came and "fixed" the leak, installed new closet doors, and plastered a wall which left plaster dust all over the place. The next morning the leak was worse than ever, in fact it was not longer a leak, it was a slow spray. That was the last straw. It was time to find a new apartment, and I did find several nice ones, but the landlord wanted one more chance to fix the leak, and this time he did it. I am thankfully enjoying trouble-free apartment dwelling for the first time since I arrived.
Things at school are looking up too. The new Chinese assistant started today, and Jenny is super. Jenny's first responsibility is to be the in-house substitute teacher so she won't always be available. Still, we will get the non-fiction cataloged this week and the Dewey in place. Next week I can start lessons. I'm still teaching ESL but I think that should be finished soon. Feels like I'm walking in the sun.

The Kwai Store

I had a little free time this past week so I went with Patty to the Kwai Store. What's a Kwai Store, you ask? It's like a dollar store with these exceptions. A kwai is worth a little over dime. The mercahndise is mostly in boxes on the floor or on shelves along the wall...warehouse style. And most of it isn't priced so you don't know what it will cost until you get to the check-out, which at our store is a little old man. But as Patty said, "I don't know what it costs, but I buy a lot of stuff and end up paying only a few dollars." So, I took all my purchases to the man-- a mat for the floor, some hand towels, a good salt shaker, a screw driver and needle-nose pliers, pencil holder, a recorder, some Bang Pai (band aids sounds like bonpie), and two clever little hangers for drying clothes...see picture. After we left, Patty pulled out her calculator. Everything cost me a total of $5.80. Not bad. Now, about the picture. Before we went to the Kwai Store, we stopped at Jane's. She has no place to hang her clothes after she washes, so there were panties hanging from every doorknob. When I saw these hangers, I had to buy one for her and one for me too. Jane DOES have a bike, which she keeps in her apartment; so she calls this her "Bicycle Clothes Dryer".

Wo xi huan da wanqiu

If I have it right Wo xi huan da wanqiu means I like to play tennis. It sounds something like, Whoa (as in Stop Horse !)...so, Whao she khwahn dah wonchway. But, of course, you have to know which tones to use while saying it. Flat, rising, dippy, or rising. That might not be possible. I learned how to say this and a few other new words, like jing maidan (check please) and da bao or dai zou (doggie bag) last night after tennis. Looks like our little group is solidifying, so I hope the weather holds up longer. Last night YouQi had the court before us and he stayed and played with us. We've decided he's addicted to tennis. Otherwise, the core group is Cathy, Janice, and XiaoHong. Michael showed up too. After tennis we had dinner at the little cafe here. The plan is to make Wednesday our regular tennis night and play for 2 hours. After that it seems there are several ideas what to do...eat for sure. YouQi said he'd teach us to play mah jong. Hmmm....mah jong.

Lanny and Bruce

October 16, 2008
What a beautiful day! Sunshine, no wind, and plenty of blue sky. I spent last Sunday with Lanny Jin and her son, Bruce. Lanny was our guide and interpreter last year, and we quickly learned to love her. She has degrees in English and International Business, and worked for China's Pollution Control Agency. The government sent her to Madison, WI, to study for a year. During that time she decided to get a nursing degree, and during that time she met and married Bruce's father. Lanny and Bruce returned to China when he was a baby and live with her mother and stepfather, and Bruce hasn't had much contact with his American family. Dave and I decided we could fill in as grandparents, and Bruce said he'd give us a try. If we passed the test, we were in, so I sent a picture of us, and we got the thumbs up right away.
So, Sunday I met my grandson. He threw his arms around me and held on tightly, calling, "Grandma, Grandma!" Just a little shock to me since I hadn't enough time to get used to the idea, but I recovered quickly.Bruce doesn't normally speak English, and at first he spoke mostly Chinese, but in a short while he became very intent on speaking only English. I was quite impressed. Of course, I got some Chinese lesson as well. We met at one of the two bus stops near my apartment, Dong Feng Qiao, which means East Wind Bridge, the we went to Ikea to eat and look around. It is only one bus stop from us. Lanny wanted Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes; Bruce wanted everything in sight, especially the desserts. I had a good salad. All the food was delicious.

After Ikea we went to an exhibit of artwork and letters produced by children who had survived the earthquake in Sichuan Province. Some of the pictures depicted life in the villages before the earthquake, but many showed their ideas for how to build structures that would survive earthquakes. One house was on flexible girders, an idea that is already in use. One house turned into a boat; other could lift off and hover above the ground.

The letters were the most touching. The children wrote about what they want to be when they grow up and their letters revealed how the experience had caused them to think more seriously about their future. Many letters described what happened to them. One child wrote that he was the only survivor from his entire class. He had painted a memorial to them. This picture shows the expression of gratitude; people all over the world heard of the earthquake and sent their help.What we can do together.

Chop Sue-eek!

Thursday October 9, 2008 Beijing

I sliced off a good chunk of my thumb this morning slicing tomatoes for my English breakfast. Sort a spoils my thumb print. I suppose I was in a hurry because I had been chatting with Dave and wanted to get to school early, plus it's a little dark in my kitchen, and I was trying to avoid the puddle on my floor. The puddle is from the sink that leaks and is supposed to get fixed on Saturday. I don't use the sink but it still leaks.

It's pretty bad, but as the old Norwegian said, "It could be worse." After examining the bit of flesh to decide if it could be salvaged, I threw it in the garbage with the tomato bits I didn't want. I had 4 band-aids left, having used the others when I cut my other thumb opening a can with a lousy can opener I had bought. (I tried to buy a can opener at a department store when I first arrived. I had 6 clerks surrounding me; drew pictures, good ones, but couldn't get them to recognize either a can or a can opener. Later, I went to the Chinese grocery store in the same building--there were no cans.)

I put the bandaids on as tightly as I could, then wadded up a kleenex to soak up the blood and rigged up a pressure bandage with some "string" I had brought from the library. I finished my breakfast, chatted with Dave a bit more, mostly about the thumb, and headed off to school. I went straight to the nurse. When she removed the bandage and the pressure came off, the bleeding started in earnest. She sterilized it and put powder on to stop the bleeding, but it wouldn't stop. She wanted me to go to the hospital but when she stepped out of the room for a minute I rigged up another pressure bandage which slowed the blood flow again. I didn't think it would be good to undo all the good work that had been done, so I went back to my apartment, elevated it and called Dave. I asked him to check with the Aitkin ER to find out what else I should do. Fortunately the ER doctor was not busy and he said to add ice, but otherwise I had done everything right. He added that the powder would continue to work for a few hours, but if it didn't stop bleeding by then I should go to the hospital for epinephrine and/or cauterization. I took a pain pill and fell asleep; when I woke up the bleeding had stopped.

Golden Week End

One of the reasons I wanted to go to Bill's was to buy some pottery at Enchantment. They were having a moving sale and everything was on sale at 50% off. It was inexpensive to begin with. I bought the 2 sets above, 21 pieces in all, for $32.

Saturday morning I started out for Bill's house in ShunYi, planning to take the 9:50 shuttle bus to River Gardens from the Holiday Inn Lido. I confirmed with the concierge that the bus would arrive at 9:50, but at 9:40 a different bus pulled in and both the concierge and the bus driver insisted I should take that bus. I didn't want to do it and even got off the bus, but the concierge brought out a schedule and showed me that there wouldn't be another bus until 3:20 that afternoon. I really didn't believe this, but I decided to make it into an excursion. This bus would follow the same route we took every day last fall and it would be interesting to see where I was in relation to those things.

One of the the things I saw was that the old, interesting facade of the Chaoyang Acrobats Theatre had been replaced by a lifeless, institutional sandstone. Too bad. After dropping passengers off at China World we sat for five minutes then headed back to the Lido. Along the way we passed a very long stretch limo trying to maneuver its way along the crowded Beijing streets. The bus driver was quite impressed. The limo was carrying a bridal party. The driver, in deference to his American passenger, I believe, switched the radio station to Bah Bah Qi (88.7). What a relief to hear programming that was enitirely in English. This was a discovery worth the price, which was mostly my time, because I rode into the CBD (Central Business District) and all the way out to Bill's which was up until not long ago considered the country for 10 kwai...less than a dollar fifty, and I was the only passenger all the way from China World to Bill's house.

The shuttlebus arrived back at the Holiday Inn, and there stood the concierge in his red uniform and cap, smiling and waving; he even saluted me. He looked as if he was feeling very happy to have helped me in such a big way. I bet he never realized that the bus that arrived 5 minutes after he sent me in the wrong direction was the bus I really wanted to take.

Golden Week Friday

Today was a beautiful day and Patty is a good person to tour with. She is able to go and go and not tire. She knows that if you want to really see things you have to be walking and ready to experience what comes along. First we met Lanny, at Jingkelong, the supermarket/mall not far from here, and Lanny explained some of the Chinese labeling to us; next time we shop we'll be able to make informed decisions--like how hot and spicy those noodles are! I had asked Lanny to study the bus and subway routes to help us learn what we needed to know to be able to get to the subway and other places quickly and easily.

Then we took a bus to the Liangmaqiao subway station and took a train to a stop near Hohai. When we got there we learned that one of the buses that we can catch at our stop here goes all the way to Houhai, so we came home on the bus. Also when we arrived at the Houhai area we were able to purchase a bus/subway pass which will let us travel and travel and travel for just pennies. So, opposed to spending 10-25 rmb/taxi trip, we can spend a quarter or less. Yeah!

We enjoyed walking around Houhai Shichahai...we were there last year...followed some of the same routes but didn't get into the Prince Gong area. It was really interesting though and I continued to pick up language that I can use right away. We came upon a History of Porcelain in China exhibit where we saw many beautiful authentic pieces and hundreds of exact replicas which were for sale (not the originals). We saw work by a Chinese woman whose given name is Shu Zhen which sounds a lot like Susan...so we decided this was a better name for me. Shu means elegant, graceful, well behaved, and very nice (genial). Zhen means valuable, precious. So I guess I can be Bai Shu Zhen which is a lot easier to say than that other name.

Yesterday when we were at Yuanming Yuan I bought a cut paper scroll picture mounted on silk brocade. I paid $28 for it. Today I saw similar ones that I could have purchased for much less. These did not appear to be of the same high quality, but I may be wrong. We walked down the same street that we walked down last year where you saw the chairs and the laundry hanging, they call it Smoking Pipe Street. Last year it was in very bad repair. It has been restored to a much better state but retains the authentic appearance. To my surprise, I came across a real Belgian Chocolatier, so I bought a rum ball, a ganache and a truffle; they were small but excellent. See: http://en.beijing2008.cn/news/olympiccities/beijing/reconstruction/s214239667/n214256395.shtml

We came out at the Drum and Bell Tower. The Drum Tower has been closed since Mr. Bachman was killed, and there is no word on how long it will remain closed, but we went over and looked at them from the outside. Lanny left us alone for a few minutes and suddenly we were fair game for the vendors that work the area. A man tried to sell me some small satin bags, but I told him in Chinese that I already had one, he said, Ni yuo, ma? which means You have? Then he ran off and came back with something that maybe I didn't have. So, I learned that if you add ma to the end of a sentence, it becomes a question.
Next, we walked up to Beihai Park. Hai means sea...So Bei (north) Hai means North Sea. Shichahai is on the south side and means 10 Temples Sea. I guess Houhai means some sea too. It was a major port in old days. There was a waterway all the way from Beijing to Hongzhou which is quite a long distance to the south of here. Beihai park is where the White Dagoba is located and was a nearby summer retreat for the emperors for centuries. It is certainly one of the most beautiful spots in all of Beijing, which I guess really is a big as the entire country of Belgium (Beijing, that is). Here is a picture or the White Dagoba...apparently it was built upon the site where Kublai Kahn had a palace in the 12th century.



We decided to return to Houhai to rent a boat and eat dinner. It turned out that the wait for boats was a little longer than we wanted to endure, so we decided to come back when it isn't Golden Week. But we did go to a Vietnamese restaurant that one of the teachers had told me about, Nuage, which means cloud in French, and the Chinese characters mean heavenly cloud. The architecture and ambience were great and so was the food. I had spicy lemongrass chicken, but we all shared the food and brought home leftovers. This is where we ate...overlooking Shichahai.

Golden Week Wednesday

Golden Week Thursday

Thursday, October 2, 2008 Golden Week





Thursday of Golden Week, Cathy and I met Lanny at the Grand Continental Hotel in NW Beijing, near the Olympic Bird's Nest and took a taxi to Yuanming Yuan, the Old Summer Palace, not far from the New Summer Palace. Dave and I had visited Yuanming Yuan last October when we saw maybe 4 or 5 dozen people on the huge estate. This day the place was crowded and the crowds continued to grow as the morning progressed. The history here is very interesting. The two statues welcoming us at the front gate are holding replicas of ancient coins. The beautiful lotus is oneof thousands that fill the fountain where statues of the 12 animals representing the Chinese Zodiac. This is the Year of the Rat, and more specifically, the Water Rat, which I am; hence, the picture of the rat. The giant lily pads are called Victoria Amazonica; Cathy says the are found in Lake Victoria. Finally, the beautiful fish coming for bread crumbs thrown by a little boy.

The palace was used by the emperors from the 1700's onward until it was looted and destroyed by the British and the French in 1860. The ruins were further damaged in 1900. I recommend that you look at these websites to learn more about it--also Victor Hugo's response http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Summer_Palace#cite_note-11 http://www.kinabaloo.com/yuanmingyuan.html
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1310/is_1985_Nov/ai_4003606

These guys wanted their photo taken with the

white girl. I wanted mine taken with the lion.

798 Art Zone

In the afternoon Lanny and I went to 798 Art Zone where we ate at the same place we ate last year and enjoyed the art. The 2008 Beijing 798 Arts Festival had just opened a couple days earlier. I found the same cafe where we had such delicious pumpkins basil soup last year and ordered a bowl. The same waiter who was there last year waited on us. I said, "I have your picture." Lanny translated, and he said he remembered me. Here are a few pictures that I took. More at: http://en.ce.cn/National/culture/200810/01/t20081001_16966747.shtml and a video at http://en.artintern.net/index.php/video/main/html/3/49

That's Lanny posing. She had to do all the things like work in a factory and on a farm, etc.

I walked all the way home from 798...turned on Fang Yuan Xi Lu and walked to Jiang Tai Lu (there is a Jenny Lou's there). I wasn't sure how long a walk it would turn out to be because the taxi ride had taken quite a while during rush hour traffic, but actually wasn't bad. I bought a few groceries including Land O' Lakes sharp cheddar and my favorite block feta. Then stopped at the Lido and looked around. I found some good quality hamburger at the little deli there and a cool Thai restaurant where you take off your shoes and sit on cushions; the prices are good too. When I was leaving I ran into Alicia, her mom, and Bella, the baby who had her diaper changed on the Great Wall. They were on their way to some famous mountain near Hong Kong...Guilin...or something like that.

Water, Water

The water story is no longer a story, it's a saga that has almost sent me packing more than once. Sometimes I thought I might pack and move to another apartment other times I was thinking more about going home. I'd like to say it's resolved but that would be premature and too optimistic. Here in Beijing, and I suppose in much of China, apartments have water meters. You have to go to the bank to buy water which is put on a water card. Then you bring it home and feed the meters-hot, cold, and recycled.
My landlord put water in my meters before I moved in, but by the end of the first week it was gone. There was water on my meter when I moved into this apartment, but I ran out of water within a week. So, the worker man came and I bought 17 tons from him. A couple days later all 17 tons were gone. So I bought 200 tons which I have since learned should be enough to last a year...certainly it is enough to fill a swimming pool. Not long afterward I had no water again even though I had been taking most of my showers at Ozone and washing my clothes at Bill's. So washing my face in the morning and washing a few dishes used up over 250 tons of water?

Shopping

Tennis

Saturday and Sunday we finally got to play tennis. Janice had borrowed a racket from school and we went with Cathy to Sunny Day Market to buy a cheap one. I had bought balls at Vangard. Cathy and Janice hadn't played much tennis, but they are both athletic and enthusiastic. It was a bit of a surprise when I took the balls out of the can to find that they were more like toys. I decide we'd give them to the dogs to play with when we finished. After about 20 minutes You Qi showed up. He and a friend had reserved the courts after us, but he had arrived early and offered to play so we'd have a foursome. That turned out to be great. He is really good, but he was very happy to play at our level. His skill and attitude made it much more fun for us, and since we had rented the court for Sunday morning we asked if he wanted to come. He had reserved the court right after us and was glad to come.

We didn't get to play tennis again until Wednesday, October 8th.

Product Safety

Speaking of the safety of Chinese products, the other day when I was at Jenny Lu’s getting groceries, a TV van pulled up and a reporter and cameraman jumped out. They knew that many foreigners shopped at Jenny Lu’s and were there to interview customers about the impression back home of the safety of Chinese products. Right away they came over to me started asking questions. I said that people back in the States were quite concerned about anything made in China that might go in their mouths, and that my doctor, who is Chinese, had told me not to take pills made in China. I also said that I thought the government here was making an effort to regulate product manufacture in the future. I wonder if the baby formula problem is a sign of improved regulation or no regulation.

Jolly

Jolly is my Personal Fitness Trainer...don't laugh...even if her name is Jolly. One of the great things about Ozone, compared to most other gyms, is that many of the staff are either native English speakers or can speak English well enough to make the experience seem a lot like home. If there is a problem, you can actually find someone who understands and can help. Jolly is one of those who speaks English well. She is a level one trainer; if I'm not level 0, then I guess I'd be level one.

Ozone provides 2 free fitness sessions with membership, so Jolly was right there to ask me when I wanted to start my sessions. But first she needed to take my personal fitness history and measure my body fat. Right! The history wasn't too painful, but the body fat was an exercise in psychological torture. I really needed a sense of humor, so it was a good thing Jolly was jolly. She took out her little calipher and grabbed some loose flesh on the back of my arm; I'm sure it has a name other than flab, but I don't recall what it is. The brain cells that handle that information have been dormant too long, just like the muscle cells that used to reside in the floppy blob she was holding in her hand. While she easily latched on to a good-sized handful, she said to me, "Most women don't have any fat back here." Thanks a lot, Jolly. After that she managed to remain quite detached until she got to my waist. Placing the measuring tape around my middle, she couldn't manage to stiffle a small gasp. "Is it that bad?" I asked. "No, no, not so bad", she lied, as she wrote the amazing number on her chart. When that ordeal was finished, I stepped on the scale, and to my pleasure and amazement I had lost 6 pounds. One small victory. Am I ever glad I didn't do this 3 weeks ago when I first arrived!

My first real training session with Jolly was last Monday, September 29. She took me through all the machines that should help firm up the jelly-like features of my body, which just about covered all the machines that exist. Most of them were easy, but the stair climber defintely needs work. She put it down to the easiest level and I could still barely manage it. Jolly promises that in 3 months I will notice a difference in the body tone...it's a goal I hope to reach.

An after thought...The best thing about my first workout session was the 2 hour massage that followed it...one hour foot, one hour body. The foot massage was exquisite. The masseuse found the scar tissue from planters fasciitis in my left foot and really did a great job on it. He could have gone a little easier on my neck and shoulders which really hurt for the next few days.

Ozone

Ozone Fitness located in the HG Andersen complex in the Upper East Side , the angled windows in the center, second story. One of the first things I did once I got settled was find the nearest fitness center. It turns out that Ozone Fitness is a world class gym run by Peter Gonzales, an American who has gone out of his way to make it a super environment for ex-pats in the area. Through him, I was able to arrange a corporate membership for the teachers at Beanstalk. We joined Friday, September 26, the day we got paid. Saturday Peter had arranged Mexican Night, and several of us enjoyed the special food and music. I learned that I can get authentic locally made corn tortillas at Garibaldi's in the Mexican Embassy http://www.garibaldibj.com/. Apparently this fiesta was just a preview of what is to come October 18th which should be even bigger and better.

Ozone is only a few minutes walk from the school and our apartment and has been a life saver for me; it keeps me sane as well as helps me get fit. Before I got internet and MPR, Ozone was my source for news, primarily CNN which broadcasts from London.I usually hop on the treadmill, put on my ear nubs, find CNN and go for 30-40 minutes.

As it turns out, Ozone provides not only hot showers after work outs and swimming, but also a sense of normalcy and dependability. Taking a shower at the apartment means a lot of extra work because the shower area is also the bathroom; there is no enclosure so the water runs all over the floor. This makes cleaning the bathroom after the shower a time-consuming process and a fair amount of work, and since the water situation at my apartment is basically a disaster, I take most of my showers at Ozone where I can really relax and appreciate both the physical and psychlogocical benefit of a good hot shower.

Little Things...Like Computers

Little things can be big things here...like computers; everything is in Chinese. I have to go by instinct (where was Format Columns on the English version of WORD, for example?) And who would ever have thought there would be no such thing as ALIGN TEXT LEFT in China? Hey, it looks pretty funny aligned right. The best alternative is justified, like newspaper text...spread evenly across the line so left and right borders are even. Then there's the big surprise when everything you have just typed turns mysteriously into Chinese characters. It took me a few days to solve that one. There is a little CH in the task bar at the bottom of the screen; click it and change it to EN. These might not seem like a big deal, but when it takes 3 days to figure out how to type a short note, and then multiply that by dozens of similar challenges, you can imagine that even the most patient person could start to have a meltdown.

Yesterday I was chatting with Dave on Messenger when I suddenly couldn't type any more. I mean, I could type, but all that showed up were a few Chinese characters; then everything froze. I had to call him and tell him that I hadn't just left him in mid-sentence. It was wierd and we both started to wonder if the censors had spotted us. Just then, Jane came over, and she knew the keyboard command to force the computer to go back to English. How fortunate.

Ever try to login to a website in Chinese? Which one of those little pictures says LOGIN? Or English, for that matter? That's a picture I need to memorize if I ever learn it. The database we use is all in Chinese too, of course. I've memorized check-in and check-out. The other day I learned the message for This book is already checked out. Most of the time though I don't need to read Chinese to use the circulation database. Since no further information was entered when the books were barcoded, there is no further information to access. Actually, ISBN numbers are there, but cannot be searched.

TV too, is all in Chinese, and radio programs. The one English language TV station offers very little and rebroadcasts the same program day after day. It could really do us a service by spending 15 minutes a half dozens or so times a day giving the weather report. There can't be anything politically offensive about that. You can get satellite TV that brings in a few more stations, like CNN from London, HBO, Discovery and National Geographic. Some people point their satellite toward the Phillipines and get a lot more. There is one bilingual radio station that I can now listen to since I got a used stereo radio, DC/tape player. I connected that to the internet that I just got...so now I listen to MPR. Just like at home! It's all I need. Although sometimes I listen to P4.no from Oslo or Radio France from Paris. C'est la vie!