Yesterday when we were on our way to one of our usual lunch restaurants, we passed by a new western restaurant, and the woman outside handed us menus. The front of the menu says in large print "WALK TIME" and underneath in small print "Please.flower me". We spend a good portion of our lunch drooling over the menu, as we've had western food maybe once or twice since we've been here, and making fun of the English translations. The most interesting thing about the translations is that they don't ever stick to one spelling. Here are a few examples: "spughetti, spaghetti, spayhetti", "sandwick, sandwith, sandwich", "friedrice, friderice, froderoce". By the end of the meal, we decided that we had to go to this place for lunch the next day (today), and we even got an okay from our three Chinese coworkers we always eat with (their English names are Apple, Kitty, and Tweety).
Nathan and I spent a good portion of the morning discussing what it was we wanted to order for lunch, since we had the menu, and being excited about eating western food with our coworkers. We clearly walked ahead of our coworkers on the way there, and when we got to the restaurant, they kinda gave us a weird look, but then followed us in. We had of course by this time decided exactly what it was we wanted to eat, but the three of them sat there flipping through the menu for a good 15 minutes, seemingly quite confused as to what they should order. Mind you all three of these coworkers generally eat kung pao chicken for lunch almost every day. After having a bunch of conversations with the waitress and each other they finally ordered, though Nathan and I could tell they weren't so happy. A minute later, the waitress brought out small plates, forks, knives, and spoons. Tweety picked up the fork with a look of confusion, clearly thinking "I don't know how to use this!". Nathan and I did some demonstrations and at the same time got really excited to see her attempts to use a fork.
My salad showed up first, and I was ecstatic. I hadn't had a salad or even anything salad-like since I'd been here. I ate it pretty quickly all the while my coworkers stared at me using my fork so fluidly. Tweety's beef with rice showed up (very adventurous choice I know), and her immediate reaction was "panzi hen da!!" (the plate is so big!!) Now she was actually referring to the plate itself, as plates in China are generally not larger than 6 or 7 inches in diameter. She started attempting to eat with a fork, but was having a really hard time with the concept of stabbing the pieces of meat. Nathan helped her out a bit, but meanwhile we were both holding ourselves back from laughing hysterically. Our (Nathan and my) pasta dishes showed up and we started eating as well.
It was now 1pm, and our lunch break is only from 12:30-1:30. Apple looks at her phone for the time and immediately yells to the waitress to hurry up because we need to go back to work. This recurrs probably 4 or 5 times before they get their food. Apple ordered some chicken wings and split a tuna sandwich with Tweety, and Kitty ordered a pasta dish with seafood. The entire meal was entertaining just watching them figure out how to deal with forks and hands (for the sandwich). Tweety ended up eating it with a fork because she couldn't deal with it with her hands.
When we finished eating, we asked our coworkers what they thought, and they were like American food is just sandwiches and pasta, and they went on about how Chinese food has so many more options for dishes, so they like it a lot better. We of course countered this with the fact that there are a ton of options for food in the US (not to mention the fact that they still eat the same thing for lunch every day) and that Americans feel the same way about Chinese food. By the time we paid, it was 1:32pm, and the three of them ran in front of us (yes...ran) to get back to the office. Of course, we were in no rush seeing as we have no real work to do at the office...
I think for our last three days of work, we'll stick with Chinese food so as not to overwhelm our coworkers.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Hua Kai Hotel
I've talked somewhat about my hotel in earlier entries like when I first arrived here, but I'm going to start from the beginning, mainly for the flow of the story:
The Hua Kai Hotel is in the Dongcheng district on a hutong, right off of Nanluogu xiang, which is a well-known bar street, with all the buildings in old Chinese style. The location is great, about a 5-minute walk from Houhai and Beihai Park, however, the hotel itself is another story...
When I first arrived at the Hua Kai, I was put in a room at the end of the fourth floor. Within 10 minutes, I discovered that the toilet was broken, and the hotel staff, which consists of two young-ish girls and the owner (Lao Li), told me I could pick any room on the floor. They started opening doors and showing me different rooms. At this point, I just wanted to put my stuff down, so I chose the room next door.
Let me pause here and give you a general description of the rooms in our hotel: Every room consists of minimum 2 beds, a desk, some cabinets, a closet, a coffee table with two chairs, a small water cooler with hot and warm water, and a bathroom with sink, toilet, and tub/shower. Beyond those common items, there are very few other similarities. The rooms on the right sides of the hallways are smaller, and generally have a green-ish bowl sink, whereas the ones on the left sides have an entire black marble counter with an inset grundgy tan (maybe it used to be white) sink. Some of the larger rooms have 3 beds, and one of them even has one huge (like bigger than king-size) bed and then one twin. The AC also varies from room to room, some with individual units and some with somewhat central-air that is controlled by the floor, not to mention the fact that the functionality of both types is sporadic.
Within a couple of days in my new room, I realized that the window wouldn't close all the way, the water heater for the shower constantly got unplugged, and there was no curtain on the shower (this was the case in everyone's room). After someone complained, a curtain appeared on my shower, and I managed to get the window fixed, but not the outlet for the water heater. I found myself standing on the toilet (it was plugged into the ceiling) fixing the plug about twice a week. There were also three light switches in the room, one of which turned on all the lights (bathroom and main room), one of which turned on the fan in the bathroom, and one of which did nothing. This made it extremely frustrating to pee in the middle of the night.
As far as sanitation goes, it doesn't really exist in the Hua Kai. Our program director told us we were supposed to have our rooms cleaned every day and sheets changed once a week. The first week or two, they were pretty good about emptying the garbage and taking the dirty towels (but not giving us clean ones), but then it slowed down. They will also come into the room while you're sleeping on weekends and just do such things without even recognizing your presence. Anytime you need anything, you need to go downstairs and ask. This includes: toilet paper, new sheets, new water, towels, a broom to sweep your room (I'm sure none of you are surprised I would ask for this), etc...
Since we've been here, the hotel staff has set up a convenience store in the lobby, which is relatively convenient (duh!). It sells cold drinks including 3 kuai beers, bowls of instant noodles, cigarettes, sanitary napkins, condoms, etc...
Onto the hotel staff: The two women who work in the hotel most definitely live there 24/7. One of them sleeps on the bench in the lobby every night, and I'm not sure where the other sleeps. I'm assuming the owner, Lao Li, lives elsewhere since he's usually not around at night. A new woman started working there a few weeks ago who wears dresses all the time and looks a lot less rugged than the other two. The other two also got into some sort of catfight last week, and are both covered in scratches and bruises on their faces and arms. It's kind of absurd, and we've all been somewhat scared of them since.
About the other people in the hotel: The second floor of our hotel we're all pretty sure is some sort of brothel/KTV (karaoke television). We all pretty much avoid it by taking the elevator, but noises from there definitely float up to the third floor. Additionally, there are a bunch of Chinese drama students who live in the hotel. One of them in particular is probably the most dramatic and rude person I've ever met. She borrows people's phones and laptops all the time, and will use them for hours without getting up. She had 2000 kuai stolen from her room at one point and accused one of the guys on our program who ended up getting taken to Chinese jail and questioned for a couple of hours (luckily he's Chinese and speaks fluently). She has also on two occasions had extended screaming/crying phone conversations, the first of which was at 5pm, and the second on which woke us all up at 3am.
This past Monday morning, at 9:30am, I was on skype with my parents when the power went out. I went out into the hall and in my best Chinglish asked when it was coming back on. I was told to wait a little bit, and then about 15 minutes later, the woman comes back to my room, wakes up my roommate, and informs us that we need to move upstairs because there's no power on the fourth floor. When do we need to move? RIGHT NOW!! It's 9:30 in the morning, and we'd lived in this room for 6 weeks! She then reasoned with us and said we could move at 10 or 11, but she wouldn't give me the key to the new room. After packing all of our stuff up (luckily Callie and I are pretty organized), we moved it all upstairs, and then I managed to explain that the hotel woman had to give me the key to our new room before I gave her back the old key. She finally gave in...
Our new room is on the opposite side of the hall, so it has the different bathroom, and we now have three beds. It also has the central air, but it's worked out so far (the two nights we've been there that is). Our group now is awkwardly split between the 5th and 3rd floors with four people still on the 4th floor (somehow they didn't have to move). My stuff is still somewhat in suitcases, but I guess I'll be a bit more organized when I leave in three weeks now...
The Hua Kai Hotel is in the Dongcheng district on a hutong, right off of Nanluogu xiang, which is a well-known bar street, with all the buildings in old Chinese style. The location is great, about a 5-minute walk from Houhai and Beihai Park, however, the hotel itself is another story...
When I first arrived at the Hua Kai, I was put in a room at the end of the fourth floor. Within 10 minutes, I discovered that the toilet was broken, and the hotel staff, which consists of two young-ish girls and the owner (Lao Li), told me I could pick any room on the floor. They started opening doors and showing me different rooms. At this point, I just wanted to put my stuff down, so I chose the room next door.
Let me pause here and give you a general description of the rooms in our hotel: Every room consists of minimum 2 beds, a desk, some cabinets, a closet, a coffee table with two chairs, a small water cooler with hot and warm water, and a bathroom with sink, toilet, and tub/shower. Beyond those common items, there are very few other similarities. The rooms on the right sides of the hallways are smaller, and generally have a green-ish bowl sink, whereas the ones on the left sides have an entire black marble counter with an inset grundgy tan (maybe it used to be white) sink. Some of the larger rooms have 3 beds, and one of them even has one huge (like bigger than king-size) bed and then one twin. The AC also varies from room to room, some with individual units and some with somewhat central-air that is controlled by the floor, not to mention the fact that the functionality of both types is sporadic.
Within a couple of days in my new room, I realized that the window wouldn't close all the way, the water heater for the shower constantly got unplugged, and there was no curtain on the shower (this was the case in everyone's room). After someone complained, a curtain appeared on my shower, and I managed to get the window fixed, but not the outlet for the water heater. I found myself standing on the toilet (it was plugged into the ceiling) fixing the plug about twice a week. There were also three light switches in the room, one of which turned on all the lights (bathroom and main room), one of which turned on the fan in the bathroom, and one of which did nothing. This made it extremely frustrating to pee in the middle of the night.
As far as sanitation goes, it doesn't really exist in the Hua Kai. Our program director told us we were supposed to have our rooms cleaned every day and sheets changed once a week. The first week or two, they were pretty good about emptying the garbage and taking the dirty towels (but not giving us clean ones), but then it slowed down. They will also come into the room while you're sleeping on weekends and just do such things without even recognizing your presence. Anytime you need anything, you need to go downstairs and ask. This includes: toilet paper, new sheets, new water, towels, a broom to sweep your room (I'm sure none of you are surprised I would ask for this), etc...
Since we've been here, the hotel staff has set up a convenience store in the lobby, which is relatively convenient (duh!). It sells cold drinks including 3 kuai beers, bowls of instant noodles, cigarettes, sanitary napkins, condoms, etc...
Onto the hotel staff: The two women who work in the hotel most definitely live there 24/7. One of them sleeps on the bench in the lobby every night, and I'm not sure where the other sleeps. I'm assuming the owner, Lao Li, lives elsewhere since he's usually not around at night. A new woman started working there a few weeks ago who wears dresses all the time and looks a lot less rugged than the other two. The other two also got into some sort of catfight last week, and are both covered in scratches and bruises on their faces and arms. It's kind of absurd, and we've all been somewhat scared of them since.
About the other people in the hotel: The second floor of our hotel we're all pretty sure is some sort of brothel/KTV (karaoke television). We all pretty much avoid it by taking the elevator, but noises from there definitely float up to the third floor. Additionally, there are a bunch of Chinese drama students who live in the hotel. One of them in particular is probably the most dramatic and rude person I've ever met. She borrows people's phones and laptops all the time, and will use them for hours without getting up. She had 2000 kuai stolen from her room at one point and accused one of the guys on our program who ended up getting taken to Chinese jail and questioned for a couple of hours (luckily he's Chinese and speaks fluently). She has also on two occasions had extended screaming/crying phone conversations, the first of which was at 5pm, and the second on which woke us all up at 3am.
This past Monday morning, at 9:30am, I was on skype with my parents when the power went out. I went out into the hall and in my best Chinglish asked when it was coming back on. I was told to wait a little bit, and then about 15 minutes later, the woman comes back to my room, wakes up my roommate, and informs us that we need to move upstairs because there's no power on the fourth floor. When do we need to move? RIGHT NOW!! It's 9:30 in the morning, and we'd lived in this room for 6 weeks! She then reasoned with us and said we could move at 10 or 11, but she wouldn't give me the key to the new room. After packing all of our stuff up (luckily Callie and I are pretty organized), we moved it all upstairs, and then I managed to explain that the hotel woman had to give me the key to our new room before I gave her back the old key. She finally gave in...
Our new room is on the opposite side of the hall, so it has the different bathroom, and we now have three beds. It also has the central air, but it's worked out so far (the two nights we've been there that is). Our group now is awkwardly split between the 5th and 3rd floors with four people still on the 4th floor (somehow they didn't have to move). My stuff is still somewhat in suitcases, but I guess I'll be a bit more organized when I leave in three weeks now...
Saturday, July 26, 2008
A Better View Out My Window
Kevin and I figured out that we could open the window and stick our hands out with the camera in order to get a non-reflecting picture, so here it is! This setup is generally how a family in this area lives. There is an entrance in front as follows (the red door on the right):
Each family member then lives in one of the rooms off the courtyard. There is a specific layout as to where the parents, grandparents, and kids are, but I don't remember it now. Interesting insight into Chinese culture...
Friday, July 25, 2008
Olympics Tickets
I have to start this entry with: OMG I'M GOING TO THE OLYMPICS!!!!!! That's right...aren't you all jealous...
Beijing announced on Tuesday that the fourth phase of Olympic ticket sales would begin on Friday, July 25th at 9am. Tickets for the 5 main venues would be sold at the main box office, and all other tickets would be sold at their respective venues. The beijinger, a really popular ex-pat blog about Beijing said that anyone wishing to buy tickets should get there really early, and that some people would even be camping out. The remaining 820,000 tickets were being sold, 250,000 of which were for events in Beijing proper (as opposed to the co-hose cities). I did a bunch of research online into whether I was actually allowed to buy tickets, as the website states:
"Any natural person who has established domicile in the territory of People's Republic of China (except Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Macao Special Administrative Region and Taiwan Province) and possesses a valid ID is eligible to order Olympic tickets"
We had a long group discussion about said issue Thursday night, and decided it was worth giving it a shot. Four people from our program including my roommate Callie (and not myself) skipped class and went to try to get soccer tickets at 8am. I wasn't there, but I'm told the line was absurd and very organized up until the end, where it turned into a huge mob. Callie left to go to the second part of class, and then went back with another guy from our group. They'd moved "less than a city block" since 8am according to Callie (it was now noon), but they stuck it out. Here's Callie's description of what they went through:
"waiting in line for 6 hours, dodging policemen, and sprinting in a free-for-all race against the citizens of Beijing across a parking lot and standing entirely pressed up against 4 other people for 15 minutes within a ring of guards who were holding hands to keep us in. Basically no other way to describe it really..."
In the mean time, being as each person was allowed to purchase two tickets and there were five of them there, Risa, Kristyn, Stephanie, and I went over to Chaoyang park to try to purchase beach volleyball tickets. We stood outside the gate to get in from about 1:30-2:30, but there were people who'd been standing there since 11am. We also got a call from the other group that they'd successfully gotten women's soccer tickets for 150 kuai each (that's about $22). They apparently hadn't let anyone in since 9am. At about 2:30, the guard informed us they'd be opening the gate in a few minutes, and everyone formed into the most packed crowd I've been in...every man for himself...Risa and I managed to get towards the front and were in the first couple of groups into the gate. Once inside the gate, they put us all in a single-file line and started letting small groups in at a time. I was in the first group in and Risa in the second. The other two were a bit behind us. The lines at the box office were separated by date, so I got online for the 13, 14, 15th tickets and about half hour later (about 4:30) had tickets in my hand for beach volleyball on the 13th at night. They cost 50 kuai each, i.e. $7...isn't that absurd?! I still can't believe that I have tickets...
This is what one woman's shoes looked like after running for tickets:
And here's a good picture of the crowd:
Beijing announced on Tuesday that the fourth phase of Olympic ticket sales would begin on Friday, July 25th at 9am. Tickets for the 5 main venues would be sold at the main box office, and all other tickets would be sold at their respective venues. The beijinger, a really popular ex-pat blog about Beijing said that anyone wishing to buy tickets should get there really early, and that some people would even be camping out. The remaining 820,000 tickets were being sold, 250,000 of which were for events in Beijing proper (as opposed to the co-hose cities). I did a bunch of research online into whether I was actually allowed to buy tickets, as the website states:
"Any natural person who has established domicile in the territory of People's Republic of China (except Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Macao Special Administrative Region and Taiwan Province) and possesses a valid ID is eligible to order Olympic tickets"
We had a long group discussion about said issue Thursday night, and decided it was worth giving it a shot. Four people from our program including my roommate Callie (and not myself) skipped class and went to try to get soccer tickets at 8am. I wasn't there, but I'm told the line was absurd and very organized up until the end, where it turned into a huge mob. Callie left to go to the second part of class, and then went back with another guy from our group. They'd moved "less than a city block" since 8am according to Callie (it was now noon), but they stuck it out. Here's Callie's description of what they went through:
"waiting in line for 6 hours, dodging policemen, and sprinting in a free-for-all race against the citizens of Beijing across a parking lot and standing entirely pressed up against 4 other people for 15 minutes within a ring of guards who were holding hands to keep us in. Basically no other way to describe it really..."
In the mean time, being as each person was allowed to purchase two tickets and there were five of them there, Risa, Kristyn, Stephanie, and I went over to Chaoyang park to try to purchase beach volleyball tickets. We stood outside the gate to get in from about 1:30-2:30, but there were people who'd been standing there since 11am. We also got a call from the other group that they'd successfully gotten women's soccer tickets for 150 kuai each (that's about $22). They apparently hadn't let anyone in since 9am. At about 2:30, the guard informed us they'd be opening the gate in a few minutes, and everyone formed into the most packed crowd I've been in...every man for himself...Risa and I managed to get towards the front and were in the first couple of groups into the gate. Once inside the gate, they put us all in a single-file line and started letting small groups in at a time. I was in the first group in and Risa in the second. The other two were a bit behind us. The lines at the box office were separated by date, so I got online for the 13, 14, 15th tickets and about half hour later (about 4:30) had tickets in my hand for beach volleyball on the 13th at night. They cost 50 kuai each, i.e. $7...isn't that absurd?! I still can't believe that I have tickets...
This is what one woman's shoes looked like after running for tickets:
And here's a good picture of the crowd:
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Eating Out
I realized at lunch today that I haven't talked about eating in Beijing yet, which is surprising seeing as I do it two-three times a day (depending on when I wake up). Every meal for the most part, I go out to eat. This is mainly due to the fact that I'm living in a hotel with no kitchen facilities, but it's also relatively cheap to eat out if you find the right places. Generally a meal here will cost from 10-30 kuai (about $2-5). Of course most foreign food and many of the larger, flashier restaurants can cost upwards of 100-300 kuai for a meal, but I have rarely if ever gone to such places. I will now walk you through a typical dining out experience when locals aren't eating with me.
We walk into a restaurant and either sit down or tell the waiter/waitress how many people and are shown to a table. The menu consists of one or a combination of the following: a white piece of paper completely in Chinese with places to write the quantity of each dish, a completely Chinese menu that's generally two sided, or a large menu with lots of pictures. Sometimes, depending on how touristy and popular the place is, there will be English translations of some or all things or an actual separate English menu, but neither of these can be expected unless you go someplace with an English name. Obviously the best case of those listed is the large menu with pictures because we can just look through it and point at what we want.
The waiter/waitress (fuyuan) stands at your table waiting for your order as soon as you walk in. Coming from the states, this is really awkward because we're used to having time to figure out what we want. It is best if you go into the restaurant with an idea already of what it is you want to eat, as most of them serve similar dishes. Often it is easier to ask "do you have this?" about everything you want instead of actually trying to get through the menu. When the menu is completely in Chinese or you're faced with one of those white sheets, asking is a must at least for now, as I cannot understand most of any menu.
Chinese people traditionally don't drink water with meals, instead drinking either tea (cha) or beer (pijiu), and when they do drink water, it is hot (basically tea without the tea leaves). We often ask for cold bottled water and are either told they don't have it or given room-temperature bottled water. Often when having soups for meals, the liquid part serves as the drink and no further drink is ordered.
Anytime you need anything in a restaurant be it napkins, more beer, the bill, chopsticks, etc...you simply yell out "FUYUAN!" Yes...yell. It seems so rude, but you're basically yelling "WAITER!" It's the only way to get any service, so at this point, I've gotten used to it. Hopefully I won't start doing this when I return to the states.
Getting the bill is kind of like the beginning of the meal. The fuyuan brings you your bill and then stands there waiting for money. They are also relatively pushy and if someone pulls out a 100 kuai bill (which by the way is the biggest bill that exists and equals about $15) will often just take it from them to pay, and then you will all have to pay that person. In general for smaller purchases, they hate when you only have a 100 kuai bill, but it's not usually a problem for food.
When leaving the restaurant, they are usually pretty grateful and say thankyou and goodbye in the now common form of "xiexie bbye".
We walk into a restaurant and either sit down or tell the waiter/waitress how many people and are shown to a table. The menu consists of one or a combination of the following: a white piece of paper completely in Chinese with places to write the quantity of each dish, a completely Chinese menu that's generally two sided, or a large menu with lots of pictures. Sometimes, depending on how touristy and popular the place is, there will be English translations of some or all things or an actual separate English menu, but neither of these can be expected unless you go someplace with an English name. Obviously the best case of those listed is the large menu with pictures because we can just look through it and point at what we want.
The waiter/waitress (fuyuan) stands at your table waiting for your order as soon as you walk in. Coming from the states, this is really awkward because we're used to having time to figure out what we want. It is best if you go into the restaurant with an idea already of what it is you want to eat, as most of them serve similar dishes. Often it is easier to ask "do you have this?" about everything you want instead of actually trying to get through the menu. When the menu is completely in Chinese or you're faced with one of those white sheets, asking is a must at least for now, as I cannot understand most of any menu.
Chinese people traditionally don't drink water with meals, instead drinking either tea (cha) or beer (pijiu), and when they do drink water, it is hot (basically tea without the tea leaves). We often ask for cold bottled water and are either told they don't have it or given room-temperature bottled water. Often when having soups for meals, the liquid part serves as the drink and no further drink is ordered.
Anytime you need anything in a restaurant be it napkins, more beer, the bill, chopsticks, etc...you simply yell out "FUYUAN!" Yes...yell. It seems so rude, but you're basically yelling "WAITER!" It's the only way to get any service, so at this point, I've gotten used to it. Hopefully I won't start doing this when I return to the states.
Getting the bill is kind of like the beginning of the meal. The fuyuan brings you your bill and then stands there waiting for money. They are also relatively pushy and if someone pulls out a 100 kuai bill (which by the way is the biggest bill that exists and equals about $15) will often just take it from them to pay, and then you will all have to pay that person. In general for smaller purchases, they hate when you only have a 100 kuai bill, but it's not usually a problem for food.
When leaving the restaurant, they are usually pretty grateful and say thankyou and goodbye in the now common form of "xiexie bbye".
Monday, July 14, 2008
Inner Mongolia
At 6:30pm on Friday afternoon while playing some double disc (Frisbee game) in Chaoyang Park, I received a call from Avril informing me that if I get back to the hotel in 20 minutes, I can go to Inner Mongolia for the weekend for free! This trip had been planned for weeks, but I had opted not to go after being told it'd cost approximately US$400. Apparently someone dropped out at the last minute, and I had approximately an hour and a half to get all the way across town to the hotel, pack my stuff, and get to the train station. Of course I had no problem doing so...
Inner Mongolia is actually in northern China along the border of Mongolia itself. Getting there takes an overnight train ride that's approximately ten hours. We had hard sleepers, which are sections of 6 beds, 3 on top of each other on two sides, along a corridor. Each car has about 20 rows, so it sleeps 60 people. Our group was spread out on a few different cars, but of course we all managed to take over a section to chat and drink. The lights go out in the cars at about 10:30pm, which forces you to go to sleep. The beds are surprisingly comfortable considering they are about 2 feet wide and consist of a board with some padding and a comforter. I slept straight through for the most part until the train attendant woke me at 7am: "kuai! kuai!" was all I understood really, which means "quickly! quickly!". We were almost there, so I got myself up.
We ate breakfast at a buffet at a 4-star hotel. The food was pretty good, however the drink options were: hot water, coffee, room-temperature milk, or steaming hot tang (OJ). After being given a speech about keeping hydrated, we were unsure of how to do so with such drink options, and I ended up filling my nalgene with hot water in hopes of it becoming room-temp in an hour or so.
After a 3-hour busride to the grasslands complete with speeding past trucks on the highway and going .2 mph through ditches on the dirt roads, we arrived at our "hotel" if you can call it that. We were staying in yurts, 2 people to a yurt, in the middle of the grasslands. All you could see around you was grassland and more yurts. We had lunch in the larger dining yurts, and then set out on horseback across the grassland. The horses were following a path, but pretty much free to go at whatever pace they liked, so they'd randomly trott without warning, but it was a really cool way to see the area. We stopped partway at another yurt to taste the traditional milk tea. It does not taste like milk+tea, but more like salt water with some other weird flavors. Most of us were not huge fans, though we all tasted it. We rode our horses back to our yurts, and then we had 3-4 hours of free time. The sky was blue, the sun was shining, and it was perfect weather to chill outside.
I'd brought a disc along, so I started throwing it with some people, and then some of the locals started joining in. By the end of the three hours, we'd probably taught about 10 people how to throw a frisbee who'd never even seen one before. It was really cool to be bringing this new sport to their lives, and I ended up giving them the disc as a gift, communicating in Chinese that they could use it to practice (lianxi).
That night, we had the Mongolian specialty of roasted lamb. We'd seen them deliver the live lamb earlier, and though we hadn't seen the actual killing of it, we'd seen the skin lying on the ground, and then being thrown on the truck full of other live lambs before driving away. Two whole roasted lambs were brought out to the yurt, and there was a ceremony before they were cut up. The ceremony involved a king and queen who were given traditional clothes to wear. I was initially picked as the queen, but the clothes wouldn't fit me, so they picked one of the skinnier girls. The ceremony involved some songs and some drinking of baijiu out of bowls.
Sidenote about baijiu: It's a distilled liquor that's usually anywhere from %40-%60 alcohol (not proof). A small bottle costs 4 kuai here (about 60 cents), which is absurd. There are many more expensive brands, but we obviously don't partake in them. This is what wikipedia says about the taste, "There are a number of accounts in English which comment unfavorably on the taste of baijiu, comparing it with rubbing alcohol or diesel fuel. The author Tim Clissold, who writes frequently on China, noted that he'd "never met anybody, even at the heights of alcoholic derangement, prepared to admit that they actually liked the taste", and that "after drinking it, most people screw up their faces in an involuntary expression of pain and some even yell out.""
After dinner, we all walked a bit away from our yurts and watched a horse race and then a some Mongolian wrestling matches. Some of the guys on our trip wrestled as well...this would NEVER happen at a hotel in the states. All this was followed by a bonfire, music, and fireworks back where our yurts were, and we all stayed up dancing, singing, and drinking baijiu (it was way cheaper than beer there because water is so scarce) late into the night.
The next morning, we were all awoken at 7am to eat breakfast and head out to the desert. Our breakfast consisted of very little that any of us wanted to eat, but we managed to shove some of it in our mouths before getting on the bus. We had a 5 hour bus ride to the desert, the former half of which I spent trying to get a piece of glass out of my foot that I'd stupidly gotten stuck there when I'd wandered outside without shoes on. I guess I got it out because it's certainly not there anymore.
We arrived at the desert at about one and had lunch before heading up the dunes. Climbing the large dune to get to the top was rather difficult. There were two options: a ladder along the sand and just straight climbing. Shoes were kinda the opposite of useful, so I took them off. Climbing up the ladder hurt your feet, but climbing up the dune straight was like taking one step forwards and half a step backwards each time. It was strenuous, but really cool at the same time. Once we reached the top, we got in this vehicle I can only describe as a mix between a large ATV and a tank, but the top was open, and it seated 30-40 people. We drove through the dunes, and it was kinda like a roller coaster without a track. We stopped at one point and were let off to walk around for a bit before returning. After that, we got to ride camels out in a different direction to an oasis where we again stopped a bit before turning around. Riding camels was really cool, though slightly painful after the horseback rides the day before. When we finished the camel rides, we got to sled down the dune we'd walked up on wooden sleds. It looked a lot faster than it actually felt, but was nonetheless really cool. We took a chair lift the rest of the way back as it was getting late and were on our way back to the capital city, Hohhot, where we would catch our train. We stopped at what we were told was a factory along the way, although it seemed more like a bustling outlet center. After being given 30 minutes in a restaurant to eat dinner, we rushed to the train station exhausted, gross, and sandy for our overnight train back home. Needless to say there was a lot less drinking on the return trip since we all passed out pretty quickly. The next morning upon returning to our hotel at about 9am, everyone showered and almost immediately went to McDonalds (Maidonglao) for breakfast sandwiches. They've become a novelty to us!
Inner Mongolia is actually in northern China along the border of Mongolia itself. Getting there takes an overnight train ride that's approximately ten hours. We had hard sleepers, which are sections of 6 beds, 3 on top of each other on two sides, along a corridor. Each car has about 20 rows, so it sleeps 60 people. Our group was spread out on a few different cars, but of course we all managed to take over a section to chat and drink. The lights go out in the cars at about 10:30pm, which forces you to go to sleep. The beds are surprisingly comfortable considering they are about 2 feet wide and consist of a board with some padding and a comforter. I slept straight through for the most part until the train attendant woke me at 7am: "kuai! kuai!" was all I understood really, which means "quickly! quickly!". We were almost there, so I got myself up.
We ate breakfast at a buffet at a 4-star hotel. The food was pretty good, however the drink options were: hot water, coffee, room-temperature milk, or steaming hot tang (OJ). After being given a speech about keeping hydrated, we were unsure of how to do so with such drink options, and I ended up filling my nalgene with hot water in hopes of it becoming room-temp in an hour or so.
After a 3-hour busride to the grasslands complete with speeding past trucks on the highway and going .2 mph through ditches on the dirt roads, we arrived at our "hotel" if you can call it that. We were staying in yurts, 2 people to a yurt, in the middle of the grasslands. All you could see around you was grassland and more yurts. We had lunch in the larger dining yurts, and then set out on horseback across the grassland. The horses were following a path, but pretty much free to go at whatever pace they liked, so they'd randomly trott without warning, but it was a really cool way to see the area. We stopped partway at another yurt to taste the traditional milk tea. It does not taste like milk+tea, but more like salt water with some other weird flavors. Most of us were not huge fans, though we all tasted it. We rode our horses back to our yurts, and then we had 3-4 hours of free time. The sky was blue, the sun was shining, and it was perfect weather to chill outside.
I'd brought a disc along, so I started throwing it with some people, and then some of the locals started joining in. By the end of the three hours, we'd probably taught about 10 people how to throw a frisbee who'd never even seen one before. It was really cool to be bringing this new sport to their lives, and I ended up giving them the disc as a gift, communicating in Chinese that they could use it to practice (lianxi).
That night, we had the Mongolian specialty of roasted lamb. We'd seen them deliver the live lamb earlier, and though we hadn't seen the actual killing of it, we'd seen the skin lying on the ground, and then being thrown on the truck full of other live lambs before driving away. Two whole roasted lambs were brought out to the yurt, and there was a ceremony before they were cut up. The ceremony involved a king and queen who were given traditional clothes to wear. I was initially picked as the queen, but the clothes wouldn't fit me, so they picked one of the skinnier girls. The ceremony involved some songs and some drinking of baijiu out of bowls.
Sidenote about baijiu: It's a distilled liquor that's usually anywhere from %40-%60 alcohol (not proof). A small bottle costs 4 kuai here (about 60 cents), which is absurd. There are many more expensive brands, but we obviously don't partake in them. This is what wikipedia says about the taste, "There are a number of accounts in English which comment unfavorably on the taste of baijiu, comparing it with rubbing alcohol or diesel fuel. The author Tim Clissold, who writes frequently on China, noted that he'd "never met anybody, even at the heights of alcoholic derangement, prepared to admit that they actually liked the taste", and that "after drinking it, most people screw up their faces in an involuntary expression of pain and some even yell out.""
After dinner, we all walked a bit away from our yurts and watched a horse race and then a some Mongolian wrestling matches. Some of the guys on our trip wrestled as well...this would NEVER happen at a hotel in the states. All this was followed by a bonfire, music, and fireworks back where our yurts were, and we all stayed up dancing, singing, and drinking baijiu (it was way cheaper than beer there because water is so scarce) late into the night.
The next morning, we were all awoken at 7am to eat breakfast and head out to the desert. Our breakfast consisted of very little that any of us wanted to eat, but we managed to shove some of it in our mouths before getting on the bus. We had a 5 hour bus ride to the desert, the former half of which I spent trying to get a piece of glass out of my foot that I'd stupidly gotten stuck there when I'd wandered outside without shoes on. I guess I got it out because it's certainly not there anymore.
We arrived at the desert at about one and had lunch before heading up the dunes. Climbing the large dune to get to the top was rather difficult. There were two options: a ladder along the sand and just straight climbing. Shoes were kinda the opposite of useful, so I took them off. Climbing up the ladder hurt your feet, but climbing up the dune straight was like taking one step forwards and half a step backwards each time. It was strenuous, but really cool at the same time. Once we reached the top, we got in this vehicle I can only describe as a mix between a large ATV and a tank, but the top was open, and it seated 30-40 people. We drove through the dunes, and it was kinda like a roller coaster without a track. We stopped at one point and were let off to walk around for a bit before returning. After that, we got to ride camels out in a different direction to an oasis where we again stopped a bit before turning around. Riding camels was really cool, though slightly painful after the horseback rides the day before. When we finished the camel rides, we got to sled down the dune we'd walked up on wooden sleds. It looked a lot faster than it actually felt, but was nonetheless really cool. We took a chair lift the rest of the way back as it was getting late and were on our way back to the capital city, Hohhot, where we would catch our train. We stopped at what we were told was a factory along the way, although it seemed more like a bustling outlet center. After being given 30 minutes in a restaurant to eat dinner, we rushed to the train station exhausted, gross, and sandy for our overnight train back home. Needless to say there was a lot less drinking on the return trip since we all passed out pretty quickly. The next morning upon returning to our hotel at about 9am, everyone showered and almost immediately went to McDonalds (Maidonglao) for breakfast sandwiches. They've become a novelty to us!
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Squat Toilets aka Squatters
Now that I've finally mastered the squatter, or at least to the best of my ability, I feel it is time to write about them. Disclaimer: you may not actually want to read this blog entry...
When I first stepped off the plane in Beijing with a desire to pee, I encountered my first squat toilet in the airport. My thought at the time was "Fuck! I hate these!" but of course I managed to pee and move on to claim my luggage. My next encounter with squat toilets was the public toilets off of nanluogu xiang (the bar street I live off of) that night when Andi and I realized we needed to pee after having 5 drinks in a bar. This was further unpleasant because a) it's a public bathroom and b) public bathrooms don't come with toilet paper. This is when I realized why we'd been given a pocket-size toilet paper pack in our welcome kit. To answer your obvious question: my hotel bathroom does have a western toilet, as they are referred to here.
Upon arriving at the office the following Tuesday, Avril showed me around and explained that the office toilets too are squatters, though there is a toilet paper dispenser on the wall when you walk in, and the toilets, soap, sink, and hand dryer are all automatic; basically, it's a completely modern bathroom cleaned multiple times a day, but still with squat toilets.
From this point on, I knew I'd need to get used to them because going an entire work day (9-6) without peeing is just unrealistic. I spent a good half an hour or so my second day here researching the best way to use squat toilets online, which was only really helpful in informing me that the groves on the edge of the toilet are actually for your feet, and that "Likely as not, you won't have to use one," which is 100% false.
The following weekend in Shanghai, I got into a long discussion with two of the guys on the Ultimate team about how exactly to go about using them, and I was even given a squatting position demonstration. Since then I've managed to figure it out, though I more than ever think it's so unfair that guys have aim.
Most of the guys on my trip have avoided using them to some extent, which is totally unfair. One of my favorite comments though is when one of the guys said he "threw his back out squatting".
If you'd actually like to read more about how to squat/deal with the situation, here's a good article for you: http://gochina.about.com/od/tripplanning/ht/How2_Squat.htm
When I first stepped off the plane in Beijing with a desire to pee, I encountered my first squat toilet in the airport. My thought at the time was "Fuck! I hate these!" but of course I managed to pee and move on to claim my luggage. My next encounter with squat toilets was the public toilets off of nanluogu xiang (the bar street I live off of) that night when Andi and I realized we needed to pee after having 5 drinks in a bar. This was further unpleasant because a) it's a public bathroom and b) public bathrooms don't come with toilet paper. This is when I realized why we'd been given a pocket-size toilet paper pack in our welcome kit. To answer your obvious question: my hotel bathroom does have a western toilet, as they are referred to here.
Upon arriving at the office the following Tuesday, Avril showed me around and explained that the office toilets too are squatters, though there is a toilet paper dispenser on the wall when you walk in, and the toilets, soap, sink, and hand dryer are all automatic; basically, it's a completely modern bathroom cleaned multiple times a day, but still with squat toilets.
From this point on, I knew I'd need to get used to them because going an entire work day (9-6) without peeing is just unrealistic. I spent a good half an hour or so my second day here researching the best way to use squat toilets online, which was only really helpful in informing me that the groves on the edge of the toilet are actually for your feet, and that "Likely as not, you won't have to use one," which is 100% false.
The following weekend in Shanghai, I got into a long discussion with two of the guys on the Ultimate team about how exactly to go about using them, and I was even given a squatting position demonstration. Since then I've managed to figure it out, though I more than ever think it's so unfair that guys have aim.
Most of the guys on my trip have avoided using them to some extent, which is totally unfair. One of my favorite comments though is when one of the guys said he "threw his back out squatting".
If you'd actually like to read more about how to squat/deal with the situation, here's a good article for you: http://gochina.about.com/od/tripplanning/ht/How2_Squat.htm
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Sun in Beijing?
I don't know how much any of you have heard about this, but Beijing's been doing a lot to try to control the weather and get rid of pollution lately because of the Olympics. The basics is that they've been shooting silver iodide at clouds in order to induce rain. The purpose of this at the moment is to try to get rid of pollution in the air, and the purpose of this later on will be to control when it rains during the Olympics. As such, pretty much every day since I have been here has been overcast and/or rainy. It is generally written on the weather forecast sites as "hazy," which is definitely a good word to describe it. When I first got here, I asked around, and everyone was like "Yea, there are blue skies sometimes...usually after it rains," but I had thus far only experienced 'haze'. Today, however, was apparently the exception. It was GORGEOUS with blue skies and a few clouds. I could even see stars tonight! So I took some pictures off the fire escape at the end of my hall, and this is the actual view from my hotel
:
:It was a gorgeous day to be bicycling, playing Ultimate and just enjoying the city and life...
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