That's a first...

Just when you think you've heard all the crazy things that can and could happen in China, a new one comes along.

On Saturday evening, I was meeting some friends for dinner. We were having a picnic aka everyone picks up some food to go and we eat in the living room. I quick swept up before hand since I was "hosting" (as much as one can host at an apartment they don't really live in). When I finished, I noticed that I had missed ten phone calls on my cell! I was worried that people were calling me because they were having trouble getting in the apartment building. Nope, all the calls were from three different numbers that I didn't have saved in my contacts. Strange... I waited to see if they would call back.

And they did. I answered "Hello?" (first clue that you've just called a foreigner). Response: blah, blah, blah, really fast Chinese. Me: Dubuqi, wo ting bu dong (I'm sorry, I don't understand your speaking aka I don't speak Chinese). Response: More blah, blah, blah, really fast Chinese. Me: (in Chinese) Sorry I don't understand you. I'm a foreigner. Response: blah, blah, blah, really fast Chinese. Me: hung up. The same thing happened with the next number. The third time I caught the word "fangzi" which means apartment. Teri who had just arrived suggested that maybe some real estate agent had mistakenly wrote down my number instead of their client's. Possible, but it didn't explain the large number of calls from so many different numbers. Amber, Teri and I each answered a couple more calls to see how long it would take for people to hang up on us.

Then I got a text message asking "Do you have an apartment to rent?". Ambiguous... "Do I have" as in I have one to rent out to other people or I have one that I'm already renting. I responded with "who are you?". The answer was incoherent. They sent another message saying "I see you have rented a house from the internet???". I told them no and it must have been a mistake to which they replied "sorry feel shy" (which is a great example of why dictionaries are terrible for translating because they must have meant embarrassed). So then, I knew what all the phone calls were about. I started to reject them as they came in but people just called right back. I answered a few of them and explained that the ad was wrong but they just kept coming. I tried googling (actually bai du-ing - China's Google knock-off) my phone number to find the ad but no luck. I wanted to see what kind of property I was renting out since it was so popular. It must have been a great place for a great price.

I ignored my phone for the next two hours during study during which time I received another twelve phone calls. Thankfully, they stopped after 9pm. I forgot my phone at home on Sunday and came back to another 25 missed phone calls and one text message. On Monday I got a few more calls and only one today. Hopefully, the ad has been changed. The moral of the story is that Beijing real estate is very hot and knowing the word for advertisement in Chinese (guang gao 广告) can be very useful.

Defining Mafan

Mafan is one of my favorite Chinese words. It's incredibly useful for describing a lot of the little quirks of China. The standard translation is bothersome or troublesome but those words just don't quite fully describe the exact meaning of mafan. Here's a good story that illustrates what mafan truly is.

The other evening my subway card was out of money and I needed to add some to it to get home. Easy, right? Theoretically yes, till the mafan stepped in! At the subway station I went to one of the machines for refilling cards. I touched the refill button and was told to insert my card. I put in the proper slot and my card dropped into the machine and vanished. The machine didn't acknowledge that I had even tried to put a card in. Hmmm... Vanished subway card. This isn't good. Those things cost 20rmb. Not a ton of money but not how I wanted to spend my money. Plus machines shouldn't just eat cards like that. So, I got one of the subway worker's attention and explained to him in less than perfect Chinese what happened. He found someone who spoke English to help me. (My Chinese wasn't that bad!) I told her what happened and she told another subway worker. The second subway worker said wait a minute and went behind the machine to open it up and retrieved my card. Whew! That was easier than I was expecting. I thanked both of them for their help and went back to attempting to refill my card. Well, I certainly wasn't going to try that machine again so I went to the next one down the line. I pushed the recharge button and inserted my card. Something in red Chinese characters flashed on the screen too fast for me to even try to read. I selected the English option and tried again. Oh, no recharging on this machine, even though it said Recharge Only on the sign. Ok, one more machine to try. Same thing happened. I went over to the ticket booth. I gave the lady my card and said I wanted to add money. She pointed to her black computer screen and said she couldn't help. Since obviously I wasn't going to refill my card, I tried to buy a single ticket. I gave her a 10rmb note for a 2rmb ticket. She waved her hand no and pointed to the ticket vending machines. So back to those things I went. I tried to put the money in but neither machine would accept it. (If they are out of change, they won't accept bills.) So, I went back to ticket booth to tell the lady that the machines weren't working. She took my 10rmb bill and gave me a five, 3 ones and 2 one rmb coins. I went back to the machines and inserted the coins. Success! I finally had my ticket and could go home.

The next morning, I walked up to a ticket vending machine, inserted my card and 50rmb and had it refilled in less than 30 seconds...

A Real Problem

For those unfamiliar with Chinese utilities, I have to pre-pay for my electricity. I have a card that I take to the bank, put money on it and then insert it into the meter in the hallway of my apartment to add credit. When the credit is gone, it's gone. Lights out. So, I usually watch the meter closely and when it gets down to 50 or so units left (I use about 5 units a day typically and up to 10 or 15 when running my air conditioning), I buy some more.

I was at about the 60 unit mark on Monday so I brought my card with me to stop at the bank. It didn't happen. My 9am to 6:30pm teaching schedule didn't work well with the banks' 9-5 hours. And Chinese banks aren't places that you can run in/run out in under ten minutes during a lunch break. Fortunately it was a cooler week and my fan sufficed to keep me comfortable during the few hours I was home. By Saturday, I was down to 35 units. After a late lunch with Hannah, Teri and Gretl, I went to the bank near my apartment. I got my number and was happy to see that I was number 177 and they were already on 152. Only 25 people in front of me and two windows open! It would be a pretty quick wait of about 20 minutes to half an hour. I sat down and play Tetris on my phone. Finally it was my turn. I went up to the window, gave the teller my card and money, paid a water bill that had appeared on my door (this is normal), got my change and left.

As soon as I got home I put the card in the meter. Nothing. Tried it another way. Maybe the magnetic square faces the other way. Nothing. Tried it the first way again. Nothing. Hmmm... This was not good. The teller must have forgotten to add the money to my card. I wasn't watching her the whole time since I was looking for change and the water bill in my purse but I didn't remember her charging it. So, back to the bank I went.

I talked to the guy at the front who helps you get a number for the right line. I explained what happened and he went to ask the teller about it. She said that I had to call the number at the bottom of my receipt and they would take care of it. I told him I couldn't do that because my Chinese isn't good enough and I had forgotten my phone at school. He kindly offered to call for me. After a couple minutes of conversation, he came back and explained to me half in Chinese, half in English that the lady at the phone number place could speak English and that I would need to know how much electricity was left and how had been bought the last couple times. I said I didn't know about the last couple times because my friend had bought it. He said all the info I needed would be on the meter. As we were talking some overly helpful (nosy) costumer came up and told me in English that I needed to put the card in the meter and I should just go home and try it again. I told him in Chinese that I had lived in China for more than 4 years and am quite familiar with how to use an electric card. His response: Oh, so this is a real problem. Yes, I smiled sweetly growling inside, as opposed to me being a stupid foreigner problem. Arg! I thanked the bank employee for his help and went home.

I tried the card in the meter one more time. It flashed 485 units! Yeah! It worked this time! Why? Who knows? Maybe it wasn't a "real" problem after all...

Nacho're Average Nachos

While in Shanghai, Amanda and I decided to get dinner at at The Bund Brewery. She had been there before and said that the food was a bit pricey but worth it. We sat down and she realized that the menus were not the same as before. The selection was much smaller and the prices much higher. We each ordered an overpriced beer and decided just to split a plate of nachos. Before we ordered, we wisely questioned the waitress about the $10 plate of nachos whose Chinese name translated to Mexican Corn Biscuits. The conversation went a bit like this though it was mostly in Chinese when talking to the waitress:

Me: The nachos have beef on them, right?
Waitress: No, it's pork.
Me: (to Amanda) Pork on nachos? (to Waitress): Can we switch the pork to chicken?
Waitress: No.
Me: Ok. (to Amanda) Do you want pork nachos?
Amanda: No! We can just get them with cheese.
Me:(to waitress) The nachos have what's the word... cheese on them, right?
Waitress: No cheese.
Me: What?! Gross. (to Amanda) No cheese on the nachos. (to waitress) What is on the nachos?
Waitress: (doesn't understand my bad Chinese) What?
Me: The nachos have pork on them and what else? Vegetables?
Waitress: Yes, vegetables.
Me: What vegetables? The picture shows hot peppers and cilantro.
Waitress: Yes.
Me: That's it?!? (to Amanda)Evidently they are pork, hot pepper and cilantro nachos without cheese for $10.
Amanda: No.
Me: (to waitress) We don't want the nachos. We'll just drink beer for now. Thank you!

After finishing our beers, we went to a different part of the city and had an equally pricey but much more authentically prepared dinner of Pad Thai.

How to get a train ticket in Beijing

My friend Amanda and I wanted to find some time to see each other while we both are in China. She lives in a smaller city about two hours outside of Shanghai. Originally, I was going to spend the weekend in her city but after checking plane ticket prices and train schedules, it just wasn't possible. Our next plan was to go to Shanghai and meet there. Great! There are tons of trains that go from Beijing to Shanghai. I could leave Thursday night and be there in the morning. Buying a ticket shouldn't be a problem at all...

The next morning after tutoring, my student's dad took me to a train ticket booth near their home. No overnight tickets to Shanghai left. Rats! So much for that plan. There were tickets still available on the new high speed train. However, I would need to go to the train station with my passport to get one. The train station? The train station that the high speed trains to Shanghai leave from is on the opposite side of town from where I live! Fortunately, I could go to any train station to buy my ticket.

Unfortunately my afternoon tutoring went late and I wasn't sure if I'd have time to get to the train station before it closed so I decided to wait until the next morning.

The next day I tried again to get my train ticket to Shanghai. After 30 some minutes on the subway, I finally got to Beijing North Station. As soon as I got in line, I realized that my passport was still at home! Arg! I stayed anyways hoping I could finagle my way to a ticket with bad Chinese and my driver's license. I waited in a line that was super slow. Just to be safe, I asked the girls in front of me if this was the right line for high speed train tickets. It wasn't, of course. I needed to be at the other ticketing area. So, I went there. This time I went up to the window that I knew was for returning tickets but didn't have a line (aka only 3-4 people in front of me). The lady at the window yelled at me but at least I was able to confirm I was in the right place. I was at the back of the line again.
To entertain myself while waiting, I attempted to read the board that listed the number of tickets left for the next couple days for various trains leaving from the four Beijing train stations. (Interesting note: when I moved here 5 years ago, there were only two train stations). "Attempted" as in everything was all in Chinese characters and the cities changed every 15 seconds. I could read a few cities and recognized some as it quickly flipped through the lists. After about ten minutes I still hadn't seen anything for Shanghai. Finally all the high speed trains were listed but they flashed by so fast I wasn't sure if I had read the numbers correctly for Thursday and Friday. I waited and watched for them to come up again. When they finally did, I was able to see that there were literally hundreds of tickets left for Friday morning. Yeah! I also noticed about that time that the line I was standing in had only barely moved. I looked to the front and saw that there was no one at the window selling tickets. What!?! I gave up. Since I knew there were so many tickets available, I left with the plan to come back the next day.

Thursday turned out to be a super busy day for me since I needed to get ready for my classes next week if I was going to be out of town for the whole weekend. I finally got to the train station just before 5:00. I was happy to see that the lines were a lot shorter! After a few minutes, one of the ticket sellers announced over the loud speaker, "blah,blah, blah 5:30 blah blah" which I took to mean the ticket windows closed at 5:30. The closer I got to the window and the later it got, I felt like everyone was glaring at me: that stupid foreigner is going to be really slow at the window. But hey, buying train tickets Chinese is one of my best areas of Chinese. Whew! I was able to get my ticket no problem and I got a return ticket (this is new, before you could only buy tickets in the city you were leaving from). Success!

I left my apartment at 6am today for my 7:39 train. I had about 22 stops and three line transfers on the subway to get to the South train station and no way was I going to risk missing my train. I was happy that it took less than an hour to get there. The south train station looks brand new and was very easy to get to and find where I needed to go. I was surprised to see a Tous Le Jours, a local "French" bakery chain, where I got a pastry and a coffee for breakfast. I found the waiting area for my train which was already boarding. I got on right away, found my seat and enjoyed my breakfast. As I write this, I'm watching the Chinese countryside fly by as we speed toward Shanghai at 306km/h.

A busy but fun week...

Whenever people ask me why I would want to live in China, I often think of weeks like this past one. Everything is so crazy and random it's almost impossible to be bored. Starting from Wednesday, I only had classes in the morning (yeah!). I met one of my Chinese friends, Rain, for lunch near SanYuanQiao. I hadn't seen her since July so it was good to get together again. Then I went to a Chinese school to talk about when I could take lessons and what level I was at. The only class they have close to my level is half a book ahead of where I left off and on Saturday and Sunday afternoons but I said I'd give it a try and bought the new book. Then I biked down to JianWai SoHo which is a HUGE shopping and office area. There are eighteen buildings each with 30 stories or more. I decided that if it were flattened it would be bigger than the entire city of Neenah. (This is just one of the many SoHo complexes which are just a few of the many business complexes in downtown Beijing and now you have an idea of how big of a city Beijing is.) I had to find building 18 to pick up my Paralympic tickets. Unfortunately they only had the tickets for one of the events ready. On my way home I stopped at the Bank of Beijing to add more money to my gas card so I could use my stove again. It's been out of gas since July which didn't matter because I wasn't in Beijing and it was too hot to cook. I went last week to the office in my apartment where I usually pay for my utilities but they said I had to recharge it at "Beijing Bank". I wasn't sure if that was the name of a bank or any bank in Beijing (this is the problem when a language doesn't have articles) so I went to my regular bank and they said no go to Beijing Bank and I realized it must be a specific bank chain. When I found one it was actually very easy to do and I celebrated by making mac'n'cheese for supper. And that was all on Wednesday afternoon. I have no idea how many miles I biked but it was a lot.

Thursday was less busy because I had to be at school most of the day. I invited some friends over for study but only one person reply that she would come another night. I had no idea if anyone was coming or not so I still had to clean my apartment and be there. Seven came and passed and no one came disappointing but I got in contact with some of them later on. I had the rest of night free so I decided to make "American mooncakes". This week is Mid-Autumn Festival which really isn't in the middle of autumn but it's the night of the harvest moon. The traditional food to eat and gift to give is mooncakes. Most Chinese mooncakes taste awful. They are a small round pastry that is filled with a gel-like paste that can range in flavor from meat to duck egg to fruit. I made my American mooncakes with the same idea: an outside crust with a filling except I used brownies and peanut butter. The teachers who I gave them to at my school said that they tasted much better than the traditional mooncake.

Friday was another super busy day. I only had to teach two classes in the morning because in the afternoon was the Teacher's Day celebration. I wasn't sure if I was invited or not and decided I would rather have the afternoon off than listen to speeches in Chinese. (It wasn't a hard decision) Friday mornings is study at Angel's Tea House which is always lots of fun. It usually just some of us foreigners and Angel who loves having us come. During study, I was distracted by the store next to Angel's laying out a whole bunch of shoes so I had to go check it out when we finished. The workers were actually just cleaning then shoes not laying them out for a sale like I was hoping. Rachel and I went inside the store to see what else they had. I found a great pair of black boots for school. They were expensive compared to Chinese shoes but considering they were Clarks and made of Gortex (dry feet!) I decided it was worth the extra expense. Plus it was way less then I would ever be able to get them for back home. After shopping, Rachel and I went down to JianWai Soho (which is odd for me to go so often, it was only the third time I've been there) for lunch. I found a review for a new vegan restaurant and wanted to try it. Rachel was brave and came too. The food was really good! I had a stir fry that had "meat" made from gluten. Rachel tried it and said it was surprisingly realistic tasting. Then we went to Jenny Lou's, a foreign food grocery store chain. The store in JianWai Soho had lots of books and games at it and we had lots of fun looking at them. Books are dangerous for me... I ended up buying the first one I looked at and refused to look at anymore after that. It's a super cute children's book about a cat named Mr. Pusskins. The illustrations are the best part. Then I found the best thing ever... El Gran Tabu! AKA the game Taboo in Spanish!!! Of all the great ironies, buying a Spanish game in China. Hehehe... After Jenny Lou's, Rachel went back home and I went to get the rest of my Paralympic tickets. Then I went back to Angel's where I had left my bike. I stayed and visited with her for a while. I got a phone call from a friend of one of my adult tutor students who also wants me to tutor her. I knew I would busy for the next couple days so I went to meet her right away. And I was headed back to JianWai Soho again... I'm really looking forward to having her as a student. She's my age and really nice. We met at a coffee shop and talked for almost an hour and a half. She even gave a card for ice cream mooncakes (those are safe to eat). When I was finally heading back home, I was crossing the street on my bike and heard a thump! thump! Grrr... My back tire was flat! I turned around and went back to the bike guy. Sure enough, I had a tack stuck in my tire. He replaced the inner tube (which had already been patched a couple times) and then noticed that the outer tire was also torn. I said I would replace it another day because I didn't have much cash with me but when he pumped the tire up the inner tube was sticking out so it had to be replaced. So, ouch! that tack cost me an extra 60 yuan that I wasn't planning to spend. When I got home, I quick cleaned up my apartment again because Naomi was coming over. I made mac'n'cheese (again) for supper for us (it's a treat here in China) and ice cream smoothies with American mooncake blended in. (I had tried to order the ice cream mooncakes but they hung up on me twice when they realized my Chinese was really slow. I think they were really busy and didn't want to deal with it) When Naomi left around 11:30, I finally had a chance to start reading Twilight which I had been looking forward to all day since one of my students gave it to me in the morning. That kept me up until 1:30 when I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.

Saturday and Sunday brought four hours of really hard Chinese lessons, more Twilight, Paralympics swimming at the Water Cube with Josh and Naomi, church and finally a two hour nap on my couch late Sunday afternoon after so many busy days. Today (Monday) I have off of school for Mid-Autumn Festival. I've just been hanging out at home cleaning my kitchen, catching up on other work. My friend Ivy is coming over for supper tonight and now I'm off to the grocery store. She called the ice cream mooncake place so dessert it taken care of. :)

Rainy day...

Yesterday morning when I woke up, it was raining. Biking to school in the rain is never fun but I saw something that made it almost worth it as I was leaving my apartment complex: a small chihuahua wearing a bright yellow raincoat. Even funnier, the coat had a hood that covered up half the poor dog's head. I guess some people don't like to towel dry their dogs...

Back in Beijing for year number 3!

Yesterday afternoon I arrived back in Beijing for my third year of teaching here! This was my quickest trip back. The first year I went the OTHER way around - through Amsterdam. I have no idea how long that one took - we left Minneapolis at 9pm on Monday and got to Beijing on Wednesday afternoon. The second year I went through Tokyo making for a 17 hour flight. This year I flew from Appleton to Chicago and then a short 13 hour flight direct from Chicago to Beijing!

I forgot to order the vegetarian meals for the flight but somehow it was in the system so I was a little surprised when the flight attendant told me I had a special meal. Even more surprising was the food I was given. I'm not sure who decides what the vegetarians eat for the inflight meals but they are, um, creative people. They also seem to forget that vegetarians also need protein. The first meal was pretty good - a veggie stir fry with a salad on the side and and fruit. The mini-meal was probably the most unique. I woke up to find on the empty seat next me a pita with giant couscous stuffed in it. Quite strange... The final meal was bread pinwheels with green stuff in between the layers and cold greens on the side. The flight attendant asked me what I was eating, I said I had no idea. The good news is that United serves real Diet Coke. :)

I had a very nice welcome back to Beijing and a lot of Chinese practice. The taxi driver I had from the airport was very nice though slightly incompetent. He didn't know how to get to my apartment so he asked me how much it usually cost and only charged that much since he took a longer route. He asked me how long I had been studying Chinese and then started reviewing (?) the basics (hello, good-bye, thank you) with me despite the fact that we had been speaking in Chinese the whole time. My apartment is one of the farthest from the gate so pulling two 50+lbs suitcases while trying to balance a heavy carry-on along with the heavy backpack on my back was no easy task. Finally when I was almost halfway and debating about leaving a suitcase behind to get later, one of the guards came up and started pulling one of the suitcases. He helped me with it all the way into my apartment. I kept saying thank you thank you but he just said you're welcome and turned around and left not expecting a tip or anything. I ordered water right away since my bottle was pretty old and who knows what has been growing in there in the past month. The lady delivered it right away. When she took the old bottle off she noticed it was a little dirty inside and started cleaning it. Then she picked up the whole machine and drained out the extra old water that I didn't even know what in there. When I paid her I asked if it was 13rmb and she said very apologetically that the water bottle company had raised the price 1rmb. I just smiled, said no problem and gave her the extra money. It was great to be reminded how kind the Chinese people can be!

In the next 2.5 weeks before school starts I get/have to clean every surface and then some in my apartment. The large cockroach population I discovered in my apartment after coming back from Wenling seems to have all, thankfully, passed away. My job now is finding and disposing of their little carcasses. Eww! Everything else is of course covered with a thick layer of Beijing dust so I shouldn't be too bored. Not to mention there is this event in town called the Olympics! Today I'm hoping to chase down the road cycling race. I also saw quite a few athletes in the airport yesterday (which was a complete zoo!). There was an African team all dressed in matching red. I didn't see what country they were from. There were also some British athletes coming in too.

Attempt to start blogging again with random antedotes about life in China...

It's raining...again. From September until about two weeks ago I could count on my fingers how many times it's rained (or snowed) in Beijing during that period of time. But now starting some time last week, we have had so much rain!!! It's really crazy. I think it was last Friday... oh yes, last Friday after Chinese lessons. When I went it was normal cloudy/hazy. When I left, the sky had turned eerily black and it was just starting to rain. I bought an umbrella at a newsstand (for 10rmb it's just not worth it to carry one around all the time, I now own four umbrellas). Biking with an umbrella is not fun. Biking with an umbrella with even a little bit of wind in rush hour traffic is impossibly dangerous. I got wet but the rain wasn't too bad so I didn't mind. I was almost home and decided to stop to buy bananas from one of the fruit vendors (I like them for breakfast). I was feeling pretty safe at the time. I made my purchase (the guy was nice and charged me 5 jiao less instead of changing a hundred) and continued home. No sooner had I turned the corner then splat! splat! splat! - a HUGE down pour! I quickly took my umbrella from the bike basket. Half a block later I was under a bridge with a lot of other wet bikers. I decided it was easier to walk the rest of the way home than bike, so I did. I was quite wet when I got home, but not quite dripping. Since than, it's rained everyday except Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Saturday we actually had (almost) blue skies and sunshine!!! I took advantage of it and went for a bike ride in the morning (before it was 90+ degrees). I decided to go east and explore that direction. I went outside of the 5th ring road. It was like a completely different city. Most of the buildings were only 2 or 3 stories. Everything looked older and more run down. It's kind of how I imagine the whole city must have been like ten years ago. Development just hasn't hit the outskirts yet although there were signs that it was coming. I'm looking forward to my next morning off to go and explore some more.