The China Match

Today was an odd one. Really started in kind around 2pm when I got home from lunch and discovered some random lady in my kitchen. Always good, right? Turns out that either my roommate never told me we had maid service or i just completely forgot, but regardless it was a pretty awkward exchange because she took 20 or 30 seconds to make it clear what she was here to do. So that was fun. Thankfully we at some point had a housecleaning chapter in chinese, which equipped me with some pretty helpful vocab and i was able to straighten stuff out. I then did what i do when the maids come to my house back at home, namely got the hell out of the way because i feel like if i stay i’ll just actively create more of a mess as they’re trying to clean.

So following Jakob’s comment on last post, I went to that Beijing attractions site and poked around a little. Turns out I live about a ten-minute bike ride away from the National Art Museum of China. Used my wildcard to get a 10 kuai student ticket (though the booth lady made it clear she wasn’t happy to give me one) and spent two and a half hours wandering around the museum, which was gigantic. Will be putting up a photoblog on this as soon as possible. Anyway I eventually found this big gallery of a single painter’s work, which was unusual because most of the other galleries had one piece per painter tops. Space is at a premium in China, even in museums, so with as many painters as there are… yeah, everybody gets one. Except this guy 陈作丁 (Chen Zuoding). I think he probably got the whole room to himself because he died in late 2010 so it mighta been in memorial but I think I enjoyed his paintings the most of all, so it worked out well. Google him or just wait for the photoblog to see ’em yourself.

Anyway what was even cooler is that he had an apprentice who came all the way from Sichuan just to hang out in the gallery and talk about his teacher’s paintings with people. Problematically for him, and highly fortunately for me, there were almost no Chinese people in the gallery at all. I had no idea who either of them were but displayed some interest in the art so he came over, gave me a little magazine thing full of copies of the paintings in front of me, and started talking to me about the art itself. Which was great, except that a) the guy was from rural sichuan and had one hell of an accent, b) he was attempting to discuss some pretty advanced artistic concepts and c) my dictionary is broken.

However, I had one thing going for me — I had absolutely nowhere to be. I felt bad after a while; for the first half hour or so I was only understanding maybe 30% of what he was saying but instead of giving up on me the guy just kept trying to explain, slowing down his speech and using simpler vocab and pantomime until I was finally able to understand (我终于明白！） his points about brush pressure, stroke direction, yin/yang influence, color usage, AND inspiration for the painting coming from a combination of nature (自然　booya) and teacher’s own ideas & creative spirit (精神) on the various pieces he was showing me. Granted, understanding just that much took me damn near one solid hour but I hammered through it and by god neither of us had anything better to do than to try to communicate. The reason i know i understood it properly was that in the last ten minutes before the museum closed, an old chinese guy who worked for xinhua knews and spoke solid if somewhat british english came over and translated some of the words i had to guess from context for me, and with the exception of “degree of incline (even the old guy had trouble translating this)” and “pursuit” i was pretty much good to go. Was exhausting but rewarding; if my Chinese is actually going to improve here, exchanges like that are going to be what do it.

So I came home to blog about it, and was all excited to write and put up the pictures but then my key broke off in the lock. You ever have one of those moments? Where you realize — it’s 5:30pm on a Sunday and you have already been speaking nonstop Mandarin for the last hour and are tired and hungry and don’t even sorta kinda know how to approach getting access to a Chinese yellowpages so that you may attempt to communicate your needs to a locksmith, particularly granted that short of the street name you don’t even know your actual address?

They’re fun, let me tell you.

Anywho I cluelessly knocked on some doors for a while until I found this very nice lady who spoke english, french, and chinese, and moreover knew the number of some maintenance dude. He in turn called a locksmith company but deemed them too expensive so he instead asked me if he could take my bike to go fetch his friend, who he claimed was a locksmith but who I kinda suspect is just a burglar but either way had lockpicking tools so really who’s counting, right? I decided to bike to go see this dude with him, which means i had to use Rayco’s bike, which doesn’t have breaks but that’s another story entirely. So yeah we end up going to fetch the ‘locksmith’ from the meat and fruit market, which I find more than a little strange. But he ends up changing my lock, giving me eight new keys because that’s standard policy and apparently can’t not give me eight keys, and charging me an arm and a leg. Gah. Hate getting ripped off like that, but I was desperate.

So I cook dinner really quick and then get a call from one of my coworkers, inviting me out to go to a bar with her husband and friends which is nice of her; it’s an ok place except that it’s really cold and smells like smoke and the owner has a penchant for taking in stray cats, animals to which i am highly allergic. So now i’m all headachey and sneezy but i also got to meet a buncha new people (including a guy from the states! woo) so i can’t really complain.

So as a necessary part of my job I have to read a whole bunch of news articles, and they usually have a bunch of links to random other articles at the bottom. One of these caught my eye on Friday, mainly because its headline read ‘Cheap American Beer PBR Marketed as High-End in China.’

Yeah, that PBR. The stuff you drink when you want to feel like a cheapskate or a hipster is selling for $44 a bottle in the great middle kingdom. For some perspective, the quilt and all those groceries I bought on Thursday came to a combined $38, so buying one PBR is a pretty substantial investment. For some more, consider that i make roughly $2.25 an hour and i’m pretty sure my wage is above the median. Needless to say i’m going to start poking around the liquor stores in my neighborhood in search of this stuff, if not to buy some then at least to take a picture to prove it exists. The article’s here: http://www.designtaxi.com/news/32525/Cheap-American-Beer-PBR-Marketed-as-High-End-in-China/

So in other news, it’s 4:00 on a Saturday and I have absolutely no plans. It’s a really weird vibe, actually. I got up around 11, played videogames with Connor for a while, fed myself and went grocery shopping, and now…

Yeah…

Plans for the rest of the day, as of right now: study some Chinese, eat dinner, sleep. Maybe this shouldn’t be as surprising at is. But since I got here, China has felt at least a little bit like it used to; I’ve always thought that life just moves faster here. I was busy constantly during the week, even without homework to worry about — with the commute on both ends, work + dinner covers 8am to 8pm, and at nights I’ve been either buying stuff to help me settle in, running errands, writing obnoxiously long blogs, that sorta thing. Last night I even got to go back over to Wudaokou and have a respectably fun night out with a bunch of English speakers (who unfortunately are now all cramming for finals) and things felt more or less like they did this summer.  Sitting in my living room now, though, it’s becoming increasingly clear that things are pretty damn different.

Certainly, China hasn’t changed — so it must be that my attitude is starting to. Especially during the second half of this summer’s program, I remember this ever-present urge to go out and see everything there was to see. Time was limited, and hours in the dorm almost felt like hours wasted. With fifty friends and basically no homework, I’m sure any city can become one constant party but between the prices and the nightlife, Beijing was particularly conducive to the phenomenon. China was something to be beaten, a beast to be tamed, and if you weren’t out exploring it or at least getting drunk somewhere then you were missing out.

But now, I don’t know. It could be that I’ve got nine full weeks left, or it could be that it’s generally cold and dark outside. Maybe it’s because I don’t really have friends to share it with yet. It definitely isn’t like I’ve seen everything worth seeing, but at the end of the day for whatever reason that pressing need to go forth and conquer is conspicuously absent. China isn’t some big dirty disneyland anymore, it’s real life just like anywhere. Turns out that there isn’t anything inherent to the North Capital that means you can’t be lonely or bored; coming to terms with that means growing up a little bit, and doing that on demand is annoyingly difficult.

To be fair, I’m making a lot of adjustments all at once. I was already kinda reeling from ‘you are sorta a real person now, so you have to work and pay bills and stuff,’ and ‘you live alone for the first time in your life in a city where you know nobody, now go make friends with strangers’ without ‘you were in a bubble for three months and beijing’s not what you remember’ putting in its two cents, but now i’m just whining. Don’t read this wrong –I’m not depressed. I’m not even unhappy, and I sure as hell don’t plan on being a hermit for the next two months. But that’s not something that comes effortlessly anymore.

So I’ve got a request:

Help me out, please. Next time I’ve got a wide-open Saturday like this, what kinds of things should I do with it?

Answer in the comments: this serves two purposes. First, I’ll ostensibly get some suggestions regarding how to spend free time. Second, I *really* like getting comments on this thing because it in some way validates the time I spend writing it, so you’ll make me happy. Plus i have no idea if anyone actually reads this thing aside from my family, my plex roommates, and maybe jakob and chrissy, i think — so writing something below might give me a little better idea of who all actually reads the China Match.

If you comment I promise I won’t sell your email to anyone or whatever — if i could get rid of that requirement to comment then i would. you can just put like ‘x@x.com’ though and that’s just fine. If for some reason though you really don’t like commenting then shoot me suggestions for stuff to do next time we’re gchatting or skyping or whatever. Oh, and to clarify i’m not just looking for beijing-related stuff. could be any way to occupy time, social or no really. and even if you only see this post a month from now for whatever reason, suggestions will almost definitely still be welcome.

Thanks!

YEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH

…and to think this morning I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t be blogging today. But then tonight happened, and it was completely awesome. Once I got off work I went to go have dinner with a friend of mine from highschool named Matt, which was cool because a) we could both speak in non-broken english, b) he’s someone who i’m actually friends with as opposed to a coworker — not that i don’t really like my coworkers and c) it was in wudaokou (more on this later). Matt’s been doing an intensive language study for the last 5 months but is about to go home and finish his majors in chinese and business. Oh, and he’s looking to go into the hospitality industry in asia. Just for the record i’m doing asian studies and economics (probably NU’s closest equivalents to chinese and business), am currently working at a chinese travel company, and have spent the last 5 years working for dad’s vacation rental site. So needless to say we spent most of the conversation telling stories about stupid things we’ve done in china, making fun of our highschool friends (we love you, colin scully), and discussing the merits of dicking around with… liberated… fire extinguishers, which is apparently one of his hobbies. Fun times all around.

Anyway after dinner we went our separate ways and I decided to go to the lotus center, because i was already in wudaokou so why not. walking from the japanese place that i used to eat at all the time to the lotus center, though, triggered some really weird emotions. I’m not quite sure why but there was something about walking that extremely, extremely familiar route — seeing the crazy night market across the street, passing the little corner store where we used to make beer runs at all hours, walking right by all the little clothing stores blaring random electronic music that always did and continue to put me in a better mood no matter what — it was a little overwhelming. Not to sound like a complete wuss but a lot of memories hit me very, very hard all at once; i may or may not have gotten a teensy bit choked up. Which seems out of place for 五道口大街 (the main street) because it’s not particularly quaint or anything like that, but i guess it’s charming in it’s own bustling, noisy, crazy sort of way. the chinese word 热闹 comes to mind.

But really, there’s something to be said for actually knowing an area like I know at least that part of wudaokou. This knowledge has a lot of practical utility, especially in china, where asking where to buy things will often get you sent a miles out of the way (see this post) when simply knowing where they are beforehand will take you down the street, if that makes sense. So yeah, because I still don’t know my home neighborhood very well at all I chose to go blanket and grocery shopping in wudaokou’s loutus center because i know that place very, very well — and i found everything i needed within fifteen minutes, no problem.

Carrying it home, on the other hand, was a little trickier. Crowded chinese subways aren’t particularly conducive to big bulky blanket bags (boom alliteration!), and bicycles even less so. I normally get stared at the subway enough as it is, but shuffling around this huge comforter thing took the stares to a completely new level. Unfortunately I just couldn’t bring myself to care because there’s pretty much nobody in the country at this point who i’d be embarrassed to run into while carrying a big pink quilt (i’m pretty sure it’s a quilt, i haven’t actually opened it yet) — which is why i’m putting it on the internet!

The more things change, the more they stay the same

And just for funsies, here’s the rest of the groceries I bought. Now at this point i imagine that my friends from this summer are all probably just shaking their heads, and the rest of you who don’t already know better are probably realizing “wow, he apparently has the palate of a six-year-old.” To which i’d reply … yeah pretty much but that’s when my sense of humor stopped developing too, so at least i’m consistent.

The point of this blog, if there was one, was just to say that it’s weird how much seeing a familiar face, walking down a street or procuring a blanket and comfort food can affect somebody, but it’s certainly boosted the hell out of my morale. Which was already doing pretty well in the first place, considering the ‘holy crap i am in china’ elation hasn’t quite worn off yet. Still though, tonight was a very good insulation against the fact that my roommate just left to hong kong for a while, the cashier at the store gave me like nine of those jiao bills (the financial equivalent of a bitch-slap), having to make the transfer from the 10 to the 4 which usually makes me hate humankind and specifically any chinese woman who has given birth to a child in the last 50 years, etc.

edit: Oh, and the little notepads in the picture are to be carried around with me at all times, so that when i learn new words i can write them down. if i’m going to be here i might as well learn the language, damn it. also, writing about biking with the bag o’ blanket reminded me of this article that i found today which you should check out (it’s short!) unless you happen to be one of my parents. Having read it, it occurs to me that while biking around one-handed with the blanket was probably pretty bad, i’ve been biking around the last several days with my headphones in; considering that horns passed turn signals as the preferred means of auto communication in china a long time ago, i’m kinda coming to realize that this is probably the most dangerous thing i’ve ever done, so i’m going to stop. yay!

So for the past several days when it’s gotten to be around bedtime I suddenly remember that my room gets really cold at night and I still only have two sheets. Every morning I swear to myself to either invest in a blanket or get a chinese girlfriend asap but every night on my way home from work I’m never motivated enough to go find a store where i can buy… either, I suppose. Anyway in lieu of a blanket i’ve been using my heavy jacket, which would be fine, except that it’s the same jacket that I’ve been wearing around during the day. Which is to say that it’s been outside in Beijing for a prolonged period of time, so for the last three nights i feel like i’ve been sleeping with a chain-smoker. delightful, yeah?
At this point i’m legitimately still writing this blog because I fear bedtime. damn it’s cold. but Rayco leaves for hong kong tomorrow, and he said he’ll leave me his electric blanket, so that’ll hopefully fix the situation. but i should probably buy my own stupid blanket anyway though, because when he comes home he’ll want it back and i’d really like this to be my last night sleeping under the jacket. egh. i must smell terrible. maybe that’s why the girlfriend thing isn’t coming along so well, come to think of it.

So it turns out that being a commuter in one of the biggest cities in the most populated country in the world is just about as much fun as one might expect. The relatively low standard of living means that most people still can’t afford cars (although this number is increasing, causing huge traffic issues) so the public transit systems are really strained. Sometimes this past summer, particularly in those last two weeks, I’d forget quite how many Chinese people there really are; we were running around for the most part in the middle of the day, when everyone was at work. Today, though, I rolled out at 7.30 and was obligated to fight through constant swarms of people clogging the streets, the subway, and even the elevators in my building — it took literally ten minutes to get upstairs. My poor sense of direction didn’t help the situation, and on my first commute in China I wound up taking the 10 in the wrong direction, turning around, getting off at the wrong stop anyway, leaving the subway and sprinting around for a mile or so, frantically begging for directions in what couldn’t-have-been-comprehensible mandarin, running back to the subway, finally getting to the right stop but getting briefly lost in the mall that said stop is attached to, giving up and running the long way around the mall instead of through it, and then missing my first elevator due to being out-swarmed by the bolder, pushier chinese. After all that you’d expect me to be late, but I know myself well enough to leave ample time for me to dick around and take wrong turns anytime I go somewhere for the first time; I was upstairs by 9:05.

Present-tense time!
So I walk in the door, at which point the front desk criticizes me for being late, gives me a laptop that’s been preloaded with my login code, takes me to my desk and begin training me. Luckily I’m decently well prepared because they thoroughly responded to the “when should I show up and what should I bring” email that I sent them days ago, so I learn quickly and start doing productive research by noon.
I definitely did not really discover that the office opens at ten, and the two secretaries in the building had clearly either forgotten or never been told that I exist and am coming today, which I didn’t at all see coming when they stone-cold ignored aforementioned email. They certainly didn’t just throw me in some random conference room in the back of the office to stall for time, where I surely am not drafting this blog post on an index card. Sigh.
They say I get to have lunch with someone who has a job for me, and that my computer will be ready sometime after that. Which is all well and good, but it’s 9.45, so they tell me to leave for the time being and go kill two hours. I opt to go buy batteries for my dictionary. The upscale mall that the subway station is attached to is apparently too classy to stock such plebeian items as batteries, so I get to go to the electronics market instead. Think about the phrase ‘electronics market’ for a second. The place I’m going isn’t a singular store, but is maybe 75 or so stands all transitively inhabiting one big building. This model kinda makes sense for T shirts, or fruit, but these guys are trying to vend you printers out of like, “wang-fung’s electric stuff shack.” They particularly wanted to sell me cameras, which honestly just doesn’t strike me as an impulse-buy item. Maybe I’ll come look at a $3 T-shirt if you’re loud enough, mr storekeeper, but with a camera i think one either wants one before going to the store or doesn’t want one at all, and in the former case will probably go specifically shopping for one at a legitimate location, or at least somewhere that isn’t actually held together with masking tape.
I eventually find some batteries and make the mistake of asking how much they are, instead of just opening with my own offer. The lady at the desk tells me batteries are 10 kuai, but when I try to buy a two-pack (it is worth noting that they *only* come in two-packs, so when she priced them that way that’s all she could have been referring to), the guy next to her is like “no, no, ten kuai per battery.” I am at this point in no mood for this shit so I go right to the walk-away, and they immediately offer both for ten. Successfully haggling used to make me feel proud and happy but this time it just made me slightly irritated that they’d even try to pull something as blatantly stupid as attempting to double the price at the last second. Bah.

Coming back to China, I couldn’t fairly describe the experience as a culture shock, because it isn’t shocking any more, per se. Generally speaking, I know what to expect, but at the same time it still feels like a cultural slap in the face, of sorts, a la ‘HEY WELCOME TO CHINA IT’S REALLY CROWDED AND DIRTY AND COLD AND PEOPLE WANT TO RIP YOU OFF ALL THE TIME ALSO BUY THIS CAMERA.’ The difference is that culture shock can be endearing, but a lot of the funny little quirks (oh, that old lady just unabashedly elbowed me in the kidney to cut me in line!) are rapidly becoming less cute and a lot more obnoxious. Do you have to spit in the subway, friends? That really can’t wait?

Anyway so far my job itself is concerned, I probably won’t be writing about it much because everybody and their brother has told me that writing about work is a terrible idea and will get me fired or sued or something. All I’ll really say is for the time being I’m researching some really interesting stuff, and if my concern that i’ll run out of work to do for said research tomorrow proves unfounded then it’s going to be a really enjoyable internship.

Met some truly incredible people in this spot six months ago. Couldn't help but take a picture

I can’t recall the last time I was this tired. It’s 9:30pm here now, which is 7:30am in Austin, funny because I left at 6am the previous day in Austin, having stayed up all that night. Yay for nyquil-induced naps on planes, boo to flight attendants for interrupting and ending said naps to make me buckle my seatbelt over the outside of my jacket, attempt to serve me water, yell a bunch in english at the people who don’t speak english next to me, etc.

All this stuff will get more coverage in a bit, but the very quick rundown of my situation

House: Small, but highly livable. In a hutong, which i find hilarious. Weird bathroom setup. Very near tiananmen and wangfujing. Went to wangfujing for dinner, incidentally. Will have to remember to talk about the women there, and coffee/tea scams

Roommate: Very nice guy, fluent in chinese, british accented. wins all around

Internet: Working! slow, but the NUVPN lets me on now, so no more ultrasurf headaches

Weather: Cold, but no snow. Am not complaining. Oh, and still redonculously polluted. but hey, not like that’s a surprise anymore

Mental state: slightly delirious due to sleep deprivation, but otherwise extremely pleased and excited about the weeks to come.