Changing homes, possibly jobs

This weekend is the big move: out of the palatial Hakim residence to my smaller but more desirably located apartment. That happens Sunday. Through very half-assed job searching I came across a company called “level” [http://www.leveldisplay.com/ from their website: Level is a Chinese owned and operated company specializing in design, fabrication and coordination of exhibition & marketing events in China since 1995]
that wants to interview me, so I thought, why not. Hakim says it is worth a trip out there, and out there it is, in Haidian, the northwest corner of the city [and I’m in the northeast]. Like if I lived in Manhattan this job would be in Scarsdale. [or something]. So I’ll go check it out and see if it’s worth the schlep out there, at least for a bit, anything different from what I’m doing now would be great.
Been a bit sick the past couple days, a strange sickness that only really manifested itself yesterday as ‘la duzi’ literally spicy tummy, the same spicy as the restaurant [spicy mother in law]. Only one day, it wasn’t too bad, but it did drive me back to Carrefour to search for simple American fare such as eggs [not kept in the refrigerator section but next to the crackers and candy] and bread [white is the only choice] and peanut butter and Campbell’s imported from Australia soup, which cost half as much as my new pillow [the pillow was $5, so the soup was pretty much ridiculously priced comparatively]. Nothing like some hydrogenated oils and MSG to get that tum back on track! I am actually feeling better tonight, headed to a networking event this evening.
I joined the local LGBTQA [A is for alliance] group, mostly because the only lesbians I know started the group, and one Chinese boy wrote to a member of the group:
> There is just one thing that I wanna say: I am not gay. I am quite straight. Just 2 co- founders are my best friends. I wanna support those 2 lesbians. They are cute.
> By the way, are you homosexual or straight?
> Chen

So cute! I love how genuine those Chinese are about those questions. Ha! Ok, gotta go finish my soup and get out of this house, the only contact I’ve had in a couple days is the woman standing SO CLOSE behind me at Carrefour. Why does she need to stand so close? Does she notice how generously I give the man in front of me his personal space? Is there a reason you need to be constantly touching my backpack and my elbow? Would you like it in your face? OK, put your aggression away. It’s just shopping in China.

Q. Do the six mid- construction buildings immediately surrounding your fancy apt disrupt your sleep?

A. Yes. The construction workers are building at all hours of the day, so if it's a Sunday afternoon nap, there is the noise of construction. If I get home at 2 am, there is the dull hum of construction. Late night it looks like fire works, no, it's construction. Fun for me.

FORTUNATLY, I HAVE FOUND A DOMICLE IN WHICH TO LIVE. Yes, an apartment just for me. And Summer. We move in this weekend. I will be paying about $146 per month, which is pretty on par for my salary. The place comes furnished, complete with a TV and a stereo, and also a giant [think covering the entire wall, five feet by 4 feet] painting of a fake waterfall. My bedroom is covered in furniture you might see at an old folks' home; light fake wood fills the whole room. I have an enclosed balcony, a perfect little place for my bike. The bathroom and kitchen are fairly new and all rooms have a lot of light. The apartment is east- west facing and a third floor walk up. It is in the Dong Zhi Men neighborhood, five minute walk to the subway, 15 minute walk to the San Li Tun bar street, and for those of you that really know the city, directly across from the foreigner compound "East Lake Villa". It is enclosed by buildings, and the gate entrance has a sign that reads: "Home of Tycoons." My apartment buildings is not where the tycoons live, but I think there is some fancy schmancy place being built next door. It is a cute neighborhood complete with plenty of old folks walking their many dogs. The woman who showed us the place came with her mini poodle, who recently had his toes painted pink. So, I really am excited to have my own place, Summer and I are very excited to decorate and make it our own.

I tried to wash my clothes a few days ago at the Hakim residence. I put the clothes and soap in, turned on the machine and the water, and no water came. The clothes went round and round, but still no water. I asked Hakim and he said that neither he nor his Chinese wife knew how the machine worked, so I would have to wait for the maid to return on Tuesday to get them cleaned. On top of that, the washing machine door locked so hand washing my clothes was not an option. Ha!

Waiting for the subway. A loud cell phone ring goes off and fills the whole station, it is the familiar "Jingle Bells." He lets it ring for a while before answering it. Cell phone courtesy is not a theory that has hit the mainland yet. I step onto the subway car, not so crowded for 11 pm on a Sunday night, but still every seat is taken apart from the ones surrounding a fresh pile of vomit. Everyone stares at it and then looks at each other as if to agree how disgusting it is. This country is full of pukers, you see them leaning into trash cans, over the railing onto grass, out the bus window into shoddy plastic bags, often. Hope y'all aren't eating while reading this. You know China is not always a delicious place.

On another note, last night I ate about five pounds or kilos or whatever of delicious crab, a giant bowl of crab parts arrived at our table sitting in oil and plastic gloves were passed around for easy access. Soon everything was covered in crab parts, oil, and the smell has yet to leave my hands. At one point in the chaos of eating I bit down on something that caused my tongue and mouth to go numb, literally like a trip to the dentist. I was a little worried I would start chewing on myself instead of the crab but a couple mouthfuls of beer, tea, and green beans brought feeling back. We ate at a restaurant called La Popo, literally Spicy Mother-in-law [husband's mother, no doubt not a popular person for who calls her mother-in-law!]

Side note, sorry about the double publishing of some blogs. Sometimes I worry it did not go through, but I'll stop. Can't delete 'em from China neither.

I am enjoying a book that I eyed on my mother's shelf for many years, called The Dork of Cork, dork meaning dwarf, Cork being the town in Ireland. A thick and detailed book, which I am learning is my style. I'll leave you with a quote from it, about the storage of memory:
"The image has been carefully processed, folded, and stored away, laid up like a special garment, a baptismal gown or a wedding dress, in tissue paper, dusted with moth flakes, tucked far back in the darkest closets of the brain. I unfold the memory. It is as fresh and bright as yesterday."

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LINDSAY!!!

It took me seven times to figure out how to use the phone card I just purchased to call my girlfriend on her birthday. I could not understand the recorded voice's English, I finally called back and heard the woman in Chinese and I could get through! No, my Chinese isn't that good... I've decided my Chinese is fairly bad, I can understand the conversation if I am in control, but not if they take over...

Happy Birthday Woman, I love you!

I wore a seatbelt today

First time since I been here. Now before you go getting all bent out of shape, the only opportunity to wear a seat belt is in cabs, and then only when you are banished to the front seat, forced to talk to the cab driver about the traffic of Beijing and how the US is a “good country”, despite the fact that the only real contact he may have had with the US is his son’s infatuation with the NBA. It was nice to have a glimpse of the life of safety in the US- we are safe, over safe, yet accidents still happen there and year. When I bike to work I am the ONLY person wearing a helmet. Yet everyone bikes. 85, sure, with ol’ granny nugget in tow. 11, she can ride a bike too. My favorite is the under 4 years that are on the back of their mom’s bike on the ‘rat trap’ just holding on. Sometimes they have special little people handles; sometimes he’s just free riding it. Crazy little guys.

I also made breakfast, twice now, with bacon, so-called “American Style” but really just ham with fat attached. Made a sandwich out of it today, bread was bad so I may stick with the Chineeeesse food, it is always yum.

Missing y’all, ‘preciate those of you that send me emails with notes like “P.S. I'm still a religious reader of your hilarious blog. Keep it up…” –Hillie O’B, she’s a TOTAL lamb.

Just got back from a house party where I actually knew a fair amount of people, my scene I guess. Mostly americanos, honky’s, been here for a bit [not Lao Beijing like me though] [Lao means old, as in lao shi teacher or Lao Wu as Wu Xia calls Xiao Wu, indicating he is no longer Xiao – meaning small- cuz he’s old, even though he doesn’t show it- he passes on his surname, Wu to his daughter] [sorry for that total tangent but I want to make sure this is crystal to those of y’all who hadn’t had the Chyna experience yet] so they are a cool crowd. Not as worldly as I may like, turns out I can hang out with the honky Dubya haters in Denver, but a cool group of kids. Even though 80% of the party was Lao wai [literally old outside, meaning foreigners], the toilet seat remained up for the entire party, so funny, but no one was wearing their cell phone around their neck [many Chinese find this is a convenient and fashionable way to be a slave to your cellie]. My favorite is when people get all snooty about having lived in Beijing for so long, over a year, oh my gosh, the city this… and I’m like really… ha funny funny, Lao Beijing.

Tomorrow apt hunting with Summer, hope for the best.

Happy Birthday Lindsay. Love from Beijing to Boulder Woman!

I just made $75 in 3 and a half hours!

And it was only slightly illegal. A Chinese music teacher wanted me to help him transcribe parts of the Broadway show Chicago, one that he video taped while watching the performance in Beijing. His students are doing a rendition of the show and he wanted to know what the dialogue was between the songs. So I listened, typed, and a short time later I had made a LOT more than I do at my job now! So I have to look for more of those. Ah, the gift of being a native English speaker!

Life has slowed down I think. I am comfortably living at Hakim’s palatial residence while my new roommate Summer looks for apartments for us to check out. I have decided that I do in fact need to leave my job, but think it is best to ask to work part time so I still have something going on and I am not totally in the doldrums of unemployment. The job search starts tomorrow [yes Saturday].

What do you do for a living Mr. Fletch?
I’m a Shepard.
I would like to give a shot out to my favorite movie line quoter, yes Mr. Edward Thomas, isn’t he a cutie. For those of you on friendster I highly recommend checking out his photo, it is one of his best. Edward writes: >I just "posted" a "comment" on your "blog" which may get "censored" by the Chinese "authorities" and cause you to go to "prison" for the majority of your "child- bearing years".< And: >Actually I check it like 4 times a day, and curse you audibly when nothing new has been added.”

Two comments on this, you don’t need to worry about the “authoritie”seeing your “comments” because they cannot see them, I cannot see them, no one in China can see my blog, so to repeat again IF YOU LEAVE COMMENTS ONLY Y’ALL IN THE US CAN READ THEM. Comprende? You will have to email me [or through friendster] if you want me to hear your thoughts.

Additionally, please feel free to curse me when I don’t add something, but sometimes there is not a lot of action going on in this city. Sometimes it is just life. Ok, ok I do have a few stories that may spark your interest.
In the underpass from the Dongzhimen subway to get across the street- there are many people selling puppies in little duffel bags, only $4 per pup. Yes I almost bought one before I realized I would have to open quite a large dog park to rescue all this these doggies. What a life they must have three months old and getting treated the same way as the woman who sells combs treats her products, I try not think to about it.

The Chinese government has officially turned the heat off. This means heat is off in all government buildings, crappy old housing, and new fancy housing where tenants like Hakim are paying upwards of $1200 for his apartment [that is a lot of money here, you New Yorkers!] So, Hakim, like many other Chinese, still wears his long underwear [I refuse to put mine back on]. The weather is nice, earlier this week it was gua feng which means REALLY windy, like so windy you can not walk into the wind, and walking away from the wind really means running because it pushes you. So fun. Well at least I saw that I apparently have a mountain view [on some days].
Last night I arranged to have dinner with two girls that I met online through the Beijing honky classifieds, I invited my friend, Raleigh, and they invited some of their friends and the next thing we knew there were 10 of us all at dinner. All of them except Raleigh and me were from Europe, so there was a lot of Italian being spoken, lots of accents, but fortunately most of the convo was in English. Mostly grad students, all of them, so no real great job connections, but I always enjoy an international type friend to break through my Americano club. So hopefully we will get together again, in a smaller number, those giant tables make it hard to really talk to someone [especially with really loud Italian girls right next to you].

The folks have returned from their mega- venture to India, country of contrasts and ‘Dehli Belly. I will not relay the entire story but take Montezum’s revenge + my mother + long airplane flights, you know the outcome [bad]. Aside from that they said the trip was “good” [feel free to ask Patty for further comment]. In any case it is nice to have them home so I can take to them on the phone occasionally.

For those of you that know my girlfriend, Ms. Lindsay E. Shaw, she is turning 27 this Saturday, should you want to send her a birthday greeting. Happy birthday Linds! Miss you.

I sleep diagonal in my bed

Why? Because I can. Because I'm sleeping in giant bed in my own room with a door that closes and NO CATS. It's been amazing, so far, the new digs. I go around showing off my very own key to anyone who will listen. Yesterday I purchased some essentials: speakers for my discman ($4), a hair dryer ($3), and tape to hang photos of my loved ones [Lindsay, sib's, my precious VW and Mitchell, among others]. Waking up and seeing everyone up there makes my day. The apartment is called 'Phoenix City' and is located on the NW corner of where the NE 3rd ring road meets the airport expressway- directly across from Carrefour, their version of Walmart.

Introduce "The Girls from Shandong," the coastal province where Qingdao is located, and where Hakim's wife, Rose, is from. Remember the woman who is the general manager of the excutive fitness club? Rose's best friend. Last night I met Summer, who Hakim introduced me to, saying she was looking for a roomate. Turns out she is my age, very 'ku' [cool] modern, speaks fabulous English and just may be batting for my team. We talked, we're having dinner tommorow night to start our cheap but conveniently located apartment search! I am very excited to have found a cool Chinese roomate. Prrrfect.

I finally had dinner with Xue Ji Xiu, or "Joocy Jew" as my father so correctly pronounces it. [I'll call her XJX to make everyone's life easier]. She's the executive major marketing head honcho for IBM China, and she just got through being auditing by the government, which sounded about as much fun as doing a triathalon with no legs, but for three months instead of a few hours. She said she hasn't had a weekend in months and was working 16 hour days. Due to her hard work IBM passed the audit! Way to go, XJX. She's quite a talker, which left me time to enjoy some high class healthy Sichuan food ["you're eating with a middle age woman" she said]. She's smarter than most, that XJX. Her conversation is filled with "cheng yu's" which are traditional sayings typically used by the especially scholarly. One was describing her being low maintenance, "su mian chao tian," literally translated as 'pure face facing the sky'.

We decided due to our busy schedules we would do a monthly checkup. It was nice to hear someone speak of my Ol' Man with such incredible respect. Like he's some IBM G-d, which of course he is. A legend, that J. David. He's got morals higher than the Petronas Towers. Hopefully he passed some on to me!

The Great Hakim has a Phatty* Apartment, turns out

Went to dinner with boss James and Hakim the other night, he was back in town from Qingdao [yes where the beer Tsing Tao or however they spell it comes from] and I was notified moments after procuring other dinner plans that I Should with a capital S come to dinner with Hakim. C’est la vie here. We went to a delicious Yunnan restaurant [southern province that borders Vietnam/ Burma/ Laos] the food was very different- I had something very close to a Latke and dare I say a non- mayonnaise salad. At the dinner were a number of Hakim’s friends, including some healthcare industry guys, one of which was clearly from China but had spent considerable time in the US and had a US passport [he informed us] and therefore said he was from “The US”. Hmm. I guess that’s kind of the same way I say I am a Beijing ren [person].
I sat next to a young man named Ben who went to Qing Hua [their version of a tougher Harvard] and during a business planning workshop [while still in school] he created a software company and got people to invest in him and now at the age of 29 he is the CEO of 100 employees and is the #1 company or something like that in whatever software specialty he does. Bright guy. В
Additionally, Hakim decided I should move into his Beijing apartment, as he has the lease until April 15th and will be in Qingdao with his fiancee. I went to see the place, turns out it is a lap of luxury, and I am guaranteed to be able to sleep in to my required 9 am rising hour. This morning my roommate was up before the cats at 6.15. Shoot me in the eye. So I may move in this weekend.
Boss ain’t here today, he’s at a conference in Kunming [capital of Yunnan, but this is not a geography lesson] which gives my fellow co-workers a chance to slack off. One girl is out cold napping on her desk. I think the rest of them are packed into the lunchroom watching TV. Working in a Chinese company does give me some insight into how China works and keeps from working. My coworker Wang Wei, from Inner-Mongolia, youngest of 10 brothers and sisters [he’s over 30 so he was born before the one child policy was put into effect], occasionally uses our nice work bathroom for a quick shower [in the sink] and frequently wipes his hands on the curtains to dry them off. Yum-my.
For those of you interested on reading funny China stories, my friend Alison [who is here still] wrote this a while back about her experience in Harbin [northern most city in China] and it’s hysterical. At least I was laughing out loud at the office [drawing the attention of Wang Wei, and when I tried to explain why it was so funny he didn’t really get it.] The article is here:
http://www.theglimpse.com/newsite/viewarticle2.asp?articleid=1
It is kind of long, but if you skip to part II, about fatness in China, you will get into and read the whole thing. Part III is about food poisoning, and part IV about conversation in the public toilets. A good read.

*Vocab for those not in my generation: Phatty, as in phat, as in cool, ausome, rad.

Burger Madness

Last night I was treated to my first Western meal, at the good ol’ Outback Steakhouse, which I have never been to anywhere. We arrived, the waiter promptly took our beer and burger order, and about 15 minutes later our beer had still not arrived, and we had to chase down our waiter. He was no where to be found, the burgers arrived, the order was almost correct except the bacon missing from my burger, and then our friendly waiter finally appeared with our beers. The cost of this meal? My 32 ounce draft Budweiser was US$4.65 and the burger was US$7. Amazing that they can charge US prices and still have not even Chinese service, just bad service.
I went out with a man named Winter Wright, an American living in China since when I first got here [1996] who I met also through Jon Hakim. He has his own copywriting business, www.winterwright.com, which seems like something I would really like to do, but he was not about to hire me. He works for himself by himself in his house so maybe it would not be perfect. He thought my 2004 healthcare year in review project was a good one, and would definitely look good on my resume, so I appreciated that support.
On another note, I stopped by the nearby to my work breakfast cart, aptly named Beijing Breakfast, and purchased a beverage [I was looking for my hot soy milk but this place was not a traditional breakfast place] so I purchased a orange and pineapple drink called Have Fun, and I am actually having fun drinking it, it is pretty yum. Also available for consumption was some type of meat sandwich with the English words on it Wart Coil. I almost bought it just to save the wrapper, but I knew I would try to eat what was inside, and yesterday I had a scary experience when I bought something that they called an egg, but upon further investigation there was no yolk and the consistency was scary. That set back my snack eating adventurous spirit!

Eating Cake with Chopsticks

The birthday celebrations continued this weekend with a dinner last night with the Wu Family, we all put on our sweatpants [Wu wears sweatpants cuz his belly won’t fit in a whole lot else] and headed out to the local restaurant to have dinner. When someone has a “special” dinner in China, you get a separate room to eat in, which is rather creepy because there is no music, nothing to look at, just you and your friends in the small room. The food was good and I got to take some chicken home which I just enjoyed as a late afternoon snack at work. Once we got back to the Wu house, Wu and Yang Ling arrived with a cake! Yeah for my birthday cake! There are photos of the event on snapfish.com, I will email all of you [hopefully everyone] so you can check them out. If you don’t get the email, let me know so I can send the link to you. There are also photos of folks in boulder, Mexico vacation, for your browsing pleasure, on snapfish. I also got a pink bracelet from Wu Xia so I am looking quite stylish.

On Saturday I got off my lazy and increasingly large butt and joined the MOBsters [mountain bikers of Beijing] for their second ride of the season. I met them at 8 am the Agricultural Hall’s parking lot and we put all of our bikes into our bus and headed up to the Ming Tombs, only about an hour from Beijing. There were 9 of us, one woman who was Chinese, the rest were non-American whitey men. The riding was great, but a bit of an ass-kicker for those of us not in shape! [AKA me]. The guys were great, helping me carrying my [very heavy] bike through the boulder fields. We rode up a mountain, down the mountain [very cold]. Up the next mountain, down the mountain [again hands were frozen]. It was a great way to see the countryside, to see the faces of the people up there. As I approached someone on the road their faces had a look of: disgust, fear, scowl, a grimace, but then after I say a friendly “ni hao” their faces light up and they have the biggest smile, their sun wrinkled country faces beamed at me. We stopped and had a snack with two women who were fire wardens in the mountains, which means they basically sit on the side of the road and do really nothing all day, I guess until someone starts smoking in the mountains and they attack! They were super nice, and took our photo. The scene of watching the country bumpkin try to work a digital camera was priceless. My new bike performed well, aside from its heavy-ness, but we all decided it was a good deal for the money. In the end I rode 25 miles!!! And I felt it the next day. And today too. A jump start to my spring work out.

My job has made progress, we had a meeting today and decided that I would research and compile a healthcare review for the year 2004 for China’s OTC market, and then do the same for the beginning of this year, and then send out monthly newsflash emails. Quite a major task, but I think it could be both interesting and feasible. And I am MORE THAN happy to have a goal, something to work towards, here at my little office. Aside from that, the weather is warm, the kitties are cuddly, and the friends plentiful!

Visas and Bikes

I finally got my new bike! It’s ausome. An American brand, GT, Avalanche 2.0. According to anything I can find online, this bike does not exist or is not made in the USA. Its red all over, very good looking, matches with its rider. I want you all to know that I am riding it very carefully around this town- it’s a crazy town to ride in. But, if 11 year old kids and 85 year old grannies with grandpop in tow can do it, so can I. Today was the first day I rode it to work- only took me 25 minutes. As I cruised pass the bus station I was so happy to know that I would not have to feel the millions of Chinese bodies pressed against mine as we all packed onto the bus. Sometimes on the bus every part of my body is touching someone else’s. My elbow is in someone’s face as I hold onto the handrail, sorry dear, she gracefully moves it from her face.

Unfortunately today was a day the Chinese call ‘gua da feng’ - really big wind. There were times I was riding and not making any forward progress. By the time I got to work much of the cities dirt and dust was stuck to my face. Delicious. Still beats the bus. Tomorrow I will join the MOB [mountain bikers of Beijing] and go to the Ming Tombs [about 1 hour north of Beijing] and ride the mountains there, I can’t wait. Hope my bike holds up.

Today I also dealt with my visa situation. I went this morning and spoke to one woman behind the counter at the Public Security Bureau, I said, I want to extend my visa. What do I need? She directed me to go stand in a long line. I went to the line and spoke with another foreigner who was waiting in line who had a piece of paper called ‘application for visa form’. I went back to the woman, we’ll call her Dumbass for short, and asked, can I have an application form? She gave it to me. I went back to the long line, and noticed that my photo must be affixed to the form. I went back to Dumbass, and asked, can I have some glue to attach my photo? Oh yes, here. Gee thanks. So I say to her, ok, to clarify, I only need my passport, photo, visa form, that is ALL I need to get my visa extension? Yes, just go get in that long line.

Back to the long line, after waiting a long time, I talk to someone who says I must go with my roommate to the police station and get a temporary residence permit first. I wanted to go back to Dumbass and say, do you have any idea what you are doing here? What exactly is your job? Do you think you are helping China? She was text messaging the whole time, which must be a chronic problem with the Chinese and their jobs, the man I bought my bicycle from was telling me to ‘hold one moment’ [in English] while he read and responded to his text message. [For those of you out of the technology loop, you can write your friends messages on your cell phone, the Chinese love it].

This experience is what we refer to as ‘ma fan’. Ma, the character, is a pictograph of hemp fibers drying under a shed. They use this character to mean a variety of other words, including ‘numb’, the ‘ma’ of ‘mah jong’, and my dad’s favorite tofu dish, ‘ma po dofu’ [spicy tofu]. When put together with the character ‘fan’, which is a pictograph of fire in the head, together they mean ‘bother, trouble, inconvenience, pain, &*%$, a feeling experienced by foreigners when trying to get their visa renewed and talking to people who work at the visa place but have no idea what they are talking about… “Suan le!” [‘suan’ is a pictograph of bamboo and an abacus for counting shell money plus ‘le’ indicating past tense, put together to mean ‘forget it’ - or wasn’t the meaning obvious to you…]

Notes from a restaurant

[I’m at a restaurant, waiting to get my ‘to go’ food, I wrote this in my journal there.]
21 men and one woman at a large table. Only one more table remains in the room, although there is additional seating upstairs. None of them stare at me as I quietly sit and wait for my food. The waitresses’ outfits are long sleeve red shirts with denim overalls. Unusual. “Hey Jude”, the muzak version [no lyrics] is playing. I have come back to this neighborhood restaurant for “nan gua bing” south gourd cake- in essence, pumpkin pie filling type stuff deep fried with purple bean paste in the middle, a little larger than a double stuff oreo. A fritter I guess. The more I use Chinese, the done worser my English gets. 10 little hot cakes for $1.25, a perfect desert.

Occasionally one man will leave his seat and walk down the table and get other men to drink with them; the custom of “gan bei” or finishing the glass is gone, now they sensibly “he yi kou” or ‘drink one mouth’- just a mouthful. Probably best considering it is not yet 6 pm. They all eat a bit, then smoke a lot. I swear Chinese cigarettes smoke faster than ours, maybe that’s why they smoke so many. The woman at the table is asked to ‘gan bei’ but she is drinking water, and doesn’t drink any anyway, she just raises her glass. They are all wearing dark drab clothes and most keep their jackets on even though it is warm in here. They take no notice of me frantically recording their dinner in my journal.

As they all stand up for a toast, their voices get louder and louder. One man’s cell phone rings louder than all the voices- he answers it mid- toast. Cell phone etiquette has not yet hit China. Last week when I was at the ballet, I was seated on the balcony section of the theater, and in between acts I would look down and see half the audience’s cell phones light up, no doubt checking text messages and see whose called. My pumpkin cakes have arrived. Time to leave the 21 men to their dinner/celebration.

Birthday in China

Birthday in china. My new friends have been exceptional at making my birthday special, I woke up at 12.30 am last night to my friend alison’s birthday text message. Then at 1.30 am my dearest girlfriend called our house- she is still not too clear on the time change! [neither am i]. this am I woke up to the kitty’s playing in my suitcase at 7.30am, as soon as I yelled at them to get out, I heard from downstairs, happy birthday! From roommate bri. I’ve gotten 6 more text messages with happy birthday in various languages, all from my new friends! And no birthday in china isn’t complete without having a nice Chinese man take you out to eat- I went with my boss and four coworkers to a nearby Sichuan restaurant for lunch, he ordered some crazy food that was actually REALLY GOOD and I don’t think I will ever need to eat again. The way these men handle the ordering process is amazing, you must have at least one food from every category: cold dishes, meat, fish, soup, desert, rice, noodles, something weird, juice, beer, tea, it was so yummy. And not cheap, about $50 for six people [that translates as pricey in this country!] it was great, and I had some time to talk to my coworkers [who since my arrival have been reticent] and I think they are warming up to me. And Wang Wei promises not to smoke, or at least to smoke less, in the office. Yeah for me. Yeah for my lungs, really. So 25 has been good so far. My bosses wife, Linda, gave me a birthday present [my only one besides my bike, which was a gift from myself anyway]- a pink wallet, wrapped up in nice paper, in a little red bag, too cute. When Jon Hakim initially introduced me to James, he said that he and his wife were really some of the nicest people. He is really turning out to be right!
Later that night I had dinner with my roommates and their men, then we went to a Women’s Day event at a bar, which was good, my friend Alison did some crazy modern dance, then there was a strange lull of entertainment, then two grrl bands got on stage and did their screaming music type event. It was not the best entertainment-wise, but a good time. A good bday altogether.
Last night I went to the thatsbj.com [English newspaper here] website launching party, it was fun to mingle with my new friends and meet other cool people… Today I am going to get my new bike [yesterday I ran out of time!] so I am super excited about that.
That’s the extent of the bday madness, thanks to everyone for sendig bday wishes, those of you who haven’t, its not too late!

From the Statistics Department

For all of you amazed by numbers:

Beijing, China's second most populous city, [first is Shanghai] has a population twice that of Los Angeles (7.74 million compared with 3.87 million).
A mere 1.4% of all Chinese live in either Shanghai or Beijing., and just 3.8% of the country's population resides in any of China's 10 most populous cities.
So where do nearly 90% of urban China's residents actually live? In the "Third China" -- a rapidly expanding set of second-tier cities beyond the country's 10 largest, which most non-Chinese, and even some Chinese themselves, have never heard of. Even though it is still predominantly rural, China has 45 cities with populations of 1 million or more within the city proper, each with a population greater than that of the City of Detroit. The United States has only nine such cities.

Wedding bells and the Great Wu, Even Greater

At Sunday night family dinner at the Wu’s, I had a conversation with Wu Xia about dating and what the word ‘commitment ‘means. Her boyfriend, LBX [Li Bo Xing, but I call him LBX] recently purchased an apartment, which is in the process of being built, and will be done in one year. So I asked Wu Xia, will you move in with him when the apt is finished? She said maybe, if they are still dating. I said, you might as well, you have been dating him for two years. She said two years was not a long time, she knew of people who have dated for eight years and still do not live together or are married. I said those people have a fear of commitment, and we discussed what that means. I said, if LBX leaves right now, you could never see him again, you have no commitment with him. She said, right.
Later that night, Xiao Wu and I were sitting at the dinner table while Wu Xia and LBX were watching TV, and Wu and I were discussing debts to parents, and he said he had loaned Wu Xia 100,000 RMB [about 12 grand US] to help LBX buy this apt. I yelled into the other room, ‘Wu Xia! Guo lai! [come here!] I asked her, you don ‘t call 100,000 RMB a commitment?! She turned rather red and started explaining all these bank loan situations, and how its better to pay more money up front, blah blah blah, I told her, I don’t care about why it makes sense to loan him the money, I am wondering why you didn’t tell me that you have in fact made a commitment to this man! She said she didn’t want me to think badly of her and LBX. I told her that I thought it was great that they were buying a house together, and she should be proud of the commitment she has made, because it means she believes in her relationship, and told Wu that it was great that he supported his daughter that way too. Wu Xia said that it wasn’t a true commitment, like a contract or marriage, because Wu told her that if she wants to break up with LBX she should not worry about the money. I said that I agreed, but still 100,000 RMB is a lot of money! Anyway, this is turning out to be a really long story, but in the end I learned that: 1. Wu is a great guy, even greater, and I think it’s so ausome that he believes in and support his daughter like that. And 2. Wu Xia is probably going to marry this guy!!!! He’d a cool guy, so I am excited for her. Whoa, major.
Author’s note: do not fear that folks in China will be accessing my blog and reading all my insights into their lives, you cannot view my blog page in this country!
Sorry to be overblogging, I know it's alot to read but as my work is still rather 'mellow' I don't have a whole more to do than blog!

Mao Zedong, a forever warm memory

The following are comments on the Xinhua news site [same one the racism article came from]. The full comments can be viewed at:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2003-12/18/content_1072232.htm

Iamcrazy: Whoever enables the Chinese people to have enough to eat, people will remember him.
reincarnate: Why do I have deep feelings for Mao Zedong? First, he was a Chinese; Second, he was a patriotic; Third, he worked in the interests of the Chinese nation and the Chinese people; and Fourth, he did not seek gains for himself or for his family. That is why Mao always lives in my heart.
Fuyu: Why do we commemorate Mao Zedong? Because he was the backbone of the Chinese people
I submitted these comments/questions to Xinhua News:
I am an American living in Beijing and was just reading some comments on Mao in the Voice of Netizens. If a reader wished to comment on the tragedies that occurred in this country under Mao's rule, would you publish it? Do Chinese people know about the extent of the tragedies that Mao incited? Such as the amount of people who died as a result of lack of food during the 1950s, or the amount of people that were persecuted and murdered during the Cultural Revolution. There are still so many people who remember the Cultural Revolution as they lived through it, and they do not remember it as a happy time. How then are readers still regarding Mao as a warm memory? When will you as a country own up to your real history? When will Mao become a criminal instead of national hero?

China on our human rights abuses

You know how we say the Chinese are filled with human rights abuses? Well they think the same of us, aparently as I found in this Xinhua news article [Xinhua is the equivalent of the AP in China]. I can't even give highlights of the article, you'll really have to read it yourself. They really did a great job piecing bits together to create a rather dismal picture. Below is the article, enjoy. [and don't hate the Chinese for it!]


Racial discrimination deeply rooted in US: China's report
www.chinaview.cn 2005-03-03 13:28:40
BEIJING, March 3 (Xinhuanet) -- Racial discrimination has been deeply rooted in the United States, permeating into every aspects of society, said the Human Rights Record of the United States in 2004 released by the Information Office of the State Council of China Thursday.
According to the record, the colored people are generally poor,with living condition much worse than the white. According to a report of The Guardian of Britain on Oct. 9, 2004, the average netassets of a white family is 88,000 US dollars in 2002, 11 times of a family of Latin American ancestry, or nearly 15 times of a family of African ancestry.
Statistics show that the number of black people living in poverty is three times that of the white. The average life expectancy of the black is six years shorter than the white.
People of minority ethnic groups are biased against in employment and occupation, the record said. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission of the United States received 29,000 complaints in 2003 of racial bias in the workplace. Statistics provided by the United States Department of Labor also suggest that by November 2004, the unemployment rate for black and white people is 10.8 percent and 4.7 percent respectively.
Teenagers from at least 38 countries work like slaves (EFE San Francisco, Sept. 26, 2004). Out of 45 million people who are unable to afford Medicare in the United States, 7 million are African-Americans, accounting for about one fifth of the total African-Americans in the States. The proportion is 77 percent higher than that for the white people. The Declaration of Independence said all men are created equal, so the gap between black and white people is simply an insult to the founding essenceof the United States, according to the US News and World Report onMarch 29, 2004.
The record said that apartheid runs rampant at schools of the United States. One in eight southern black students attends a school that is 99 percent black. About a third attend schools thatare at least 90 percent minority. In the Northeast, by contrast, more than half of blacks attend such schools, the Washington Post reported on May 17, 2004.
According to the record, racism recurs on campus of American universities. Fascist slogans and posters promoting superiority ofwhite people, along with threats by weapon or words were found on college campuses including University of California at Berkeley. Protests were sparked off when Santa Rosa Junior College in California published anti-Semitism opinions in a column article inits campus newspaper and the chat room of its website were dominated by white-superior surfers. At Dartmouth College, white girl students auctioned off black slaves in fund-raising activities. At the University of Southern Mississippi, hordes of white students assaulted four black students, chanting racist slogans after a football match was over. At Olivet College of Michigan State, where there are only 55 black students, 51 of the black students quitted school after racial cases of violence or harassment (see The China Press, a Chinese language newspaper published in New York, on April 17, 2004).
The record showed that racial prejudice has made social conflicts to become acute, causing a rise in hate crimes. Racial prejudice, most often directed at black people, was behind more than half of the nation's 7,489 reported hate crime incidents in 2003, the FBI said on Nov. 22 2004. Race bias was behind 3,844 of the total cases in 2003, FBI claimed after having made statistics of hate crimes handled by 16 percent of the law-enforcement organizations in the States. Reports of hate crimes motivated by anti-black bias totaled 2,548 in 2003, accounting for 51.4 percentof the total, more than double the total hate crimes against all other racial groups. There were 3,150 black victims in these reports, according to the annual FBI figures. And with regard to the attribute of race, among the 6,934 reported offenders, 62.3 percent were white.
In a related development, because of the "lingering atmosphere of fear" stemming from the Sept. 11 attacks and fallout from the Iraq War, there were 1,019 anti-Muslim incidents in the United States in 2003, representing a 69 percent increase. There were 221incidents in 2003 of anti-muslim bias in California, tripled a year ago, Los Angeles Times reported on May 3.
Racial prejudice is ubiquitous in judicial fields, the record said. The proportion for persons of colored races being sentenced or being imprisoned is notably higher than whites. In accordance with a report published in Nov. 2004 by the US Department of Justice, colored races accounted for over 70 percent of inmates inthe United States.
By the end of 2003, out of 1.4 million prisoners who are serving jail terms above one year at the federal or state prisons,44 percent were blacks. Blacks who are arrested are 3 times more likely to be imprisoned than whites who are arrested. White felonsare more likely to get probation than blacks. (see the State BlackAmerica 2004, issued by National Urban League on March 24, 2004).
The record said after the Sept. 11 incident, the United States openly restricts the rights of citizens under the cloak of homeland security, and uses diverse means including wire tapping of phone conversations and secret investigations, checks on all secret files, and monitoring transfers of fund and cash flows to supervise activities of its citizens, in which, people of ethnic minority groups, foreigners and immigrants become main victims.
Statistics show that after the Sept. 11 attacks, 32 million were investigated out of racial prejudice concern throughout the United States. Among the people being investigated out of racial prejudice concern, African-Americans made up 47 percent, followed by people of Latino and Asian origins. White Americans only account for 3 percent.
The US Department of Homeland Security announced in Nov. 2004 that 157,281 immigrants were repatriated in one year, up 8 percentfrom a year ago, a record high. The number of foreigners arrested without any documents also went up by 112 percent according to a report by Argentina La Nacion, Nov. 21, 2004.
Another report said starting from last year, many American cities such as San Francisco, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Miami, Saint Paul, Denver Kansas and Portland, dozens of immigrants from Mexico or other countries are arrested each day and are forced to wear fetters like suspects. The practice of treating illegal immigrants like criminals has become a national trend. The limit in the definition of terrorists and illegal immigrants has become very blurry, the record said.

On an end note, my brief thoughts on the Chinese being racist, they are outright racist toward black folks, they will blatenly speak badly about them, but still the kids are wild about the NBA. Go figure. Additionally, my friends who are Asian-American and speak English just like I do cannot get a job tutoring Chinese. To apply for these jobs they must see your photo to prove your whitey white honky ness. Love it. I just applied for one! I could make $15 to $20 an hour, so hope for the best.

Almost my birthday

And an exciting one it will be!

Currently I am toying with the idea of moving home, yes all my three bags and pillow, to more of a permanent location, my own room! Haven’t had once since before Christmas, it’s time. Mostly my motivation is to have a place where I can hang up all my photos of Lindsay, Mitchell, K&B and the rest of the gang. I found a cheap room [like $125/month, right in my price range] in a good location [its actually down the street from a disco I used to go to when I was in high school, Nightman] with a Chinese girl named Gilda [as in Radner]. She seems pretty cool, speaks English well and actually won’t speak to me in Chinese. Which is Ok, I guess. The apartment is in true Chinese style, it was probably built in the 80s but looks older than the Communist party itself, but the interior is pretty nice, and the room comes furnished with a horribly uncomfortable double bed, among other high quality furniture. Gilda says I can buy good cheap bed mats at Ikea. I may do it, I think it might be time to have my own place. Could happen this weekend, I will keep you all posted. Of course my fear is that as soon as I commit to Gilda I will find an ad for a similar apartment, but with fun international roommates that love to go out and eat, party, and have dozens of fun friends. I don’t know how many more night I would have to endure sleeping with the kitties to achieve that.

I am learning to live on my meager Chinese salary, only eating Chinese food, and I have finally discovered decent breakfast options: the Chinese Egg McMuffin. For only 12 cents I purchase a just-baked bread type thing, they cut it open and put a fried egg inside. Then I buy a warm soy bean milk drink to wash it down, its all pretty tasty and for about a quarter. For lunch, work serves us food, your basic low quality Chinese, it comes in a crappy little box with four sections, all with different food. Usually two or three are edible, and I have learned that anything tastes OK when you wash it down with lots of rice. Now is not a time to be picky.

How is work? Boring, because my boss is waiting to hear from Nicholas Hall, the man in England with whom we are setting up this healthcare conference. In the meantime I have been self educating myself on pretty much anything I can find out about China, healthcare, China’s economy and foreign investment, which is pretty interesting. James [boss] says we will start our preparations on Monday.

The Chinese have traded in their kids for dogs

His wife, Linda, who works in the adjoining office, brought their dog in today to visit the office staff, he’s a Pekingese dog [surprisingly the most popular dog I have seen here, http://www.akc.org/breeds/pekingese/index.cfm]. She refers to him as her son and his name is Wrong. “Wrong wrong!” He came to the office and his favorite activity was standing in front of me and barking. “Gua! Gua! Gua!” That’s the translation of ‘bark’. Linda says he likes to frighten people with is bark, but as we noted from his wagging tail, he clearly wants to be my new best friend. She placed him on a table and we all stood around and looked at him while she feed him candy [like people’s candy, which she bite off and then fed to him] and dried crab apples [also people food]. [I know K&B are gasping] After he snarfed all his food down, did some more barking, Linda put his coat on, of which she says he has many. During the day the maid takes him to doggie day care for half the day. There are many dogs in my neighborhood, MANY DOGS, and surprisingly very few kids. I think the Chinese have turned their kids into dogs. They are easier to treat like princes; they just lavish the attention, food, all the care given to them. Kids grow up into to teenagers and reject all that. I don’t know how the dogs are helping population control though.

My parents are on their way to India in a few short hours. They will leave on Friday and get there on Sunday. Now that’s really the other side of the world. They are on some three week tour, hopefully they will come back sans giardia.В My mom will happy to note that the public toilets in all of Beijing have been redone, and there is no longer a charge to use them. There used to be a charge of 2 cents, paid to the most horrible job in China, the toilet fee taking person, and you would get back the most disgusting money you have ever seen. It was after these experiences that my mom swore off drinking any liquid ever again in China. Well, Pat, drink up because they don’t smell near as bad. The Olympics are doing some good things.

A fun fact to leave you with for the weekend: in China there are 166 cities with one million people, while the US has nine.

I am really enjoying the second hand smoke at my new job.

I sit in the main room with two younger Chinese guys who smoke a cigarette about every 5 minutes. The smoke is giving me a headache; I think I will have to ask James [my boss] to move [although he smokes too, not sure how he'll react!] Besides that, day one at my new job was good. I just sat at my new computer and continued to read through info on my new highly exciting industry of healthcare marketing. First interesting fact: the healthcare market is highly regulated by the Chinese government [not surprisingly]. This includes a ban on feminine hygiene product ads and hemorrhoid ads during mealtime on TV. Ha! No one wants to watch that while eating dinner. [Why they are watching TV at all during dinner is beyond me, that was the original sin at the Nelson home].

So, work was pretty good. After I read through about 12 more pounds of information tomorrow, I may start actually doing something. And today the bus only took me 35 minutes. I think I may purchase a bike, I could probably cut my commute time in half.

Another story of note, I met another woman [Hakim’s wife’s best friend] who gave me her card and said I should call her as she is the General Manager of an executive health club [read: very expensive and luxurious]. So, I called her and went over there to work out. The club was very nice, the same machines as in the US, and we ‘worked out’, although despite her supposed Monday, Wednesday, Friday strict ‘work out’ regime, she was exhausted after using one machine and seemed to have zero strength. I guess I shouldn’t be too critical, but if I were the GM of a health club I would at least know how the machines work? We chatted after the work out, and had some coffee, as she told me about her pretty much miserable life, as her daughter and husband [who she has no interest in] are in Qingdao and she does nothing here but work. So, maybe not my best friend but a good contact.

If I hadn’t already mentioned, it’s my birthday next Tuesday, which is Women’s Day in this country, and saying the date “san ba” [literally “three eight” as they call months by their number] is a euphemism for “bitch”. Love it.

Another thing to note, I am officially an accomplished Beijing bus-rider, and for those of you that have been to China, you know what that means. For those of you that don’t, well I guess it like 9 times more difficult than riding a bus in NYC, except that everything is in Chinese!