Beihai Romance
After asking Hugo and Diana to pose for about a dozen Beihai photo-ops, and trying to get a perfect ‘visit to China’ picture, I caught them being naturally adorable.
Posted in New York City
Tagged Beihai park, China, Chinese life, Diana, e3, Hugo, New York City
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Little Water Poets
A few weeks ago, when I made my attempt at water poetry, it was suggested that my waterbrushed Chinese characters look like a child wrote them. So when I saw these kids at Beihai, I thought I’d compare.
Sure, the kids know more characters than I do, and can even write them faster, but I can use water without knocking over the bucket! Take that, kindergarteners!
The Emperor’s New Clothes
We had a great Sunday with Hugo and Diana at Beihai Park. We relaxed in the gardens on the north side of the park, then caught the boat over to the little island, and climbed up to the white dagoba. It’s a bit like the Jersey Turnpike here, every few minutes you need to stop at another checkpoint and pay another couple kwai to keep going. The view from the top, though, is worth the sweat and the yuan. You can see the sloping golden roofs of the Forbidden City, and see them surrounded by skyscrapers in all directions.
For more pictures (Mom and Sylvana!), here’s my facebook photo album.
Posted in New York City
Tagged adventures with Stick, as seen in Beijing, Beihai park, Chinese life, Diana, e3, Facebook, Forbidden City, garden, Hugo, New York City
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Vegetarian And Tea Restaurant
103 West Dianmen St. (DiAnMenXi DaJie)
西城区地安门西大街103号，齐鲁饭店后院内.
XiCheng District (In the second ring road, just outside the north entrance to Beihai park)
The outside is nothing special, just a light-up sign saying “vegetarian restaurant”, but the inside is a wonderful haven away from the crowds of Beijing.
The dishes are simple glazed pottery or color glass (No applicaed chopstick holders here!) and the waitstaff are fast and thoughtful. But after a day of Tiananmen vendors and shoulder-to-shoulder bus riders, the restaurant is relaxing and peaceful.
This restaurant is an oasis of calm in a city where elbows in the gut and spitting in the street are common. The half-underground dining room has an impossible amount of sunlight. The staff speaks only Chinese, besides “yes”, but they were quite patient with my struggles and the menu is bilingual. Actually, everything we ate was so good that I’d risk a random assortment of dishes.
Meat eaters needn’t worry, this is no rabbit food. Even dedicated carnivores will feel full after the meatless versions of traditional dishes (Beijing roast tofu, anyone?), or some of the tasty dumplings and fried rice dishes. Careful, though, when they say a dish is spicy, they’re not kidding!
Try any of their amazing teas. Although the Chinglish descriptions of their health benefits can be laughable, the teas are tasty and the thoughtful staff keeps replenishing the pot.
China, with a Western toilet and actual toilet paper.
To get here, take bus 13, 107, 111, 118, 204, 810, 823 or 850 to Dianmen, or walk west out of Beihai park’s north gate.
Posted in Beijing
Tagged as seen in Beijing, Beihai park, China, chinese, Chinglish, random, Stick, xicheng
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New Shower
I guess you can tell by the Herbal Essences, but this is our new shower! It has lovely hot water, and yesterday it passed the four-showers-in-one-morning test.
Posted in New York City
Tagged Chinese life, Diana, e3, Herbal Essences, hot water saga, Hugo, New York City, Stick
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Pounds Sterling
Last night, I went shopping with Diana on the little streets by Qianhai. There’s a gorgeous old street, lined with craft and clothing and tea stores, and one place selling nothing but decorative matchbox covers. There’s also a stinky-tofu vendor down at one end of the street, so we didn’t investigate those shops.
In some places, we were quoted prices in Euro. I don’t know if we seemed particularly European or it’s related to the falling dollar. (Don’t I look British? How much that is in pounds sterling?)
We’re living in such a great location right now. I love helping tourists find their way. Makes me feel like a BeijingRRR! Seeing visitors also reminds me of all the things I love in the city. It’s easy to get bogged down struggling with the language, and it’s good to be reminded of all the awesome things in my neighborhood. I mean, my morning commute walks me past the drum tower!
And we’re near some great coffeeshops. Humanaught posted some great comments about the balance between roughing it in China on a couple kwai or living in the expat bubble. My own balance involves slipping away from the Beijing bustle with a coffee every so often. Fortunately Diana feels the same way, and when we finished investigating the little shops, we stopped off for coffee.
Posted in Beijing
Tagged as seen in Beijing, awesome, BeijingRRR, British, China, Chinese life, coffee, Diana, expats, Houhai, Humanaught, other blogs, qianhai
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Hutong Kitchen
Posted in New York City
Tagged Chinese food, Chinese life, e3, hutong, New York City, wo ai xi can
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Empty Paper Tray
For everyone (both of you, ha!) waiting impatiently for the conclusion, I did manage to get paid on Tuesday. My school’s director really came through for me, and I got my salary at 4:30pm, which is 6 hours after I first went to the accounting office to pick up my money, but still on payday. I’m quite annoyed that I spent most of my day going from office to office being told by each person that it’s not their job or their fault, but very happy that I did get paid in the end.
I’ve been in China close to two years, so I should be adjusted to the Chinese way of solving problems, but it still irks me that so much time is spent proving that whatever has gone wrong isn’t your fault. I really don’t care who’s made the mistake, and I’d rather spend the time fixing it, rather than being convinced by each person that they’re blameless and it’s someone else’s error. I really have no desire to point a finger or get revenge on the person who goofed… I don’t think the Chinese do either. I think the vague excuses are a face-saving measure, but as an American, I think a flimsy, complicated explanation of how your dog ate your homework is much lower face than just saying you won’t let it happen again. Time spent explaining why, for example, you couldn’t possibly have been the one who used up all the copy paper, is time better spent refilling the paper tray.
Posted in New York City
Tagged bad China day, China, chinese, Chinese life, Eric, expats, frustrations, New York City
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Frustrations
Last night, Stick predicted that I wouldn’t get paid on time, because the new shift in the state holiday calendar has led to an increase in mei you frustration. The holidays were rearranged to break up the long Golden Week holiday and give out more 3-day weekends throughout the year, which is actually a nice thought. I don’t know how this works in other fields, but for teachers, that means you need to make up an extra day’s worth of classes in your free time, because you have Monday off because Sunday is a holiday.
Anyway, I’m supposed to be paid on the tenth of every month, so I went to the financial office today to pick up my pay. It wasn’t there. A bunch of different reasons were discussed, I think it had something to do with someone along the way not submitting their timesheets to the school’s general payroll in time, apparently the deadline changed due to the holiday.
I went back to my boss and mentioned that today is payday, and I’d like to get paid. I was first told that there was no problem, then told that nobody else’s pay is ready, either.
Now, I don’t know what everyone else’s contracts promise, or whether everyone else would like to be paid on payday. But telling me that everyone else is also screwed doesn’t pay me OR increase my confidence in my school’s ability to solve this matter.
Also, there’s something my mom used to tell me about what everybody else is doing. Something about everybody else and jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge…
I argued with different people in different offices for a while, which started to make me feel like a demanding, entitled foreigner, until I remembered that I was arguing to get paid my agreed-on salary on my contract-specified date.
Then it was pointed out to me that it’s actually the tenth of the month all day long, so I really haven’t been screwed until the close of business today. And maybe if I wait, they’ll have it all straightened out by this afternoon. Maybe.
Posted in Yantai
Tagged bad China day, Brooklyn, Chinese life, dragon boat day, frustrations, General, mei you, state holidays, Stick, teaching ESL, working abroad, Yantai
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