My New Crib

Welcome to my new apartment! I am officially moved in, and only have a few finishing touches (wall decorations mostly) that I need to finish. So let's begin the tour!

Here's the street my apartment is on.

your typical trash collector

The courtyard surrounded by my building. The signs says "Welcome Home!" everywhere! :)

My door, decorated with Chinese New Year signs!

This is the view when you first walk into my apartment:

On the left is a small bookshelf. Above it is a map of the Summer Palace in Beijing. It's pretty and artsy so I put it up. Next to it is my armoire/closet. I don't think I've ever seen a walk-in closet in China. Mostly they have things like this, or wooden portable cabinets that they use. This one is made of a canvas-like fabric help together by wooden poles. I actually think it's going to be quite strong, and so far has been very useful. And what do you do if you're having company over and don't want them to see your clothes, just roll down the canvas flaps and voila, a subtle, understated blue, purple, yellow, pink, and green striped box in your living room!

 

 Why is my closet in my living room? My bedroom isn't big enough so when I get dressed I wonder all over the apartment because all my stuff is spread out. It's not that big, and I live by myself so it's not too much of a hassle so far. Then there's my desk where I do my makeup and store my jewelery. And do work I guess (haven't done much of that yet). My desk window looks directly into the neighboring Hilton Hotel (so when you all come visit me you have a nearby 5 star hotel to stay at!), which is maybe 100 feet across from my window. And now one of my prized treasures, my jewelery organizers, which I bought at Muji, and they cost half the price of my furniture itself. Check out how beautiful this drawer is:

And now on to the other half of the living room. Another lovely feature of my apartment is the pink velour floral couch (you can't really see the pattern in the picture). Above that are some postcards I bought in Beijing that are artsy looking. To the right is my new coat rack and shoe rack (again, more beautiful organization).

From the living room, the bathroom is a 3 foot walk on your left. Here you can see the nice sink and mirror (the mirror is big enough that if you stand back a bit, it's full-length! YES!). And of course, a western toilet, duh. And I can flush the toilet paper! :) I even got a nice towel rack above the toilet.

 And now for one of my favorite features, THE SHOWER! Most showers in China are not mounted on the wall, and definitely NOT enclosed by a curtain or anything else. But check this out:

Yes, that's right- a mounted shower head enclosed by glass walls!!! The shower is hot, and there's great pressure, AND you don't flood the bathroom everytime you shower (even the THs at Vassar can't boast that!). It's beautiful. Also we have washing machine (that's the big white thing) which spins so intensely that all my clothes come out much longer that they started, but also means they're almost dry, which is nice since I don't have a dryer (no one does in China). Get ready to be jealous, AGAIN: My washing machine drains into a specific pipe and doesn't flood the floor!!! Isn't that amazing?! Normally in China, the washing machine is in the bathroom because it drains all the water straight onto the floor so you need to have a drain to collect it all. But at my new swanky place, the water drains into a pipe just like in America! :) #smallvictories

And here's the kitchen. I have a nice window that looks onto the courtyard (see first pics). You can't see it, but in the far right corner of the kitchen, I have a TOASTER OVEN! Yes, that's right, a toaster oven in CHINA! Ovens here are not common because everything is usually stir-fried, steamed, or boiled, not baked. So the toaster oven is really exciting because it means I can bake! Of course it's tiny so it means I would be baking like 6 cookies at a time, but that's ok. I'm very excited.

 And finally, my bedroom, which is literally JUST my bed. The bed is kinda crazy- the entire thing lifts up to reveal an enormous storage space under the bed that is currently housing my 2 giant suitcases. Very useful. Because the bottom is storage, the mattress stands up really tall onto of the bed. Then on the right is a small bedside table. On the left is a little nook (like what my desk is in in the living room) where I can hang laundry to dry on that sketchy, thin, little pink string. My bedroom window looks onto the courtyard.

And here is just a funny photo of what my 4 giant suitcases that I shipped from Beijing look like. They put all the suitcases in individual bamboo woven bags, and then taped them into weird handles and stuff. And all of this (probably over 100KG) only cost me 430rmb (about 60USD)!! And came in 3 days! So amazing.

 

 

Well, I guess that's it. Isn't it great?! Seriously a huge step up from my apartment in Beijing (minus the fact that I lived with my lovely bestie Zan in Beijing). So far that landlord has been amazing. Yesterday she heard me coughing on the phone so she brought me a homemade dinner! So sweet! And then we discussed Chinese TV shows that I should watch for awhile. The landlord is actually the niece of the woman who actually owns the apartment, and the niece just manages it for her since the aunt doesn't live in Xi'an.The niece is 24 so we're basically the same age. Oh ya, and the rent is only 1750rmb/month (278USD)!!!! Cheaper than Blue House in Poughkeepsie! And so much nicer! So far I'm very happy with new place. It's a good size, very functional, and surrounded by cute/hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurants (always the best), and shops, etc. Come visit me!!! :)

And now I have to rant for a minute, sorry- So as part of moving into my new place, I had to go to the local police station to do the temporary residence foreigner registration, even though I already did an official residence permit. This one is supposed to be at the specific police station that oversees the district you live in or something. So I head over this morning at 11:30am, and they tell me they're closing at 12 for lunch so I have to come back later...because a half hour isn't enough? They basically only work like 5 hours a day- open at 9, then close for lunch at noon, then reopen at 2:30 (after a 2.5 hr lunch break!) and close at 4pm. Ridiculous. So I come back at 2:30pm and only 1 guy has returned from lunch. Like a good foreigner, I wait behind the person he's currently helping until I am rudely reminded that waiting in line will get you no where as 2 parties of Chinese people come in, push past me, and nudge the woman being helped at the desk out of way. So after that (I'd already been waiting about 15 minutes), I push my way to the desk and throw my paperwork in the face of the one police officer. (It kinda feels like when you're trying to get a drink at a crowded bar, expect that being a foreign woman here has no advantage) Finally the guy talks to me and then meanders leisurely over to give me a form to fill out. After I'm done with that, he says, "Where's your photo?" So then I have to go next door to take passport photos, which takes another 10 minutes. I come back and he tells me to wait for the girl that does foreigner registration to come back. So I wait another 10 minutes until she arrives, but before she can help me, she has to brush her hair, wash her hands, put on lotion, and make fresh tea. Then she taked my paperwork and says, "Where are your passport and visa copies?" So then I go next door again to make more copies. I come back and she says she has to enter my info on the computer but it's being used so more waiting. Then as we're doing the registration, she tells me that I don't know how to write numbers and can't read anything I wrote so I have to read her all the numbers on my form. She also keeps confusing my visa and my residence permit, and finally asks why I have both and what the difference is...HELLO?! YOU'RE THE POLICE, AND YOU'RE THE ONES FORCING ME TO DO THIS STUPID PAPERWORK. HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE?! So once we establish that no one understands why I have to do this paperwork, she then questions me on every single thing I wrote on the form, even though it's written there, in my passport, and on my passport copies. SUCH AN IDIOT. Seriously, this is the most inefficient system imaginable. The poor lady next to me had to put her form in this binder that was held together with string and it took her 20 minutes to re-string all the pages into the binder. GET A MODERN BINDER WITH RINGS. IT'S NOT THAT HARD. I don't get it. So after 1.5 hrs of hanging and waiting, I finally left the police office with registration in hand. Just a wonderful example of the efficiency of Chinese bureaucracy!

Getting Settled In...

This last week has been exhausting, but still great! Highlights:

-On Tuesday afternoon, I met up with a Tibetan guy from couchsurfing, who took me to the Wild Goose Pagoda, a landmark in Xi'an, and dinner. It was nice to get to practice my chinese with him, although kinda hard because his first language is Tibetan, not Chinese, so his Chinese was actually not very good. He doesn't really use tones, for example. Also I think he thought it was a date because he called me today just "to chat". Yikes, haha. He said there are lots of cool Tibetan cultural events that he's going to this spring so I think that will be interesting. Most of the time we were together, he talked about his home town in Qinghai (a really poor province on the Tibetan Plateau mostly inhabited by Tibetans and other minorities) and Tibetan Culture, and how the Chinese government/Chinese people "other" him and his people. VERY interesting...

-Had the extremely unpleasant experience of having my bank card number stolen somehow so I had to deal with that and cancel my card. SO annoying when you live in CHINA! And my Gmail got hacked and a bunch of my messages got deleted, but fortunately Google retrieved them. All my labels are gone though so my years of organization are gone! :(

-I got my official residence permit! yay! So now I have my passport back, and am free to travel to Beijing next weekend, and then on to the USA for 2 weeks!! :)

-On Thursday night, I went out with my professor, her husband, and her grad students. It was a very casual dinner, which was nice and delicious. Normally at these kinds of dinners, I can't understand what people are saying because they're talking so fast and I can't jump into the conversation because it takes me like 2 minutes to formulate a sentence in my head first and then it's too late, haha. But at this dinner, they all made an effort to speak a bit slower for me and not use really big words. Plus they actually just wanted to get to know me more so the whole night they were asking me questions and talking with me. It was great, but also really exhausting because Chinese is taxing on the brain. Also somehow got into a discussion about whether democracy is good for China/is it going to happen w/ my professor's husband who works for the government. That was awesome. Overall they're so nice and friendly and really want to help me with my research so I'm really excited about that! :)

-Saturday I moved into my apt! I spent the first few hours cleaning and throwing out stuff from the last tenant (a fellow Fulbrighter from last year!). Then today I went furniture shopping, and ended up getting a shoe rack, a coat rack, a closet, AND a mattress for less than 1000rmb (about 150USD)!!! China is so cheap!!! I got all the stuff on this street with a bunch of hole-in-the-wall cheap furniture stores. They assembled everything and delivered via a guy with a bike who tied my stuff to the back, very funny. Now I'm almost totally set up! :) I'll do a special post on my apt once I do all the final touches. But so far I love it! They're so much organization space too, which obviously I LOVE. And today I received my 4 GIANT bags that I had left with Wayne in Beijing, and it only cost 430rmb (about 70USD)!!!! AMAZING! I highly recommend sf express to anyone out there who needs to ship domestically in China. They were super fast too- only 3 days from Beijing to Xi'an!

Oh, and I know you're all dying to write me letters and send me packages full of delicious America-ness so here's my new address:

西安市新城区民乐园万达广场（解放路110号）二号公寓9单元504室


Also discovered a great new IKEA-like store that has awesome organizational things AND there's one in Xi'an! It's called MUJI- organization freaks, feast your eyes on this website.

That's it! Have a good week everyone!

先入为主(First Impressions are the Strongest)

Well if the title of the post is true (check that out IUP! vocab word, yaaa), Xi'an and I are going to get along just fine. Despite a disasterous weekend of losing my iPhone (for the 2nd time this month- China is seriously out to get me) and being locked out of my couch surfer's apartment for 2 nights, I am writing today to reflect on the otherwise GREAT first week I've had in Xi'an!

I arrived one week ago yesterday in this smoggy city (I've yet to see blue skies) and lugged my 2 enormous suitcases to my 1st couch surfers apartment near the Bell Tower in the center of Xi'an. Joan and Giulia kindly hosted me for the first 4 days here in Xi'an, and have been great friends already! My first night, I went out to dinner with Emily, Allie, and Mei- 3 Fulbrighters who have been in Xi'an for a few weeks already after doing CLEA (the language portion of Fulbright) in Harbin.

Monday morning, I went bright and early to the local health examination office in Xi'an. In China, all foreigners wishing to apply for the residence permit or other long-term stay visas have to go through a health exam "to ensure visitors are not bringing in infectious diseases"- so that's why I have to have an EKG? to make sure I don't have a heart attack in China? Obviously the real reason is it's a money maker for government offices. Another reason my friend who teaches economics through out here (which is probably true, but simply terrifying) is that the government tries to set up as much useless bureaucracy as possible to employ people, because inefficient systems employ more people. Great. So I walk into the health exam, look around bewildered and confused and then walk up to a random desk where a nice older man gave me some forms to fill out. Another thing about Chinese bureaucracy- they're obsessed with "chomps" (fancy stamps that usually indent your paper/form) and passport size photos. So after I used a glue stick (haven't seen one of those since the 2nd grade) to attach my passport photo onto a flimsy Chinese form, I moved down the line to the next station where I paid 400rmb for the exam (that's about $64USD), and then onto the blood test. I was pleased to see them open a fresh, clean needle to take my blood and they quickly found my vein so I didn't end up with a huge bruise like my poor classmates did who did their exams in Beijing. Then I went upstairs where I was shuffled between rooms for an EKG, an X-ray, a hearing and eye test (the ladies in this room loved me and fawned over my pale skin and big eyes until the next patient came in), an "internal organ" exam, a sonogram, and more. So strange.

After the surreal health exam, I headed to my school's foreign student office, where I filled out more forms and pasted my passport photos onto at least 5 different forms. Overall, the foreign students office has been pretty nice and helpful. That afternoon I went and looked at an apartment currently inhabited by a Fulbrighter from last year who had a late start, and is just finishing up now. Due to several days last week of calling agents and repeatedly being told there's nothing that will fit my standards, within my price range, in the location I want, and refusing to even show me places, I have given up and decided to take this first apartment. And don't get me wrong, it's not a sacrifice in anyway, I just felt silly taking the very first place I saw. So here are the details on my new place! It's located on the East side of Xi'an within the city walls, about a 20 min bus ride from my University (Xi'an Jiaotong University), and a 10 min or less bus ride from the Bell Tower, which marks the center of Xi'an. Compared to Beijing where everything takes an hr, Xi'an has been a dream. At most, I've travelled 30 minutes to get somewhere, so 30 minutes="far" in Xi'an speak. The apartment is about 1 yr old and was built in conjunction with a new development that has a movie theater, tons of restaurants and shops, a large supermarket, and a Hilton Hotel- perfect for when mommy and daddy come! :) The architecture of this whole complex is designed to look like old Xi'an or old China (think winged roofs and courtyards), but is new so you get the old world charm w/ new amenities. The apartment itself is on the 5th floor, 1 bedroom, 1 bath, a kitchen, and a living room. Highlights: the shower (the showerhead is mounted on the wall!!! and is enclosed by a glass walls so the bathroom doesn't flood everytime you shower) and a toaster oven (this means I can heat up food, and bake like 6 cookies at a time)!!!!!!! The fact that these 2 features are as exciting as they are clearly shows I've been in China too long, but regardless I'm psyched. Another thing that I think most people would hate, but...the couch is pink velvet floral. I love it. I know it's tacky, but "When in Rome..." The only problem? I can't move in until Jan 20/22 because the current Fulbrighter is still there for another week. So in the meantime I stayed with another couch surfer and tomorrow am either moving to another friend's place or moving to a hostel/hotel.

The other highlight of last week= I met my professor! Her name is Professor Yang, and she's all that I hoped for and more! I met this woman through a mutual friend of hers and one of my Vassar mentors, Fubing Su. Prof Yang helped me gain my affiliation at the university to complete my Fulbright application, and we've been emailing for over a year without ever meeting (all in Chinese!). The 2 problems most Fulbrighters have with their professors are 1) the professor is totally unresponsive/unhelpful and/or focuses on a different area of expertise and knows nothing about their project; 2) is totally overbearing and tries to direct the Fulbrighter's project themselves. So far, Prof Yang is totally interested in my work, but also seems to understand this is my own project. And she's really responsive. I emailed her on Monday morning saying I'd arrived, and by 11am she called and invited me to her office that afternoon. So I went back to school Monday afternoon and met her. She immediately greeted me with a hug- NOT your typical Chinese greeting (they're not that into touching like us Americans). Then she asked me about my research interests and told me about her work. She's currently working on studying the affects of the gender ratio imbalance in China (118:100 men:women)- so cool! I told her right now I just want to read up on my topic because it's relatively new to me, and she didn't seem troubled by the fact that I have NO IDEA what I'm talking about/how to DO "research" (jk Fulbright, I totally know what I'm doing...) so she gave me 3 awesome books that have super relevant articles about women and politics and said I could have the books! And of course they're in Chinese, oye. IUP reading skills- GO! Then she called up one of her 2 grad students, Yang Ting, who came and walked me around campus. She's super sweet and said she would help me read the articles if I had questions. Love her already.

My good friend Jake who studied at IUP with me and is also a Fulbright passed through Xi'an last week with a friend so that was fun too. We explored the muslim quarter and had delicious street food. We also stumbled upon the coolest old Chinese mansion called the Gao Mansion. I think you normally have to pay, but the gate was open so we just wandered in. They had the most beautiful furniture and art, all laid out like a traditional Chinese home. It was amazing. And such a hidden gem! Xi'an seems to be full of these amazing little gems all over the city- I can't wait to explore more! I've now walked around most of southern inner Xi'an (inside the city walls), and parts of Gaoxin, the new industrial district. And so far I love it!

Goodbye 2012, Goodbye Beijing

Ok, so I tried to update sooner, but my VPN wasn't working so unfortunately you're in for another epic post...

Merry Christmas/Happy New Year from China!!! Highlights from the last few weeks:

-Went to all you can eat & drink Teppanyaki a few Fridays ago with over 20 friends at Tairyo, and had a great time! Then after getting in a fight with my cab driver because he tried to double our pre-negotiated fare, I left my small going-out purse in his car, which resulted in the loss of an iPhone, my house keys, new Laura Mercier lipstick, and most tragically the purse itself (jk, obviously the iPhone was a devastating loss)-however last night I just got my new iPhone (actually my sister's old phone) so YAY! Old phone number back and running too! :)

-Wayne and I went to a cooking class at Black Sesame Kitchen, and learned to cook Kungpao Chicken, Mapo Dofu, and Wok-friend String Beans, delicious! The best part of the class was learning the basics about cooking with Chinese ingredients. Also we got to meet cool people!

-I went to a hot flow yoga class at Fine Yoga in Chaoyang, which was a bit expensive but lovely to be in a hot room (the highs have been below 32F most days, REALLY cold. I now wear long underwear on a daily basis). Then I checked out a place in WuDaoKou (where I live(d) in Beijing), which was actually the best class I've been to, but still not great. Towards the end of the class, the teacher said, "ok we're going to do the hardest pose ever now, but just give it a try- the headstand". I've been doing yoga for about 4 years now so I can do a headstand- so I went right into it and they all freaked out and then thought I was really good at yoga. It was very strange... Overall though, most Chinese yoga classes are just too slow for me. They prefer to just do a few poses and hold them a long time or repeat them so you never get to the fun poses that I really enjoy. Still fun to check out new places though.

-I went to a great restaurant specializing in Beijing Imperial Cuisine called 那家小官, which was delicious! I highly recommend it to Beijing visitors.

Christmas Eve:

After class that day, I went to the gym and ran a 5K, which is totally unheard of for me! But it was awesome. I think it was because I was also watching a great soccer game on the treadmill TV so I felt like I was in the game (and I was entertained by all the hot soccer players who kept taking off their shirts in fits of victory/defeat). Then a bunch of us went to Bridge Cafe for a special pre-set Christmas Eve dinner, which consisted of: wine; walnut & goat cheese salad; pumpkin soup; an entree of turkey, ham, mash potato cube (it was weird), and green beans with bacon; apple pie; coffee; and mulled wine. Overall pretty good for China standards, but obviously not great compared to my usual homecooked meal that my family does. After dinner, we went to my friend Katie's Christmas Eve party where we had more mulled wine and lots of delicious baked goods! To end the night, I had a wonderful skype session with my family, who had made up tons of Christmas games to play with me over Skype! And they gave me various "monetary" gifts, including an offer to cover extra costs of a nice apartment in Xi'an, yoga classes, and a trip with my friends to anywhere in China! BEST GIFTS EVER! After the skype call, my friends and I had a slumber party at Wayne's house (I know, we're like 13 year old girls, but who wants to wake up alone at their Beijing apartment on Christmas?!). We watched Elf, and made it through the first part of White Christmas before we all fell asleep in a pile of blankets in Wayne's living room. 

Christmas morning, we woke up with coffee, egg nog, opium dumplings, and delicious banana muffins baked by Rachel. Then we watched Love Actually, another great Christmas movie, which made us all cry (but in a good way). For the afternoon, I headed to my friend Mitch's amazing apartment in Andingmen for a Christmas potluck/hangout. I made Kraft Mac & Cheese, which was of course a HUGE hit. Haters gunna hate, but Kraft makes some good stuff, particularly MAC. I loved it, even though it wasn't quite as good as my mommy's homemade mac & cheese. After many hours of shmoozing, Sophie, Rebecca, and I left for some more substantial dumplings. And then I returned home and went to bed! 

Overall I felt pretty detached from the holiday season this year, which sounds sad, but actually prevented me from being really sad about missing home. I really do feel like I live here in Beijing and that I really belong here, as much as mean cabi drivers try to remind me that I'm a foreigner. Most of all, I am soooo grateful to have such amazing and loving friends who made my Beijing Christmas just as special, of course in a very different way, as my US Christmas. Merry Christmas USA! 

For New Years, we first went out to dinner at a great Yunnan restaurant, then headed to our friend Connie's birthday party at a bar she rented out in SanLiTun. After doing a countdown on someone's iPhone that was projected on a screen, we headed to Punk, a bar/club open for 1 night only! Very fun night overall. But something crazy that happened on the way to Connies- we were walking along the street in a pretty well populated area, and suddenly this Chinese girl in front of us just collapses. We didn't actually see her fall, but when we walked up she was having a seizure! None of us are doctors so we didn't really know what to do, but Adam and Jake put their gloves under her head so she wouldn't hit her head (even more than she probably already had) on the cement. After she stopped seizing, we finally found a doctor to help out. Passersby kept coming up and asking what was happening, and people in the crowd who didn't really know what was going on replied "Oh, just some drunk foreigner" because there was our whole crowd of foreigners there trying to help out. Meanwhile, most of the Chinese people in the crowd were staring and taking photos/video of the poor girl on the street! Apparently a few years ago, a young man stopped to help an old woman who had fallen on the street. When the woman recovered, she blamed the young man for pushing her over, and made him pay the medical bills. When they went to court, the judge deemed the young man had no reason to help the old woman other than his guilt for pushing her over (supposedly). This has come to be none as the Nanjing Precedent (check here for more detail). Back to our story- After about 15 minutes, an ambulance finally showed up and took the girl to the hospital. We got a call later saying she was going to be ok. Our New Years Eve experience demonstrates just how terrible this situation has become in China. Truly sad...

On Friday, I finished IUP (my language program) and am now DONE with classes (expect for 1 I have to audit in Xi'an) forever!!!! (or until I got to grad school...) Friday night we had a Fulbright dinner out to celebrate, hosted by the Embassy (thank you US tax payers). Yesterday I packed up my whole apartment, which was awful. Then today I flew out to Xi'an! I am here now staying at my lovely couch-surfing hosts' apartment. Turns out my hosts even know two of the Fulbrighters who have been here for awhile already! And they've got great connections for apartment hunting! And I met up with Allie, Emily, and Mei (3 Fulbrighters from this year) who are here too, which was really nice. So far, life in Xi'an is pretty great! 

So goodbye IUP, goodbye 2012, and goodbye Beijing! Hello 2013 and Xi'an!