Opium Dumplings

Hello again! I have made it safely to Beijing, and have an apartment, and have friends already!!!! Woo! So what have I been up to for the last week? Well...

I arrived late Saturday night (the 25th) in Beijing after two relatively easy flights (no one sat next to me on the flight from Seattle to Beijing, woo!). After getting lost with my cab driver trying to find the hotel, I finally arrived and settled into the hotel where I stayed for the next 3 days. Sunday morning, I met Doris from www.beijingbuddy.com- a free service that helps foreigners get settled into their new lives in China- to look at apartments. After seeing a bunch of things way outside my price range thanks to the eager rental agent, I finally saw an apartment within my budget. 5 minutes after walking into that apartment, another group of foreigners came to look at it too and were very interested, which meant I had to decide pretty soon if I wanted this place and it greatly reduced my bargaining power. In the end, I took that apartment, although I have some serious regrets about it now, but we'll get to that later. 

The rest of Sunday I wondered and explored the Tsinghua Campus and found where IUP, my program, is housed so I wouldn't get lost the next day. Campus is actually really pretty (and enormous):

Monday I had orientation. The day began with descriptions of the program, etc. but in Chinese so I missed a lot of it. Then we had a placement test, which was really hard. I didn't even realize that for the listening section, the questions and answered were written on the first page of the test, in addition to be read aloud- yikes! Then we had a pizza lunch. Pizza in China is very weird. Tomato sauce as we know it doesn't really exist so instead they use barbeque sauce or something like a sweet and sour sauce. ya, weird. Then I bought a bike and went to the bank. Next was the speaking exam, which was pretty easy because you just say whatever you know how to say. Since the language pledge had taken effect that morning, all our conversations on Monday were in Chinese. It's really hard to make friends in Chinese I've found because humor doesn't usually translate. Needless to say, I made friends! We had a campus tour at the end of the day, and then a group dinner- your typical Chinese ballroom style dinner. Then my new friends and I went to a local bar and got free drinks from the owners all night! Not a bad way to start the week...

Tuesday, I finalized some apartment stuff, checked out a new gym (every machine I tried to use was broken so ya. didn't pick that one), and moved into my apartment and out of the hotel, which involved carrying my 80 lb suitcase up 3 flights of stairs. My arms have been sore all week. That evening I went to a Democrats Abroad meeting to talk about ways to Get Out The Vote in Beijing, which mostly amounted to helping Americans register to vote online, and apply for Absentee ballots. They're also organizing some debate watching parties, and other campaign related events. I intended to help with some of the activities around the university district since that's where I live, but haven't heard from them yet. 

Wednesday, I made a huge mistake by paying the entire rent to my landlord, who I hadn't even met yet. Basically, my apartment is a nightmare (sorry Zan, I didn't pick so well...). It's a 3rd floor walkup in a disgusting building whose staircases are covered in dirt and trash, and are totally unfinished. My apartment has no living room, two bedrooms, one kitchen, one bathroom, and one "balcony" (you know, the Chinese kind that is a walled in "sunroom", as we might call it in the US). Both bedrooms are supposed to have AC, but mine is broken of course. A guy came yesterday to look at it (see picture below) and decided that it had to be replaced so I have no idea when that's going to happen. I should have withheld payment until it got fixed, but I was advised that "you can't do that in China". 

Yes, the AC repair man is balancing on my bedpost, as if it were a balance beam. Barefoot.

Another exciting part of my new apartment are my roommates. Zan, my freshman year roommate and one of my best friends from college, is coming to live with me here and be my roommate when she arrives on Sept 11. BUT currently there are two Taiwanese girls living in the other bedroom in my apartment still. Their lease was up today, Sept 1, but they're paying for 1 room to stay on until Zan arrives so I get the pleasure of sharing the kitchen and bathroom with them as well. They're actually quite nice and have been able to help me figure out how to do things in the apartment since my landlord is the meanest woman ever (more on that later). The problem is they didn't seem to understand that they have to move out when Zan arrives. Apparently the landlord did not explain to them that Zan and I were moving in and that they could not renew their lease for 1 month. The taiwanese girls tried to convince me that Zan and I should just live together in my room until they leave at the end of September, but I put my foot down and they finally agreed they'd move out Sept 10. 

And now to my landlord. I didn't actually meet her at the signing of the lease because she chose not to come since she's so busy this week ripping off and yelling at and ignoring other foreigners who she hates and thinks are stupid (I'm not bitter or anything...). She decided not to obey the law of registering foreigners within 24 hrs of moving so I lived illegally in my apartment for a few days I guess. She finally showed up at the rental agent's office a few days ago and agreed to go register me so I ran over there and gave her my passport. Officially, the foreigner has to go with the landlord to do the registration, but I guess that's not a real rule because she wouldn't let me go with her. Instead she just took my passport and returned it Friday morning, complete with registration thank god. When I tried to ask her questions about how to pay the utilities, where the trash goes, where are the mailboxes, etc. she told me she couldn't understand what I was saying, that I don't speak Chinese, and that she didn't have time to talk to me. And left. That's the last time I've seen her. She doesn't answer my calls so instead I go through Doris, my amazing Beijing Buddy, or the rental agent, who supposedly has to care about my relationship with the landlord since it would look bad for her if I was unhappy. 

Other things to note about the apartment: There is construction in the apartment below mine every morning around 7-10am, prime sleeping in time. The shower head has no mount, it's the hold-it-yourself kind. I think I'll try to fix that with some tape or something. I also want to create a faux shower stall with some curtains, 3M sticky hooks (those things are life savers), and string. Also the temperature of the water swings violently from scalding to ice, so you have to pay attention to slight fluctuations so that you can head off the temperature swing. There's a western toilet, thank god. There was no hanging bar in my closet for clothes. In fact, the closet is a really dirty cabinet outside on the balcony that won't stay closed and is pretty gross. So instead my friend Sophie gave me an old plastic hanging rack that is perilously standing in the corner of my room, held upright by being taped to the walls. And my favorite feature of my apartment, my bedroom door lock: 

yes, my door is locked with a chopstick.

the "living room", aka part of my bedroom. Notice my beautiful hanging rack of clothes in the corner.

Those are the doors to the "balcony", but I try to go out there as little as possible.

Another favorite part of my apartment, my desk. When I sit here, I can shut out the other awful parts of the apartment and pretend I'm back in the US on my computer. Also I love having cute photos of my friends and family on the wall!

The front door, shoe rack, and coat rack. In China, you have to take your shoes off when you enter an apartment or home and put on "house shoes" that are only worn in the house to keep it clean.

the bathroom. See on the left the unmounted shower head. On the right is the washing machine.

Kitchen. It actually looks pretty good in this photo, but don't be fooled.

 So enough about my apartment. While sweating every moment inside your own house is not ideal, I have still managed to have a fun week outside the apartment with my new friends. After dealing with more apartment stuff Wednesday morning, I finally committed to joining Nirvana, the fancy-shmancy "expensive"-as in US prices- gym. Their facilities are really nice and they have tons of classes, including yoga! I got a pretty good deal, and was able to work out that day.

While waiting for friends outside the subway and looking very sweaty and gross, a tall, muscular, attractive Chinese man came over and asked me for directions. I told him which was to go, and he said "No that's wrong, but it's ok because you're beautiful". Excellent logic. We chatted and he seemed interested to practice his English so we exchanged numbers. Later that night he texted me to ask what year I was born in because he wanted to know what my astrology sign was and whether I had a boyfriend. After I responded, he said, "I am an ox, good. We can be friends then". After checking online, I discovered that the snake (me) and the ox are a 9/10 on the compatibility scale. I guess that's how flirting is done in China.

Wednesday night we went to Houhai, a part of Beijing that has developed around a big man-made lake, made from old canals and a very small natural lake. The area now is pretty touristy, but it's nice to see anyways. Plus it's all lit up at night and was fun. We went to a really hot Sichuan "dry pot" (as opposed to "hot pot", which is usually served in a broth that you cook your food in). They had a challenge that if you could eat 5 servings of this tiny chili pepper, you got a sign that you could write on and post on the wall. Wayne, one of my new friends who I do almost everything with, is an avid spice enthusiast and took on the challenge...

the pepper Wayne had to eat

After realizing the pepper #1 was only 1 of 5...Preparing for pepper #2.

After pepper #4

After pepper #5, complete with his prize sign. Caricature by Sophie.

Frozen tomatoes, actually a pretty good cure for spicy-mouth

Thursday I did a bunch of errands, nothing exciting. Thursday night we went to a fancy Yunnan style restaurant, where we ate bugs:

Actually delicious. They were crunchy and came with this great spicy sauce. To be precise, we ate "deep-fried bamboo worms, honeybee cocoon, and fire wood worms"

Yesterday, Friday, we went to 798, a cool art district in Beijing where artists such as Ai Weiwei exhibit their work. Unfortunately this is a transition time at many of the galleries so we didn't get to see much. Last night, we went to Din Tai Fung, my absolute favorite restaurant in all of China. I first went there with my IES friends in Shanghai, and also in LA with my bestie Jillian. It's soooo delicious. Mostly dumplings. However on the way, our cab driver got lost and dropped us off really far away. We thought we could walk, but kept taking wrong turns because we were continually given opposite directions by people on the street. Right now, I still prefer Shanghai over Beijing because in Shanghai, 99% of the time, the cab driver can actually take you somewhere, whereas in Beijing, they expect you to direct them! Isn't that so weird? Another problem was pronouncing the restaurant name. This video might help explain why:

After our delicious dinner, we tried to catch a cab to a French electro pop concert, but had so much trouble getting anyone to stop. It really seemed like people didn't want to stop for us because we were white and foreign. When our Chinese-American friend Sophie stood by herself, cabs would stop. But as soon as the rest of us came of our hiding place on the side of the road, the cab would speed away. I've never experienced anti-foreign or anti-Americanism first-hand like that here in China. Possibly this is because of the big leadership transition coming up, which has resulted in a lot of pro-China propaganda in the media. Or maybe it has something to do with the recent controversy between China and Japan over the Diaoyu islands. I don't know, but it's really sad because I love China!! China, why don't you love me back?! Anyways, we finally got a cab and went to the concert.

Today, I had a personal consultation with a trainer at the gym, as part of my package. I thought he would just show me how to use the machines, but instead did an in-depth analysis of my body composition, etc. I didn't realize this was what was going to happen or I probably wouldn't have signed up for a session to be told "you should diet" and "you have too much fat in your body". Thanks for the news flash. He also insisted that I would get thinner in China because "In America, you eat so much cheese, and sweet things, and meat. China is much healthier". Ya healthy, if you consider rice, noodles, oils, contaminants, pesticides, antibiotics, etc. healthy...

Classes start Monday. I've been placed in the lowest level at IUP, which is so frustrating because I've taken over 4 years of Chinese. The minimum requirement for IUP was 2 years of Chinese, so I've basically been put into 3rd year Chinese. Great. I think it'll still be hard though so whatever.

Well that's all. Basically, my aparment is a nightmare. My Chinese sucks right now. But my new friends are amazing and we've had so much fun together already!

Sorry for the epically long post. I can't promise they'll get any shorter...

Oh, are you still wondering why my post is called "Opium Dumplings"? Well congratulations, you made it to the end of the post so you get to find out! My friend Wayne frequented a little dumpling stand outside his apartment for the first few days because it was very convenient. One day, he got his dumplings to go and went next door to the convenience store, where the convenience store owner asked him where he bought the dumplings. "Next door" Wayne said. Then the shop owner said (in Chinese of course), "You shouldn't eat those. There are ..." and then he started making injection signs into his forearm. "Drugs?" Wayne asked. "Yes" said the shop owner. Wayne returned the next day after looking up how to say a variety of drugs in Chinese, and established that opium was in his dumplings. Apparently the woman puts opium water in her dumplings because it makes people addicted and they keep coming back. Wayne did say he felt very jittery, spaced out, and wired after he ate the dumplings, but thankfully no addiction yet. They almost might have have cardboard in them- a common practice is to cut up cardboard and mix it with water to make cheap filling. So ya, Wayne ate opium dumplings. Food safety in China....