Paying the Rent

Today I paid my rent all by myself. It feels silly to be proud of something so mundane, but I am.

My landlord wants to be paid via bank wire transfer, and the information is laid out in the lease. He uses the same bank that I do, just a different branch.

This afternoon I went to my branch, with a copy of my lease and five figures worth of RMB, in cash. Everything is cash around here, and few places take credit cards that I haven't had to sign my name in public in months, so that isn't a big deal. I showed my bank card, and my lease, and told the bank manager (the only person who didn't giggle uncomfortable or just stare at me when I walked in) that I needed to make a wire transfer. He used my lease to copy the account information onto the transaction slip while I stood by and watched, grateful for his assistance. I'm willing to fill out the slip but I can't read it, and if I tried to write in Chinese characters the bank teller probably wouldn't be able to understand it. After the manager filled out the slip I was given a paper slip with my queue number and went to the waiting area.

When my number was called I handed the paper slip and the large pile of 100 yuan notes to the teller, along with my bank card. He placed the cash in a counting machine to confirm the amount, typed the information into the computer, had me sign a slip confirming the transaction and then gave me the receipt. Fairly simple, really, but still daunting without language skills to facilitate.

Cold

The mercury is dipping lower and lower on the thermometer recently. Apartments are warm, often overheated, but so dry that your skin itches unless you slather on moisturizing lotion almost constantly. Someone I know has five humidifiers set up in his room but his skin still hurts.

Yesterday I ventured out into the cold to look at winter coats and the streets were almost empty. Friends are canceling social engagements so as not to have to venture out into the wind.

The blasting cold will only last a few more days before we get some respite. I hope. In the meantime I'm wearing lots of layers and have developed a new appreciation for some of my warmest clothing.

Expat Life

This weekend I was at a dance party filled with expats from around the world. One of the DJs is the boyfriend of a friend and the music promised to be good. The dance floor was crowded with people from all over Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, North America and South America. The dance floor was still crowded when my friends and I left, shortly after 4am.

At one point in the evening a friend pointed out that one of the usual expats was missing. He had gone down to Thailand last week for a beach holiday. Usually that's entirely unnoteworthy. However, Thailand has been experiencing a lot of political unrest and the airports were shut down. In an attempt to return to Beijing the man we know took a 14 hour bus ride from Bangkok to Phnom Penh, where he and others who had been stranded in Thailand tried to book tickets on overcrowded flights into China.

He was never in any physical danger, just inconvenienced. Still, his experience is a good reminder to all that we need to be mindful of political realities as we plan our weekend trips and short jaunts to fun places.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I hope everyone who celebrated had a good holiday, surrounded by family and friends. Thursday day I bicycled between several different markets to buy ingredients for fruit salad, a green salad, and brownies. My oven doesn't heat up properly, so even at the highest temperature it took over an hour to bake brownies that should have taken twenty minutes, but it was still fun to bake.

That evening some friends came over for a girls' night of frivolity, planned without that that there was a U.S. holiday: we ate pizza, salad and brownies, and watched Sex and the City on DVD. It took us a few minutes to figure out how to change the language track to English, but it was amusing to hear the characters speaking Chinese while we matched wits with the remote control. It was a fun evening overall.

This afternoon I went to a holiday charity bazaar at the German embassy, a ten minute walk from my apartment in brisk air under a clear sky. There was a row of BMWs parked outside and a bevy of foreigners, mostly German, packed inside - most eating sausages and drinking mulled wine. I grabbed a perfect pretzel and covered it with mustard to enjoy while I strolled around, looking at the wares. I picked up a holiday present for a German-speaking friend (who will be very curious about it after she next checks in here) and some yummy potato bread to eat with dinner while watched downloaded American television.

Tonight I join some other friends for a belated turkey dinner. I'm taking the green salad. Afterwards I'm going to a party celebrating African culture at Club China Doll, where I'll see several different groups of friends - Italian, German, British. It will be a fun night.

Airfares - and taxes and fees

I'm currently planning to do a quick trip back to the U.S. at the end of January. That means spending time in NY, with a couple of days in MA and FL. I've spent this morning looking at airfares. One of the better deals I found was on British Airways, with the option of an eight hour layover in London on the way back, which would allow me to go into town for lunch and see what's up at the Tate and the Royal Museum. The airfare is US$699, which is several hundred dollars less than most other fares right now.

The expensive part isn't the fares. When I clicked through to find out the total cost it was more than double the actual airfare. Taxes and fees came to $807.70, for a total of $1496.70. That's insane!

I didn't book it. I couldn't bring myself to pay that much. I'm going to keep looking.

Dots

Much of last week was spent studying - either hunched over textbook or computer - and my shoulders were pinched and extremely tight by Sunday evening. Monday during yoga class it hurt to hold my arms out parallel to the floor. I knew that massage alone would not open my shoulders back up so I decided to once again go for baguan, the Traditional Chinese Medicine practice that is know in English as 'cupping.'

There are a number of Traditional Chinese Medicine hospitals in Beijing, but I went to a blind massage center in east Beijing where I have gone for massage on several occasions and where I know that they also do cupping. They don't speak English though. I walked into the center on Tuesday afternoon and told them what I wanted. I was taken upstairs to a room and given a top to change into before the doctor came into the room to consult.

I explained (mostly through pointing, body language and pidgin Chinese) what I wanted and he looked at my back, then explained that I needed a massage first to loosen up the muscles. I agreed and then relaxed for the half hour oil massage. When it was done he wiped the oil off of my back, then I turned my head to see him wheeling the table filled with the round glass cups over to the side of the table, and setting fire to something pinched between the ends of a long metal holder. My first thought was that I didn't want my hair to catch fire but then I relaxed as I saw him use the flame to heat the inside of a glass cup, then he attached it to my back along the edge of one of my shoulderblades. He repeated the process seven more times, until a total of eight cups were attached to my back, in strategic places where the muscles were pinching me most. He asked several times how I felt and I told him honestly that yes, it hurt, but only a little, it wasn't bad, and I breathed deeply to relax. He sat watching the cups and the way my skin was sticking into them, then started to remove them.

There were indents in skin on my back where the cups had been placed but my shoulders could move freely, they were no longer pinched, they were relaxed, and I had my range of motion back.

Today I was on a Skype video chat with a friend in New York. I was wearing a tank top and turned around. There were a series of round bruises, about 3" across, on my upper back. My friend saw them and yelled out "You have polka dots."

A Day to Celebrate

After hours at the Rickshow watching election returns, a concession speech and an acceptance speech that acknowledged the landmark occasion of this election, my friends and I moved up the street to Saddle Cantina for a lunch of Tex Mex food and conversation before parting ways for the afternoon. Several of us have to study for the class starting this weekend.

Today I was in a room with more Americans than I've seen in one place since my last flight out of Newark five months ago. A few were waving flags and one young man was walking through Sanlitun wearing a large American flag. Usually if I'm out and in a group that's majority English speakers I'd bemoan the lost chance to practice at least a few words of Chinese. Not today.

I am still in awe of what has occurred, of what we, the American people, have done. Obama jia you!