I guess I shouldn't forget my SPF sunscreen in Sanya!

An IM conversation with my Beijing coworker, discussing what to do when we go to Sanya (the Hawaii of China):

Carolyn: yes, or you could sun tan a little

coworker: oh i don't want to sun tan..... I like to be white:)

haha

Carolyn: hehee

i did see a lot of lightening/whitening creams at Carrefour

:)

coworker: yes. it's quite different in China, right? asia people do like to be white and light

Carolyn: yes!

in the US people like to be tan...

coworker: then u looks great!

are u born tan or sun tan

Carolyn: hhahaha

sun tan

:)
coworker: hey it's quite interesting. why US people like tan?

Settling in more...

After a little bit of feeling blah, homesick, and severely out of my element, I'm finally settling in more in Beijing. Tonight, I even found it slightly amusing that the cabbie tried to take me in circles so as to rip me off. I've gotten quite confident at yelling at the Beijing cab drivers, as I've had to do it more than a few times.

Two days ago, coworker Jia and I made lunch plans to have Xinjiang food. Now, I had heard all about this specific cuisine from the last Ambassador, Stephanie, who thought it was the most amazing food. So, of course I had to try it myself. Jia brought me to a restaurant that's associated with the Xinjiang provincial office here in Beijing. This cuisine is from the Xinjiang province, in far west China, close to Tibet. This region is inhabited mostly by Muslim Uyghers and Kazakhs. Nan bread, lamb, chicken, homemade noodles and yoghurt are key staples in Xinjiang cuisine. After all that I had heard about it, I'm happy to say that Xinjiang food did not disappoint in the least. The da pan ji dish came first. Literally, this means a 'big plate of chicken.' It wasn't just chicken, though; it was spicy chicken surrounded by fresh bell peppers, potatoes, cloves of garlic, and thick and chewy homemade noodles -- all sitting in a thick, delicious gravy. This gravy is also where one dips the nan into. I couldn't get enough of this dish. I would have tender piece after tender piece of chicken, then refill my plate again and again with the potatoes dipped in gravy. But, maybe my favorite part of the da pan ji dish was the fat, long homemade noodles. These noodles are unlike anything I've ever had elsewhere. They were so chewy, so thick, so satisfying to eat. Happy sigh. Next, came the lamb skewers, or yang rou chuan. They were so tender and so juicy that I was sad that we only ordered 2 skewers. It's a shame that Xinjiang food isn't more prominent in the States. (But, maybe very good for my waistline!) I could go on and on about my lunch experience with Xinjiang food, but suffice to say, it has been the most delicious, satisfying meal in Beijing that I've had so far. I gorged myself on Xinjiang food so much that I was stuffed until 5pm!

Below: lamb skewers; nan bread, a plate of cold vegetables, the famous da pan ji specialty; Jia and me (very full and happy) after the meal




Today for lunch, Christine, Sissi, and I went to nearby Wudaoko, which is a neighborhood known for its university students and Korean population. I had so much fun eating with these two girls! These two girls really are the definition of lovely and welcoming. We talked about everything from our siblings, future travel plans, ideal places for us to retire, to the one-child policy in China, and common dating and marriage ages in China. They told me that there are actually exceptions to the one-child rule in China. For example, if two people get married, and they both come from a long line of single children, they are then allowed to have two children without penalty. Also, minorities in China are allowed to have multiple children as well without penalty. They also said that now, more and more women in China who are well educated and hold good jobs wait until they are in the late 20s and early 30s before marrying, much like the US.

Below, two pictures of our lunch at a Korean restaurant: the very cute seating at the restaurant -- so low to the ground that you sit with your legs completely stretched out ahead of you and with your shoes off; Christine, me, and Sissi.






After lunch, I was talking to Sissi on IM and she wrote something as her status message that completely made my day! She wrote, "暁璠好可愛," or, "Hsiao Farn is very cute." Hsiao Farn is my Chinese name. It made me so happy to think that I'm starting to make new friends and will hopefully be all right in Beijing!

Homesick, but at least I'm eating good food!

As I've only been here for 6 days, I guess it's totally normal and expected to feel homesick. Everything is just so different here, and super overwhelming....everything from the taxis and crazy drivers, the facilities and water in China, the language barriers, lack of friends here, the list goes on. I suppose that this will all get better as time passes. But yeah, sometimes I wonder what I'm doing here. Even getting to and from work everyday is stressful, as I have to effectively communicate with the driver, make sure I'm not getting ripped off and taken for a ride, and hope that we don't get into an accident as the taxi comes *thisclose* to running over a group of pedestrians or crashing into a bus. The lack of seatbelts doesn't help.

Anyway...on the bright side, I'm happy to say that I've had some good food recently. During lunchtime yesterday, Bessie, Carol, and I went to the Middle 8th Restaurant, which serves Yunnan food. This is the first time I've had this type of Chinese cuisine. This cuisine features a lot of hot and spicy dishes, as it is heavily influenced by nearby Sichuan. Almost all dishes have mushrooms in them, as well -- all varieties of mushrooms and cooked in various ways. Their most famous dish, though, by far is Guoqiao Noodles -- or 'across the bridge' rice noodles. This dish is made of soup, sliced meat, rice noodles and seasonings. The boiling soup is made of boiled chicken and pork bone in a light-colored broth. Chicken, pork, liver, kidney, fish and pickled pork are cut into slices. Seasonings are made of boiled vegetables. First, the raw sliced meat is dropped into the soup. After a few minutes, noodles and seasonings are added. It was very flavorful, delicious, as well as comforting as it reminded me of homestyle cooking. Along with our dishes, we all had rice wine as well. This was new to me, too, as in the US rice wine is only used for cooking! But I really like the rice wine here in China. It's very sweet and doesn't taste very alcoholic at all. After a few cups, Bessie and Carol started to feel a bit tipsy, but I was fine, hehe.

pictures below: rice wine; the sleek and modern decor of Middle 8th Restaurant; Bessie, me, and Carol; the famous Guoqiao noodles.








For dinner, I went with Jiayi and the AdSense Ambassador from Dublin, Olivia, to Yumadun for Sichuan food. Ummm...okay, so Sichuan food in the US is completely watered down in terms of spiciness. At Yumadun, their dishes ranged from one chili to three chilies in terms of spiciness. With ordering just the one chili dishes, my mouth was burning, and I had to drink cup after cup of hot water (can't order cold water as Beijing's water is not potable). The highlight of the dinner, though, was ordering pig ears. I've eaten pig ears on and off ever since I was a child, and they are quite good. In the US, they are made very flavorful and quite chewy. At the Yumadun restaurant, the dish was presented in a very unique way as the flat strips of pig ears were hung as to specially display them (see picture below). Then, the waiters took away the dish and proceeded to arrange the flat strips into beautiful spring rolls. If you looked at their creation of the spring rolls, most would never know that those are actually pig ears!

Below: pig ears when they were first presented; pig ears made into spring rolls (those are carrot strips sticking out); Jiayi, Olivia, me.






After dinner, Jiayi, Olivia and me went to Library in neighboring district Xicheng. Library is an incredibly cute, cozy coffeehouse...almost like Friends' Central Perk...but even better! Couches are everywhere and there is actually a large bookshelf with lots of books for customers to pick out and read. The coffeehouse feels very homey, intimate, and comfortable. If there weren't so many smokers there, I would definitely go frequently. But, after a while, the intense smell of smoke hitting me constantly got to be too much, and it was time to go home.

Claustrophobic? Avoid Carrefour at all costs...

On Sunday, I decided to make a second trip to Carrefour, the French Walmart. Big mistake. I knew I was in big trouble even before entering the store, as it was utter chaos even trying to get a shopping cart for myself. Even there, people were pushing each other and cutting. Once in the store, the masses of people everywhere and the frantic environment made it feel like Black Friday in the US -- only except that it was a normal weekend in China. In order to get anywhere, I had to copy what the locals were doing -- shoving and pushing their way ahead. After a little while, I started to get a massive headache. It wasn't just the crowds, but the annoying Carrefour employees, too. You know how stores like Target and Costco in the US place sale items in their own section or in a display perpendicular to an aisle? Well, at Carrefour, there's an employee who stands at each single sale display...except, with a microphone in hand. The employee would say things like "Only 50 kuai [Chinese currency]! Regular price 80 kuai! Come and get yours now! High quality! 50 kuai -- so cheap!" Less than 10 feet away, another employee would be shouting another promotion into a mic. And on and on. As Carrefour is a Walmart type store, you can imagine how many sales displays they had. My head started to spin.

Their employees are also talented at being quite annoying in the aisles themselves. In every aisle, I'd see at least one Carrefour employee, if not two or three at a time. Considering how huge Carrefour is, the number of employees there seems way excessive. Anyway, whenever I'd take an item down from the shelf, an employee would gleefully say things like, "Good choice!!! It used to be 33 kuai! Now down to 18 kuai!" Another time, I was trying to pick which laundry detergent to buy. I wanted to be left alone to look at each different line. But, the Carrefour employee there immediately came to my side and went into a spiel, saying, "You must buy this one. This one won't give you an allergy! See, it's colorless! It's good for all clothes! And, see, you only need to put this much for this amount of clothes! Great buy, right?" What a change from US grocery/household shopping.

Other interesting differences I noticed:
-the yogurt drinks must be way popular in China. The selection of yogurt drinks was twice as large as their milk selection.
-Skin whitening creams, masks, lotions, soaps, serums, etc. were everywhere. Even the masks they were selling for problem skin had whitening agents in them.
-after selecting the produce you would like to buy, you must queue in line and get it weighed by an employee, who will paste a sticker stating the weight and price onto your purchase. Without the sticker, you cannot buy the produce. I liked that one of the employees yelled at a lady who decided that she was too good to wait in line. Maybe the Chinese are really trying to get better about lining up.
-cleaning/sanitary supplies such as rubbing alcohol or sanitizing wipes aren't readily found in Beijing.
-air purifiers are huge in Beijing! The selection of air purifiers was unbelievable. I even saw a Winnie the Pooh air purifier. I guess I shouldn't be so surprised, though, as almost everyone in the Google Beijing office has an air purifier on his/her desk.

I must admit that the whole time I was at Carrefour, I felt like kicking myself for deciding to come on a busy weekend and without a local with me. As everything was labeled entirely in Chinese, and things all start to look the same after awhile, I felt lightheaded trying to decipher what each product was for and how it differentiated from the product next to it. Next time, I should really bring a local who gets Carrefour in all its madness and who can help me figure out what's written on the back label of a product!

Later, while sweating bullets the whole time from the store's excessive heating system (who needs it when there's body heat?), I finally made my way through the crowd, confusing displays, and pushy employees and paid for my stuff. Even though it was cold and polluted outside, I've never been so relieved to leave a store in my life.

Forecast: Smoke

Before I went out today, I checked the Weather.com forecast for Beijing. Expecting to see the condition listed as something like 'Sunny' or 'Partly Cloudly,' I instead saw 'Smoke' -- which is definitely the first time I've ever seen that in a weather forecast description. Well, it was right on target to say the least. Walking for just about 30 minutes outside today, I couldn't hold back constant coughing as my lungs couldn't handle the pollution. There were a few moments where I felt a little queasy while walking as the severity of the pollution was so foreign to me and really hit me hard. (For those who aren't familiar with the horrible polluted air in Beijing, just a few days ago, the pollution index of Beijing hit 421. For comparison's sake, Los Angeles, London, and Paris all have pollution indexes of just over 100. The World Health Organization deems pollution indexes under 100 "safe." Beijing has won the award of the most polluted major city in the world -- hurrah.) At dinner, there was a guy at the next table who puffed away at his cigarette during his entire meal. I think it's crazy that some Beijingers smoke when the pollution levels are equivalent to smoking 100 cigarettes a day (!!!!!). When I got home tonight, the smell of smoke had completely permeated my hair and clothes. It was so unbearable, much more so than when I walk through clouds of smoke in the Bay Area. I immediately went to wash off and I was relieved to finally be able to breathe normally. So...tomorrow I'm going to go back to that French Walmart and buy myself those masks that I see locals wearing around town.

Beijing pollution:



In other updates, I love the food here in China!! For lunch, my coworkers Elisa, Tim, and I went to a Taiwanese restaurant in a ZhongGuanCun (my neighborhood) mall. It had the most delicious plate of string beans and minced pork that I've ever had in my life. And I order string beans all the time! This time, they mixed together the string beans and minced pork with egg, and it was simply delicious. I also had the best bubble tea here! I will definitely have to take my parents here when they visit -- they will love this place. Elisa and Tim are so hospitable, I almost felt embarrassed with how sweet they are to me!

Below: the Taiwanese restaurant dishes


For dinner, I met up with a Mountain View coworker's friend, Sydney. Sydney and I went to a very fancy Shanghainese restaurant. I really like Shanghainese fare. It's very light but still flavorful, and it's supposed to be a more more healthy option compared to Beijing's heavy, rich, and filling foods.



Almost got run over today by a van that zoomed towards me while I was walking through a zebra crossing. Man, I really hope I will come back to California in one piece (including my lungs)!

My gorgeous apartment! = *cough* come visit *cough*

I love my apartment here! It's incredibly spacious, as I have a one-bedroom apartment all to myself! And it's definitely luxurious and way expensive. The perks are great as well, as I have daily maid service (I even don't have to wash dishes, as I can leave it for them to do), access to the gym and pool, two plasma TVs and DVD players in the apt, own washer/dryer unit, etc. Without further ado, here are pics!


The entry hallway and kitchen. This is the first time I've ever had my own set of dining table and chairs in an apartment!


One of two plasma TVs.



The sunrise from my bedroom window











L to R: my bed; another pic of a Beijing sunrise; and the fridge (!). Yup, that's a fridge! I thought it was a cabinet, initially.







Below, L to R: the plush living room with high ceilings; dual sinks in the bathroom; my amazing, swanky bathroom -- all glass!













COME VISIT!

Notorious taxi rides and French Walmarts...

Today was my first full day in Beijing. And while it definitely had some challenging aspects, I'm happy to say that overall, it was a great day. It got off to an iffy start, though, when I was taking the notorious Beijing taxi to work. Not only was the driver driving like a maniac, trying to create lanes where there weren't any, and driving *thisclose* to buses and bicyclists next to him, but the taxi also didn't have any seatbelts in the back! For most of the taxi ride, I was sitting there on edge afraid to look but also feeling compelled to witness his driving style. At least he didn't try to run people down like my driver yesterday. I'm seriously afraid to cross the street in Beijing. I read all about it on the internet, and even watched YouTube videos specifically devoted to 'crossing the street in Beijing.' Basically, drivers go on red and they don't give a thought to a pedestrian/bicyclist in the middle of the road. Crossing the street can be fatal in Beijing, and I will only cross if I can go with a local. I was forced to cross the street tonight, luckily with a local coworker helping me.

Work was good; I got settled in and set up all my stuff and met some coworkers. Everyone in the office is so nice and welcoming! They also kept on telling me how good my Mandarin is, which I'm convinced that they said out of sheer politeness. I tried conversing with everyone I met in Mandarin, so it was a struggle at times coming up with certain words or phrases. But, I'm writing down new phrases and words in a notebook so hopefully, by the end of this 3-month assignment, I'll be able to say them all without a second thought! As for food, the Google Beijing office has great food. The cafe had excellent breakfast and lunch, serving truly authentic Chinese food for both meals. I even had pig liver congee (actually quite delicious). And as for snacks, the office doesn't disappoint! They have chocolate Pocky sticks, gelatin fruit cups, citrus-flavored gum, and various Asian beverages.

After work, my coworker Eustacia offered to go with me to Carrefour, essentially a huge French Wal-Mart selling everything from groceries to clothing to electronics to Chinese New Year decorations. The place is a 2-story madhouse. (Look up YouTube videos on Carrefour Beijing as well!) There are aisles upon aisles stocking who knows what, and things are not placed in a logical order. If one were to go down each aisle to browse, they would literally spend 3 hours+ in Carrefour. Unfortunately, my pictures don't do Carrefour justice as they don't capture all the customer frenzy and the massive size of Carrefour. But, it'll do for now...

The top two pictures are of chicken drumsticks and pig, respectively. I thought it was kinda strange how they lay out all the meat right there, instead of pre-packaging it (they do that for not only chicken, but beef and pork too). It seems kind of unsanitary.


Unfortunately, as I paid for my items at the checkouts, I experienced the discrimination that I've heard so much about. In China, the locals there believe that all Chinese-looking people should speak Chinese flawlessly. If they encounter a Chinese person who cannot speak perfectly, they think it's completely absurd and foolish of the Chinese person to not know his/her own heritage's language. First, the checkout lady took forever to decide whether or not the store could accept my American Visa credit card. Then, she started laughing at me and saying, "Hahahaha, is she Korean? Why does she not speak Chinese well? Too funny! She's not from here! She's not from here!" Then she gestured to another checkout lady to take a look at me, then told that checkout lady, "Hahahaha, funny right?! I thought she was Korean! She's not from here! Not from here! She's quite entertaining!" I was really annoyed and a bit upset at that point, and wish that I knew the kind of Chinese where I could come up with a suitable insult on the spot. Oh well.

As hectic and confusing Carrefour was, I think it's a must for a visitor to Beijing to stop by. The products are all interesting to look at, as they either are completely different from their American counterparts, or there is a very cutesy Asian twist to it. And everything is cheap!!! After our Carrefour shopping trip, Eustacia and I went to have Japanese ramen. It was delicious, much more so than any other ramen I've had in the States! I was so happy to get along well with Eustacia. We talked about our past jobs, what we studied in college, boy/girl relationships and friendships in China, hobbies, where she's from (Shanghai), as well as the education system in China. I am happy to say that today, I almost exclusively spoke Chinese to everyone. Woo hoo!

Taxi ride back to the apt was a little scary at first, as the cabbie didn't know where the apt was, and he kept on asking me where it was -- and I had no idea. In Beijing, cabbies are notorious for taking foreigners on a ride through town in circles so as to charge them a bunch more. Also, there was a seatbelt in the back this time, but it didn't work! Luckily, I made it back fine and the cabbie was honest and didn't take me for a ride in circles. Overall, a very interesting first day in Beijing, and I'm rather excited now to be here! :)