Longest Surf Yet

Christina surfed our floor for six days and we thoroughly enjoyed her company. Hailing from southern China, Christina was spending some time in Beijing waiting for a visa to Columbia, South America so that she could study Spanish. We had great conversations, many laughs and even discovered a new restaurant in our hood with her.

Chaoyang Faux-Beach

 

For the Olympics, the Chinese government imported tons of sand from the coast to create a fake beach for the beach volleyball. After the Olympics, they kept it intact and opened it to the public. The storm clouds had receded and we possessed two Chaoyang Beach tickets that expired today, so we spent the day with our toes in the sand, basking in the sunshine, playing beach soccer and marveling how a society that desires the whitest skin does not have sunscreen thus rubbing sand on themselves in lieu of the cream.

It was a relaxing day, but we wouldn't pay to go again as the ticket price is rather steep and it is on the other side of the city.

Monthly Indulgence

As we were in Christy's hood, we had to search for pedicure practitioners. Our discovery was a gem of a find--not for the service (which was good) but for location. Down a deep staircase, we entered into a mini salon. We walked to the right, down another set of stairs, through a few more hair salons, a sharp left turn, a slight curve to the right, traipsed through another hair salon, up a steep, steep staircase and into the nail/tattoo parlor.

This picture truly does not capture the hilarity and randomness of the situation, as it was taken while sitting in the tattoo parlor looking into the nail salon as we waited for two chairs to be vacated. Upon moving into the nail salon, we faced the "wall of tats"; an array of tattoos that were not so classy. The large eyeballs on the butt were rather disturbing.

At the end of our monthly indulgence, emerging from the labyrinth, I looked at Christy and said, "We really cannot make this stuff up!"

White Cloud Temple | Beijing Wall Remnant

In true Portland style, we braved the smattering rain and menacing clouds to tour the White Cloud Temple; a Taoist temple filled with shrines, incense...

 ...and iconic top-knot hair styled monks.

Our venture was almost sabotaged by faux-marble before we reached our destination. The Chinese are obsessed with putting faux-marble as sidewalks. During dry weather it is rather beautiful, but during any precipitation it becomes a death trap of epic proportions. From a distance, Zach and I appeared to be a hunched, shuffling old couple on a stroll, but on closer inspection an observer would have noticed us clutching with a death grip to keep the other from succumbing to a complete wipe out. Of course, giggles were heard the entire time, accented by tiny squeaks of apprehension when a slip was felt.Thankfully, the temple courtyards were not pure faux-marble, but rather artistically accented with it. The phrase "step on a crack break your mother's back" took on a entirely new and vivid meaning.

The temple was low on tourists for the day, which made for a pleasant stroll. Temples are amazing architectural pieces, but in regards to the deities and alters they tend to look extremely similar. After many temple tours, I still cannot tell the difference between Buddhist, Taoist, Confucianism, etc.

Today's highlight was Zach pointing out that deity in the first temple was flipping worshipers the bird.

As we stood beside the alter laughing about his hand position, a monk walked in, strolled to the alter, rummaged around in the candy bowl, chose a piece and walked out. With mouths ajar and eyes bugged, we turned to each other and simultaneously said, "That's why the deity is flipping the bird!" This was followed by an eruption of laughter-to-tears moment.

The remaining stroll was pleasant, filled with us giving a running commentary about what deities look mad, happy, new, old, etc. It is rather interesting to read the descriptions of each temple, then see the personification of the belief--the deity of medicine and health rides around on a tiger, the deity of academia wears a really large cape, etc.

After we left the White Cloud Temple, we began the search for a chunk of the old Beijing wall. Zach had noticed on the map that the temple was near a section that was still intact. We saw it a lot sooner than we could reach it, as it seemed to be an impenetrable oasis stuck in the middle of roadways. After a very roundabout trek, we finally found the entrance.

It is a small remnant of a mini Great Wall that once protected the city, completely covered in ivy and grapevines. By the ivy-less sections, we have the suspicion that a good chunk of it has been rebuilt--the plight of China.

How We Know

Every so often we are asked, "What does it feel like to live in a communist country? Can you even tell?"

Yes, we can tell.

It is an undercurrent of dissension and wariness that permeates life. There are large scale examples, but we tend to see it in the minute details of life. For example, the global release of Harry Potter excluded China. Why? In celebration of the ninetieth anniversary of communism, a historical movie was made depicting the party in all its glory with top Chinese actors. The government would not allow Harry Potter to be in theatres because they feared it would decrease the revenue for their top movie pick. The goal was for the homegrown movie to gross 20 million yuan; it was rumored that unless the goal was met, no foreign films would be allowed for the remainder of the year. Considering only 20 foreign films are allowed in per year anyway (hence why pirating is such a past time), the masses were a bit antsy with that gossip.

Walking down the street today, I saw the billboard and leapt with joy. Either the goal was met or the officials discovered they had been ruthlessly shamed in the blogosphere and relented.

Now, it will be interesting to see if the government cut scenes out of the film.

Rainy Season

Accustomed to waking up to sunshine and warm weather, the past couple weeks have been rather shocking to my system. Though the hot temperatures have remained, the sunshine has been replaced with ominous cloud cover supplemented with pollution.

Thunderstorms have become a daily occurrence, but fail to undo the shroud of darkness that blankets the city. I wasn't aware that Beijing experienced a rainy season, yet the skies and flooded streets do not lie.

Pasta Feast

Over the past three months, Zach and I have had the privilege of teaching and getting to know these students from Beijing Forestry University. They have reminded us why we love China and why we want to be on a campus full time. During our weeks of class, the discussion of food from around the world, especially pasta, has come up. Since they are on the cusp of leaving for Masters work abroad, we decided to have an evening of celebration and introduce their palates to the wonderful world of pasta.

My Grocery Store

It is chaotic, loud and overwhelming to many, but a stroll through the market to buy fruits and vegetables for dinner always calms me and puts my culinary imagination into overdrive.

Life

Nestled within a window seat, surrounded by familiar amenities evocative of Portland coffee shops, Christy and I lunched at the western cafe, Sculpted in Time. The past week has been rather bumpy in regards to employment, so we both needed some western comfort to soothe our ruffled emotions. 

I walked away feeling refreshed and calm.

Two hours later my patience waned and I snapped. Terse words were spoken within the office. Suppressed emotions and concerns poured forth; a culmination of many weeks of frustration. Granted nothing was solved, but Zach and I are in agreement that the coming weeks could be interesting for us as we potentially make some decisions.

No Vacancy

We had a busy week hosting couch surfers. We started the week with Natan, an Isreali bound for India to reconnect with his girl. He was jovial, easy going and celebrated a birthday during his stay with us.

A day after Natan's departure, Gustavo showed up on our doorstep. This trip was his first venture beyond Argentina's borders, which was inspired by a girl. He was entertaining and loved sharing stories of his homeland. He lives in Patagonia and his pictures were amazing.

Our hutong is booked into August with multiple travelers from around the globe, including a couple from Portland who have been teaching in Korea. We are super excited to connect with them.

Though we have had the hardest time adjusting to life without the To family, couchsurfing has helped immensely in filling the need of community living with the added bonus of meeting incredible people.

Portland Remix

One of the joys of teaching English is when one can reminisce while teaching students how to give directions.

Today

Today I realized no matter where you are in the world, college campuses during the summer are lonely and desolate places.

Today the smell of freshly cut grass made me smile, as it is a rare smell in this city.

Today I marveled at how workers frequently incorporate the Asian squat into their duties, no matter what their job.

Today I realized that signing up for couch surfing has been one of our best decisions. We have immensely enjoyed our current Israeli couch surfer, Natan. He is full of life, has great taste in books and really enjoys conversation.

Today I baked a cake since yesterday was Natan's birthday.

Diller Day!

Since they were in such high social demand, we were very excited to get a day with the Diller family. Initially we had planned day trip beyond the Great Wall, but scrapped those plans for a more low key agenda within the city.

We started our day at the Capital Museum, a large, sleek and extremely modern building situated along the red line of tourist attractions in Beijing. This site had not made it onto the Banker to-do list, but the Dillers had received rave reviews from local friends. Upon researching the museum, I discovered that it was a well liked stop for many tourists, with an added bonus of free admission. 

The first two floors were under exhibit construction, but the remaining floors held a vast array of historical artifacts from Buddhist statues to pottery to a full size hutong replica. The basement held a photographic narrative of Tienanmen Square over the past ninety years, minus the infamous 1989. We did notice that other significant historical markers were conveniently not stated in displayed timelines, but at the same time odd things were included such as religious influences.

The hours passed quickly and eventually growling stomachs marked our need to depart the premise.

We had planned on touring the Bird's Nest but time was not on our side. Therefore, we detoured to Wangfujing, as every foreigner needs to experience bizarre eats on a stick. I quickly learned that the Diller love language is food. Though they passed on the stick of grubs and scorpions, every time I turned to speak with them there was a new food item in their possession. It was really funny. The venture became even funnier when Doug made it his personal mission to purchase the toy crawling soldier complete with Chinese flag.
 

As the day progressed, our group got larger. Our couchsurfer, Natan, joined us at Wangfujing. At dusk, we made our way to a local park to meet up with a friend of the Dillers. The unique aspect of the day was that it was the date when the Diller family met Sylvia for the first time. The woman we met was their in-country adoption guide during that time and she was excited to see Sylvia and vice verse. It was fun and an honor to watch the interaction between a woman and a child who knew very little about each other but shared a pivotal moment in Sylvia's life.

It was an amazing day to spend with friends and meet new people. After one last visit to ICCI, our local milk tea/smoothie stand, we bade farewell to our Portland friends for the last time.

Tragedy in Aisle One

According to Zach, he experienced a first today. It was tragic and heartbreaking to observe and he was rather despondant over the situation.

Upon entering IKEA, in a quest to find bedding for our couchsurfers and beach towels, we took the usual detour to the ice cream counter. It was extremely busy, people in the queue were rather pushy and the ice cream cone lady was a smidge inadequate when it came to properly filling the ice cream cones. She made them top heavy, which caused the cataclysmic disaster of Zach dropping his ice cream cone. The look of despair upon his face was heartbreaking and his spewing of incoherent and incomplete thoughts proved that he was in shock. However, he calmed himself rather quickly and we made our way into the depths of IKEA.

After purchasing our finds, I told Zach I would meet him at the ice cream line as it is tradition to get another ice cream cone prior to departing the building. I soon discovered that he rectified his previous mishap the only way he could--he bought two ice cream cones for himself.

I love my husband.

Another note, today's excursion to the mecca of blue and yellow was sponsored by the letter B. These sleek metal replicas of our beloved second letter in the alphabet were everywhere. Everywhere. It quickly became eerie to their placement.

Swimming Lessons

Through a random connection I was hired to teach swimming lessons for a group of expat kids this week. Originally it was to be a handful, but by the beginning of the week the group had grown to twenty kids ranging in age from four and a half to sixteen.

This was one of the best weeks I have had in Beijing.

Obviously beginning every morning in a swimming pool was pure bliss for my water obsession, but getting to know a great group of families and teaching kids to love the water rather than fear it was an added bonus. Many memories were made, but one of my favorites was my four and a half year old who was constantly yelling during class, "Teacher, I'm hungry. Teacher, can I eat yet? Teacher, my stomach needs food. Teacher, is it time to eat yet?" or "Teacher, I think I need a new group. Teacher, can you put me in another group? Teacher, I think I don't fit in this group."

Another highlight was the weather; azure skies bespeckled with puffy white clouds were a frequent and welcomed sight. On Wednesday I stood on the edge of the pool and commented to a parent that if I didn't know better I would claim to be in the Caribbean sans the salty air.

The downside to the week was that all participants learned quickly that Chinese chlorine counteracts American sunscreen. For the first time in many years, I have a slight case of sun poisoning alongside an amazing tan and extremely blonde hair. However, I wouldn't trade the pain, for it was an amazing week for swimming lessons.

Freedom

The last couple of days I have been reading Maya Angelou's Letter to My Daughter, a compilation of short stories. Ironically, last night I read a chapter specifically about freedom. The timing was rather poignant and the quotes she shared were memorable.

All of this on account we want to register, to become first class citizens, and if the Freedom Democratic Party is not seated now, I question America, is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, where we have to sleep with our telephones off the hooks because our lives be threatened daily because we want to live as decent human beings, in America?
--Fannie Lou Hamer

The thought of only being a creature of the present and the past was troubling. I longed for a future too, with hope in it. The desire to be free, awakened my determination to act, to think, and to speak.
--Frederick Douglass

I believe that there lives a burning desire in the most sequestered private heart of every American, a desire to belong to a great country. I believe that every citizen wants to stand on the world stage and represent a noble country where the mighty do not always crush the weak and the dream of a democracy is not the sole possession of the strong.
--Maya Angelou

Fourth Fail

We spent the evening sitting in Mike's Texas BBQ (the menu said Texas Roadhouse), waiting for a taste of the homeland to sate our fourth of July longings. It was the gathering of the Americans, complete with eclectic Texan decor and Johnny Cash music. Alas, two hours of waiting was long enough to realize that we had stumbled upon an epic fourth fail and the restaurant was not going to be providing food. Our theory is they ran out of food but didn't broadcast the fact in order to keep people around ordering drinks. However, at 9pm, we Americans exercised our right of angry free speech and left. We were not the only group to depart, as it was a mass exodus and the restaurant owner soon found himself with a rather empty establishment and a horribly smeared reputation.

Happy Communist Day?

To the eye it is fair enough, here; but seen in it's integrity, under the sky, and by the daylight, it is crumbling tower of waste, mismanagement, extortion, debt, mortgage, oppression, hunger, nakedness, and suffering.
--Charles Dickens