Leave your apartment, take the elevator down and try to find your bike in the mass of overlapping motor vehicles at the front of the complex. Squeeze your way through the narrow iron gate they recently put up, and head down the street.
(The “street” that I live on is a mix between a dirt road and an ally. The ground is part dirt and part slabs of uneven concrete. At some points, the concrete just has tire-tracks dug out, 6 inches deep. I call it an obstacle course. I try to stay on one side, although there’s definitely nothing like a bike-lane on this narrow street. It’s narrow enough to be a one-way, but like most roads in China, it functions as both. Bikes and cars in both direction, just looking out and taking turns. I wait for a good time to go in between the bumps and try not to hit the vegetable and other venders on the sides. )
Check for cars. Duck under the willow tree while slowing to go over the speed bump. Go around the pot holes. Go over the speed bump but don’t hit the vegetable cart. Look again for cars and bikes. Cross the street and swerve in between parked cars to get to the sidewalk.
(At this new shortcut that I found, I ride where people walk out front of my old apartment. I felt kind of guilty being one of those bikes in a pedestrian space- until I had to swerve for cars who’d forced their way up there too. )
Go past the guard and cross the bike lane and two lanes of traffic to the opposite bike lane. Ride until the end of the street. Do not let the bus merge onto you. When it tries and you let it pass you, check for cars again and then pass the bus by going all the way into the other 2 lanes of traffic, with the other bikers. At the end of the street, take a right into oncoming bikers and cars. Try to pass these four lanes of traffic to take the tiny dirt path just ahead and to the right. Do not hit the venders, their carts, their vegetables, or the people buying them and blocking the entrance to the tiny dirt path.
Follow the demolition dirt and un-evenly tiled path through the fields of demolished buildings, over and up the tile-lined trenches and into the sand pit. Do not touch the power line lying on the ground. Try to find one path in the sand pit that is less deep than the others. Ride quickly and push hard on your petals to make it to the other side. (This step is especially important if it has rained in the past week.)
Take a right onto another dirt road. Take a left after the burning trash. (I don’t know why they do this, but I actually enjoy that it smells more like campfire than flaming garbage.)
Make it to the tunnel. Get off your bike and walk it down the 3 levels of ramps while you take the 50 steps down. Don’t be startled by motorists who ride their bikes down the whole way, or those who are coming towards you on their bikes. At the bottom, or near the bottom if you feel like getting on your bike on the ramp, ride through the unlit tunnel 80 flt. to the other ramp. Get off your bike and walk it the 40 steps up 2 levels of ramp to the sunlight.
Get on your bike and cross two bike lanes and four lanes of car traffic to get into Tsinghua Campus. Merge with cars and other bikes, around the guard booth, and squeeze into the divider for the bike lane at the entrance. Once on campus, every block be sure to make it through the 3 inch spaces cut out of the speed bumps but don’t let your handle bars hit the poles set up to stop cars. At the two major intersections, hoards of bikers will come from the opposite direction, right across your path. Bike with them, and then weave through them. Do not stop and wait, because there will be no pause for you to get through. Continue to weave your way through the campus, and eventually weave through the cones and into oncoming traffic. Stay on the wrong side so that you can take a left onto the street.
Choose any of the four driveways to turn into. Be careful for cars leaving the driveways, and children on their way to school. Take a right into the campus, amid a crowd of Tsinghua High school students. Get off your bike and say “Ni Hao” to the guard. Walk your bike just past the green line, and then get back on.
Ride down the ramp and past the field to the bike racks near the primary building. Find a spot that’s open, lock your back tire to your bike, and you’ve made it!
As you can imagine, riding to and from school today, after being so sick this weekend, was a challenge. I swear I only made it through delirium-inspired genius, by which I thought of “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming” on my way home. Thanks Ellen!
Monday, November 15, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
I Woke Up Sick
Well, in true Bekki fashion, I thought I was hung over. I never think I’m sick. I woke up with Swine Flu last year and still got on the subway from Queens to get to work before telling my head teacher, “I don’t feel so good.” After feeling my head and stomach ache, I cursed myself for losing my tolerance in Beijing, considering I’d only had two martinis (and some red wine.)
In the morning I was well enough to play a round of rummy while watching FRIENDS. (Some things never change, even overseas) I felt too full to eat.
Slowly, I began to lose my stamina. It was Saturday, the first day I had to NOT write reports in the month of November. I’d planned to go to the Lama Temple, and give myself a much-needed energy boost. It was clear by noon that I wasn’t going anywhere.
Still not admitting that I was sick, I consented to a nap at 2. I woke up at 4:30. At that point, I had to admit that I might be sick. (Especially considering that the last nap I took was when I had Swine Flu.) I should have known right away, because my kids have all been sick. I had at least 4 kids out every day of the week. I’m just lucky that I made it until Saturday.
After my 4 pm nap I was in trouble. I had a lot of hours left in the day, and absolutely no energy. Of course, I refused to go to bed. It was Saturday! My day! My first day after so many days writing reports day and night until I fell asleep, and I refused to be sick.
Kelly tried to feed me some soup. It was so hard to get every sip down, because I felt so full. I kept blaming my dinner from the previous night, even 24 hours later. I made Kelly put on a movie, the Corpse Bride, and tried my best to watch it. I felt burning hot. We have no thermometer, but I’m sure that I had the fever that my kids had.
The whole night, I couldn’t keep my eyes open for more than a few moments, every 30 min. or so. It was a strange fight with myself.
By 10 at night, I consented to be put to bed. Luckily, Sunday morning I felt somewhat more alive. I was able to lift my head and even have a whole conversation! I finished the last drafts of my reports, and tried to mentally prepare myself for the week ahead (complete with the dreaded Parent Teacher Conferences, dun dun dun).
Scariest part of being sick: I realized it’d be really difficult to be sick enough to go to a hospital. I’d have to look one up in a guide or copy it down from the internet, and try to get a cab driver who can figure out how to get me there. Then there’d just be the small problem of communicating with the doctors….
In the morning I was well enough to play a round of rummy while watching FRIENDS. (Some things never change, even overseas) I felt too full to eat.
Slowly, I began to lose my stamina. It was Saturday, the first day I had to NOT write reports in the month of November. I’d planned to go to the Lama Temple, and give myself a much-needed energy boost. It was clear by noon that I wasn’t going anywhere.
Still not admitting that I was sick, I consented to a nap at 2. I woke up at 4:30. At that point, I had to admit that I might be sick. (Especially considering that the last nap I took was when I had Swine Flu.) I should have known right away, because my kids have all been sick. I had at least 4 kids out every day of the week. I’m just lucky that I made it until Saturday.
After my 4 pm nap I was in trouble. I had a lot of hours left in the day, and absolutely no energy. Of course, I refused to go to bed. It was Saturday! My day! My first day after so many days writing reports day and night until I fell asleep, and I refused to be sick.
Kelly tried to feed me some soup. It was so hard to get every sip down, because I felt so full. I kept blaming my dinner from the previous night, even 24 hours later. I made Kelly put on a movie, the Corpse Bride, and tried my best to watch it. I felt burning hot. We have no thermometer, but I’m sure that I had the fever that my kids had.
The whole night, I couldn’t keep my eyes open for more than a few moments, every 30 min. or so. It was a strange fight with myself.
By 10 at night, I consented to be put to bed. Luckily, Sunday morning I felt somewhat more alive. I was able to lift my head and even have a whole conversation! I finished the last drafts of my reports, and tried to mentally prepare myself for the week ahead (complete with the dreaded Parent Teacher Conferences, dun dun dun).
Scariest part of being sick: I realized it’d be really difficult to be sick enough to go to a hospital. I’d have to look one up in a guide or copy it down from the internet, and try to get a cab driver who can figure out how to get me there. Then there’d just be the small problem of communicating with the doctors….
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Argana
Lucky for us, the Argana was celebrating its anniversary. Because of this we were seated in the only table on the bottom floor, next to a buffet and the bar. We discovered it was the anniversary when the owner walked in and announced it, after proclaiming, “I’m so drunk. I’ve been drinking since 10 a.m.” He was a charming middle-age Moroccan man, who took a fondness to our table, especially me. His interest in me was so apparent that Kelly and Alison both gave their names as “Rebecca”, and we became Rebecca cubed for the night.
The food was amazing. Thick stews and light appetizers. We had a dish that was just mushrooms with lemon sauce, and it was so well-prepared that this was enough. Ok, I know nothing about food, as I’m sure is apparent, but it was a nice change for me. (One good about China is that, being baller here, we can afford lavish meals at fancy restaurants, as soon as we can get ourselves there…)
The owner brought us extra dishes and continually filled up our wine glasses beyond the bottle we had ordered. He talked to us about opening the restaurant, keeping his Grandfather’s tradition, and about Morocco. At the end of the meal, he actually brought in a magician, instructing him, “Do tricks for Rebecca!” I’ve never had magic tricks done just for me, so I really enjoyed the unexpected surprise. I picked a card and then he put it back in the deck. Then gave me another card that was not my card and I put it under my hand on the table. He did all kids of moving around and then eventually put the deck on top of my hand, and when I looked at the card of the table, it was my card!
For the next trick, he asked me to sign a card with a permanent marker. Then he shuffled the deck so that some of the cards were face up, and others were face down. Somehow, when he hit it though, they were all face down, except for my signed card, which was face up! (I’m sure it is much lamer just to hear about this without seeing it, but part of the madness for me was thinking, this is my Sunday night dinner? Where am I?)
When I left, I asked my owner friend, “Can I have a business card?”
“You can have my life” he replied.
The food was amazing. Thick stews and light appetizers. We had a dish that was just mushrooms with lemon sauce, and it was so well-prepared that this was enough. Ok, I know nothing about food, as I’m sure is apparent, but it was a nice change for me. (One good about China is that, being baller here, we can afford lavish meals at fancy restaurants, as soon as we can get ourselves there…)
The owner brought us extra dishes and continually filled up our wine glasses beyond the bottle we had ordered. He talked to us about opening the restaurant, keeping his Grandfather’s tradition, and about Morocco. At the end of the meal, he actually brought in a magician, instructing him, “Do tricks for Rebecca!” I’ve never had magic tricks done just for me, so I really enjoyed the unexpected surprise. I picked a card and then he put it back in the deck. Then gave me another card that was not my card and I put it under my hand on the table. He did all kids of moving around and then eventually put the deck on top of my hand, and when I looked at the card of the table, it was my card!
For the next trick, he asked me to sign a card with a permanent marker. Then he shuffled the deck so that some of the cards were face up, and others were face down. Somehow, when he hit it though, they were all face down, except for my signed card, which was face up! (I’m sure it is much lamer just to hear about this without seeing it, but part of the madness for me was thinking, this is my Sunday night dinner? Where am I?)
When I left, I asked my owner friend, “Can I have a business card?”
“You can have my life” he replied.
My Kingdom for a HopStop…
Our friends Eric and Allison invited us to dinner at a Morrocan restaunt closer to the center of Beijing. I remember how this would work in New York. They’d text me the address, or the name, and I could look it up. If I was stuck, I could hopstop it, which would show me exactly how to get there, down to the blocks I’d have to walk after the subway. This is a luxury that I don’t have in Beijing.
Eric did send me the link for the restaurant. I was able to find the address, but when I tried to put it in google maps, the map is in Chinese (even under googlechrome, which translates most webpages.) It also couldn’t find the exact restaurant at first. I think happens because the pinyin (alphabetic spelling for the Chinese characters) is very specific, and because Beijing is gigantic, or because the internet likes to see me frustrated. After 10 minutes of playing around with the street name, or the area, I was able to find the exact restaurant with one little flag. Success!
Nope, just kidding. I had no idea how to get myself to that area. Everything is in Chinese, so I could only guess at what might have been a subway stop near there, and which one that would be. After another insanely long time I was able to match the Chinese characters and find out which two subway stops it was between, but the street names were all also in Chinese, and it was at least 10 blocks away from the closest stop. (Beijing blocks, by the way, are about 2 U.E.S. avenues long, so you really don’t want to take a wrong turn.)
Eventually, we decided to take a taxi. Easy! (In New York, that is.) In China, that involves trying to communicate with the driver, who does not speak any English, and does not know where everything is, because Beijing is such a large city. Kelly was able to look at the Google map and make a mark on the map that we have of the location, and we showed it to the driver. He took us, and then dropped us of somewhere near where we were supposed to me. It took us 10 minutes, under the light from a store’s sign, to figure out which direction was north, and to make a guess about which way we should walk.
Needless to say, when we finally saw the sign, it was a good moment. We were lucky that this is a Moroccan restaurant, so the sign was in English. If we were looking for a Chinese place, we’d have to meticulously match the characters!
Eric did send me the link for the restaurant. I was able to find the address, but when I tried to put it in google maps, the map is in Chinese (even under googlechrome, which translates most webpages.) It also couldn’t find the exact restaurant at first. I think happens because the pinyin (alphabetic spelling for the Chinese characters) is very specific, and because Beijing is gigantic, or because the internet likes to see me frustrated. After 10 minutes of playing around with the street name, or the area, I was able to find the exact restaurant with one little flag. Success!
Nope, just kidding. I had no idea how to get myself to that area. Everything is in Chinese, so I could only guess at what might have been a subway stop near there, and which one that would be. After another insanely long time I was able to match the Chinese characters and find out which two subway stops it was between, but the street names were all also in Chinese, and it was at least 10 blocks away from the closest stop. (Beijing blocks, by the way, are about 2 U.E.S. avenues long, so you really don’t want to take a wrong turn.)
Eventually, we decided to take a taxi. Easy! (In New York, that is.) In China, that involves trying to communicate with the driver, who does not speak any English, and does not know where everything is, because Beijing is such a large city. Kelly was able to look at the Google map and make a mark on the map that we have of the location, and we showed it to the driver. He took us, and then dropped us of somewhere near where we were supposed to me. It took us 10 minutes, under the light from a store’s sign, to figure out which direction was north, and to make a guess about which way we should walk.
Needless to say, when we finally saw the sign, it was a good moment. We were lucky that this is a Moroccan restaurant, so the sign was in English. If we were looking for a Chinese place, we’d have to meticulously match the characters!
From my Head Down to my Legs
Breakfast: 2 eggs, over easy.
Lunch: Trying to find a new restaurant is a tricky thing around here. Kelly and I decided to walk in a different direction to find something new. We made the mistake of sitting down at a Japanese place before looking at the menu. It was a fancy-looking restaurant, which had a picture menu (all good things.) When we looked closer, it seemed that it was a kind of Japanese hot pot, where you can select different vegetables to be cooked in the broth that will become soup. Unfortunately, each of the broths that we could choose from had a whole fish sliced inside. Now, I’ve become a huge fan of Chinese-style fish, head and fins and all, but for some reason that day, I wasn’t into it sticking up out of my soup. We pulled a classic Westerner move and split.
We walked for a while and ended up at a complex that looked like a food court of fast food joints. We were ready to just turn around when we looked closer at one of the restaurants and decided it was worth trying (mostly because the décor was vibrant orange, and Kelly will eat anything in that environment.) Our waitress actually spoke some English, which felt like a miracle. Because of this surprise, we were able to answer questions like, “Do you want it hot or cold?” and to ask, “What is on this vegetable?” She sold us on a dish of hard boiled eggs, filled with meat, and some Chinese broccoli. They bring the dish out to the table, and it is steamed right there.
Note: picking up a hollowed-out hard-boiled egg with plastic chopsticks is no easy task, especially when it has been filled with sauce and pork that will bulge from the top on the way to your mouth.
On the way home we stopped at a pastry and got some treats. I hadn’t thought about it, but I had picked out egg custards, a sweet cup of eggy deliciousness. Kelly almost lost her lunch.
Lunch: Trying to find a new restaurant is a tricky thing around here. Kelly and I decided to walk in a different direction to find something new. We made the mistake of sitting down at a Japanese place before looking at the menu. It was a fancy-looking restaurant, which had a picture menu (all good things.) When we looked closer, it seemed that it was a kind of Japanese hot pot, where you can select different vegetables to be cooked in the broth that will become soup. Unfortunately, each of the broths that we could choose from had a whole fish sliced inside. Now, I’ve become a huge fan of Chinese-style fish, head and fins and all, but for some reason that day, I wasn’t into it sticking up out of my soup. We pulled a classic Westerner move and split.
We walked for a while and ended up at a complex that looked like a food court of fast food joints. We were ready to just turn around when we looked closer at one of the restaurants and decided it was worth trying (mostly because the décor was vibrant orange, and Kelly will eat anything in that environment.) Our waitress actually spoke some English, which felt like a miracle. Because of this surprise, we were able to answer questions like, “Do you want it hot or cold?” and to ask, “What is on this vegetable?” She sold us on a dish of hard boiled eggs, filled with meat, and some Chinese broccoli. They bring the dish out to the table, and it is steamed right there.
Note: picking up a hollowed-out hard-boiled egg with plastic chopsticks is no easy task, especially when it has been filled with sauce and pork that will bulge from the top on the way to your mouth.
On the way home we stopped at a pastry and got some treats. I hadn’t thought about it, but I had picked out egg custards, a sweet cup of eggy deliciousness. Kelly almost lost her lunch.
Updates
I realize that it’s the middle of November and I haven’t updated since Halloween. My life for the past two weeks has been writing reports. Last Saturday I spent the whole day in this restaurant called lai Weis, “Your home away from home.” It’s my new favorite Western spot. I ate breakfast and lunch there, in between writing reports, and then I went home and kept writing. The reports are about 6 pages for each kid, complete with a paragraph for each subject, including separate sections for the child as a student and as a community member. With the social, let’ say “challenges” that my kids have, I often feel like a social worker and not a teacher. Trying to explain what I’ve seen and what they’re working on in a way that can be received by their Chinese parents has been the challenge of the past two weeks. Every day after school I’ve worked on reports until bed. That’s really why I haven’t updated, to spare you all from the tediousness that has been my life in November.
There were some interesting nights out, which I'm posting after this.
There were some interesting nights out, which I'm posting after this.
Friday, November 12, 2010
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