Why Crocs are a Better Choice Than Flip-Flops

We had our staff outing on Wednesday, when we closed the restaurant down at 3 pm and all of the staff (70 people or so) got on a rented bus and headed into Beijing to a restaurant of the boss’ choosing. There were massive amounts of food and it was all you could drink, so I got to watch a large portion of the staff get drunk -- which doesn’t take much for most Chinese people. Before dinner there were some team building games and speeches and after dinner the restaurant put on a whole bunch of dance performances and had some of the audience get up on the stage. They even got Jim (the big boss) up for a hilarious belly dancing routine. At the end, everyone was dancing on the tables. I sat with Jim, Tang Liang and Julie -- because Jim said he wanted to speak English -- which was quite awkward -- but got to mingle later in the evening. I am currently the only person who doesn’t speak Mandarin, so there was a lot I didn’t quite get, but it was fun all the same. We made it back around 11:30 pm and I was off yesterday and today.

Li Dan invited me to her house yesterday so I got up shortly before 10 and went to meet her at the bus stop. We took the bus into Huairou and her mom came to get us with an electric bicycle truck. We sat in the back and she drove us to Li Dan’s uncle’s house, where we had lunch and then went fishing. We started off with nets in a very shallow part of the lake, catching super tiny fish. I wasn’t actually half bad at it -- until I fell that is. Now here comes the key part: I had been wearing runners when I arrived, so I had changed into a pair of Li Dan’s flip-flops for going into the water. When I tripped, I didn’t actually fall over, but I rammed my foot into a rock while trying to catch my balance and got a small stone stuck under my big toenail. It bent my nail back and there was a fair amount of blood. As you can probably imagine, it hurt...a lot.

We got out straight away and I washed my foot off before Li Dan took the stone out with a toothpick. We cleaned it as best we could and Li Dan thought I should go to the hospital. I wasn’t too keen on this and her cousin said she thought it didn’t look too serious, so we decided to wait for night time and see whether it was going to swell much. It didn’t, so it will probably be okay, but I do think it’s a bit infected.

We decided to play it safe after that and fish with a rod from the shore. I didn’t catch any fish that way, but we had a nice relaxing time. Li Dan taught me some more Chinese words and I helped her with her English. In the evening, we headed to her mother’s home, where we had a huge meal full of wonderful food. An old colleague from university came as well and he practised his English on me. After dinner, we went to Li Dan’s house and reviewed my new words before going to bed. She is a very good teacher.

We got up around 9 this morning because Li Dan had to work. She only gets one day off a week because the glass shop has shorter hours. She made us noodles for breakfast and then we headed back towards Mutianyu. I had a quiet day today, cleaned my toe with Polysporin when I got back and made some pasta for dinner.

Back at Work

So I know I haven’t exactly been posting regularly, but can you blame me? I’ve been pretty busy. I had a very nice last few days with my mom and Marie-Eve. We did more shopping, visited the 798 art district and even went to a cooking class.

798 was interesting. It was full of wacky statues and some modern art galleries. It was free to enter the area, but they charged for all the galleries so we mostly stuck to the gift shops and saw the art on postcards. It was quite hot so we didn’t spend all day there, but we had a nice time and it wasn’t quite as complicated to get to as I thought it might be.

The cooking class was amazing. It was at a place called The Hutong and we learned to make baozi (stuffed buns). We made 3 kinds of fillings (lotus root and bok choy, pork and brown sugar), learned about all the ingredients and the history and even got to take home leftovers and a recipe. The only sad part was that we overdosed on buns and thus decided not to go to our favourite bun place for lunch the next day.

I eventually caught my mom’s cold and got quite sick with a fever yesterday so I wasn’t up to doing much. We packed and went for lunch before taking a taxi to the bus station. My mom accompanied me in and then she and Marie-Eve left for the airport.

They tried to catch a plane yesterday, but the odds were not with them (since they were flying stand-by), so they are trying again today. Keep your fingers crossed for them!

I was back at work today and put the finishing touches on my Excel booking calculator. It is now completely usable and easy to update and comes with simple instructions as well as a document detailing its inner workings so somebody else can update/modify it someday.

On a different note, anyone reading this should a) like the Schoolhouse at Mutianyu Great Wall on Facebook and b) Enter our caption contest.

40 Hours in Inner Mongolia (Part San)

When we got up on Thursday morning we had our last wonderfully tasty breakfast before heading out to do some shopping. Tana got some dried meat and beautiful Mongolian earrings before we both found the candy aisle. I managed to control myself and only bought 2 bags -- I had to get more than one kind to try and share around!

We headed back to have an early lunch of fennel and spinach soup and then Tana had a nap while I read for a little while. After she got up, her mom decided that the dumplings we had had for lunch and dinner weren’t good enough so she had to make some of her own for us for dinner. They were amazing! Did I mention that I have never had better meat?

We ate quickly before heading off to the bus station. Then came my next big surprise: A bus with beds! I thought those only existed in Harry Potter! It was actually quite comfortable and practical. We chatted for a good part of the way back and I really felt like I got to know Tana better, which was very nice. About two hours before we arrived in Huairou, the bus stopped outside a restaurant so that everyone could get out and have dinner. We weren’t particularly hungry so we just sat outside on the curb. Some girls came over to ask if they could take a picture and they were quite surprised when they found out Tana spoke Chinese... On the other hand, a guest at the restaurant told me my English was quite good the other day :p

We made it back to Beigou at around 12 (about 7.5 hours after we left) and headed straight to bed.

New recent words: North, South, East, West, keys, kitchen, fried bread, noodles

I have also started Teaching Tana French :)

40 Hours in Inner Mongolia (Part Èr)

Before I restart my tale, I just wanted to take a few minutes to explain how to comment on my blog, since many people seem to be having trouble and I love reading comments. Once you read a post you want to leave a message on, simply click on the number of comments at the bottom. It will say something like "1 comment." It will open up a box to leave your message. Type it in and then choose how you would like to sign it from the drop-down menu. The simplest is perhaps "Anonymous/Name" - just put your name - though you can also do it through a number of different accounts. Click "post" and you're done!

Now where was I? Oh ya, the midafternoon nap... When we got up we all piled into the car and headed out to a field, where we were to pick some famous Mongolian flowers. I got to see more of the grasslands and animals (horses, cows and sheep) as we drove. I mentioned to Tana that this reminded me much more of home than the rest of China -- sort of like Saskatchewan actually. About 30 seconds after we got out of the car we decided that our plan was not going to work because there were a gabazillion mosquitos (if you are not clear on the concept, this is a gazillion bazillion mosquitoes). We quickly ran back to the car, where I discovered that somehow I didn't have a single bite whereas everyone else had been eaten alive. Apparently this was not exactly true as some of mine appeared the next morning, but there were still only five or so even though I am usually the one whose blood they love!

 

 

 

 

We drove for a little while longer and ended up in a new field with a bit more wind and very few mosquitoes :) We got out to walk and climbed up a little hill. There was sand everywhere, so Tana and I both took off our shoes and ran as one might on a beach. Except it was better than a beach because there was a hill which lead to... you guessed it... running/sliding down it and getting covered in sand. Perhaps you had to be there but I think it might have been the highlight of my trip. I got lots of wonderful pictures which I will try to post tomorrow when my internet starts working better again, so do check back.

Tana's niece also had a great time and started crying when we had to leave. We drove back and had some leftover dumplings for dinner (as too many were bought for lunch). They were just as wonderful as before. Tana's husband is working on a paper he is trying to get published about plants, so he asked if I would be willing to proofread it for him. I happily did so and found it quite interesting. I sense my arts and science degree coming together -- Tana was surprised to hear I used to do this for friends and tutor English.

I'm going to leave my tale here for tonight -- at bedtime and pick it up again tomorrow (or whenever my internet lets me blog again).

On a more recent note, somebody please explain to me why tonight, in the middle of a thunderstorm, not one, not two, but three of our groups in our houses decided they wanted to have barbecues! Crazy people!

New recent words: Bus, Intern, pancake bread, hat, sofa, go home, house, mutton, toilet

40 Hours in Inner Mongolia (Part 1)

Inner Mongolia was so Amazing that I think I’m going to have to spread this out a bit over a few blog posts.

We finished work at 6 pm on Tuesday and headed back to the residence, where we met up with Tana’s husband, father and cousin, and then drove to Zheng Lan Qi, Tanna’s hometown in Inner Mongolia, with them. We had a nice time in the car but Tana got a bit car sick and you couldn’t see much of the beautiful scenery as it got dark fairly quickly. On the other hand, the parts that we did see as we were leaving Beijing were magnificent. There was some wild wall and beautiful mountains.

When we arrived, we were treated to a wonderful Mongolian meal of sweet breads, milk tea and mutton. The milk tea and mutton deserve a further explanation. Milk tea is a traditional Mongolian drink that is much like regular black tea with milk, but it also includes salt and sometimes butter. Families keep a large pot of it in a thermos and drink it throughout the day. It also becomes a kind of soup because you dunk all your food -- from mutton to dumplings to bread -- in it. As for the mutton, we had traditional meat that literally translates to “Hand grab meat.” Basically it’s a pile of bones with the best meat I have ever tasted on a plate in the middle of the table. Everyone takes a knife -- or teeth or hands -- and pulls it off to eat it. I have never eaten more or better meat in my life!

I went to bed around 12:30 but apparently Tana stayed up talking to her family late into the night. They gave me a comfortable bed on the couch and I slept very well. In the morning, I discovered that what we ate for our midnight snack was typical breakfast food and got to enjoy lots more. I also met the cutest and happiest 2 year old I have ever met -- Tana’s niece.

Around 9 o’clock we headed off into the grasslands for the Mongolian cultural festival that was going on. We watched singing, dancing, horseback riding and even some poor monkey being trained. Tana’s very generous mother bought be a beautiful traditional Mongolian necklace when I wasn’t looking. They made me try on a beautiful traditional Mongolian dress, but I’m pretty sure it must look better on Tana because I looked very silly.

We made our way back to Tana’s parents’ place and had a large variety of tasty dumplings for lunch (all with mutton of course) and then an early afternoon nap.

I am going to try to get some pictures on Facebook soon and continue my tale tomorrow.

Preview: mosquitoes, sand dunes, shopping and bus ride

Great News and a Resolution

I caught a ride into Beijing with Mona this morning and had to say goodbye, which was very sad. Once Wang Jing (the driver) let me off, I walked to the visa renewal office, which was a lot easier than last time since I actually knew where I was going. Here comes the great news: They told me it was impossible to get a 4 month visa, but they gave me a 6 month one! This not only saves time and possibly having to leave the country to renew it again but about $100!

I walked around the area for a little while searching for a post office -- which I found -- so I can now send my postcards! I then had lunch at Subway, which was weird because my chicken was cold. Otherwise, it was pretty much the same as in Canada

I made my way to the bus station and travelled back to Huairou without spending very long in Beijing because I wanted to catch one of the mini-buses to Beigou and they stop at 6. Once I got to Huairou I did some grocery shopping and then made my way to the mini-buses where they tried to charge me Rmb 80 instead of Rmb 5 ($15 vs. $1). I knew what the price should be so I didn’t go for that, but it’s still annoying.

I made eggplant, onion and zucchini for dinner, but it wasn’t as good as yesterday’s food.

I have decided that I need to work on my Chinese more so I am going to learn 2 new words/phrases every day. I doesn’t sound like much, but had I been doing that from the start, I would have 180 words already! Today’s are “I don’t understand,” “what are you saying?” and “work” -- yes I realize that’s 3 but I had to make up for only having one yesterday (“How much does it cost”).

Yummy Food

Green Pepper and Eggplant
1. Chop half an onion, a small green pepper and half a round eggplant into large pieces
2. Put it all in a wok with a small amount of oil
3. Heat for a couple of minutes and add salt
4. Add 1 cup of filtered water
5. Add a handful of raw peanuts
6. When water is mostly gone, add soy sauce
7. Enjoy!

Chinese Pasta Sauce
1. Chop a tomato and quarter of an onion into large pieces
2. Heat a with a small amount of oil in a wok
3. Add vegetables and heat
4. Add 1 cup of water and some soup noodles
5. When noodles are soft (1-2 minutes) add soya sauce and remove from heat
6. Add a handful of raw peanuts
7. Enjoy!

Giulia left early this morning so I got up early to say goodbye to her. I miss her already and keep wondering when she is coming back into the room. It’s going to be really weird after Mona leaves tomorrow as well.

I went back to bed and got up around 11, at which point I spent most of my day fighting to get my VPN connected. In the meantime I read some of a book and cooked lunch (see green pepper and eggplant above). It was awesomely tasty! I went to the local vegetable store to buy supplies and apparently I’m still not trusting enough. You have to go into a cellar behind the store to get your vegetables and when I came back with an eggplant, a green pepper, an onion and a tomato the owner started weighing them to calculate the price. I kept seeing numbers like 30 and 40 on the scale-cash register thing and her calculator and I was thinking “oh boy, they’re going to cheat me now that I’m not here with Tana.” And then she turned to me and said “5 quai” which is approximately $1. My faith in nice locals has been restored!
On the other hand, when I got home I discovered that the peanuts I bought weren’t the tasty ones Mona got last time, but raw ones (hence the use of them in my recipes).

I made the second above dish for dinner and it was one of the best things I have ever tasted! Perhaps it was a tribute to Giulia’s Italianness. We were going to go to Begalar (the local restaurant) for dinner, but we decided to just hang out here instead.

I’m going to pick up my new visa tomorrow (yay!) and am catching a ride into the city with Mona.

On an even more awesome note, I’m going to Inner Mongolia with Tana next week!!!!!

Snakes (AAAAAAAAAAAAH!)

We found our 3rd snake in two days this morning. It was black and red striped and I think if may have been poisonous. I’m not entirely sure where it was originally found but the kitchen staff had it out by the back of the restaurant when I heard about it. Tana and her team found a huge one out by the Brickyard yesterday -- which I never got to see -- and I found a really tiny black and yellow one in one of the houses. Am I crazy to still be walking to and from work lots of the time?

It was pretty hot today but the humidity was insane. We were supposed to have thunderstorms and I think they might have been better. I felt like I was dripping all day. I wish my hair were long enough to tie up properly!

Tan Liang suddenly decided in the middle of the day that the office needed to be cleaned, so we pulled absolutely everything off all the shelves so the housekeeping staff could dust and vacuum. It didn't seem like the most productive use of time but anyways...What she says goes.

It’s only 9 pm here but I think I might be heading to bed quite soon. I’m working 8:30 am to 12 am again tomorrow and then quite possibly 7:15 am to 12 am the next day -- or if not then 7:15 am to 6 pm on Monday and 8:30 am to 12 am on Tuesday. I will be very ready for my days off on Thursday and Friday!

Kayaking to China

All my cooking was great yesterday but I decided to go to the fruit stand instead of the vegetable store today so my options were a bit more limited for lunch. I ended up with a tomato, garlic and noodle soup and some plums. Although Dragon, one of the chefs, looked at it with displeasure, it tasted pretty good.

Lee-Ann and I were talking tonight about her coming to visit. We decided that if she would walk/run to Vancouver, I would buy her a Kayak to come here. Googlemaps says it should take a little over 5 months -- if she doesn't get lost -- so I may have to extend my trip, but it would totally be worth it. I wonder if she would need a visa...Anyone else want to join? I’ll even take you out for dinner when you get here!

Day off

I decided not to go into Beijing on my days off this week (today and tomorrow) because it is way too hot here and thus would be even hotter in Beijing. I slept in this morning and headed to the local store to buy some vegetables with Tana when I got up. We cooked lunch together (a pepper and onion dish made by me and eggs and tomatoes made by Tana) and ate that and some flatbread we ordered from the local restaurant.

After lunch I enjoyed relaxing, working on my Chinese and watching ted talks in my wonderfully air conditioned room. Eventually it was time for dinner and Tana and I cooked together again (cauliflower and pork made by her and eggplant and zucchini by me). She’s a much better cook. After dinner we played a couple of games of chess and both lost in about 5 minutes each to Simon.

I’m looking forward to relaxing again tomorrow and hopefully the internet will continue to work.

On a different note, Tana and I are talking about maybe going to Inner Mongolia -- where she is from -- together at some point which would be seriously awesome!

I’m not Dead, the Internet Just Sucks Part II

Happy Birthday to my Mom today! I wish I could be at home with her!

I haven’t posted on my blog in a long time because we have been having serious internet troubles. First we lost access in the residence and then the Chinese government started attacking our VPN and we lost access to non-Chinese internet everywhere (the restaurant, the residence, the Beijing office...). It was a serious problem because all of our reservation information is on Google documents, which we need VPN to access. All this to say that blogging has become very difficult.

I did eventually get my visa documentation sorted out and I should be able to pick up my passport with an extended visa in 5 days or so. I think they purposely put the entry-exit section of the public security office in the middle of nowhere so people won’t try to stay longer, but perhaps I am just directionally challenged. I went into Beijing just for the day to give in my passport but because we had no internet, I had no googlemaps. All I had was the name of the building and a street. Now if you’re from Montreal, just picture knowing you were looking for an office building on Sherbrooke. You might think it a daunting task! Now I did the only logical thing I could think of and started at the subway station named after the street (Sherbrooke metro in your imaginary tale). When I got outside I didn’t magically see a large office building appear, so I walked into a store, pointed to the address Mona had thankfully written in characters on a piece of paper for me and said: “is where?”

How the women in the clothes shop knew what direction to point me in, I have no idea, but I began walking, asking the same question along the way and eventually made it there. I even ran into another girl asking the same questions along my path and we searched together. I went through an agency, so there wasn’t much to do other than give them the paperwork I had already filled out and some money. I had to follow them into the main building where you would go if you were alone to have my picture taken and I think the extra money was worth it not to have to go through the fuss and lines. I will have to renew it one more time before I leave, so hopefully it will be even more painless.

Today was our first day of sun in about two weeks and boy had I forgotten quite how hot it gets! It was great to be able to walk home again tonight though :)

Jake and Alex had their last work day on Thursday so there was a goodbye party at Jim and Tang Liang’s last night. Lots of good food and good people and apparently good alcohol...Mona and Giulia have their last day on July 13th and 12th respectively, so everyone will be gone soon :(

I will try to blog again tomorrow, but a lot depends on the internet situation.

Week 10 Begins with French

I always enjoy confusing French guests. There are just sitting there, talking and having their meal thinking that nobody can understand them when I suddenly pop up and ask them how they are doing in French. I actually had someone say, “we will have to be careful with what we say now” today. We get a huge number of guests from France (probably one of our three most common countries along with Germany and the US) so it is actually quite useful to be able to speak with them in French. On the other hand, I never know if when I hear their accent I should switch to French or if that might insult them.

Jim tried to kill my calculator project this morning saying that it has become too complicated to use. I agree to a certain extent, but there are so many different situations he wants it to be usable in that it is hard for it not to be complex. I’m working on figuring out how to use different date functions in excel so hopefully that will help. I have at least managed to save it for the time being. I think it either needs to be complicated to understand (for guests), to use (for staff) or to program (for me). Unfortunately Jim wants none of the above because he wants everything to be clear for guests, for there not to be too much training needed and for it to be simple to update. I still hate excel!

I had night duty at the brickyard tonight but it is still raining so there weren’t many guests. I started reading a new book that my sweet mom sent me as an unbirthday gift (the joys of ebooks) this morning and sent some e-mails.

I have 2 days off starting tomorrow so I get to sleep in. On Wednesday I am going to go into Beijing to try to get my visa extension paperwork submitted. So far, getting our company stamp onto the forms seems to be the most complicated step. Apparently there is a long chain of command. I’m glad I started early!

Stranger Danger

Warning: If you are an overprotective parent or other responsible adult, you may not wish to read this post.

I need to renew my visa soon, so today’s plan involved getting a passport sized picture for the paperwork. This would have been a lot simpler had I gone into Beijing for my days off, but they involved more sleep than anything else, so that didn’t happen. Instead, I had to make my way into Huairou.

This is a lot easier said than done, so I went and bothered Tana (who is amazingly helpful and patient) last night and we came up with a plan for me that involved many phrases written down on a map and a great deal of hoping for helpful strangers. I set out around noon and walked to the nearest bus stop (about 20 minutes away) to catch the 916 to Huairou. A bus pulled up just as I was arriving. It had no number on it, but I said Huairou to the driver and he nodded so I got on. Most of the buses in China have the stop names on a scrolling screen at the top, but the screen on this bus was blank. Instead there was a woman announcing the stops in Chinese--people replacing machines seems to be oddly common here.

I managed to get off at the right stop, but had no idea where to find a store that would take ID photos. Everyone said there would be one around though, so I just started walking and showed my paper with what I wanted written in characters to anyone who would look. They pointed me around many corners and in lots of circles, but I eventually found a store in an alley with picture frames in the window. There was a girl sleeping inside so I woke her up and she nodded at my paper. After taking my picture, she photoshopped it for a few minutes -- only in China once again -- and then printed 4 copies out for me (so I won’t have to go back when I need to get the visa renewed again).

Tana had explained to me that getting the bus back would be a lot more complicated but that there were some minibuses near a mall that would take me to the bus stop. As I had no idea where this mall was, and she had told me it was about a 40 minute walk away, I showed the paper once again to the girl who shook her head and then motioned she would call someone. I assumed she was going to call and ask for directions, but 5 minutes or so later a friend of hers pulled up and offered to drive me there for Rmb 7. Normally I wouldn’t get into a car with a stranger but I have been getting into Black (unofficial) taxis from Huairou so I decided I might as well. He drove me to near the mall, but when I got off I still didn’t know how to get to these mini-buses.

I walked around looking for the landmark Tana had given me (a KFC across from a McDonalds) but couldn’t seem to find it. I did on the other hand find an awesome grocery store! Eventually after showing my paper to many more people I found the mini-buses -- more stranger’s cars to get into and took a seat. We waited for it to fill up and the driver drove me to the bus stop I originally took the bus from this morning. A guy from the Schoolhouse also got on so he was able to help me tell the driver where I wanted to get off :)

I made it home and then collapsed for a nap before making eggplant, mushrooms and udon noodles for dinner. It was my first time cooking eggplant and although I could have done it for a little bit longer, I think it was a successful experiment.

I spent my evening watching ted talks and talking to my friend Lee-Ann.

On another exciting note, for those of you who knew that one of my math profs and I had submitted a paper to a conference, it got accepted!!!!!