US Embassy

I went to the US Embassy today because Scott needed more pages in his passport. If only I had gone a few months earlier, it would've been free but now they charge $82! The process was pretty quick though and only had to stick around for an hour. While I was waiting, an 85-year-old woman came into the office because she lost her passport. The poor woman was traveling by herself! Evidently it was her 12th visit to China but after this incident she said she's never coming back. I wouldn't blame her. I myself don't tend to go back and visit a place more than once so coming to China 12 times is amazing. Kudos to her for traveling solo at the age of 85 too. She seemed pretty sharp so hopefully it all worked out for her.

Her story reminded me of the time I forgot Scott and my passports in the hotel safe in Amsterdam. We made it all the way to the tip of Holland ready to jump on a boat and cross the channel to England when we realized that we didn't have them. Luckily the passports were still in the safe when we got back to Amsterdam but if they weren't, I might not be alive today to tell the tale... haha.

Studying Chinese

So Scott and I went to a CCC class that taught us some of the lingo to get a foot massage. Being here for 3 years Scott is already a pro and has his favorite spot close to where we live but I dragged him along anyway. Besides, what's an hour-long lesson when you know you get a foot massage afterward? So when (or if) anybody comes out to Beijing, I'll at least have my handy booklet to say, "Ouch, the water is too hot!" or "Can you work that spot a little bit more?"

This weekend was also my 10-year high school reunion. 10 years has definitely gone by fast. I'm a little bummed that I couldn't go but I'm sure 2020 will be here before I know it. Go wildcats!

Shanghai World Expo

The 6-month long World Expo in Shanghai is coming to an end this month so we thought we'd finally go and check out what all the commercials and television coverage was all about. Timing is everything - we were planning on initially going out there for a few days but we ended up staying longer because the trip turned into a business trip. "Yay!" for partial reimbursement of travel expenses. Anyway, we spent the equivalent of a full day there which was plenty according to our feet but not nearly enough time to see all of the pavilions.

We managed to get into the USA pavilion which was relatively simple compared to some of the other big countries. Word has it that for the pavilion to even be made possible there was a last-minute ditch effort to get money from corporate sponsors. The sponsorship was evident the moment you walked in with a wall of sponsors covering the entrance. There really wasn't much in the way of information about the US - just three video clips that essentially showed off how well we can produce a video and after going through the videos there was an area with a few interactive activities and a gift shop (with mostly Disney merchandise and stuff with US flags on it). Luckily we went at night and so the wait wasn't that bad. While we waited in line I correctly answered who the 16th President was. I think they were disappointed though when they found out I was an American. To get into any of the big pavilions like Saudi Arabia, Japan, or England, it required at least a four hour wait and we had little time to just stand in lines. They were going to supposedly give out tickets like the Fast Passes at Disneyland so you can come back later but we were either mis-informed or arrived too late to get a ticket.

We chose this particular weekend because we thought there would be fewer people going than if we chose to arrive the last week of the expo but it turned out to be a record-breaking attendance weekend. On Saturday alone there were over a million people! The souvenir of choice were booklets or passports that you can get stamped when you visited a pavilion. Again, Chinese people and lines can be stressful and there was alot of pushing and cutting to get your stamp which sometimes you had to pay for. I guess the individual pavilions figured out they had a money-maker when you had people go up to a desk with 10 passports in their hands, wanting you to stamp every one of them so they can pass them out to their relatives. The idea was cool but I think it created a Pokemon "Gotta catch them all" mentality. People were running mad through the pavilion just to get their stamp and not even paying attention to the displays are artifacts presented. I'll admit though, I was guilty of it too.

In the end, I think it was a great event for Chinese people to see other parts of the world without going through the process of getting your visa to leave the country. It's not easy especially if you're a single female. My language partner was stressing about her visa application because every other single female in her office was denied a visa to go to some European country. It's evidently rare - perhaps they fear you'll never come back. Going to another Asian country is not as difficult. But in any event, for us I think it was cool to see what the Chinese had put together and having an excuse to visit Shanghai but like anything, it doesn't beat actually going to visit a country and experiencing it first hand.

I have more pictures and I'll post them - eventually. :)

There's a first for everything

Beijing's streets are congested enough with all of the cars it has so when there's an accident on the road and the parties involved don't move their cars to the side, traffic is even worst. And most of the time it's not that the cars can't move. It's as if the drivers don't want to move because they don't want to mess with the evidence of the crime scene. Anyway, today Scott and I were riding in a taxi and our taxi was involved in one of those accidents that stop all traffic. No worries, it wasn't that bad. I guess it was bound to happen eventually since I personally don't recall ever being in a car accident before. The taxi behind us just didn't stop in time so it bumped into us. I think the taxi behind us got more damage than ours. Anyway, we just got out of our taxi and jumped in the next one that passed by. Maybe we'll have a little whip lash but probably nothing a foot massage can't cure.

Ballet inside the Water Cube

Perhaps the only way I can get Scott to go see a ballet performance is if it's inside of a cool venue. Today we watched a performance of Swan Lake inside of the Water Cube. Post-Olympics the Water Cube has been remodeled to include a water park and has been equipped with lighting and staging to house performances like Swan Lake.

You're probably wondering how it's possible to perform a classic like Swan Lake in a swimming venue. Easy! Add two stages and add synchronized swimming and diving as part of the performance. It definitely made it more interesting for those who wouldn't typically enjoy ballet (like Scott). My only issue with it was that the diving and the main dancing stage were on opposite ends of the pool so your head had to do a quick 180 degree turn sometimes to follow the action. I'm not sure if ballet purists would approve but we were happy to see the inside of the Water Cube for the first time while becoming a little more cultured.

A new view of Beijing

Unfortunately it's rare to have a clear day in Beijing. After a little rain and a little help from some wind, Scott and I got a wonderful view of Beijing's cityscape from the CCTV tower located in the southwest corner of Beijing. I was surprised at how big Beijing is. From the street level, it's easy to forget that you're only seeing a little bit of the city at a time. The top picture is a view from the tower facing East toward Tiananmen Square and the bottom picture faces the Northwest part of Beijing which includes the Summer Palace.

Year One

It's been exactly a year since I arrived in Beijing and time has certainly flown by. As part of my resolution for the first year I said I'd try to find some sort of routine and I'm happy to report I found a few things.

Scott and I enrolled in an evening Chinese language class since it became evident that we'll need to learn to speak the language if we're going to be here longer. I'm restarting from the very beginning to build up my basic language skills. I haven't been meeting with my language partners as regularly as we had liked because their schedules had gotten busy and as a result any language skill I had at one point has disappeared. You could say I'm in the UN of Chinese classes - every one of the six students enrolled comes from a different country and similar to the real world the American (me) speaks the fewest number of languages. We have an older gentleman from Portugal, a girl from India, a girl from Russia, a guy from Germany, a guy from Iraq, and of course our teacher from China. English for the most part is the unifying language. Also, I'm continuing my online accounting classes through San Diego community college.

The other new development is I got a part-time job helping a lady in my apartment complex create teaching material for her English language school. Her material of choice are Goosebumps books and Disney movies. I'm not sure how Goosebump books are appropriate for 6-7 year old kids but what do I know. For part of the job I had to listen to a recording of a real class and I have to say that maybe it was a good thing that I haven't been able to find a teaching job with elementary school kids. I'm not sure I could handle them.

My plan is to post pictures from the past year but the process is taking longer than I want it to. I think most people consider me a patient person but I just can't get myself to babysit uploading pictures. Maybe for this year, I won't post an entire year's worth of pictures at one time.