Trial and error [30-32]

I’m learning a lot about myself by being more or less on my own in a foreign country. One thing I’ve noticed (and those around me have noticed), is that I hate giving up. Especially when it comes to finding a place. I’ve never had a spectacular sense of direction, but I can read a map and judge distance thanks to many years of backpacking and cross country.

That being said, this week has tested my tenacity. On Monday, Annie and I finally went to Friends Café, a nearly identical replica of Central Perk from one of the best, if not THE best sitcom of all time, Friends.

We took two hot and crowded buses to get there but wandered for a while before finding it tucked into the sixth floor of a sleek SOHO building. It was extremely cute, and surprisingly filled with Chinese locals instead of foreigners. It also was the best cup of coffee I’ve had since I’ve been in China (most of the coffee here is instant coffee instead of drip coffee). It was also refreshing to watch TV (Friends, of course) in English and to sit in comfortable chairs (sadly, the famous orange couch was taken by some locals).



We also discovered The Place, a popular mall and hang-out spot. The Place is hard to describe, but I will definitely come back and take more pictures.



The highlight of Tuesday was getting my first article published! See the last post for the link! I took a break from running around Beijing for a day and ran on the treadmill instead.

On Wednesday, the plan for after work was to eat at a Western deli called Bocata and then check out Boat, a bar/club on a boat (!!!) on a river since I won’t be in town this weekend. We took the subway to the Sanlitun area and walked towards Bocata. On the way there, we found a place called “Here” with a really good menu, and since it was late and we were starving, we ate there… at Here. It was amazing. I had a roast beef sandwich with fries (best fries in China… best fries ever?) and a Coke. When we got to Boat, the place was dead. Mental note: Wednesday night is not particularly hopping in Beijing. We ended up walking to Sanlitun and watching a Michael Jackson impersonator and a Chinese girl band over a pijiu.

You are a very bad person! [Days 14+15]

First of all, I don’t know how, but I forgot to tell my story of going to the hospital on Friday.

So, Friday after work, I went to the hospital for personal reasons. Nothing serious, no worries. It was, however, my first time out in the city on my own. Celine gave me the addresses to two hospitals with English-speaking doctors, so I pointed to the closer one when I hailed a taxi. He took me there, and I walked in with my Lonely Planet book open to the translation for "Is there a doctor here who speaks English?" Everyone I showed this to just said "No" and pointed to another person. Finally I just followed the signs to the ER. It was a really sad scene – there were ill people sitting in chairs and in cots in the middle of the room, throughout the halls, and in rooms without doors. There was no sense of privacy or, it seemed, sanitation. Finally, I found a female doctor who spoke English fairly well. She told me that this was not the right hospital for what I needed and wrote down the name of the Peking University Hospital. I took a taxi there, and it was not too much nicer. I checked in, which included no paperwork – I just told them my name, age, and paid them 6 kuai. Can you believe that? Any medical exam would only cost $1. They never checked my insurance or identification. The doctors there were very nice and helpful. I also noticed that they were all very young, and many of them were female. Their method of examination is anything but thorough, but I have no choice but to trust them.

Saturday was fun. Four of us took the subway to the Sanlitun Yashow clothing market, where I haggled like heck for some t-shirts. I was even told by one of the hecklers that I was smart and good at it. Who knows how honest that was… especially since the title of this post was said to me by another heckler.

I really love the clothing that the young Chinese men here wear, but it's all way too small for me. Especially the shoes. I'm determined to bring some home, somehow. Shopping continued when we found out that we were near an American Appearal that we had seen twice before. There were more really cool and fashion-forward stores, all of which were way over priced and non-negotiable. I definitely prefer to set my own price and will be sad when I have to pay full price for something back in the States. I couldn't resist and gave into a Big Mac and chicken nuggets from McDonalds.

I discovered a new favorite place on Sunday. Well, Brian discovered it a while ago, but now that I know about it, I'm claiming it as my own! It's Yuyuan Tan Park, and it's about a 20-minute walk from our apartment. It costs 2 kuai to get in, but is huge and so worth it (not that 2 kuai is anything more than pocket change…). There are two huge lakes, several places to eat, beautiful trees to sit under, people swimming, families camping out, and so much more. I can't wait to come back with a good book, a journal, a bathing suit, and possibly a kite and make a day of it!
We ate at "the porridge place" (as Brian and PA call it) for dinner. I somehow picked the best thing on the menu, but we all shared. That seems to be a good way to test out the selection.

Monday evening I'm going to attempt to learn some Chinese and teach some English! We’ll see how that does!

I have 3 bitches in office [Days 13+14]

My short work week came and went. There wasn't much work to do, but I had a meeting with Guo Xiaohong, or Catherine as we call her, one of the project directors, about what kinds of stories I want to be writing. I told her that I love experiencing and writing about new foods, especially Chinese food from an American perspective. Some of the other topics we discussed sound REALLY cool, and she's trying to find a Chinese reporter to team up with me to go do some stories soon. I'm excited!

We met Tim again for dinner on Thursday and had Japanese food. In my opinion, it doesn't get much better than Japanese fried rice. Tim leaves Friday to go back to the States after spending a month on his own in China. Maybe I need to start planning a graduation trip…

Dinner was followed by coffee/milk tea at this cute bakery across from where we work. It had tables that were little Chinese boats "floating" in a pond with fish - so cool!

We finally went OUT on Friday night to watch USA play Slovenia (World Cup) at a Tex-Mex restaurant/bar called Tim's BBQ. USA tied AGAIN. I wasn't a fan of the bar too much (it was owned by an unfriendly white man who had many Chinese minions, it seemed), but there was a cool duo playing covers. Annie and I guessed that they were Pilipino. The drinks were good, but expensive compared to the prices we are used to seeing at restaurants and markets near our apartment.

We moved on to Sanlitun, an area of Beijing "where all the drunk people are," as a local described. The road we were dropped of near had bar after bar, all offering overpriced but negotiable beer. It all seemed pretty unoriginal, and Chinese were the minority here. If only USA could pull out a WIN, Sanlitun would be the place to be!