Christina in China

Sorry that it’s been so long between posts, readers and friends. For the dates on these entries, I’m putting the dates they happened, not when I’m typing them. So be informed…

In the last episode, you may remember that I was in London, after an all-night flight and before another all-night flight. Well, after some fish & chips, buying some Typhoo tea, and meandering back to the airport, I sat in the airport for a few more hours and then boarded my flight to Beijing. All the plane staff spoke English, of course, since it was British Air, but it was my first experience (but far from the last) of being a spectacle. On the Boeing 777 plane with probably close to 300-400 passengers, I think there were maybe thirty-five non-Chinese on the plane. We did have good movies, though, and I had some good conversation with a Filipina girl from Oslo, Norway, about traveling and culture and how it was impossible to find good basketball shoes in Oslo.

My first impression of China: “Wait, is that the sky?” They weren’t lying; the sky in Beijing actually looks like a mix between cloud and smog. One of my bags was lost, but a nice woman in the airport helped me get a form filled out, and I got through customs without a hitch. Customs always makes me nervous, but I was hassled way less here than I’m hassled in either British, Canadian, or American customs.

At the airport, Kathi Suderman, one of the heads of CEE (China Educational Exchange), met me there and hosted me in her home for my couple days in Beijing, being “oriented,” sleeping off some jet lag, and seeing a few Beijing sights. I have to say that I was in awe of Kathi. She’s petite and tall and blonde, with laugh lines around her eyes, and she wears lots of streamlined black outfits and speaks fluent, musical-sounding Chinese. She somehow coordinates everyone’s travel, cooks meals, buys plane tickets, packs lunches and helps her kids with homework, does CEE stuff, and navigates the insane streets of Beijing, all without seeming frazzled at all.

My entire time in Beijing felt like a dream, as cliche as that sounds. There are people everywhere, all kinds of people: migrant workers building apartment buildings, taxi drivers, people selling fruit and vegetables and liquid yogurt on the street and in the market, people on bicycles and motorcycles and bicycle-cart things, women and men carrying produce in baskets on their backs, women carrying babies (and holding the babies out to *ahem* relieve themselves in the street), modern businesspeople and students and workers and migrant farmers. A sea of people. And a sea of traffic, with buses and bikes and motorcycles and motorcycle carts and these rickshaw-type things and private cars. The main rules of traffic: 1. don’t get run over, and 2. the biggest vehicle has the right of way.

I got to do ordinary things like going to the supermarket and not-so-ordinary things like going to the regular market, which has basically everything–fish and eels swimming around in tanks, just-killed chickens, live chickens that can be killed for you, sides of meat (with flies buzzing around–better cook these well), all kinds of fruits and vegetables, including some that are native to Thailand and other southeastern Asian countries and imported here. With the help of Kathi’s friend Hong Tao, I got to do some sightseeing, too. He took me to see the ruins of the Old Summer Palace, which was built for the emperors back in the 17th or 18th century, I do believe, and sacked and ruined during by Anglo-French forces during the Opium Wars. A sad history–I can imagine how beautiful these buildings were (even the ruins were beautiful). It was a good introduction to China’s complicated relationship with countries in the West. And the “New” Summer Palace, which is still intact, with gorgeous pagodas and authentic Chinese architecture. It made me want to squeal for joy–at last, the inspiration behind all of those tacky Chinese restaurant buildings! I have lots of pictures, I may add, which I hope to post soon, when I can upload them onto Eunice’s computer.

And, of course…the food is amazing. In Beijing, I had hotpot, a Sichuan specialty, where there is a pot of boiling, spicy broth, in which you dip raw chicken, tofu, spinach, noodles, sprouts, potatoes, and other things, and they cook instantly. We also had jiaozi–called “dumplings” but more like Chinese pirogies, thin wraps with meat and vegetables inside, which you dip in a soy sauce/vinegar mixture.

There’s much more of Beijing I would like to see, and I hope to get back before I leave China. Maybe when someone comes to visit and/or I have a break, I can get back to see the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the Temple of Heaven, and all those cool things.

Learn about Jiangyou, teaching, walking along the rice fields, fun with speaking and listening to Chinese, the complexities of buying yogurt, the excitement of Chinese traffic patterns, why I hear “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” multiple times in a day, and more…in your next installment of Christina in China. 🙂

I’ve been between worlds for a few days now. Orientation at MCC headquarters was wonderful, peaceful in every sense of the word, and a nice combination of restful and energizing. I’ll write more later because…

…I’m in London! Wandering around in Houndslow borough for a few hours before I have to be back to catch my flight to Beijing. I will update more then, from my country directors’ house. British Airways is treating me quite nicely, though. I’m off to go have a Lilt soda and a jacket potato with tuna, which both sound very nice right now, and browse in the WH Smith since I can’t find a Blackwell’s.

Cheers, all.