Greetings and Happy Belated Thanksgiving! It’s never too late to give thanks. We have a lot to be thankful for over here, including enjoying our own version of Thanksgiving. It was a bit different without an oven, turkey, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, yams, my mom’s homemade rolls, and I’m going to stop because I’m salivating all over my computer. It was also different being away from our family (a first for both of us), but we did our best to make up for it. We invited over our American friend Luke and his Chinese host family along with our Canadian friend Chelsea. Roast duck (which we purchased off the street) was substituted for turkey, my wife made amazing mashed potatoes, Chelsea brought stuffing shipped from Canada, our housemates made gravy, and our Chinese friends brought the champagne. Overall we had a delicious meal, but we plan on being home for next Thanksgiving!
Finding certain foods over here can be a task, and we’ve searched high and low for such items as maple syrup, limes, real “American” popcorn, tortillas (or any Mexican food for that matter), and other various foods. There is a large Costco-like store here called Metro which we stumbled across and it was like discovering gold. All of the above items were there(except limes), a little expensive, but well worth it for us foreigners starving for a taste of home. Real Chinese food is great, but saying “anyone up for Chinese?” for every meal can get a little old. When we need some good old American cuisine there’s always McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, and a few decent Western Style restaurants. All of them are pretty good, and I must say a Big Mac can taste like the best burger you’ve ever had after a month of Chinese food.
Although China has been westernizing in recent years, the country and people are still adjusting. We are constantly reminded of this by what we call the “movie star affect.” It’s an interesting experience to be in a city of 6 million people and still get stares from like you were a movie star (or an alien). Most of the younger crowd doesn’t do it as much, as they’ve been exposed to more Western films, but they still want to take pictures of you, with you, near you, whenever they can. To demonstrate how far this “movie star affect” goes I will tell you about our BIG performance here. A few weeks after we arrived in China we were told by our Chinese co-workers that we would be singing at the school’s 50th Anniversary Celebration.
“Singing?!”
Yes.
“Singing what!?”
A Chinese song. You don’t know it yet.
“Of course we don’t.” (it ended up being the Beijing Olympics theme song- “Beijing Huan Ying Ni-Beijing Welcomes you)
A few rehearsals later and we were live, spotlights and all, singing in Chinese, in front of 5,000 people. Crazy! That’s China. We are celebrities on campus.
Speaking of Beijing. We are excited about our upcoming trip. We will finally get to check off some of the big sights in China: Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Summer Palace, and the Great Wall. We have technically already seen the Great Wall, but it was a small section in a city called Dandong on the North Korean/China border. We did a weekend trip there and it was quite a sight to gaze across the Yalu River and into North Korea- one of the “Axis’s of Evil!!” The contrast between China and N.K. was stark. Multi-storied buildings, highways, streetlights, restaurants, and all the elements of a modern city covered the Chinese landscape of Dandong. North Korea had a few small buildings, some farmland, the evil eye of Sauron (just kidding), and…surprisingly…a Ferris Wheel. This was fascinating to me. In a country known for being horrendously oppressed and poor there was this vacant Ferris Wheel. It was as if Kim Jong II (N.K.’s leader) was trying to say to the rest of the world, “hey, look at us!! We have so much fun over here in North Korea!! We have a Ferris Wheel! Look!”
The Great Wall there was ‘great,’ but we’re looking forward to seeing a bigger section in Beijing. We will definitely let you know how that trip goes. Thanks for reading.
Phrase of the Day: A Chinese saying- “yuanmu qiuyu”- which means- “It’s like climbing a tree to catch a fish”- basically, “a complete waste of time.”
5 comments:
Well happy Thanksgiving you two for myself and Valerie. I won't mention anything about the homemade apple pies, pumpkin pies, pecan pies, the turkey, roast beef, mash potatoes..... just like you requested that i never mention firestones TRI tip sandwich. Val and I are off to New York for a little vacation. Hope that your little vacation is a blast. Just a little thing about fishing from a tree, it is possible with the convenience a modern fishing pole. Ancient chinese sayings are being proven wrong these days.
I still laugh when i see that picture of you guys sining. I think that i will get that blown up and made into a poster for you celebrities can sign it.
Being away from family is hard, but what an experience you're having! You'll never regret it. I think we might have just turned around and gone home had anyone asked me and Joe to sing live on stage, though!
Have fun in Beijing. I can't believe it has been ten years since I was there! I remember one day my boss was having meetings that were to be conduced 100% in Chinese, so I & my co-worker wouldn't be able to do anything productive during them. He chose a cab at the hotel and gave the driver a $20 bill. The driver then took us around to all the "must see" sights all day long and just waited for me to come back to the car at each one. A personal chauffeur for $20!
And now I've turned a little comment into an enormous post. Oh, well, take care! We still miss you.
That should say "conducted" and "waited for us." :p
miss you guys
oh,now you can sing a chinese song'beijinghuanyingnin(北京欢迎您)'?
Maybe the song is a little difficult for you beacause by now i can't remeber the words.
but i believe it's a interesting experience for you ~
Come on in the Ox year
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