Strange people approaching you at tiananmen

My sweet blog, how could I have neglected you! Three weeks ago Giorgos came to visit me and after that I was pretty busy. In the meantime many things have happened, and then again nothing really important. When a professor asked me "so how is your life" and then with a friendly smile adding "a bit boring" I agreed. But on the other hand, my uneventful life in Chinese is still very exotic and exciting. In the past 20 days I have eaten "the best duck" in Beijing (thanks to Giorgos' best guide book!), experienced Chinese style massage (without the sex..), played a hug 1-2-3 people game and spoke to a Norwegian nut about his UFO experiences (shamefully),...

I had many interesting conversations with Giorgos. Unfortunatelly, due to work, I didn't do as many things as I wanted to with him. Many of our conversations had to do with the Chinese. But I am not much wiser than him on the matter. What I claimed though is that there is often misunderstanding about many things. A tourist might think there is something fishy about someone friendly coming up to you at tiananmen asking if you are american.

Last night I met with a Greek woman from the embassy's cultural section. She has lived here six years. She very often repeated "no matter what you have heard before..". And at some point she said Chinese might approach you at tiananmen to practice their english and make friends! To be honest, I wish it was more like that everywhere, since I rarely go to tiananmen!

food adventures no. 31, 18 and 34

Yesterday night after having finished my noodles. I wave to the waitress. She says something incomprehensible that leaves me wondering. Nevertheless I nod confidently. And that is how I pay the bill ;).

Today at the student cafeteria, I ask
- what is this?
It looks yummy. It is in the delicatessen section. Perhaps some part of duck? I had spotted it already yesterday.
- rou, zhu rou
ok got it. Pig, but let me double check first. Better safe than sorry.
- shi zu rou ma?
- erduo de
erduo.. i would have gotten this anyway, but she flapped her ears before that. My answer was
- oh thank you.
What I really felt like saying to her was "thank you my daughter (κόρη μου/bint...), may god bless you and your family". I felt very humble and god-fearing listening to her.

A moment later, still feeling confident, I decide to be adventurous. I go to the same restaurant day after day because it is close to the department. The student restaurants here are like market places. They remind me of stock markets. They are extremely busy and different cooks try to win you over. But I am a bit bored of the tastes in this one. So I will go for something unusual. Now that looks interesting. It's definitely meat but has some small brownish balls inside. They look like some sort of fruit. I try to find the end of the stem. I can't but the shape is definitely that of a small fruit. Meat with prunes, wouldn't that be wonderful? I also thought maybe an egg, but these are too small for chicken eggs. But what if they are part of a dead animal's male distinctives? Do Chinese eat testicles? I ask "what is this?". Yes, I can do that part well. Chou rou is the answer. OK this is roast meat. It can't be testicles. How wonderful, maybe even prunes? Leaving the vendor I decide to try one before I actually sit down and rest. It is slippery but now I am getting anxious! I manage to hold one. Bite. Not what I expected! Not bad either. They are soy eggs of some bird - I guess maybe... duck?

Some days earlier, being scared by one of Fatima's emails, I ask my catholic friend about balls, ears, hearts and staff. Can I find them here? Not that I wouldn't try them one day, but at least I should know what I am having. He said they are delicacies and he later showed me some chickens' hearts. Chickens' hearts are much smaller than I expected. He asks me why I am weary of such food. He says they are "delicious". I start with an admittedly flawed example, and on the way I even decide to drop some details (in brackets) to make the English conversation smoother.
- (let's say that) in Greece we eat monkey's eyes!
- really?
- (well not really but) would you try them if I cook them for you?
- but you can't find them here.
- no no, I have found a place to buy them. Would you like to try them?
- Yes I would!
I knew it was wrong to count on (the existence of) universal yacks. Eating human parts maybe? There is a Chinese film about human parts and eating. Feces maybe but children adore them or so says Freud. Monkeys in Greece? Was he on to me? :D

hard rain's a-gonna fall

Today was not a very smooth day for me. I remember the phrase Sunil taught me "another day another dollar"! As you know the pollution in China can be very big. So far I have seen some clear skies. But not today.





I live on the 6th floor and the flat is very spacious and nice. The key is a magnetic card (the bills are also payed by inserting a card at different slots in the house). There is a large double bedroom, a rather large lounge or office, large bathroom and kitchen. Here you can see my not so large bike that I was swindled into buying for ~35pounds (a second hand one would cost maybe two pounds?). My bedroom has a wide glass window but today I decided to draw the curtains. The reason is that whereas I usually wake up with some nice bright sunlight, today the sun hid pale behind the opaque polluted atmosphere. It was very futuristic and I could stare straight at the sun. It had lost its mite and I found the sight pathetic. So I thought I'm better off with some privacy from the outer world.

At the office I tried something stubborn like attending an apparently interesting group meeting held in Chinese. Depressingly today's highlight was simply eating the Wednesday free lunch. Somewhere midways my lunch I thought of showing you what it looks like (in case you are wondering it is, like most food here, delicious).

I couldn't do any work at the office and around 6pm I called the day off. Perhaps some Chinese lessons would do me good, so I took a walk listening to my audio book until the recently bought Duracell batteries (from Jialafu=Carefour) went dead. I entered a gym that I might join, but I felt the presence of the smog indoors too! Back at home I will take my daily evening shower and maybe do some work. On my way I was already planning this post!

There are many things I want to share with you. But for now, here are some pictures.

The first two are just random angles from downtown Beijing. The crowded room is one of the many student restaurants. The street photo wanted to capture some bicycle mayhem. There are no rules for when to cross, or ride. Generically cars can bully the pedestrians and cyclists.



Finally there is the detail of the famous "no name" lake in Peking university. The word famous in Chinese literally means "have name" while this lake, although famous, is called "no name". I thought of this pan myself 有名的为名湖:P

First post

Three weeks have passed since I arrived in Beijing and I am ready for my first post. My first post ever! Will I grow to become a big Beijing blogger? Will the first post lead the way? Well I can either start abruptly or modestly. Maybe modestly and I will skip the manifesto part. This blog though is for my friends, so they can keep in touch with me no matter how far.

Today I visited for the first time down town Beijing with the friendly guidance of a colleague. My favourite line of today is about the bridges connecting tian an men with the forbidden palace. His English is not too bad, which means we can exchange the essentials. So I usually expect him to tell me things that are more important than random talk:
- there are 5 bridges altogether!
- ah that sounds interesting, so why exactly is that?
- there are 5 gates on the other side..
I started laughing. I was expecting some symbolic explanation and he did please me a bit, explaining how 5 is not too much and not too little.

Later on I asked him if he knew of the famous photograph with the tank and the protester. Yes, he did. He found wrongs on both sides concerning the incident. He excused himself for not speaking good enough English to talk about a complicated matter. He is right that his English (or my Chinese) would be a problem.

I also succeeded for the first time to pay the bill. Usually this involves some arguing, but I was determined to pay for once.