Ni hao, everybody!
(Note: This is extremely long and awesome. I recommend printing it out, especially for those with limited internet access)
If you have just received this amazingly clever and entertaining email, chances are that you fit one (or more) of the following criteria:
1) you heard that I was doing a weekly email and requested to be on the list. Thanks you guys, you're my favorite :)
2) you at one point gave me your email and asked me to contact you. You probably didn't know what you were getting into, but this is what I've chosen to do with your information.
3) you are my friend or a member of my family and I thought you might want to hear what I'm doing. because I'm like, in China, and obviously doing interesting stuff. Who wouldn't want to hear about it?
If you can relate to one or more of the previous statements, then you are a winner! good job, everybody. If you relate to one or more to one of these statements but you don't want to be a winner (which, really, I can't imagine why you wouldn't want to be a winner) then you are welcome to email me and be like, "Why am I on your list? I don't even know you and don't want to hear about what you're doing in China! Where is that, anyway?" at which point I will either cry or say good riddance and wipe the dust off of my feet. But, if you do want to be a winner, read on! Adventures and awesomeness follow. Also, if you know anyone else who does want to be a winner, please let me know and I will add them to the list.
Administrative stuff aside, I think it's about time I introduce this thing. Every good weekly publication needs a title, right? I've tossed around a few options such as, "That's So Asian!" (which is funny but I've never even really seen that show), "Existentially Ellyn" (which no one seemed too excited about. it's not existentialism, it's like, I exist.) and maybe even "Beijing Babe" (on which I'm not even going to comment). I do think I have come across the winner, though, and I expect all of you to be suitably impressed. Okay, here it goes: The Chronicles of Charnia. Get it? It's like, the Chronicles of Narnia, but instead it's China and Narnia mixed? No?
Okay, let's just go with The China Chronicles. Short, catchy, to the point. I like it.
Now that we've established a title, everyone is bored because they thought I was actually going to talk about living in China, and you are disappointed because many of you have never been there and want to know what it's like. Psh, why would you think that? It's just like living in the U.S., isn't it?
Wrong. So far, it's maybe not WAY different, but it is sufficiently different to merit writing a weekly email about it. First of all, I can't read any of the signs. That's kind of annoying. Doesn't anyone speak English here? oh, that's right. they don't. Also, the sky is always (well, so far) gray, and not like Washington-overcast gray-which-is-still-pretty, but smog gray. Like, I'm-not-even-sure-I'll-see-blue-sky-for-three-months gray. That's real nice. I'm excited for that.
So, I guess I'll start talking about our trip. We left last night, sort of, except it was really Sunday night. This whole wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey time difference thing is really messing me up. Like, it's seven a.m. and I'm not even tired. We were on the plane for ten and a half hours. Not my idea of a good time, but you do what you have to. I slept most of the time and watched "Water for Elephants" which I wouldn't really recommend. Between the movies on the flight they would have a thing where they showed you where we were on the map, how fast we were going, etc. It was really interesting. At one point we were over Russia (I waved at you, Kat!) and I was like, dude, this is real. I'm actually halfway across the world. Then about half an hour from Beijing my nose decided to gush out its life force, so that was really exciting. Probably the highlight of the trip[!]*.
Hooray for planes!
Hooray for Daniel!
Hooray for getting there safely!
Then we landed, went through the airport (which really looked like every other airport in which I've been) and got an overpriced taxi to our 'temporary' residence. Don't be fooled by that word (like I have been, several times), we're staying here the whole three months. This building is seriously one of the most swankified places in town. It's all like, clean lines and contemporary design, and the staff seems nice. It's like a hotel, but awesomer. They even gave us slippers and toothbrushes. Sarah (my sister, in case you didn't know. Remember her, because I will probably refer to her more than once over the next three months) says that the bathroom looks like the one in Eureka. I was like, yeah whatever. The bad thing is they didn't provide a crib for Daniel (my brother, you catching on?), so I had to share with him, and this morning I was woken up at four o'clock by an arm around my neck and a whispered, "Hi." Love jetlag! (and love Daniel)
Look at all our luggage!
See? swanky.
Like, they literally have people to call taxis for you.
So far, the trip really has just seemed like a sort of smokier, more Chinese-characterified version of the U.S. Sarah (remember her?) says that it seems like a mix of Seattle and The Grid**. At least at night it sure did, you can still see the smog because the lights are reflected off of it and there's lots of tall buildings. I will be sure to say more about the differences once we go out later today. We haven't gotten much chance to explore as it is still early.
So that's it for now, and I will write some more later today.
[line break]
First Impression? Disregard, or maybe lack of, rules. You have a red light, but the road is clear? Just go ahead. You want to walk across the street, though there are cars turning in front of you and they may not stop? Go ahead! There's a no smoking sign, but you are gasping for a cigarette? No one will care.
That was the big thing I saw today. Our apartment window looks right onto a really busy intersection that honestly I was scared to cross today. There were cars weaving in and out, bicycles going down the lane the wrong way, no one was wearing a helmet, people were walking in front of cars willy-nilly, and if two cars were turning into a lane at the same time it was a fight for the prime spot. Crazy! When we ate lunch at a restaurant, literally the only English words I saw in the whole building were "No Smoking", and sitting right next to a table of four people, three of them smoking away, happy with their decisions regarding their future health.
The view outside my bedroom window
The crazy intersection
Second Impression? It's smelly. Like, seriously. There's smog and smoke and food and Asian-ness and who knows what else. We came in from the street and I could still smell it on my clothes and in my hair. I suppose I'll get used to it, but still… not so cool.
Third? THIS MOVIE HAS NO SUBTITLES. Earlier I was sort of joking about nobody speaking English. My only interactions had been with the taxi driver from the airport and the hotel staff, who both of course had accents and bad grammar, but we could communicate easily. Holy cow, no one else we've seen speaks a word! Okay, the lady at the market knew 'banana'. But with everyone else, nothing! I know America isn't the center of the universe, but I honestly thought it would be kind of like Europe, where most people have learned English because we're so awesome. We spent a lot of time today trying to say something, using the few Chinese words we know, then having them reply with a string of Chinese in which we understood one word or less, then nodding politely and smiling. We literally had trouble ordering a bowl of rice for Daniel.
So after I wrote this morning, we hung out for a while, mostly because we were too scared to go outside :) Eventually though, we went downstairs, asked the front desk for the best places to shop, got some very unclear directions, and headed down the street. We were pretty hungry so were looking for a place to eat. Finally we found an alley that had lots of different fresh vegetable stalls and noodle shops, but we weren't really ready to dive in yet and were looking for a nicer place. We did stop at a bakery and got some ridiculously delicious sesame buns things that were only 1 yuan each, which is like 17 cents. After much debate and walking we found a restaurant to eat at, complete with Chinese décor, surly waiters, and many loud-talking people. The menu they gave us had lots of pictures and no English writing, so we picked out a few that looked tasty and managed to communicate it to the waitress. I saved the day by remembering the word for water (shui) because I think we ordered four of the spiciest dishes on the menu. Or maybe I'm just being hopeful. When we tried to order rice (which thankfully we were able to find the word for because we brought our handy-dandy Mandarin phrase books) the waitress was making hand signals*** and we were shaking and nodding our heads and all got very confused. Finally she took the phrase book and found what she was trying to say, that it would take ten minutes for the rice. By then we were rather frustrated and decided to leave sans rice. Quite an adventure.
The restaurant we ate at
Our little corner market
See? Pretty civilized.
Also fresh.
The little alley we didn't want to eat at
So, that was our day. We came home and I took a four hour nap which was lovely, we almost got stuck in the stairwell because our key card stopped working, Mom almost broke our rice cooker by putting rice in without the bowl, and we had some spicy leftovers. All in all, quite a tiring day.
That's it for now! I know that was a ridiculously long email, but come on, it's my first day and I'm IN CHINA, for goodness' sake. I promise the other emails won't be as detailed. If you got this far, thank you, and I hope to hear from you too. Just don't press 'reply all', because then you would email a bunch of people you don't know and that would be awkward.
Zai Jian!
Ellyn
* That's the punctuation mark for sarcasm. Getting a bloody nose was not, in fact, the best part of the trip.
** That's a reference to Tron. The Grid is like, the world they live in and it's always night (I think). You can get some nerdy teenager(or adult, I guess) to explain it to you :)
***She was making an X with her fingers , with one of them bent over the other. Ideas?
Daniel was being pretty cute sitting in my bed. Nice apartment, no?
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