Odd Man Out, and a close call with Chunder Pants

It was a much quieter week this last week in Beijing as we tried to get into the routine of school and Amy’s work. Maddy started school on Monday and, although she was quite nervous about it, she had a really lovely first day – she especially like the fact that lunch is served hot every day and there was lots of food that she likes to eat. On Monday evening we attended a formal dinner to farewell Amy’s colleague. Maddy spent some time at her new friend’s house while Amy and I attended the dinner.

On the home management front (my area of responsibility for the next 3 years) it was time to head out and stock our pantry with something other than milk, bread and chocolate biscuits. While plans were to head to the local Western supermarket to do the groceries and then to the market for the fruit, vegies and meat, I somehow managed to find my way into a local Chinese supermarket (Jinkalong chain – China’s answer to Woolworths) rather than the western one. It had a full range of bakery goods and rotisserie with all types of duck and a sweets section to make the most disciplined diabetic weak at the knees. I was the only non-Chinese person in there. It was certainly cheaper than the western supermarkets and with the meat and vegie sections being busier than the western ones the food is fresher. I did though spend 1hr wandering around the shop looking very lost and like a fish out of water, expecting to be escorted from the supermarket by security at anytime for loitering. Most of this time was trying to determine the type of meats by Chinese character comparison with my small mandarin guide. And even when I finally thought I was done I managed to stuffed up at the cash register when I realised I needed to pay for the fruit and vegies separately and at a different location to the main counter. While an honest mistake for someone not able to speak the language, I still felt like a bit of a tool.

I had actually come across this Jinkalong while trying to find the wet market that we had visited on our orientation day. After I left the Jinkalong I managed to take the wrong turn and by sheer accident managed to find the market. Because of the register mix up I had actually ditched my fruit at Jinka’s so decided to try the wet market for some apples and grapes. As soon as I walked in the door I was swamped in the same way that shoppers are swamped at Yashow, but this time my tolerance was lower for a few reasons – firstly I was still getting over the Jinkalong experience, and I was also weighed down with a few bags of shopping and certainly not in the mood to add any more weight for the trip back. So I stopped at the first stall, managed to Chinglish my way through asking for 3 green apples and (after feeling I might have been done over a bit on price) headed straight back out. A lesson well and truly learnt – ease into the whole culture collision slowly.

Continuing on with the education theme, Maddy’s first week at her new school lasted all but one day before she succumbed to the Beijing lurgy on Monday night. While Maddy wasn’t all that bad on Tuesday she did sleep pretty much all day and night. But it really set in on Wednesday morning and I booked us in for our first foray into the Beijing medical system. We attended an international SOS centre and were able to get an Australian Dr who took a precautionary approach and gave Maddy a good dose of antibiotics to ward off any pneumonia that might be developing. It seemed to do the job as Maddy had an almost instant improvement from Wed evening onwards, and although still suffering a slight cough was getting bored on Thursday and obviously primed to get out of the apartment (which I interpreted as OK for school). While waiting for our turn at the centre we managed to get a live demo of what the current Beijing bug is doing to the little ’uns, with one young kid bringing up the contents of his stomach onto the floor, the chair and himself. Within seconds though there were 4 cleaners mobilised into action, and even before the kid and parent got back from the wash-up the evidence of a stomach less settled had been whisked away at the hands of some seriously strong smelling disinfectant and some good old elbow grease. We were very happy to discover in the proceeding days that Maddy had not got this strain, else it could have been a hard week for her abdominals (especially as she hadn’t really eaten much to bring back up if the tummy bug had decided to bunker down for a sit-in).

The real downfall of Maddy’s untimely cold was that she had not really had the opportunity to back up from the first day of school and build momentum on the class friends front, so when it came to getting her prepped for school on Thursday evening the emotion got too much for her and she was keen to spend the rest of her three years in front of the telly and not at school. Luckily after a bit of life coaching from Amy and some words of encouragement from me we did managed to get her all positive again and she was a lot happier come Friday morning albeit complaining because of the colder weather.

Dressed for business - Maddy all uniformed up for her first day at school.

After dropping her off and bypassing the coffee shop next door for my mid morning caffeine hit due to the excessive cost of my previous cup (the equivalent of $10 for a coffee last time), I decided to head off to Sanlitun shopping area again on Friday to get in some exercise and also to track down a few things that I had been looking to get in Australia. It also gave me the opportunity to check out the new shopping centre called the Village, which, with its designer label and upmarket shops, provides a stark contrast to the Yashow Clothing Market right next door (where the same designer labels are plentiful and the authenticity questionable). One noticeable thing from walking around the Village was the lack of customers/shoppers – it is almost like the demand just isn’t there to meet this new supply of upmarket goods. In the end I only went for the coffee option at the village, but headed away from the market with a pair of shoes, set of cuff links and a new mobile phone battery after finding out the hard way that the Motorola K1 batteries sold by Battery World in Australia don’t actually fit in the phones (go figure). And rather than paying $40 at battery world I managed to get away with one for 40 Yuan which was a lot more to my liking. As for the cufflinks, they might just become my new collectable (given that I had to leave my bourbon collection at home and it’s too expensive to replace here). With a large range of cufflink styles from the classy to the tacky there is an expansive collection from which to choose. I of course started out with a selection from the classy end of the spectrum, commensurate with my usual dress sense :-).

My new Man of Steel cufflinks - Did I mention they were classy?

On the food front we have found that the produce over here is great and they have some wonderful ways of cooking vegies which means that even I manage to be able to eat them (Amy had written that I “enjoyed them”, but come on Amy, let’s not get TOO excited). The mushrooms are fantastic though, as is the eggplant and broccoli (if you are into that kind of thing).

There is a fantastic French patisserie on the bottom floor of our apartment complex. They make addictive hot chocolate and I think we would be in the poor house very soon if we went there too often. Maddy quite likes the meringues and éclairs. Maddy is being quite adventurous with her food and is eating quite a bit which is a change from the usual.

On the topic of food adventures, since our last post on the experience with cold tripe dishes we have continued to broaden our culinary palettes albeit with a bit more caution. On Thursday night we found a great place called the Manchurian special flavour jiaozi (dumpling) house which had a good range of food and a menu that featured pictures of all the dishes on offer. All the food was very tasty at this place, including what has to be the best sweet and sour pork I’ve ever tasted (YES, they DO sell it here). Unfortunately we ordered WAY too many dishes, and even with me pulling out all stops we were looking to have a fair bit left over. Not wanting to have it go to waste we started to discuss how we might translate the “doggy bag” concept to the waitress. Luckily the table next to us needed to same thing, and after watching them grab the grub and run I managed to use a combination of miming and pointing to get the message across. Marcel Marcou I am not though, with my actions looking more like an intention to fold up the table cloth and dash out the door. Whatever – it worked, and we had great leftovers for 3 more meals.


The food in the servings here is certainly value for money, and makes eating out more economical than eating at home western style (which, given our lack of cooking implements in the temp accommodation, the only real option).

What we got for our 123 Yuan at the local western supermaket - we paid the same for a takeaway dinner with enough leftover for 3 more meals.

Amy’s colleague and his family left China on Thursday. It was sad to see them go, especially as Maddy had made such good friends with their little girl. It was great that we were able to spend so much time with them before they left – it gave us a really good introduction to both the work and social side of living over here.

Today we went for a walk around the area we live, primarily to track down a little western bookshop and cafe that had a good write-up in a few of the local rags. After a bit of a hike and having to put up with Maddy’s “are we there yet” we managed to track it down only to find that the only set of stairs up to the shop were undergoing some significant repairs leading to a precarious ascent up and an even more precarious trip down (made even more difficult due to the wet, recently painted hand rail). It was worth the trip though, especially for the opportunity to get into a hamburger and fries for the first time in a few weeks. We took the opportunity to grab a couple of books and then headed back to kick back for the afternoon.

One thing that Amy and I are really enjoying is adjusting to the lazy weekends away from the usual jobs associated with the weekends in our normal lives. For the last few years in Canberra we always found it hard to fit into a weekend everything we wanted to do, because Saturday was dotted with Maddy’s activities and the shopping and the Sunday usually set aside for the gardening and home maintenance. Not having to worry about the house management duties for the 3 years will be a novelty, and we are looking to use the weekends to try and explore as much of the city as we can. (although those who know me would also know how much I am missing my gardening – oh sweet weeds, how I covet thee).

As for the next few weeks, I’m looking to starting language lessons in the next week with a teacher recommended by another recent arrival to the area. The model of doing a bit of classroom work followed up by some practical in the food market or coffee shop really excites me more than the thought of doing the straight classroom option. I’m also looking forward to getting my bikes at the end of this month, having made contact with a small group of ex-pat MTB riders who do a ride most weekends from the area.

Although we have only been here for 2 weeks we are also having a friend visit here next week for a few days, which will be great.

For the bike-o-philes reading this I’m also looking to set up a separate page off this one to post details of all my cycling adventures (when I finally start them), as well as some of the different bike-related experiences I run into.