Okay, so there are no Clocktower or Rideau Canal or the famed reputation of being the 51st state, but the similarities really do exist! You see, they are both capital cities. But the real similarity are the people! Ottawa are full of co-op students who are not Ottawans and they are all very transient. Beijing is the same way! Many people come in from other cities of the country to go to university studying English and so forth. Then there are the ex-pats (foreigners, aka. lao wai) who come from abroad to study Chinese or work. For the studying types, most of them are from Korea, and then Japan and than overseas Chinese from North America and then, I've heard, non-Asian guys who want to get some. . . romantic times, shall we say.
Now for the working types, these are mostly overseas Chinese coming to the Motherland doing contract work or internships. These are the transient people I'm talking about and the community is tight. Its pretty small and people generally knows everybody else. I met a whole bunch last weekend and they are the newly graduated, don't want to get back to reality types. Why do I say that? Its because the pay is so much better than what fresh out of college employees generally get and the cost of living here in Beijing is super low! So the living is easy. People also teach English to earn extra RMBs, no challenge, not learning much from the job but you get paid $20CND/h!!! (remember you can get oily meal for $1CND)
No Grass Syndrome!
I had a panic attack last weekend. I was walking around the crowded area of Wang fu jing, a busy part of donwtown and everywhere I looked, there was concrete. I began to experience great pangs of terror that there was no grass in sight and people were and pavement were in place instead. It was very disturbing. Then I recovered and came to terms that I will live in this kind of environment for the next few months.
Food and Bargaining
All the peeps who have to been areas similar to Beijing will know what I'm talking about. All the food stalls are selling exotic foods (translation, things you usually see crawling through grasslands and mouldy walls at night on skewers). Hard shells and 6 unchewable legs? No challenge. The secret? Deep-fry 'em. I saw silkworms, grasshoppers and read somewhere that there are sparrows on skewers too if you're lucky. I didn't have the good fortune or appetite to try either. I went to have Shanghai wonton and a guy was eating donkey wontons. I refused. (Although I remember watching the graceful performance of snake slitting at Snake Alley in Taiwan a few years back and having venom/blood shooters.)
The food servings here are huge. Unfortunately, I have the mentality that I can't waste anything so I'm currently eating what can usually feed a family of five back in Canada for every meal. Am going up 5 sizes as I type. . . Note to self: Must starve for one month before returning home.
Bargaining is not new things but its gets so tiring. I mean after walking through the cheap stalls on the alleyways, I'm tempted to walk into a McDonalds and try to bargain for a $1 kuai fry. They totally try to rip foreigners off all the time. Sometimes you have to do the full walk away, hoping they will plead for you to come back and give you a better deal. You have to talk your head off trying to get a good deal and when you finally walk away with the good you always think you get get a better deal.
For example, I got a polo shirt (yes, its the pirated copy, but not as bad as DYNK). The guy always shows you his calculator. "98 kuai". I gasp and say "of course not" "What price are you willing to pay" "20" "no, i can't. 85." "no, its obviously not worth that much!" "whats the highest you'll go?" "25" "okay, 70?" "no" etc. . .etc I walk away with my 30 kuai shirt. Maybe next time I'll pay a local 5 kuai to bargain a 20 kuai shirt for me.
Washrooms and Showers
Holes in ground sometimes, have to pay to use them sometimes. My dorm has a Chinese shower, meaning the shower is cramped in the small washroom. Sprays everywhere and toilet area will dry only after many hours of bladder agony.
Next week is National Week. I get a few days off but I had classes today (Sat), tomorrow and Monday! I'm heading off to Inner Mongolia next week. Will tell more later.
