Being in Beijing

Thanks for all your e-mails, birthday wishes and positive vibes.


So, here I am again after a long period of silence, and a big hug to all from the country where people call their cousins sisters and brothers because they have no sisters and brothers. Well, most of them anyway. I was rather confused when Suki told me that her sister was getting married while I was pretty sure that she had no siblings.... it was her cousin.


I had a great birthday party; we were all home around 6 in the morning, though surprisingly, without hangovers. People present were Muzafer and Yufeng (ofcourse-- my best buddies since day 1 respectively day 17), mr Yang, Suki, Cindy (from work), Xiao Ya, Charlotte (students at Foreign Language Uni), Jan (the one I get to speak Dutch with), and Andrew from Australia. Ever since that night, his name is Andaru the Kangaroo--his birthday, last Saturday provoked two cakes; one with either a kangaroo in the middle, one with his name spelled out... nice.

It's kind of weird to be an expat, a foreigner; especially in a place where it is so clear that I am one. I see, hear, smell and do a lot of things I never even thought of before. I went to Beijing where I saw Tiananmen, the Temple of Heaven and CROWDS of people which prevent you from getting off the metro in the 10 seconds the doors are open; very impractical, not to mention dangerous. On the other hand, some metro stations have people in uniform directing people to arrows on the floor where they should stand in line while waiting for the metro. By the way, there are people in uniforms everywhere. Even at McDonalds, there is a guy in a uniform (with 'police' hat) who clears the tables. There are people in uniform on the street directing the traffic--if they are even heard. There are thousands of people in uniform sweeping the streets--even along the highway, with no warning signs.

I ate hotpot with my lovely Chinese colleagues from Kun Yi school-- cow's stomach (unpleasant structure) and duck blood, also called 'black tofu' (soft, not much taste) included. Another colleague from Yu Ying Li school gave me a Chinese name: Lan Ai Hua--shame I can't tell you the right tones here. A lot of Chinese people have an 'English name', to make it easier for foreigners to remember them. A lot of girls have names ending in -dy or -ie and there sure are a lot of kids named Dick, apart from the really weird names I heard about...

I opened a bank account, which required me to type in my code at least 12 times--but I did get my bank pass straight away. Last week, I saw people burning stuff on the street all the time. Turns out, they burn fake money and clothes for their ancestors, so that they will be rich and warm in heaven. They also make circles of water around their fires, so that it doesn't accidentally land with someone else.

I see beggars (toddlers, old ladies, people without limbs), yuppies, traffic accidents which becomes a source of public entertainment in no time with the drivers calling each other names and pushing each other (though rarely a real fight). I eat fruit I had never even seen before. I smell food, garbage, animals and people when outside.... Today, I saw a shark for sale at the market. I hear the neighbour's dogs and the other neighbour's piano on Saturdays and Sundays.
I hear fireworks, yelling, laughter, the pregnant lady at the market trying to sell her bread-- I can hear her "mien bao, mien bao" in my apartment in the mornings.

Of all these things, the strangest thing about being a foreigner is this: that life just goes on. It doesn't wait for you to come back, like when you're on vacation. People at home change, things happen to them. They change their haircuts, they grow older, get an other job. I go to work here like I would anywhere else, I had a haircut, I grow older, learn some Chinese and go out to dinner.


I'm quite happy with the internet; at least I can keep up with some of the changes. And you guys get to read my babbling and see cool pictures.


Love, Anne.




Pictures:
Famous hat shop in Beijing, with models made for country leaders on display.
Shark at the market
Building in Tianjin
Tiananmen, by forbidden city, with a portrait of the Chairman.
Temple of Heaven, Beijing
Old man writing poem on floor with water- yes, really.

Spain in China

Hey!

No novel this time, just some pics: of Charlotte (not her Chinese name, no..) eating soup.

We went to have lunch, and this is what you get: a great pan of boiling soup, into which the waitress throws everything you have ordered (noodles, eggs, vegetables, fish balls, mushroom balls, etc). Then you put some of the soup in your bowl and: bon appetit! Charlotte, btw, is a very nice and funny girl who studies at the Tianjin Foreign Studies University. She took Michael and me shopping in bin jiang dao, the shopping street in the city. We also visited a new, private-owned museum called China House, in which we saw mainly old traditional Chinese artefacts (furniture, shrines, etc). The tour guides (all students) were delighted to speak English and told us many interesting things about the collection.

When we arrived there, I thought just for a moment that I was in Barcelona. The museum is a 100-year-old French House which has been redecorated by a Chinese architect. Somehow, I think that this architect is a big Gaudi-fan. The result is this: Gaudi-made-in-China, old vases included. Take a look and laugh:

I tried to put some other pics on here, but it doesn't seem to work very well today. So, until next time... Thanks for your e-mails, it is lovely to read how all of you are doing. It may take a couple of days before I reply sometimes as I want to write proper answers to your messages, and I have a lot more emailing to do than ever before.

big hug,

zaijian!

photos

Hey everyone,

It's time for moon cakes! The giant ad for moon cakes on the photo here is all around Tianjin (and I daresay, China) because the Autumn Festival is about to begin. It's all about families meeting again and eating Moon cakes of which there are different varieties, some of them even heavier and sweeter than others. This work week does not end on Friday (although for many it never does); people work the weekend too, but they have a whole week's holiday after! Millions are travelling through the country to visit their hometowns, families and eat moon cakes all week through.

Before I forget, thanks for your reactions. Unfortunately, I can't read them (at least up till now). So if you want to tell me something please send me an email (misslebrun@hotmail.com). And that goes for the hyvers, too. I can't even send messages on Facebook sometimes, but it seems to work occasionally, if only accidentally.

And now for the rest of the report: I live in the district called Hebei, close to the Ziya river and the jin gang bridge. This red bridge is jin gang qiao:

There are dozens of bridges here as the rivers flow through the whole city.

I have met some nice people in Ali Baba's, the underground cafe for foreigners here, and at a Tianjin expats coffee meeting. So far, I've met people from Uzbekistan, Georgia, South-Africa, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, one guy stereotypically and funnily called Jan (yes, from Holland), Cote d'Ivoire, England, the USA, Canada, Norway, Russia. Seriously, the only culture shock I've experienced so far was walking into Ali Baba's and seeing all the non-Chinese faces there.

I've mostly gone around the city with my colleague Michael (or Muzafer) and with Yufeng, a Chinese architect who spent some years working in Washington. Yufeng took us to the major bookstore; although he is new to Tianjin too, it does help that he speaks and reads fluent Mandarin ;) We also visited the Tianjin Museum together, where we saw an exhibit of Buddhist artefacts discovered in 1987 after a pagoda collapsed.

Muzafer and Yufeng in front of the Tianjin Museum.

We went dancing in New York, which is close to Ali Baba's and therefore filled with "lao wai", which means something like 'old foreigners'--which is a nickname for us waiguoren (foreigners). It was very late before I came home-- I believe it was around 5:20 or so- and just as amazed to see the market being built up as the people building were surprised to see me. I laughed my ass off.

Contrasts are huge here: shiny new buildings, poverty, wealth and dirt go very well together here. Everything screams that China is growing at top speed. This time, mainly pictures of modern landscapes. I hope to overcome my shyness about taking pictures of people living their daily lives soon, because that's what I really want to show you. People, as my mother wisely says, are strange things. She is right. People are strange things, and therefore most interesting.

Until then,

zai jian!

big hug to all of you (share it nicely ;-) )

smells and smiles

Hey!
I'm sitting in an internet cafe, trying to type while my fingers slide off the greasy keys. But hey, i'm used to the dirt (everywhere!) now and that includes the smell of pee which is especially present in school hallways. I hope I've already built some sort of resistance against everything a person could possibly catch.
I live in an apartment close by a market where I do my shopping every day, and where the sales people have by now gotten used to me walking around. Not so much every other person here, though. I don't know whether I've already told you this, but walking around here as a non-Chinese person is an experience in itself. And I'm not talking about the possibility of suddenly hearing fireworks (especially on Sundays when everyone seems to be getting married) or crossing a big street when there are no traffic rules except 'I come first and you'd better jump when I honk'.
I'm talking about the staring, the pointing, the mouths falling open, the 'hello!' calling followed by giggles. It seems that here, most people aren't used to having Western-looking people around. The other day when I was walking home, a group of children playing suddenly fell silent, their mouths falling open into perfectly O-shaped holes, gasping at the sight of me and nudging each other. The bravest girl said something to me (I think it was a question) but I could barely say that I don't speak Chinese- Wo bu jiang Zhongwen. Sometimes it's annoying, but it's funny too.... really, you'd think I'm an alien with three heads and a long white beard shouting obscenities in Marsian or something by the way people look at me.
But also, they are generally very nice (excepting the guy screaming in my hallway two days ago). Although I can't really communicate in Chinese yet I just speak English or Dutch to them and we have whole conversations that way; I just point at say, the bread rolls and say 'three' (san) and they start asking questions I can't answer -which I tell them in English- but a confusing though extremely funny conversation like this always ends in smiles on both sides and a friendly goodbye.
I teach at two primary schools (grade 3, age 7 to 10 in one class!) and at a kindergarten that belongs to Owen, the company I work for. The difference in level between the children and the classes is ashtonishing-- I think it has a lot to do with how much time was previously invested in learning English by their Chinese teachers. The classes are big-sometimes more than 40 students- but the kids are funny and generally eager to learn. I'll see how it goes... The day I started teaching (10th sep) was national Teacher's Day and I got cards and a flower from some students, especially for the foreign teacher, so cute!
Yesterday we (my colleague Michael-his Uzbek name is Muzafer-, our bosses Mr and Mrs Jang and collegue Suki) went to a famous expat bar in town called Ali Baba's. It wasn't China. It was an international colony with people from all over the world, and it was shocking to see all those non-Chinese faces suddenly, and speak English, or French (with the Africans) or German (yes, I spoke German, Pia, with a Turk--- see what being an expat brings you to...;))

OK, this is it for now, let's see if I can get this stuff posted. Note for those who read my blog on hyves: Het is vrijwel onmogelijk voor me om op hyves te komen, dus als je me iets wilt laten weten kun je dat beter per mail doen: misslebrun@hotmail.com.

THanks you all, miss you all, bisous!

Anne.

PS for the girlfriends: I got a haircut!
PPS for everyone: will hopefully be able to post photos soon, and yes that profile photo on blogspot did go funny when I put it on there... I don't usually look that stretched horizontally.

I'm here!

Hello Everyone,

just a quick post.... I'm here, in Tianjin that is, and it is swelteringly hot! I expect to get my apartment soon, the collegues are very nice people and I have already met another foreign colleague by the name of Michael, who is a very nice guy from uzbekistan. That's it for now, as i'm sitting in somebody else's office, using their computer....

kisses!
Anne.

In the very beginning....

I thought, why not put my CV on chinajob.com? That was perhaps a month ago. Now, I'm in paperwork up to my knees--and quite literally so when you consider that I've started to clean out my room in Amsterdam. I got the first of my vaccination shots, am working on the visa (and more so the immensely complicated health check I need for it--don't ask) and am planning all the things I could barely imagine doing about two weeks ago. As my mum says, "het gaat op z'n Anne's", it's going Anne's way. This means that things go rather unconventionally, that they have to happen fast, and are quite chaotic, but also that it will be ok. If everything goes according to plan, I will leave September 4th, arrive in Tianjin September 5th and stay there at least until the end of January.

My family and friends are all terribly excited for me, and so am I. My younger brother Stef is already planning to come to China, hurrah!
Of course, I would like to keep everyone posted of how I'm doing and I thought that keeping a blog would be much the simplest way. I just hope I'm not jinxing my trip by starting a blog before I'm even there--knock on wood.

I automatically began writing this in English, which is most practical as some of my friends don't read Dutch quite well, or not at all. I think I might add some Dutch messages for those who prefer reading Dutch, or simply because I want to use the word 'gezellig' or 'stroopwafel'.

Well, this was my first message on my first blog, and you might be the first person to read it. I'll keep you posted of what is going on. You do the same, ok?