Settling in

Yesterday was an excellent Beijing day.

9:20am: alarm goes off.

10:30am: eventually rousted myself out of bed and to the gym. Lots of hurricane coverage on CNN. Things are getting crrrrrrrrrazy on the East Coast.

12:30pm: after a shower, off to dim sum with my neighbors. All you can eat for $10. I was full until 9pm.

3pm: decide to test if Netflix instant watch works over the VPN. It does! Not great quality, but we only had two short interruptions that added no more than 10-15 mins to the total viewing time. Watched a lovely French-Chinese film, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress.

5pm: decided to be useful and went to Sanlitun for fitting for the custom-made suits we ordered. They looked fabulous--great fit, nice stitching. Am now hatching plans for an entire work wardrobe for both of us. Afterwards had some tea in a very odd dessert place in Sanlitun Village and went back home (but not until after a quick stop in Uniqlo, where I decided I need to buy their entire line of thermal underwear before Beijing's winter).

9pm: suddenly went from sickeningly full to ravenously hungry. Decided to try a Hong Kong-style restaurant that we arrive at by walking through a weird service driveway across from our building. It was worth the sketchy walk for milk tea and noodle soup.

10:30pm: head back to Sanlitun to meet some friends-of-friends at Q Bar. Vodka martinis yessssssss.

just before 1am-ish: discover that locals living in a neighboring building are pelting pieces of frozen cucumber at the (granted, noisy) rooftop bar below. Am terrified for my life and somewhat disturbed by the pre-meditation of violence implied by the pre-frozen cucumber pieces. Move behind a wall.

2am: home, having never quite recovered from the Great Frozen Cucumber Scare but having quite enjoyed my evening.

Today, we sort through the UAB that arrived on Tuesday but that we've made little progress toward organizing. Thankfully, the ayi got a head start in that regard by unpacking random Christmas ornaments and arranging them on various surfaces throughout the apartment.

Doing what I do

So, this weekend.

(First of all, sorry for my silence of late. Maybe living in a city where there is actually a lot to do--and I don't include Washington, DC in those ranks--has something to do with it.)

Yesterday morning there was an Embassy meet and greet with Vice-President Biden, who was in town. I wasn't feeling great, so James went without me. After he came back with a nice photo (see below), I got all jealous, but then I thought, oh Katie, you really needed the sleep.

And then I thought about how I have definitely been in this job too long already if I prioritized a few hours of sleep over meeting the VICE-PRESIDENT. OF AMERICA. ALL OF IT.

Anyway, grab and grip:


Today we went on a hike. James insisted that this would not be a real hike, just an "old-people walk through the countryside." James was wrong. I am going to be SORE. For realz. We went with the Beijing Hikers, and I would highly recommend them. But they don't mess around with what they call a level three (out of five) hike.

The views were beautiful, though, and it was so worth it. At the end we had lunch with a view of the Great Wall, though we didn't climb up it because we were half-dead from the hike. Photos forthcoming. The countryside and villages were much cleaner than in Bangladesh, and while I didn't relish the local toilets, I definitely felt that I had moved up in the world.

Welcome kit woes

My running list:

In addition to needing the measuring implements (as mentioned earlier), we desperately need a cheese grater.

Those are the absolute needs to cook just about anything; a nice-to-have would be a laundry basket or something to keep dirty clothes in so they don't just pile on the floor.

Good thing our HHE arrives soon. Oh wait...

I mean, we are lucky to have anything at all, but if the point is to tide us over until our stuff arrives, this has kind of been a fail.

An update, perhaps?

So how is China?

Beijing is an interesting city. It seems so modern and developed, but there are still things to figure out and overcome. Just in small, manageable ways.

Many expats will tell you that China is a crazy place and insanely overwhelming. Those people have not lived in Bangladesh.

Like today, I wandered around the gym in the hotel adjoining my apartment building. After several rooms of lockers, hot tub, pool, lounge, I still had not found any exercise machines. But eventually I found them, well hidden. Whew.

So far, the most terrifying experience in Beijing has been a visit to Carrefour. Carrefour may sound rarefied and French, but it is not. That is a sham. In fact, it is filled with every person in Beijing (it feels like), and nothing is in English, even on American brands. It took me twenty minutes to figure out what was shampoo and what was conditioner, and only because Herbal Essences helpfully puts shampoos in clear bottles and conditioner in opaque ones. I have vowed never to return.

But by and large, it is sort of like living in New York City, except with better Chinese food and less ability to communicate with those around me.

I am told the rest of China is very different. But you know what? I am okay in Beijing for now.

Plus, I can't travel yet because it is entirely unclear when I will get my diplomatic ID card that would allow me to check into hotels/take flights. Apparently my application got messed up and I may have to leave the country to fix it. Sweet.

You know what else can't happen until we get the card? Getting our stuff. But that's okay, our household effects never got ordered from the storage facility in Belgium, so they won't be here for a loooooooooooong while anyway.

Maybe when I have to leave the country to fix my visa application, I can go to Belgium and find them!

This morning I made terrible pancakes because the welcome kit that is supposed to tide us over until our things arrive does not have any measuring cups, dry measures, or measuring spoons. Thus, too little sugar and salt--the proportions were off.

But when it finally comes down to the time we may be getting settled, there is one joy on the horizon, one great shining Mecca of home furnishing that will help us fill in the gaps: yes, that's right, my friends, Beijing has Ikea.

I'm not in Dhaka anymore.

Choosing and wanting and living with it.

A reminder as I live out my choices, taking the good with the bad:

In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.

- Eleanor Roosevelt

And maybe another I saw on Pinterest the other day... not much for unattributed inspirational quotations (or in this case, slightly gloomy quotations?), but I can't seem to shake this one:

Never regret anything, because at one time it was exactly what you wanted.

Beijing huanying ni

Just a note that we are at post and marginally settled.

Marginally.

Which means: no ID card that allows us to travel anywhere outside Beijing, no HHE (household effects) shipment until October, almost no actually-useful kitchen utensils in our welcome kit.

But we're getting there. Slowly.

However, I am steadily moving toward my goal of eating my weight in dumplings each week. So that's something.

So far, I just can't stop marveling at how developed the city is after Dhaka--there are malls and Starbucks and Coldstone Creameries and the metro is clean and efficient (though crowded) and not only are mango-jitos legal, you can drink them on a roof with a view of the city skyline...