BJ AQI 805
In our year there we never experienced it that high, that we knew. They say schools will not open on Monday. Everyone is trying to stay indoors. The air, alone, may be the reason we don't move back. Because otherwise, the longing is with us. The missing China. But the air.
12 January 2013
07 January 2013
Fluency
On Friday we went down to the San Francisco Unified School District offices to re-register for Mandarin Immersion school in case we decide to stay in SF for awhile and go back to school here. If they have openings one can only join a class above 1st grade if one tests in. Nevermind that we left the very same MI school in 3rd grade and have spent the last year in, you know, Beijing. The whole thing took over two hours and involved lots of paper forms. A Spanish-speaking mom who is apparently a teacher in Oakland fumed because the tester didn't know the name of the test she was supposedly administering to the teacher's son. I got even less from our tester. SF schools' bureaucracy is the subject of much scorn. But LiLi tested fluent and we got into school. Waiting and annoyed, I kept saying to myself, "it's free...it's free...it's free." School starts tomorrow but LiLi won't go for a few more days because we are still jetlagged and a bit wiggy with culture shock. Or Mama is, anyway.
04 January 2013
Culture shock
1. Empty. There are no people. Or there are few people. On the roads driving. On the streets walking. Inside the stores. We keep finding ourselves saying, "Look! On this whole block there is only one person!" This is 800K vs. 22M.
2. Traffic. I drove yesterday because LiLi had a dentist appointment. It felt like a movie. It has been a year so of course I can still drive. But watching traffic and checking intersections...it felt very surreal and quite scary. Today was much better but still: at some friends' for dinner tonight I declined wine. I figured driving home in the dark on SF's hills would be tough enough, I hadn't oughta be adding alcohol to the impairment mix of jetlag and culture shock.
3. Seeing friends. I find myself declining invitations and even LiLi says no to playdates and uses the phrase, "I'm feeling overwhelmed." We're taking it slowly and seeing only one family at a time. I have nothing to say and also so much to say. My brain is fuzzy. I'm profoundly inarticulate. I need to be around people who are patient and forgiving.
4. My house. I'm still in love with my soft bed and great view, and am still annoyed with the long list of broken things from the tenants: the special red chair half eaten by their dog; two shower curtain rods, two!; two floor lamps; my desk chair; pantry shelf; bathroom doorknob; wrecked finish on the antique Chinese bench coffee table; dog toe nail pock marks in my fir floors; food encrusted pots and pans; nonworking burners on the gas stove...etc etc. It's all small stuff but like a friend says, a list you'd expect after a decade, not six months.
5. Jet lag. Last night was my first slept-through-the-night and a BFF called and came over early, two hours before our new normal wake up time. We didn't nap this afternoon though we both wanted to. Tonight I hope we both sleep through---knock wood.
6. English. Everyone speaks it here. We heard Cantonese at a home store but haven't been out enough yet to hear Spanish and Chinese. That will come.
7. Sticker shock. Fruit at US$7.50 a pint. Cheapo casual lunch at US$17.00. Plastic trash bin US$14.55 (made in China no doubt.)
8. Two hands. In China it is polite to hand passports, credit cards, money, with two hands. While I was paying for something today, LiLi said, "Mama, you don't have to DO THAT here!!!!!"
9. Breathing. The air is so so so clean here. I am still breathing it in and noticing. I suspect in a week I will have forgotten.
2. Traffic. I drove yesterday because LiLi had a dentist appointment. It felt like a movie. It has been a year so of course I can still drive. But watching traffic and checking intersections...it felt very surreal and quite scary. Today was much better but still: at some friends' for dinner tonight I declined wine. I figured driving home in the dark on SF's hills would be tough enough, I hadn't oughta be adding alcohol to the impairment mix of jetlag and culture shock.
3. Seeing friends. I find myself declining invitations and even LiLi says no to playdates and uses the phrase, "I'm feeling overwhelmed." We're taking it slowly and seeing only one family at a time. I have nothing to say and also so much to say. My brain is fuzzy. I'm profoundly inarticulate. I need to be around people who are patient and forgiving.
4. My house. I'm still in love with my soft bed and great view, and am still annoyed with the long list of broken things from the tenants: the special red chair half eaten by their dog; two shower curtain rods, two!; two floor lamps; my desk chair; pantry shelf; bathroom doorknob; wrecked finish on the antique Chinese bench coffee table; dog toe nail pock marks in my fir floors; food encrusted pots and pans; nonworking burners on the gas stove...etc etc. It's all small stuff but like a friend says, a list you'd expect after a decade, not six months.
5. Jet lag. Last night was my first slept-through-the-night and a BFF called and came over early, two hours before our new normal wake up time. We didn't nap this afternoon though we both wanted to. Tonight I hope we both sleep through---knock wood.
6. English. Everyone speaks it here. We heard Cantonese at a home store but haven't been out enough yet to hear Spanish and Chinese. That will come.
7. Sticker shock. Fruit at US$7.50 a pint. Cheapo casual lunch at US$17.00. Plastic trash bin US$14.55 (made in China no doubt.)
8. Two hands. In China it is polite to hand passports, credit cards, money, with two hands. While I was paying for something today, LiLi said, "Mama, you don't have to DO THAT here!!!!!"
9. Breathing. The air is so so so clean here. I am still breathing it in and noticing. I suspect in a week I will have forgotten.
30 December 2012
it feels like home
We arrived at SFO Sunday around 9 a.m. SF time, around Monday 1 a.m. BJ time, after a 12 hour direct flight. Lotsa logistical last minute things on the BJ end, but in the end things worked. Even requiring LiLi to manage a cart with two giant suitcases rolling down terminal 3 entry's slope. LiLi was a champ. Good thing those trolleys have brakes.
Our BFFs met us at the airport with balloons and a couple of cars for the six suitcases and two carry-ons each. They schlepped all those bags up our stairs and into our house, which was quite a bit worse for wear with the latest set of tenants. LiLi was in tears in the first few minutes as the tenants' dog literally ate her special living room chair, and the tenant's kids did sticker things in LiLi's room. In addition, everything seems dingy and well, dirty. We'll really miss our BJ Ayi!
My friend made the kids some of the favored yet unavailable-in-BJ Annie's Mac n Cheese, and made me a cup of tea. She had already stocked the fridge and pantry, and was amazing, working efficiently around my foggy brain. Mostly, I got in the way.
After our friends left, LiLi and I climbed into my old SF bed with a pile of holiday cards from the mail that my tenant-house manager put out for us. I couldn't really focus on the holiday news in the cards. The bed is so so soft, and feels like a giant cotton ball that swallows us up. Like, for good. We may never be seen again.
Everything feels a bit surreal and like maybe we'll wake up in the morning and tell each other about a dream we had last night where we lived in Beijing for a year. Maybe we'll say it was a good dream, but it feels good to wake up, too.
Our BFFs met us at the airport with balloons and a couple of cars for the six suitcases and two carry-ons each. They schlepped all those bags up our stairs and into our house, which was quite a bit worse for wear with the latest set of tenants. LiLi was in tears in the first few minutes as the tenants' dog literally ate her special living room chair, and the tenant's kids did sticker things in LiLi's room. In addition, everything seems dingy and well, dirty. We'll really miss our BJ Ayi!
My friend made the kids some of the favored yet unavailable-in-BJ Annie's Mac n Cheese, and made me a cup of tea. She had already stocked the fridge and pantry, and was amazing, working efficiently around my foggy brain. Mostly, I got in the way.
After our friends left, LiLi and I climbed into my old SF bed with a pile of holiday cards from the mail that my tenant-house manager put out for us. I couldn't really focus on the holiday news in the cards. The bed is so so soft, and feels like a giant cotton ball that swallows us up. Like, for good. We may never be seen again.
Everything feels a bit surreal and like maybe we'll wake up in the morning and tell each other about a dream we had last night where we lived in Beijing for a year. Maybe we'll say it was a good dream, but it feels good to wake up, too.
26 December 2012
Packing plus sadness
With essentially two more days to pack the apartment and deal with the utilities, banking, keys, and other ending what-nots, we've little time to indulge in the sadness.
I just dropped LiLi at her BFF-study-buddy's apartment for one last playdate. The mom wanted LiLi there all day rather than the couple of hours I had in mind--and of course the girls were up for that--so the day's packing is left to me. Better in ways because I'll want to stop, sob a bit, then start again, and can only indulge because I am alone. ; )
25 December 2012
Merry Christmas
Christmastime in Beijing. This is the Wall at Mutianyu where we brought my sister and her husband who came for Xmas. It snowed a couple of days earlier so the scene was glorious. Cold, though. Very very cold at minus 14 C. LiLi and I walked one tower's worth and went back down. My sis and her husband walked 8 towers on the icy steps and finally turned around at one of those stone ladder -shallow-foothold ascents.
I've been quiet during this countdown owing to a bad bout of the flu combined with hugely annoying internet access problems. We've been unbelievably lucky this past year with avoiding cold and flu bugs. But last week, LiLi came down with a horrible flu that kept her out of school over a week. She missed her last week of school, two slumber parties, two going away parties, movie day in class, and many other festivities. She was so sick she didn't even care. It was far from the week off from work that I'd imagined: me walking the frosty market lanes, buying fun Xmas presents and gifts to take home, stopping at cool cafes for lattes and reading a novel. Oh, I had such a plan. But none of that was to be. Nor was the packing I figured would take place during that time off. On Saturday, I started to feel bad myself and by Sunday at the Great Wall, I had a raging fever and chills, completely flattened by Monday. Oh, definitely not the last week in China I had planned.
My sister and her husband are very well traveled and troopers, though, so they set out on their own one full day, then we had a lovely Christmas morning together, and the afternoon out and about with them. Since they saw Lenin recently they're committed to seeing Chairman Mao and will try the third time tomorrow morning before heading to the airport and the rest of their China travels. They're getting used to things changing on a dime here, though, and know that like the last couple of days there is a chance the Great Helmsman will again be closed to the public.
Tonight is still Christmas so tomorrow I'll begin to think about the next...five days.
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