First Impressions

Tuesday, April 28th, 5:17 am

So, let’s talk about first impressions.  

I’m in China.  Huh.  Okay.  I thought I was walling into this with a pretty blank slate.  That said…

Flying into Beijing, everything you’ve read or seen about the pollution is true.  I was surprised by the thick, yellow smog that prevented me from seeing anything of China until the plane’s wheels were on the ground.  (Oh, and fun fact.  I got the blasted middle seat of the middle row from Seattle to Beijing on a flight that carried the oddest selection of B-movies.  Got to watch St. Vincent with Bill Murry and the 1930’s version of Jane Eyre along with a couple of episodes of Big Bang Theory and one of Top Gear.  Also, only one lavatory on the plane had a working sink.  ~I~ rearranged my life to use that one twice, but I can’t help but to notice no one else seemed to care they couldn’t wash their hands in any of the other rooms.  Gross.  Long flight.)  Once at the airport, security and customs was a breeze, my bags made it back to me no problem, and I found my contact, Oliver, no problem.  I did, however, manage to forget to find an ATM at the best chance of having access to my American funds so I am a wee bit lighter on RBM (“kai?”)  than I’d like.  

Traffic from the airport to my apartment 25/30 miles away was, I imagine now, typical Beiing rush hour and we arrived at my apartment, a gated community, a little over 90 min later.  It was at that moment when my Western sensibilities had a moment of hesitation.  There is nothing WRONG with the compound.  There is a grocery store only ten minutes away, as well as a restaurant and a bakery.  Very nice.  It is, however, a massive collection of 35 or 40 different 4-story buildings each housing, I suspect roughly, 8 units per floor.  They are all grey stacks of weathered, moldy buildings with security fencings on the windows.  The grounds were very active with people moving about a bit louder than I expected.  But, hey, I saw a lot of families (with their one child which I knew was a thing before I got here but it was still odd to see it.  That ol’ stand-by question of, "so, do you have any siblings” isn’t really useful here) so while it LOOKS like what I would consider to be one of the low-rents on MLK where you gonna be robbed, I’m just going to trust that it’s fine.  Besides, my ground-floor (yea but damn!) apartment has security bars and a lock with four deadbolts.

My apartment is MUCH bigger than I expected.  As Oliver and I walked with my stuff from the car to the proper building, we met up with the foreign teacher liaison from (ew, I just heard hack a giant phlegm ball in the stairwell) my school who speaks no English.  Aright.  I really should have studied Mandarin before I arrived.  Once we said our hellos, the landlord (and his wife.  And his brother.  And his brother’s friend. And someone’s kid) found us on the sidewalk and let us in to my apartment.  Again, yeah.  It’s bigger than I expected and has a new refrigerator and mattress on the bed.  The school also bought me bedding.  The water is not safe to drink so the school actually is going to provide a water cooler service maybe today or tomorrow.  Um, the water heater doesn’t need to be turned on and off.  I can just leave it alone.  There is a wardrobe for my clothes and an amazing retro, 1950’s-dinner inspired sofa all red and white in the living room. I have a living room (where the fridge is on display prominently), as well as a galley kitchen that connects to the water-heater closet, a large (11x8?) bedroom, and a bathroom.  It’s just a few little things (like the smell of a wet basement my apartment has) that are kind bringing me down but I’ll get used to or fix.  They cleaned for me, Oliver said, but the place was cleaned the way a typical twelve-year-old cleans.  There is sticky, brown filth in the corners and on the edge of all the floors and everything feels like it was wiped down with a dirty rag.  They left me a mop that probably should have been thrown away last year and a bunch of those plastic washing bins for dishes and bathing.  I sound amazing ungrateful and full of complaints, but I am just trying to be honest.  These were things I noticed and was a little apprehensive about and I’d be coming off as more adaptable and openminded than I really am if I neglected to mention them.  So, yeah, while I found everyone’s heart to be in the right place, mostly I was just disturbed that I would be living in a dirty, moldy, stinky apartment in a compound I would NEVER consider had it been in the States with seven Chinese people all loudly talking over each other about stuff in the apartment I need to know about (but only 5% of those conversations made it back to me in English.  Mostly just picture a lot of “If I say it louder and slower, surely she’ll understand how the ventilation system of her gas stove works” with a lot of physical comedy).  

Here.  Have some pictures of my apartment knowing these were taken AFTER I cleaned it.  Ew.

Eventually, the People’s Republic of China all got bored of me at the same time and just left.  Someone will be by an hour from now (it’s just 6:00 am at the time of writing.  I wanted to do a write-up last night but opted for doing a rough unpacking and going to sleep) to take me to a school I won’t be working at and the police for registration.  When they left, Oliver offered to take me to the grocery store but we ended up at a restaurant instead.  Lucky!  Some Chinese food is VERY MUCH like that Panda Express crap we eat in the States.  I guess my I’m-a-capable-worldy-traveller facade had taken a few chips over the course of the evening because Oliver ordered us Kung Pao chicken, sweet-and-sour pork, and some sort of vegetable from the bok choy family.  And I am FINE with that.  By the time we finished dinner, it was nearly nine.  Four hours together had left me at a loss for sustaining conversation a moment longer (ask me about his daughter.  I know her life well now.) The grocery store was closed (did you hear me mention anything about toilet paper being in my apartment?  No?  There’s a reason) and Oliver walked me back to my apartment and peaced out.  

It was time to do those things you usually do after traveling across the globe.  I wanted a shower, to use the bathroom, and unpack.  Welllllll… I found a bottle of abandoned SOAP in the bathroom. Magic soap that, based on the pictures on the back, is good not just for washing your hands, but for washing dishes, countertops, floors, laundry, and produce.  I am guessing it is scented water with no germ-killing properties whatsoever.  Okay, so, I didn’t get a chance to pick up shampoo or conditioner.  A’ight.  My hair will be a little greasy in the morning, but I’ll deal.  Huh.  Uh, the toilet doesn’t seem to… uh… empty.  The kids I dropped off at the pool yesterday are still there today if you get my drift.  Okay.  I have WiFi but it isn’t set up yet, and the front door lock of my apartment is a bit old and difficult.  So, there are some things I’d like to fix but nothing I can’t deal with.  I am a bit annoyed that I was told the schools I will be working at were walking distance away but that, as it turns out, is not true and I will need to get a bicycle or take a bus.  Not a BIG deal and I can adjust.  I’m pretty far out from Beijing proper and am in more of the suburbs, which is nice in respects to congestion but not terribly exciting.  All in all, as I stripped out of my airplane-scented jeans and T to take a Magic Soap shower, there was nothing BAD about the situation and everyone, so far, was, I think, being friendly. 

Of course, the second I got naked there was a knock on the door and I got to meet my coworker (who I don’t actually work at the same schools with), Monica.  I like this chick.  Not only did she come with a gift of a travel card (Oyster/Pasmo/Istanbulkart equivalent), but she hooked me up with toilet paper.  I used the emergency bit of tissue I had in my purse and planned on figuring something out the for the Morning Pee.  She showed me her apartment (which does not smell like decay so I have hope I can do something about mine).  She is heading to Xian this Friday to see the tera cotta statues.  I guess Friday is a holiday and we have a three-day weekend.  She seems like she really has her shit together and I suspect she is a MUCH better teacher than I am.  I am just not creative or clever.  I have the energy and I don’t mind doing all the little projects and book activities other teachers think of, but I never think of anything impressive on my own.  This might be a bit of a problem.  I am worried people think I am more capable than I really am…

Anyway, that’s pretty much it so far.  It’s 6:30 and someone might be here in thirty to take me to a school for breakfast.  I should find some sort of covering for my legs and chest before his arrival.  I don’t know when I will post this, but there.  I did a brief journaling of my first twelve hours in Beijing.  Peace, love, and applesauce.