i would like to comment a bit on the odd day to day expenses that occur in th is country. now it is very cheap, unreasonably so even, to eat out, buy groceries, cook, find entertainment, see friends, etc., so that in general, one does not actually need to make a lot to live very well. we buy massive bags worth of fresh produce for less than 30rmb, all the groceries we could want for less than 50rmb, plus fruit and freshly prepared cold chinese salads and we’re looking at no more than the equivalent of 20 dollars and we’re set for at least a week. by some estimate, one only needs a quarter of that to live very comfortably in this country. but then, there’s rent.

now maybe i’m unreasonable, but i have a certain standard that i find hard to give up, especially when it concerns the place that i call home, the bathroom that i do my business in, and the kitchen that i prepare meals for the ones i care about in. you can rent a place very cheaply, no more than 30 dollars a month, but it will be underground, is a literal room, have a shared bathroom with no gauranteed hot water, no gaurantee of windows, and definitely okitchen htough you can bring your own electric stove and many people do. that’s the bottom of the pole.

and then there’s the chinese style apartments which are, for most intents and purposes alright, but shoddy, feeling like they’re falling apart, and they are, with no regard for the common spaces of the buildings meaning you can be on the highest floor and all the lights will be out in the hallways so you’ll feel like you’re living in a cave. and the bathrooms, lord save me from the bathrooms. so that’s like, the middle, wh ich, unfortunately, from a standards point of view, i find difficult to accept.

now i realize this might make me seem like a snob or something, but for the same reason that i never understood why people don’t care about the quality of their hotel rooms while on vacation based on the flimsy pretense that they don’t plan to stay in that that often didn’t and doesn’t make sense to me i mean, you need a place to stay right, some place comfortable because what happens if you’re sick or too drunk you don’t want to passout in a trash heap i can’t come to terms with an apartment that i dread the thougt of taking a shower in, which is most chinese apartments. but that makes up the middle tier as far as quality goes.

then there are those places meant for foreigners to stay in, built from the ground up for them, and are of decent quality. noe i say decent only because even they could use a good bit of work. one common complaint is the abundance of mold on the walls of even the most expensive, and i do mean most expensive as these places can run for close to western prices, of places just still feel like they are falling apart, and they are. but, you can find places that will satisfy my standards, but again, they’re expensive.

which brings us to the point that i find myself in an odd employment state. you see, i’m no longer. the foreigner who’s willing to relocate and work in beijing, i’m the foreigner who’s already here and is looking for a job, with the major difference being that while the former has an allure of self sacrifice, and thus the appropriate compensation to go along with what ever jobs may fall under that category, the latter does not, and will pay close to absolutely nothing for work that in any other country will earn me a decent living. bottom line, i can’t make more than 700 dollars a month doing full time programming work in this god forsaken country. now that isn’t actually bad by chinese standards, and were my only goal to pay for our day to day expenses, i’m golden, but i need to pay for rent, and i need a place that i am comfortable taking a shower in, and that’s where the conflict comes into play, namely i for the moment just, can’t.

and the irony of it all, my father just got a new place in beijing and it meets our standards, and is cheaper by far than anything else out there we’ve found, but is in the wrong part of town, and i think that makes all the difference.

but the plan is to continue searching, both for a job and an apartment, and i think we’re going to venture way the far out of town to a place that’s still subway accessible, and easilly accessible might i add, but hopefully very inexpensive by virtue of it being far away, and we might be lucky out there.

let’s see, other problems that plague the sean. he needs to leave again out of the country by july 15 to get on his last entry into the country. and this will be the last one as his visa expires at the end of august, as in proper expires and he will need to go back to the united states to get a new one, which he really does not want to. for reasons beyond his countrol and knowledge and patience to sort through his working visa still hasn’t come through, and neither had maria’s, but she no longer needs to worry because a) she’s going back to the states anyways and b) she will get a student visa through tsinghua. the sean’s plan though is to get on his last entry, as cheaply as possible, then at the last mi nute switch while in country to a 90 day single entry visa, which he knows he can, so he cwn stay in the country until the end of november by which time hopefully some other, better solution would have presented itself. at the moment he doesn’t care which: his father comes throug, he gets employed elsewhere, or he pays somebody 1000 dollars and they give him the visa in that shady, underhanded, sort of grey area kind of way. it really doesn’t matter.

back to i here, i think. i had also planned on joining maria in the states and nyc for her internship this summer, but the feasibility of it is minimal. the expenses unfortunatly just far outweigh the gain, and if i go, i have to plan on staying, which is a decision i’m not yet ready to make. i definitely want to be here when maria starts her school so if i head back to the states it will be after that so no point making the expense now. startup expenses in general back in the states is also just in general prohibitive so even if i wanted to, maybe the best i can do is go back to los angeles which actually doesn’t sound that appealing. i’m kinda holding out that china will still work out in a bit way and we’ll all make our personal fortunes here and change the world for the better.

which at least there’s still a chance of, and having lost most of my steam for blogging, i will end here by saying that no matter what, the sean is trying to be optimistic, and hey, he hadn’t thought of this but maybe he and maria can get married; that’ll solve his visa problems.

oh and the restaurant is a complete bust incidentally. to summarize in the quickest way possible, there’s been management issues from the get go, the owners no longer like each other, for some reason one half viewed my desire to no longer be their full time employee as a sign that they should exit the business as well so they gave my dad some time to find someone to buy them out, and since it obviously didn’t happen fast enough they’ve been threatening to close down the business and then wanted to buy us out which, well, hey, seemed like quite a good deal actually because we were done with the stupid thing anyway and didn’t want to have anything to do with it and if you’ll listen to my father about it, he’s convinced the entire thing was a conspiracy to get the entire business by the other half owners at a greatly depreciated value by driving me out, driving the restaurant down, then lording over us the fact that they have more money to convince us to sell out to them, but things really came to a head when, afraid that they might steal our business licenses my father put up fake copies on the walls and, lo and behold, the next day they were stolen from us, and then when maria and i went to go check our mail because we’re using the restaurant as our mailing address because it’s convenient we find that they had changed the locks on us and were no longer able to get in, and that they had fired all the staff and closed the restaurant without telling us! what is wrong with these people? they were just in the middle of negotiating how to buy our half our when all of a sudden, chaos. so now maria and i have no place to get our mail which is a) a shame and b) just inconvenient as far as timing goes because we’re expecting her all important actual enrollment confirmation packet from tsinghua which should also have the confirmation that the chinese government is going to pay for all her tuition and housing and give her a monthly stipend to live on in. that was sarcastic by the way, though it’ll be cool if it happened that way, but we are actually waiting for this packet and it’s being sent to the restaurant and we’re not sure how to get it anymore because these people are insane!

…

so here’s to hoping it all comes together, heh, and that those we’ve wronged or disappointed in the past may forgive and move forward with us towards a brighter and better future.

Either way. I am pleased with Sean’s memory-recording entries; in fact, I think both he and I benefit greatly from his blogging in general. I feel a little guilty taking from him in this way, without giving much back.

I skipped my run yesterday and today; it is raining, and the air is smoggy. Sean and I did a bit of walking (and have been doing so regularly as he’s been available more lately), and when I got home I wanted to do some project organization–and screwing around on the net–and I wanted to drink tea and be warm and dry. We have had a couple of excellent outings lately, seeing Alice in Wonderland at Wangfujing and having our first Chinese sushi experience in the mall there, and I thoroughly enjoyed today’s sushi venture at Sushi Express (we’ll be going back, for sure). I should note that Sean doesn’t eat sushi, and he finds things to eat at these places so I can be happy. Such giving does not run rampant in the general male population, I fear.

Home is still where I get stuff done in China, though. I’m planning a study blog, intended to supplant my diary as a record for my response to things I read, especially about business and about China. I’m also making some effort to organize my study of Chinese and of characters, and to organize information I have about businesses in which I am, however indirectly, involved. I’m also thinking about (and, mostly haphazardly, researching) degrees, schools, and jobs. I’m still throwing around a lot of ideas, and trying not to be too influenced by the opinions of others. In addition, right now I have a lot more information about Tsinghua than BiMBA, and I cannot weigh the programs against each other without correcting the imbalance.

Still, I feel like a lot of effort is reaching its conclusion, and I’m satisfied to be planning for the next segment. Hopefully I’ll hear back from business schools in the next couple of weeks. In an ideal world, I’ll hear something about scholarships, too, but I don’t really expect to until summer (and even then, I need to be really lucky!). These days I need to plan my summer studies, and any business/law projects for the summer as well. I need to buy plane tickets. In April, I’ll go back to the States for a bit. I’m looking forward to executing the next round of plans upon my return to China.

I’m excited about a few different things I’m working on, and I have fantasies about how everything might turn out. I suggested to Sean that we record what we think life might be like a year from today, even in a few different versions. Still, sometimes I feel discouraged. So much is still uncertain, and sometimes I feel like I have little to show for the six months I’ve been in China. I also worry about Sean being happy here. He hasn’t yet secured employment that he likes. I’ve been surprised that not having a steady job hasn’t bothered me lately; I thought it would (admittedly, it did a few months ago, though I really haven’t regretted leaving the firm). Maybe I’ve matured past that point, maybe I worked enough at the firm to make up for a few months of relative idleness, or maybe all this stuff I’ve been messing around with has been an adequate substitute. Possibly the fact that I have a long-term plan has trumped most of my discomfort with lack of a short-term one. I can come up with a dozen more reasons, too, but regardless, my happiness has been much more affected by my worry about Sean.

The other side of town

We are lacking a few near-essentials, and short on others, and I don’t yet know an easy way to get some of this stuff (do I really have to walk for miles to buy toilet paper?) but I have a water-boiling pot, a supply of tea, a shower that has hot water most of the time, a great place to run, long-desired internet, produce in the fridge.

Key to all of this: the running route. It’s a park, but I don’t have to pay admission (unlike my prior route). It gets crowded–I left at 730 this morning, and it was already quite populated–and I don’t think it is reasonable to expect to run there after noon at all, but I got my 6.5 miles (admittedly through multiple looping) quite satisfactorily. Some of the terrain is also hard on the feet/knees. I am going to go out earlier tomorrow and see if I can do some street running, but it’s nice to know that, if I plan appropriately, I can get a good run here.

As most of the essentials are falling into place, I am now steeling my nerves to get on to the real agenda–return emails re work, schedule Chinese class, get my recommendation letter templates out. This is almost real life.

The view from the stairs

We’ve now secured an apartment–well, secured, at least in some sense. The rent is already high and we’ve sort-of been warned that the landlady may increase it. The place is quite nice, however, and I can’t wait to have my own collection of points in the 3-d coordinate plane. Everyone here has been wonderful, and at least Sean’s grandmother will be sad that we won’t be around as much, but I will be happier once I have my own desk, tea paraphernalia, and place to put my stinky running clothes. We will hopefully be moving on Sunday.

I registered for the GMAT and have only a few weeks to study. I am also working on getting the recommendation letter templates out. Chinese schools are *so* not on a schedule–except, apparently, as regards receiving my completed application. One has posted the 2010 app; the other, not so much. As National Holiday draws to a close, however, I’m hoping they’ll be more responsive.

I have also lately learned that the picture on the outside of the package does not necessarily reflect the contents. I bought a package of tasty dried fruits (labeled plums…maybe). Although I am in no way dissatisfied with the contents, I was mildly surprised by them.  These photos are the outside and the inside. I am likely to pursue a new package of these, as I’ve eaten almost all of them.

Package

Contents. Tasty, but not as advertised.

The weather has been intermittently astonishingly beautiful, but it is getting cold. I anticipate that we will need to use a heater soon. I understand that it doesn’t get as cold here as, say, Boston, but that it will approach freezing. I am also becoming impatient to explore more, especially on my own, and am finding my lack of language skills quite limiting. This is not surprising, and I believe that as the National Holiday finishes up–and I have my own apartment — I can get the language-learning show on the road. *Can’t wait to unpack.*

I signed up for my first race in Beijing, or outside it–only a 10k, but since registration for the Beijing Half-Marathon is closed, I’ll take what I can get. I also posted on the Beijinger website, asking for gym recommendations and info on running clubs. I’m not optimistic anyone will have anything useful to say, but let’s see what fish this net ensnares.

One of our primary concerns especially this early on, though we’ve been here for just about ten days now already, is to find an apartment. We would like to be in the North part of town, in the district called Haidian, which is where Maria’s possible MBA schools are. It’s actually where all the universities are, so it makes for a nice pseudo-collegiate atmosphere. Plus, Maria’s friend B., more on him at a later point I’m sure, lives there and would be nice to have friends around.

Our search has taken us onto all the usual internet sites, places like Craigslist, and lesser known expat sites like Beijinger, CityWeekend, etc. (look, I’m using links!) My step mother has been gracious and kind enough to help us with making the all important phone call to follow up on the ads we’ve found.

So the other day, we did a bunch of research online, got a bunch of phone numbers written down, made the necessary calls, then headed out. We ended up seeing four different places that day.

The first one was the most expensive, 4500 RMB for a 2 bd./2 ba. It was on the campus of the Geosciences University, where incidentally B. had lived before and had told us horror stories about frozen winters. It was, “nice,” in a way; a 6th story walk up. It came “furnished,” read into that whatever you’d like, and I think from now on, whenever quotes are employed, feel free to read into them whatever you feel is appropriate. These “furniture,” especially the “bed,” made me realize that hard though my father’s be, there are worse, shudder though I at that realization. It was, otherwise, modest for what it was, and obviously expensive for what it was.

And Maria just read this and said it was in no way “nice,” which, as I pointed out after correcting it, was why it was in quotes.

The next place was a decent walk away, and was next to the Forestry University. It’s entrance can be best characterized as a dungeon, overhanging detritus and all. As a general description, all these places appeared “Soviet” to me, no offense intended. Sort of, winter and/or nuclear wasteland type. This was a 1 bd./ 1 ba. for 3300 RMB. The funniest thing about this one was that it had been occupied previously by English speaking students, and probably a young girl who liked K-Pop stars judging by the stickers on the dresser mirror. This also meant there was a neat little printout guide on “How-to” do this and that, like pay for the water bill, pay the electric bill, etc., with cute-sy type remarks like “Good boy, you just paid your electric bill!” I should point out that I actually liked NONE of these. They all had their flaws, the most specific of which is “I don’t like them.” They’re too, “Chinese,” for lack of a better term, and again, no offense intended.

The third one wasn’t bad. It was in a suburby feeling kind of area, three story tall buildings in rows with vegetation and actual vegetables growing between them, kind of like English row houses actually. It was tiny, but we could’ve gotten it for 1800 RMB. No kitchen, per se, but it had a space where we could set up an electric stove. The bedroom was also up some steep stairs in what I could only imagine was the attic with low enough hanging ceilings that you actually couldn’t use half the available space. But at least it was, clean, less “Chinese” in some ways, almost like a dorm room.

Moving on the fourth one was just bad. It was still a little further away, 1 bd./ 1 ba. for 2200 RMB, very “Chinese,” and so I don’t sound like a broken record, just not right, yet again.

Then we went and looked at guitars for me :) Then we went to my father’s restaurant, Connections Bar and Grill and I actually bought a guitar. This was a whole interesting evening in and of itself but that will have to wait until another post. Back to apartments.

I think what we learned is that our standards are higher than “Chinese.” We’ve said that we want to live here, but we don’t want to become “locals” or “natives” per se. Reading what I just wrote I think that makes me sound like a horrible person, but the facts are that I’ve gotten used to some standard of living in the US and I’m not entirely comfortable shedding it. It’s like the needs we’ve developed in the States; no reason to leave them behind, plus we shouldn’t.

But it was still good to see these because I think it’s given us perspective on what it is we do and do not want in an apartment. Going forward, we should be much better prepared to identify what it is we do or do not like. As it stands, I think I can sum it up a little:

1) It needs to be in a “complex,” one with a guard, for safety reasons.
2) It needs to be a “high rise,” meaning something build relatively recently, probably within the past ten years or so, at most.
3) It needs to be near you want to be, and sometimes that may mean not near any other forms of public transportation. It’s OK to commute and travel a little when you want to go out, but if you’re going to school, save the travel time as best as possible.
4) Do stick to your standards. Just because you’re living in another country, doesn’t mean you need to change who you are. You are neither in that dire of straits or that constrained of time to have to settle for anything less than you are comfortable with.
5) Get an agent, or at least have one show you around, and if you can, get a “seller’s” agent, one that you won’t have to pay a fee to. They know the area, what’s available, have all the required phone numbers, and can get you better deal. We had an agent, a lovely Chinese girl who accompanied us on bicycle.
6) The higher up you are, the less likely it is you’ll have bugs, and the more control you will have on your ambient temperature; during the winter, the heat accumulates up high so you can at least open your windows to regulate instead of freezing down below (Thanks B. for the tip! He lives in quite a nice place by the way, in BLCU).

Whew! I’m exhausted! We’ve had so many late nights, all of them fun, so I’m going to stop now. I think I’ll exercise some form of mental discipline and try to at least update this once a night going forward until we are caught up.

Some things to look forward to:

1) Our time spent with B.
2) National Day (Happy Birthday New China!)
3) Additional business schemes
4) Job hunting news

Good. One immediate issue resolved.

Another pressing concern had been the questionable comfort provided by our hard Chinese mattress. I think I’ve actually gotten used to it. (!!)

Yesterday also marked my first run in Beijing, a late-morning 5 miles around a nearby park. Sal tracked it, and I enjoyed examining its satellite map and record greatly. I walked to Yuyuantan Park, paid the 2 yuan admission price and entered without difficulty (it was also my first solo venture in China!). It was in the upper 60′s, a little humid, and overall very pleasant (and reassuring. I *can* run here!). The park was full of groups–some of them in the hundreds of people–practicing song, dance, and performance. I am guessing this is related to National Day, which is on Oct 1. Or maybe I’m wrong and this is just what people do on Friday mornings in Beijing parks. The park itself is beautiful, with bridges over lotus ponds and plentiful foliage. The run at first reminded me of the City of Angels half-marathon, with entertainment every quarter-mile or so; then it reminded me of Venice Beach, although some parts of the park are so stately and elegant I thought it might be like running in the Huntington in San Marino.

Until near the end of the run, I was prepared to evaluate the commentary as no worse than LA. Maybe as it got later or as I got sweatier it seemed more appropriate to old Chinese guys to talk to me. Sources were old and middle-aged men (incidentally, it appears that a tiny Speedo is considered adequate coverage for a male of any age for any purpose, including swimming, grunting calisthenics, or walking around talking to people…). Some old guys swimming in the lake all called “Hallo!” and waved, and laughed when I waved back. Some men clapped as I ran past and called out some words in Chinese, and I have no idea what they said and didn’t stop to try to find out. Some middle-aged guy followed me a bit as I left the park. I tried to be friendly but to indicate he should get lost. Perhaps he really was just trying to help me cross the street, but I found him creepy and took a detour on my way home so he wouldn’t know where I lived. By the time I made it back he was no longer in sight, so I think I succeeded.

The air seemed fine to me, although it did look hazy, and later when I blew my nose I produced some black dust. I wonder if this is the sort of thing that builds up and gets to you eventually. I am also somewhat self-conscious about my clothing: I wore my gray shorts with pockets (containing my passport, Sean’s cell phone, some money, and a hand-drawn map) and a dark FBI tank top, so more modest outfits could be imagined, but it was hardly indecent for US standards. Still, the only other girl I’ve seen running in Beijing so far wore long pants and a shirt with sleeves. Tank tops do not appear to be popular here. As Sean noted, however, the locals tend to wear far more clothing than we do and do not seem uncomfortable. We are always hot when we’re out and about. Perhaps we walk farther than they do? Perhaps they are just smaller people and therefore have more surface area to volume? Maybe they don’t care about being hot? I wore jeans on yesterday’s walking and subway tour, and by the time we got back they were moist, hot, and uncomfortable. Can I wear running shorts everywhere from now on? :D

I am worried that someone official will call after me, and I won’t understand it, and won’t know when I need to stop and listen to them. Sigh. Is there any answer for this? Better Chinese will help, but even Americans in America get taken in by false officials or merely assertive strangers in unfamiliar environments. My strategy of ignoring strangers who talk to me does have this vulnerability.

Later yesterday, we visited Sean’s mother’s apartment (sans mother, and itself a minor adventure) and his dad’s bar and grill. At the latter, I met another of his cousins, a business partner of his dad’s, and had a draft Beijing beer. I love beer on tap and enjoyed the chance to sit, visit, and chill. These landmarks help me get my sense of direction, if nothing else.

Sean and I had been going to do some tourist stuff today with one of his cousins, but the cousin is sick, so that’s off. My revised agenda for today includes setting up some trades and further researching language programs. I’m finding the idea of an intensive language program with extras appealing. I found one that includes culture and martial arts classes. Neat! Locations are still difficult for me to evaluate, however. This city is very, very big.