Swapping cars

It is a law in China that cars have the right of way. Cars drive slowly in pedestrian-filled areas, but it is rare that they ever come to a hault. Larger cars have right of way over smaller cars, as well, although I'm not sure if that's an official law.
With larger cars, also comes prestige. My host family owns two cars: an Audi sedan and a Land Cruiser SUV. Apparently each family can only store one car in the apartment's garage. Before going to the duck restaurant yesterday, we drove 20 minutes in the opposite direction from lunch so that my parents could swap cars, just so they could pull up to the restaurant flaunting their big SUV.

KTV!

Today is Molly's birthday, so we rented a karaoke room and the whole exchange group went to sing. Karaoke is extremely popular here, especially around the new year holidays. EVERY single Chinese kid has a great voice, even Molly's six-year-old cousin. All the Americans have awful voices. We just yelled and flailed our arms. They sang ballads.
There's no differentiation here between a "boy" and "girl" song. Boys and girls like Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys the same. And they all know the words to everything. Victor, Molly and Zijian (if any of you know him from class) win the Most-Invested-In-The-Music award.
Before karaoke, the whole exchange group and their families met at a fancy peking duck restaurant for a welcome banquet. Alan's dad, the uber rich CEO with the swimming pool, took it upon himself to make a toast to the group. The meal was incredible. The highlights: peking duck (with tons of duck skin), a kung pao scallop type thing and squirrel fish (a fish the is cut to look kind of like a porcupine in a sweet sauce).

On my own

Today was the first day on my own. I struggled to explain -- in Chinese -- to my host father that everything was okay, I was just walking around the corner. But to no avail. Molly was called downstairs to help. She repeated what I said, using correct tones of course, and I was on my way. It felt great to be on my own, although my heart did skip a beat when I remembered one, just how new I am to Beijing, two, that the odds were against me to return home without getting severely lost, three, that I don't speak Chinese, and four, that the Chinese I do speak seems almost impossible to understand.
Anyway, I kept walking, and things seemed to fall into place. I found the mall no problem. I tired to call Hannah so we could meet up, but Molly's phone had some message on it that forbid me to use the keys. I pressed every button in every combination, until I managed to unlock the keypad. Looking up the street I recognized the Tongren Hostpital (Everyone's Hospital), which is right across the street from the train station, and thus learned one way to get home from the subway! That's key.
After some time Hannah and Victor met up with me and we went to find a present for Molly. Victor bought her a Mickey Mouse mug; Hannah and I got her a dress. It has an argyle print on it, pom poms and a flowing turtle neck top -- a combination of everything I've seen her wear -- so I hope she likes it. I imagine her wearing it with her favorite high-heel boots she bought in Boston.
We then took the subway to the Wangfujing Bookstore. We walked straight past the best sellers, the senior high books, junior high books, early junior high books, fourth grade books and landed ourselves in the baby section. Victor wanted us to buy some how-to-pronounce-Chinese books. I got some great flash cards.


I then took the subway back and walked home proving I really did learn how to get home from the subway earlier. Later that night Becky and I went out for her brother's birthday. He just graduated from college and is spending the year teaching highschoolers in China. It was an incredible meal. We had duck, pig stomach that you place in dumpling type things, fried goose liver balls (that were actually incredible), some sort of spicy kung pao chicken that was the best thing I've ever had, some sort of beef or pork sliced thinly, spicy fish head, some sort of cauliflower dish, and more. Oh, and scallion pancakes! It was all great and it's right by school. I can't wait to go back. I again took the subway home and experimented on a new way to get home, which I thought would save me a lot of time -- if I got it right, of course. My heart again skipped a beat at the thought of getting lost at night on some Beijing side streets. Buuut, all is well, and I made it back home way quicker than if I had taken the other way home.
When I got home Molly was trying to learn the words to Avril Lavigne's "Skater Boy." I don't think she knew I could hear her. Her door was closed and lights were off.

Breakfast

My family's breakfasts usually consist of leftovers from last night with some bread component: "Chinese bread," toast or baozi (thick dumplings, similar to what we're used to in the States). This morning we had pigs feet, duck, Chinese bread, seaweed salad (not the seaweed salad you usually order at Japanese restaurants, though, this one looked like thick forest green linguini), pickled green beans and toast and blueberry jam. My host dad made a seaweed sandwich (toast with seaweed salad in between). My mom ate her toast with chopsticks. And Molly must have eaten the equivalent of two and a half pigs: 10 hooves.

Would you like more MSG with that?

Yesterday, the Americans and some of our host siblings met by the Jingshan school for lunch. We found noodle place down the steet, next to an "Adult Shop." Kristen (Ms. Kamerick) was careful not to walk in the wrong door. For the most part, it was the first time seeing each other since we landed. Afterwards, Alan (one of the Chinese kids) and his dad arranged for us to go swimming at his dad's office. Swimming pools are hard to come by in Beijing, so people are very proud when they have access to them.
He dropped us off around 3 p.m. and said he'd pick us all up for dinner. None of us were really sure what we were supposed to do with a swimming pool and some ping pong tables in the basement of some corporate building for three hours. Most of us didn't even bring bathing suits with us. Amy (Ms. Richard) taught Victor and Miles, her host brother, how to do the crawl stroke. They were very excited to learn. The rest of us organized ping-pong tournaments. Hannah and I beat Alan and Elias in an intense match. We spent the last hour laying on the floor, talking. Alan was confused why American kids talk about boys and girls so much. I learned it was considered bad luck to get a haircut within the first month of the new year, so hair salons are packed the day before.
The restaurant was great. Alan's dad treated us all to a fancy hot pot restaurant. Hot pot is pretty similar to fondue. Two boiling broths we placed in the center of the table -- we were such a big group, we got six brother containers. One is filled with a plainish (but still delicious) broth, the other with an incredibly, chili-filled broth. Then, you order raw food and drop it into the broth of your choice, wait a bit, and eat. We had pork, chicken, shrimp, shrimp balls, unidentified fish, fish balls, sea cucumber, pork stomach (maybe? not sure), and some other. But the food kept coming. Once the first wave of food came the waiters asked us if we wanted more MSG with our meal. It looked like salt with grey specks in it. We were all stuffed before all the food even reached the table. Elias, Hannah, Rebecca, Carolyn and I stupidly ordered a pitcher of hot bean milk, thinking it would taste good. Not sure why. Elias managed to finish his glass, but I think the rest of ours went to Kristen. I also ordered an Aloe & Lemon drink, which turned out to be this half neon, half puke colored clear drink. Yuumm.
Alan took us back to his house afterwards to fire fireworks (fangpao).

Cow dung

Tons of people at the Temple Festival a few days ago were walking around with inflatable shit on a stick and I didn't get why until now. It's the year of the ox, so in celebration, everyone carries ox dung (plastic, not pungent, ox dung) around on a stick! They even have faces on them!

Since the eighth year of the Reign of Emperor Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty

Yesterday, Molly and Victor (Hannah's host brother) took me and Hannah around Beijing. Our first stop was Tiananmen Square. They explained how it is surrounded on all sides: at the head is the Forbidden City (with Mao's famous picture at the entrance), on one side is the Congress building, the National Chinese History Museum on the other and Mao's tomb on the other head. Ten years ago Mao's body was still preserved so that people could see him lying in his glass coffin, but Molly wasn't sure if that's still the case. We went to investigate, but it was closed for the spring festival.
On the way to our next destination we passed a famous Peking Duck restaurant. Victor explained that the restaurant's sign is wrong. The calligrapher who made it had too much to drink that night, apparently, and wrote the last character incorrectly. The place became so famous, however, that the managers decided to keep the sign.
Molly listened to her ipod the entire trip. She likes the Backstreet Boys a lot because she thinks their "voice and mood are really real." She also broke out into "Love Story" at one point and Victor started singing a lot. I guess Taylor Swift has hit China already. Both Taylor Swift and Hannah Montana are really popular here, especially among the boys.
Around the corner from Tiananmen Square is a street filled with traditional stores. The street's maintained the style of a traditional Beijing street, as well. Every other store sign reads, "Since the eighth year of the Reign of Emperor Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty" or "Since the 22 year of the Reign of Emperor Dali in the Ming Dynasty." Hannah and I bought silk dresses in one of the oldest silk shops in Beijing. We received discounts for being "tall and thin."
We went into tea shops and shoe shops and a Chinese pharmacy decked with traditional Chinese medicine. One root was being sold for 1,800,000 yuan, about $257,000. They were also selling dried sea cucumber (a kind of deep-sea slug) by the dozens.
To tie us over until dinner we bought tong hu lu -- about eight crab apples stacked on top one another covered in dried sugar. It resembled a candy apply, but waaayyyy better.

Left over fireworks, people skating on a river

A cat, not a tiger!

On New Years Day everyone in Beijing goes to the Temple Festival. It's this huge block of land filled with a combination of squares and open halls. Each has some activity for everyone: performances, arcade type games with prizes, good luck trees with lanterns hanging from every branch (for people to walk through and thus receive good luck for the next year), food stands, gift stands, everything! So many people were there, it was hard to stand at points. Especially at intersections when people were pressed shoulder to shoulder and trying to go in 100 different directions. I'm not sure how the strollers and wheelchairs go through without getting trampled.
One of our first stops was at an arcade type stand. I think you had to hit bottles off of a pedestal. Prizes ranged from Pink Panthers to Winnie to Poohs to Stiches (from Lilo & Stich). Pretty much any American cartoon character. I asked if I could try to win a stuffed Tigger. My host mother pushed her way to the front of the line to find out how to play, but then realized that people were receiving Tweety Birds with diapers instead so we kept walking. Not understanding that I was hoping for Tigger, not a tiger, my parents kept their eyes peeled for a tiger the rest of the day.
One vendor was wearing an Obama mask, others were wearing hats with ox horns on them for the new year. I tried to buy one of the ox hats later and my host mom was so confused. I tried to explain to her I didn't want to wear on, just show it to people, but she still didn't get why I'd want one of those furry things on my head.
A few spots were designated food stops where people could buy three foot wooden sticks of seasoned pork, chicken or calamari. When you were done, you just threw the stick on the ground. Some people walked through the crowd with entire handfulls -- 15 or so sticks.
As we were heading out of fair my host dad jumped up, threw his camera into my arms and ran towards an arcade stand filled with Garfield prizes. My mom started dying cracking up, "That's a cat, not a tiger!!"

早上好！

Woke up late this morning, and came down in the middle of breakfast. Molly and her cousin were watching reruns of the New Years show we watched last night. Apparently this years show was a lot different than all the ones in the past, and was geered toward the common person so that everyone could understand what was going on, instead of being aimed at the upper class population.

Happy 牛 Year!

I received my official welcome tonight at dinner. Molly's aunt and uncle came over for New Years dinner. We cheers all night, first starting in English -- 1. Welcome Clala (that's what they call me) to China! 2. May you like China! 3. China will treat you well! 4. To making money for the children -- then they drifted into Chinese and my understanding of the dinner comprehension dropped significantly.
The tv was on in the background. Everyone in China watches the same program every New Year. My favorite skits:
1. dancing pandas with yoga balls
2. two farmers singing with two generals from the army, my host mother was very proud of this one
3. a grandmother jumps out of a chest over and over again, Molly keeps cracking up
At midnight we went to set off fireworks. I no longer think Massachusetts is crazy for making fireworks illegal. I woke up this morning (8 a.m.) to fireworks and am not sure I'll be able to fall asleep. It's now 2:30 a.m and they are still going. All of Beijing sounds even more like a war zone than it did this morning. Every street had fireworks going off and people running around and celebrating the new year. It was hard to see because there was so much smoke everywhere and my clothes now reek of sulfur.
(This year is the year of the ox. Ox is "niu" in Chinese, so there are signs around Beijing that say, "Happy 牛 (new) Year!" I love them.)

Making dumplings

Today was my first attempt at making dumplings. Hopefully there will be many more to come. I know my second try will be tomorrow.
My hostmom is a pro. She managed to seal the top of each dumpling with the most amount of meat and least amount of dough. When I first sat down to help, I received step by step directions on how to fold the dumplings correctly. About a minute after I finished each dumpling Molly picked them back up, discreetly, and made sure everything was correct. She had to take the whole dumpling apart a couple of times. When it was clear I was struggling to follow the original directions they told me it didn't matter how much dough I use to seal the dumplings, just as long as they were sealed. A few minutes later I was told to ignore the directions all together and just fold the dumplings in half. Woops.
In the end though, I couldn't tell the difference between mine and my mom's really. But I'm not an experienced dumpling eater, so who knows what everyone else was thinking.

Arriving

After sleeping for practically 13 straight hours -- with a quick break to eat my last chance at mashed potatoes in four months -- I landed in Beijing. The international terminal here is the nicest I've ever seen, which, unsurprisingly, was built for the Olympics. After taking a train from immigration to baggage claim, the 18 of us -- nine American, nine Chinese -- went to go meet our (host) families who greeted us with some of the warmest hugs I've ever received a huge bouquets of flowers.
We almost missed out exit on the way home and my host mother turned to me in said, "He (referring to my host dad, who's driving the car) is so happy you're here he almost missed the road!" For the rest of the car ride home they spoke in Chinese and would ask if I understood. I'd repeat the few phrases I picked up and do my best to answer them. Molly translated the rest. As we pulled up to Molly's apartment, right inside the second ring road, my host mom apologized for her "Chinglish." My host dad burst out laughing, it seemed to be the first word he understood in English the whole drive.
My room's great. The apartment's great. My family is great.
Molly told me she was so jealous of me because my (host) parents bought me new furniture and she's never received new furniture. They are going completely out of their way to make sure I'm comfortable.

I woke up this morning to loouuud bangs. It's New Years Eve here and fire works are aloud to be set off at any time of day. It sounds like some sort of war is taking place outside my window. Every 30 minutes or so another series of loud crackles and bangs is set off. It's pretty cool. My window looks right out onto the street.

It's time for breakfast/lunch.

在见！