祝你们新年快乐 －Happy New Year of the Ox!

So we are packed. My men are both asleep. I finally figured what to take what not to take. We are ready to escape the big party. 

Indeed. 

The Chinese New Year celebrations are the biggest celebration of the year. People travel across the country to reunite with their family during this occasion. For a week, nothing happens in China, except celebrations. Chinese New Year also marks the beginning of the spring season, thus it is also referred to as Spring Festival. This year is the year of the Ox, and the big day is January 31. 

We, of course, never celebrated the CNY, but here is what I gathered about the celebrations. The following foods have very important symbolic meaning and must be shared at the New Year Eve meal: rice cakes, dumplings, eggs, meatball, fish, wine, tangerine, apple, peanut, watermelon seeds and candies. As the Chinese are really superstitious, they require that, at the New Year Eve dinner, each family member be represented, and in case of absence, a plate and seat must be reserve for them. Some other of their customs include cleaning the house (my ayi was really working hard this week), posting Chinese lucky numbers, igniting fireworks (to scare the demons that could harm this new year), giving money into a red envelope (hang bao) to kids, and visiting family and relatives. Temple visits and prayers are also very common during this time of the year. Red lanterns, paper cuts and lights are displayed all over town, and it is quite pretty.

We are escaping Beijing and the fireworks, the crowds in the public areas, the craziness of it all. At the same time, I will keep somewhere a little curiosity about the whole event. Maybe next year?

De New Year of the Ox

De New Year of the Ox

De New Year of the Ox

See you when we are back from Bali.

Gliding Away

Near our house there is a beautiful park called Ritan Park. It is one of the few places I visited (apart from the numerous apartments) when we came here in our pre-assignment trip. It is such a wonderful place, with a crowd of people of all ages spending their day there. I promise to write more about the park, in future post. This island of greenery is transformed by each season. Today I want to share with you some local winter speciality that goes on onto the frozen lake of the park: chair skating!!!

Is it that the winter is too short to have people practice and master some skating skills? Or it is just simply a more safe and easy way to enjoy the pleasure of the ice? I am not sure! 

We headed there this morning, with good intention and a perfectly blue sky and warm winter sun. We were ready for the adventure! But our ride ended up being rather short, as Mr Noam, scared, was yelling and grabbing me the whole time!!! We landed safely after a full tour of the small lake. Noam was so happy to be back on land and having his two little feet on the ground!

After our ride on the ice and a little walk around, we paused for some warm tea in a cute little place called the Stone Boat, as it is sitting right on the water (on the third photo). Noam, as usual, grabbed the attention of the waitress and was given numerous mandarins and lots of smiles. We will be back in the summer, when a variety of local artists are invited to play on the little terrace. 

Tonal Tuning - Taxi Story One

One month ago, returning from a shopping expedition, I had a small moment of grace.  I did not have a religious experience; at the contrary it was a rather a banal one. But what a big deal for me: I had my first-ever small chat in Mandarin. I had hopped in a cab with a bag of freshly made popcorn, and the driver initiated a chat. Unlike those in Montreal, Paris, Tel Aviv, New York or London, taxi drivers here are not really the chatting type. It is quite acceptable here to get in a cab, state a destination, drive in silence, and only exchange words at the time of fare paying. No weather talk or traffic comments are expected, and not only from foreigners. 

But that driver was curious and wanted to talk. He started by asking me if we had popcorn in my country. And where I was from. And how long I had been here. How many Chinese lessons have I been taking weekly. The conversation kept going for the length of the whole ride, which was a little long as I was arriving from the West side of the city. 

Don't take me wrong, I was not chatting away like an Italian. At the contrary, I was rather slow, using very limited sentence structures, and probably was very roughly clear tonaly. At times I had serious trouble expressing anything near to what I wanted to say. But the fact that I could understand most of what this guy was saying, and that I could actually find a few words to provide some answers was precious! 

It felt as if my daily one hour and half 中文课 sessions were starting to pay off. 

Then the next day, things went back in their order: another cab driver got exasperated with my poor language skills and started repeating what I was saying like a parrot, adding a question to everything (吗 ma?), indicating obviously his inability to understand me. As I could not provide him with further clarifications, he started shouting at me some ineligible things that did not sound friendly at all. I realized then that my ride with this him would not take me anywhere, so I just jumped out (fortunately we were not moving yet). That little event roughly brought me back from my little 高兴 happiness cloud. 

De Taxi Story One

One month later, with a few more characters in my pocket, I am still hoping for another moment of grace. Of course, there has been a few more of those semi-conversations, and some gained confidence at asking specific things (how much does it cost? where are you driving? I want a coffee; etc.). But in fact it feels like if the last few months have merely been an "ear tuning" exercise. I can now hear some tone differences. At last, since I still have trouble having the right one out of my mouth. I can now recognize some words when people speak around me. I can also sometimes hear those small words that are so short that you would mistake them for non-words. As an example, the word hungry is said like a "e" pushed out of your throat. It is such a strange and short sound that you could not really think it means anything. Throat clearing at its best, it could be. 

And while I am trying to express anything short of a sentence, struggling to repeat these strange sounds, or finding the right words, my poor brain runs on overdrive, so unaccustomed to the twists and turns of the language. Yesterday, in my class, my Chinese teacher ask me about a movie I had seen, the latest Woody Allen (which is a really good one actually). She did not know Allen, she wanted me to practice expressing myself. And what a practice it was: I spend almost one hour trying to explain the story to her in Chinese. To my credit, the story is a typical Allen one, convoluted and funny, but of course told in English or in French, we would have been done within a quarter of an hour. 

Wa Er Mah

One of my weekly destination here is Beijing is Wa Er Mah, the Chinese Wal Mart. I guess I have always resisted going to the superstores and the megasuperhumongous markets, as it is not my cup of tea. In general, you need to walk miles to stand in front of rows and rows of products, with a limited selection of brands, but in sizes fit for a family of 10. My fridge and cupboards can never accommodate all these large size containers, my feet are too soft to walk so much (well I like hiking, but not in a store) and I am usually in search of a larger selection of brands, products, and I guess, a more "real" experience.

However, when you get in China, you can find the real Chinese experience in the Wal Mart. I really mean it. 

First you have the people experience. Wa Er Mah is usually crowded, whatever time of the day you go. You will find people everywhere, customers of course, but also incalculable number of "associates" as they are called. They are busy handing you flyers, cleaning, ordering and unloading merchandise, serving and guiding customers, weighting your fresh produces, handing you a cart, serving a new product, standing and waiting there, or yelling in a microphone the benefits of a new drink, and even helping you out with your heavy bags. Even if there would be no customers, you would feel quite surrounded, so now imagine shopping at rush hour!

Then you have the product experience. I guess by choosing to go there at first, I was expecting an American type of product choice. Wal Mart equals America in my mind. Well, not quite here. You find almost exclusively Chinese products, for a Chinese market.  I guess I should not have been surprised. Import products are japanese, korean or indian. There is of course Coca Cola, and a few others "incontournables" but their labels are disguised under a layer of Chinese characters, sometimes making them hard to recognize. You can find a immense variety of noodles; eggs ones, vegetable ones, large or small, translucent or bent, some with ready mixes in cup, bowls or bags, with a huge selection of flavours (and of course with MSG flavouring). There is a great variety of sea-food, a range of meat stomach-churning delicatessen, a huge selection of vaccum-sealed Peking duck, live fish, including live crab and (poor) soft-shell turtles. As expected, there is a range of unknown products, and such a wide selection of beans and condiments that I would not know what to do with them. Even if Wa Er Mah is more of a extremely large grocery store, there is a non-edible sections,. They feature the latest in the main stream Chinese fashion (think padded jackets and thick long johns), various household items (think your grandmother's flower curtains)  and low-end household appliances (I returned an air humidifier after a week of use). 

Then you have the noise experience. I had to overcome my hearing sensitivities. I am having quite a bit of difficulty to shop in an environment that uses noise as an attention grabber. But in that regard Wa Er Mah is just like anywhere else in China. TVs are located all over the store, each of them competing with the voice of an agent on a speaker, telling you the latest deals to be found in the store, and at times interrupted by tellers calling their supervisors. And through all this, there are the high pitch voices of some young women, dressed in costumes similar to majorettes, enticing you to try their new product in a microphone. The ambiance is at its best invasive, at worst overwhelming and aggressive. But with some practice, I have got used to it (zen was develop in Asia, no?!). However, every visit with Noam has been a bit too much for the poor baby. After a few minutes of the general ambiance, coupled with the numerous attempts from customers and staff to make him smile or to touch him, he would end up screaming his way through the store, a bit like a siren warning others of our imminent arrival, and certainly a great deterrent to anybody trying to approach him. Simply put, he gets over stimulated, while I get overly anxious to find my way out the fastest as possible, with the optional the product X or Y. 

So our few first visits to the store were essentially exploratory visits. We watched the turtles and the fish, contemplate a few unknown bags (are they sugar or flour?), push the cart aimlessly in a number of aisles, trying to remember through the general noise, amplified by my son's screams, what am I looking for again, before rushing to the cashier and then out for some (fresh) air, with only half of what I needed. 

Don't take me wrong. After considerations, and without the company of my son as shopping assistant, I love Wa Er Mah. I can find here lots of interesting food items, fresh fish and fresh produce, even some "organic" ones. I can also learn about the local value of most vegetables and fruits, no hassle and no bargaining. And at the same time, I can have a glance at what modern China eats today.

A Walk on The Wild Side of the Wall

This last Sunday, Me and Paul arranged to have some freedom sans Noam, thanks to Ayi Lili flexibility. This is certainly one of the few bonuses of theseMade in China holidays. We decided to join the Beijing Hikers for a little stroll on the Great Wall. 

We had not rushed over there until now, afraid that by the last of our (expected) visitors, we will be bored by its sheer sight. However, a hike on the Wall, specially on its sections not yet restored, sounded like a very interesting and different experience.

We left home early, meeting a group of expatriates at a local Starbucks (yeah, they are here), and hopping on a bus to our destination.  Slowly we left the Beijing's urbanity to enter a more agricultural landscape. Apart from my annoyance with the bus windows dirtiness, I was really excited with the whole idea of the great outdoors, hiking (I can't remember when was the last time) and experiencing the 長城 ChàngChéng, the long city-fortress. We reached our destination, a touristic village near a small lake called Lotus Pond. We got out of the bus and started walking almost immediately.

I have to clarify a few things facts here:

    .  It is the longest man-made structure on earth. With its 6,700 km of construction, it is pretty much the longest continuous construction you can find. 

    .  But it is not one continuous wall.  In fact the Great Wall is rather a series of walls, parallels to each other in some areas, or just crisscrossing the landscape at other strategic location. Have a look here. 

    .  A popular belief says it can be seen from the moon. In fact, with a maximum width of 9 meters in its largest areas, it would be like trying to see a human hair from 2 miles away. In fact if the Wall could be seen from the moon, one ought to be able to see most of the roads in the world as well, given that they are commonly even wider. But this is obviously not the case.

    .  Constructed to prevent the Mongols invasion, it was guarded, at its best times, by over one million persons. 

With some of this in mind, I started walking up, breathing deeply the crisp air. The wall is sitting on top of the ridges of these mountains, snaking its way along the landscape in convoluted swirls and twists, bordering the province of Inner-Mongolia. 

So it was rather quickly that we understood better what our stroll would be. As I raised my head up to see the wall above me, I suddenly remembered what was said by our group leader: a difficulty 4 hike. We were going to climb to the highest point of the Great Wall, at 980 meters above sea level. We were going to go up thousands of really unequal steps, some for giant leaps, some for dwarfs. We were going to go down on portions of the wall that were in disrepair, scrambling down boulders, and stepping on makeshifts stairs made of loose piled up stones. We were going to pass 22 watch towers, some renovated, some half standing. We were going to walk for 5 long hours, going from Lotus Pond Village, on Mutianyu part and Jiankou part of the Great Wall , ending in a village called Xi Zhazi.

And so we did. The sight was wonderful, surprising and really picturesque. Despite some of Pauli's complaints about the unnecessary effort (specially at the point called Ox Horn, where the Wall makes a U-turn-shape detour), we had a wonderful refreshing stroll on the wild side of the Great Wall.

My only regret is that my new camera is currently suffering from an out-of-focus problem, hence the pictures here are rather fussy and do not give you the immensity and beauty of the sight.

When To Get Rid of Your Xmas Decor

In France, January 6 is a day to celebrate the La fête des rois, marking the Epiphany, the moment when the Three Kings reached baby Jesus. It is also marking the end of the holiday season and the moment when it is time to take that Christmas tree down. 

Of course in China there is no such tradition. In fact there is no Christmas tradition in the traditional Chinese culture, but as Chinese are people who are generally really festive, they jump on the occasion to decorate their cities and throw a party. However as the early days of January are behind us, it is time to move to serious things: the preparation for Chinese New Year. 

Chinese New Year is the most anticipated festival in all China. For a full week, most people will travel back to their hometown and visit their family. All over the country, Christmas decorations are currently being replaced with red lanterns, firecracker tubes, red envelops and other Chinese New Year decorations. This year is the year of the Ox. Before it is all down, I wanted to share with you some of the exuberance with which the Chinese decorated the city for Christmas. And eventually I will share with you in a future post some of the best CNY decorations.

A Saturday home but not alone

Since our arrival, we have been meeting people quite easily. Friends of friends, neighbours, moms with kids of a similar age, fellow citizen (mostly for Pauli, as I have still to meet some Quebecois here), people sharing a common language, or a common interest (yoga for me, ping pong for Pauli).  Like any other expatriation that I have lived before, it is quite rapidly that people exchange contacts details, gather, invite each other, find reasons to visit one another, go out or share a meal. And it is certainly one of the reasons why I like expatriation. Furthermore, beyond this ease to develop friendships, it is also extremely interesting to see how diverse these new acquaintances can be, and how varied our life experiences are. And today, I am blessed by having friends from all over the world.

So today, as a way to share with these newly-made friends, we decided to prepare a brunch. (I also have to admit that after our last restaurant visit with Noam, it is preferable to eat home.) We had invited a few friends, but along with girlfriends and visiting parents, the guest list all a sudden reached 14 adults, 4 kids and 2 breastfed babies (but these two did not worry me, as their food was already taken care of). So in my usual inability to gauge quantities, combined with a fear of not having enough, I cooked. (And cooked.) At least we have table extensions, so everything could fit on the table! Potato salad, green salad, asparagus quiche, onion and blue cheese flan, stuffed mushrooms and pancakes for the kids. Along with a special order of super fresh croissants and bread from Pekotan, our favorite local bakery. And a platter of cheese. And a spice cake (my first). Along with some special tahini and lebaneh directly from Shunni, we were set.

 

As the conversations fluctuated between Hebrew, English, French and German, the food just disappeared. While the parents were busy talking, the kids enjoyed each other's company, playing together.

Sometimes there are tables that I remember well. Not only for the food, but mostly for the company, the ambiance, the exchanges. Today it was one of those. Me and Pauli feel really grateful to have found these new friends. And I guess Noam too!

2009 New Year Resolutions

Like every time, the new year is an occasion for some introspection. Taking stock of the past year, it is certain that we have gone through some quite important changes, as a family. 

Now with the new year started, I am also considering taking some new resolutions.

1) eating better (those who know me know that I can take a few more pounds);

2) going to bed earlier (as I am never in bed before 11h30 or midnight, and even);

3) learning more intensively and intently Chinese (I still have 36,000 words to learn);

4) sharing time with Noam while we do new interesting activities together (rather than the usual mall playground).

There might a few more but I think it is enough for now. Lets see how the first few months go. 

For the Chinese, 2009 leads to some interesting resolution. 9 九 jiu, is pronounced djio. Similarly pronounced (same tone same sounds), 酒 jiu means alcool. So supposedly some Chinese have made the resolution to drink more in 2009. What an interesting twist to the exercise!

Russian Beijing

When I arrived in Beijing I did not really realized how close some neighbors might be. As I started strolling around with Noam, discovering my immediate surrounding while trying to locate the best grocery stores in the area (joining l'utile à l'agréable), I stumbled into what appeared as a surreal world:  the Russian Area. 

Of course Russians and Chinese, at some point in history, shared common ideologies, about communism, totalitarian way. Throughout the city, the Russian, a friendly state for a short period during Mao's reign, have left their imprint, leaving building that are more like monolithic blocs of stones that can only be seen from afar. Apart from these elements that could be called architecture of communism, trading is an activity that has been ongoing, as sharing such extremely long border must naturally permeate a number of goods and people daily. 

Within Beijing, the Russian area is a trading and exchange area. Restaurants are lining the streets, with in between shipping offices sending huge ballots of clothes to Vladivostok and Moscow. Bars are numerous, and it is easier to be served in Russian than in English. Chinese is of course ok. Several pedicab (or rickshaws) are circling the streets, trying to bait the tourists. And crowds of fur clad women, fur had wearing men are strolling around the street. A new wholesale center, recently constructed, was our playground for an afternoon, with me and Pauli playing again the Russian couple (I am the silent Russian wife, while Pauli is pretending to buy one of something, to see if it will work for our business). Lots of fun.

De russians in beijing

De russians in beijing

De russians in beijing

De russians in beijing

A Russian New Year in Beijing!!!

It was only a few hours before midnight that we finalized our plans for the famous world toast. What to do? Where to go? We toyed with the ideas of some circus-like show, a philharmonic concert in the Egg, some rave-like dance night, or some fancy dinner in some over the top restaurant.  Then Pauli suggested a brilliant idea: lets join those who know how to celebrate, the Russians!

We chose our venue: the restaurant Elephant, right in the hearth of the Russian area. The experience started before our departure, where I was unable to make a reservation, and had to rely on Pauli, whose Russian language skills are beyond my Mandarin skills. Once at the door, we were informed that a whole show was prepared to welcome the new year. At 45$ per head, we where hoping for a good one. As the waiter showed us the worst possible table, with absolutely no view, Pauli pulled his best mafioso act and argued with the staff for a better table. It worked: not only we got a good table, but we also got some extremely attentive and respectful service afterward. I am not sure who they thought we were, but we did not try to change their mind!

As we had arrived a little early, we watch the place slowly filling up. Several kids were running around with plastic swords and Harry Potter capes. The girls in the restaurant were wearing sequins, bleached air, short skirts and deep decolletes. The guys were all what you would expect them to look like, a bit rough'n tough. And a good number of the people were also quite Asian looking, probably from the Russians areas bordering China. 

With tables set with red tablecloths, the walls covered with old picture frames, balloons hanging in garlands, the ambiance was quite festive. In the background, TVs were showing the crowd in Moscow, and lots of dancing and signing bikini-clad skinny girls. 

De Russian New Year

We ordered some nice appetizers; marinated fish, salt cured salmon, baked mushrooms, and the required bottle of vodka. Yes we ordered a bottle just for the two of us.  I guess this is what the Russian do. In Rome do as the Roman. I even saw a table being delivered no less than 6 bottle at one time! 

De Russian New Year

The show started.  Some karatekas jumping around, a magician, later a few acrobats turning plates on their nose. A few skits with people from the audience. A band playing some oldies. With vodka helping, it was hilariously amateur.  The crowd was also quite festive and when midnight came, 2009 was greeted with a loud and fun general toast!

I later won a nice stuffed cow (2009 is the year of the cow), which will certainly make Noam happy. 

De Russian New Year

With our liver feeling tired before everybody, we left behind us a half finished bottle, heading into a hangover morning...

Happy New Year!

De Russian New Year