I arrived on a Friday night and by Saturday afternoon I was already seeing parts of Beijing that I never would have expected. We had been looking for an apartment and met up with a guy to visit one. To get us to the apartment we wanted to view, he called a friend and they both drove us to the apartment as passengers on their motorbikes. I found it pretty funny that after being in China for only about 15 hours I was already hitched up on the back of a motorbike driven by some Chinese guy in some of the craziest driving I have ever seen. I just had to take some movie footage. Unfortunately, the clip doesn't do it justice, but you can somewhat understand how I was feeling. I had to keep looking back to make sure that Michael was still behind me on the other motorbike with the other Chinese man!
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Apartment
So, Michael and I have had a pretty hard time trying to find housing here in Beijing that wasn't:
A. crappy and rundown
B. perfect but expensive
C. completely out of the area or
D. dirty (and I mean filthy dirty!)
Luckily, we found something that suits our needs. It is not exactly what we were hoping for, but we knew we had to compromise is some areas to get what we wanted in others. So, here is a description of our living arrangements. We share a 2-bedroom apartment with another couple. She is from Spain and speaks English, Spanish and Chinese. He is from China and speaks Chinese and Spanish. Michael, luckily, speaks Spanish so he can communicate with both of them, but since I don't speak Chinese or Spanish I can't even communicate with the boyfriend with anything other than hand signals... Anyway, we have our own room which is made up of some 1o-year-old Ikea furniture and has an air-conditioner!! HALLELUYAH!! We share the bathroom and kitchen and living room. They are nice, but unfortunately not the cleanest people in the world, which means I don't think I am going to be using the kitchen much... Anyway it is close to Mike's work, it's right next to the subway and really close to a market. All in all, it is a good apartment for 2 months. I sure miss sleeping on a super-soft American made mattress. The ones here are sooooo hard. At least we have some really soft pillows. :)
A. crappy and rundown
B. perfect but expensive
C. completely out of the area or
D. dirty (and I mean filthy dirty!)
Luckily, we found something that suits our needs. It is not exactly what we were hoping for, but we knew we had to compromise is some areas to get what we wanted in others. So, here is a description of our living arrangements. We share a 2-bedroom apartment with another couple. She is from Spain and speaks English, Spanish and Chinese. He is from China and speaks Chinese and Spanish. Michael, luckily, speaks Spanish so he can communicate with both of them, but since I don't speak Chinese or Spanish I can't even communicate with the boyfriend with anything other than hand signals... Anyway, we have our own room which is made up of some 1o-year-old Ikea furniture and has an air-conditioner!! HALLELUYAH!! We share the bathroom and kitchen and living room. They are nice, but unfortunately not the cleanest people in the world, which means I don't think I am going to be using the kitchen much... Anyway it is close to Mike's work, it's right next to the subway and really close to a market. All in all, it is a good apartment for 2 months. I sure miss sleeping on a super-soft American made mattress. The ones here are sooooo hard. At least we have some really soft pillows. :)
Sanlitun Soho (A.K.A. Michael's workplace)
I just wanted to send a picture of the area where Mike works. It's known as Sanlitun Soho and it is a pretty happening area of town with a lot of stores and restaurants right across the street, such as McDonald's (which has a very limited menu), an Adidas store, Esprit, Steve Madden, Apple, etc. It is really pricey though and it is really interesting to see such a western shopping area in Beijing. (Meaning American/English or Developed in contrast to the typical Chinese style shops. More on the differences in a later post...)
Anyway for anyone interested, this is a picture of Michael"s office complex. It is pretty cool. His building behind the orange one just to the right. :)
Anyway for anyone interested, this is a picture of Michael"s office complex. It is pretty cool. His building behind the orange one just to the right. :)
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
4 days down, how many more to go? :)
Wow, so here I am in Beijing and it would be an understatement to say that everything is sooooo different!! But, I love it. It's definitely interesting to be a minority and have EVERYONE stare at you, and I mean absolutely EVERYONE. I hope I at least get used to that quickly. Describing the city in a few adjectives I would say it is busy, hot, dirty, and eye-opening. It's amazing. I have this idea that to try to take in as much as I can I will take a picture everyday so that I can keep some sort of photo journal on what our lives are like while we are here. I think I am going to post these as a set of 7 once a week. (As in 7 days a week. :) So look for my first installment of Photos by 7 on Saturday Beijing time... That would be Friday for you western folk.
This experience has been interesting so far and by no means has it been easy. I already think that this move to Beijing for the summer has been one of the most difficult things I have ever done in my life, but I am completely open to the culture, the history, the food and the way of living. I'm excited for it to get better and better every day as I get used to living here. By the way, Michael loves his job, and is having such a great time here.
This experience has been interesting so far and by no means has it been easy. I already think that this move to Beijing for the summer has been one of the most difficult things I have ever done in my life, but I am completely open to the culture, the history, the food and the way of living. I'm excited for it to get better and better every day as I get used to living here. By the way, Michael loves his job, and is having such a great time here.
Monday, June 27, 2011
TOKYO, BABY!!
Japanese Sunrise from the airplane
Arriving in Tokyo with all my bags in tow...After booking my flight to Beijing at a GREAT rate, I quickly noticed that there was a little hiccup in my smooth travels to China... a 15 hour layover in Tokyo with a change of airports! Yes, I said AIRPORTS! Apparently, this is pretty common but learning that I had to find my own way across the city of Tokyo on my own was not the most exciting news. Luckily, I discovered that a friend of mine that I had grown up with in Florida now lives in Tokyo! Isn't that amazing!
Cristina was wonderful and met me bright and early on Friday morning at the airport at 6am. (She had to leave her apartment at 4am to get there in time for my arrival.) We had a really fun time getting lost on the subway, eating ice cream out of a vending machine, walking around the Harajuku fashion district and visiting different gardens, temples and markets.
Gate to the Meiji Shrine
Barrels of Sake at the Meiji Shrine
Harajuku district of Tokyo - very interesting clothing here...
LUNCH!! SOOO YUMMY!!
I made it through Tokyo in a day, but sadly my backpack didn't. All around my 15 hours in Tokyo were great! Thanks so much Cristina for being so awesome!Tuesday, June 21, 2011
All My Bags Are Packed, I'm Ready to Go...
Well friends, only a little over 24 hours before I board that plan to Beijing. I can't get over how excited, scared, anxious and downright FREAKED OUT I am at the fact that I am going to be living in China for the summer.
I have been moved out of my apartment for the past week and 1/2 but I still feel like I have a lot to do before I go... Mainly working a few hours tomorrow morning, getting my bags all completely packed, as well as mentally preparing myself for the adventure of a lifetime. Oh, and I have to deal with a little car trouble that happened on the school parking lot where I work... I'm not going to get too into it, but it involved my bumper, the parking lot security gate and a few tears on my part. Luckily, I wasn't in the car and no one was hurt, but to say the least, this was DEFINITELY NOT something I wanted to have to deal with 2 days before I leave for CHINA!
If you have any last minute advice, I would LOVE to hear it. Even some travel tips on how to try and get a good amount of sleep on a coach seat while flying across the International dateline. :)
One thing I regret? I was hoping to get there and have a few words in Mandarin memorized but that didn't happen... Maybe on the 13 hour plane ride over? Hmmm...
I have been moved out of my apartment for the past week and 1/2 but I still feel like I have a lot to do before I go... Mainly working a few hours tomorrow morning, getting my bags all completely packed, as well as mentally preparing myself for the adventure of a lifetime. Oh, and I have to deal with a little car trouble that happened on the school parking lot where I work... I'm not going to get too into it, but it involved my bumper, the parking lot security gate and a few tears on my part. Luckily, I wasn't in the car and no one was hurt, but to say the least, this was DEFINITELY NOT something I wanted to have to deal with 2 days before I leave for CHINA!
If you have any last minute advice, I would LOVE to hear it. Even some travel tips on how to try and get a good amount of sleep on a coach seat while flying across the International dateline. :)
One thing I regret? I was hoping to get there and have a few words in Mandarin memorized but that didn't happen... Maybe on the 13 hour plane ride over? Hmmm...
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