Biscuet.com

I’ve written about my friend Jessie several times here because she’s one of the most phenomenal people i’ve ever met.  I know everybody likes to say that about their friends, but i’m being serious when i say she’s among the most gifted, passionate, caring, and humble people i’ve ever met.  I’ve seen her sing and dance in front of crowds of hundreds of Chinese peers.  And then i’ve traveled with her in the US where she’s passionately spoken in front of tens of thousands of people.  I’ve watched her handle it all in stride with humility covering every part of her being.  She’s a leader among Chinese and foreigners alike with her uncanny ability to smoothly move between both English and Chinese.  I’ve dragged her into many situations to translate for me and to meet and befriend total strangers.  Her life will undoubtedly be something we all marvel at in the years to come.  Keep an eye on Jessie because remarkable moments follow her.

And then there’s Levi.  Levi is one of the most gentle spirited humans i’ve ever encountered.  His smile can pierce the hardest and thickest of walls that dwell inside of people.  His quiet leadership is a quietness that’s full of confidence and yet humility that join together in a wonderful dance that’s truly unique.  I’ve paid close attention since meeting Levi and i’ve noticed that when he speaks, people listen.  When he moves, people follow.  And when he smiles, people smile back and the world seems like a better place for a few moments.  I trust Levi infinitely and am honored that he lets me be his friend.

Levi and Jessie got married last Saturday and i think their joining together in holy matrimony might be what made the flowers bloom this week. I think it also might be why the Chinese government lined all the roads in Beijing with roses.  This week following their wedding we have seen unprecedented blue skies in Beijing and i like to look up at the blue and think it’s because Jessie and Levi got married so all of heaven is saying, “Yes! We’re so happy!”  Their lives together are going to carry a powerful force of good into the world around them.  I can’t wait to see the ripple effects that their influence will have in the lives of people literally around the world.  They asked me to be a groomsman and Jenn to be a bridesmaid at their wedding.  While standing in front of a couple hundred of their friends and family members i tried to stand tall to communicate with my body that i’m fully into this and i’m with them.  To stand in a wedding as a groomsman is to say with your presence that i believe in this couple and i’m excited for them and i’m with them.  No matter what, i’m there.  So i tried to be there. All there.  I stood tall, hands crossed in front of my waste, tears in my eyes, and a proud smile across my face.  Somewhere in the middle of the ceremony i thought to myself that if i moved all the way to China more than four years ago just to build this friendship and stand in this wedding then it was worth it.  It was so worth it.

*sidenote* Jenn planned, organized, and designed the reception. That’s worthy of a whole blog post of it’s own so be looking for that soon.

My girlfriend is Asian-American, but i don’t think that’s a big surprise to anyone.  Her ethnicity is Korean, but she was born and raised in America.  Now we live in China and to the untrained Chinese eye, she looks Chinese.  I can’t blame them. She has dark hair, tan skin, and almond-shaped eyes so naturally she MUST be Chinese.  Everywhere we go she gets treated like a Chinese.  Everyone speaks to her in Chinese, pushes her on the subway when they get out of the way for me, and is utterly confused when she doesn’t understand what they’re saying to her because they speak to her a lot faster than they speak to me.

After being in Beijing together for a while and spending a lot of time with locals i have made an observation about how the Chinese language works.  I know many of my friends who have studied the Chinese language extensively will likely disagree with my observation, but to that i would say they should spend a few days roaming the city with Jenn.

Here’s my observation:  Tones and pronunciation of Chinese words don’t matter as much as the perception that the Chinese person has of the speaker.  Let me clarify.  Jenn looks Chinese, so when she speaks it usually doesn’t really matter how botched her pronunciation is of the language, they typically understand her perfectly.  They don’t lean in for clarification or bark a loud, “HUH?!?!” like they do with me.  Often my pronunciation may be more “correct” than hers but they see my white face and a trigger goes off in their brain somehow preventing them from understanding.  But when Jenn speaks, her meaning comes across flawlessly.  When learning Chinese it is drilled into our heads to practice pronunciation and get the tones right.  I disagree.  I think we should just spend some money dying our hair black and getting ourselves some almond-shaped eyes.  I’m only half kidding.

When living in a big city you gotta start thinking about things a little differently than you may be used to.  This tip comes from personal experience and making the same mistake more than once.

When leaving your apartment, your friend’s apartment, the restaurant, or the cafe you must always always always double check with your inner self to make sure your bladder is empty and you’re prepared for the journey ahead.  Many times getting from point A to point B can mean any combo of buses, subways, crowds, traffic, taxis, and walking.  It’s not always a quick journey and there aren’t often bathroom breaks along the way.  If you gotta go, make sure you go before you leave wherever you are.  The last place you want to be is sitting in gridlocked traffic with a full bladder!  It’s a miserable feeling.

Just yesterday i went to meet a friend and found myself in a serious predicament.  I was  meeting him at a cafe that i had never been to before and as soon as i jumped into the taxi i realized i had broken this very valuable rule.  It wasn’t an emergency yet, but by the time i arrived at my destination i was seriously contemplating doing what many Chinese people do – peeing on the side of the building.  I decided to find a bathroom in a nearby mall, but because of construction i couldn’t find the entrance.  The pain in my bladder was intensifying and just as i thought i was going to burst i asked a nice shop owner in the mall where the bathroom was and she kindly pointed me in the right direction.  After finishing my business i walked out with a smile on my face to now continue my mission of finding the cafe to meet my friend.

So remember: use the bathroom before beginning any commute while in a big city.

*You just can’t make this stuff up. Everything in this story is factual and i was there every step of the way*

The other day my organization was hosting a few people visiting Beijing to take a look at what we do here in China.  I always look forward to these trips because it usually means we eat good food and it’s fun to be with people when they experience China for the first time.  It’s always neat to see their eyes open to the cool stuff and weird stuff of China that i get to live in everyday.  Anyway, so on this particular day a couple of days ago we took them to the Great Wall.  If you’ve never been to the Great Wall then this is going to be difficult to explain, but imagine this: a long narrow uphill road full of hawking vendors on both sides of the road.  This road leads you to the ticket counter to buy your entry ticket to get on the Wall.  They sell water at 500% mark up and they sell silly Communist-era hats, wooden pipes, “antiques”, paintings, trinkets and toys.  It’s a zoo of people, to say the least.  People are shouting prices and shoving their stuff in your face; it’s a madhouse.  On our way down from the wall we were walking back through this madness when one of the people in our group spotted a wooden basket with two live chickens sitting inside.  And this is where it gets weird.  Suddenly one of the other guys in the group is yelling, “Buy it! Dude, you have to buy it!”  The peer pressure gets the best of us all and before you know it a very confused 107-year-old Chinese grandma has sold us her basket of chickens.  So now that we’re the proud owner of two chickens, what are we supposed to do?  We took them back to our van and showed our van driver our newly acquired friends.  He thought this was hilarious and helped us place them carefully in the floor of the van between the driver’s seat and the passenger’s seat.  We drove more than hour back into the city to go to the Pearl Market for some bargain shopping with the group.  When we got there we still didn’t know what to do with the chickens.  It was hot that day and we concerned about having grilled chickens when we finished our shopping.  The driver told us not to worry that he would gladly babysit the chickens while we shopped.  A few hours later we returned to the van and the chickens were still in their basket and seemingly very happy.  They were actually surprisingly docile.  The next stop was a quick walk around Tiananmen Square.  On the way to the square we collectively decided that the chickens must be very hungry.  Lucky for the chickens, we had just happened to pick up some snacks in the morning on our way to the Wall.  To our surprise, the chickens really loved the taste of chocolate wafers.  We shoved a couple of them into their basket and within a matter of seconds they had pecked them until they were completely gone.

The story goes on…

After Tiananmen Square we had a nice dinner planned at a fairly nice restaurant with a few other people.  To make a long story short, after dinner one of the guys in our group got the chickens out of the van and brought them into the restaurant to present as a gift to the couple that was hosting us for dinner.  We videoed the whole thing and it was hilarious – to say the least.  Our dinner host wasn’t incredibly impressed, but he laughed and was a great sport about it.  After only a couple of minutes we were quickly escorted out of the restaurant by the management.  But everyone was light-hearted about it and even the management was all smiles over our little practical joke.  After we left the restaurant we stopped at a small remote corner in an obscure neighborhood and gave the chickens to the owners of a small fruit stand.  They were ecstatic about our gift and kept telling us how they couldn’t wait to eat them.

So, after a long day of babysitting chickens we decided that we’re actually chicken murderers.  And surely the most memorable day i’ve ever had on the Great Wall of China.

I went to McDonald’s the other day for breakfast because i go there every week for breakfast with a friend.  When i tried to order my usual egg mcmuffin with cheese, hash brown, and coffee i was quickly corrected and told i could only order a hot dog.  Yes, a hot dog.  At 8:30 a.m.  I asked 3 or 4 different times to make sure the cashier wasn’t just suggesting i eat a hot dog for breakfast as this is often the case.  Many times in China the person working is the “expert” in whatever field they happen to be working in whether it’s shoes or burgers and they don’t hesitate to tell you what you need.  So i just wanted to be sure she wasn’t suggesting that i need a hot dog when i very clearly want an egg mcmuffin.  After a few tries i realized they actually don’t have anything else besides hot dogs.  What happened to the egg mcmuffins?  I was somewhere between cursing angry and hysterically laughing.  TIC is what they say – This Is China.  Well, no one in their right mind wants a hot dog for breakfast except for the 25 or so Chinese people sitting throughout the restaurant gobbling down vomit-inducing hot dogs.

So we left and got a muffin at Costa Coffee.

This past week has been a whirlwind of celebrations.  First up, Jenn and i have now been dating for a year so we spent the weekend celebrating by eating good meals and just generally having a good time.  We went to a few of our favorite places or good places we had heard of, but not tried yet.

Saturday Night -

Jenn decided she was going to the planning for our Saturday night dinner.  With lots of incredible restaurants to choose from in this city i had no idea what she would choose.  I’ve wanted to try Sureno for a while and i’m sure Jenn was aware of that.  The staff greeted us very kindly when we showed up right on time for our 7 p.m. reservation.  They seated us at the best seat in the house as Jenn had requested over the phone.  The staff was attentive, prompt, and very pleasant.  It was certainly one of my better restaurant experiences in Beijing.  Here, let me shut up and just show you the picture:

Sunday -

On Sunday we met for a late lunch at one of our favorite little places to go for lunch – The Village Cafe.  The staff is fantastic, the menu selection is great because they give you a breakfast menu and a lunch menu.  I tend to eat from the breakfast menu at Village Cafe because the fresh squeezed orange juice is unbelievable!  I had the salmon benedict and Jenn had the mushroom and spinach pizza (she didn’t love it).  The salmon benedict is perfect.  Very perfect.

Sunday Night -

This was my night to find a restaurant.  Wanting something special and wanting somewhere that we probably wouldn’t go back to soon, i decided on China Grill which is on the 66th floor of the Park Hyatt hotel in Beijing’s Central Business District.  I made early reservations because it was a work night for both of us, but also because i wanted us to see the sunset from 66 floors up.  The restaurant gave us a perfect seat by the window on the side of the building where the sun was setting.  The food and service was top notch, but the view is what made this dinner fun.  Oh, but if you do go to China Grill, definitely get the crabcake appetizer! WOW!

Wednesday -

This was Jenn’s 26th birthday celebration so i wanted to do something memorable for her and to show her something special.  People in this city have been raving about Capital M so that’s where i decided to go.  It sits on the 3rd floor overlooking Qianmen and Tiananmen Square.  The location is beautiful and the interior is beautiful.  This place certainly deserves some sort of reward for best interior design.  Throughout the meal i was giving the service about a B- because of their lack of attentiveness and understanding when we ordered and of course they lose points for insisting on talking to Jenn in Chinese even though we told them twice that she doesn’t speak Chinese.  However, their service points went up really high when they offered to call us a taxi at the end of the meal.  They said we could just stay at our table and they’d let us know when the taxi arrived.  Perfect.

There’s a tiny Mexican restaurant very near my house that i tend to frequent multiple times a week.  Sometimes i go just for an afternoon snack and to get work done, but i’m also often there for a full meal.  It’s wonderful food in a wonderful atmosphere, but it’s so much more than that.  The owner of Sand Pebbles Lounge is a Chinese guy, but his English is immaculate.  As the story goes, he went to the US several years ago for a high school basketball trip and that’s where he fell in love with Mexican food.  His restaurant is tucked away in a hidden alley in the center of Beijing, but it’s a treasure that’s certainly worth finding.  I’ve never had a friend who was dissatisfied after i took them to get a famous burrito from Sand Pebbles.

I recently discovered that Sand Pebbles Lounge was nominated for “Mexican Restaurant of the Year” by the ever-so-popular expat magazine, The Beijinger.  Would you do me a huge favor and go on over to The Beijinger website and vote for this gold mine of a restaurant?  I’m not sure what’s in it for the winner, but the bragging rights alone would be worth it.

Don’t do it for me.  Do it for the glory of Mexican food everywhere.  And do it for my dear friend, Mexican food connoisseur, and Sand Pebbles Lounge owner – Ray.

Here’s the link: http://www.thebeijinger.com/blog/2012/02/22/Vote-Now-in-the-Beijingers-2012-Reader-Restaurant-Awards

Here are the instructions: There are 50 categories (i know it’s a lot, but it’s worth it).  You don’t have to vote in each category if you don’t want, but when you get to the Mexican Food category just do what you know to do!

Thank you so much.  And no, Ray did not put me up to this, i just love his food and i love hanging out with him when i’m there.  He’s a good dude.

At the time of writing this post i’ve lived in 6 apartments in Beijing and the 7th seems to be imminently approaching.  I’ve learned some hard lessons, but have also stumbled into some great unexpected surprises while bouncing from apartment to apartment in this crazy metropolis.  If you’re living in a city (especially in China) here are a few pointers i’ve picked up along the way:

Look around the neighborhood

Walk your neighborhood and take good mental notes of what’s available at your fingertips.  Do you have easy access to groceries? Dry cleaners? Some form of entertainment? Decent restaurant selection?  Also, take a look around to see where you might catch a taxi, does it look like you’ll have an easy or hard time getting a cab to pick you up?  Is there a subway stop close by?  If you plan to get around the city at all, make sure you don’t have to take a bus or a taxi to the subway.

Who’s managing your new place?

Get to know your property manager a little before you sign the dotted line because they are the people who are gonna fix the hot water in the winter.  Be friends with them, be nice to them, but most of all make sure they are going to do their job.  There’s nothing worse than feeling left out to dry when you have a problem at your new apartment.  I learned this lesson the hard way; not once, but twice.  I had a bad management company at two apartments and they didn’t care about anything except getting their rent payment.

Quiet or Loud?

This is easy: are you gonna be able to sleep at night or no?  Think about traffic, bars, foot traffic, and thin walls.

Now for the actual apartment

It’s difficult to find the perfect place, so you have to spend some time evaluating what you value most in an apartment.  For me, i value the bathroom a lot.  If i can’t feel adequately clean and feel like i’m getting clean in a clean place then life can be hard.  I also like having a couple of decent places to sit and relax.  I’m flexible on the bedroom because that’s just a place to put my head at the end of the day.  In China, i’ve learned how to sleep on really uncomfortable beds so i’m not as picky about the bed as many might be.  So, decide 2 or 3 things you like in an apartment and get a place with those things and then be flexible with the rest.

And after you follow these few things, you’ll probably be fairly happy with your new place.

10 reasons to love living in the city:

• No car payment.
• No car insurance payment.
• Closer proximity to a diversity of people.
• A variety of restaurants to choose from.
• Entertainment at your fingertips. Watching television is no longer the only source of entertainment.
• People watching. There’s always an endless supply of interesting people to observe.
• Creative energy. You can always meet someone talking about a new idea.
• Public transportation. Not driving from place to place means you’re not trapped inside your metal cage and there’s more time for podcast listening, reading, emailing, and other fun things to do on the subway or in the back of a taxi.
• Fun photography. There’s always something to take a picture of.
• Ease of travel. Living in the city means you’re close to an international airport that quickly and easily links you with the rest of the world.

The fake.

For the second time in just a few months i am the proud owner of a fake 100 yuan note.  The 100 yuan bill is the highest currency note in the Chinese system and equals about $15.88.  Because China is primarily a cash society it’s very hard to determine when and where i got this bill, but most likely it came from an ATM because that’s most often where 100 yuan notes are distributed.  In other words, i don’t walk into the 7-Eleven and request 100 yuan bills.  Actually, i’m always looking to break them down into smaller bills because most restaurants and taxi drivers turn their nose up at 100 yuan bills because they don’t like giving out their precious small bills.

So, here i am with a $15.88 souvenir from China.  There’s really nothing i can do about it.  But i’m guessing the questions you’re really asking are: “How do people react when you try to pay with a fake bill?”  and “How do they know?”

How do they react:
The reaction is typically very nonchalant and very matter-of-fact.  If i accidentally try to pay with the fake they just hand it back and say, “Sorry, can you change for another one?”  This is very interesting to me because my guess is that if this happened in the States then there would be a lot of suspicious eyes looking at you and wondering how you got your hands on a fake bill.  But, in China, this is so common it’s just viewed as a simple mistake.

How do they know:
There are a couple of ways they know.  First of all, they know their money.  I believe this is because there are so many fake bills in the system that they can spot one pretty quickly.  If it’s a taxi driver or a street vendor then they will rub the front of the bill to feel for the ridges in Mao’s jacket, then they will hold it up to the light to look for the strip built into the bill.  If it passes these two tests then you’re usually good.  Another way of checking it’s authenticity is by running it through a bill checker.  It’s a small machine that nearly every restaurant or established business owns.  They run your bills through the machine and somehow the machine can magically detect if it’s fake or not.  These machines often double as a bill counter as well.  What this communicates to me is that counterfeit currency is such a significant problem in this country that there’s a booming market for machines to detect counterfeit currency.  This is a problem.

Here’s to hoping for no more $15.88 souvenirs.  Be careful out there.