swapping soy sauce for gravy

I know it has been awhile since my last post, but holiday season in Beijing is also very busy. Yes, Thanksgiving was over two weeks ago, but it’s worth telling you about the process of getting a turkey in Beijing and how we managed to make Thanksgiving seem like the real deal.

First, I need to throw a huge thank you to the Schooler and Fidler families who sent us lots of fun decorations to help the holiday more festive.

Second, I had I to figure out how i was going to get a Turkey in Beijing. Several restaurants in Beijing  do all out turkey dinners but Thanksgiving is about being at home with friends and family so I was determined to make that happen. We lack an oven in our apartment so getting an already cooked turkey was going to be the best bet.  I quickly discovered that there were lots of American restaurants willing to sell us whole turkeys. I was thrilled, until I heard the price. 1200 RMB for a turkey, that’s roughly $200 dollars. That price tag was far too expensive for my teacher’s budget and I knew a better deal could be found.  I called over six restaurants and did the thing any normal person would do in China, I haggled the price. If you  told me two years ago that I would be living in China haggling the price of a turkey using Chinglish over the phone, I would have laughed. Well, I was actually laughing to myself as the conversation was happening.

Finally, I found a restaurant that was willing to negotiate their price to a more reasonable one. I got a turkey for 600 RMB and the manager was even willing to throw in a side of gravy! Score.

My manager, who is Chinese, graciously gave me a half day of work because she understand how important this holiday is for Americans. I hopped in a cab from work and headed to the diner where I was to pick up my turkey. I walked in and the restaurant and the whole place was busy prepping for an American crowd to come in for dinner that evening. So, the manager quickly gave me the turkey and gravy and sent me on my way. Although I love to cook, I’ve never really been on turkey prepping duty when it comes to Thanksgiving in the Schooler family. So, i guess what i’m trying to say is damn a whole turkey is heavy.

So here I was with a whole turkey and how were the turkey and I going to get from point A to point B?

It was one of those really windy days in Beijing and my hair ear muff combination just wasn’t working with me. As I walked out of the restaurant, I managed to slowly make it down the steps and across the street to catch a cab. However, every cab passing wasn’t free. So I just decided to start walking down the streets of Beijing with my turkey. After awhile, my arms started to get tired so I did the unthinkable. I put the turkey on my head and balanced it. Surprisingly that worked well for awhile and then I realized that this situation would soon turn into a disaster if i did not remove the turkey from the top of my head. The wind was blowing my hair into my face, my ear muffs came down to my neck and my turkey was the size of a small child. I needed a cab.

I guess it was obvious that I needed a cab because a car pulled over and offered me a ride home. It sounds sketchy, but it happens in China all of the time. But , I decided to solider on and head towards home until i found a cab.

Alas, after twenty minutes of walking, a cab pulled over for me. Never has a Beijing cab smelled so good as then when there was turkey and gravy wafting through the air.  I managed to get upstairs and quickly began prepping the apartment to look festive! A few hours later, all of our American friends showed up. Each person brought a side dish and it turned out to be a wonderful Thanksgiving!

 

The art of the Chinese stare

Do you have blonde hair and fair skin? Congratulations! You have just won the right to a hell of a lot of stares from Chinese people. At least I don’t have blonde hair…

For more than two months now, I have been doing the same commute to and from work. I walk out of my apartment and continue onto the bus stop where the bus takes me to work.   I pass by the local car wash that washes  BMW’s and Lexus on the reg.  I still don’t understand why all the nice cars travel a distance to use the car wash by my apartment ,but some things about China I will never understand . I pass the local men hawking loogies after smoking their morning cigarettes. I pass the elderly women bouncing their grandchildren on their laps. When I’m waiting at the bus stop, people will  go out of their way to make a half point turn, look up from their cell phones and stare.  All of these people i pass almost every single day but still  they continue to stare.

Staring is common place in China. The starting is blatant and it is raw.  Ok, maybe I’m being a little dramatic, but no one holds back when they stare in China. I call it an art because it is so very obvious that eyes are upon you.  The stare can often be preceded by someone double checking from the person staring you down.  Usually a stare is followed by a person tugging their parter or friend to notify a friend that there is a laowi (foreigner) in sight. This especially happens with the older generation of people in China.  At least when we stare at people in America, we do it in a not so obvious  way. Where westerners might ask questions, Chinese people like to stare. Chinese people are curious in their own ways just like any other person around the world but much of their  behavior all stems from the culture being one of subtleties. It isn’t normal for people to be upfront with their thoughts or feelings.  When Americans think something is strange, we just say something like , “What the hell are you doing?”.

During my first few weeks here, I was very self-conscious of the starring and constantly found myself double checking my clothes to see if I had ripped something or forgotten something. But no. Recently I’ve become much less affected by the staring.  Just the other day, I wore hot pink workout pants and a blue sleeveless shirt to go downstairs for a run, without even thinking about it.  When I got in the elevator, every person looked like they had seen a ghost. (Well, I am very pale right now but I’m hoping it was the pants). Running outside during the winter in China? Preposterous by Chinese standards. Add in some bright pink yoga pants? This American girl is crazy.

However, the staring can also lead to unforseen gifts. A few weeks ago, I was on the bus and a woman was staring at me. She actually came up to me, tapped me on the shoulder and asked me if i spoke Chinese. In Chinese, I told her I spoke a little and we  began conversing in small talk in Chinese and then switched to English.  She pulled out her phone and asked me for my WeChat ID. WeChat is essentially China’s version of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram all rolled into one convenient app. She said that she would love to treat me to a traditional Chinese meal and would love to take me to the parts of Beijing that only native people know. While in some parts of the world a proposition like this might seem strange from a random person, in China it’s not. I told my friend about this and she said “Oh, some of the stares I’ve received  have led to formal dinners and gifts.”

So while the staring may be alarming or annoying to some people, I’ve come to embrace it and hey,you never know what good things it might lead to.