CHINESE TEA AND IMPERIAL DESSERT EVENT

My super awesome friend Samily works for a newspaper here in Beijing and is always planning fun events!  She invited me and some other friends from church to attend a tea and dessert tasting at a hotel called JE Mansion.  There were several wives of ambassadors there and I got to meet a few of them - Georgia, Cape Verde Islands, India.  There were also a few others in attendance from other embassies as well but I mostly talked to my friends from church that were there.  The hotel was very, very nice.  It costs about $500 - $600 a night to stay there.  We got to tour some of the rooms and dinning areas and they were very beautiful - mostly decorated in purples and yellows.  The owner apparantly bought many of the doors and cabinets as well as many other pieces in the rooms, from antique markets all over China.  A lot of the woodwork was very beautiful.  The weather was great so we all sat outside and enjoyed our traditional chinese desserts made mostly from rice and beans.  My favorite was the rose cake and you could definitely taste the roses.  The Chinese version of dessert is very different than the American or European version of dessert.  Chinese desserts are not sweet. We were treated to some music played by a young man fromCanada who composes and produces music here in Beijing.  We also got to see a dessert demonstration from one of the chefs.  It was a very nice event!  I better be nice to my friend so she will invite me to more fun things!
http://www.china-je.com/en/index.asp
 

BYU MBA VISIT AND ALUMNI DINNER

Tonight a few of us met up with some MBA students visiting China from BYU.  I met a couple of them at church on Sunday and then tonight we had a dinner with everyone and it was really fun.  We had dinner at an area of town called Houhai which has these 3 small lakes with restaurants surrounding them.  You can rent little paddle boats to use on the lakes too.  It looked like a fun area so I'm glad to know of a new place to go and try out some restaurants.  The MBA students were all really nice. I talked with two girls that were really cool and I met a guy that had cousins in The Woodlands.  The world is a small place but the Mormon world is even smaller.

CHINESE CLASS

Three weeks I ago I began taking a Chinese language class.  There is a community center not far from me and they offer classes in English and Chinese for free.  Most of the other ladies in my class are expat wives and they are all from other countries -Sweden, Argentina, Italy, Indonesia, and many others.  I am taking the class with a lady from church.  Her name is DeeWyn Johnson and she is super awesome fabulosa!  Her husband is the Bishop of my church congregation here in Beijing.  I really like my Chinese teacher.  Her name is Yao and she is really nice and she is also really good at explaining everything in a way that makes a lot of sense.  I still stink at Chinese after 3 weeks but I am learning some helpful things. I would like to find someone to practice with a bit more between classes.  I need to build up my confidence more with being able to speak the language.  Learning Chinese is so different than learning Spanish.  I think the most helpful part of learning Chinese is mastering the tones.  There are 4 of them and if you use the wrong tone with the wrong letter you won't make much sense!  At this point I don't make much sense anyway so I guess it doesn't matter anyway.  I know a few words and phrases that are helpful but really need to learn more especially with regard to directions and taxi drivers as well as shopping.  I am getting the numbers down a bit more which is helpful.  The man at the little market store in my apartment complex always laughs at me because it takes me forever to figure out what he is saying when he tells me how much my purchase is.  I think it would take several years of intense practice to become really proficient in Chinese. 

Pedicure

Okay so it took me long enough to finally go and get a pedicure.  Now that the cold weather is no more, I can walk around with exposed feet although sometimes I don't think it is the best idea because of how dusty and dirty it can be in some places.  So today I went with my co-workerd Kendell and Ryan to the nail place.  Ryan got a foot massage and Kendel and I got our toes done.  We went to some hole in the wall nail place at the Lai Tai flower Market near the embassy.  The girls at the salon were really sweet.  They kept commenting on how dry our feet were.  Well duh - we are in Beijing!  So the difference between a pedicure here and a pedicure in the states is that the girls here clean and scrub and scrape off the dry skin like crazy!  Serioulsy, I haven't had anyone in the states get my feet so soft!  I tried to explain to the girl doing my toes that I wanted cherry blossoms but she didn't really understand what I was asking for so she just painted on a regular flower.  My toes still turned out cute though!
 

Street Food

I haven't tried too much street food here in China.  A lot of it acutally looks good but I either am not close toa vendor when I want some or when I find a vendor I'm not hungry.  The sweet potatoes that they cook on the street are really, really good!  A lot of places make this other thing called Jian Bing.  It is like a crepe with an egg mixed in it and then they spread a bean paste, chili something or other, add scallions, and then lettuce and crispy wontons.  They fold it up like a burrito when they serve it.  I really like it - yum!  I'm also a fan of the sweet potatoes they roast on the street too!

CHINESE SOAP OPERAS

So I've been reading in the news about how networks are cancelling American soap operas. I've never really been into soaps with the exception of a short period in college which have no explanation for except that it probably had to do with my roommates.  Here in China, television is regulated by the government.  You can get cable service to allow for some additional channels but I just have regular Chinese TV.  When I lived in Honduras, people were completey engrossed in their Spanish soap operas.  Here in China, I haven't noticed that they are as big of a deal even though there are hundreds of them on tv every day.  So after being here for several months I have determined there are 3 types of  Chinese soap operas.  
1.  The "Ancient Fantastical Poorly Filmed With Bad Makeup, Acting, and Special Effects" type of soap opera is the first kind.  These usually involve a setting in ancient China with the characters wearing traditional costumes.  The stories usually center around Chinese legends and involve characters flying or posessing some type of mystical power.  I've never watched a complete one because they are so ridiculously bad and have only been able to endure a couple of minutes of this type of entertainment.  Here is a clip of an example of what I''m talking about.  It is really long so I don't expect you to watch the whole thing but at least wait until you see the lady breathe fire! 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDp6SsmTlcU
2.  The other type of soap is the "Military Cultural Revolution" style soap.  This usually involves a cast of mostly men playing parts of military men or officers and plots are usually centered around the various wars and battles that have involved the Chinese in the last 100 years.  Even though I can't understand what is being said, I believe it is safe to say that the story lines and so forth center around consequences for those that refused to support military and government efforts.  Here is an example. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ44IqdobdY
3.  The "Modern Day Predictable Amateur Dramatics" soap opera is the third kind here.  I would compare it more to Latin American style soaps than I would to American style soaps.  There are so many of them and again, I don't watch them but catch bits and pieces as I go between music channels.  They usually involve love triangles and social class of course is always an issue - the poor girl in love with the rich man from Shanghai or wherever and blah, blah, blah.  There are a lot more elderly people and characters in soaps here too which is obviously reflective of the culture.  Enjoy this final clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6izvhAZCp7U

CHRISTIAN WOODCARVER

Last week my friend Sherri took me this cute little street in Beijing with all sorts of fun shops full of antiques, calligraphy, kites, etc...  She took me to store that had a small room in an attic where there are these amazing items made by a man known as "The Christian Woodcarver."  It was really a great little shop - lots of scrolls with scriptures in Chinese, Chinese finger paintings, Nativities, etc... I loved the Noah's Ark that had the ark as a dragon boat!  There was this brilliant carving along the back wall that as close to the size of a door.  The carving was of The Garden of Eden and was absolutely beautiful.  I bought a few gifts for people and one for myself as well!  After we left we stopped by a calligraphy shop that had the biggest brushes I had ever seen!  See the pic below!

THE BENSFIELDS

My first weekend in China, I went to a church Christmas party where I knew absolutely no one.  But as  I sat at a table that had a few empty seats, I met the most fabulous couple, Dave and Sherri Bensfield!  I can say that God placed The Bensfields in my path because they have been absolutely amazing and helpful to me in so many ways!  We became fast friends and I am sooooo grateful.  Sherri is the one who helps me find my way around the bus, let's me use her oven, gives me her pots and pans to use, and helped me get signed up for Chinese class.  She has shown me where all sorts of fabulous places are and she and her husband have fed me on occassion too!  I am soooooo grateful to know them and will miss them terribly since they are moving back to the States on Friday :( .  Tonight I took them out for a goodbye dinner.  We went to Dave's favorite noodle place! I am going to miss The Bensfields sooooooo much!  I wish them well on their next assignment!

Chinese Tea

I'm a fan (decaf of course)!  So I'm kind of new at this tea thing but I am finding that I like it.  I like how natural it is and I think some of it can be an acquired taste but I think it's definitely possible to find something to please any set of taste buds.  One of my co-workers from China was constantly walking around with her tea bottle all the time. She always had flowers, plants, and other unidentifiable items in her water so I asked her about it and then she took me to the store and showed me some things I could buy t make my own.  I bought roses, chrysanthemum, some sugar rocks, and some fruit thing that I don't know what it is.  I've had a sore throat the last few days so my other friend bought me some lemon and this other swee something or other plant thing to drink in hot water too.  so far it seems to be helping.  A few weeks ago, my friend Sherri and I went to a park where there were all these vendors selling clothes, shoes, food, etc... and there were several booths of people selling flowers, leaves, herbs, and other things for tea.  The bins and canisters were huge.  The Chinese love their tea and I'm now the proud owner of a tea bottle!

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NCPA - CARMEN

Last night I went to the National Center for Performing Arts Beijing Opera production fo Bizet's Carmen.  After a disappointing production of La Traviata in February, I wasn't sure how this would be but it was SUPER FABULOUS!!  Not at all a disappointment!  Set and costumes were extremely well done and the stage direction was soooooooo much better than La Traviata which made a huge difference. It was a traditional performance and everything was bright and colorful.  They even had some small children from an acrobat troop do a few summersaults - totally cute!  The singers were all fabulous although I was slightly disappointed in the baritone who played Escamillio.  A woman named Viktoria Vizin played Carmen and I really loved her.  She just performed the role at The Met so it was great to see her here in Beijing. Great voice and I enjoyed her portrayal of the character.  I think Carmen would be such a fun and exciting role to play because she is so distinct and different than many other female opera characters.  She is so much of what I am not - super fiery, passionate, seductive, and she can be a total witch too!  Don Jose was played by Brandon Jovanovich and I was really looking forward to hearing him for the first time.  I had heard of him before and he was wonderful!  I'm a fan!  
 
My friends that came with me had never seen Carmen before.  My friend Joseph had never been to an opera.  I was very grateful it was such a great production so they could all have a good experience.  I would have to say that Carmen is one of the best operas to take someone to who has never experienced opera.  Most people are familiar with the music and don't even know it.  The story is easy to follow and the music is outstanding. The company has a several more productions in the next few months so I look forward to attending those as well.  

PROSTITUTE NEIGHBORS

I have prostitute neighbors.  I noticed a few weeks ago that one of the apartments in the building next door had lights up in the windows.  One window had the number of the apartment and the other window had a Chinese character in blue lights.  So of course I had my suspicions but then a friend suggested that maybe the apartment was for rent and they were advertising.  So I took a picture of the window and asked my Chinese co-worker what the symbol meant and apparantly they offer "foot massages".  So then I joked around about what would happen if I showed up at their door after work wanting an actual foot massage and not their version of a "foot massage."  Ha ha!  
 
Then a few days ago and I left my apartment to get on the elevator and there was a girl in the hallway dressed in a total hooker outfit - super short leopard print dress and outrageous heels, the hair and makeup totally overdone.  I haven't figured out if she actually lives in the apartment nearby or if she was you know, there on business. I don't want to know really.  But seriously, it's crazy how these prostitute girls just walk around all day and night like normal people.  It's disturbing and sad.  Whether the woman chooses that option or is forced into it, it makes me sad that they are living this way.  I wish they realized their true value and meaning as women.