February 21, 2002

The Journal begins here as the previous 2 days were sleep-filled in an attempt to recover what had been lost in coming to Beijing. Part of the blame, of course, is the actual length of the trip itself which required a stop-over in Tokyo. The rest goes to a little party my friend Jim Koleno threw for me 2 days before leaving. <Thanks again Jim!> The massive hangover the next day did not, however, stop me from enjoying the stay at my sister Jeny's place in Chicago. My bro Kevin was kind enough to pick me up from Jim's and drive me to her place where the three of us had a cool time hanging out before going out to dinner...my last truly American meal for a while! Actually, I wonder how cool the hanging out was for them because I more or less just sagged into a comfy seat and semi-dozed until getting the energy to get up and move. The dinner was great and I couldn't think of a nicer way to spend my time before leaving the States.

A few days ago I moved my luggage from the Crowne Plaza Hotel in the fashionable WanFujing area of Beijing to the Northwest section of the city where the University is located. Oh, my bad....guess you may not have known that I am attending the Beijing Language and Cultural University for at least 1 semester prior to finding a job out here. My major handicap is speaking the language, and thus the decision to take a 20 hour a week class in Mandarin Chinese (Hanyu) and the character system (Hanzi). Ok, back to the move to the University area. My friend Jessie accompanied me to assist in all the particulars, but even with her help, the red-tape I had to go through created quite a bit of havoc.

I was to temporarily stay at the Xi Jiao hotel which is located right off of campus, but the staff there indicated that I would need to pay for my entire stay prior to checking in. This was more than a little shock for me as I have never heard of that sort of thing before! Because I was not sure how long I would be staying, or if I would even be able to locate another place to live after a while, I decided to go ahead and pay with a good-old credit card. Before doing so I also wanted to be sure that if I moved out prior to the 5 month stay I would be able to get my remaining money back. The staff told us I would, but the only way was if I paid in cash!! This was quite a hunk of change to say the least!! Traveler's checks? Nope, only cold hard cash my friend. Ugh, off we go to locate a bank where I could cash the checks. Another problem, the bank couldn't cash the full amount I needed, and they wanted a receipt for my original purchase of the traveler's checks (C'mon, there's no such thing, just the "if they get lost" coupons!). Trying to convince them of this led me outside in disgust to have a smoke. Shortly after, Jessie came running out and told me there was a misunderstanding as they thought I wanted to cash out $20,000 U.S.!! Seems they still couldn't cash the full amount I needed and it was off to yet another bank. Thankfully, not too much of a hassle there and I had all the cash I needed. One note, both banks had us wait at least 20 minutes while they processed the transaction....seems nothing moves fast around here except for the taxis on the streets! He-he.

Before heading back to the hotel Jessie and I stopped for lunch at one of the many seemingly nameless places located along the dusty side streets of the city. She ordered us each a large tupperware sized bowl of noodles, some green, stemmy-looking vegetables, "cold" cans of coke (Cold is really relative here. Let's just say it was July tap-water cool.) , and what I later learned was a plate of spiced cow lung. <Um, thanks Jessie!?!?!> Actually, it was very delicious and lunch was a great break from all the running around. Further notes on lunch: The locals have a hard time keeping their eyes off a blonde-haired, blue-eyed person like myself and I have become numb to the curious gazes and onlookers as I do the simple things like eating a meal. A few places liked to place me prominently in front of the windows so walkers-by could stop and watch the "Meigouren" eating at their fine establishment. No big deal, it's just the way it is and it's usually ok with me.

After lunch I finally moved into the hotel and discovered an added bonus.....high-speed Internet access for my laptop!!!! The room was a nice and clean, but really too small for the long-haul. Jessie and I would make plans to meet with someone who could find me an apartment.

Apartment #1- Again, high speed Internet access (I couldn't find it this easily back home!), modern looking furnishings, but located way too far away. Waking up at 5:00 each morning ain't gonna cut it!!

More apartment hunting in the days to come. Oh, Jessie and I had dinner at a place called "Mr. Pizza". I felt kinda guilty ordering anything even remotely Western, but I soon found that remotely Western is a very accurate description of what was placed before us! Despite ordering a cheese and sausage only pizza, I saw what appeared to be an "everything" pizza......everything including little kernels of yellow corn!! Weird, but kinda tasty!! Note, doesn't seem to be a charge for extra toppings here.

The walk back to my room brought us in front of the local police station. Strange as there were at least 3 dozen people just "hangin' out" in front of it. Not my idea of a good time let me tell you!!