Day 10- the Chinese are SO friendly and helpful!

Since Friday and Saturday was our 'weekend', I had set aside Saturday to take care of some much needed business.  I had three missions to tackle in this city of 22 million.  One, I had to figure out the system of paying for electricity on our 'utility card.'  We have utility cards for everything- electricity, gas, potable water, and waste water.  I don't understand it all quite yet, but this much I know...some of my Western friends have already woken up to apartments with no electricity.  Given that it is blazing hot and humid here, and the fact that I have a stocked refrigerator and freezer, I wanted to be sure the meter was loaded with plenty of money.  I checked the meter in my apartment hallway.  I was simply told to 'press the button' to see how much money was left on my meter.  I pressed said button, and every time I did, I got different numbers. Some were two digit numbers, some had three digits, others had four digits with decimal points.  Naturally, the corresponding 'code' for the numbers was in Chinese characters, which was all Greek to me!

Not wanting to take any chances, I headed off to my local bank, where I was told I could find a utility kiosk. Easy enough- since my bank is next to a well-stocked Carrefour grocery, I decided to kill two birds with one stone...

I walked into the bank with my bank card and utility card in hand, ready to play the usual game of Charades with the gracious host who greets you at the entry.  This was a Saturday morning, and the bank was PACKED, y'all.  It looked like the BMV at home, or the ER on the night of a full moon...people were sitting, squatting, standing EVERYWHERE.  I didn't quite understand what all the fuss was about, or if this was typically 'the Chinese way' to do banking business.  Nevertheless, the host animatedly responded to my game of Charades which emitted lots of smiles and chattering Mandarin.  I smiled in return, nodding repeatedly, hoping that he would direct me to the proper utilities kiosk to put money on my card.

It was not to be.

Instead, he motioned for some teenage boys to attempt to explain to me that my bank does not offer payment of utilities.  I needed to go to a different bank, but I could use the debit card from my bank to take care of the transaction.  The boys who were previously squatting in the bank lobby (not to take care of 'personal' business, mind you), were more than eager to escort me to the correct bank.  So, now I am walking the streets of Beijing, with two teenage boys, playing Charades in an attempt to get acquainted.  I repeatedly tried to ask, "Are we there yet?" but we kept on walking.  They were sweating. I was sweating. But, they continued to smile and nod, so I did the same.

An hour later, I had money on my utility card (I can't even begin to explain how THAT happened), and the boys were escorting me back to the original bank where we had first met so that I would not get lost on the streets of Beijing forever.  Nice kids. So friendly. And helpful. And polite.  I tried to buy them Cokes when we passed by a McDonald's as a gesture of gratitude, but they would have none of it.  They called me their 'nice American friend', and they simply wanted to take a picture of me on their iPhones.  I get this alot; random people stopping to take my picture with them. It is a 'matter of great importance' here in China to have your photo taken with a Westerner.  You are instantly their 'friend', and they genuinely mean it.  You may have just met and said hello, but now you have a friend for life.  They want nothing from you.  I never feel threatened.  I have yet to even feel the slightest bit uncomfortable in my wanderings about this behemoth of a city as a single woman alone.  Instead, I am treated like a celebrity, and they all are eager to help me and be my friend.  To give you another case in point, on a crowded subway, my purse was open, and my cellphone was nearly falling out. In any other city in any other country I have traveled to, this would have been an open invitation to get pick-pocketed.  Not in crowded China, on a ridiculously crowded subway, two different Chinese kindly played a game of Charades with me to take note of my phone and secure it in my purse properly.  Nice people, these Chinese.

I stopped at the Carrefour to pick up a few necessities.  I am
continually amazed at how far my money goes here in China.
The loaf of bread? 50 cents.  A quarter of a watermelon?
70 cents.  Even the cold mango juice and tea at home would
have been $2.00 at the check out.  Not in China.  I got all
of this for less than $6.00.  I couldn't have even bought the
spices at home for six bucks!  I now have enough curry to
last my lifetime, I'm sure :) 

As I left the grocery, this man was playing
another traditional Chinese two stringed
instrument called an 'er hu'.  I love that
music is an important part of their culture.
Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erhu.

So I'm riding up the elevator and for the first time I notice
there is no fourth floor button.  Now don't that beat all!!!
How have I been living here for ten days and have not
noticed this before?!  I thought it was curious that the
first day here when we went to China Unicom to get our
Chinese phone numbers, nearly all the phone numbers
available had fours in them.  The Chinese are tetraphobic!
Fours are bad in their culture, as the sound of the word for
'four' is very similar to the word for 'death'.  It was rumored
that when Beijing lost their Olympic bid for 2000, they did
not reapply in 2004 due to the common superstition about
the number four.  In the end, they hosted the 2008 Olympics.
For the record, my new Chinese number does have a four in
it, as well as the number 21.  I am not the least bit worried.
I figure of the bad luck of the four is far outweighed by
the good fortune of my phone number ending in 21 :) 

With the utility card mission complete, I armed myself with my bucket, mop, bleach, soap, rags, and other cleaning supplies.  The seventh floor of the International Building at BNDS was formerly housing for Chinese teachers.  That has been all deconstructed and the space has been returned to classrooms. Filthy classrooms.
Desks, chairs, floors were covered in a grey film of grime, dust and nastiness. You couldn't see out the windows that had been left open all summer to let the 'fresh air' into the building. Knowing I am a bit OCPD at heart, I was having none of it.  So, I intended to do some serious deep  cleaning this afternoon in my classroom.  This particular 'Chinese way' was unacceptable to this Westerner.  Only the plus side, the Chinese can deconstruct and reconstruct faster than anything I have ever seen.  This school was looking like a war zone just days ago, and now it is nearly ready for the year to begin.  I mean there are walls in the afternoon that were not there in the morning.  Beijing is in a constant state of flux and construction.  Cranes and the sounds of power tools permeate the smoggy air, along with the cacophony of car horns that. never. end.  In fact, Beijing continues to expand it's borders, and it has now moved in to the sixth ring road.  It's a sight to behold. Really.

Once I lugged all up my supplies up to the seventh floor of the school and I took a look about, I decided I was going to be there a while.  The other mission of the day was to get a long overdue pedicure before the first day of assembly planned for tomorrow.  I mean, how hard can it be to 'get number one toe job' in a city of 22 million people?  There's a "spa" on nearly every corner.  Luckily, when I left my apartment, I grabbed the one bottle of nail polish I brought with me.  Also while I was at home and had Wifi, I plugged the word "pedicure" into my Google translate app.  I was locked and loaded for the next game of Charades to commence!

People....I mean realllllllyyyyyy.....I walked in every direction of the compass.  No joke.

I quickly ascertained that a 'spa' does not offer manicures or pedicures.  Nor does the beauty salon.  Nor does the sign out front that reads "Foot Care".  Each time I walked into a store front, showed my phone, held up my nail polish, and pointed to my toes...no amount of smiling and nodding sent me off in the proper direction.  Nearly TWO HOURS LATER, and in a total sweat, I was ready to give up, when I stumbled upon some young girls in work uniforms who were working at a car wash.  Generally speaking, the younger generation has had some exposure to the English language, if not in school, then by watching music videos. Young Chinese girls are typically quite shy, I have noticed, and simply smile and giggle when you speak with them.  They are reluctant to speak in English for fear they may say the wrong thing, but they clearly understood what I was asking.  I saw them giggling and pointing to their own fingernails and toenails.  Finally, an adult stepped out on to the sidewalk and told one of the girls to escort me to a nail salon.  Y'all, I am not even joking, this girl and I walked another FORTY FIVE MINUTES, making multiple turns along the way.  Luckily, I had the presence of mind to take pictures of the intersections with my iPhone so that I could find my way back. Otherwise, I would once again be lost to the streets of Beijing for forevermore.  Well, a $3.00 cab ride and more Charades with a taxi driver would probably get me home, too- but that was more adventure than I was willing to take for one day.  It was a three-mission day as it was.

True to Chinese form, when my little escort safely and successfully
delivered me to the nail salon, all she wanted in return was to ' have
picture made' with me.  For the second time today, I am in some random
 kid's iPhone photo album.  Seemed appropriate that I take a pic, too :)
These Chinese people are SO friendly and helpful, I heart them. <3

While the process was all a bit different to the pedicure
treatment I would receive from Kayla's Nails back in
Anderson, Indiana- Oh. My. God.  A 'number one toe
job' never felt so good.  It cost me a whopping $15.00
for an hour and a half treatment, and no tipping is allowed.
Funny story too, the nail place had dolphins in their logo.
I showed my attendant the dolphin charm on my necklace
and she became very animated.  I then took out my iPhone
and showed her pictures of Marquesa, our sailboat.  I had
even saved a 60 second video of dolphins that were playing
in the bow wake of Marquesa when we sailed up to
west coast of Florida this past spring.  Before all was said
and done, every attendant in the salon came to watch
the dolphin video with lots of smiles, head nods, and
Mandarin chatter that I could not understand.  Suffice it
to say, I was their 'new American friend', and you guessed
it- I had my photo taken again...several times over.
Again, you'd think I was a celebrity or something.

Nope.  Not a celebrity.  Just a middle aged woman in a foreign country, trying to make her way in the world. All in all, the simple mission of getting a pedicure cost me nearly five hours out of my afternoon and evening, but all was well.  I made many new Chinese 'friends' along the way, and I have the pictures and smiles to prove it :)  By the time I deep cleaned my classrooms, I didn't leave the school until nearly midnight.  Was I frightened leaving the school and walking back to my apartment compound that late at night?  Not in the slightest.  All is well in Beijing, my friends.  G'nite, y'all!