Immortality and Near Asphyxiation!

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I am officially immortalized through recordings. Yes, today I received a call on my mobile from a fellow who was searching for a "voice partner". He had landed a contract through an Acting Academy, which required him and a partner to record various lessons for the students of the school to practice and go through on their own time. He got my number through my roommate Emily, and convinced me to try out for the female role. I had a three hour break today between classes, so we met up at the subway and chatted our way towards the studio. Surprisingly enough, he didn't look a thing like he sounds. On the phone he had this very deep and soothing "audio book narrator" style voice, and in person he was a short and stocky fellow from Indiana. I was quite amused. Apparently the last few girls he brought in were immediately hated, so I had quite the predjudice to overcome. A little daunted, I became very aware of my sound and instantly dispared over the whole situation. Having never been fond of my own voice I was quite sure I couldn't fool a picky Chinese lady into choosing me for the part, but I was open enough to try. After all, if it didn't work out it would still be quite the experience. The manager of the studio seemed quite skeptical of me at first, as she had not been having much luck with her female voices, but she was willing to give me a recorded test. So Sean and I, huddled together in a tiny studio, hatted with large studio-quality earphones and a professional mike and screen waiting for our cue. Basically our job consisted of reading the "teacher questions" that were outlined sloppily in red of the book the the students would later read through and follow. Occasionally we would catch gross errors in the material (ie. improper grammer or incorrect words) and have to stop the recording for an edit and rewrite. It was pretty neat to experience this recording life, and oh so strange to hear the recordings later. My voice wasn't half bad really. I guess I have Fleming Olson & Taneda to thank for their insistance that I be the "voice" of the company and made me toil time after time for the perfect message greeting. (Note: Later on Cummings Trailers also repeated this honor, so many thanks extended to them as well!) Luckily for me the manager really liked my voice and was so pleased with how few mistakes I made, that she wishes to continue to use me for her future projects. I will get paid cash every time and it's a fantastic hourly wage (250RMB/hour). I am well pleased and feel like quite the movie star, though in reality the job isn't as glamorous as I think. My days never cease to amuse and amaze me... where else could one person live so many varied lives simultaneously? The opportunities are endless!

Emily and I are the proud owners of a pot. Yes... one pot. I swear it's a good thing to go without, because when you finally do begin to accumulate these things, you truly are grateful and appreciative. A Canadian fellow I met while dancing on the weekend had given us a call on Tuesday, with a grand scheme to meet up and cook tacos. Tastebuds salivating at the mere notion of tacos, I agreed to meet him at the subway and from there we would attempt to find the famous Carrefour supermarket. It was a dismal affair to embark on, and after many wrong turns and unsuccessful attempts at communication some Chinese strangers forced us into a cab and deposited us at our chosen stop. We found the most basic of ingredients for our meal. Ground beef was not to be found, but there were piles of ground pork, so we easily substituted the meat. Now when I say piles, I mean piles. There is a man behind mountains of ground whoknowswhat and you point to one that strikes your fancy and he takes a scoop and fills a bag to your weight liking. That really was quite the sight and I wish I had a camera to capture it. Patrick and I got lost on our way home once again, but luckily met a man who spoke a little English and it was easier this time to find the subway station. Happy and heavy with our bags of groceries, we settled in for the ride home, only to come to the realization that we had neglected to purchase cheese! At this point we had worked so hard for those darn tacos, we were not about to cheapen them by being "cheeseless". Thus, on the walk home we had to pop into yet another market and scrounge around until we found a block of very expensive chedder. (Cheese is so difficult to come by in China!) The rest of our dough was forked out and we finally arrived back at the apartment to cook our meal. (It was by this time 10:13pm). I started chopping onions with our one very dull knife and, as many of you know, reacted quite strongly to the darn things and began seeping tears. While I was recovering Patrick took over the knife and commenced slicing chili peppers... and then, as the kitchen was quite hot, rubbed sweat from his eyes. Yes, with fingers covered in chili juice. Consequently we were both crying messes and dinner took even longer to assemble as we recovered. The meat was stirred with chopsticks (no spoons) and scooped from the pot with empty yoghurt containers. I have to say, they were quite delicious tacos and all in all, it was a very successful "first meal" in the apartment.

The second meal was less successful...

Last night Emily decided that she wanted to make these blackened chili peppers in seseme oil (very common dish). So she chopped them all up, tossed in some oil and set the pot upon the gas to cook. Not long after a strange smell began to invade our apartment... then it became stronger. This burning/stinging air was making it harder and harder to breath and soon we were both choking, throwing our heads out the window, and wrapping our faces with scarves. Nothing was burning, but we were about to die of asphyxiation! Trying to locate the problem was nearly impossible, because the kitchen window wouldn't open and to even step away from a clear window for a moment caused your chest to seize horribly. The air in our place made sticking your face out into the polluted Beijing streets seem like an oasis in paradise. THAT was how bad it was. I finally wrangled the window open and discovered that our stove had a fan. Holding damp laundry to my face and breathing through a freashly washed shirt screen, I survived... Emily flopped belly down to the floor and scooted around like that, advising me to do the same, as "smoke rises". This sight and comment rendered me hysterical and I nearly died as I gasped for breath through the laughter. Eventually the air cleared and we realized that when you cook such a large number of chili peppers without removing the seeds or having anything else in the pot to absorb the spiciness, they emit the strong odor that took over our home. (At least that's what Emily told me, and I refuse to argue with her!) Regardless of the reason, that was quite the situation and I have never been in a more hilarious life threatening situation. I am surprised our neighbors haven't complained as we opened the door to the apartment while this was going on and our whole hallway got polluted and is still difficult to breathe in!) Other apartment news would be that the hot water is cut off for a week as the city maintains the pipes. That was a joy to discover.

Well have to head off to my last class of the day. It's a holiday tomorrow for the Dragon Boat Festival, so no work for me!!!! Yayyyyy. Instead, I have heard of a free sangria party. How nice.

Will be sure to keep you up to date on all further mishaps.

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