Taking a Breath.........

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Friday July 16, 2010

Today was the day that I was going to take a breath and try to get caught up on emails, packing, and my blog. I managed to accomplish most of these tasks and hopefully you have enjoyed reading the latest blogs.

As most of you know, I am all about a little quiet time. As I tell Rich some people rejuvenate by being around people and some accomplish this by being alone. It has only taken Rich 30+ years to realize that we are different in this respect. I enjoy my quiet time and he could care if there were 100 people around him at all times. Hence, the reason Beijing and him may get along a wee bit better then me. There certainly is very few places that you can accomplish alone time in Beijing. Interestingly I had this exact conversation with a colleague of Rich's who has spent quite a bit of time in the States although he is from China. He explained to me that many Chinese people have not experienced quiet retreats therefore they have no understanding of it. He further explained this is why they feel compelled to take us to dinner every evening, so that we do not have to dine alone. It certainly helped me better understand their culture once again.

Anyway, once I accomplished what I needed to get done in my room I proceeded to get ready to ascend to the lobby for a light snack and to catch up with The China Daily (American Newspaper). I had a wonderful cappuccino and ordered a spring roll expecting one or two to satisfy my hunger. When the hostess brought it out there were no less then 12 on the plate. She must of thought I was one of those hungry Americans. Their impression of American food is once again based on what they know and see which would be KFC, McDonalds, and Pizza Hut. It is funny to think how we are probably viewed by many in China, Beer Drinking, Fast Food Junkies that are dodging bullets or jealous housewives.

Rich had emailed me to say that we would be attending a fair well dinner this evening at a restaurant that had been described to him as "Where the rich Chinese" dine. I was to be ready by 5:20pm, since there would be traffic. If the Chinese say there will be traffic then you know to be prepared. Instead of a driver this evening one of Rich's colleagues would be stopping by the hotel with a taxi driver. I am not sure why we did not have a driver, maybe because they knew better. We got into the cab and proceeded on our way, within in minutes we were in bumper to bumper traffic. I tried to capture some of the sites along the way. After the first hour of traffic Rich looked at me and said quietly I hope this place is worth it ! Let's hope once again they don't take a whole chicken and chop it into bite size pieces with bones. We figured the wealthy Chinese did not eat that way, we can hope. By this time it is now two hours into a drive to get to an area in Beijing and we still have not arrived. Finally our cab stops and we get out of the cab in an area that looks like a dirt road with bikes, street vendors, neon lights etc. Rich looks at me as if to say, come on we drove two hours for this. Most of you know, Rich is a very patient man, but he had been up until 4am the night/ morning before to prepare his final presentation so his patience was wearing thin. It was hot, dirty and buggy. We put on our smiles and Kathrine proceeded to tell us that we would need to walk from here. Ok some how I don't see rich people doing this, maybe once again I am a little spoiled. So we proceed to walk and walk and walk. The view was pretty it was around a lake and we were told we were in the Houhai region. There were lots of bars along our walk with brightly colored sofas out for their drinking guests that would be arriving much later on. Several of these establishments were Karaoke bars. After about a twenty minute walk we finally arrived at he restaurant. The name of the restaurant was Kong Yi Ji and was named after China's most famous short story writer. I might add we saw lots of cabs out front...hmmm.

We were brought to our room for dinner. Another interesting fact about dinning in China at least most of the ones that we frequented with our business friends is that you are set up in private rooms. When we arrived in our room it was being set up with two large tables to accommodate the 20+ guests that would be joining us this evening. Rich and I tried to stand out of the way while they were accomplishing this task. I was standing there and all of a sudden felt a sting on my back like something had taken a chunk out of me. It felt more like a bee sting then a mosquito bite. I obviously was not going to make a scene so I leaned over to Rich and said, something just bit me. He said oh you will be ok, we have drugs for Malaria! Ok there is that comedy side of Rich that I truly adore, the scary part was we did not have drugs for Malaria. Of course I then remembered the Travel Doctor specifically saying you should wear bug repellent if you go out at night. Well hopefully I won't keel over into my porridge this evening.

The food began coming out and being placed on large lazy susans that seem to be a staple in China. You see all the plates are placed on the lazy susan and folks just use their chop sticks to take a little piece and place it directly in their mouth and go back for more. So now do you understand why eating in China has become such a challenge! Their plates are the size of tea saucers so they basically eat from the serving dishes. I am not making judgement on their style of eating, just pointing out why it is somewhat difficult to eat. We had some wonderful conversation with folks and they joked and discussed Rich's visit and the guidance he had provided them. I was able to find enough to eat and it seems that I have become quite the beer drinker in China since a good Cabernet or Pinot is hard to come by, so Rich and I indulged in that. I figured it would help with the pain that was still going on in my back. At one point, Rich took a piece of duck and it looked a little strange to me so I decided to skip that as it went by. On the next pass, sure enough there was the duck head, beak and all. Rich told me not to mention this again ever, just the thought of it makes him turn a pretty color green.

By this point it was quite late and raining pretty hard so we all went on our ways home. Since it was so late and we were so far from our hotel, one of Rich's colleague took us all the way back to the hotel. Without the earlier traffic we arrived home at around midnight. Of course the first thing I did was have Rich look at my back, he says Yup, you got bit. Gosh he is a genius, so I say is it red, is it puffy, how big is it. He says well it is red and it looks like you have a little freckle in it! I said, really do you think that maybe a stinger? He uses his fingernail to rub it and it burns like crazy, he is not sure if he has removed the complete freckle. Sometimes his brilliance amazes me. We take out the fist aid kit and clean it with some alcohol and hope I don't wake up with a head the size of Texas.

Tomorrow we head out for a private tour with Jenny!

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Photos

CCTV Building
Taking pictures while in traffic: Called the Pants Building by the locals

Crowded Bus
You literally see these all over China...........

Bikes
Scene during our walk to Restaurant

Delivery
Take Out Anyone

Toast
Toast to Rich

Comments

[Irene]

Dinner Out
Wow! I can't imagine driving and walking so far to go out to dinner! We are so spoiled with the abundance of restaurants within a block or two of our place, aren't we? Have fun with Jenny! From your description of her in an earlier blog, I'm sure you will...