distant ruminations

So what’s the big deal?

Well, before I get started: Here’s one of the cool things about blogging. I wonder about the origins of 爸 and 妈, Haidong Ji offers some musings and a possible explanation, and then Zhao Xiangpeng provides a link to a Baidu Zhidao post on the subject.

Anyway: So what’s the big deal?

Last night was a going away party for a couple of friends. He’s a former colleague, she’s lzh’s former boss. It was decided we’d go to the Kro’s Nest, next to Vics inside Gongti Beimen, for “the best pizza in Beijing”. Biggest pizza in Beijing, almost certainly, but best is a pretty big claim.

So here’s how it happened: Hoegaardens were ordered. They arrived in 50 cl- that’s right, 500 ml, half litre, pint more or less- glasses. For 35 yuan, the same price as at the Tree if I remember rightly, but twice the size. Kro’s Nest 1, Tree 0. The rest of the crew arrived, pizzas were ordered. Three large ones, it seemed to my inexperienced eyes, but apparently the one that was put on the extra table because the other two were so large they took up the entire large table we were seated around was a medium. I think maybe the pizzas were made by American sizing. So let’s make this as clear as possible: Collossal huge pizzas carved into gigantic slices. Kro’s Nest 2, Tree 0. I got a “slice” (it reminded me of the brontosaurus ribs from the Flintstones, it was so huge) of the Mighty Meat pizza, allegedly drowned in bits of dead animal. Drowned in tomato paste with less recognisable dead animal than I was expecting. Hmmmm….. That was followed with a slice of the Kro’s Nest Special or whatever it was called. It tasted very suspiciously the same as the Mighty Meat- lots of tomato paste, very little else in the way of recognisable flavours. Uh oh. Kro’s Nest 2, Tree 10. Why? The Tree’s pizza has flavour- recognisable, discernible flavour. It’s not just that you can pick out the various ingredients of each pizza, you can order two or three different pizzas and each one will be noticeably different and unique. So, no, sorry, but the Kro’s Nest’s huge advantage of Hoegaarden served in pint glasses isn’t enough. I’ll be sticking with the Tree.

Well, then we adjourned to the Rickshaw. I liked the music- a lot of rock music I remember from my youth. It was fun to listen to it. But when lzh and I left I just couldn’t figure out why I ever enjoyed hanging out in smoke-filled, hot, noisy, overcrowded bars. Unless there’s a good live band playing, what’s the point? Ah well, the fact is that when I met lzh I was already getting very profoundly bored with Beijing’s bar scene, anyway.

Still, it was a good time last night. Not good enough to convince me to become a regular of the Kro’s Nest or the Rickshaw, but still, I enjoyed it, and that was the whole point of the exercise. Giant pizza, even if it didn’t live up to it’s claims of being the best in Beijing, and huge Hoegaardens, throw in some decent company, can’t go wrong.

But still, in five days time, yet another friend will be leaving China for good. Sure, we will, as always, get to scavenge through the detritus of their China life and salvage what we can make use of, but still… Sometimes it seems the most commonly uttered phrase in China expat English is “Goodbye, and best of luck in your new life”.

It seems our washing machine is finally fixed properly. First the motor broke, and so that was taken away, fixed, and put back in. But it was even noisier after that, and broke again, so the repairman pulled what I think was a counterweight (to help keep the tub level as it spun, I assume) out, and that was obviously buggered, and he took that away hoping to find a new one. He came back today with a counterweight that he pulled out of his own washing machine and put it in ours, and now ours works perfectly.

I just have to wonder how he’s washing his own clothes…. When he pulled that counterweight out, he reeked of cigarette smoke so badly he left the smell behind. Presumably he pulled the counterweight out of an old machine that he has already replaced, or is about to replace. I hope so, anyway. But regardless of the repairman’s own washing machine status, it’s pretty awesome that, unable to buy a new counterweight, he’d take the intact one out of his own machine and put it in ours. Our repairman rocks.

Mum and Dad left early this morning. It’s a good day for flying, too: That stiff northerly breeze that blew up last night cleared the air out nice and good.

And as predicted, the sun didn’t rise until some time after we got back from the airport. And I’m too tired to do anything more than put a DVD on in my English Corner classes- although for the second time this week the computers in the Management building buggered up the start of the lesson. This time the computer just plain wouldn’t start. On Tuesday it refused to play a Region 4 DVD and there was no way to change the region codes (and the students were predictably useless- so much for IT majors). Definitely taking my own computer this afternoon.

So anyway, they’re on their way to Japan, from where they’ll catch a flight to Auckland, thence on to Wellington- and summer, which I’m sure Mum is looking forward to. And I have a lot of stuff to write about, but that’ll have to wait for now, I just don’t have the energy or the wakefulness.

And so my parents’ last day in China dawns- dry, blue sky, but thicker smog than yesterday. We need a breeze- I don’t want to send them off in the kind of thick haze that had me rushing to the pharmacy for some Ventolin (available over the counter here!) to keep Dad’s lungs working last Wednesday.

There’s talk of more shopping today. I would’ve thought yesterday’s trip to Xiushui would’ve been enough, but more on that later. There’s also talk of getting photos printed up ready to give to less technological folks back home, but lzh reckons they won’t be able to get that done in time, at least, not for a reasonable price. I dunno, in my experience, in China anything can be done in time so long as you know how to go about it. We’ll see.

All I know is that when I get out of class at three-ish, I’ll come home and make sure Mum and Dad have all the photos they need on their new external hard drive and all the places they visited are marked off on the map so they can show my siblings.

Then I’ll finally get around to getting this new webcam of mine up and running. It feels odd sitting here with this webcam looking at me, kinda 1984-ish. But it hasn’t even been plugged in yet, and in fact, I’m not even sure the cable is long enough- some rearranging may be necessary. It’s supposed to have a microphone built in (so yes, Shushu, we’ll get Skype and we can talk), and apart from getting Skype, I might also trying adding some actual voice to a couple of new voicethreads that are slowly fermenting in the back of my brain. Voice in a voicethread, revolutionary concept, I know.

Hmmm…. I’m not sure the problem embedding voicethreads was properly solved. I might have another go at that, but then again, I don’t really care. Sending people over to the voicethread site is fine with me, after all, voicethread is a really cool tool.

Anyway, enough rambling. The good thing is Mum and Dad seem to be enjoying their time in China. Hopefully today continues that trend and they leave on a high note.

Only hassle is their flight is bright and early tomorrow morning. Well, it would be bright and early if it were summer- sunrise will probably happen when we’re on our way home having seen them off.

Not Laoshe Teahouse, but Dazhaimen. Still, dinner and a performance of more-or-less traditional Chinese performing arts. It wasn’t too bad, actually, but unfortunately my body decided to crash somewhere between my last lesson and home, to the point where I was starting to feel a little nauseous as we discussed our travel arrangements. Still, I started to come back online as we approached Dazhaimen, and I managed to appreciate, if not actually enjoy the performance.

A full review, like all the other overdue blogging (my parents are still in town, and they take first priority), will follow when time and energy allow. So allow me to deal with only the most important question now: Is it worth it? Well, yes, but only under a specific set of circumstances: If you have friends or family visiting from outside China who could use a brief, tourist-friendly introduction to traditional Chinese performing arts, then go for it.

The prices are high, but manageable, especially when tourists/short-term visitors are involved. The portions are noticeably smaller than in a real Beijing restaurant, but enough is served that you won’t need to run round to McD’s for a stop-gap. The performances certainly are not the best or most ‘authentic’ of their respective genres, but they’re more than enough to introduce tourists/short-term visitors, and served in tourist-friendly portions (you don’t take a newbie to a full-blown Peking Opera. Walk before you run) and the performers are certainly competent enough to deserve their place on stage.

So yeah, it certainly served the purpose. My parents got a brief look at traditional Chinese performing arts. Some acts really impressed them, others they loved, some acts they could’ve quite happily missed (Peking Opera is an acquired taste- fortunately that accounted for only two of the acts). I’m tempted to pick holes in the food and service, but the fact is the food was good and the service satisfactory- yeah, I’m still a bit grumpy. I get that way when I’m tired- and Mum and Dad certainly had no reason to complain. Well, one or two dishes were too spicy for them, but that’s ok, there was plenty of other stuff for them.

So if you’re purposes matched our reasons for accepting my colleague’s invitation to Dazhaimen, then I recommend it. If you already have a basic grounding in Chinese performing arts, go somewhere else.

Mum, Dad, and lzh are on their way back from Zhongguancun. Apparently I have electronic goodies to look forward to when they get back. Well, a portable hard drive (is that the correct English term? Serious question- I’ve only heard this in Chinese before) and a webcam. Not too much electronic goodness, but exactly the first two items on the shopping list.

And on the way to Zhongguancun, they were supposed to stop off at the zoo to meet the pandas. I don’t know if they actually did that, yet, but I suspect they probably did.

And apart from the 919 from Deshengmen to Yanqing, today will have been my parents’ first experience of Beijing public transport. They took the subway to Xizhimen then walked to the zoo (I phoned lzh just as they had gotten out of Xizhimen station and had started walking zoo-wards, and that was the plan, so I guess that’s what happened) and lzh’s plan was to get a bus from the zoo to Zhongguancun, and just after I got out of class I got a call from lzh saying they were just about to get back on the subway at Xizhimen. lzh’s plan was to get a taxi to Bawangfen to get on the subway this morning, and I’d be willing to bet she’s planning on getting a taxi from Dawanglu station back home. Anyway, it’ll be interesting to hear Mum and Dad’s reaction to Beijing public transport.

I would not at all be surprised to hear Mum dictate that from now on all trips will be by taxi. On the other hand, I would be even less surprised, given how well they’re coping with China so far (how many other tourists find themselves in a real life, non-touristy village hosted by genuine Chinese farmers who really do raise corn, apples, grapes, assorted veges, dates and sheep for a living? And enjoy the experience?) if they decide that from now on all trips will be by bus or subway.

In other news: Whale Rider seems to get a very mixed reaction from Chinese students. That film is related to this post because it’s one of two New Zealand films my mum brought us. The other is In My Father’s Den, which I will definitely not try showing my students.

Anyway, they should all be home soon, and when they get here I’ll have to see if they agree with my colleague’s suggestion to check out the performance at Laoshe Teahouse. Personally, I think it’s a great idea, but we shall see whether they agree or not.

We’re back. We’re married again, this time in the Chinese cultural sense to match our legal status. It was all good, and all went off with only a few very minor hassles. My parents coped spectacularly well with the whole experience, even staying one night out in the village. Well, the found it cold (surprise, surprise), but they enjoyed the experience. And I’ve discovered they love sweet and sour pork.

We got the DVDs of the wedding back today on our way back (two copies: one for us, one for my parents to take back to New Zealand), and we’re watching our copy now. It’s pretty funny.

We also stopped off at Badaling on the way back so Mum and Dad could actually climb the Great Wall and see it up close and personal instead of just racing past on the bus. Badaling was all I expected it to be, but blessedly lacking in hordes of tourists. Still, the north wind blew up strong by the time we got there, and I think the temperature dropped just a little bit further below Mum and Dad’s comfort zone.

Anyway, more later when time and energy allow.