distant ruminations

So I managed to make some progress in catching up on that long-overdue paperwork today, thanks to the power being back on in the computer building (there’s not much sadder than a Computer Science department with no electricity) and a well-structured Thursday timetable (having a class at 8 than another at 1:30 with nothing scheduled but lunch in between is a pretty good incentive to reconnect the nose with the grindstone) which is good. I owe it to the students, first of all, and the boss, secondly, but more importantly, my parents arrive in Beijing on Monday evening.

lzh will spend the weekend in the village making last minute arrangements for the wedding, then come back to Beijing on Monday morning. Then on Monday evening we pick up my parents from the airport and start them off on their first ever trip to China…. a trip that starts with them settling in to their room and going to sleep, most likely. I doubt they’ll even fully realise they’re in the People’s Republic until the next morning, which is entirely appropriate because that’s how my China experience started.

Dad’s in Japan right now, beating drums for a Salvation Army band. Mum leaves for Tokyo, where she’ll meet Dad, bright and early tomorrow morning NZ time (the ridiculously wee small hours of the morning Beijing time). Monday they fly over here.

It’s all a bit daunting in some ways. This is the furthest they’ve ever travelled from home, for starters, and it will be their only experience of a developing country, and we’ll be taking them up to Yanqing- and not just the county town, which is actually quite nice, but right out to the village.

Still, I strongly suspect, given the stories my parents told me when I was a kid (Shushu, if you’re not still stuck in Holland, chime in with the stories Dad never told me), that reasonable comparisons can be drawn between 1950s New Zealand and modern rural Beijing. Except, of course, that modern rural Beijing has cellphone and internet service.

Anyway, so I’m looking forward to seeing my parents in major culture shock…. Well, no, lzh and I will take good care of them, I assure you all.

Well, so much for putting more money on the internet account and catching up with that paperwork- stuff that needed to be done on the office computer. Somehow the computer building, where our office and the internet office are located, has had no electricity all day. No idea why, nobody seems to know when the power will be back on. Somehow the network is still up and running, though…. So either the servers are located somewhere else or they have their own power supply or they have a backup power supply, or they’re powered by teams of hamsters running on wheels hooked up to generators. Or perhaps it’s just magic.

I think the weather at midday today could only have been described as “evil”, as in it would make a good example of what the city would look like if the Niulanshan Ergoutou distillery exploded, leaking giant clouds of evil over the city. Ergoutou, after all, is distilled from 100% pure evil. Other drinks are generally made from grains or grapes or other fruits.  Somehow, though, the air seems clearer now than it did at midday, which is odd considering there doesn’t seem to be any more wind than there was at midday. Clearer, but still tasty. I vaguely remember a time when I lived in a place where the air had no flavour….

Still, I knew it was going to be a bad day when I looked out the window this morning and saw the smoke from a nearby chimney rising straight up. In general, no wind means the pollution settles itself comfortably over the city, stretches its legs, and reaches for the remote.

Oh such a productive day…. Hopefully the power will be back on in the computer building tomorrow. Then I might make some real progress in catching up with this paperwork. And besides, it’s just plain sad: What is the computer department supposed to do with no electricity? Install hand cranks on the computers?

One of the many things to be done in preparation for a Chinese wedding is the hanging of decorations in the 婚房/apartment occupied by the bride and groom. For our wedding it’s a little complicated, because, of course, the ceremony will happen in Yanqing County Town, and we’ll spend the night of the wedding in a hotel there, while our apartment is here in southern Chaoyang. Naturally, one can not just arbitrarily decide that a hotel room will serve as the 婚房, because that would entail far too much trouble for newlyweds and management alike, so our apartment gets the 婚房 treatment even though it’s already well lived in. No big deal, you always adapt tradition to the situation you find yourself in, especially when your situation involves a cross-cultural marriage.

So this evening we hung the decorations. Yeah, one size fits all 个屁. The decorations are long streamers of shiny, coloured paper cut into pretty shapes, too short for the long walls of the lounge room, too long for the short walls. Exactly one size fits nothing.

Well, we’ve done what we can with what we have. The too long too short streamers we’ve hung the length/shortth of the lounge room walls as best we can, the big flowery bit that hangs down the middle of it all we’ve hung as close to the centre of the bedroom as possible, framework of the bedroom lights, chopstick, and 98.5698325% forgotten Scout knot-tying permitting.

Some time before the wedding ceremony we’ll have to change the bedding over to wedding red. That won’t be difficult, we already have the bedding prepared and it’s damn near impossible to bugger that up. So long as red sheets are on the bed, red pillow cases on the pillows, and a red cover on the duvet, who can complain? Oh, wait, I’m sure I’ll find out….  But no, I don’t see that as being anywhere near as much hassle as the decorations we just did.

And the decorations weren’t much hassle. Just a lot of shifting a chair around so I could get up close and personal with the ceiling and pinning and unpinning of the decorations.

So it’s done, for now. I happen to think this way is the best, with the streamers strung along the lounge room walls instead of meeting in the centre. Our lounge room is just too awkward a shape, and the framework of the lights just a little inconveniently worked to make meeting in the centre work properly. We tried that and the results were pretty accurate definitions of 乱七八糟 (messy). The way we’ve arranged things may not be perfect, but I strongly suspect it’s the best we can do with what we have.

One step closer… And only eleven more days till my parents arrive… And therefore only thirteen more days until the ceremony… When am I supposed to start getting nervous?

Y’know, I’m not sure if I like sitting here listening to these two guys fix our washing machine. It’s occasionally fun, in that listening into some random discussion of whether Hebeiren eat rice or not, and whether there’s a southern/northern Hebei division on rice eating can be fun, but with all the random noises referred to in the title it’s kinda like watching some snuff version of Home Alone [I won’t link to shitty films] in which the characters actually suffer the indignities [appearing in a film with a child whose given name is actually a surnmae should be bad enough, but… ] and injuries depicted while blindfolded. No, that ain’t quite right. Overall, the experience is like watching some Hollywood “comedy” [scare quotes for obvious reasons] produced under the current Bush regime. At moments it’s funny, but not for reasons anyone involved in the production of the “comedy” thought was funny. I’m lauging at, not with, these clowns. But most of it is just random, occasionally painful, but mostly irritating noise.

It’s alright for lzh. The Party branch of her danwei has convened a meeting to study the 17th Party Congress out at some holiday resort in Changping.

The good news is the most annoying part of the layout of this apartment: The washing machine and bathroom are right by the door, therefore there is no way any washing machine repairman (or plumber, should the time come) could possibly get up to no good without making a right dick of himself and getting badly caught in the process.

Ah, yes, the really good news is that they don’t come over to fix stuff unless they know somebody’s home, judging by our experience with the washing machine. We know from experience that whoever checks the water meter opens the door and comes in themselves if nobody opens it for them. But not the repair folks.

Oh, cool, I now know that one of the repair guys graduated from high school.

Well, seems the major issue: our washing machine’s sudden inability to move, has been dealt with. Repairman number one seems to think something else isn’t quite going right. I don’t care- just get me a functioning washing machine and I’ll be happy. I’m running short  on clean undies and I don’t want to have to hand wash everything.

No, wait, they’re done, the washing machine is back in proper working order, they’ve left, it’s all good. Washing my undies now.