Embassy House BBQ

The weather started out poorly on Saturday. AF and I went to her volleyball practice at school. The taxi driver went a long way so we were late. That was not good because that caused all the girls to do extra running. This taxi stuff is a little frustrating because you don't know what kind of a driver you are going to get. The practice went for a couple of hours. We found a taxi inside the school compound. This driver knew all the short cuts, yeah!!

AF and I attended an annual summer BBQ for the Embassy house residents from 6 till late. We met a lot of interesting people. Most people who speak English are Europeans, Australians. I met a couple of Americans, but it appears that most Americans live out in Shunyi where there is housing similar to California communities. Europeans are much more comfortable living in the city.

The food and drink was good. They roasted a calf on a spit and had sausages, salads, etc. AF asked what would happen if she ordered a Bailey's from the bar. I told her they would serve her but her Dad needed to approve. She had one.............. She talked with a couple of girls in college in China from Tonga. There is a whole floor of people from Tonga above us. One of them is the Ambassador to China.

People explained to me why it is hard to get a taxi to recognize directions to our building. The building is only 4 years old with little advertising for a reason and many people have drivers and cars. So now I ask for the Pizza Hut on Dongzhimenwai and they know where to go, so far.

I mentioned to one resident that I needed to get back to the room so we could get up to go to church in the morning. He asked where I went. It turns out he is Catholic and told me about the British Embassy Church. Earlier in the week I was told that it did not exist anymore. It turns out they had moved it to the Kerry Center office on the 21st floor.

AF and I got up for church today and tried to go to mass at the new location I discovered. We found it after going up the wrong office tower. We got there early so we had time to find it. It is in the Visa section of the British Embassy. We met the priest and he said there was a procedure that they needed to follow to be legal. You have to register and show passports to show you are a foreign citizen. There is still a political riff between Vatican and China that hopefully will close one day. This church is actually a roman catholic church "Our Lady of China" as opposed to the other church we went to.

The mass was said in a waiting room for people to get visas processed. The seating was made of metal benches which hold about 150+ people. The alter was a table set in front of the glass windows for administrators to process visas. Off the side were what looked like confessional doors but were long skinny doors to interview rooms. The mass did not have any music so it was short.

As we left the mass another mass was to start at 11:00. So there were people leaving and people waiting in the elevator bank. There were probably 125+ at the 10am mass today. AF and I decided it was best to catch a taxi from the Kerry Hotel.

I met co-workers at the Grand Hyatt for a brunch at the Noble Court. It was a nice meal and nice to see SL who just arrived this weekend. It took over 3 hours for the brunch which was a little much. I'm glad AF did not join us as she would not have enjoyed that. I went back to my apartment while CB decided to rent a bike and tour the city. He even came out to my apartment where I took a picture of him on his bike. What a sight>

A Good Friday

Today the movers delivered our personal belongings from the US. There were about 17 boxes in all mostly clothing. We have had to check our electonics a little closer before we plug them in. Many can handle 110-240V but we have found out the hard way that there are a lot of small appliances that cannot like AF's clock radio and pencil sharpener. We shipped 3 more electronic dvices that will require a transformer since China operates on 220V. I spent a good part of the morning unpacking our belongings. It was weird opening the boxes with BF's clothes and no BF until the first week of Sept.

Today was also AF's first volleyball game, if that is what you call it. The game was not on the calendar because it was a scrimmage with a top university team, Beijing Jiaotong University. The girsl were huge, not just tall. There was one girl that just towered over everyone. It was interesting to watch and awas a good lesson for the girls. It can only get better from here. We had to also stay after to watch the boy's game. That was also interesting to watch. The University team had some powerful men on the team that could really put away the ball with some powere and speed. They could really get up over the net.

We were lucky and one of the vans were available to go out to the school and back. The last time we took a taxi out to the school but was not sure how to get one coming back. I thought we were lucky when a taxi came by outside of the gates of the school. So I sent an email to a school administrator to find out what the best way was to get a taxi back to the city. She said that taxis were regularly scheduled to be on campus and we were taking a risk by taking an unauthorized "black" taxi outside the school property.

Here is AF in her volleyball jersey she had to wear to school today.

Family Life so far....

Well so far this has been far from a normal family life for AF and me. We are so much looking forward to BF coming out here with us. She is an important ingredient that we are missing. But she is very busy back in the US finishing up business like: getting EF off to her freshman year in college and then getting MF ready for his Junior year in college, selling a car, getting LP and her family situated in our US house for the next two years (thank God for LP).

AF goes to school at 7:00 on a bus with only 3 other kids on it. She made the varsity volleyball team of 12 players. But that means she comes home around 7pm at least 3 nights a week. We think, her first game is Friday after school (not sure if it is a home game or not). The team will be traveling to Shanghai and will participate in a tournament in Manila. Then she is holed up in her room doing homeework, college application and her Ewood.

I go to work at 8:00 but it is a skeleton crew at work in our island within JPM offices. I usually get a coffee in the apartment building deli but it more like espresso. They have a free paper called the China Daily (highly censored). I usually ride with RW to work in a taxi or a van, if it is available.

We are not eating real good dinners but we are getting by (rigatonni, mac/cheese, sandwiches from deli, fishsticks, no dinner, whatever).

We have bought a few DVDs at 15 RMB ($1.88) but have not had real opportunity to watch. I think the TV blew up again so need to talk to facilities.

The house cleaning service is great. They are making beds, providing new towels, washing dishes, the floors, the bathrooms, etc. It is amazing how dirty wood floors get with just 2 people.

We have been working out in the health facility which is really nice. Not lots of people using the gym but I think there are a lot of people on vacations that have yet to come back (I hope because it is pretty quiet around here). There is a resident BBQ this Saturday so maybe we will meet some more people. I even used the sauna, steam room, hot tub and pool for the first time. It is nice.....

Well time to go to bed, maybe I will watch a little US Tivo via slingbox on the laptop. I'm keeping up with my shows like Deadwood, Entourage, Weed, Lucky Louie, Rescue Me, etc.

Lots of Recognizable Brands

There are lots of brands here, ones which are clearly Chinese and I do not understand in their chinese letters. But there are lots of other very recognizable brands like Starbucks, Starbucks and more Starbucks. It is so odd because tea is a big thing here and the drinks are very expensive for the average person.

Construction Galore

This city has so many cranes on the horizon. There is building next to our apartment, next to the new office, everywhere you can see. Along with the building are lots of migrant workers who have come in from the rural areas looking for opportunities. So you see all these prefabbed temporary three story dormitories by the job sites to house the workers.

The Weekend

Friday night I went to happy hour at the apartment bar. AF is still at school and won't be home until 7pm. One of the residents at the apartment is an awsome piano player and was playing a lot of jazz. I met an interesting family from Tonga. Joe is the family of 9 children and he also has some cousins living here. His wife is the Tonga Ambassador to the US and is UN ambassador. She is staying in NY with a few of the kids. Nice people. They mentioned there is a BBQ next Saturday. That will be another nice way to meet some new people.

I called AF to come down to the bar and listen to the piano. She stopped by and mentioned to me that we needed to get up early and go out to the ISB for varsity volleyball tryouts.

Saturday morning we got around to take a taxi at 8:00am. The first taxi driver had no idea how to get there even with directions from apartment concierge. The second driver said he know how but then started asking me for directions. I called the concierge and handed the phone over the driver. It was a 106RMB ride. We got there at 8:30 a little early which was ok since AF was not feeling real well. . The practice went from 9:00 to 11:30. She had a really good showing but still lots of girls trying to get on the team. There are at least 30 girls trying out for the varsity team.

Our biggest worry was how to get a taxi going back to the city. Luckily we walked out the gates of the school and a taxi came by. The street by the school is not very busy and certainly does not look like a place that taxis go by often. Hope we are as lucky next time.

We got back to the apartment and ordered club sandwiches at the deli. Really hit the spot. It is an interesting sandwich with lettuce tomato, ham slice (I think) and a fried egg.

I had problems with the work blackberry today. I had a hard time sending and receiving messages. I received a nice invite to meet with the Shunyi families but got it too late. AF decided to stay in and do some college application work. Thought I would meet CB for dinner since he just got into town and is by himself but he had already gone out to Shunyi to hang out with the two families.

Sunday, AF still did not feel good so we skipped church. The cleaners came into clean this morning and I did some laundry. I then decided to leave the house and do some more exploring. I walked to Houhai Lake wich is another touristy area that has shops, bars and restaurants. It was a great walk with nice windy, dry warm weather. Lots of great sights along the way.

Ramblings

RW and I have been picked up by driver Shen to work each day. It is a 20-30 minute ride, not too bad. The office is quiet. The intranet speed his horrific. I have trouble getting an external internet site at all. We will have to see if there is anything we can do to fix that. We have settled in on the 15 RMB lunch buffet. Lots of good warm dishes, drinks, fruit. The room needs a lot of work. It is a temporary cafeteria on the 3rd floor. There are nice bright yellow plastic seats for tables of 4 and a cement floor.

We take the taxi back home. Thank goodness the Intercontinental Hotel is next door, otherwise it might be difficult to hail a taxi as the office buildings are set off the busy west 2nd Ring Rd. (think a very slow congested beltway).

Speaking of Intercontinental, RW and I went to lunch at the hotel to see what they had to offer. There were a few options on the 5th floor. We went to a nice Cantonese restaurant called Si Chou Lu. The food was good and had English and Chinese so I knew what I was getting. The service was top rate, but I'm starting to get used to the $1.85 meal. I had to laugh that RW my good Chinese colleague wanted a fork because the nice chopsticks were to slippery.

RW's house shipment is coming today. My immigration papers are being completed today so my shipment can be sent and maybe we will get it sometime next week. AF and I cannot wait for our stuff to come. We are sleeping on the most uncomfortable rock hard beds. BF bought us some featherbedding that I hope will help. These beds are so bad they feel like you are sleeping on the floor. AF says she is getting bruises on her hips and knees.

The last few days have been in the high 80's lots of humidity and of course smog. This is a view from our apartment today looking north (bei).






I think I am up to maybe 5 mandarin words:
ni hao - hello
zaijian - good bye
xie xie - thank you
lu- street
bei - north
non- south

AF has volleyball tryouts tonight. She leaves at 7am and comes back tonight at 7pm, yuck! Seems like all the kids live out by the school in Shunyi. So tryouts dont start until 4:30 so kids have time to go home and then return for practice. PRactice is over before 6pm and AF catches thebus right at 6. It takes an hour to get back to the city because they drop a teacher off in a very conjested area.

CB landed in Beijing today. Will try to see him this weekend to welcome him to the China. He is by himself until SL lands on the 25th and will reside in same building. WL, QL, WW all arrive tomorrow.

Winland

RW and I have gone to the office for a couple days now. Our badges work, login to CCS works but after 10 minutes, we have supplies thanks to RW and the JPM Beijing staff. Shen has driven us to work the last two days. Below is RF and Shen outside the new JPM office in Winland.





We are settling in and looking forward to the rest of the team arriving and joining us.

A Day of Firsts

AF went to her first day of school and TF and RW went to their first day at the new office building.

AF left at 7:05 and got back at 4:30. She had a decent full day of school.

TF and RW met the JPM Beijing co-workers. It was the very first day for the JPM staff in the new building in the Financial District. Lots of facilities and GTI folks working on details. We established office spaces, got the network connections, printer and copiers to work.

Security got our badges to work but they only work on 4 doors (2 to our office space, the elevator bank, and the rest rooms). We do not have access to the IB, TSS, or other Branch personnel. There are 2 elevator banks that go to the 20th floor but we can only access one of the banks for our offices.

The space is nice and cozy and has just enough work spaces for the entire team.

Sunday a Day of Rest, Not

Saturday night I asked the concierge, Raymond, about his knowledge of catholic churches in the area. He knew a little but not enough. I had asked the relocation company about this earlier. That is where the idea of going to the Canadian Embassycame from.

I sent Raymond the email from Pricoa with the other church options. He called around that night to find out what churches had catholic masses. We determined the best route was the South Church which had a mass at 10am in English. I was there for Easter mass and the family also went back in May to this church. The church is called Nantang or South Cathedral. It is also called Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was founded in 1605. Here is a good link for more of the history of the church: http://english.hanban.edu.cn/english/features/Beijing/31092.htm

The church is not a Roman Catholic and is called Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association which has no ties to the Vatican. For more information see the following link:
http://www.answers.com/topic/chinese-patriotic-catholic-association

Roger, at the concierge desk called a taxi for us. It took him a little while to get the driver to understand where the church was (south and west of Tianamen Square). The driver got us in the general vicinity. I had to show him where the church actually was as he drove by. We got out of the taxi not too far down the street from the church. I am so grateful that I had been to the church a couple of times previously otherwise who knows how far we would have gone past the church.

The church is beautiful and they had great singing. All the words for the songs are on screens to follow along. They sang many good old favorites similar to our home parish, "St Patrick Church". The priest speaks very good English and his homily was very good both in content and delivery. Seems like a nice parish. They are even preparing for the Beijing Olympics by hosting a chinese parishioner vs international parishioner basketball game.

After Church AF and I hailed a taxi and went to Wanfujing to attempt buying some clothes for AF. We went to Sun Dong An Plaza that I had scouted out yesterday. At last some success including some tops and even a pair of pants. I think AF was pleased and encouraged. We even found a cool jewelry store called Pirate Ship. Here is the website though it is Chinese: http://www.pirateship.com.cn/

We then ate a small lunch at the basement of the Plaza at a place called Bread Talk. They make homemade breads on the premises. AF had garlic pizza bread which was very spicy garlic. I had curry Nan and we shared a raisin braid. http://www.breadtalk.com.cn/

We then shopped in some other stores but no luck.

The taxi ride home was the adventure for the day. It has been hit or miss getting back to our apartment with the drivers. While I have a business card which is in Chinese and has a good map on the back, this does not guarantee success. I have had a couple of drivers get lost. It happened last night with RW.

This driver headed in the right direction but then really got lost. I kept pointing him toward the right direction but he could never seem to navigate the right roads to get there. He even got us going down the second ring road heading west which was going in the opposite direction.

AF was not happy with the noises and frustration I exhibited in trying to get the driver to turn around. I even motioned for him to reset the meter. He said so sorry and tried to tell me it would be free. We finally got headed onto Dongzhimenwai Daijie in the right direction which is the big road near the apartment. The driver kept wanting to stop and pull over to let us out. I kept prodding him to go down the road further by the Pizza Hut (this seems like the best stopping point for all of the taxi rides I have had back to the apartment). The driver wanted me to pay 25 RMB on a meter that read 40. I gave him 20RMB ($2.50) which is still 2-3 more RMB than it should have been.

The morning was much cooler and drier but still overcast. We got back just in time. It has been raining the last few hours. Can't wait to see the sun again some day. At least the visibility is much better today without the humidity.

Well tomorrow is AF's first day at school. The bus picks her up in front of the apartment at 7:05. I am going into the new office with RW at 8:30. Should be interesting day.

Shopping, Thai Dinner, and Sanlitun Bar Scene

Today AF and I worked out in the gym now that I have running sneakers I purchased from Ya Show Market yesterday for 150 RMB. I am sure I got ripped off but she started out at 650 RMB. She acted so insulted when I offered 100 RMB. She did not like me hitting the first digit on the calculator with a 1. I kept trying to walk away but she kept at it and we finally settled on 150 ($18.75). She acted like I really hurt her, huh.

AF and I went shopping for some clothes for her. We first went to a department store that she remembered the last time being here. The only problem is that she could not remember the name of the store. I contacted QL via Blackberry to get the name. It turns out this is the same place that BF received some hairstyling from a Korean stylist, based on recommendation from WW. We asked the concierge to write the Chinese name of the store (Pacific Dept Store) on an Embassy House business card so the taxi driver knew where we wanted to go.

We were not successful looking for clothes for AF at Pacific. We then walked to Ya Show markets, similar to Silk Street Market where you need to bargain and get harassed by the shop keepers. Nothing really suited her there either. Unfortunately, batteries ran out on the camera so no pictures with the adventure.

It is another one of those hazy Beijing days with limited visibility. It is extremely humid outside. We decided to go back to the apartment for rest and lunch.

It is now 13:30 and AF wants to stay home. I still feel like getting out and discovering places. I decided to get in a taxi headed for Wanfujing which is a big shopping area near Oriental Plaza and T'iananmen Square. There are a number of shopping malls there (Sun Dong An Plaza, Wanfujing Dept Store, and Oriental Plaza Shopping Mall).

AF and I planned to go to the Canadian Embassy for mass at 5:30. The embassy is only 10 minute walk from the apartment. When we got there, we talked to the Chinese guard in front of the embassy and he said there has not been mass there in 2-3 years. Shucks.... would have been nice to walk to church each week. AF and I walked back. She wanted to stay in for dinner.

I called RW a co-worker who just got into town yesterday to see if he wanted to go out to dinner. We arranged to meet out on the street since his apartment is just a block west of Embassy House. We walked to a restaurant that I had scouted in Sanlitun area and was quoted as best Thai restaurant in Beijing in "That's Beijing Magazine," an English monthly magazine. The restaurant is called "Serve the People". RW said this was the name of an old Mao doctrine. The bottom of the menu was even signed in his hand-writing/calligraphy which is supposedly very good as he studied it for some time.

It was too humid to eat outside on the street, so we went in. Food was very good and a little spicy. We had Pad Thai noodles, Pork Satay, a spicy cooked seafood dish in coconut curry, oxtail, a prawn seafood salad and of course some Tsing Tao beer.

We then walked down to the Sanlitun Bar street. This is a very interesting bas scene street. The street is comprised of one bar next to another the whole length of the street. So the routine begins with a street hawker trying to get you to go into their bar because they have the BEST happy hour. Seems like happy hour is always advertised no matter what time of the day!!! In the bar, there is always a guy playing a keyboard and two ladies singing Karoake type songs. You always see groups of people with a whole bottle of some strong liquor like vodka or whiskey and playing dice drinking games. We left before the next routine which is a belly dancer. This routine is repeated again and is the same at all the bars.

Time for bed.

Webshot Photo Album

Most pictures of our personal and work adventure will be posted at the following site:

http://community.webshots.com/user/tfero

The Sanlitun Embassy Area

We live near the Sanlitun Embassy Area. Outside our apartment is Dongzhimenwai Xiaojie which is a very large street going E-W between the 2nd and 3rd East Ring Roads. Just off of this road several blocks away there are many tree-lined streets going N-S with many restarurants and shops.

The closest restaurant right oustside our apartment is the Pizza Hut. Everytime I go by, there seems to be a long waiting line of Chinese citizens.

Here is sample of streetscapes of the area (click on any photo for enlargement):

Check out the "Peter Pan Italian Restaurant"

Day 3-5

The next days were devoted to getting AF in school. Shen picked us up in the morning and we headed out to the ISB in Shunyi. Traffic was good and took us about 35 minutes. We went to a parent and student orientation in the morning for new HS students. We then went to Pinnacle Plaza nearby for lunch at Little Italy. Food was pretty good (spaghetti and meatballs and Fried mozzarella) with Evian for 105 RMB ($13). We then went back for Math placement testing for AF. While I waited, I had Shen take me back to Pinnacle Plaza to shop at Jenny Lou's which has mostly western US grocery brands.

The next day we went to school to work with HS counselor on AF's class schedule. A school emergency in the counseling office meant we would have to wait 1.5 hours to see a counselor. You can imagine how unhappy I was with this. It did not seem to phase AF as she brought a good book to read. We finally got through the process but it was not a happy one. The school is totally an IB school and coming in at the senior year presented lots of problems for her course work. Not much we can do about it. We'll have to explain on college applications.

While we were at the school it rained very hard with severe thunderstorms. When we left the school there were some mudslides in the road from some of the constructions sites, what a mess. It did not stop the bikes or pedestrians from getting where they needed to go. It has been quite rainy our first few days which is unusual this time of year. We have yet to see the sun throught haze or rain clouds. The humidity is extremely high.

I went to dinner with a new Beijing collegue. He was kind enough to meet me at the apartment and took me to an excellent local Tapas restaurant. He gave me the low-down on logistics in the Beijing office and talked about the CBRC. He has been here for 12+ years and speaks Mandarin fluently. He and his staff will be a big help to us here.

The next day we took AF to ISB for a student orientation where she loaded her meal card and received photo ID. She also got to meet some of the new kids. We then went back to the apartment. I decided to go for a walk around the area to get a better feel for the neighborhood. Lots of cool stuff.

Day 2

Today was all about getting mobile phones and a bank account set up. We met Pricoa agent Lisa at the apartment. She took us to Gome applicance store to get the phones. It is a little different in China, buy the phone without any discounts for plans. We picked 3 cheap Nokia phones ($100 per). Then unbelievably we had to walk outside to a magazine stand to buy SIM card/mobile numbers and then buy prepaid minutes. We took those back to the store where the clerk set up our phones and loaded the minutes. This probably took over an hour to do.

We then went to the Bank of China to set up a bank account. We are so used to joint accounts in the US. I had to set up an account in my name since B is not here. So we now have one debit card between the 2 of us. We will have to figure that one out. The exchange rate for the USD that I deposited was not so good, but what are you going to do. The bank account process was also lenghthy and cumbersome.

I could never have done any of this without someone with Mandarin speaking skills.

The journey has begun............. August 7th, TF arrived with daughter via Continental #89. The ride was very uneventful. We arrived on time to the ever present haze of Beijing. We met our new driver, Xudong Chen with our 5 bags and 4 carry-ons.

Shen's English is extremely rough, yet my Mandarin is much more limited to hello, goodbye, and thank you. Fortunately, we have help in the corporate offices and our CCS team with the language and cultural barriers. The JPM offices communicated my itinerary for the the entire week with Shen. The first stop was our apartment in Chongdeng District next to the Salitun Embassy area.

We were met by Raymond, one of the many concierges, upon our arrival to Embassy House. He took us to our 29th floor apartment and introduced us to the kitchen appliances, security phone, telephones, TV, etc. Following this introduction we met Joy the head of housekeeping and then the property manager, Cui. All the people here are very helpful.

We then met Tina our real estate agent who needed our temporary residence permit and passports to file our immigration papers for work permits and permanent residency. The whole immigration process is another story for another time. It will be weeks before our personal belongings are shipped and B arrives in Sept after seeing the college kids off.

Next, Shen took us to Carrefour for some food and house supplies like a toaster. It is strange shopping in a large grocery store and all the brands are in Chinese. It takes awhile to register what you are looking at. We got to the check out counter to pay and to the dismay of the clerk we had put all of our produce in bags but did not have them weighed and price labels created in the produce section. She was kind enough to send a store clerk off to get this taken care of. Oh well, we will remember that the next time.

We then crashed for the day.....