I Want To Fix Everything

There are days when I think China is awesome.  Today is one of those days.  Interestingly it is not the days that the food is especially good or when the subway is less crowded (it doesn't matter the day, you will never get a seat!), the best days and moments in China are when you have a connection through communication with another human being--a moment of understanding.  I had this moment with Shi in the park.  Now I want to tell you about my new Chinese family.

room on the train

When we got back from Xian on the train, it was 8am.  I didn't get much sleep because I kept watching the country side roll by.  Even at night I can't help but keep my eyes open as we travel.  There is sooo much to see.  From the train station we got on a bus and headed into the heart of Beijing.  We were not going back to the hostel; we were splitting up now headed for a month of staying with a Chinese family.  I was handed a paper that had one line describing who my new family was.  It was in Chinese...and now I know what it means when they say things like, "get lost in translation."  I read the sentence like this:  "Mother and Father over 80 years old, both retired.  Two bedrooms and one living room."  I imagined a very old grandpa and grandma, in a very small apartment...maybe I would share a room.  I didn't know.  Did they have a bathroom?

I was the first one to get dropped off from the bus.  It was funny because we drove through a sort of ghetto area on one side and a set of somewhat newer apartment buildings on the other.  The bus driver didn't know where we were going so he kept moving from one side of the street to the other as we got closer to the address.  If we were on the nice side of the street my classmates would cheer for me.  If we moved to the other side of the street (ghetto apartments) they would all laugh and boo.  It was a fun game.  We finally came to a stop on the ghetto side and they all laughed and laughed.  There were big bars on the windows and and I questioned the integrity of the buildings themselves.  Luckily my new "Mom" came out and welcomed me to their home.  It was on the "nice" side of the street.  I cheered secretly in my head.  

Oh yeah, and about that "lost in translation" part.  I almost translated the sentence correctly.  There were a few small errors.  My new family was not over 80, they were born after 1980--also, they were not retired, they work in what china views as "white collar" jobs...which, give me some credit, has a few characters in common with "retired."  This was a big surprise for me!   My new parents are 26 years old!  In case you forgot, I'm 28!

So life has changed a bit, mostly for the better.  I live in this little apartment in the twin bridges district.  In Chinese it is 双桥区。You can copy those characters into Google maps and get my location within about a half mile.  I don't know my real address.  It is one of the apartment buildings about half a mile south of the free-way.  There are 22 floors.  There are two little bedrooms, a very small kitchen, and a 10 by 15 living room.  600 sq ft in all.  The bathroom is fun.  There is a shower head--maybe you can see it in the picture--but there is no shower base.  The shower is almost directly over the toilet and the water goes everywhere.  I'm starting to get used to it though.  You plug in the water heater if you want more heat.  Otherwise it stays unplugged.  Smart idea to save some money!

bathroom 1 

bathroom 2

This brings me to my wanting to fix everything.  Everything in China is broken.  The shower heads and faucets are plugged, the door handles are falling apart, the appliances are always questionable, and the fences are falling down.  All the infrastructure needs help unless it is an important building downtown.  There are bare wires hanging down from power lines just above head level, and all the doors in China squeak.  Everything is broken.  For instance, there is a giant super market right by my new house.  It is bigger than Wal-Mart by twice and sells to more people then 10 Wal-marts combined.  The front entrance has a big metal ramp and it is not secured well.  It is sooo noisy.  It squeaks and clanks and screeches all the time and hurts my ears!  This is an easy fix.  Secure the ramp to the building with few lag bolts and waaala.  Fixed. So I bought a needle and I clean out every shower that I use.  I use my Leatherman (thank goodness I brought the Leatherman!) to take the screen off faucets and clean them out.  I usually double the water pressure.  I can't help it.  China needs fixing!  Now who's with me?  

My new family, the ones born after 1980, are great.  The are a couple who have been together since they were 16.  They don't have any kids and are not married but are engaged.  They both work all day--the guy works advertising for a magazine.  The girl works in translation for a Spanish expatriate.  They leave about 8:30am and come back around 6:30pm.  They don't have a car and are somewhat poor.  I think in US standards they are quite poor.  In Beijing I think they might be middle class.  I actually really like them and I can't say the same for my classmates families.  My friend, Meng Kaiwen, really doesn't like his new family at all.  After dinner they tell him to, 请你去房子里休息一下。This means they tell him to go to his room and rest a little.  So he'll say, 我不想去我的房子里。我想出去。"I don't want to go to my room, he says, I want to go out."  But they don't budge.  They make him go to the room.  He's trading families now.  He can't have mine.  Sorry Kaiwen :)

bedroom

my spaghetti

kitchen

Tonight I made Spaghetti for my family.  I think they liked it, but they didn't eat any meat balls.  I don't know why.  Also, they didn't really like the green beans.  The eat green beans here all the time, but they are never from a can--and they taste very Chinese.  The girl said to me in Chinese, "you should put more salt in."  I just laughed and ate the beans myself.  Oh and by the way, it is much easier to eat Spaghetti with Chop Sticks than with a fork.  You might not believe me, but Chop Sticks are awesome once you get the hang of it.  They are like everything in one.  I'm getting quite good at using them actually.  I didn't even drop a noodle.

My new "brother"--that's what I'll call him--his name is Liu Yang Long.  It is pronounced "Leo Yang (a as in ahhh) Long (o as in Coin).  After dinner he told me a joke.  He doesn't speak English at all.  He tried to tell me the joke last night but I was completely lost.  It was something about a 老头 which is a word for an old guy kind of like Dad...lol...I kid.

This is the joke:  "This 老头 (pronounced Lao toe) was from the country.  He went to go buy a car at the Volkswagen dealership.  The first car he saw was the Sanata 2000.  He thought the "2000" was the price--so he tried to give the salesman 2000 元 for the car.  The Salesman, seeing that the 老头 was a little backward said, 'I have a better deal for you.  You can go to the Mercedes Benz dealership over there and buy 4 'Benz 500's' for the same price!"   The 老头was very happy and away he went."

Yes.  That is the joke.  Its actually kind of funny if you think about an old Chinese guy from the country.  Anyway, it wasn't the joke that made my day in China good.  It was the fact that I understood it!  Me and this Chinese guy sat around our Spaghetti laughing almost to tears because at first I couldn't get it, and then when I finally did it was so funny--and we communicated.  Language and communication are more than words. They are ways to connect to another person--an understanding between people and cultures.  I'm grateful for the good days.  They make all the other ones worth while.  And by the way, my Chinese family needs no fixing.

me on a bike in Xian

Love to all.  Keep the Faith.