Om Nom Nom

People say that money makes the world go round.  Now it may make the world turn, but food makes it float.  The interesting thing about different cultures is that they all have very distinct foods.  In the United States, there are many opportunities to try many different country's cuisine.  Although most of it isn’t authentic, there are still dishes that retain their true flavors.  I always knew that Chinese food in the United States is different than the Chinese food in China.  However, until I came to China, I had no idea how divergent it was.  I interviewed my Chinese teacher at my University, and he said that what he would miss most about China if he left (discounting family and friends of course) was the food.  He told me that the food here was very special, and very difficult to duplicate.  The United States is too young of a country to have its own cuisine.  But in a way, all the cuisine in the States is its own cuisine.  There are enough differences between Chinese food and “American” Chinese food that it becomes it’s own.  I have also learned that when I am in the United States, it’s best not to judge whether it is authentic or not.  Better to appreciate it for the food it is, and not compare it.
The Chinese believe in fresh food; this is a huge part of authentic Chinese food.  Everything ordered at a restaurant is made the instant after being ordered.  Food made on the streets is seldom already cooked; it’s cooked after pointed at and saying “这个” (this one), even chestnuts at the local grocery store are roasted fresh by an attendant.  In contrast, “Super China Buffet” is more popular than Dim Sum.  Super China Buffet is just like any buffet place; it’s full of food sitting around.  Furthermore (and not just at buffets), there is meat in abundance.  This is also very uncharacteristic of Chinese food.  I was playing with two girls about 4 years old to help them learn English.  After playing, the family insisted that I stay for an afternoon meal.  When we sat down, there were six different dishes on the table.  One completely meat dish, a soup with tiny shrimp in it, one dish with limited amount of pork, and two wholly vegetable dishes.  Generally, meat is used for flavoring, but vegetables are the main event.  I believe that the best way to enjoy food is to remember that it is never the same.  That goes not just for regular food, but also for anything in China.  Don’t get too attached to it; one minute I was enjoying mango Mentos, the next I might as well have been imagining their existence.

Although we may be at odds with countries, or have different beliefs with people, we always are open to share food with them.  Food is one of the universal things in the world that knows no boundaries.  In every way, we all can get along when we share a meal, a drink, or a snack.  When people do business together in the United States, the parties generally go out for drinks or dinner to talk.  When people are invited to others’ houses in Japan, bringing a snack to eat together is considered very polite.  When someone is upset or going through a hard time, we bring food or a baked good to show our sympathy and understanding.  Although eating is a daily occurrence, it is something everyone has in common.  One of the easiest ways to learn about other cultures is to learn and appreciate their cuisine and traditions that surround it.  Although it can’t solve anything understanding one aspect of a culture opens many doors and nevertheless creates a greater understanding.

On a lighter note, some of the things in China are really bizarre… Everyone has heard of chicken feet, but do you also know that they eat pig stomach? It has this really odd consistency, more of a paste than bologna, which in my opinion is saying something.  They are also fans of “thousand year old eggs” which are hard-boiled eggs that have been aged.  I’m glad that someone likes them… Other exotic goods include pickled soy sauce mangos, freeze-dried spicy meat, and laver (seaweed) covered peanuts.  Yes, to Westerners, there are many weird things in China, but the good news is that there are many delicious dishes too!  Tomato and egg is a common home made food and is my absolute favorite dish.  It was really fun to try eating so many different kinds of vegetables.  There are so many vegetables that I have been ignoring all my life; and I’m so glad that I have been awakened to them.  Things like eggplant and bok choy are seldom used in the United States, but are so nutritious and delicious.  Winter melon is almost unheard of, which as a vegetarian, is saying something.  There are so many things to try in China; I didn’t have time to try it all.  But I now know that the best.  But I know now that the best way to travel is surely to try everything that I come in contact with.  If it smells good, looks good, or you've never see it, I'll definitely try a sample.

  

  

My advice to anyone traveling is to try anything and everything.  If you've never seen it before or are apprehensive, try it anyway; you may end up liking it.  It happened to me, and it can happen to you.  Okay, story time.  Beijing's famous noodles are called zhajiangmian (炸酱面), which features a fermented soy bean sauce.  It sounds sketchy, but it's not.  Trust me.  At the very end of my stay here in Beijing, I decided to go out on a limb and order them and they were extremely tasty.  It almost seems like a paradox that black noodles would be scrumptious, but they were! I only got to eat them once because I refused to give them a real chance.  You just don't know what you're going to like.  Honestly, some of the stuff in China really doesn't sound appetizing when seen or heard of what it's made of.  You just have to look past all that stuff and let your taste buds do the talking.

There's No Place Like Home

Now that I'm only a about a week away from getting back to the United States, I'm feeling a bit trunky (and by a bit, I mean I've been thinking about seeing my mom and eating chips and salsa for a month now).  Lately I've been contemplating the differences between the United States and China; other than my family and friends (because obviously those come first).  I've found that there are a few things that I will really miss about Beijing, and a few things I will definitely NOT.  So here they are, since I'm an optimist, the things I'll miss will go first.

1.) Food

First and foremost I will miss the food, I haven't posted my food post and it's because there is literally so much food in China; I'm 90% sure that if I tried everything there is to try in Beijing, I would return to the United States at least 50 lbs. heavier than before.  But everything here is so tasty and exotic.  It's way different than the food back home.  I have rice with almost every meal and have eaten more meat in the past month than I care to admit (it's not my fault China isn't vegetarian friendly).  Luckily one of my favorite dishes I can easily (and most definitely intend to) cook at my home.  It won't be the same, but it'll be good enough.

2.) Discovering

I'm really going to miss finding new things that I like, or really don't like.  I'm relatively familiar with most things in the States.  But in Beijing, there's new things at every corner.  Makes sense since I've only spent about 4 months of my life in this city.  The Chinese do everything so different than we do.  I'll be frank, some methods I think, "Yeah, that's so smart, why don't we do that?" And others, I just wonder how anything gets done.  Nevertheless, I question everything I run into; for example, how a business can be demolished and replace in only the short span of two weeks; why people think it's okay to leave their restaurant doors open when it's 21°; or why there's only one unlocked exit door to the outside in my entire school.  These are the questions that plague my mind...

3.) Seeing Characters

Seeing characters instead of words really scared me.  Especially when you see it on the menu.  But as the weeks wore on, I was able to recognize a large majority of them.  I'll admit, I feel a bit proud of myself that even though I still can't understand exactly what people say; I can at least read some signs proficiently.  Also, I always though that unless characters were written in a clear font like Times New Roman I would never be able to read them; this turned out to be untrue.  Now I can recognize all sorts of characters albeit I have stare at them a little longer.

And now for the things I won't miss, luckily these things don't counter the good things.  They're only minor, but also so frustrating at the same time; sometimes I didn't know if I was going to survive.

1.) Dirt under the fingernails.

Seriously, this makes me so annoyed.  No matter how much I clean them, they always have something underneath them.  When I'm in the States, dirty finger nails are a sign that it's time to cut my fingernails.  Here in China, the only time my fingernails are clean is the 3 hours after I clean them; then they always seem to get dirty... It's not like I live in a rural area and work in the garden or the field all day; I sit in a classroom and take notes all day.  Fortunately, I was able to ignore it for the most part, but the last few weeks I feel like I've turned into the CDO person who has to always have her fingers perfectly clean.  Thank goodness I'll be returning to the United States where my fingernails and I can live in peace and harmony.

2.) Carpet

I know it seems really immature to be missing carpet, but it's such a precious commodity; where in China can one find such soft plush comfort for one's feet? I can tell you, NO WHERE.  It's so sad.  In addition to the absence of supple ground for me to walk on, my feet are constantly cold.  I now understand the importance Chinese people place on wearing slippers inside, if people didn't, I'm sure that 87% of the population would be missing toes.  It gets that cold in the winter time.  We've all had those siblings who came in from outside and then put their freezing hands on the back of our neck.  Yeah, it's like that when walking on the tile floor.  If I sit down for one minute, I don't want to move; ever.  Not even to eat, I'll eat when I'm warm.  But there's no escaping the cold; it's everywhere.

3.) Internet
About the picture to your left: I realize it's hard to understand why this represents the internet.  It's because I'm not at my apartment.  I'm in a Starbucks submitting my homework.  I traveled 30 minutes halfway across town to get there because the internet at my school was like glue drying on a sloped surface...

I really try my best not to surf the internet.  I like to live my life as free of digital things as possible, but sometimes school forces me to use the internet.  Furthermore, if I ever hope to talk to my family again, its necessary to use my email or Skype.  We all like to reminisce about dial-up internet; how hard it was when you were 14 and wanted to talk to your BFF on the phone, but somebody was chatting it up on AIM.  Dial-up (for those of you who can relate) was slow, but you didn't know any better so you sat and waited five minutes for your email to load.  In China we paid for, internet like dial-up connection, but at a high speed price.  Semi-unfortunate when it's 11:57pm and you still need to submit an assignment by 11:59.  Not that I've ever been in that situation....

Now You See Me, Now You Don't

This is the lovely view I have from my classroom on the 4^th floor; Not bad right? The big tower in the not so far distance is the CRTV tower.  The Chinese government doesn’t let me see this website without a VPN, but you’ll be able to.  If I think it’s the picture I’m thinking of, it shows a two-week record of the air quality here in Beijing.  The people who published it took the same picture of the front of the Forbidden City for two weeks and then used one part of every picture to reconstruct it.  The effect is quite powerful, and it’s a bit embarrassing for China; so it’s understandable why it’s blocked here.  Before coming to Beijing, I knew that the pollution was bad.  My mom saw an article in the Seattle Times about the air quality in Beijing and commented that it would “be really unfortunate if [I] came back with lung cancer,” …yeah, that’d be unfortunate, but I’m not to worried. Anyway, I do admit that it’s a little sad when you look out the window and can barely see the CRTV tower 781 feet high and only a mere two miles away… Hate it when that happens.

Well the people who come back from China in fact do not usually get lung cancer; the major disease I’ve heard people come back with is Tuberculosis.  I think I’ll take the lesser of two evils if I have to choose.  The air quality in Beijing more frequently hazardous than not, and it’s really a shame because the city has the potential to become a cultural hub. There’s so much history and so many things to learn about, classroom studies aside.
No questions asked, the best days are when it’s really windy, which basically translates into, “We have clean air!” The pollution is blown out of the city when it’s windy.  It’s really quite nice actually. It’s these days when I think pollution is not so bad; but then the next week, or even the next day I look up at the sky and think, “Oh look, there’s the sun… I can see its outline without squinting…” I have really enjoyed my time here in Beijing.  But (family aside) I miss the States; the comfort, and convenient living it brings, and yes, most of all the air quality.