Chinese Chess

This posting was prompted by the memory of Geri's Game, the
Pixar short film where the old man plays chess against himself. It seems
fitting that perhaps in a park here I would find some old men, maybe throw in a
Confucian beard, playing a pensive game of chess, but in fact the great legacy
of Ping Pong was what I found.

Friendly Fares

Dearest readers, I imagine that you have been in the thralls
of curiosity, anxiously awaiting the latest from yours truly. The amounts that
I have to share can hardly be contained within one post, and even in writing
one I am torn between providing a chronological update of our little family or
to straightaway delve into the ever-so-interesting cultural facets I have seen.
I think considering the long lapse since my last post, the former is more
appropriate.
 
The discovery of being pregnant was not a compromising idea
in and of itself, but morning sickness certainly brought me to the point of
wondering whether I was somehow letting my wife die. Not only that but I
seriously began to wonder if I should alter our plans to coming to China. Thankfully
there were in-laws on hand who helped guide me through what I can and cannot
due for Lacey and my own parents reminded me of the conviction I have had in
making this journey, one based in both personal ambition and divine
confirmation, primarily the latter which cannot be denied. All of that can be
summed up by a statement made by Lacey that, "I can be sick in the US, or sick
in China" a pragmatic notion that tipped the scales.
 
All of our flights with United Airlines, our first was from
Seattle at 7:16 AM on Wednesday, August 17, 2011, a departure that required us
to get up at 3 AM. The trip went smoothly from there to San Francisco, but the
planned flight to Beijing leaving at 11:14 AM went sickeningly awry. We had
boarded the plane and headed out to the runway when there was a mechanical
malfunction, requiring us to return to the gate and wait for an hour and a
half. The second approach to the runway presented another malfunction, and so a
second return. In summary it was 5 hours after our departure time before we
actually took off, all the while we had not left our seats. To the credit of
the airlines the attendants were as helpful as they could possibly be in
assisting a pregnant woman.
 
We arrived in Beijing at approximately 6:30 PM Thursday,
August 18, 2011 local time. My dear friend Victoria Wang had arranged a
rendezvous with the husband of her best friend, who picked us up and brought us
directly to the Capital Normal University International College campus. Please
to do not be disappointed that after all of that talk about the apartment
searching I ultimately opted to live in the dorms on CNU campus. Something
about it being more convenient for both Lacey and I, as well as preventing a
surely miserable towing of my morning sick wife around suburban Beijing for who
knows how long while I TRY to find an apartment, all made the decision easy.
 
So we're here, and we're safe. The list of cultural
insights, as well as some photo sharing is soon to come!

Foreign Expectations

Well, if going to China is not an adventurous enough undertaking, let me spice it up. My lovely wife, Lacey, and I are 7 weeks pregnant! This was not exactly on purpose, because it really would be quite cruel if I were to scheme, "Oooo, let's see if I can get my wife pregnant so that she can go through the worst part of first-trimester-morning-sickness-with-a-vengeance when we are going to be taking a twelve hour flight across the Pacific." Assuredly, I am not that mean, nevertheless that is exactly what is happening. Lacey is experiencing her first pregnancy in all it's up-heaved glory, but is being very brave as we are still going forth with our plans to go to China. We know a few people who have been pregnant in China before, so it is certainly possible to do, and though we are scared senseless at times we continue to go forward on faith.

This may certainly provide a new twist to the tales we have of our China experience. I think my readers are getting a real bargain, because this is really going to be a 360 experience of life abroad, exploiting so many facets of international living. China just got a little bit more foreign.

Sharing Your Apartment

As I mentioned in the post, "Where in Beijing?" I've been trying to solidify our apartment situation. Using the site mentioned in that same post (beijing.haozu.com) you have a lot of filter options in your search. One of them is to select a "Shared" apartment or to "Rent the Whole". You may wonder why anyone would want to share an apartment, but remember, this is the educational district of Beijing so there are host of students looking for cheap housing and will tolerate roommates. Being married, I was definitely in the market for an apartment all to ourselves, but even using the "Rent the Whole" option I began to get the feeling that the apartments were not completely for one family. The posts were titled "master bedroom rental" and even though it would be a two or three bedroom apartment, they only showed the picture of one bedroom. From these evidences I became convinced that the filter was bogus and that these real estate agents were putting up their apartments under random parameters.

As I selected those that I was sure would be "Rent the Whole" styled apartments, my friend Victoria Wang from Farmington, UT helped us do the translation on three-way calls with the respective brokers. Is was during one of these discussions that the broker revealed that they had another apartment available that was a three bedroom but that the owner had filled two of the rooms with personal storage items and them locked them, but that the rest of the apartment was available for rent. Victoria and I were both surprised to learn that this was really quite common amongst landlords, and that if I had found an apartment that was three bedroom with only the master bedroom available still would be reserved for only one family.

Happy day! This meant that so many more apartments from my searches were viable candidates for us to rent. However on a somber after note, we called on another apartment under all these conditions, and lo and behold, we would have to share it, so the filter of "Rent the Whole" is still bogus every once in a while.

Registering Your Trip

Many of you may know this already, but for a young adventurous student, it may be fresh knowledge. When you plan to travel abroad, the State Department of the United States Government can help provide you with timely information about the destined country, and if you register your trip with them it provides a registry of your address and contact information. This information is extremely important if there is a national crisis where you are residing. The State Department makes it their priority to get U.S. citizens out of dangerous situations as quickly as possible. For example, they evacuated 16,700 Americans out of Haiti after the big earthquake.

The current travel registry is called the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP).

For you students out there, when applying for a visa or registering your trip and you are asked for your local residency, provide the address and contact information of your university until you have additional information.