Stirring the pot

The past 2 weeks things have mellowed down, and I've had a bit of much needed reflection time.  Although previously I planned to extend my stay in Beijing until June next year, during the past couple days I've thrown myself  back into the limbo of indecision.  a variety of reasons are churning through my fickle mind, but currently i'm leaning towards going back to the US in Dec, so any potential housing for winter and spring in SB let me know!!  I'm going to head out this weekend to a old decaying section of the Great Wall, which a chinese friend recommended, do a bit of solo hiking and chillin - we'll see what happens. 

Tiananmen and our new apt

Fellow comrades,

  currently in the middle of China's national celebration holiday, where everyone gets a week off work and school.  on the dawn of tuesday, October 1st, watched the big red flag being raised at Tiananmen Square, together with a few other thousand enthusiasts, some waiting  since the wee hours of the night.  We appropriately wore green military communist attire (lent to us by our curiously odd landlord), which the Chinese all loved - just about everyone in a 100 foot radius around was asking to take pictures with us.  A wonderful sight to behold. 

  Our new apartment is quite a piece.  5 min walk from campus, along a tree lined road with alleys branching off, people selling everything from haircuts to fruit to CDs, and of course ice cream (and we just found a popcorn vendor!!)  Our building is bordering on the side of "ghetto", primarily since the stairway is stinky dirty and dark, window broken, etc... But no more intimidating than riding the elevator, which is always manned by an extremely eccentric individual: a midget lady, a grumpy chain smoker, or a lovable old grandpa.  Only thing they have in common is their radio, and the stick used to poke at your floor number (violently at times), from their seat in the corner of the elevator.

  Finding our door on the 5th floor can be challenging since the buttons for the lights are hard to spot in the pitch black darkness.  But once you open the door, aaaaaaHHHHHHH, relief, our lovely apartment.  We have been decorating it diligently, after doing a major clean up effort (chinese hygene standards are very..... practical).  Had a maid come in to help, paying her almost twice as much as the going rate - meager $1 an hour.  Now besides the cockroaches, in eternal battle with us, our apt is taking on a sweet and hospitable feel.  Not too bad for US$150 a month per person - though not as cheap as the chinese 8 person dorms (8!!!) which go for US$60 a year.  that's right, a year.

  Good news is that as of a month ago a new law came into effect stating that foreigners can live in 'Chinese people' buildings, as long as they pay a certain amount per square foot.  So maybe, though it is not certain, our living situation might no longer be illegal.  Wasn't really a problem anyway, since just about everything is illegal in China, to one extent or another. We've heard great stories of cops busting foreigners' apartments, kicking them out,  so we had a few concerns, but now things appear to be taking on a postive outlook.  Exciting stuff.

  Our landlord is called HeHe (just like the sound you make when you laugh out loud), and we call him the He-Man.  Not a word of English, and speaks chinese too fast for our pathetic little brains, but somehow we communicate.  Our neighbor is a fat Chinese lady that babbles like there is no tomorrow.  Her daughter is learning English and wants us to help, so we're rapidly developing some 'guanxi' - connections/relationship.  I must say, if nothing else our living situation right now has a whole bunch of character, I love it.