Happy Passover and Easter to all. We hope everyone had a nice holiday. We did, though not in our normal way of celebrating. I spent the weekend before Passover making matzah kugel and Passover cake with supplies sent to us by Leslie. We found a synagogue in Beijing and attended a formal, very informal seder (if that makes any sense) second seder on Tuesday evening. Their web site is called sinogogue (not kidding). The seder was lead by three congregants. 
The Haggadah was reformed in nature. Everyone got a xeroxed copy without a title page so it was unclear the origin of the text. Pretty much everyone there was western; some members of the local congregation and the remainder were people like us who are in Beijing because of employment or on vacation. A very traditional meal of brisket, tsimmes, gefilte fish, matzah ball soup and chopped liver (real and vegetarian) was served. It was fun to sing the traditional songs and prayers. Makes the world feel a bit smaller.
We spent Easter Sunday riding our bikes around Beijing, Steve’s first road trip around the city and our first time together. It was a relatively peaceful day; fewer cars, trucks and buses. We made our way to the Central Business District which is about 3 miles from our apartment. Steve will fill you in on the details with his blog entry. But, it was a warm, sunny, spring-like day. What could be better!
Work continues to go well for both of us and keeps us busy with lots of activity and long days. We still keep up with the pub quiz every Monday and the Embassy lectures twice per month. We go out to dinner occasionally by ourselves and with friends we have made through the expat groups and with some of Steve’s colleagues. We had our first guests, although they didn’t stay with us. A colleague of Steve’s, Wendy, and her friend Catherine, were passing through and we had dinner with them at a restaurant called Da Dong, known for its roast duck. It was a nice meal and fun to catch up on PwC people and stories.
I continue to be intrigued by Beijing city street activity. I guess it’s just the contrast of seeing the ultra modern side by side with the pre-industrial. On our bike trip over the weekend, I wound up pedaling behind a older man who sells street food. His food stuff is roasted sweet potatoes which are prepared on the street in large metal trashcan like bins. He moves his bin, brimming with potatoes, from locatio
n to location strapped to the side of his bike, almost as if it were a side car attacked to a motorcycle. I was so disappointed that we didn’t come to any red lights so I was able to take a photo of him as he pedaled down the road.
On the same bike trip we stopped at the Chinese grocery store called Jinkalong. We were just locking our bikes when a man come up to us who we realized was a bike lot parking attendant. We attempted to pay him but he motioned that we paid when we returned, the fee based on time spent in the store. It was clear that he would be keeping an eye on our bikes to make sure they were safe. We were back in about 15 minutes. The man reappeared and Steve gave him a yuan, uncertain 
about how much we owed. He gave us 70 mao in return (100 mao to the yuan). The thirty mao he kept were worth about 4 cents. Parked just next to our bikes were a BMW and a Mercedes. I think they paid a bit more for their parking!
Very often you see men on street corners playing board games. It reminds me of the chess matches in Washington Square Park in NYC. Two men will actually be playing and there will be another five or six men huddle around them, engrossed in the action. I’ve learned that they are playing Chinese Chess, which sounds similar in nature to chess but pieces move differently and have different names. (like emperor instead of king). Still a game of strategy and the people standing around are offering strategy suggestions. Only men at these gathering, never women.
More soon!
I’ve finished my second week as a member of the Chinese workforce. My official title (business card and all) is Admission Manager, Beijing City International School (BCIS).
It was kind of serendipitous how I came upon the job. I noticed the ad for it in a English language magazine that someone just happened to pass onto me when we visited Beijing to look for housing in November. I had been skimming for apartment rental ads when I happened upon the job listings and saw the one for the BCIS Admissions Manager. When we returned to New York, I submitted my resume, mostly as a lark, but also with the worry of how I would be occupying my time once we came to reside in Beijing. I thought it would provide a more authentic China experience for me. A few days later I was asked to submit an application and to come in for an interview when I arrived in Beijing. I went through several rounds of interviews, some contract negotiations and finally began work on March 15th.
The Admissions Office is part of the Communications and Development Department (CDD) so, in addition to taking people on tours and processing their paperwork, I will be responsible for doing outreach and marketing to make our school better known to the expat crowd to attract more students. We have about 600 students with a 
building capacity of about 1200. I am supposed to supervise two women whose primary responsibility it is to lead the tours, field phone calls and accept the admissions applications and process them. I say supposed to because at the moment they are the ones who are teaching me the ropes! It’s an IB curriculum school, primary through Diploma, that was founded 5 years ago; relatively new among the other international schools here. If you want more info you can check out the web site www.bcis.cn.
I am the only western person in my all female, eight person department (CDD) and the only native English speaker. Before I arrived, all of the inter-office communication was conducted in Chinese. Most of it is still conducted in Chinese unless people are speaking to me or we are having team meetings. As a result, it is hard to pick up on the nuances one gathers from a conversation among co-workers. Everyone speaks English, though, some better than others. Surprisingly, I don’t feel uncomfortable amid the Chinese language. I can pick out words I know here and there, but I don’t know enough to get 
even the context of a conversation. An incentive for me to study my Chinese and learn more quickly! Yet, being in a western style school, where teachers and administrators are primarily western (British, Australian, American), seems very familiar and comfortable. The IB curriculum is inquiry based and there are a lot of hands-on manipulatives and demonstrations of mastery. All the talk from my school board years. I have been impressed with the quality of education and dedication of the personnel who I have met thus far.
My hours are from 8 to 5 with one hour for lunch. That being said, it usually is a much longer day. The commute is about 45 minutes each way. I leave the house around 7 or 7:05, walk 10 minutes to the subway and take if for 4 stops and then walk about 20 minutes to the school. By the time we finish with work and team meetings, it is generally about 5:15 to 5:45, sometimes later.
There was an Expat Fair in Beijing at the end of my second week working and I was scheduled to work at our booth. The purpose of the fair was to provide information about all the goods 
and services expats may need or want in Beijing. So, I was manning our booth with a fellow admissions person and a Chinese language teacher. In my case, talk about the blind leading the blind! No, actually I have learned a great deal about our program and school and feel very comfortable talking about it and answering questions.
This weekend was the first warm, spring-like weekend we have had so far. Too bad we couldn’t take the time to explore the city ourselves. Steve was committed to attend a going away party for a staff member in his department (a trip to a local amusement park and dinner, really) on Saturday and I had to work at the Expat Fair for my second shift on Sunday afternoon. Maybe we’ll be better coordinated next weekend!
Everyday life is generally pretty normal in Beijing and one tends to forget that we are living in a totalitarian society. Well, that realization came to the fore when I got a knock on the door about 10:30 on Wednesday morning. Standing at the threshold were two, uniformed policemen asking for my passport and police registration receipt (when you move into an apartment building, expats must register with the police and you must keep the receipt available for inspection). Of course, I had 
neither my passport nor my registration receipt at home because my new employer needed both of them to apply for my work permit. I politely said I did not have them and explained why. They asked if I had a copy of my passport front page, which I did. I quickly got it and presented it to them for inspection. They examined it, took my passport number and said they could call headquarters and check if I was appropriately registered. He must have had some voice wire directly connected to the station because he began to verbally check my information without dialing or even using a phone. While this was all going on, I wondered what they could possibly do to me or where they might take me and what options I would have depending on how things transpired. All those speculations came to a halt when it appeared they were going to leave. I guess I must have checked out because, after asking how many people lived in the apartment and where my husband and his passport were, they left looking somewhat disappointed. I think they thought for a moment that they had gotten one!
There has been heightened security throughout Beijing this week, probably due to the big governmental conference taking place at the People’s Hall, near Tian‘amen Square. There have been lots of soldiers and police, seemingly unarmed, walking around the streets and in front of places of business. 
Later that same day, at my language lesson at the Berlitz Center in the Ritan Park area of the city, two police officers, one man and one woman, knocked on the classroom door, peeked in to see what was going on, and then left. That was the first time in the six weeks I have been going for lessons that an official of that sort was in the building. My instructor was concerned because she, a native Beijinger, had forgotten to bring her ID card with her. Apparently, all residents have to have their documents with them at all times. I suspect once the conference is over things will go back to normal. I’ll keep you posted.
I participated in my second Beijing city bike ride tour. I went with basically the same group of women as last week. This time we were more ambitious and rode round trip approximately 18 miles. We headed to the Muxiyuan Fabric Market which is very far to the south. I didn’t feel as nervous as I did the week before, but I probably should have. 
We traveled through some very congested areas and had to weave in and out between buses, motor scooters, cars and pedal cars. We had a difficult time finding the market and enlisted the help of a kind young woman who led us by foot through some narrow alleyways to the market. On the whole, a pretty intense ride. The market, however, was amazing. We saw some beautiful fabrics and trimmings. I purchased a few things and got some ideas for other projects. On the way home, we passed by a street vendor who repaired bikes and sold bike parts. His repair kit, parts and accessories were strewn along the sidewalk. He was an older gentleman who seemed to have a nice sense of humor. I purchased a bell for my bike, a real need here, which he installed for me while I waited. He then tried to sell us other parts, like padded cushion covers for our seats and baskets. We declined, but thanked him for his efforts, and pedaled off.My days of bike trips are over for a while since I begin work on Monday, March 15th. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Well, believe it or not, I went on a bike trip around Beijing with three other women today. A little nerve-wracking at first but it was good fun. Biked on the main road to a small hutong and then around the lake at Houhai and stopped for lunch in a dim sum style place that you walk around to various stations and choose what you want to eat. It was a very interesting place but I didn't have my tester (Steve) with me so I was pretty cautious about what I ordered. (photo below)
I also managed to open us a bank account today at Bank of China (a little cheating because Steve's secretary Carol helped me fill out the forms in advance).
March came in like a lion in Beijing. Snow began falling Lantern Festival night (February 28) and continued until morning. Total accumulation 1/2 inch. Just enough to make cars and sidewalks white and streets wet and slushy. It was difficult, but the end of Spring Festival revelers managed to get off their fireworks, but to a lesser extent, I think, than they would have had the weather been more cooperative.
When I think about our February here, it was jam packed with settling in, experiencing new things, and welcoming new opportunities. Each day continues to be an adventure. Some are fun and interesting; others bring the realization that we are strangers and at the mercy of others. The biggest impact is the helpless feeling that accompanies the inability to communicate with people around you or the frustration that comes with being illiterate in the country in which you are living. It limits a full appreciation of what is going on around us and I continually wonder what I am missing. Ignorance should be bliss you say? Was the Chinese message on my cell phone an advertisement or is my service being canceled? I guess I’ll find out soon enough.
We are both enjoying our language classes. That being said, we can communicate very little with non-English speaking Chinese at this point. 
My big accomplishment today was ordering a cafe mocha in Starbucks in Mandarin. However, I didn’t listen to what the order taker was saying to the person who makes the coffee. It took an American behind me, who was paying attention to my order, to direct the clerk to make the coffee I had ordered and payed for. The American told me I had ordered correctly but the clerk had miscommunicated the order. It’s not just the speaking, it’s the paying attention to and understanding what is being said around us. Oh well. I’ll try again.My big news is that I was hired by an international school, Beijing City International School, to be the Admissions Manager. I begin work on March 15th. I learned about the job in an English language magazine. Applying for and securing the job was learning experience in and of itself. I'm sure the next couple of months will be a real adjustment in many ways. But I am looking forward to the challenge and I am glad to have more of a purpose to my day to day activity. 
The school website is www.bcis.cn if you want to check it out. It is relatively new (about 5 years) and the people I’ve met so far are motivated and friendly. In a nutshell, I will be responsible for interfacing with prospective parents and students and building relationship with embassies and expat community groups.
Steve’s work keeps him busy. He hasn’t been required to travel much although he has an engagement or two that are outside of Beijing. He comes home with handfuls of business cards, the primary way people introduce themselves here.
We are beginning to find some weekly routines. Our Monday evening activity is the Pub Quiz at the English language book store/cafe called The Bookworm. The first week we went we sat by ourselves and were decidedly the old folks in the crowd. The next week was pretty crowded so a young couple joined us at our table and then a few others and we had a team. Now, after four weeks, a group of six of us (Americans and Brits) convene, have dinner, chit chat, and then partake in the quiz. We do pretty well until we get to the music portion. Mostly modern songs that we have never heard before. We’ll keep trying for that bottle of wine prize!
We did a little sight-seeing this past weekend. We went to the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, a porcelain museum and a eastern medicine center. We also attended a Chinese opera Hua Mulan, the basis of the Disney movie Mulan. The most interesting aspect of the opera was how is appears that the vocalists, both men and women, imitate the sounds of the instruments in the orchestra. We wondered if that is the origin of the Chinese singing style. Anyone have any insights to share? The National Center for Performing Arts, which includes the opera house, is a spectacular building, a must see for anyone coming to Beijing. It is shaped like an egg from the outside with very high wood vaulted ceilings. The floors are marble, a variety of colors and 
patterns. One enters the building under a pool of water which you can look up through when you travel down the main corridor to the performance spaces.
Our sea shipment finally arrived this week. We were most grateful to receive our bed. Seven weeks of sleeping on the low, hard Chinese style mattress that our landlord was kind enough to loan us was six weeks too many! We are mostly unpacked now and ready to receive any of you who want to have a taste of the East.
We’ve been in our apartment now just shy of one month. The newness of being in the city has passed, although I still don’t feel like a resident yet. We had a quick trip to Hong Kong for work and visa related missions and as we re-entered Beijing and came though immigration, Steve asked me if it felt like I was coming home. It did not.
Hong Kong is a fascinating city; a collision of Western modern, t
raditional Chinese and colonial British. Hoards of people, skyscrapers and markets everywhere. We stayed at a hotel on Hong Kong Island and spent most of our time there. The streets are narrow and hilly. Thank goodness for the escalators and stairs which are available inside and outside of office buildings to assist with the steep terrain. In addition, covered walkways connect the sidewalks two and three stories in the air to take pedestrian traffic off the sidewalks and out of the cross walks. It is maze-like in that not all the covered walkways connect to a building or a sidewalk. Many times I found myself backtracking to get to my desired destination.
We visited the “Peak” which is a high point on the island where you get a view of the downtown business area and further onto Kowloon, which is the p
art of Hong Kong on the Chinese mainland. Because we went there at night, we saw the lights of the city and missed out on seeing views of the China Sea and other natural terrain. The weather was not particularly cooperative during the daylight hours, sun but lots of haze. Maybe another time.
On our trip to Kowloon, we had a chance to visi
t with fellow Crotonite Ally Goldberg, who is in Hong Kong teaching English at a local university. She took us to markets in Kowloon which were even more crowded that the ones on Hong Kong Island! Bird market, goldfish market, ladies’ market, flower market. Lots of shopping going on for the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) which begins on February 14th. We had dinner at a restaurant near the ferry terminal with beautiful views of Hong Kong Harbor and then watched a laser light show that is presented daily at 8 pm. (It reminded me of the light show at Epcot.) We then ferried back to Hong Kong Island.
We went to a Tea Museum in Hong Kong Park that has a wonderful collection of tea pots and other tea related items. We learned about the various types of tea, how they are prepared, the different types of pots, the health benefits of the various types of teas, etc. The Park also has an aviary with many spectacular bird species. They attract the birds for public viewing by hanging fresh fruit near the elevated walkways in the aviary. The birds would swoop by, fill up, and fly off. It made for good viewing.
I can get around Beijing pretty easily now. I have learned to use the subways and found a street map that has the subway stops marked on it. Steve and I have both begun our Chinese lessons. Our tutors have very different approaches. I have learned how to introduce myself (wo jiao Diane), to identify my family members, and how to count. He has learned counting, food and restaurant vocabulary. Between the two of us, maybe we’ll have enough to get by soon. So far, in a pinch, I haven’t had words at my fingertips what would have been useful. But, we’ll get there.
The Haggadah was reformed in nature. Everyone got a xeroxed copy without a title page so it was unclear the origin of the text. Pretty much everyone there was western; some members of the local congregation and the remainder were people like us who are in Beijing because of employment or on vacation. A very traditional meal of brisket, tsimmes, gefilte fish, matzah ball soup and chopped liver (real and vegetarian) was served. It was fun to sing the traditional songs and prayers. Makes the world feel a bit smaller. 
n to location strapped to the side of his bike, almost as if it were a side car attacked to a motorcycle. I was so disappointed that we didn’t come to any red lights so I was able to take a photo of him as he pedaled down the road. 
about how much we owed. He gave us 70 mao in return (100 mao to the yuan). The thirty mao he kept were worth about 4 cents. Parked just next to our bikes were a BMW and a Mercedes. I think they paid a bit more for their parking! 
