China Moments

Living in Beijing (as a foreigner) is very easy at many levels—many highway signs include English translations, the city bus stops are posted in English and Chinese and many restaurants have photos of the prepared food. The cars drive on the same side of the road as we do in the States, you can find shops that sell “western” products, take-away or carry-out food is quite popular (even McDonald's delivers) and I have been known to take the 1 mile walk to my local Starbucks to pay 30 RMB for a vanilla latte (this is equivalent to the $5 in Stillwater). But amongst all the “normal” is the occasional “China moment”. 

A “China moment” occurred when we tried the McDonald's. The menu looked similar. They handed us the one with many pictures and English letters on some items. Daniel ordered a double hamburger meal, Anna ordered a cheeseburger meal with a special pink drink that looked to be a strawberry cooler (all by pointing). As they prepared to eat, Daniel realized his was two pieces of ham on a bun—truly a ham-burger—and Anna’s drink (which she was concerned was alcoholic) was actually the August drink of the month—a Lychee Cooler! Interestingly enough, Anna's cheeseburger seemed just like we get in the USA. 

We currently take a taxi to work, and then the city bus home in the afternoon. Taxi moments are always fun. We all carry a card with taxi direction to our home and taxi direction to school. This usually gets the job done. However, sometimes the taxi driver passes our road, or takes a wrong turn. Our current Chinese in limited to NeeHow (hello), Xai Chien (Goodbye), Shey-Shey (thank you) and Ting (stop). Since Ting is the only helpful word in this event, we tend to do quite a bit of stopping and starting again until we get to our location.  

Ikea bring about a very visual “China moment." Families that go to Ikea literally spend hours and hours on the furniture and in the restaurant. The top showroom is the most fun for people watching. (Google this—I hesitate to take photos of the sleepers.) Whole families take over a living room display—bringing their laptops in to do work, reading in a comfortable chair, eating snacks at a dining room table. In the bedroom sections, children are tucked into bed sound asleep, sometime with Mom or Dad, too—and other family reading or playing with the cell phones nearby.  And the restaurant is always packed, as is the hot dog/ice cream line at the end. We have been to Ikea once a week since moving here, and we, too, just can’t get enough. Perhaps we will take a nap next time.