today was my first day of rain in beijing. coupled with the temperature dropping about 20 degrees in one day. apparently this is so severe that management decided to post a weather advisory in the elevator. i started worrying about the coming days and whether i’d survive the wet cold.

but as soon as i stepped out into the rain, i realized how much i had missed it.  i took a bizarre satisfaction from forgetting my umbrella, california style, and enjoyed every minute of being in it. of splashing in it on the way to dinner with steffen, of hiding out from it at scrabble night at a cozy bookstore cafe, of watching neon lights shimmer behind it from inside a taxi. it was serene. (i am sure my mom, who is reading this, is going to yell at me, but i promise i’m not sick!)

so that’s it. i will quit worrying about the impending freezing cold and enjoy the current chilly late fall weather. so far loving it.

and on a completely unrelated note, but because every post is better with a photo, here is one from last weekend’s expedition to the summer palace. perfect tranquility. minus the thousands of visitors.

there comes a point, inevitably, whenever you move to a new place, when everything changes.

when you previously thought you could only just stand to stay for three, four months… and all of a sudden you think you might be able to live there for a year. or two.

when you don’t dread nights alone at home because you’re there by choice.

when the people at the local cafe and the delivery guy recognize you.

when your new friends become your family and you have the best time at midnight diner runs, no alcohol needed.

when you’ve tried all the food stalls on the way to the subway station.

when you meet up with someone all ready to go out, and then decide the best course of action is staying in with delivery, ice cream, and a how i met your mother marathon.

when you think that maybe, just maybe, you might finally be able to leave that emotional baggage/aching heart/drama otherwise back at home, 7000 miles away.

when you realize that meeting new people is actually fun, and not the awkward, cheerless chore you thought it would be when you were at home.

it’s the turning point at which a foreign land becomes home. and the weird thing is, you’ve experienced it enough times to know to expect it. and yet, nothing ever prepares you for it. it just hits you all of a sudden while you’re walking home way too late at night, that you’re so used to the sequence of these steps now that you don’t even have to think about them.  and it doesn’t mean that it’s all wonderful and great and comfortable now, but it’s just life as usual, a little less crazy than you originally thought it to be.

today was the first day i went grocery shopping in beijing. real grocery shopping, as in buying raw ingredients for the purposes of cooking.

FAIL.

so far i’ve gotten by in beijing pretty well without feeling like a completely lost foreigner. not today. not only did i question my chinese ability, i also started to question my ability to piece together ingredients to make a dish. and basic math skills concerning pounds, kilograms, and dollar signs. seriously! i wandered around carrefour, which in theory should stock everything i could possibly need, but i couldn’t find anything, read anything, or figure out what i wanted to buy. i think it was quite comical, actually. (by the way, carrefour employees? rudest, most apathetic workers ever! they don’t even look at you while answering your questions.)

it was also the first time i missed material goods from the united states. western food has been surprisingly easy and cheap to come by in this city (EVEN DECENT MEXICAN FOOD!!), so i haven’t been lacking in that department. but there’s something about grocery shopping in america… perhaps it’s an overindulgence, but i for one appreciate knowing that if this supermarket doesn’t stock what i need, there is a chinese or mexican or organic grocer around the corner that will, and not for a fortune.

i miss my trader joe’s.

all that personal nostalgic crap aside though, the store is pretty freaking amazing. the butcher section is HUGE and has maybe 20 guys working it, cutting up whole pigs. there’s a guy skinning and boning salmon at a station. a bunch of women calling out parts of roasted duck. an entire section where you can order all different types of regional street food, such as jian bing, bao zi, dan bing, and any sort of rolled, wrapped, fried goodies you could ever imagine. i was so tempted but felt dumb asking what was in each and every item. the store also stocked a great bakery and an amazing selection of produce. i was really thrown off though because the prices are so different from the US. everything that is common in the US, even non-imported goods, is crazy expensive here. veggies like carrots and broccoli, beef, salmon, tuna, are at sky high prices here.  the only affordable thing i can think of to make is pasta. and potatoes, but i’d have to lug those home. i refuse to cook chinese food here since i could walk across the street and eat food that’s WAY better than anything i’ll ever make for 5 kuai haha. do you guys have any ideas???

also, the whole time i was shopping i thought it was kind of peculiar that every aisle was being mopped down. it wasn’t even close to closing time. but when i was checking out, i noticed a bunch of white men in suits and cute glasses walking around. they had an entire entourage including photographers following them out. when i left the store, they were filing into  three limos pulled up to the curb. turns out they were carrefour execs from france. and the employees weren’t even on their best behavior. -__-

anyway.

tonight my saving grace was bread and butter. 2 kuai baguette from the bakery and i splurged on the butter, a new zealand import (a splurge but still cheaper than the states :P). GOD i miss butter. it makes the whole world right. i mean, what else could you ever need? except maybe chocolate.

row 1: typical lunch; chongqing style ma la tang: you pick from a range of ingredients on a stick ranging from .50 – 1 kuai, and they cook it all up in a numbingly spicy broth. total: 8 kuai ($1.20)

row 2: also typical lunch; possibly most delicious zheng jiao (northern-style dumplings) i’ve ever had. 4 kuai (60 cents)

row 3: the charming, quaint sculpting in time cafe in wudaokou. on the right, audrey showing off her appropriately cute omelet with tomato eyes :)

row 4: the place mall. containing the largest LCD screen in the world. very vegas, according to steffen. on the right, a very crowded pub quiz at the bookworm last night. at the bottom that’s (well, the backs and sides of) laura, the sweetest english girl  ever; and tony, an incredibly good friend and staple in my beijing life (hku kids… yeah. i know hahaha). one of these days when people aren’t so camera shy i gotta take some portraits of my friends here, ’cause they’re what makes this whole thing what it is.

as of today i have been in beijing for one month! time is a funny thing when you go to a new place. at times it drags and you think you will never see home again. at others, it flies by and you freak out because suddenly you realize that time will run out before you get to do all the things you wanted to. all in the space of one day.

i’m enjoying the moments. i’m enjoying the minutes, even as i count them down, i spend walking to the subway in the morning amidst the hustle and bustle of sellers putting out their wares. i’m enjoying the leisurely lunches we spend each day discovering new holes-in-the-wall. i’m enjoying the chill of the fall breeze, the sunny mornings and grey afternoons. most of all, i’m enjoying the growing familiarity of it all.

highlights:

-being introduced to the most delicious breakfast item, tu jia shao bing, by my coworker. it’s not even available in downtown beijing; my coworker stands in line in the mornings near her home and brings it all the way to me! that’s the good kind of chinese hospitality <3

-chill jazz night at purple haze

-deciding to join mike and jane on their NaNoWriMo (aka national novel writing month) adventure, and lucky for me, tony will be doing it here too! lots of time spent in cafes in november, i suspect.

-again, english people. and german people.

-discovering free delivery. from virtually any restaurant/convenience store/fast food/laundromat/giant discount store you can think of. i justify this with the insane amount of walking i already do… i have a pedometer, i checked! this instantly solves my notorious fear of eating alone. you know how that goes. and if you don’t, ask me sometime because i have some good stories.

-indian food & new friends. i definitely got my craving satisfied.

-coming home to the sound of jazz and the city drifting in through the window. someone was having a very classy party on the floor below. with a cup of tea, a soft lamp and a book, i felt like i was in the most perfect little cafe with a 20th floor view. one of my favorite moments.