Our time in China has such a rhythm to it now; the days are flying by and I see July 1 looming too quickly ahead.  We still have so much to plan and do here, I’d love to slow it all down or add a few months…

We’ve been without internet in our apartment for the last 5 days, so I’ve not been able to email or post.  Renmin has a new policy that locked down internet access in our building, limiting the download capacity (we don’t download anything so this has no impact on us), but also requiring id numbers and passwords that we don’t yet have.  On Monday Art recieved his Renmin ID card with ID number.  This is also the key to his office and so he can now get into his office at off hours and on weekends.  But still no internet luck as this morning we found out that this card/number (that he waited two weeks for) is merely a temporary one… and won’t get us into the internet…

All of our neighbors are furious about these new internet policies, and since they have seniority here (and speak Chinese) Art and I are letting them work the channels with the IT department.  They are teachers with loads of 6 to 10 classes and tons of students emailing them and wanting to skype, many are also earning master’s degrees and PhD’s online and have not been able to get to their coursework… others rely on the internet for movies, news, music, all of their entertainment.  THIS is where people get really mad.  Give man bread and a circus, right?

To all of this, our neighbor Jack says: TIC (This is China).

Anyway… day to day life is slower with no internet, no TV (you know how this makes my heart sing), minimal DVDs… no gymnastics and no piano lessons… none of all the running around that keeps us forever on the go at home.  Art and Elle have joined Cece and me in reading… A LOT.  Elle is clipping through chapter books and Art is plowing through one China book after another on his iPad.  Cece, my ever-faithful reading companion is devouring books faster than ever and even sent a plea to Grandma Clara to “please send books.”  Best up on my kindle since we left home have been: Incendiary (Chris Cleve), The Memory Palace (Mira Bartok) and The Book of Dead Birds (Gayle Brandeis, a UofR professor).  All wonderful… the Memory Palace especially (if you love emotionally exhausting reads).  Reading away from home is like wearing someone else’s glasses… seeing/reading through a different filter.  Always, the books I read on vacations and out of my own element stay with me longest…

Still, the days fly.  Getting the girls to BISS in the morning involves getting us down 17 flights and over to the West Gate to hail a taxi (easy some mornings, nearly impossible on other days… one never knows), then settling in for the 30/35 minute ride on Ring Road #3 to the Chaoyang district where the school is located.  This is a very quaint, quiet, ancient neighborhood with mostly “gated” entrances, and with the Harrow School sitting adjacent to BISS, the skinny little roads are crammed BISS and Harrow buses, taxis and private cars, even motorcycles delivering students.  At the gates of BISS are usually two guards who know us now, but still require signing in and a visitor’s badge (I have no qualms about the security here).  The school is housed in a wonderful building and the girls both have sunny ground floor classrooms just beyond the main entrance, so it’s quick to get them settled and on their way.  Occasionally I go for coffee after this at a Costa Coffee near the school, but generally just head back to the apartment.  This means a lovely walk of about 15 minutes or so through the old neighborhood, up and over an original wall built by the mongols, over the canal, and to the subway station, where I catch the train back to Suzhoujie station near Renmin.  Then more walking from that station to campus.  The entire round trip (without stopping for coffee) takes from 7:20am until 9:10.  Always just a hair under two hours.  Later in the day is the reverse to collect them, so nearly 4 hours a day is spent dropping and collecting.  I love it.  I never get to do this back in California, and it’s wonderful to be there just as they emerge from their classrooms at the end of the day, to chat with teachers, and to talk immediately with the girls about their days and all that happened.  Feels good and right to be in the moment with them when they are in the tail end of that high energy afternoon mode.  The last two days, however, Elle has fallen asleep in the cab on the ride home…

Art’s life is busy as ever, but I think even he would agree that day to day life happens at a slower pace here.  He’s teaching on Mondays and Tuesday (late afternoon classes) and holding office hours and meeting students for coffee throughout the week.  He’s also teaching violin at BISS one afternoon a week, and playing in a symphony composed of mostly conservatory students (from the Julliard of Beijing).  He loves everything about life here: totally content and not eager to go home any time soon.

Last Friday he went on a solo field trip to the Bird’s Nest… the huge sports arena of 2008 Olympic fame.  It’s desolate now and in a number of ways in need of repair but Art sure had a good time, as he always does (will post those pictures as soon as I get a little more internet juice…).

And then on Saturday, he dragged the four of us off to the Yonghe Temple, aka the famous Peace and Harmony Lama Temple in Dongcheng district.  This is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery, over 300 years old… and with a serious Saturday crowd that never thinned during the 2 or 3 hours we explored it.  It has one of the world’s largest carvings of Buddha, about 90 feet high and carved from a single tree.  It’s in a building called the Pavillion of Ten Thousand Happinesses.  I love the spirit behind that.  (no photos of the deities…)

Getting there via the subway on a Saturday was sheer madness.  I even felt Art hesitate behind me as we transferred from subway line 10 over to line 5… the mass of human bodies descending the stairs was so thick, really too much to bear.  I  get so nervous with the girls in these situations, but act as nonchalant as I can, like we do this all the time.  Crowded Beijing subways are not for the even remotely claustrophobic.  You literally push yourself, elbows first, onto the train.  Once the doors close there’s not an inch of wiggle room… no way to raise your arm or scratch your nose.  Unsettling for me, kind of scary for a kid…

I had deja vu at the temple.  I’m certain we were there in 2005, but will have to consult old notes, pictures.  I remember the front gates, and Cece at 2 and a half, in her little quilted pink coat, holding a skinny stick of incense and very seriously crouching over one of the kneeling benches…

Anyway.  That’s what we’re up to.  During the week: getting the kids to and from school, lots of reading, figuring out what to have for dinner (tricky given the limited cooking of our little hot plate)… and soaking in as much of China as we can.

Other notes and observations of late:

Art and I feel totally safe in Beijing.  It really is an extraordinarily quiet city given how huge and dense it is.  No beggars, no one slouching around with their pants falling off, no graffiti, no signs of drugs, guns or sinister anything anywhere…  Even the subways, for as crowded as they can be at peak times, are pristine and pure.  There’s the added measure too of security scanners inside the entrance of every line.  EVERYONE queues up and puts whatever they’re carrying onto a conveyor belt for inspection before getting to the ticket stalls.  Can you imagine this taking place in NYC or London??  (note: on the other hand, passengers themselves don’t go through scanners, just bags and packs… so… yeah, a bit futile isn’t it?  Still.  It all feels safe.)

Next to the girls school is a department store with a decent supermarket in the basement.  Good for a quick stop for milk or whatever right before I collect the girls from school at the end of the day.  The sound track they play here includes only three songs, two of which are Chinese covers of Madonna’s La Isla Bonita and Sarah McLachlan’s Adia.  I like this market, but these two tunes belted out in Chinese, over and over and over, kill me.  I laugh alone in the supermarket…

The “shorts and tights” look is big here.  Especially short, short cord shorts worn over thick black tights, with anything from low UGG’s to thigh high leather boots.  Yeah.  Uh.  No…

And goodness.  The “man purse” is very much alive and well in Beijing.  Watch for a special post on this soon.  I am trying to photograph discretely without smiling too hard (note to NJo: total flashback to 7th grade for some reason…).

Finally, last night Art was out late with his Tuesday night class so the girls and I were on our own for dinner.  In keeping with the decadence of “girls night” we ordered McDonald’s by phone and had it delivered! Unbelievable.  Less than 10 minutes from telephone call to our doorstep, and for 88RMB ($13US) we got 10 chicken mcnuggets, 2 medium fries, 2 mcflurries (in a sweet petite size… no super-sizing in this city where no one is overweight), and two double cheeseburgers sans cheese (our choice).  No idea how they got this to us so quickly and so hot… the delivery guy rides a bicycle and our address, by phone and in English goes like this: “Renda, Yiyuan, Building #3, Apartment 1705”

Renda is the slang of Renmin University (it’s like saying “UofR” for Redlands).

Anyway.  No street name, no cross streets… and bingo, he arrived in 7 and a half minutes.  I wonder if they use google maps… or maybe he has GPS on his bike?  There is one mcdonald’s phone number for all of China.  You simply press 2 for an English-speaking operator and viola!  Instant fast food.  I am not a McD’s fan, but everything we got tasted exactly like it does in the States, and the girls were thrilled.  Not to mention it cost less…

Quick photo montage while I have internet…

Note to Lisa: yes, there is pressure here, but a lot of it is self-induced (in their DNA?). This article speaks of students who instinctively know they must do well to honor the family. Also, re: The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, a Chinese mom said to Art the other day: "that woman not Chinese"...

Lama Temple 1

Lama Temple 2 (prayer flags)

Lama Temple 3 (love this green tile)

Lama Temple 4

Lama Temple 5

Lama Temple 6

A noseful...

Lama Temple 7 (offerings)

Lama Temple 8

Making wishes...

Lama Temple 9 (Elle modeling a wall I liked...)

Quilt image 7

Alley near Lama Temple. I could live here.

Our living area (from front door)...

View from the girls' room: looking across living area and down the center hall. On left side of hall are doorways to the kitchen and office, on right is doorway to bathroom and at the end of the hall is our room. It's actually a large apartment and feeling more like home all the time...

Our room. Peaceful.

The girls' room. Sweet.

Bathroom...