2006/12/27

Wayfaring Stranger

Location: Seattle, Washington, USA

Johnny Cash’s version of the old song "Wayfaring Stranger" just came up on shuffle, so it seemed like a reasonable title. I'm back at Home #1 for a couple of weeks (halfway through now), and it's very nice to be surrounded by familiar things, like the cat sitting on my lap as I write. Oh, and the wife too. It's wonderful to be with D. Next week, it's back to Home #2 – when I'm in Beijing and I say "I’m just staying home tonight" I mean Seasons Park, but this house in Seattle was home before that, so I guess I have two homes.

Of course, the weather has been pretty crazy here in Seattle of late. I missed the big storm by a few days, and D had to get through it on her own. She's had all sorts of adventures of her own while I've been half a world away. The power was out for a few days after the Storm Without a Name (apparently there's a contest to give it a name, but I don't think it's done yet). Just to make things more interesting, the power went out again after I got here, though it was a problem unrelated to weather. We got conflicting stories about what happened – either a car hit a power pole in the neighborhood or something happened at a substation, possibly involving a construction crew. Anyway, we spent an extra half day in the dark, and I got to revisit my fire-building skills.

But I'm getting out of order here. CL's driver (Mr. Y) took me to the airport, which is a fair distance out of town. The Beijing construction boom spreads all the way (it was getting dark when I arrived, so I didn't really see much of it then), including freeway improvements. There is still some open country between the city and the airport, though I couldn't tell if it was farmland or what. The airport itself is in the middle of expansion too. I believe there's a whole new terminal that will handle international flights. Customs getting out of China was a breeze. I filled out a couple forms, handed them to people in uniforms, heard the familiar thunk-thunk of them being stamped, and went along. The setup is rather different than any I've seen before, and it took me a while to figure out which signs told me where to go for the United ticket counter. After getting my boarding pass, it was on to the security lines. Passengers to the US and on US-based airlines have separate lines with higher security more or less corresponding to what we have to do domestically. Non-US passengers looked to have a more streamlined screening.

Before boarding I had time for a cappuccino and a muffin, since I didn't have lunch before leaving the apartment (and had nothing left to eat anyway). The 747 was not very full, so I had plenty of room to stretch out. Most of the rows in the back section of the plane had only one person per row. I was in the center five-seat section on one aisle, and there was a man on the other aisle, but no one in the middle at all. There were four movies and two and a half meals. I started watching the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie, but couldn't see the screen well enough to make it worthwhile, so I went back to my Zen and book. Once again I put the music on shuffle, mixing up 2500+ songs. For the book, I'm working my way through Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky, which is a very good, very big science fiction novel. I caught a little sleep, but even with the extra room couldn't get very comfortable. I managed to more or less watch The DaVinci Code, but skipped My Super Ex-Girlfriend and couldn't stay awake for Little Miss Sunshine. The food was neither hideous nor great, so I'd call it a bit above average for airline fare.

I sent D a message from the airport in San Francisco letting her know what my progress was. It was a little strange how things work there for an international flight. I had to wait at the carousel for my checked bag, then hand in the customs form I'd filled out on the plane. After going though US customs, I had to recheck my bag.

The SFO-SEA flight was uneventful, and I was glad I'd stowed a snack in my pocket, since all they provided was a tiny packet of pretzels. I did notice several people on the plane that had also been on the Beijing flight. No in-flight entertainment on this leg at all.

When I got to Seattle, I messaged D, and we talked on the phone (she was at work), and I got a loud unintelligible greeting from her coworkers. While I was waiting for my bag, I heard my name paged overhead, and the woman at the information desk informed me that my bag would be coming on the next flight from San Francisco. I filled out a form with the address to have it delivered to, and went upstairs to wait for D to pick me up. It was so nice to see that familiar Subaru and the familiar person inside.

When we got home (#1), the cats seemed confused and avoided me at first. It didn't take long for them to decide that I was either someone they knew or a new person who could be their friend.

The time zone change hasn't been too bad, certainly nothing compared to the move to China. Several nights I've awoken at two or three and been awake for a few hours, and my energy flags a bit in the middle afternoon, but it's nothing severe. We'll see what it's like going back the other direction. It's nice seeing rain, and grey skies that are grey from natural causes. We've even had some sunshine, and views across Puget Sound to the Olympics (the mountains, not the Games). The condo buildings next door are to the stage of getting roofs, where the last time I saw them they were foundations and the start of frames.

D and I met up with my sister C and brother-in-law S on Friday afternoon at a coffee shop in Seattle. It was a short meeting, but nice to do it in person. I passed along a few China items for them to deliver to the family east of the mountains, and C gave me a 2007 calendar her daughter made with family pictures, along with some other photos for my Beijing apartment. On Christmas day it was the ritual phone calls to and from various family members, and the good news is that everyone is doing well. I heard even more stories about people reading this blog, like old high school classmates. Feel free to say hi in the comments – you don't have to be a member or sign up or anything.

D and I have been shopping for some things I'll take back to China with me. In all my looking around, I've yet to find towels I really like there, so we got some at Costco. Similar story with kitchen knives. I'll also be packing up some of my clothes that I left behind, now that I know better what I need. The raincoat was wasted space, but more sweaters would be good.

And that's about enough rambling for one day. It's time I did something constructive, like fix myself another cup of coffee. The soundtrack for this writing has been more shuffling as I rip some of the CDs I own legitimately to the Zen. It's been Blur, Yma Sumac, Holst's "Mars", Tweaker, Sarah Vaughan, David Bowie, the Commodores and so on (as if there's a pattern…).

2006/12/14

On a clear day you can see across the street

The last few days have been mainly occupied with work. Sometimes that involves staring at a computer screen waiting for a response from another computer half a world away, so there's plenty of time to think between clicks. Lately the main topic in my thoughts has been the fact that I'm visiting home next week. It will be so nice to be back in Seattle for a little while and spend some time with my wife. Skype is nice, but it's not the same as being there. I am bringing her a webcam, so after I come back to Beijing I'll be able to see her instead of just her seeing me.

Here's one of the reasons I will be glad to get out of Beijing for a few days.
This is the view from my living room on a reasonable day.
This was the view on Tuesday. The humidity was effectively zero – that is not fog. It is not in fact a natural phenomenon at all. Of course I had heard that the air quality here is not very good (in fact it's been dubbed the worst in the world), but experiencing something like this gives you an entirely new perspective. The government is making noises that indicate they want to improve the situation, which is a smart survival move. Long-term exposure to conditions like this has to have serious health effects, and in the end it will cost more to care for its victims than it will to clean it up. I hope they're sincere about making things better, but it's not something you can fix overnight, or even in the two years before the Olympics are here.

When the air is like this, you can taste it. If you've ever accidentally got a bit of aluminum foil in your mouth, you've got an idea of what it's like. Picture yourself standing in a closed garage with an idling car, gnawing on a chunk of foil, and you're getting pretty close. I am so glad I'll only be staying here a couple of years.

Daytime temperatures have been in the single digits (Celsius of course – I'm trying to get used to that), and a little below freezing at night. No snow, just moisture-sucking bone-dry air.

I've been waking up in the morning with very dry sinuses and a scratchy feeling in my throat, so I went to a local chain called Gome the other day and bought a humidifier. Gome is basically like Best Buy in the US, with electronics and appliances. It's quite different than places like the Wonderful Digital Jungle. There's no haggling over prices, for one thing. You pick out what you want, and a sales person writes up a purchase order for it. You take the purchase order to a cashier and pay for it, and the cashier gives you two stamped receipts. You take those back to the sales person, they take one and give you the item. Sometimes they have to run off and get it from the inventory room. It's a very slow process, especially considering that there was only one cashier working to cover a whole gigantic floor full of merchandise.
Humidifiers come in many shapes and sizes. My coworker TG bought one at the same time I did, and he chose a sensible adult unit. I, on the other hand, couldn't resist this model. The manufacturer is a Beijing 2008 sponsor or official supplier or something – there's a logo on the box. I like to think all the athletes will have ones like this in their rooms. They also come in pigs, monkeys, and bunnies to suit any Olympian's taste.
I've decided to throw in a picture like this every now and then. I was really bored one day, and couldn't get motivated to go out in the cold, so I took pictures of my TV while I flipped channels. This one is a badminton match at the Doha Asian Games. Stay tuned here for more exciting samples of Chinese broadcasting.

The other night most of the US expats went to a place called The Tree, which is supposed to have the best pizza in Beijing. We read that it's run by a Belgian, and they have a wide selection of Belgian beers, including one called De Koninck that we all agreed is really tasty. The pizza was excellent as well, easily a match for just about any pizza I've ever had in any country. They make it with very thin crust, and the sauce is very good. They only come in one size, about twelve inches, and somehow the five of us ate six of them, which exposed us to the majority of the menu. It was a bit expensive by Beijing prices, but will be good for special occasions (like needing to taste good pizza). Maybe it's a good thing they ran out of De Koninck, or we would have been in trouble. It was Tuesday night, and the place was completely packed. It's located in the infamous Sanlitun area, home of many questionable establishments and some reputable ones as well, and is within walking distance from home if you’re in the mood for a bit of a walk.

2006/12/08

Blog spam

I'm sorry to all those multitudes of readers of my blog out there, but I've had to turn on moderation, which means that if you post a comment, I have to approve it before it will show up. I started getting a bunch of junk mail comments, offers for Viagra (no prescription necessary!) and so on, as well as a peculiar offer from a Saudi Arabian girl who wanted to practice her English. But for actual readers of my babble, don't let that discourage you. I like getting comments - please drop me a line or two; I'll approve your post and it will show up. I keep hearing second-hand about people reading my writings, but only very seldom does anyone post a comment directly. I'm tempted to deliberately write something controversial just to see if I stir up any feelings. Please don't let it come to that. Do your part. If you don't want to put your name out on the internet in public, feel free to disguise yourself. If you're someone I actually know, I'll probably catch on. If you ask a question, I'll answer. I check almost every day. Word to the wise: If you mention Viagra in your comment, I will likely reject it without reading the whole thing.

Soundtrack for the writing of this post is the Edith Piaf collection called Legends of the 20th Century. For the full effect, get out your own copy (you have one, don't you?) and listen to it while reading. And when that's done, put on Queens of the Stone Age.