GATES ARE LOCKED!
An hour or so ago (our Tuesday around 11am)a message came up in my neighborhood group chat. We have been locked into our neighborhood. One person in a batch Covid testing came up positive – who lives in our complex. We are all locked in while they test this person. Hopefully they will be negative otherwise who knows how long we’ll all be locked in. There are around 430 houses and one small apartment complex in our community – so that’s a lot of people locked in.
Dan and the kids’ school – and many others in the area- were shut down as of Monday. Yesterday was prep/pick up books/computers/supplies day and today online classes have begun.
Our large local market has been shut down for a number of days due to a close contact person having shopped their. Yesterday I needed to pick up some food so I went shopping in the mini supermarket/bodega like store in our complex. It was a bit of a grab what I need and what I might need and not worry so much about the cost – that brought me somewhat back to early Covid in Brooklyn – with the panic buying. So depressing! In the last few weeks more and more people are being required to stay home as someone they had contact with might have had contact with someone who has Covid. And schools are closing. And so are restaurants and stores and services – as there aren’t enough people to run them and as people are having to quarantine at home – or in Covid government facilities. So discouraging to be back in these circumstances.
To catch up on what we’ve been up to since I last wrote:
My friend HanBin took me out to Song Village – about 45 minutes away – to visit a couple artists in their studios. It was discouraging to hear how stifled the art Beijing art world has become in the last five years, but it was lovely to meet some artists and see what they are working on. Unfortunately they don’t speak English and my Mandarin is still pretty minimal.
Li JiangFeng invited us back for a barbeque at her studio the following weekend. The weather was lovely and the food delicious. It was really special.
After this lavish lunch, I ran home to get ready for a dinner party we were hosting. I decided to have everyone break up in groups and have a short time to find commonalities and then act them out. It was a super fun way to quickly get people to know one another.
Our complex used to have a large American population and although the number of Americans is dwindling there is still a strong tradition of celebrating Halloween. Our complex moved the holiday to the 29th (the Saturday before). I thought this was great ( so much easier than a school night) but there were some purists who held out and insisted on doing their own trick-or-treating on the 31st. We enjoyed answering the door for kids who came by – it was funny that we had very few American kids knock on our door on what I think of as such an American holiday.
The following weekend a parent I’ve gotten to know invited us to her twin daughter’s horse back riding competition. One of her daughters is hoping to make the Olympics. We made a nice day of it. We biked to a local market and had a fantastic Chinese snack lunch. I had buns with vegetables in them – so yummy! They sell everything at the market. Celia loved the fish!
Then we biked over to the horse back riding club. It was super impressive – with lots of indoor and outdoor areas to train and compete. And so scary the horses jumping so high! One of our friends daughter was on one of her sister’s horse who was really worked up. It ran up to a hurdle and stopped – refusing to jump. The daughter riding the horse went flying – hitting the bars of the obstacle on the way down! It was frightening – but she was okay – other than being very disappointed.
The weekend before Morton’s birthday, he spent camping with the Boy Scouts.
Saturday night Dan and I met some friends in Beijing’s 798 art district. We saw a New York Art in the 80’s exhibit. I hesitated going as I just moved from NYC but friends suggested going together. It ended up being a really interesting show and a lovely evening – going out to what felt like a typical American Italian restaurant afterwards. (Funny how small the world is.)This piece (below) from the show was really interesting to me. Reminding me of Roberto Lugo’s current work but this was done in the 80s as a collaboration between Basquiat, Haring and a few other artists.
On Morton’s actual birthday we made our traditional birthday signs (my Dad’s tradition) and went out for sushi – Morton’s favorite.
I recently decided I should start the process of getting a Chinese driver’s license. The first step is to go out to a local hospital and get a physical exam. I biked out to the hospital – went to a few wrong buildings until I figure out where to go. They had me look at one picture which had two numbers written in pale colors. I had to read the number – I assume to make sure I am not color blind. Then I was sent to another office to pay – again I got lost a few times – then come back to get my official papers to sign up for the test. Pretty funny. On the way home I biked by these ladies just performing for whoever happened to be in the park.
The Sunday after Morton’s birthday was “Morton Day”. We did things he wanted to do. I asked around about bagels and was directed to Shanen’s Green Cow Kafe. Our driver drove us to the pin on the map and dropped us off. We then proceeded to walk around for 45 minutes trying to find it – Dan attempting to follow where Apple Map was directing us. After about 40 minutes, Dan and Morton left Celia and I where we started and said to wait -they’d continue to look. As they set off, Celia and I decided to try asking someone working at a meat cart nearby. Celia showed the name of the restaurant to him and he pointed to what looked like a locked barracaded fence across the street. We walked over and were confused. I then asked someone else nearby. He pointed to the same spot. We decided to push on the gate. It opened and inside was a lovely courtyard and restaurant. We called Dan and Morton and explained where to go. Later the owner of the restaurant explained they were forbidden to have a sign in English (I have no idea why they didn’t have a sign in Chinese). It ended up that Dan knows the owners of the restaurant. They also own an organic farm and were trying to get the school to buy the farm for educational purposes. The restaurant was like a taste of home. We all ordered bagels – three of us with lox. It was lovely! Unfortunately the restaurant is closing next month. The property is being taken over by the government – a frequent occurance here as the government owns all land. And all businesses here are very slow due to Covid, so they won’t open another store at the moment. Such a shame!
Afterwards we went to a record store and bought some very expensive records to play on our new record player, and then we walked around 798 – going to a bag store Morton wanted to go to – getting his school bag fixed and buying a new small bag for his new camera.
Just an interesting (to me) note. Along many of the streets near our home there are these beautiful willow trees. Recently I noticed they are chopping them all back. I guess this makes them grow better (?) – I’ve never seen this before.
This past week the kids only had school on Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday were Parent Teacher conferences “Jia Zheng Hui”. Thursday was professional development for the teachers. The day ended with a party for faculty and staff. People were asked to sign up to bring food from their country/culture. We thought we’d support the lovely Shanen’s Green Cow Kafe restaurant and ordered an insane amount of bagels, lox and cream cheese from them ( unfortunately not pre assembled). I showed up a little early to start making the sandwiches. I wish I had taken a picture. The school printed large banners to go at each station. Ours said, “New York Bagels” and had a picture of bagels. As I walked in a bunch of teachers were outside playing beach volleyball, Dan was in the pool playing inner tube water polo. Another teacher told me they just took a yoga class. Pretty great professional development. I assume they did work earlier. Next to our booth was a teacher also from the U.S. He was making fried Orios. Nasty – but so delicious! Canadians to the right – they were serving a drink that was some kind of version of a Bloody Mary – but they insisted it wasn’t. Super spicy!
Friday we drove up to the wall. We met a few other families and rented a little house there and spent the weekend hiking, eating, drinking, and just hanging out. It was really nice.
What else? Without thinking I plugged my beautiful Cuisinart food processor into an outlet – right next to a transformer – and it went POP! I assume it needs to be opened and put a new fuse in it – but finding someone who can do that or who has the right size fuzes isn’t easy – maybe impossible. So sad! I love that Cuisinart – and you can’t buy them -even online -here.
Also, somewhere in here, we bought what “wei gua ren” (foreigners like us) call a tuktuk. A friend is moving away from Beijing and was selling hers. It’s an electric vehicle which drives like a motor bike and feels like you’re in a tin can. Going over any bump you are sure the thing will break – and the other day driving it the back door did fly open and, we didn’t realize until later, the back closing mechanism fell out from the car so now the back door won’t stay closed. I stopped at a store and had Morton buy a candy bar to get a plastic bag to help hold the door closed as we drove home.
I was very skeptical we’d use the tuktuk but it was quite inexpensive so Dan thought we should try it out.
Ends up it has really come in handy! We’ve use it when we have to haul stuff from not far that is too much to carry on the bikes.
Since I started this blog entry, everyone in the neighborhood had to go to the central area and get tested.
A quick addendum: now is the next day from when I started writing. We were released last night! We are free to go anywhere that’s open (which school sadly is not).
Now I am planning Thanksgiving. I’m hosting on Saturday. I dragged my feet about it. Hard to imagine celebrating without all of you – not to mention kids told me the holiday’s only good aspect is being with family and friends – otherwise it’s just about the massacre of the Indigenous Peoples. I’m going ahead anyway. Now I’m searching for where I can get ingredients. Not always the easiest to fine what we’re used to.
I hope you all have lovely Thanksgiving. We’ll be missing you all!