Through the polluted haze

Whew, I am really missing Utah this week. I have always taken for granted the fact that we have clean air to breathe almost all of the time. Even when we have an inversion and the air is polluted, it's cleaner air than we have most days in Beijing. I have been doing some research and air pollution is nasty stuff. Chronic, long term exposure to air this bad can cause respiratory infections, lung disease and these pollution particles are so small that they penetrate deep into your lungs and can even get into your blood stream. The US embassy has an air quality monitor and they publish it's data frequently throughout the day. A good day with no visible pollution has an Air Quality Index of 0-100 and there is no risk in being outside. 100-150 is slightly polluted and you may experience a slight irritation in your throat or lungs. 150-200 is where it starts to be visible as a haze and 200-250 is moderately polluted and you should stay indoors at this point because even healthy people be noticeably affected. An index of 250-300 is heavily polluted and 300-500 is severely polluted with strong throat and lung irritations and it can start to trigger illness at this point. On Saturday, our index was 742 which is basically toxic. Everything was gray and it was like a heavy fog of grime had settled over the city. That is 25 times the allowed amount of pollution in the US. And China is so funny about this data, they have gotten after the US embassy a few times for reporting these index numbers and on the Chinese news station (we were watching the English subtitled channel), they reported the haze merely as fog not as the hazardous pollution that it really was.

We live right in the center of this huge city and you can't even see the enormous buildings that are more than a block away.

Everything is so gray and dreary.

Ick. Needless to say, we have been staying inside as much as possible this weekend! When we move back to the states, I will have so much more appreciation for clean, safe air to breathe.

It's already January?!

Wow. I can't believe the holidays are already over and we are into January of 2013 already. Time has just flown by for us since we've been here!! 

Our holidays were really nice. Joel got Christmas day off so we helped Will open his presents (which were all from IKEA because a lot of toys from Chinese stores use lead paint. You have to be really careful about buying toys here, especially for babies since EVERYTHING goes in their mouths...) and skyped with our families. It was such a surreal experience. I have never been away for the holidays, I have always been home with my family. It was so strange to see our familiar living room and Christmas tree through a pixelated computer screen and not in person. But I am so grateful for video chatting!! It lets our parents watch Will grow up even though we are living 6,000 miles away and it feels much more personal than a phone call because you can actually see each other's faces. 

For Christmas dinner, we were invited to the home of our branch president. He and his wife cooked an amazing meal. They have a real oven in their apartment so they roasted a turkey, made stuffing, and baked two pies. It was heavenly. Joel and I ate so much food! Will was his usual charming self and had everyone smiling while we sat and chatted. By the time we left, it had gotten so cold outside. We were hoping to catch a taxi home so we wouldn't have to wait for the bus but the few taxis that we saw didn't stop for us. (That happens a lot in Beijing. First of all, taxi drivers don't really like to take foreigners in the first place. And secondly, we have a baby. They don't really like to take people with children. Sometimes, when we're trying to flag one down, I turn around so they can't see that I'm holding Will. That usually helps us catch a taxi much faster.) So, we ended up having to walk to the bus stop and wait for the bus to take us home. It was only three degrees outside and the wind was howling! When it's that cold, it doesn't seem to matter how many layers you're wearing because the icy wind just cuts through them all. 

I am going to complain about our internet for a minute. So, China heavily controls what content is available here. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, Blogger, and a bunch of other websites are all blocked by the government. You have to get something called a VPN to be able to have normal internet access. It's a service that you pay for and it gives you an IP address in the United States even though we're in China. So it looks like we're using the internet in America. That's what is letting me write this blog post right now. But lately, our VPN (and internet in general) hasn't been working very well. Apparently, China just acquired new technology that allows them to disrupt your internet connection even more. Great. Thanks China.

Also, the new year means we now have to start figuring out how to file our taxes this year.... I think we file a normal return for the money that we earned in the States before we moved here but I'm not sure what we do about the money we earned in China. I'm pretty sure that we still have to report our earnings to the government and just show proof that we paid income tax in China. I am just hoping that we won't have to pay taxes twice!!

I had a big moment last week.... I actually craved real Chinese food! When we first moved here and were trying to get a feel for Chinese cuisine, I didn't really like anything that I tried because I was hoping for and expecting it to be like the Chinese food in restaurants back home. And it's not the same! The Chinese food back home is definitely Americanized. But, after trying things a few more times, Joel and I are started to develop a real liking for some authentic Chinese dishes. Our favorite has to be Jiao Zi, they are steamed dumplings that have all kinds of yummy fillings. You can get them at almost any Chinese restaurant in Beijing. My next favorite thing is called Gan Bian Dou Jiao and they are green beans that have been fried with all kinds of spices and seasonings. They sometimes come with these peppercorns that numb your mouth when you eat them and it makes for a strange and surprisingly unpleasant sensation. The first time I ate them, I didn't know they would numb my mouth and I thought I was getting sick because I suddenly couldn't feel my tongue anymore. 

Joel's school had two different staff parties in December: the Christmas party for the international campus and the New Year Party for the whole school which included all of the international teachers and the Chinese teachers from the main campus. The Christmas party was a blast and it was fun to share some American traditions with the Chinese teaching assistants. I think they thought our gift exchange was weird because people were stealing gifts from eachother. 

Will was the most popular guest at the Christmas party!

The Chinese New Year party was definitely different. All of the teachers have to do some kind of performance. Joel ended up having to sing a couple of different songs for the whole school and perform them again for all of the students. I think the students made him more nervous than the teachers did!

Joel also had some time off for the New Year but they do holidays in a strange way. Joel had two days off for the new year holiday and then another two days that they just borrowed from the weekend. So he had Monday - Thursday off but now has to work the weekend to make up for those days. This next week will be long because he's working Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I don't think making kids go to school on a weekend would be very well received in America but that's just how they do things here!

I know I already said this, but I honestly can't believe it's already been four months. Will has spent half of his life here already. Four months in America, four months in China. I was just thinking yesterday about how far we've come since we moved here. When we first got here, I couldn't even walk into the meat section of our market. I was so sure I would hurl. Now I'm able to calmly walk past pig heads, feet and intestines to buy a pork roast that still has all of it's skin, fat and veins, clean it and turn it into Cafe Rio style sweet pork. Who would have thought?

Will loves playing with Joel, they have so much fun together.

We finally got a high chair at IKEA. No more lap sitting for meals!