Pothing's Nerfect

Don’t get me wrong, I’m indeed having a wonderful time here Beijing. However…I fear that there are times when I paint an all-too-glossy image in your minds of what my life in China is like, and almost making it sound like some type of magical far-eastern land of wonder and dumplings and dragons and dancing pandas. Well, as common knowledge states, absolutely nothing is perfect. So, while I am indeed experiencing many things one can’t find all that easily back home, on a daily basis I do regularly run into several…. “inconveniences”, if you will.

For example – back across the Pacific where you guys are, any one of you can waltz into any supermarket or gas station, pick up a quart of milk, and that’s that. Here though, it’s not as easy to get one’s hands on dairy. Milk’s not so much of a problem, but I honestly don’t think I’ve had any cheese since I’ve left the states, so as of now I have such a craving for cheddar of mozzarella, I might exactly exchange my soul for a piece, given the chance.

Okay, so maybe I wouldn’t go that far….but it’s still not so simple to come by. To compound that issue, unfortunately, is the fact that I don’t think I should even touch the dairy I can find. I’m sure many of you at this point have heard of how melamine was illegally added to baby formula by several dairy companies over here, which has since led to quite the fiasco. So, until I get the all-clear sign from anyone, I think I don’t have much of a choice for now…that is, unless I develop a fancy for being plagued by kidney stones.

Here’s another thing in short supply besides non- tainted milk – hot water. I can’t just hop into the shower whenever I like and flip on the warm water, easy as pie. In the International Students’ Dormitory, we only get hot water for certain hours of the day, for some time in the morning or some time at night, making things just a wee inconvenient. So for example, if I ever miss the shower hour because I forgot, or was busy, etc., my choices are a bit limited. Either I can brace myself and face the chance of hypothermia as I drench myself in freezing water, or I can try and just wait for next time we get hot water, which by that point I won’t exactly be smelling like a bundle of flowers. Heck, I’ll be lucky if I smell like a burlap sack full of skunk cabbage, probably. 

Another bathroom woe is the fact that the toilets are…er….let me put it this way – I can only find western-style toilets in the dorm room or in hotels but in places like the Ningyuan Building, where the TBC offices, library and classrooms are located, however....

(Fortunately, the toilets aren't upside-down here, for that would be an unthinkably disgusting nightmare....not to mention flat-out impossible, maybe unless you were wearing suction-cup shoes. Anyway, blogger simply refuses to let this photo load right-side up.)

Everywhere else, there’s nothing but squatters, which take some adjustment, and it doesn't help that the overwhelming majority are BYOTP (Bring-Your-Own-Toilet-Paper).

 And the dryers here aren’t quite like the ones back home. They’re a little long, a tad narrow, and even odder, they don’t even run on electricity.

 

Whenever I use the “dryer,” I end up blocking all sunlight into the room for at least a day. I guess I should be thankful that we at least have the washing machines….which like the hot water, are accessible at only certain hours of the day.

Seeing how the weather is getting cooler, he’s something else that I should probably mention – when TBC suggested in the booklet they sent me last spring that I should bring long underwear, they weren’t suggesting that for kicks. Even though I’m sheltered at night by four walls and a roof, I don’t think the building is as sufficiently insulated as it could be. So, it’s starting to get a tad chilly in the mornings…but somehow, not cold enough yet to kill off the bugs in the room. Thank goodness the mosquitoes are gone, because they left me with some butt-ugly welts early on in the semester. The roaches though aren’t as easy to die off, though. Luckily, my room to date only has one roach to date, who only makes quick cameo appearances for now. Still, the little guy makes for a bit of an unsettling sight when I see him scuttling around the bathroom in the morning.

That’s more or less what I’m dealing with right now in exchange for living overseas for a few months. It’s not bad…it’s just a few things that definitely take some getting used to.

….I just hope the dryer doesn’t break down….because not only will my clothes stay wet, but I’ll have to pay for room damages.