Chinese Laundry

The honeymoon is over. No more clean socks or underwear- in other words: time to do the laundry. But that is no problem, we have a nice little front-loaded washing machine in the back kitchen. It is a Siemens, a well respected brand. So I get the dirty clothes, throw them in, close the door. And then it dawns on me. Other than the brand name, there is not one even vaguely familiar letter on the command dial. I put the washing powder in one of three optional slots, that seems fine. Then I turn the dial- nothing happens. Another try, again nothing seems to change. On the second round I notice that there is a blinking blue light on a different panel. I push that button as well, and a welcoming sound of water gently filling the drum reaches my ears.
About an hour later, soft parlor music suddenly fills the apartment. Am I dreaming? As the music continues, I decide to find it's source. It is the washer that suddenly has become a musical instrument The cycle is over. I go to open the door, but no, it will not budge. Perhaps there is a built-in dryer as well, so I turn the dial again and press the blinking light. Again the gushing of water starts- another cycle. At least the clothes will get clean.
As the concert starts up again, I again approach the washer, again it stubbornly refuses to open. I start looking for panels that may be opened if I had a screw-driver. No, that does not look good. Perhaps this time I should try a button opposite of the starting position, and suddenly the drum goes faster and faster- a great sign. And as the third concert of the day starts, the door happily yields..
I remove the clothes and turn the apartment into a drying rack. And even the heaviest cotton clothing is completely dry after 8 hour thanks to the dry Beijing air.And I have learned a valuable lesson, it is not over until the washing machine sings.

Walk to work

If interested here is a glimpse of my walk to work. Quite different from my previous drive in. It presently takes me about 12 minutes and the apartment complex that Astri is most interested would be another 5 minutes away. We are about a 20 minute taxi drive to the CBD (Central Business District) if there isn't too much traffic.

If you double click on the slide show it will take you to the Picassa website where you can see a bigger version with some captions.

If you want to see first post, click on First week in China.

New Year's Festival-Year of the Ox

Sunday January 25 started the Chinese New Year festivities. Since our prior New Year's Eve was spent in a Motel 6 with Sadie on our way to Colorado, we decided to do something special to start the Year of the Ox (Philip actually was born in another year of the ox) The '7 star" Pangu hotel was having a special for the holiday, reducing their prices by about 90%. The hotel can be seen behind Philip in a photo. You see 2 buildings, one is supposed to resemble the head of a dragon.
Anyway, a beautiful hotel overlooking the Olympic park. The aquatic center, the Watercube, was seen from our room, as you see in a photo. Dinner was a great buffet with as much lobster, shrimp,crab,oysters you could eat plus lots of other food items. Philip is also seen in a photo with the Swiss born pastry chef Thomas, during an equally impressive breakfast buffet. He popped over to make sure we tasted the waffles with cranberries, his french pastry etc.
All evening spectacular fireworks went off all around us, as colorful and impressive as any we have seen before-all by regular private citizens, shot up from any sidewalk. (Which is why we preferred to watch from a safe distance)
Monday morning started with a walk in the Olympic park including a tour inside the impressive Watercube. Hundreds of Chinese citizens were also touring, and very happy to try out their English knowledge and try to teach us some Mandarin greetings.
Afterward it was time for a taxi trip back to our temporary apartment. Our taxi-driver greeted us with a big smile and a" Welcome to China, Welcome to Beijing!" His vocabulary trumps though were :'NBA" and"Obama, Obama".
Today we were invited by Guang Jun (Philip's nurse) and Xiao to go to a Temple Fair. We were told that traditionally one visits family the eve and first day of the new year, but on the second full day everyone goes out. And it felt as if everyone was there! We did not really visit any temple, but tasted many delicacies from stalls lining the entire Longtan park,as can be seen in the photos;Philip eating lamb, Philip eating Chinese hawthorne, plus skewers of multiple tiny birds and and various sizes grasshoppers.(Notice, Philip did not eat those)
Various acrobats and dancers added a festive atmosphere to a fun day of the spring festival. We feel very welcome everywhere, even by the little girl who pointed at us today, exitedly exclaiming: Foreigners, foreigners!(in Mandarin of course!)
Most people have a week off for this holiday. We were lucky for Philip to get a 5 day break (inc. week-end)so early during our stay). So one more day to continue exploring our new home city of 17 million inhabitants!!

First Week in China

Week 1- January 17
We arrived on January 9th and have had a very busy week. We are in a temporary apartment and Astri is busy with a realtor looking at new apartments. We have had many wonderful meals both expensive and inexpensive. My first week was very busy and actually saw my first patient on Tuesday and then accompanied him with my nurse, Guang Jun, to Beijing Hospital for his Radiation Therapy appointment and met Dr.Li and we agreed on a treatment plan. Meeting many people and learning a lot about the hospital. Astri and I went to a chamber of commerce event at "7 star" hotel, Pangu, overlooking the Water Cube and Bird's Nest. The week culminated in the hospital New Year's party at a buffet restaurant with 600 staff members. I drew the Lucky 5 lottery and judged the fashion contest.

This weekend we were taken by colleague, James Glucksman, VP of HR, to food market, Sanyuanlu which was great and where Astri will frequent for our food. On Saturday night, Guang Jun and her husband Xiao took us to central Beijing Oriental Mall for a wonderful Sizuan meal at South Beauty restaurant. Today we visited Chaoyang park, reputed to be largest urban park in Asia, had a brunch with new friends and colleagues, went to see some carpets, and were taken to busy Chinese "department" store with many vendors of everything.