Caution!

This morning started out with a heart-stopping dose of caffeine compliments of Chinese Starbucks. I decided to test my barista's level of English so I asked him what flavors of syrups they had. He looked at me a little confused but his friend helped him out and pointed to what I meant....then he impressively told me that they had caramel, vanilla, and hazelnut. I proceeded to discover that adding caramel to a mocha creates a whole new dimension of coffee indulgence. Bummer: Chinese Starbucks do not have caramel apple cider OR pumpkin spice lattes.....but they do their best - at least they have a crème brûlée latte. I also provided myself with a slight ego boost to start the day.....

Now....China's pets are fairly normal except the dogs are miniature versions of their American counterparts and cats are rather uncommon. I've seen a ferret store once....but all this is something you might see in the states. However, today, Chelsie and I were greatly amused to see this:

I didn't think China could surprise me anymore....but guinea pigs ON LEASHES? You got me again, China.

Also, remember my previous post on how COLD it's getting? Well, those of you who know me, know that I used to wear flip flops in winter in Colorado. AND the past 4 years of my life have been spent in the land of eternal sun, thus requiring nothing more than the occasional moccasin-wearing day. Well, Beijing is already colder than any winter I experienced in Arizona or Colorado (not even exaggerating). I mean, my mom can attest to the fact that I seldom wore a winter coat or anything heavier than a hoodie in the dead of winter. My daily attire here now consists of at least 2 layers under my North Face jacket, occasionally long johns under my jeans, a scarf, and recently gloves and a hat. The only problem is I had no warm shoes. To solve this I decided today was the day to get some boots. Now, everybody knows that markets here don't sell real things so instead of getting Uggs, I got some FUggs (fake uggs....duh). I'm such a proud new fuggs mommy...

One more thing to report from today: Chinese people have fantastic fashion, i.e.:

And also, we LOVE Herby :)

Brrrrrrrrrr in Beijing

Well, 4 years of Arizona winters definitely did NOT prepare me for this. It seems like it was summer just yesterday and we were parading around in shorts and tank tops. Then we walked out our door one morning to a torrential downpour and ever since then it's been downhill. Malinda told us there's a Chinese saying that goes: "after rain, it gets colder and colder and colder". Haha, pretty literal. But it's true! Ever since "autumn" started it's rained a few times and after each rain the temperature dropped significantly and just waited for the next rain and then got even colder. Before we knew it we were walking to work and instead of t-shirts and shorts, people were dressed like this:

That picture was taken at least 2 weeks ago and nowadays people are legitimately bundled up. Vivian wears 4 pairs of socks in the office, Malinda is normally decked out in at least 3 layers plus a heavy jacket, and even Chelsie and I have succumbed to the cold and are both now wearing layers and scarves and even gloves in the office! It sucks that China doesn't turn on the heat until the middle of November....I don't know if I can handle having goosebumps 24 hour a day for another 2 weeks!

I often find myself sipping warm beverages. This is some yummy chocolate  milk tea....kind of like hot chocolate, but milky and a little more watery.....

BRRRRRRRRR

 

 

 

BUT, all coldness aside, the past 4 years of Arizona fall/winters have deprived me of the beautiful time of leaves changing colors and I am happy to report that Beijing's trees do in fact change colors. It's been beautiful to walk around and see all the reds and oranges and yellows bursting from the plants. I don't remember how long it's supposed to take leaves to fall off trees, but it just seems to be taking a very long time! I'm not complaining though, because once fall is over and winter hits for real I'm going to be one sad puppy with my thin Arizonan blood. For now, enjoy some pictures of a real fall in a real big city....

Fall perfection

Red Sun....CTM

Here in China there are some misunderstandings about things that I just took for granted when I was around lots of fellow Americans. When we had our mid-autumn event we had to make some paper mache suns so we used balloons and glued newspaper over them.....and then painted them. Dear Americans, what color would you paint this sun? Just to make sure I'm not crazy I Googled "cartoon sun", hit images, and literally every single picture portrayed the sun as (that's right folks) YELLOW!
ex:

 

Unfortunately, due to the nasty gross disgusting pollution that hangs over Beijing day and night, my co-workers strongly resisted Chelsie and mine's suggestions to paint the sun yellow. Instead they said we should paint the sun red....because that's the color of the Chinese sun. You know how when you look up at the sun and it blinds you and it's just a bright shiny thing in the sky with no absolute shape and its rays just extend into one bright blob...? Well, most days here have a sun that's seriously red/orange and the pollution blocks out every single one of the sun's rays. Literally. The only exception to this is when it rains. After rain, you get a blue sky for a couple days and you sure as heck better take pictures to document it because it'll only be a few days before it's so grossly polluted outside that the building across the street is just a faint outline through the grossness.

So......a few days ago, after a night of rain and thunder and lightning, we were blessed with this sight:

 And then, a mere 5 days later, we walked out our door to be greeted with this unfortunate sight:

Yuck. No wonder my Chinese co-workers firmly believe the sun is RED.


Now that you understand the constant debate about the true color of the sun.....on to CTM. I know what you're thinking: "hmmm...what exactly is ctm?" Well friends, it's Chinese Traditional Medicine. And I used to scoff at the idea of ctm, but I am now a firm believer. When I got sick a couple months ago Yogi (one of the girls I work with) helped me get some ctm. Now, this illness is something I've suffered from before and even with antibiotics it took me a solid 2 weeks to get over it. I took this ctm and was over it in a mere 4 days. I decided then that the next time I put ctm to the test I would have to document it. SO. At the beginning of the week I started feeling myself getting sick. I asked Melinda (another friend at work) to write in Chinese my symptoms so I could take it to the pharmacy and get some fantastical ctm. Now, here were my symptoms: headache, stuffy nose, very very congested sinuses, and a seriously runny nose. Your common head cold, only multiplied about 15 times due to side-effects of pollution and the cold Beijing autumn weather. This is what I got:

These little vials are a common form of ctm. You have to stick a little straw in them and suck up the most bitter, disgusting, gag-reflex-inducing liquid you've ever tasted. Normally you have to take 2-4 of these EVERY DAY, depending on the sickness, and it usually leads to a facial expression similar to this:

Yucky icky nasty BLECH
I also got these lovely little green gems....

I got 3 packages with 12 pills, equaling 36 pills. Now, how many of these would you think you'd take in a day? Maybe like 1 or 2 a couple times a day? Oh no no. I asked Melinda how much I was supposed to take and this, I'm not kidding, was her answer: "take 3-5 pills 3 times a day." My response: "what, seriously?" She said "yeah, so take 5 pills right now, then later take maybe 3, then at night take 4 pills. Do this until you feel better."

Wow. No "don't exceed more than 3 pills in a 24-hour period." I took 5 this morning, 4 after lunch, and 3 tonight before dinner. My nose is pretty much un-stuffed now, my nose isn't running, and my sinuses feel rather quite cleared. The only thing that could make this better would be a hot shower to complete the process. This is precisely why ctm works so well....it kicks the crap out of whatever sickness you might have. They smelled like licorice and tasted like soap. Yuck. My gag reflex certainly got tested. But hey.....it works. Can't complain about that.

On another note, this is the beautiful concoction that I invented for dinner for Chelsie and myself the other night....

Yes. You are, in fact, looking at a peanut butter-strawberry jam-smooshed banana-nutella-crunchy cereal cereal double-decker sandwich. It was delicious and I impressed myself with my culinary genius, yet again.

*BOOM*