Writers block and Western Exploration

I've been struggling to write this blog recently because – as anyone who has lived abroad in a different culture will know – the things that at first seemed bizarre and strange become the new norm. Whether it’s the bicycle repair stalls on the side of the street, the constant barrage of different smells, or the people staring at you on public transport, all of these things just become part of the background and nothing noticeable. Maybe this leads to a tendency to stop looking around quite so much and to become slightly less observant, but I think it is merely that those things which were once noteworthy are no longer picture worthy and I feel no need to convey those happenings to my blog. I feel as though before everyday contained a new sight, a new struggle, something to rush back to my computer to talk about, it's as though I constantly had to push back against these obstacles. Now however I just glide right past, focused on my destination opposed to what’s going on around me.

Ironically things that make me look up are Western based, I am literally shocked to find them. For instance as I was walking between 2 subway stations - I was conscious of how blasé I was becoming so I purposefully walked somewhere, just to walk - I passed a number of Chinese restaurants both on the street and inside buildings, followed by McDonalds and Pizza Hut, and a large supermarket, all standard really. Then I saw this tiny Snowboarding shop, it was just such a bizarre addition to what seemed a typical Chinese street. 

I went in and admittedly the range offered was pretty minimal. No Snowboards just Winter sports clothing and accessories really. It wasn’t much but it was just so out of place. That’s what made me realise how I expect to see Chinese things everywhere, but when something foreign pops up it’s a surprise. My viewpoint has flipped 180°.

This leads me onto a number of Western things that I’ve been to recently. The first was a poker night held by an American friend. We were promised Gumbo beer and whisky alongside, but courtesy of Evelina turning up an hour and a half late to the subway station we missed that. She was the one with address and when she said she was running late I didn’t quite anticipate that I’d have time to watch Toystory. So we missed the Gumbo, but I found during my wanderings this cool little street full of cosy cafes, plenty of bars, and some cool clothing stores. Evelina and I went back there on Monday but it didn’t have quite the same atmosphere as at 10 o’clock on Friday night shockingly.  Anyway I schooled some American guys at Poker pretty effectively bluffing my way through the entire game, only to be beaten by the only other Brit there (strictly speaking he’s half American half British, but I feel far better saying I lost to a Brit opposed to an American). We had to teach a Chinese girl how to play but she seemed far more interested in playing on her phone, incidentally the same game my 6 year old cousin likes to play, but hey each to their own… So all in all a very successful American night.

So the next country is France. Evelina introduced me to this amazing French café chain in Beijing, it's called Comptoirs de France. I’m so glad she found out about it, it was one of the best moments of my life when they served my real bread. It was heaven. Admittedly the hour long walk which should have only taken 5 minutes wasn’t ideal – yes, we got lost again – and the presentation of the pastries definitely wasn’t Great British Bake off standard, let alone Parisian. 

An actual Baguette!

Yum!

However they serve real bread, most of the pastries taste great – the mille feuille is a bit dodgy- and you can get a sandwich, pastry, and soft drink for only ¥79. As a result of this Evelina and I now go there before our Thursday afternoon lessons for this amazing breakfast!

I don't eat the salad though, that's just weird.

Evelina lives much closer to the city centre than I, so after nights out she doesn’t have to face the horrifying prospect of directing a taxi to her home, in Chinese, whilst drunk – no one knows where I live it's that far away – and she doesn’t have to fork out anywhere between ¥50-¥100 depending on how late we’ve stayed out. As a consequence she’s a bit more up to speed on where to go on a night out than I, so last Sunday she took me to a Jazz club by the North lakes. Which looks very pretty at night. 

The jazz club is small and smoky, the drinks aren’t particularly cheap but the music was really quite good. I’d just like to mention the smokiness, because it is actually the bane of my life. Now in England all the smokers are confined to the cold and the wet, this is great, as a non-smoker I cherish that I can go for a few drinks or even a night out without waking up the next day smelling of an ashtray and without my clothes stinking of smoke. I could just about deal with the smoke during the Summer, yes I’d wake up with my hair smelling horrible, but at least I could hang my shorts and t-shirt on the tiny rail by my tiny window. Now however it’s cold, so I’m wearing a lot of woollen jumpers. These jumpers are neither suited to being put in the washing machine and coming back out the same size, nor are they capable of airing out when placed next to a smoggy window. Hence I’ve been left with some horribly smoky items of clothing. Anyway enough of my smokers rant, Evelina knows some of the guys who were playing. In fact the drummer had been run over a few days before so Evelina bought him some painkillers for his ankle and ribs. I was questioning why he was drumming, but he did sound good. 

Him and the guy playing the double bass were from America. Apparently there’s a whole network of American and European jazz musicians in Beijing, which is pretty cool. The majority of people there were Chinese however which made a nice change. There was one weird moment when a lady at the bar put on a gas mask… couldn’t tell you why, but I did some sneaky photography and got this slightly blurry shot. It was a cool night, and I left feeling slightly drunk but far more cultured. ;) So my unintentional exploration of the West in China kind of culminated in the most American place I’ve been yet. It’s called the Great Leap brewery, they’re a microbrewery based in Beijing and as you sit in the bar you can see the fermenters. 

I tried a pale ale, which was ok. I wanted the oolong flavoured blonde beer but they were all out. What was really awesome though was the Burger I ordered. It tasted incredible, the best I’ve had in China by a long way, and it was served with real tasting fries as well. Evelina and I had a great dinner de-stressing after a weekend of looking after small children and wondering why Baseball is a sport. I mean seriously why? Nothing seems to happen.

Sorry this is so dark, apparently lighting is optional.

Even though this post has been about the West in china, I have been doing Chinese things. I shall write about them at a later date! Promise!