Running with CARA

During a short visit to Chicago on my way back to China, I got convinced/tricked/coerced into running with my friend's training group CARA. I was uneasy about the run because I had not been "training" in the last two months because of the Chinese pollution, school stress, and general laziness. When my friend told me about the run weeks earlier, it sounded fun.

Waking up at 6 AM on Saturday morning in Chicago to run 6 miles was seeming a lot less fun when I looked out the window to see a fresh dusting of snow. It was even less fun when we went outside and determined that it was raining. When we went back inside to get another water protective layer, I had considered all of the scenarios of getting back in bed and never running agin.

The concept of group running is not lost on me. I was a cross country and track enthusiast for six years in high school. We ran in groups. We motivated each other. We looked on with understanding when we saw each other collapse in pain after things called "hill workouts." Coming back to America, I was excited to see what the business of running was like. I was thrilled to join in a group of other people who felt it was necessary and appropriate to run in snowy rain on slushy trails through Chicago at 7:30 AM on a Saturday morning. I was not disappointed when we saw numerous runners, CARA and other, running along the lakeshore path that morning.

We joined our pace group of 19 individuals and started out on a 6-mile run. I asked little questions because it's running--not much to know. Our pace leader soon taught me otherwise. Elisabeth and I found our places in the two by two running line. We were the second in line, and it didn't take long for us to resemble something like this:

http://runningtips101.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/running.jpg

Our leader insisted aggressively that we leave no gaps between runners. I felt like I had joined some weird military program in China and had to fall in line or die. My heels were continually clipped by the runner behind me, but I didn't blame him because he feared for his life also! Shortly into the run, the leader sprinted up to tell Elisabeth to move over two inches because she was pushing me to the middle of the path. Fall in line, or die. I almost forgot to mention the military chants that were happening. Due to the rain/snow, the path was pretty gross. The leaders would shout: "WATER!" "RUNNER UP!" "RUNNER BACK!" and my favorite "FOOTING!" which sounded a lot like "PUDDING!" Safety first, or die. It seemed so redundant to keep shouting water and pudding because there was water everywhere! I just kept waiting for someone to slip so I could watch the dominoes fall in a pile of pudding.

Back in the People's Republic:

Quiet streets for early morning jet lagged runs
no snow, no ice, no military march

Wanted: Strong Girls for Carrying Boxes

I consider myself lucky to be raised in a way that never made me feel inferior to the male species. I was given the same opportunities and expected to do the same work my brother did. No one in family ever said, "Hey, go get your brother to help me carry these bales of hay to the cows." Nope. Everyone carried bales, everyone fed feed, everyone was expected to clean their rooms, and everyone tried to get out of the same jobs equally: cleaning calf pens, washing walls in the barn, and emptying the dishwasher.

Being in Asia has been challenging. Here, being a woman can at times actually mean you are worth less-figuratively or literally. Anwer has always proudly claimed that his parents sent his sister to the same school as him and his brother. At first, I was like big deal? Now, I see. It is common for Indian parents to pay for better schooling for boys or not allow young girls to even attend school.

I always hated when people would ask, "Can I get some strong boys to help me....?" Why do they have to be boys? Girls can carry boxes. Girls can push things. Girls are people too. The first time I remember being outwardly angry about this was on a mission trip to Guatemala. They were always looking for boys to do this or do that. I knew that I was strong. I knew that I was capable, and I knew others around me were as well.

It happened in my school recently on a mission of the sorts: the Giving Tree. Our school arranged for over 800 bags of gifts, clothing, and school supplies to be given to a local migrant school. I kept hearing adults asking for "strong boys" to help carry boxes or move bags from one location to another. What is this teaching the girls? Sorry, you're not strong enough or able to carry these things. We don't need you? It got even worse when I found out that they did not have enough people for the trip and had to seek out some "strong boys" who were actually not involved with the charity project at all to come along to deliver the bags.

The way sport teams are often treated is a whole different bag of worms that I'll save for another time, but until then, let's start asking for "strong girls" to carry our boxes. 

What do you eat?

I eat a lot of cereal. In college, I would usually have at least three kinds of cereal at a time. Cereal for breakfast. Cereal for lunch. Cereal for dinner. Cereal for snacks. I love cereal. I loved cereal in India where I drank whole milk that came from a carton that didn't require chilling until opening. I love cereal in China where the milk is closer to 2% and is chilled and is about double the price of milk in India and about the same price as milk in America. The cost of cereal here is outrageous. I pay about $4 for a standard size box of cornflakes. Chinese people do not like cereal. If I want to buy a box of imported Honeycomb or Honey Bunches of Oats, I'll be paying closer to $7. If I want to afford cereal, I go to Sam's Club, but they have for some strange reason stopped stocking corn flakes. 

Here is what about $17.50 will buy you in China:

I went to the supermarket Auchan (the one you can see out my apartment window) first and bought the homemade noodles you see in the bag on the lower left for about a dollar, that bag of dish soap, which I will put in our old bottle, for about $0.25, milk for $2, and cereal for $5--best I could do for that chain of stores. Then I stopped by my favorite fruit shack (about one long Chinese block from my house the other direction) where they cut my pineapples for me when I buy them and bought the bananas, apples, and oranges. They work in 500 gram units here (1.1 pounds), which is confusing because India sold by the Kilogram, and it took me awhile to realize that it's half that here and way more expensive. I paid for my fruit in change and brought my own bags-fruit guy was pleased! Then I walked about 20 meters around the corner to the veg shop and bought the carrots and cucumbers. Veg guy likes me also because I bring my own bags when I remember, and he always takes out the better carrots when I come. He tried to sell me fish a few times also, but I'm just not ready for that. AND, I carried it all in my 31 bag from Grandma! It can hold a lot of weight!

This is my favorite pumpkin dessert at my favorite Sushi spot.

We've also been eating a lot of pastries!

The taste of Pollution

As it is cooling off in Suzhou, it's currently 49 degrees with a high of 57 tomorrow--rough, I know, the pollution is also on the rise. Today, the air quality index reached a high of 237, which is purple, or very unhealthy. Read more about the AQI here.

The first time I was fully aware and conscious of the pollution was about a month ago. We had cross country practice, and the AQI was around 180. I could taste it. It was like walking into a construction site where every material ever required was being cut, painted, and glued. The air gets hazy, and the buildings you normally look at out the window are difficult to see.

To mask or not to mask? Lots of research both ways. Some masks are better than others. This mask was free! I wear it when I bike to school. It gets weird when you smile at strangers.

Here's also a great story and photos of what happens in Beijing when important people visit and the pollution disappears. 

It's a great day to run. It's a great day for the Amazing Race. It's never a great day for touch rugby.

We participated in the Amazing Race Suzhou last weekend. Anwer and I paired up with another new staff couple Bonnie and Kevin to take on the challenge. Bravely, we entered the race with no Chinese speaking members, but we were unafraid. The day started pretty easily with a mushroom challenge and ended with eating stink tofu. Ick. Our newness to Suzhou definitely slowed us down, but we managed with a fourth place finish, which impressed most. I think it's fair to say we'll be gunning for first next year!

This past weekend I got convinced to go to a touch rugby tournament in Shanghai. Earlier in the year, they requested female staff to join because it was a mixed division. I was like, sure, I'll try this out. So I managed to get to two practices and concluded that touch rugby was not very fun. I didn't know what I was doing, and no one was teaching me effectively what to do. My HOD was the person organizing the trip, and I tried to get out of it. I said I didn't want to go unless it was absolutely required. 

Next thing you know, it's 5:45 AM on a Saturday, and I'm waiting on a corner for a bus. We show up to the tournament, and I'm a bit shocked by how much better the other teams appear to be. When our first match rolls around, we realize that we are in fact playing an all male team in a mostly all male division. My face goes from annoyed to pissed in 0.2 seconds. Yay! Our team proceeds to get our butts kicked for the next five matches of the day. I managed to score once in a game, but the rest of the day was a miserable experience of just waiting for the bus to leave. 

Shanghai Burbs

Borrowed some shoes from a kid so I'd look more legit. 

oh hello pollution, so nice to see you!

The highlight of my week was probably my amazing Halloween costume. This is how it started:

And this is how it ended:

Cruising around on our e-bike! Enjoying the final warm fall days!

Sunny Suzhou Sunday

Xiangmen Gate

Chinese ladies doing Dance Aerobics. Yes, I joined for a few songs.

Sunny Sunday! I am so happy to be surrounded by water.

This is how excited Anwer was to be in the wedding dress market of Suzhou-this is where they make all the knock off wedding gowns! It's been my dream to visit this magical place!

Our attempt at keeping plants. 

Ew.

Bulleting to Beijing

We left our apartment at 11:00 AM on Thursday morning headed to Beijing. We walked a short block to the bus depot. We rode the bus for about 15 minutes to a metro stop. We rode the metro, changed lines, and stopped at the furthest North metro station in Suzhou. It only took 90 minutes. This meant we arrived at the station approximately three hours before our train was scheduled to depart for Beijing. Whoops.

I like to be early. I like to have my ducks in rows. I had never been to the Suzhou North Train station, nor had I ever rode on the bullet train. I wasn’t sure on the situation. Needless to say, we had plenty of time to get our tickets and find our platform. We also had plenty of time to realize there was limited snacks and only one restaurant that had no Halal or vegetarian food to feed us. I knew the train would have limited food, expensive food, and crappy food. So far our trip was off to a pleasant three hour wait in the Suzhou North Train station.

We boarded the train like giddy school girls. I was so excited to ride the bullet train. I adore the Indian Railway, and this was sure to be a step up! The comfort of space, ability to walk around, affordability, and get a great view of the countryside are perks to trains that America lacks. We found our seats quickly. I took some snaps and sent SnapChats to all my friends telling them how fast we were going. I tried to take a picture of something once and missed it. Then we started watching movies as it was getting dark and the view was limited in my seat because I didn’t have a proper window to look out.

Hunger began to settle on us. We ventured to the “dining car”. In the movies you see these dining cars and have views of a first class dining experienced followed with High Tea. Instead we found TV dinners of the sort that were covered in plastic and literally warmed in the microwave. After a long discussion, an exchange of money, and a return of money, we went back to our seats with no food. Anwer later gave in and spent $5 on six plums. They were the best plums I’ve ever eaten… or most expensive.

We arrived in Beijing right on schedule. It took us five hours and fifteen minutes to travel 740 miles (or driving from Minneapolis to Lexington, KY). Hana and Lorena met us at the train station, and we began another public transport journey to their home in the central part of Beijing. We took three different metro lines and walked about 20 minutes to reach our hotel and dinner spot. What a relief it was to see a decent meal and know sleep in a bed was in my near future. We had spent about 11 hours to get to that place (granted three of those hours were spent sitting idly due to my over preparedness).

feels like Mussoorie, looks like Mussoorie

It was a strange but familiar situation seeing Hana and Lorena in Beijing after spending the last year as neighbors in India. They had not planned to return to Beijing where they had spent 12 years living before coming to India, but it was a feeling of warmth when we reunited with them in their Chinese city.

crop pants make for great travel! and I am still in LOVE with my Minnetonka Moccasins 

Menus come on iPads

#ourcityiscoolerthanyours

#beijingfashion

Due to the National Holiday, Beijing was even more overpopulated than usual. Most tourist sites were closed, and getting around the city was a logistical nightmare. The sidewalks moved as huddled masses, never allowing you to stop, speed up, or slow down without a near collision with  a person, bike, car, or food cart. The area that we stayed in and that Hana and Lorena live in is a very hipster-esque, tourist loving area, but they assure me it was nothing like this when they first moved to the area twelve years ago. As China is in love with building, constructing, renovating, and progressing, it’s no surprise that their neighborhood is slowing being destroyed.

Things that I enjoyed about Beijing in no particular order:

1.     Toilets everywhere! In India, you go out of your way to find a clean restaurant where you can use a toilet. In Beijing, they have toilets on every block and sometimes every 50 meters. It was brought to my attention that many homes do not have their own toilets and plumbing. They use the public toilets! Imagine! Another thing I did not enjoy about the toilets was the lack of doors. There are sectioned off areas, but everyone and anyone can still see your business. Lorena assured me it used to be worse, and there was just a big hole and no dividers. Ick.

2.     Tourist groups everywhere following flags and wearing matching baseball caps. Obviously, I don’t live in Beijing, and I can enjoy this as an outsider.

3.     Cute shops and cafes that sell all of those useless things that you would never need but would love to buy. Weird household objects in shapes of vegetables. The kind of shops that I love to wander through on State Street in Madison with Lisa in the summer.

4.     Being with Hana and Lorena. Our experience living at Oakland Getters was magical, and being with them again was refreshing. Also, being in Beijing with locals was a much better experience than being tourists. They speak Chinese and know all the best shops and restaurants. I can’t wait to go back and explore more!

5.     The character and style of the homes there. The alleys and streets are romantic and magical. Nothing like living in manufactured Suzhou.

Could I live in Beijing? I don’t know. The lack of blue skies and constant pollution would be difficult. And the -20 degree Celsius  weather in the winter are concerns. I know. I’m from Minnesota. Reminder: in Minnesota we have central heat and properly insulated homes. Although the citiness of the city and character are inviting, I’m happy in Suzhou for now!