Meet Jeneá.

She recently celebrated her 24th birthday after living just 5 months in Beijing. This American expat has definitely come to know: she’s not in Kansas anymore. Or Oklahoma. Same thing.

Deciding that Oklahoma was too mundane, she randomly decided to move to China and work as… an ESL teacher. She promptly learned teaching can be bu hao and landed a new job as a Localization Project Manager—now she plans to stick around for at least a year or two.

Jeneá has had a decent amount of foreigners’ all too common “Oh-my-God-I-live-in-China moments," most leaning toward the more disgusting side of the spectrum. Some of her experiences include, but are not limited to:

-Witnessing a father graciously allow his son to defecate into his hands [that’s love!]

-Having her blood drawn by a nurse san gloves, followed by watching 4 viles of blood be spilt and then cleaned up—san gloves.

-Sinking her teeth into chaun’r made from the meat of a mystery animal’s male genitalia. [Now that’s meat on a stick!]

For a sense of normalcy, Jeneá loves to go dancing at ChinaDoll 3.3, grabs a bite to eat at Lush, or works on her bargaining skills at the Silk Market. She finds the social scene in Beijing incredibly interesting, as she has met fascinating people from all walks of life, but sums up the dating scene much more eloquently: “Dating in Beijing makes about as much sense as Michael Jackson’s marriage to Lisa Marie Presley…it just doesn’t work.”

Tracy Winn loves to find the weird and wonderful characters who make Beijing great. Be sure to check out her other blog for more reflections of a laowai on the highway.