Sunday, May 24, 2009

Fabric Market

I went with a friend to have some sheets adjusted, and it brought back fond memories of my first week in China. Chinese say that foreigners are large and very round (my teacher compared my eyes to Thomas the Tank Engine!), but I think mine were especially that shape my first week here because everything was so new and different.

One of my first experiences was buying custom-made sheets for my bed. K brought me to this place, and I looked through spool after spool of fabric, and, after deciding which one I wanted, bargained with the seller. Er, K bargained for me, since my Chinese was limited to about 2 words at that point.
After buying the material, for the equivalent of about $10, we walked around the corner, where 5 women waited for sewing jobs. We took the material up to one of the seamstresses, and K explained the dimensions of the sheets. The woman didn't seem too pleased, and after a short conversation, K turned to translate back to me. She said the woman thought it was a hassle to sew a fitted sheet, and this would cause it to take longer and gave her a reason to charge more. The amount of time? An hour and a half. The cost? 20¥, or just under $3 U.S. Expecting her to state a much higher cost and amount of time, I happily handed over the money, and a couple hours later, picked up my new sheets!


some women looking at sample sheet patterns
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Parallel Parking is Overrated

This is the street I live on and ride my bike on every day to go to class. This week, on my way home, I saw this:
Here's a closer look:

I thought at first that maybe the driver had crashed into the tree, but a closer look revealed that he/she probably just felt like the car wouldn't fit in the parallel parking space along the street, and that it was easier to park like this than to try and find another place to park. I haven't driven a car much in the last two years, and I'm afraid some of the Chinese driving "rules" will rub off, but I don't think you'll ever see my car parked like that!
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Monday, May 11, 2009

Hua Shan

Last year on a three day weekend, some friends and I decided to go climb Hua Shan, one of China's five Daoist mountains. When we got to the bus station, however, we changed our minds because of two factors: the hoards of people going somewhere because it was a three day weekend, and it started raining. Since that time a year ago, I've been waiting for a chance to try again, and that chance finally came! The view from the top was absolutely beautiful.From the bottom, we hiked 5 hours of steps until we reached the North Peak, the first of five. Some parts were steeper than others, but almost all of the trail was made of stairs carved into the rock.
This was only the beginning!
taking a break
From North Peak, we climbed over to Central Peak, then East Peak, where we spent the night before hiking the rest.
the sun setting during our hike over to Central Peak

The next morning, we woke up early to see the sunrise. It was somewhat cloudy, but still awesome.
After the sun rose, we headed over to south peak, where I walked the plank. I had seen pictures of this before that looked scary, but when I saw the plankwalk, I knew I wanted to do it! We were clipped in with two carabiners, then walked along wooden planks that were secured along the side of a cliff. On the other side was, well, nothing but a really long fall. It was fun, though!
Hua Shan was beautiful, fun, invigorating, cold, and tiring. I love being outside and enjoying nature, but can't say I'm a huge fan of thousands of stairs! It's certainly not a mountain for the faint in heart, or the not-in-shape. I'm glad I finally had the chance to climb it, though...it was worth it!

You can see more pictures here.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Jay the Starbucks Employee

Saturday morning I lugged my laptop and a couple books over to Starbucks to get some reading and work done. I ordered a latte, then settled in for the morning. After a few minutes of reading, the Starbucks employee that had just made my latte came up and asked if I wanted to try some coffee. Confused, I asked him to repeat his question. He asked if he could make me some coffee. Still confused. He repeated his question several times, in Chinese and English. I understood the words coming out of his mouth, but had no idea what he was saying! Finally, thinking that he was planning to make a sample of coffee but wanted to make sure that it would be worth it, that people would drink it, I said yes.

A few minutes later, Jay the Starbucks employee walks up holding a tray. On the tray was a French press and two little coffee cups, as well as a pastry...for the two of us to share. The next two hours were spent on a psuedo-date with Jay the Starbucks employee. Only once did he have to get up to actually work by answering the phone; the rest of the time, even though he was on his shift!

After two hours of talking, I told Jay the Starbucks employee that I had to leave. Walking out to the street, I tried to catch a taxi to go to a friend's house. There was another guy, around 40 years old, also waiting. I commented on how hard it was to get a taxi, and he agreed, then asked where I was going. I told him, and he said that it was near where he was going, and we could ride together. Thinking his idea made sense, I continued to try, unsuccessfully, to flag down a taxi...until the guy's friend pulled up in an Audi to pick him up! Then I realized that he was a completely different page than me, but everything I said made perfect sense with what he was thinking, and vice versa! But he held open the car door for me, insisting it wasn't a big deal, and we headed off to our destinations. I was glad to have a ride, at least, until the driver dropped off the guy who had offered me a ride, awkwardly leaving just me and the driver for the last half of the drive.

Every day in China I experience something I have never experienced before (and it's often something I couldn't have thought of myself), but Saturday was a bonus, with two big adventures in one morning!