Hi all,
I’ve been asked to do a “typical day in China” sort of entry. I have also been asked to talk about my birthday experience here. The latter will not take too long so I will attempt to cover both here. Enjoy!
My birthday was on a Sunday this year. I didn’t feel the need to tell too many people about it. We went out for the typical food/drinks that we always do on Friday night. I cleaned up at foosball again. I’m really not that good but so far no one has beaten me.
Saturday the weather was absolutely miserable. I had been hoping to explore the market like I often do but it was quite cold, raining, and windy so no one was up for going out. I had a nice day in.
Sunday I spoke to my parents for awhile on Skype. The 5 day market (it’s a market that happens every 5 days) happened to be on Sunday. It’s always more interesting on a weekend and it’s very near my place. The market that runs every day is called Dong Du and has lots of cool knick knacks but the 5 day market is a real thrill to experience China. It just sort of happens. People set up in no discernible order and sell absolutely anything. It is largely a produce market with lots of oranges, bananas, seeds, spices, apples, cabbage, etc. I bought 16 large clementines at the market today for $1. That many at the grocery store would probably cost $3. I realize a $2 isn’t huge but it’s also 3 times as much.
I also bought a winter coat today that I hope will work. I had found one earlier that was nicer but it was more than double the cost. I think this will work well. I’m really not sure how cold it will get but I’m told they turn the heat on in the province on November 15.
Later in the day my Chinese teacher called me and invited me to her place. She had said earlier that she would do this but one can never be sure in China if things will happen or not. So I went to her house with her husband, daughter, and some other friends. We prepared food for a BBQ. A BBQ in China consists of various things on a stick (but only ever one thing on any given stick) which are cooked over open coals. I could probably throw a Frisbee to 5 of these restaurants from where I live and apparently people eat it at home too.
I took a jug of maple syrup with me as a gift. The daughter immediately loved it and was putting it on everything as well as eating it from a spoon and licking the bottle. Dad would be proud. The rest said they liked it but I don’t know if it was genuine.
After we ate they produced a large cake and proceeded to sing happy birthday to me in Chinese. There was also an awesome candle which I hope to be able to find more of and bring home with me sometime. I was given a gift of a really cool figuring tiger because I was born in the year of the tiger. I knew she had bought it for me because I was with her when she bought it which is another story... ok, it’s a short one (although I manage to make things long sometimes, sorry). I’ll tell it now.
You may remember from my entry on tea that people here take tea very seriously. Well, part of the tea experience is having a “tea pet”. This is often a figuring of some kind which sits on the big tea table (I’m sorry I don’t have a picture of one of these tables but I hope to soon). They can be really cool. I had asked about them that night so Portia decided I should go see some. During lunch on Wednesday she took me to a few tea places which of course meant sitting down while we were offered lots of tea. Everyone wants to have a foreigner come into their store and they want to serve you tea while you do it. The first place had some cool little figurines but there was a really cool tiger as well which I saw but I didn’t mention it cause it was large and I figured expensive. Next thing I know she’s buying it and putting it in a box. I wasn’t really sure what was going on which is kind of normal in those situations.
The next place we went in was a tea shop run by two very cute twin girls about my age. They had a very low level of English, low as in non-existent. One asked me in Chinese what something was called in English. I said “frog” and she kept saying “flog”. Most Chinese people can do the R if they have learned English at all. Still, according to Portia they were insisting that I need to come back and visit them often. Might have something to do with the long eyelashes.
Anyway, that’s how I knew about the tiger. So that’s my story about my birthday. It would appear that I’ve managed to say quite a bit about not a lot of action. I hope it was not too boring but I’ve got a lot of comments about liking detail so you got it! I guess I’ll leave a typical day entry for later on in the week.
Wiseguy1
PS: New pics are online here. I have added a new album since the other was getting large. Footnote: Balthier the chipmunk is doing alright after having escaped his cage for a day. The guy is insanely fast but after a day of chasing him I managed to corner him in the bathroom and caught him but not without sustaining some pretty intense bite marks. Still, he’s a fun and interesting pet when he’s in the cage.
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