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Published: August 9th 2008
Finally! The big day arrived here in China. Our day was pretty standard, we went to the park and explored some paths. Nathan found and picked up a kitten (I screamed, NO! and poured sanitizer all over him)...makes me sound like a freak, but makes for a good story so I'll share anyway. He then found a frog, which he didn't grab and we all stared at it for a while. We went on a couple rides and I bought tickets with my patent-pending charade-like communication skills. We were the only ones on the roller coaster (which goes around the track an exhilarating 1 time). I realized after we got off the ride and started walking away that I lost my umbrella on that ride. We went back and sure enough it was below the tracks. I could have gotten it--this is not Six Flags, but I went back to the office and did the universal sign for umbrella and he followed me back to the ride and climbed down to retrieve my umbrella. We all thanked him and were on our way.
We went back to the apartment to grab my new grocery cart (from IKEA) before heading across
the street to do some grocery/household shopping. We go almost every day because we can't ever get all the stuff we need and carry it. We just filled up the cart and then declared ourselves done. I did solve the mystery of how to go between floors once inside the store. There are interior escalators tucked in one corner and we hadn't seen them before. We went to the housewares section first, since I needed some cleaning supplies. I stood in front of each type of product I needed and within seconds someone came up and pointed to the "best" one. Usually it was a cheaper option than I was holding or staring at. I was just doing the sniff test--since I could not read the labels. The products have english in the labels, so I could determine toilet cleaner versus floor cleaner. Every aisle has about 5 or 6 workers waiting to assist you. They are not working on commission...it's just how it works in a country where everyone needs/gets a job. In the same aisle I had 3 different people help me with 3 different products. I'm not sure, but they might be organized to work a specific
section of the aisle. Fascinating. I needed a mop, and was staring at the many choices, when someone came up and showed me the "best" one...and gave me a demo on how to use it. Pretty nice. I got that mop. Not sure it's for wet mopping, but it dusts very well!
Our grocery list was not too long but included things the kids were sure we needed to restock on (OJ, milk and water). We also got some noodles to cook in our new pots and more of those frozen buns. Nathan has almost finished a package of the ones with custard in them. We think we bought more of those. We'll find out this morning when we open them for confirmation.
After shopping we stopped at this coffee store in the mall. I wanted to surprise Mark with some hazlenut coffee and figured it would be easy enough to get ground coffee at a coffee and tea shop I'd seen. They did sell it, but man! So expensive. I had no idea. For maybe a half a pound, it was 118 RMB ($18). Oh well. Some stuff is very cheap here so as Mark said it
all evens out in the end. Now I need to Google how to make french press coffee. I don't actually remember, and that's the kind of coffee pot I bought at IKEA!
Mark came home and we all went to the park again. It was a little bit less horribly humid and hot. I didn't start sweating for immediately. Took like 10 minutes for it to start. We took the good camera and Mark took some good shots of the kids marveling at the various creatures for sale. Of course, no good can come of stopping to admire rabits, chipmunks and turtles. Nathan wants a furry pet and horrible, allergic mother that I am, I say no each and every time. I'll let you imagine the conversations that followed the pet vendor stop.
We tried to cheer Nathan up by going to this Chuck E Cheese place the kids and I found on a previous mall tour. It's called Toms World and Mark and I predictably sang "Waynes World" when we saw the sign. It's super loud and just like home, there are these professional adult players that have reams of tickets piling up on the floor. We
stopped and watched one man who had mastered a game and had a huge pile of tickets stacked at his feet. He even brought rubber bands with him! This guy was serious. Mark and I laughed when we got to the prize area. The biggest item they have there is a rice cooker. What's the motivation?? It's a kids indoor playground and this guy was rather obsessively playing this single game. I've seen the same thing at Chuck E Cheese back home. It's weird.
The kids cashed out, and we went to dinner at a Teppanyaki place. Teppanyaki is that Japanese chop it up and cook it in front of you style cuisine (Benihana, but less show). We didn't order tons of food, and could tell the waitress thought we needed more...but it was fine. We were in a bit of a rush, because we were going to watch the opening ceremonies at Jiyi's place.
We couldn't find a taxi (at 7:30pm with the entire city going to opening ceremony parties) so we took the subway. We got off at Jing'An temple--near Mark's office and there was a huge crowd gathered around a giant screen projecting the ceremony.
We watched there a bit, and then walked on toward our destination. We were able to get a taxi and Mark navigated to the apartment building in Chinese. It was really great.
Jiyi explained the meaning of the various performances. I'm sure when you watch them, there will be lots of commentary by the newscasters. Mark mentioned another interesting difference watching it here. No tv commericals. No sponsorships and ads...it just went on and on without interruption. Kind of nice! We hung out at the party and watched the Olympics until Nathan fell asleep and Emily was too tired to last much longer. The kids have been out with us most nights this week. They are troopers.
For those wondering how I find the time to write all this--It really doesn't take me that long. I write first thing in the morning when everyone is sleeping or hanging out eating breakfast. Today, I'm the first one up (6:30 wakeup and no sign of Nathan!). It's fun. I recap, recount, and document the memories so we can have a written record of this time.
Update (8/9/08 pm)...Well turns out the staff at the store were friendly for a
reason. I learned today that they employees of the vendor and the inventory in the store is often owned directly by the vendors. When I was staring at toilet cleaners, the rep for a particular brand was pushing that brand. Makes much more sense. I assumed there were some sort of government rules for how many employees the staff needed to have. I am constantly learning how different this country and this economy are than ours at home.
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Linda
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your view versus our view
As we watched the Opening Ceremonies last night, we wanted what you had: No commercial interruptions! And Jiyi's explanations would have been welcome too!