11.24.08 Shopping and Dentist

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Geoff is coming to visit mid December so I have been looking into places to go for a week while he’s here. First I was thinking Tibet, but then it became so ridiculously expensive because we’d have to have a tour guide that I lost hope. Next I was thinking Singapore because they speak English and it would be warm! However airfare this time of year is insane…as is lodging. Finally, I decided on Hainan Island-an Island just south of China. We will be staying in Haikou. There are only two main cities on Hainan Island, Haikou and Sanya. Sanya is supposedly the place to go for beaches, but Haikou has more activities so I decided Haikou would be better. Everyone I’ve talked to has gone to Sanya so we’ll see if I’ll regret this decision! We can also easily take a bus to Sanya for a day or two.

So my adventure this weekend begins with me trying to find the ticket office to purchase my airline tickets. Their office is located at Paradise Walk, a huge shopping center near where I live. The problem is that I have no idea where the building is or what it looks like. My plan is to just show people the address in Chinese and have them point me in the right direction. Bad plan! The first lady I asked started bowing to me-don’t ask me why- then like ten other people came up to try to help me. All of them talking a mile a minute and pointing to an area with about ten different buildings. I quickly thanked them and booked it out of there before more people flocked. So I get to the general area it looked like they were pointing to and then the trouble began. People started pointing to areas that made no sense. One pointed to an alley way and then another to a department store. I was wandering back and forth forever. I tried to call the travel office and then I tried to call colleagues, but no answers. I knew the office was on the seventh floor of whatever building it was in. So I went in another building that someone else pointed to-although I was doubtful as again it was department stores- and went up to the seventh floor. Except really the building stopped on floor six, so floor seven was the roof. So I’m walking around on the roof, where all the workers are eating lunch. Everyone starts staring at me of course and asking me what I’m doing so I show them the paper and then they start telling me what to do, but I can’t understand. Finally one of them says she’ll show me. So she takes me on a maze to an elevator in the same building, but another area of the building that goes all the way up to floor 45. She tells me to get off on seven. Finally! I made it!
I go in and fortunately they know who I am automatically. They can’t speak English at this office-I had to make my reservations with the headquarters office. So after they print my tickets, I look them over and they’ve spelt my name with a b instead of a c. I should have checked everything all at once, but I didn’t. I told them right away to fix my name. Then I look at them again and they’ve mixed up the re in Geoffrey’s name. And also have our passport numbers reversed so I tell them this. So they fix this. They I notice that she did not put Geoff’s middle name, but it is on his passport so I ask if she can add this as I had it on the paper. Then she puts Kyle-Geoff’s middle name-as his last name instead of Baker as his last name. So she has printed the tickets four times over the span of like forty five minutes! Exhaustion!
As I’m leaving, one of the ladies from the office leaves with me. The elevator comes and it says ‘going up’ so I don’t plan to get on. But the lady insists that I should get on to go down so I think maybe I’m confused. No! I had to ride all the way up to the 42nd floor (I guess I should feel lucky I didn’t have to go all the way up to the 45th floor) and then all the way back down-I started on four seven! Meanwhile the elevator stops for people every other floor. I should have walked! PS -You have not seen a crowded elevator until you’ve been in China!
After this, I am getting picked up by two of my students and their parents to go shopping for dresses for their Winter Program. My class is doing a Pilipino Tinikling dance. One of my students had a family friend that is a tailor and wanted the dresses made by her so we went to see her first. After about two and a half hours we decided against this-still not sure why. Then we went to some costume stores to rent an outfit. After another two and a half hours of perusing, we finally found something all two of them could agree upon. What a long day!
As soon as I got home, I had to leave for dinner at Ella’s and Craig’s. Ella is our former preschool teacher and her husband Craig is some kind of restaurant manager at the Hilton. They invited Luke, Megan and me for dinner. Dinner was amazing…it was the best food I’ve eaten sense being in China! Ella and Craig just got back from their wedding and honeymoon in Australia so there was lots of catching up.
Sunday I went to the dentist first thing. The dentist here is super cheep it was like fifteen dollars for a cleaning. However, I don’t think they do it quite the same as in the US. They mainly just used water and instruments to clean my mouth. No fluoride. At the end they put something on my teeth just where they meet the gums and told me not to eat or drink for half and hour. My throat started hurting soon after this-and is still hurting-so I don’t know if that has something to do with this dental visit. One of my student’s mother took me to the dentist and then we went to a flower market nearby. She insisted on buying me a flower and a pot so we planted flowers back at her house afterwards. I feel so lucky to have such great parents at our school. Then we went to lunch at a vegan restaurant that is amazing-Ava you should come to China just to eat at this place. It is beautiful, the menu is huge and everything tastes delicious.

On Wednesday I went out to dinner with Dave and one of his friends to a Sushi restaurant. It was a pretty awesome restaurant too. For 48RMB/8USD, you got all you could eat/order sushi, a buffet and drinks (soft drinks or beer). Too bad it was far from my house.

Megan and I try to do a yoga class once a week at our gym. We are horrible and I think the muscles in my legs are now permanently injured from the instructor not believing how bad I am. I think Chinese people have increased flexibility. The instructor last class literally pushed on me so hard me eyes started watering and now I am still aching. They also do salsa dancing, belly dancing, hip hop and aerobics. The problem is that these classes are in a room with glass walls looking into the rest of the gym so it is embarrassing. Maybe one day I will try one of them...we’ll see.

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