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Published: August 20th 2008
Strange geletin mixture
This mixture hardened as our feet soaked, although not completely. Then the salon ladies poured in a white dust and we agitated it with our feet and it liquified again. Strange!SPOILING MYSELF
Today, Monday, I’m pampering myself. It wasn’t even my idea, but I’m so going with it. Joanne, the woman we dined with the night before, set up an appointment for herself and I at a local nail shop that her neighbor recommended. Apparently, she asked about it, and her Chinese neighbor insisted upon calling and then booking the appointment, which are supposedly tough to get. It was a little early for me - she picked me up at 9:30 a.m. - but I gamely roused myself in time to hit Starbucks for a frappachino and fruit salad to get me going (50 RNB).
I’ve only had one pedicure before — a short one before someone’s wedding — so I didn’t have a lot to compare this one too. As always, we had to confront the language barrier. Joanne’s driver dropped us off and pointed us in the direction of building #3. We stumbled at bit at finding the elevator into the tightly-controlled building, but Joanne showed the security guard the card she had with the name of the salon, and he ushered us in. A woman waved to us from an open doorway once we got up to
Joann getting a pedicure
Joann and her four kids just moved to Nanjing. Her husband has been working for Rosemount and been in China overseeing the plant since last November. They have another year here. level 8, so we strolled in there. As we sat down in these red velvet chairs, the woman’s daughter closed the windows and turned on the air conditioner. I’m starting to catch a trend here. The Chinese don’t waste air conditioning on themselves, reserving its use for us Westerners. They, of course, err on the side of way too cold for me, particularly in the mini-vans we’ve been riding in. But I’ve always been a person who hates going between extremes and would just as soon stay in the heat in order to get used to it.
The first step in the process was submerging out feet into a strange, geletin liquid. Over time, the crystals began to harden. When it had cooled, the woman poured in some white powder and had us agitate the mixture with our feet. It began to soften and warmed up again. Strange.
Neither women working there spoke English so we communicated via hand gestures. The girl working on me scowled at my shoes, which are partially closed-toed. Later she came up to me with thongs to purchase; they didn’t want me wrecking my new polish. We were served cups of warm water
- a standard here. You never get cold water, and ice cubes are even more rare.
Our treatments includes various oils, lotions and parafin treatment. The parafin was more liquidy than the stuff we use during our annual Spa Day - or maybe we just don’t know how to use it! It could go either way. But once it was applied they wrapped our feet in plastic wrap. (We’ve got that part right, Jenn.) Then they put these large booties on us which were heated. It felt great.
The main difference between pedicures in the U.S. and those in China are the tools they use. Shaped like small cheese graters, they are used to cut away dead skin, particularly on the heel. Joann said those tools are illegal in the U.S.
The salon worker tsk, tsked at the length of my toe nails and asked to file them down. I wished I could take their toe nail polish remover, which was a pump, home with me. They wet clothes that were then placed on each toe for a few seconds to loosen the polish. It worked very well. The fumes, of course, didn’t sit well with my
Finished product
This color sparkles so much! stomach. Nothing really does, though, so I wasn’t surprised.
it was a good thing I brought snacks and water with as our treatments lasted an astounding 2 1/2 hours. Mostly, we were waiting for Joann’s nails to dry completely so that her shoes didn’t wreck the two smallest toes.
It was a fun experience, but I can’t say that it was very relaxing. There was no soft music or candles; instead, the TV was turned on to the Chinese Olympic channel. I can’t say that I find the Chinese language very musical. It’s not like Italian or Spanish.
We wound up paying more than we expected. That seems to be a trend here too. The written service sheet we were shown included the nail polish in with our Classic Package, but then we were charged an additional 20 RNB for it. *Shrug* Maybe they translated it wrong. In all, the pedicure cost 145 RNB; slightly expensive, but still less than it would be at home.
Joann, who absolutely loves pedicures, said she’d opt next time just for a food massage. I think I’ll need to try one of those next week when we return to Nanjing.
My crazy Chinese lunch
We ordered lunch in a place where no one spoke English and we couldn't read the menu. Thank goodness it was deli-style. I LOVED that green stuff. It was salty and kinda pickly. She has some problem with her feet in which scar tissue has built up. At one point it was so painful she wasn’t able to walk up steps. After visiting Nanjing last August and recieving a foot massage, the problem disappeared. Her opinion is that the massuse broke up all the scar tissue. Wow. I wonder if massage would help with my allergy headaches. Think I can convince Jesse to send me to a massuse for my health once a week? For my health, baby!
INTERESTING TIDBITS
Did you know that the majority of the world’s cranes are here in China? So says Joann. I beleive it too. Everywhere I turn I can see cranes, and not just one or two, but 10 or 20.
Did you know that in 15 years or so, China will have the most English speakers in the world? As a sidenote, I read in the Star Tribune before I left that by 2050 there will be more Hispanics in America than any other group. Wow. I better focus on learning Spanish again before I’m stuck communicating through gestures back home like I do here in Joann's meal
That bread - boiled - was delicious, with a green mixture inside that was a little sweet. The stuff that could be pork wasn't. Joann guessed it was the tofu stalks. China. One of Jesse’s co-workers, an Englishman who resides in Singapore, lived and worked for several years in Miami. In his office of 12, 7 spoke English and 5 Spanish. By the time he left a few years later, the balance had tipped the other way, and he expected that within another year the entire office would be Hispanic. Apparently, all the signs in the city are already in both Spanish and English. Our world is changing rapidly, isn’t it?
Did you know that there is a whole generation of only children now in China? Joann and I had an interesting discussion on how this impacts society. A 20-something Chinese woman actually pointed out the fact to her. Consider a culture in which every child has been spoiled from birth, the center of the lives of 6 adults (parents and 2 sets of grandparents). I’ve always found birth order quite interesting. Only children typically exude qualities of both first born and youngest children. Some tend not to know how to take care of themselves, as their parents have cared for everything for them. The 20-year-old Chinese woman noted that not one of her college roommates could do their own View from the 52nd floor
Everywhere you look you see construction here in China. See the construction area where there isn't a high rise? Those jackhammers are going all day and all night. laundry. Some only children tend to think the world revolves around them as do many youngest. They also face extreme pressure to succeed as their parents have pinned all their hopes upon the life of one child. They are often self-driven. Only children typically communicate better with adults, but not always as well with peers as they haven’t had siblings. Yes, the implications on society are enormous. This particularly 20-something believes the one-child rule has done a disservice to China’s citizens.
WE PLAYED PING-PONG IN THE OLYMPIC CENTER
Ok, it wasn’t THE Olympic Center, but it is Nanjing’s Olympic Center. Supposedly it was built in case they decided to hold Olympic events here. And they haven’t. Various international competitions have been held there, however, I believe. We played ping-pong for an hour or so before dinner. Despite being a sports facility, there were no fans in the rooms where the tables we at. We all worked up a sweat pretty fast. I have to admit I was terrible. Of course, it was only the second time I’ve ever played. I don’t think I’ll be entering any ping-pong competitions in the near future.
More about the center: The Nanjing View from the 52nd floor
This is what we see outside our Crowne Plaza room. It rained the day before and cleared out some of the smog. This is the farthest I've been able to see since we got here. Olympic Sports Centre, in Jiangsu province, China, was the main stadium for the 10th National Games in 2005 and is among the largest sports architectural complexes built - with the most comprehensive functions - before the 2008 Olympic Games. It is currently used mostly for football matches and athletics events. The stadium has a capacity of 60,000 people and was built in 2005.
Occupying a total of 89.6 hectares of land, the center includes a main stadium, a gymnasium, a swimming poll stadium, a tennis center, a news center and auxiliary projects like communications engineering, environmental scenes and energy center. The total investment on the project of the center amounted to about 2.0billion yuan.
GIVE ME THE CHEAP FOOD
When it comes to food, I do my experimenting here in China in small steps. Baby steps towards the unknown green stuff in the deli. Baby steps with the noodles and vegetables I can’t name. Baby steps towards the cabbage. I draw the line at whole chicken, cooked, sliced and then served cold. It still had skin on it and actually looked like a chicken, just sliced on a platter. Seriously. It still Massive city
You get some idea with this picture just how large a city Nanjing is. I think there are 4 million people here. had bones and blood vessels and everything that you could trace. I couldn’t even look at it. (Can we blame that weak stomach on ‘my condition?’)
I had Chinese food for both lunch and supper on Monday. Lunch was with Joann after our pedicure. We headed across the street from a fancy shop we visted that Ex-Pats love so much. It was deli, which made things easier than trying to read an all-Chinese menu would have been. I didn’t see plain rice or noodles, however. Joann hasn’t learned enough Chinese to know the words, so I pulled out my trusty Eyewitness Guidebook. It has a small dictionary in the back, and I pointed to the words as I sure don’t know how to pronounce them. Chinese is a far cry from Spanish. (Though strangely, my initial response once I landed in China was to being speaking in Spanish. Hola. Como esta? No comprende. Gracious. Spanish hasn’t worked out too well for me.) There was no noodles, but they did march to the kitchen and return with plain white rice. Score one for the clueless American. I choose another interesting looking green dish, along with some kind of noodle dish Ping pong at the Olympic Center
Yeah, we were in the Olympic Center - only no Olympic games have been played here in Nanjing. Bummer. and green beans with carrots. Joann got a dish of three breads - they boil them here, kinda like dumplings. They were filled with a sweet kind of green thing. The noodles wound up being pretty spicy, but between the rice and the green dish I ate enough to satisfy my hunger. I actually LOVED that green dish. It was salty, almost as though the greens had been pickled. The rice tamed it perfectly. Joann had got a dish she thought was chicken or pork. It was far from that. The texture was chewey, like a plant. She figures it was tofu, but not the part that folks typically eat, more like the stalk. Our lunch was cheap. I got nearly 2x as much as I needed and it was only 18 RNB. Joanne paid 23 RNB. (Roughly 100 RNB is $15 US.)
I didn’t fare as well at dinner as I had at lunch. And rather than be at a cheap cafeteria we dined at an expensive Chinese restaurant with Jesse’s co-workers. It was in the shadow of the Olympic Sports Center. Actually, it was built into the space below a concrete parking entrance ramp. The entry was Fancy dinner
The start of our fancy dinner. The middle part of the table is a glass piece that rotated so we could all partake out of the same dishes. Notice the chicken that grossed me out so badly. huge, and there were two parrots entertaining diners. We next walked past a fish tank that must have stretched 100 feet. I’m glad I don’t have to clean that thing! We were led past the two main dining areas and entered a labyrinth of private group rooms in the back. There must have been 100 of these rooms. We were shown to one that bordered a false stream. Huge curtains lined the windows, and it appeared as though we were adjacent to a garden. Above our large, round table was a elaborate chandelier, the first such light fixture I’ve actually seen lit here. Most hang but are dark, like at the pedicure place and my Beijing hotel. In the center of the table was a round piece of clear glass that turned. Throughout the 2-hour dinner, waitstaff periodically placed new dishes on the table and we spun it around to dish up. Rather than serve individual dishes, the practice in China is to order several small dishes and share them. Two Chinese with us did the ordering. They walked back to the fish tank and selected the fish that was then cooked, in fact, kinda like picking your own lobster Beautiful chandelier
This place was so fancy. We ate in our own private room. The restaurant stretched on and on. There must have been like 100 private rooms. at Red Lobster in Minnesota. It was served first whole, but John sent it back to have the head removed and it divided up on little plates for each diner. He took once glance at Scott’s plate and instructed him not to eat it. Apparently, he’d been served the fish’s stomach. Peanuts and some kind of strong, strong sprout were placed on the table first. They were followed by liver and pig’s ear. I was so not touching those. As I haven’t perfected by chop-stick skills, I ate the peanuts with my fingers. Other dishes included Octopus soup, the cold chicken I mentioned earlier, tiny shrimp with the skins still on them, and eggrolls. I thought I was going to starve until the cabbage showed up. It was served in a fondue-like dish, and was kept warm throughout the meal by a flame beneath the main bowl. I enjoyed the lamb (it was so tender!) and red peppers, but it was a bit too spicy and I paid for it later.
I kept waiting for the rice to appear, but it never did. Major bummer.
One of our last items was served on a clam shell. What a Delicacy
Isn't this pretty served on a clam shell. The shallot and noodles were well seasoned with garlic. It was among the only parts of the meal I could eat. pretty presentation, I thought. It was a scallop with noodles that had been cooked in a lot of garlic. Have I mentioned how much I love garlic? I was skeptical of the item at first, but Jesse told me I had to eat it because it was a delicacy and they’d be offended if I didn’t. Once I tried it, I scarfed it up. Yum.
The watermelon signaled the end of the meal. The bill for the seven of us came to $800 RNB, which Emerson covered. Sad to say, the expensive food was wasted on me. I would have been happy with rice (and my stomach probably wouldn’t have gurggled so dangerously for hours afterwards). Jesse, however, loved the meal and ate until he was so full he could hardly move.
SUBWAYS IN NANJING
I discovered that Chinese subways are like those in the rest of the world, although much cleaner than those in Vienna (but that’s not saying much). It smelled a little funny, but most things do over here to my American nose. Rather than take a cab back from the Olympic Center to our hotel, we hopped aboard the subway. It still took over Entrance to fancy restaurant
I don't know the name, I'm sorry. But this is the entrance. It was located next to the Olympic Center. In fact, it was built into the bottom of the parking lot entrance ramp. a 1/2 hour, but cost a mere 3 RNB a piece. We were both below ground and above, and I never felt the elevation change it was so smooth. The subway line we were on runs from the Olympic Center to the airport, and we took it about halfway. I’ll need to investigate the three lines in the city more closely. I love traveling by train.
Tomorrow we travel by high-speed train to Shanghai. I’m looking forward to seeing the countryside, and especially the Yangzi River. We’ve been told there are more English speakers in Shanghai than in Nanjing. I’ve got to confess I’m drawn to the city’s decadant reputation.
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Tesha
Wanderer
Hat and language
I know - and the hat keeps getting shabbier and shabbier.