So
I’ve reached a turning point – I actually no longer “mind” being in China and
am, in fact, a little “glad” to be here.
Yes, I know it was my choice to come here, and I thought it would be “all
that” (mostly just coz I’m a history buff, honestly), but the culture shock was
still, well, a shock! But two things
helped bring about the change of heart: 1) a typhoon. Ha!
But seriously, as I mentioned the other day on FB we had a day off of
school due to a typhoon that actually fizzled out by the time it hit the GZ
area. Anyway, combined with a mid-Autumn
festival holiday day off, it gave me two days off, and I knew I’d go back for
one day and then have my weekend. The
psychological boost of just getting a free day actually made me miss the
kids/work. They’re just so CUTE! J Unfortunately, I can’t post pics of the
little rugrats on FB, but if anyone is interested in seeing some of them, I’ve
got some cute shots from our recent end of term presentations, so hit me up if
you’d like to get a look at some of my favorite students. The second thing that has suddenly helped “endear”
China to me is a boyfriend. Yeah,
believe it. I won’t bore you all with
the deets, so again shoot me a note if you really care to know more. With an upcoming trip to Hong Kong and Macau,
I’m finally, really grooving on the experience.
Woot, woot! J
Chinese
oddity: apparently, you can only buy toilet paper in bulk here. I was lucky in that the previous tenant left
some behind, but as I got down to my last roll, I started comparing prices at
different shops and kept putting off buying because I couldn’t find anywhere
that sells less than 10 rolls in a pack.
Turns out, no one does. Although
I still eat out a lot/buy a lot of takeout, I generally still shop once a week
for basic stuff, and I’ve got my little IKEA rolling cart which is handy for a
decent amount of stuff for me to wheel home.
But a 10-pack of TP would take up the whole cart. Finally had to break down and get some last
week and then carry it separately (fortunately, the pkg. had a convenient built
in handle). On the one hand, it makes
sense to sell it in bulk: it’s something you’ll always need, it saves on
packaging (strike that: each roll was individually
wrapped within the outer packaging – fail!), etc. But, on the other hand, since many folks
DON’T have cars here, it is definitely a bit “onerous” to lug home a jumbo pack
of TP on top of everything else. I know
this is minor in the grand scheme of things, but I still find it a bid odd.
Speaking
of odd, the Cheerios here don’t taste like Cheerios. They’re not necessarily bad, and they’re definitely the General Mills brand, etc., but they
are just a little off. It took me awhile
to get up the “courage” to buy milk here in the first place, but I was jonesing
for some mashed potatoes, in addition to breakfast cereal, as well as French
toast. And then Nicky pointed out I
could buy imported New Zealand milk at one of the western markets here, so voila!
But then the not-quite-Cheerios-tasting Cheerios. On top of that, breakfast cereal is even more
outrageously expensive here than it is in the states and I only got the
Cheerios coz it was on sale. On the plus
side, I made some awesome mashed potatoes the other night! J
I
also had some awesome, homemade (of course) Mexican the other night. Heaven!
It was actually leftover from an introductory meal I made for the new
BF, who was trying Mexican for the first time (he didn’t like it – the
fool!). I tried making Spanish rice in
my rice cooker but didn’t put enough “non rice” ingredients in it, so had to
get a Lawry’s Mexican seasoning packet to add to the leftovers, added some
chili powdered up chicken, stuck a crowbar in my wallet for cheddar cheese,
made some homemade salsa, and then added some guac-flavored chips (not TOO
horribly expensive from another Western mart) and was in absolute heaven. Mexican food is definitely high on my list of
things I miss. Sigh.
Staying
on the food theme, I had my first moon cakes this month for the mid-Autumn
festival and they were a mixed bag. Courtesy
of Disney, we all got a certificate to pick up a free “deluxe” box of the “goodies”
from the GZ Marriott. Well, I’m definitely
glad I got the box, coz it’s hella cool (recently posted a pic on FB), but as
for the mooncakes themselves… It’s funny
coz my friend Bex had almost exactly the same reaction to them as I did: (bite
#1) “Hmmm, these actually aren’t that bad…”
(bite #2) “Hmmm, what IS that taste, tho?” (bite #3) “Oh, sweet jesus, these are nasty.”
After which I promptly spit out the third bite and threw it and the rest of
Mooncake #1 in the trash—and then took the other five very prettily wrapped
ones to work and gave them to folks I like and who actually like the nasty
things. I later heard from some of the
locals that these particular mooncakes just weren’t that good – clearly more
effort was put into the packaging. As it
turns out, someone brought some in to the Center a few days later and I had a
small berry mooncake that was actually pretty tasty.
We
had Moon Festival content for our lessons during the holiday time, too, which
was a bonus/help for lesson planning and included a special song, “Hey, Moon”
that I think is the best song I’ve heard so far in the Disney English
content. Amy & I taught my F2D class
the song and then we sang it for their parents in Clubhouse after class and
tore it up! SO cute! J
When
I went to get my mooncakes, I also checked out the Grandview Mall – my new
favorite place in Guangzhou. I was a bit
thrown when I got off the subway stop, though, coz it said it was the Tee Mall,
which I had been to previously and thought, “Hmmm, are they one and the same?” But then I quickly discovered, no, they are
just two huge malls right next to each
other. The number and size of malls
in this country continues to blow me away.
Said malls are basically also connected to each other by an underground
mall - AND there is a thriving street market in between the two above ground.
Anyway,
my initial impression of Grandview was, “Eh, same ole same ole…” but then I
noticed a Toys R Us sign, found a mall map and realized I was just in one of
the four “small” atrium areas and there was a huge central atrium with more
stuff. So I wandered over to that area
and jackpot: multiple, funky dioramas, several large aquariums, water fountains
scattered hither and yon, a Dairy Queen
where I promptly scarfed up a banana split, an ice skating rink, and a huge
arcade and small amusement park.
SCORE! Plus, the aforementioned
Toys R Us where I got some cool little model kits of “buildings from around the
world” which are just too cute for words.
BONUS: out front of the mall there was a local Michael Jackson wannabe gliding
his way through “Smooth Criminal.” All
in all, definitely one of my better days in China. J
Speaking of shopping, I’ve now hit several local
pedestrian malls and shopping areas (pics are posted – as well as pics for the
above-mentioned Grandview). I was
slightly disappointed with a few exceptions:
The Beijing Lu pedestrian area was a bit cooler, with a movie theater
and ultra-cool glassed in sections of previous levels of the streets from
Chinese dynasties stretching back almost 1,500 years. The Shangxiajiu pedestrian street was cool
for all of the statues and sculptures—as well as the architecture. Finally, the African Market definitely had
the most “local color” and was less touristy/more authentic.
COMING
SOON: My first trip to Hong Kong and Macau!
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