One thing that did get me warm in the past several weeks was the heated floor pad at the apartment of a Korean kid I was tutoring. It was so nice that I forgot myself a little and sprawled out even though I was wearing a dress. It is traditional for Koreans to have heated floors that they will sit or lie on, especially in the family room. When I settle down into my own place I will definitely invest in one of those. Stephanie bought a heated blanket, but I’m a little scared of buying my own because I worry it would either result in my apartment building burning down or searing off my flesh in the middle of the night.
What is keeping me warm right now is a big grandpa wool sweater that I bought off the street in Shanghai this past weekend. Somehow in the middle of bargaining with the twenty-something boy who was selling these sweaters dumped half-hazardly on a plastic tarp a crowd of approximately 75-100 older Chinese men gathered around us. Ok, it may have been that the guy was really funny and I was being loud and joking around and I made him take off the sweater he was wearing so I could see if I wanted to buy it. And at one point he started breaking out kung fu moves. I think the crowd that I helped him gather around his little sweater kiosk allowed me to bargain him down from 70 yuan to 30. I washed my sketchy street sweater before I put it on today, and even though I used a lot of Tide detergent is still smells like pine-sol and China.
The way that people will just decide to sell things in random places is remarkable to me. For example, I had been looking for a blanket and so I bought one at the supermarket. Then, the next day as I was biking down the road, a man stopped his bicycle in a parking lot and ripped open the garbage bags stacked on a cart in the back to reveal a bunch of blankets. And people just rushed up to him and started buying blankets. I guess I am just used to needing something and then setting out to buy it instead of just waiting to stumbling onto someone selling it. Especially something practical like blankets. When I am biking home late at night there is always no one out and the city is completely quiet except once there was this random guy selling tube socks on a street corner with a couple of people in pajamas buying them up.
Oh, and before we stumbled onto this street lined with sweaters for sale, we had intended to go to the creepy cricket/animal market to show it to Stephanie’s friend from NYU that was in town but it was CLOSED. And a building that already had about a story and a half built was in its place. The way that they can build up things and tear stuff down is fascinating to me. I figure its because they don’t have to go through the whole hassle of permits and whatever we have in place in the states. Within my first month of living in Zhangjiagang, the old bus station, built of plaster and cement blocks, was closed and the new one of glass and steel took its place. They built a wall around the old one and they just hack at it and whenever I bike past, sandy bits of building fly into my eyes and mouth. I would be afraid of asbestos poisoning, but I doubt they ever try to fireproof anything here. Though they probably should with people setting off fireworks everywhere and at all hours of the day. There is this one scary construction site that hasn’t been worked on in a while. They tore down the old structure and now it is just rubble with a makeshift wall around it. Once I peeked in and there was a family just living in the wreckage. I’m still fascinated by the 1st world and 3rd world coexisting. China’s rise just seems to be happening so fast and sometimes it seems like its all just built on stilts.
Anyways, I finally found a Chinese tutor and I have had two private lessons so far. It really helps. I can already pick up on the words I learn in the conversations that I hear around me. My tutor’s name is Nancy and she used to work with English First, the other organization in town that employs English speakers, as a classroom assistant. Her English is pretty good. I still have to move my head in order to pitch the tones of words correctly. (For example, when the tone goes down and then back up for a syllable, while I say it I have to awkwardly move my chin down and then up.)
I finally got a haircut. I went into this legitimate looking place and they sat me down in the chair in front of the mirror and started spritzing at my hair while adding shampoo and lathered me up right there, nowhere near a sink. She started “massaging” my scalp--which actually meant scratching her nails up and down my head while gathering my hair into a giant rat’s nest at the top. I didn’t realize, but in addition or maybe because of my hair falling out at an alarming rate, my scalp is super sensitive. It got even worse when she rinsed out the shampoo (after sitting me down next to a sink after the “massage”) and tried to disentangle the giant rat’s nest she had just created. She had to enlist the help of another stylist. They were throwing hair to the floor by the fistful. Then after she and the other person got through all of the knots together and the second guy gave me a little trim, he started to blow dry my hair without a brush or any conditioner and gave me a knot-infested ‘fro. There was a lot of miscommunication and it was after tutoring and so I was tired but it ended up turning out fine. I have an hour and a half to kill downtown every Tuesday between when I tutor and when I meet the English First people at the ex-pat bar so that’s what I did last week and it sort of sucked but at least I don’t have split ends anymore! This week I am going to get a manicure.
Thanksgiving was last week and it was a little sad to be away from America, specifically American food. I did get a group together to go eat lunch at the fancy French restaurant in town and so we got to eat something non-Chinese and have a meal with friends. I made some classes draw turkey hands. These kids have never seen or eaten turkey, but it was the one thing that they knew about Thanksgiving until I taught them about the pilgrims etc. One class even started chanting “Turkey! Turkey! Turkey!” when I walked in. So last week was thanksgiving bingo and the week before that I made them fill out a questionnaire in groups with questions like “who in your group has the biggest feet?” and “name all of the musical instruments you can” in addition to questions for my own amusement like “name three things you think Rachel might like.” My favorite list of three was “handsome men, lovely jewelry, squirrels.” For the record, I absolutely hate squirrels and I am just now realizing I haven’t seen any in China or pigeons for that matter. I did see a kitten under a pile of bags in a garbage can and it freaked me out and I didn’t do anything about it. Am I a bad person? This week I am teaching body parts and the best thing to come out of it so far is I found out what the literal Chinese translation of thumb is…..big mother finger.
Not many pictures this week because I have been forgetting to take my camera places with me. The worst was forgetting to take it to Suzhou, this beautiful city that Zhangjiagang is technically a suburb of even though it is a two hour bus ride away. There was this area of town that was actually declared a historical district, something I’ve never seen before in China, and it was full of cute stores with traditional Chinese gifts lining canals. We stumbled onto this secondhand store full of Chinese memorabilia like stamps, postcards, old ticket stubs and magazines. It was pretty neat.
Here is a photo of the old town that I didn't take.Oh here is one picture I took this past weekend of a crazy Chinese cat/Christmas tree that blew bubbles that I played in:
Here is a tower of books at the bookstore in town that I had to photograph to resist the extremely strong urge I had to knock them all down:
This is a night guard looking lovingly at the cricket he keeps in his pocket for luck. It was so loud we thought it was a noisemaker and then he brought this enormous jarred cricket from his pocket.
Laundry day at school.
That’s all for today. Happy Birthday Mom!
-Rachel
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