I love shopping, yes I do! I love shopping, how 'bout you?!
This week in good old Beijing seemed to be National Shopping Week (not to be confused with National Week, which will be an adventure to be talked about next week), at least the first 2/7 of it. Filled with much arguing,--I mean bargaining-- money saving, and people laughing at me, it was quite an adventurous adventure week.
After a conversation with someone at church, Mom and I decided to head over to a market area called Qianmen. At least, that's what the subway station is called and that is how I will refer to it. We got off of the subway, avoided death by bus, and were greeted by the sight of Main Street, China. Yes, that was a reference to Disneyland. Because the paved stones, crowds of touristy-looking people, multitude of shops and vendors, and the gigantic Chinese-style gate at the entrance made me start looking for Flynn Rider (except, he would have been Asian! How is that for exciting?! Answer: very.). There was even a trolley! I mean, how much closer to pure happiness can you get? Don't answer that. Anyways, this seemed to be the Destination: Shopping for all of the Chinese nationals coming to visit Beijing. You know how people from all over the country go to Washington, D.C.? Well, Beijing is the capitol of its country too, you know, and it showed. After standing and marveling at the great prices (15 kuai for a Pashmina scarf! I mean, seriously! If you ask nicely and I like you I'll get you one), people began to gather to look at Daniel. And not just a few cute ladies saying hi and walking on or anything, I mean at least twenty, twenty-five people all just standing around and staring at him. It was like they'd never seen a black-and-white before! Oh, I mean a white person. Not a panda.
The entrance to Qianmen street. Pretty, no?
It is so interesting how few foreigners there are here. I mean, I wasn't really expecting anything different, but it's to the point where whenever I see a Caucasian I want to hug them, or at least say hi. But at the same time, they are as much a stranger to me as the other 18 million people in Beijing! And chances are, they aren't even American. Most of the foreigners I've met outside of church have been Australian or German. Huh.
Back to the story. Pretty much, this Qianmen area was just a bunch of shops, many of them Western, but a few just Chinese sort of clothing and merchandise. I saw some cloisonné bracelets for 20 kuai in one place, 10 in another, and 5 in a third! And then when I went to the Silk Market the next day they were asking for 120 kuai each for the same exact thing. Well, now I know. You really have to bargain down at the Silk Market or you way overpay.
Speaking of the Silk Market (I deserve a high-five for that segue, thank you very much), that was Tuesday's Adventure Activity. Yay, shopping! I went there with my friend Daniel, a foreign exchange student who wanted to buy some souvenirs for his family. It was quite fun, and I was on a bargaining roll. It is my new favorite tactic to see something I like, say "I would pay 40 kuai for this." and then when they complain and say it should be 200 kuai, say "40 kuai, or nothing" and start walking away. It's very effective. I bought two pairs of converse for 110 kuai. That's literally $8.50 each. Inorite?! I also had a very amusing conversation(argumentcoughcough) with a tie saleslady. I only wanted to pay 30 kuai each, and she wanted me to pay 80. I said I would buy 5 for 150 and started walking. We got literally 30 feet away and she says "Come back, okay, okay!" and when we get there, "How about 35 each?" I was like, "No way, honey! I say, 30 each, and you say Okay, then say 35 each! That's no good!" I realized I had started to mimic her Chinese accent. I hope she didn't notice. Well, after a little bit more debate in which I think we were actually shouting, I conceded to 155 for five. I should have started lower.
The other funny thing that happened in the Silk Market was that I noticed a little clock thing that my mom had bought for 100 kuai and wanted another of, so I asked how much it would be. The girl said 650 and I was like, "Well, my mom got it for 100" and then she was like "Your mom" and I was like "Your face" and stuck my tongue out. Okay, not really. But, some conversation later I said I would buy two for 150, which is "yi bai wu". Well, halfway through I forget that and start saying "yi bai wan" (I think it was my subconscious mimicking how she was saying "one". I seem to have a problem with this.) She looks at me confused and still wants 200, but I keep saying "yi bai wan". Meanwhile, Daniel is standing to the side snickering. Finally as I'm starting to get mad and walk away from the saleslady he informs me that a wan, in fact, is about ten thousand, so I was actually telling her that I would buy two clocks for a million kuai. Well, thanks for that, dude. That was super helpful.
Shopping Week also seemed to be Laugh at Ellyn Week, as per my experience on my Solo Adventure Day (remember that title from last week? It's totally stuck. It makes me feel so independent and modern. Maybe I should wear mini skirts and get a bob.). I decided to wander off into the wild polluted yonder and find the Ancient Observatory. Beijing is old, in case you didn't know, and there's an old star observatory that's just a few stops down on the subway line closest to us. It was built in 1442, in the Ming dynasty, and they have some seriously cool-looking renaissance-age star instruments that probably have a use but nobody knows what it is and they're too embarrassed to admit it. I mean, what the heck is an armillary sphere? Or an azimuth theolodite? See?! Nobody knows. Well, on my way to the Obsolete Instruments Display I almost got lost. I walked out of the subway station and looked around for about 15 minutes for the observatory, I mean, it's got to stick out! Turns out it was right behind the subway station, and if I had just turned around right at the beginning I would have been there. But I found it, and began walking into what I thought was the entrance. Using my amazing powers of deduction (a process involving observations, conclusions, and green arrows pointing the opposite direction from which I was walking) I figured that I actually went into the exit of some sort of office that was attached to the building. On my dignified way out I saw two Chinese people standing and trying very hard to look they were not smiling, and in fact failing miserably. Well, you could have been a little more helpful, guys. I suppose they were just trying to help me be a problem solver and learn to make my way in the world. I don't much like their methods, however. They could have been more heuristic, pointed to the real entrance and talked at me in Chinese; that would have been helpful.
600 year old wall right there.
Wish I had some lens flare.
This was kind of cool; a mural on the wall of the Ancient Observatory subway stop. They had a few more of these on the 1 line.
I do feel it was worth it, however, as there were a few very interesting exhibits and some nice shady areas. China really is pretty sometimes. (can't you just feel the generosity seeping off of me? I am the epitome of benevolence.) And I got to go to McDonald's for lunch, which was heavenly. Turns out french fries taste the same wherever you are in the world. I even heard someone playing Thriller on their motorcycle radio this week. What a nice reminder of home. At the same time, the cashier at McDonald's brought me a drink I didn't remember ordering because she had been talking at me and I just nodded and smiled. We're really not in Kansas anymore.
I mean, I thought it was pretty.
So, that was my Solo Adventure Day. It was quite fun, actually. Thursday I went and taught piano, which is a seriously huge blessing. I would have zero souvenir money if I didn't make 300RMB a week. It's great, and my client (ooh, how professional I am! I mean my students' mother) even sends her driver to pick me up from my building. He's this super nice Chinese man who speaks a little bit of English, but mostly our conversations are half and half. Almost every time I get in the car after the lesson he turns around and goes, "Oh, piano. Hen hao." and makes his fingers play in the air while humming Fur Elise. It's very endearing, but sometimes I wish he would put both hands on the wheel. Chinese traffic is frightening enough.
Kind of a funny sight on the way to teach piano: a German shopping village.
Friday I played hooky and watched five episodes of Doctor Who.
Saturday my daddy dear was home, so we all went out to Beihai Park. No, not Hei Bai, that's a panda. This was a gigantor park with kilometers of paths (I'm all suave and SI now, can you tell? I even turn on the oven in Celsius), nice little shops, and even a huge lake where you can rent boats and almost have your child launch himself into the water. It's like… oh, I don't know. There's really no comparison to anything in the United States. (How about Central Park, Ellyn, that's a good comparison!) No, silly, that's not even close. (Sure it is, there's boats and shops and urban campers, what's the difference except for the Chinese characters?) Well, for one, Central Park doesn't have Dagobah. (…ting bu dong.)
Oh, you mean you don't know about the White Dagoba, the portal from our world to the swampland of our favorite 900-year-old Jedi Master? Oh! Sorry, my bad, I was actually referring to the White Pagoda, I guess my dyslexia is acting up again. Or maybe the Chinese people who made the signs are the ones who didn't know what they're talking about. Sorry, there's no portal from Beijing to Dagobah. That's in Louisiana.
So, the White Pagoda is the main attraction of Beihai park, and it's pretty cool, I guess. You have to hike up a bajillion stairs in the heat of day with a little monster yelling at you (that would be my brother), and at the top you find a pretty cool, almost Islamic tower/pagoda/shrine sort of thing into which you can't even go. Still pretty nice, though, and a good view of the lake and Beijing as far as you could see in the smog. I would recommend it, and the boat ride was fun. There are worse ways to spend the afternoon.
Chinese parks have a thing for flower arrangements.
The White Pagoda
See? Is it Dagoba or Pagoda?
On the way up
We paid to get Daniel's picture taken. Kind of adorable.
Pretty lake
Not even the most ridiculous of Chinglish signs
I was sort of planning on jumping in if he fell out.
Quite a pleasant boat ride, all in all.
Afterwards we walked along another lake in this total bar and restaurant district that was really alive in the evening. It was a pleasant walk and Daniel was super cute dancing in his stroller. I wish Chinese people had random dance parties that involved some techno. Or at least stake dances, although since we only have six youth over 14 in our ward I don't think it would go very well. I would be rocking out while the other kids did the awkward shuffle. Alas, in order to have a stake dance it is paramount to have a stake. We have only a district.
We ate dinner at an overpriced Thai restaurant, it was a nice evening.
Although, speaking of dance parties, in Beihai park we came across a couple who thought they were in the Chinese version of Bollywood, real-life style. Literally a couple in sparkly Indian clothing came through the park, singing along to their portable boombox and dancewalking their way across the bridge. The guy even came close to Daniel and sang into his face, which of course he found amusing. I wish my life could be like that, alas I am only brave enough to wear Aladdin pants and sing at the top of my lungs around the house (a style which I expect all of Sammamish to sport when I get back). This hotel does not have very sound proof walls. I wonder what the neighbors think of us. We never seem to hear anything from them.
Our Bollywood friends
Subject change- has anyone ever seen a sport that has five girls in shiny, ice skater-esque outfits waving around ribbons and hoops? We watched some today, it was a world-wide competition reminiscent of the Olympics, with a bunch of different countries putting in their groups. It was a really interesting sport to watch, with these people dancing around with their undulating ribbons and flying hoops. Huh. You can see fascinating things flipping through the CCTV channels.
Well, church on Sunday was nice. I really like our branch. It's full of interesting people. We had some visitors on Sunday, a family with two teenage boys, who came because they are taking the year off to travel the world and Beijing was one of their stops. They're from Tasmania and their next stop is America, then Argentina, then Europe and on. Isn't that so cool? The 17-year-old asked if I had a Facebook, is it okay to add him even though I've only met him once and will probably never see him again, or should I not on the principle that he's a nomad? But if he was an Air Nomad I wouldn't even hesitate, so there you go.
Hope you all have a pleasant and exciting week.
Ellyn
P.S. I literally can't think of anything else I want to add, but it felt empty without a postscript. No letter is complete without a thoughtful, meaningful, unrelated postscript to the rest of the letter.
P.P.S. Haikus are easy
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