Practical Fashion in Action

Last fall, I wrote about these funny umbrella hats that Katie and I finally managed to buy.

Since I featured the umbrella hats, I've been wanting to get a picture of somebody actually wearing one but never seemed to have a camera with me at the right time. A couple weeks ago, Katie and I were walking on Snack Street and we came across this fruit vendor who was putting his umbrella hat to good use to keep the sun off. He was more than happy to chat with us and pose for a picture.

As a side note, the fruit he's selling is called yòu zi 柚子. I'm told the English word for this fruit is pomelo but I'd never seen it or tried it before coming to China and I'm so used to calling it yòu zi now that pomelo seems strange. It's basically a cross between a grapefruit and an orange. I quite enjoy yòu zi now, especially the variety that's available in the fall. They're locally grown around Yichang so they're plentiful and cheap when they're in season. My mom did find yòu zi at Meijer at home. She bought one to try in my honor.

The (not-so) Great Wall of Snack Street

About a 10 minute walk from my apartment is the West Gate of the University. Right outside the gate is a small lane affectionately termed "snack street". Dozens of little restaurants and shops line the street. The appeal of the food on this street is that it's cheap. A few yuan buys you more than you can eat. The students love it since it's a change from the cafeteria but still within their budgets. Noodles, friend rice, dumplings, fruit, wantons, milk tea, bbq, hot pot . . . there really is endless variety. The problem with Snack Street is that . . . how shall I put it . . . it's not up to OSHA or Health Departments standards, I guess. Ok, well OSHA wouldn't even have had to get within ten feet of the gate to know they would shut it down. It is dirty and a bit of an eye sore . . . but it's cheap and delicious!

About two weeks ago, a friend told me he'd seen a notice that Snack Street was going to be closed for two months so that they could "clean it up". Who made this decision was unclear but all of us Americans were lamenting the loss of our favorite restaurant--Up/Down Dining Hall. Up/Down really does have the best sweet and sour pork of any place I've ever eaten in China. Ok all of their food is pretty much the best Chinese food I've ever eaten in China (and it's cheap!). Katie and I and another friend were on our way to Snack Street to eat at Up/Down one last time before the forced closing and we stopped dead in our tracks when we got to the West Gate and saw that they hadn't just closed down the street . . . they built a BRICK WALL in front of it!!! In ONE AFTERNOON!!
A brick wall complete with uniformed guards appeared there in a matter of hours to keep all of the students out so that the shops would have to close!! You can technically still get to Snack Street but to get there you have to go out the North Gate and walk several blocks out of your way and then up the other end of Snack Street. I'm really tempted to launch into an opinionated, wordy diatribe about how that wall is a metaphor for larger social issues but I suppose I'll try to fly below the radar of potential censoring by keeping my more political comments to myself. My other thought was that the wall might be in need of some graffiti . . . something along the lines of "Free the Noodles" or "Wokkers of Snack Street Unite! . . . Tear down this wall!" Of course the irony would probably be lost on all but a very few and I wouldn't want jeopardize my work here by actually doing something like that (although I confess I do harbor some secret hope of getting a chance to graffiti something someday).

Thankfully a newer, cleaner more officially sanctioned Snack Street has opened in the opposite direction from my apartment so we're not going to starve. The new food street is called Mei Shi Jie which literally translates to "beautiful food street." A few of our friends from the original Snack Street were able to move up there.

Here are a few more photos of some of the food that is/was available on Snack Street and a few of our Snack Street friends.

Hot Pot Stands

I like to call this the "Fried Rice Salad Bar". Pick out all the fresh vegetables you like and get them stir-fried with rice.
My Korean friend Shin Hong (these are his pictures, by the way) at one of the Milk Tea drink stands. There really are literally hundreds of varieties of tea, instant coffees, milk teas, pearl tea, fruit drinks and jello concoctions available. Al l for just a few cents.These people make wonderful pita sandwiches with pork, lettuce, cilantro, and a kind of teriyaki sauce that is delicious. Thankfully these friends were able to move to the new Snack Street location.

Our wonderful friend Tian Guinan at Up/Down . . . so named because you can eat either Upstairs or Downstairs. We told them they were more than welcome to set up shop right below our apartment and we'd eat every meal there to keep them in business but Tian Guinan said she was just going enjoy her two month vacation. They'll reopen in late June (supposedly) but by then there will hardly be any time left in the semester to enjoy their food.

Solitary Saturday

For the last three weekends, I've found myself packing up with somewhere to go. First was to Wu Dang Mountain, then Beijing, and last weekend I was in Yidu for Saturday and Sunday. Combine those trips with my regular classes, part time job, school activities, several weekly Studies, Chinese class, along with spending time with friends and students and trying to help Katie get off to Ireland, I hadn't quite realized how little downtime I'd had for the last month. This weekend I found myself alone with (somewhat shockingly) . . . nothing to do.

Instructions for the Perfect Saturday morning:

*Ignore your alarm clock
*Lay in bed listening to the thunder and the rain, knowing you don't have to go out in it (I quite enjoy thunder . . . we don't get enough of it here).
*Take a long shower and use up all the hot water
*Make a huge pot of coffee
*Leisurely sip your coffee while catching up on emails and the news
*Turn on some relaxing music
*Light some scented candles
*Read a book on the couch

I hope this doesn't make me sound like a lazy bum, but it sure was nice to have a quiet morning all to myself. Now that it's afternoon, I'm still enjoying this rainy Saturday, but I think I will move on to some slightly more productive activities . . . while still enjoying my coffee, candles, music, and the rain.

麻将 Mahjong

If you ever come to China, something you'll notice right away is that Chinese people love Mahjong (麻将 má jiàng in Chinese). People sit out on the sidewalks and play for hours. There are whole stores devoted entirely to Mahjong tables--ranging from merely functional to extravagantly ornate. The little retirement center next to my apartment has entire rooms set aside for people to play mahjong in (right next to the Ping-pong rooms). I come from a game playing family and have always been slightly intrigued by mahjong. Over the years, I've made a few halfhearted attempts to learn mahjong and even took a small set of mahjong tiles home with me, but I never really made much progress. Here's why:

1. I could never get the game fully explained to me in English and the English rule book that came with the set of tiles I bought was . . . unclear, to say the least.
2. Chinese people I'd play with were too eager to "help" me play (translation, play for me) so I never knew why I was playing what I was playing.
3. Chinese people are so good at the game, they play at warp-speed. By the time I got my tiles set up, they'd have all played and would be staring at me slightly impatiently while they munched sunflower seeds (also at warp speed). The intimidation was too much.
4. Honestly being able to say, "I don't know how to play." gave me an excuse not to get sucked into inescapable hours of playing for money before and after unexciting obligatory dinners.

But a few weeks ago, a friend invited Katie and me to play Mahjong. The friend speaks excellent English and she agreed to reexplain the game to us and go slowly, letting us pick up on the strategy for ourselves. It was quite enjoyable. Last week, we went to another friend's house and had dinner. After dinner, Katie and I played mahjong with the friend and her mom. I think I can finally say that I've reached a passable playing level.

Katie and I realized that while not knowing how to play mahjong can be a convenient "out" at times, knowing how to play mahjong has a number of benefits. It gives you an instantaneous rapport with all 1.4 billion Chinese people that live here. Just like knowing one or two words of Chinese in the local dialect makes you immediately likable to all locals, when people find out that you, a foreigner, understand and enjoy mahjong, they're ready to be your friend for life. It's also an entertaining way to pass time with Chinese friends who don't speak English since my Chinese chit-chat abilities expire after about 10 minutes. And, last but not least, you get to use fun and forceful Chinese words like "PENG!" and "GANG!" and descriptive phrases like "wash the tiles" (mix them up) and "eat a tile" (use the previous person's discard) and "build the Great Wall" (setting up the tiles before a round).

My goal is to understand Mahjong well enough to teach it to people when I go back to the States. Get ready (dad, mom, Kara, and John) to add Mahjong to our repertoire of family games.

"So, one more time, how do we play?"
"Ok, got it . . . I think. I hope I get to 'GANG!'"
"Let's wash the tiles! I can build a longer Great Wall than you!"
"Ummm, I'm confused. What do I do with this tile?"
"Yeah! Even Kim and Katie win once in a while."

Cheesier Chips

A few days ago, Beth was shopping in one of the grocery stores near campus and she found Doritos! Lays, Pringles, and Bugles have always been available here, but Doritos are a nice new addition to our chip options. They have Nacho Cheesier and Taco flavor. I think I noticed that on the "taco" flavored bag, there was a picture of a taco and an explanation in Chinese about what it is. Last night we used the Doritos to make "tacos in a bag." Crunch up the chips in the bag. Add ground beef, lettuce, cheese, salsa, Ranch dressing. Eat with a fork right out of the bag. Instant taco salad and minimal dishes to wash.

Got Milk?

On Saturday, I was at Sandra's house with Beth and Amy. We were talking about how prices have gone up considerably for some things since the winter weather storms (and other factors - China's really battling inflation right now). Fresh vegetables are a lot more expensive. Milk is also something that's gotten noticeably more expensive. Sandra pointed out that since we buy liter boxes of milk and they're 7 yuan a box, we're paying more than $4/gallon for our milk! We're paying as much or more for milk as people in the States, yet it's for Chinese milk that we only barely tolerate!! :-( What a sad realization. If I have to pay American prices, I want American taste! Oh for a cold glass of real milk and a monster cookie right now . . .

To Change a Light bulb . . .

Guess how many light bulbs there are in my 3 bedroom apartment?

Answer: 69 . . . yes really 69. I just walked around and counted all of them. There might be more but I couldn't see inside one of the chandeliers. Modern Chinese apartments seem to be obsessed with extravagant lighting and bizarre ultra-modern light fixtures (which does not, however, always equal an adequate level of brightness). Around the perimeter of my living room there are 12 florescent bulbs that are alternately pink, green, and blue. We turn the "party lights" on for special occasions. We have a gaudy, unnecessary "flower bouquet" light fixture in the middle of the wall above the TV.

So, how many people does it take to change a light bulb in my apartment?

Answer: 5 - Katie, me, Jian (our "boss" who calls "the madam"), The Madam (our landlady/maintenance supervisor), and Ladder Man.

I feel rather ridiculous not changing my own light bulbs, like I should be the punchline to a "how many people to change a light bulb" joke. But, I don't own a ladder and really don't want to buy one, carry it home from the store, and have to store it. Without a ladder you can't reach the lights. So, when enough light bulbs burn out and Katie and I are fed up with the dimness, we call Ladder Man and The Madam.

Usually changing light bulbs corresponds with other maintenance requisitions, as was the case yesterday. There are several different possible outcomes when we call with a maintenance request.
1. The madam comes but we're not home so she and the repair man leave.
2. The appropriate/approved maintenance man is mysteriously in another city so we get told he will come "later."
3. A maintenance man comes, tinkers around with the broken appliance, makes a mess, announces it to be broken, and leaves.
4. A maintenance man comes, can't understand our broken Chinese, makes a mess, doesn't believe us that the appliance in question really is broken, announces it to be "mei wen ti" (no problem) and leaves.
5. A sympathetic maintenance man comes, patiently works with us and our not-always-adequate Chinese, sticks with the job until the problem is solved, and makes everyone happy by solving the problem in one trip instead of ten.

Thankfully yesterday it was the last outcome. One repair man (different than ladder/light bulb man) fixed our washing machine, water dispenser, and heater. A few things I've discovered.

-Explaining mechanical problems in a second language is practically impossible. I can't explain mechanical problems in English, let alone Chinese. I feel bad when the repair man has to listen to me babble about the washing machine in 5-year-old level Chinese.
-don't forget to clean the filters on your heaters periodically.
-6 coins stuck in your washing machine causes problems (i.e. turns it into a wailing banshee)
-light bulbs in China burn out fast
-repair men inevitably make a mess in your house
-Katie and I might not know how to repair appliances, but we do know when they're broken, even when the repair men don't believe us.
-I can't spell the word "maintenance."

Official Apple of the 2008 Games

Before we left for our trip, I saw apples at our fruit stand that had the Chinese character "fu" on them. "Fu" is seen a lot during Chinese New Year. It means some combination of "good luck/blessing/prosperity" and people have upside-down "fu" posters hanging on their doors, in their houses, in restaurants, all over the place (upside down "fu" is said to look like a character that means "will come" so "blessings will come" is the idea). I thought the apples were a fun novelty. It looks like the character has been stamped on them. I tried to ask about the process and was told they have to do it to the apple while it's growing (I didn't follow the whole explanation). I was quite impressed with them.

Now they still have a few "Fu" apples at our fruit stand, but they also have Beijing Olympic apples! Olympics overload!!! Seriously, I don't know what China will do after the Olympics. Practically every product you buy has some sort of Olympic insignia on it. Olympic apples . . . wow. And it's not just a sticker on the apples, the fruit is grown to have the design on it.