Yesterday evening was crazy. I went to a restaurant for an early dinner, since I hadn't eaten a lot for lunch and I was hungry. I ordered a chicken curry soup & some garlic broccoli. This is what I received:
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| Not chicken-curry soup, a pork chop, and spicy black fungus mushroom things |
I'm not sure why they gave me this, but I guess something happened with my order?? The lady came and said some stuff to me while she was bringing my food out, so I guess she was explaining what happened, but all I could do was nod and give the okay because whatever they were doing, it was already done and I was going to get it whether I wanted it or not. It was all delicious, though, so at least I didn't suffer any haha
Then I walked a while & went to a bookstore. I found a set of 3 cookbooks there, but I'm not sure what was in them since they were wrapped, so I didn't buy them yet. I'll probably go back soon & if I don't find cookbooks in the other bookstores around~
Then today... oh man.
After class, the teachers bought pizza for everyone, since the second year students (some of them, anyway) were going to be interviewed on CCTV??? My teacher and I were confused why they were going, since they're the most unruly and least polite class on this trip (it's a fact, I don't feel bad for saying so), on top of knowing the least Chinese (excluding the one first-year student). But that's okay, I've already been on CCTV so I was fine with not going and being interviewed in front of a live audience that would later be broadcast to around 10 million people :D (I feel like that sounds more sarcastic than I wanted it to... I'm genuinely glad I didn't have to do that haha)
So, since we weren't going, a friend of mine & I went to the market across the street from the zoo... and the best way to describe it would be, "Post-Apocalyptic Pearl Market: Rebuilding". Anyway, everything there was super cheap and there weren't a lot of tourists, so it was really great! I bought souvenirs for four people~
Anyway, this relates to the title: I wanted to look for a duffel bag so I could pack all the souvenirs in it and not have to worry about them when I go through security. So we went into this place where there were only bags (suitcases, duffels, backpacks, etc.) and I found one area with decent-sized duffels. The guy was trying to sell one to me, and I said I wasn't sure that it was what I wanted, but I'd come back if I didn't see anything else. AND THEN HE STARTED CHASING ME. He grabbed my backpack to keep me from leaving the store, and my friend freaked out and so did I and we managed to get out and started walking away through a crowd of people... AND THEN WE TURNED AROUND AND HE WAS STILL CHASING US. The guy himself was not scary, I definitely could have taken him in a fight, but THE FACT THAT HE KEPT CHASING US WAS BOTH HILARIOUS AND HORRIFYING I WAS LAUGHING SO HARD I STARTED CRYING BECAUSE IT WAS SO ABSURD. So basically I'm super traumatized and I never want to see duffel bags again (which is a shame, because I should still probably get one...) and I will have nightmares tonight where I'm walking around in a post-apocalyptic store with alternating jeans (there were a lot of these) stores and bag stores and the guy will just be standing a standard 10 ft behind me saying "guo lai" ("come here," basically) and I might die. He might even appear in my room like the faun in Pan's Labyrinth oh my goodness I'm sleeping with the lights on again~
Other than that, I had a good day! Time for reflections:
Today's Reflections: Money, Children, Water
Money
As I didn't grow up over here, I still don't fully understand the way prices are listed in places at grocery stores and stuff, so I never really know if I'm paying the actual price of the item or an inflated "foreigners" price. Even if you speak Chinese well, as a foreigner, you typically end up paying higher prices (or starting at a much higher price than your average Chinese citizen would for bargaining). Normally you'll hear that if you speak Chinese, they will really like you and give stuff to you really cheap... but that hasn't really been the case in my experience. I try to be nice to everyone (normal, I guess), so some people are nice and let me off the hook, but sometimes I still have to wonder if maybe I'm paying too much... and then I realize that I'm paying with a currency weighed 1:5 or 1:6 against the dollar and that kind of makes me feel a bit better :)
Children
CHINESE KIDS ARE SO CUTE OMG. I actually don't have much to say about the kids except for that... but they're really funny. They'll stare at you and smile and wave and wear the most mismatched outfits (it's pretty interesting because kids who aren't potty trained yet will wear pants that are crotchless and buttless so that they can go potty without ruining their clothes and then no one has to worry about diapers haha) but no matter what they do they're still adorable. They're spoiled but still super polite and they respect people older than them and I wish all little kids could be like that.
Water
Before I came here, I heard that I'd have a hard time because alcohol is cheaper than water... and whoever told me that is a liar! I can buy a 1.5L water bottle for 2-3 RMB. From what I hear from my classmates, that is not the case for any kind of alcoholic beverage. So it saves you money to drink more water than to go out every weekend and drink~ Also in a lot of restaurants you can get hot water or tea for free! But unlike in America, you can bring other foods or drinks into restaurants and no one really cares, so I often buy tea or water from a grocery store & drink it with my meal, and then I don't have to worry about trying to figure out the drink menu hahaha
Okay, time to finish my homework!
晚安，早上好！
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