Holiday Season in China

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! This is the week of holidays here in China. Thursday was National Day, which celebrates the anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (60th). The streets are decorated with these incredible flower statues (see pictures below), and lots of red and gold lanterns and banners. Saturday was the Mid-Autumn Festival. I don't really know what it is, but it has something to do with the moon, which is full right now. The Chinese people freaking love the moon. And mooncakes. Which I don't care for.

But yes, vacation. It started Thursday, and continues until next Friday, when classes begin again in full force. So far, I've been making good use of my time off. Wednesday and Saturday I ventured into another Chinese nightclub, which I've written about before. It is just such a strange environment. The music is loud and the ambiance decadent, like in a Western night club. But there is no dance floor, just dozens of little tables people claim and stand next to. People just kind of dance where they are or climb up on a speaker. But in general, it's a place to be seen ordering an expensive bottle of whiskey rather than showing off your dance moves. Thursday I was feeling a bit under the weather, so aside from Chinese tutor, I took it easy. Friday I was feeling a lot better, so I joined my friend Christina and two other Irish women, Mary and Grainne, and Mary's two young children to take a tour of the Suzhou silk factory. Suzhou is famous for its silk, and unlike most of the tourist attractions in Suzhou, this one is free. Well, relatively. They give you a tour, showing you how silk is made, and then take you to the very big store, where you drop your money. Some of the stuff was gorgeous, but having very little need for a handmade silk duvet cover, I went the cheap road and bought a scarf, because I'm already getting a bit chilly riding around on the bike, and it's still like 70 degrees out.

Walking around with Mary's two adorable blond hair, blue eyed children was a very different experience. I get occasional stares, but, as my Chinese tutor pointed out, aside from the fact that my eyes are pretty deep-set and light in color, I have a lot of similar features to a Chinese person (skin, hair color, and height, for example). This, of course, is debatable, but beside the point. Everyone came up to stare at these poor kids. They poke at them and follow Mary around. The 1 year old doesn't seem to notice, but the 2 year old hates it, and I feel for her. How Mary maintains her composure with people constantly poking and prodding her kids, I don't know. But I sure do admire her for keeping her cool.

After the factory we met up with Grainne's husband and a new friend of hers, a lovely Israeli woman who just moved from Beijing with her husband. We had a delicious Chinese meal by my apartment. I've been eating a lot of Western food recently, and I forget how good Chinese food can be. It is especially good when you go with a big group, since the food is meant to be ordered together and shared. That way, there are lots of good things to try.

Saturday I treated myself to a manicure at a Singaporean spa. I also found the best/most dangerous place ever next door to it. It is the mecca of imported food. I walked in, and it looked tiny, and pretty unassuming. When I noticed a sign for the deli, I headed downstairs (deli meat is a rarity here). And bam- it was like I was in an American supermarket. OK, not huge, but the stuff they had was like being at home. Way better than the place I wrote about last week. Also far more expensive. So I won't be shopping there normally, but it was nice to know if I am ever craving Doritos or Spaghetti Os, they are just up the street.

Sunday I spent some time riding my bike around the area, just enjoying the incredibly beautiful weather. I went out to Times Square, the big outdoor mall, just to walk around.

Today (Monday), I ventured out to the new shopping center near the Walmart. This place was massive- like if you took 2 Mongtomery malls and stacked them on top of each other. Many of the stores have yet to open, but they had a wide-variety of familiar stores- Sephora, Lenscrafters and H&M, for example. I went into H&M, and was happy to see they stocked some Western sizes. I bought a couple of turtlenecks and some gloves, in preparation for the winter.

I've also been watching a lot of movies and TV shows on DVD. And as I've already whined to some of you, I have occasionally picked up English movies only to come home and find that they've been dubbed in Japanese. With Chinese subtitles. It's annoying, but it's what I get for paying $1.50 for DVDs of movies that aren't out yet at home.

Movie recommendation time! I watched a movie called "The Boat that Rocked", a British movie that is being released soon in the US under the name "Pirate Radio". Excellent music, at least in the version I watched, which was, of course, dubbed in Japanese with English subtitles. But I thought it was hilarious, and the best movie I've watched out here.

What else? Oh, I got my bike fixed! It appears that the steering column had been broken. We're not sure how it happened, but theories include poor craftsmanship, a bad pothole, or that someone had attempted to steal it. Whatever the case, I kept putting off getting it fixed because it is still under warranty, and I was having trouble dealing with the shop I was supposed to take it to- they were rude to my tutor, who was my translator. So I decided to go for convienence over money, and it ended up being a wise move. I took it to a shop about 500 feet from my apartment, shook the bike to show him the problem, he pointed to his watch to indicate I should come back in a hour, I did, it was done, and he charged me 25rmb. That's like $5. Good as new.

And that is that, my friends. Below are some pictures I took while cruising around SIP. I may head to a garden this week, so I'm sure I will have more photos to add shortly.

China 5

XOXO,

RDG

Your Chinese for the Day:

Wo yao liang ga de shi er ga= I want two of the 12th one (How I ordered my lunch off the picture menu today. Shut up, this was a big deal for me!)