Yeah, yeah, I know it’s been awhile. In the beginning of January, it got hectic with Chinese finals and papers to write. But it is now January 21, 2011. What have I been doing since then? This post will be slightly different than most, because I actually have a focus on what I want to write about and I will touch upon all four topics I have written down on my piece of paper and of course there will be my asides and random strains of thoughts that have been ever present throughout this blog.
So starting with the most recent…I got a haircut. It was…interesting to say the least. For 15 yuan, approximately 3 USD they washed my hair with shampoo, cut my hair, then washed my hair a second time. A pretty good deal if you ask me. You would think that asking the hair stylist what I want would be difficult, but actually it was quite simple – I did cheat a little. I first told them I just wanted a haircut and I wanted it shorter. Then I showed him a picture to aid him. What the stylist gave me wasn’t quite what I wanted, but after second looks it sufficed. I also didn’t have the heart to ask him to make it a little shorter. For the most part he once used scissors, no razors - tedious to say the least. It was, however, an enjoyable experience. US saloons could probably learn a thing or two from them about service. Like come on, they washed my hair twice – not just the squirt squirt from water in a bottle.
But moving on…I ordered KFC delivery. Yes, KFC deliveries. Pretty sweet, right? It was fairly simple, when you call there’s an English line, if you can’t speak Chinese well. I used that option, but attempted to speak as much Chinese as possible to ease the troubles on the receiving side. Now, I must admit, KFC in China is awesome and delicious, definitely compared to KFC in the US. I highly recommend if you come to China to go to KFC at least once and try their spicy chicken burger. I don’t understand what’s up with fast food in China. But it seems that both KFC and McDonald’s are shortchanging us Americans. Let me explain. They offer much better food than in the US. For instance, no spicy chicken burgers in the US; no curly fries in the US. What gives? However, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves; we are in China for the Chinese food though.
Let’s see a little aside on Chinese food. Suggestion of the post: do not order suan cai, it is disgusting. It is sour soup with vegetables – which makes sense because English transliteration is sour vegetables. And when I mean sour, I mean like really sour. I guess if you like extremely sour foods, then order it, but for the rest of us normal people this is a don’t.
Moving on to a little more dangerous and interesting…I have used the black market for the first and probably not the last time. I was exchanging money from CNY to USD. A friend took me to see a guy who he uses to exchange money. The money broker works out of the Bank of China and we actually exchanged the money in said bank. We used the bank’s currency exchange rate of the day, exchanged money, and bam it was done. Instead of waiting on line for what looked like an hour wait. The entire situation was pretty ironic to me. We were exchanging money illegally from the institution I was suppose to exchange money and everyone saw and knew and yet ignored it like it was normal and common – which it is.
The last thing I wanted to touch upon is my travel plans. I have decided to do a little traveling around China and hopefully into a few other countries in the Southeast of Asia. So the bad news first, this is just to let you know that you probably won’t see another post for quite some time as I will probably not have a vpn to post on my blog while I travel. Now the good news, when I get back I will have some awesome stories/posts and some amazing pictures hopefully. Because of the sensitive nature of my trip and for security reasons I will not be publicly disclosing my travel plans. If, however, you would like to know because get in connect with my parents for further information.
Again, sorry I haven’t been posting as frequently as I should and sorry that there won’t be another post anytime in the near future. But at least you have something to look forward to. A happy early Chinese new year to all of you reading this 新年快乐。
Oh yeah, a few closing comments. I am the only American in my dormitory. Out of the other two Americans staying the full year, one is off traveling and the other has returned to America with plans to return sometime in February. The new students for next semester won’t arrive until March. Let’s see…the school is deserted because everyone is heading home for break and Chinese New Year’s. They even closed one of the main gates, meaning I have to hop the fence or walk to a different gate to get out of the school. I guess I know what it must feel like for our international students who don’t go home. I think that’s it for now.
