A proper traveller
Lately, I've been feeling more and more like a proper world traveller. You know, the kind that write blogs about the interesting people they meet and the odd things they do and the weird hotel staff they encounter. See, normally I just sigh and go, well, I'm studying, no time to be cool like that...no time to be weirded out by TB ridden taxi drivers in Kerala or chased by business-suited men in Mumbai. But since I've been solo in Xian, all this has changed...I have my own fun stories to tell! Starting with, I ate home-cooked stir fried chicken gizzard the other day...Shuang Hua makes such good food, that I feel bad turning any of it down. It wasn't bad, actually, but I could only eat a little knowing what it was and having seen firsthand the market it came from.
The other day I sojourned to Xian's city wall and discovered that you can rent a bicycle for twenty yuan, and circle the city on top of the wall. It was a bumpy, but satisfying, hour-long ride, and by far the funnest thing I've done in Xian yet. But that's not all. After that I noticed some Chinese tour guides playing Chinese chess, stopped to watch, and was invited to play. So I squatted down and was soundly beaten, but I was beaten at a two thousand plus year old game on a six hundred year plus old wall in a...very ancient city. I should note that the day before I taught this very same game to a French student I met in the drum tower. I am so cosmopolitan these days...
After my humbling chess experience, I went to check out the market along the base of the wall, and along the way I stopped to watch a calligrapher copying out a Chinese saying. It's so fascinating to watch them write; the characters just seem to flow out of the tips of their brushes. He asked me if I could give him an English rendition of the Chinese four-character proverb 心想事成-literally heart wants things come/become; so I gave him "follow your heart" after he explained at length what these four characters really mean. Hope it's right! But if not, the foreigners he'll sell copies to won't know the difference anyway. He rewarded me by teaching me how to sign my Chinese name; it looks nothing like my name, but apparently Chinese people can easily read it, according to my Chinese mom.
Today I went walking in the neighborhood of the Wild Goose Pagoda, and a charming highschool aged girl walked up to me and started talking. She wanted to practice English, but as it turned out, my Chinese was more comprehensible than her English, so we continued in Mandarin. It was kind of fun; I invited her to lunch and we compared educational experiences in highschool and college. Then she insisted on buying me fruit, I think because I invited her to lunch, but nothing I could say about how I wasn't hungry, etc, etc, could dissuade her. So now I have probably a pound and a half of Chinese dates. Good, but I'm going to have to explain now to my host mom where I got them since I promised I wouldn't buy anymore fruit in the streets without her after I apparently got heinously ripped off (well, two bucks for a pound of dried pineapple didn't sound so bad to me...a little gui, maybe, but I was too tired to quibble over a dollar one way or the other) in the Muslim quarter on Saturday.
Last night I had my first spa experience ever. After dinner, I was all set to do nothing at home until bed time, but suddenly my host mom was like, let's go to the spa! I was surprised. Who goes to the spa at 7pm? I mean, when I think spa, I think a specially planned excursion, not impulse decision. So we went to the spa. I had my face massaged and gooed over and over again, got my head rubbed and my limbs palpitated, over two hours worth of beauty treatment. For the bargain price of 30 RMB, which my mom treated me to. whoa. that's like four dollars, for anyone who doesn't know the conversion rate. it was amazing. I wonder if I can find a place like that in Harbin? I'd go every week...
The other day I sojourned to Xian's city wall and discovered that you can rent a bicycle for twenty yuan, and circle the city on top of the wall. It was a bumpy, but satisfying, hour-long ride, and by far the funnest thing I've done in Xian yet. But that's not all. After that I noticed some Chinese tour guides playing Chinese chess, stopped to watch, and was invited to play. So I squatted down and was soundly beaten, but I was beaten at a two thousand plus year old game on a six hundred year plus old wall in a...very ancient city. I should note that the day before I taught this very same game to a French student I met in the drum tower. I am so cosmopolitan these days...
After my humbling chess experience, I went to check out the market along the base of the wall, and along the way I stopped to watch a calligrapher copying out a Chinese saying. It's so fascinating to watch them write; the characters just seem to flow out of the tips of their brushes. He asked me if I could give him an English rendition of the Chinese four-character proverb 心想事成-literally heart wants things come/become; so I gave him "follow your heart" after he explained at length what these four characters really mean. Hope it's right! But if not, the foreigners he'll sell copies to won't know the difference anyway. He rewarded me by teaching me how to sign my Chinese name; it looks nothing like my name, but apparently Chinese people can easily read it, according to my Chinese mom.
Today I went walking in the neighborhood of the Wild Goose Pagoda, and a charming highschool aged girl walked up to me and started talking. She wanted to practice English, but as it turned out, my Chinese was more comprehensible than her English, so we continued in Mandarin. It was kind of fun; I invited her to lunch and we compared educational experiences in highschool and college. Then she insisted on buying me fruit, I think because I invited her to lunch, but nothing I could say about how I wasn't hungry, etc, etc, could dissuade her. So now I have probably a pound and a half of Chinese dates. Good, but I'm going to have to explain now to my host mom where I got them since I promised I wouldn't buy anymore fruit in the streets without her after I apparently got heinously ripped off (well, two bucks for a pound of dried pineapple didn't sound so bad to me...a little gui, maybe, but I was too tired to quibble over a dollar one way or the other) in the Muslim quarter on Saturday.
Last night I had my first spa experience ever. After dinner, I was all set to do nothing at home until bed time, but suddenly my host mom was like, let's go to the spa! I was surprised. Who goes to the spa at 7pm? I mean, when I think spa, I think a specially planned excursion, not impulse decision. So we went to the spa. I had my face massaged and gooed over and over again, got my head rubbed and my limbs palpitated, over two hours worth of beauty treatment. For the bargain price of 30 RMB, which my mom treated me to. whoa. that's like four dollars, for anyone who doesn't know the conversion rate. it was amazing. I wonder if I can find a place like that in Harbin? I'd go every week...
posted by Timbre | 1:33 AM
2 Comments:
Did you find a spa like that in Harbin? I'd love to know! :) I'm going to Harbin soon and need something like that.
Hi Tina! Wow, it's been forever since I got a non-spam comment on this blog. Yes, I found a great spa in Harbin. I can't to save my life remember where though. I am no help at all. But it was amazing-I think I paid 350.00 for a 20 visit punch pass-and each visit involved basically a two and a half hour massage, and everything was clean, beautiful, private, and non-sketch. What I would expect from a US spa, basically. So it does exist, anyway! What are you going there for?
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