Stalkers in China

I had a stalker for awhile, at first it seemed just like a random coincidence, but he started showing up whenever I went to a coffee shop.  Then my roommate started getting stalked!  But that's died down now, I haven't heard of him for a little over a week.  So I won't be lying when I say, the title of this blog post was mostly to get your attention.  And if your reading right now, I'll assume I did my job right.  But stick around I think you will be entertained.

This week encompasses two holidays in China.  One is National Day, similar to our Independence Day, but they get about a week off school or work.  They other which just happened to fall in around the same time is Mid-Autumn Festival, which is celebrated by good times with the family and eating lots of moon cakes!  Which Starbucks gives away for free (not that we have one in this city).

Some other monumental news, is our kittens are growing, cuter and cuter by the day (Really I just wanted an excuse to post more picture of them).

Now that we have the basic updates out of the way I can let you in on a funny little story.  Yesterday I went to buy some dongxi (things) with my Chinese friend.  So my friend and the store keeper were talking and I had kinda zoned out, then my friend says, "Oh she says your pretty", so I turn to the store keeper and say "Xie xie" (thank you).  At that point I zoned back in and I hear the store keeper say, "Yi dian pang, danshi high piao liang", which means, "A little fat, but still pretty".  At that I just started to laugh, cuz the store keeper didn't think I understood Chinese and that's the moment I had chosen to start listening again!  It was great moment.  My Chinese friend, said sorry to me, but I told I've improved cuz in Xian I was "Really fat" and here I'm only "A little fat".

Here it is pretty common to buy fruits or veggies out of trucks.







 















Last blog post I mentioned two coffee shops, well I took pics of them, so you could see the fronts of them and where I was spending 20 hours a week.  (Now we have internet at our house, so that time has gone down).

Sick, Bikes, Food and Coffee

 It's funny cuz after I had been back for about two weeks I called all my family and told them how great I was and was very healthy and just went on and on. The next day I got hit with some sort of stomach bug that just tore up my stomach. Could barely eat for a week and when I did start eating again my stomach totally rebelled. While I was writhing in pain on my bed, my good friend told me I should take Chinese medicine. She said, “Its better than Western medicine cuz its more natural”, so I told her, “And Westerners would say Western medicine is better than Chinese medicine!” Its interesting how you can find culture everywhere. I ended up taking it, more for the experience, it did actually help (I think), but it was nasty. I had to swallow about 30 tiny brown balls with warm water. Eeeggh. Then about two days after feeling fine I got hit with a head cold...still battling that one!

So as I mentioned in my last blog I was looking for a bike. Well, I got hooked up pretty well in my opinion. I had a budget, but when I moved to this new city of mine all the bikes were way above my budget. So I was gunna bight my lip and suck it up. Luckily I didn't have to, I ended up finding a used bike, for the price I wanted! I've ridden it around some and it works great.

During this last week I've also gotten to try an abundance of new food. As I briefly mentioned in my last blog, the food here is different. And I've heard it was better. I wanted to deny it, I wanted Xian to be wonderful and the best (as a true Xianren would want), but if I'm gunna be honest, I think the food here is way better. First of all, there are way more options. Second, it cheaper. Third, the taste is very good. One reason I've heard for there being more options is because this city has so much cultural diversity. It seems its about 1/3 Tibetan, 1/3 Hui Chinese (a minority group that is usually Muslim) and 1/3 Han Chinese (the majority in China). Which means we have about 3 times the amount of local options than we did in Xian (which is Han mostly, except for a small portion of the city that has Hui Chinese). Xian, I love you, but the food is better here.

One other thing that has become a major component of my life is coffee. Now as a true Seattle-ite, that really should not surprise any readers, but I mean more than coffee, I mean environment as well. For those who do not know, I am taking two online college classes. It started about a month ago, and we still do not have internet in the house I'm staying, which usually means I spend about 2 full days at a coffee shop because I need the internet to turn in my homework. This city has a lot of coffee shops, but there are two very popular ones, GreenHouse and Taza. They are both on the same street and are both about a 30 minute walk from my house and they both offer WiFi. Taza has a stronger WiFi connection and was started by a local, so its cool to support that business. GreenHouse is also great though, the way they have decorated and the feel you get is awesome. I'm more impacted by my environment, plus GreenHouse offers drip coffee, which Taza does not, so I've been going to GreenHouse, which means I have built pretty strong relationship there already! All the waitresses and waiters know me, I've met the owners and so on. Just cuz I'm there about 20 hours a week. Anyways, today I had a skype date so I went to Taza for the internet connection, when I passed GreenHouse one of the waitresses waived to me....I felt like I was betraying them!

Moving, Hellos and Goodbyes

I have now been back in China about three weeks, and it has been eventful. My first week I returned to Xian, where I got to say a “Hi” and “Bye” to all my Chinese friends. While it was sad and too short, it was still good. As a group we went to Hot Pot and the next day KTV (karaoke). After a week I moved on to the next city where I will be living for at least a couple months. Xining.

I have 4 roommates, with another on the way! But its ok, I like my roommates, its fun to meet new people who are doing the same things I am. They also have two cute kittens, Abner and Mr. French, which I'm loving.

This city is so different from where I come from, when I meet new people they ask me, “What do you think?” and I tell them I love it, but I'm still “Xianren” (which technically would imply its where you grew up, your culture, similar to the idea of a hometown, it literally means Xian-person). The city is up higher (in elevation), so my lungs are still adjusting and is smaller. But because of both of those facts, the air is much fresher and as my Xian friends told me, “The sky is blue in Xining!” And so it is, the weather is also cooler, but sense I've gotten here we have had really nice weather!

One thing that is a lot of fun, is the coffee shops. There are two here which, I think, could do well even in Seattle! So its kind of nice to have that. Right now we have no internet at my house, so when I need to do something I can walk down to the coffee shop to get stuff done.

The food here is very different from Xian food, all the Xiningren say its better, but we will see. So far what I've had is very good. I'm also hoping to buy a bike soon, will make going around the city a lot easier and more fun. I rode my bike all the time in Xian and in my opinion it was a form of hell, but here I think it will be more enjoyable, so hopefully I can find one I like soon!

One other big difference I've found, the people here are so much nicer. People still stare at me, but when I ask them a question, they respond, if someone drops something, a stranger is more likely to stop and help them. It's strange, but its been a bit of a culture shock because that's not how it is in Xian. It could be the difference of big city verses small city, could be the difference of mid China verses west China or it could just be different. But I think this is a difference that I can easily become accustomed too.