Not Like Kroger!

Auchan is not your typical Kroger or Publix, of course, taking into consideration that is IS China. Sure, it has the Milk ail, but its not near the dairy refrigerated section. In fact, it’s not refrigerated at all! All the milk is labeled ‘refrigerate after opening’. Egg aren’t washed and placed into Styrofoam containers. They are put directly from the chicken’s nests into baskets: feathers, poop, germs and all. Sure, you can find the packaged kind, where it looks relatively clean, but it’s more expensive and they come in packages of six. Weird, huh?

The meat section is the most repulsive and, uhmm, well, different part of how it’s not like Kroger. First, you start to smell it. Yes, if you’re thinking what I’m thinking, than yes, it’s what you’re thinking right. There are PILES (yes I mean like mounds!) of bloody, raw, disgusting, slimy, fresh, meat.

It’s revolting, to say the least. What’s worse to me is the DRIED meat section. They have fried, dried WHOLE CHICKENS!!! Just HANGING by the necks. It’s so nasty. On more than one occasion I’ve seen chicken claws sticking out of the back of someone cart. Blehhhh!!

Seafood section I must say is the worst part of Auchan. Chinese are famous for being one of the healthiest countries in the world: Lowest cancer percentage, lowest obesity rate, etcetera, etcetera. But how can they be the healthiest but also one of the DIRTIEST!! I mean for real, does a glass case full of shrimp sanitary?! NO!! I couldn’t imagine eating shrimp that people had DUG through! The ladies picking out the shrimp from the glass case looked like children picked candy out are those candy stand at the mall, you know those ones you pay by the lb? Except, I don’t usually GAG when I see children picking out M&Ms by the handful!!! L

More than once, I’ve walked by the ‘live fish’ section and seen upside down fish in the usual reddish brown water. People just walk up to the almost-over flowing tanks and try to grab the slippery fish of their choosing with their bare hands! It totally reeks in this section, but what’s more scary is that once I saw a fish flop OUT OF THE WATER ONTO THE GROUND!!! It was sooooo scary because I was right next to it!!! I’m sure the Chinese people were giggling as I squealed when I realized that I fish was flopping around right next to my shoes! EWH! I don’t only have to fear fish, I have to look out for eels, crabs, turtles, shrimp, jellyfish, squid, and lobster (although my family would say differently about being ‘afraid’ of lobster J )!!!

Besides all the different kinds of food that I encounter and how expensive your ‘normal’ ‘day-to-day’ items you buy like cheese and ham being totally outrageously expensive, even the people shop differently. As an American living in China, I’ve found that I rush at EVERYTHING! Americans want things done fast, easy, and efficiently. It is doesn’t happen this way, we complain! We are rushed in everything we do. In eating, we have restaurants called FAST food! We have drivethrus so that we don’t have to waste time by getting out of the car. When going grocery shopping, we want to be in, organized, and out again. We get so frustrated when they move an ail moves around, or Kroger is out of our favorite brand of peanut butter. In China, everyone seemed to move so slowly when I got here, but when I realized that it was me that was speed walking to get to every ail and store, I tried to slow down a bit and not be so irritated that everyone was ‘getting in my way’. What’s the rush anyways? Why does it matter if someone is moving a little more slowly than you would like? So what if the old person is standing in front of the tuna for 10 minutes trying to figure out which brand he has the coupon for? Does it matter if it takes a little longer to check out of the checkout because the cashier is new? These are questions I’ve been asking myself since I realized how ‘just get it done quickly’ Americans are. What IS the BIG RUSH?

Anyways, despite the crowds and long lines, I personally still enjoy going to Auchan, the local food store, because of all the interesting people and food I see. It’s funny because usually you are one of the only Western people in the stores, and EVERYONE likes to look in the ‘’beautiful people’s’’ cart and see what we are buying! All eyes on the Westerners and all there weird needs for extravagant amounts of milk and cheese!

Badminton Tournament and Seaweed

For those of you who are wondering, after all the trouble I took after badminton tryouts, I DID infact, make the team! And for those of your who are wondering what the heck badminton IS, well maybe you should ‘research it’ like I do :P Basically it’s like tennis. The same lines and rules, except the ball is kept in the air and there is no ‘one bounce’ rule. Points go up to 21 points.

Anyways, I just thought I would make that clear, that I did make the team, and I have already been to my first tournament! Saturday I went to Nanjing, a city about 3 hours away from Suzhou. We went to a ‘just-for-fun’ Badminton and Football (Soccer) tournament at the Nanjing International School. We also competed with a local Chinese private school and also a Expat Adult Rec. Team. It was interesting to play against different ages and levels of people. Some people were great at badminton, and others weren’t that good. I wasn’t that good, but at least for now I have the legit excuse that I just started playing badminton for the first time a week ago, and that we don’t technically have badminton in the States J

My first game was discouraging. I lost 21 to nothing against a Russia girl…I mean it wasn’t even a local Chinese player!!! I slowly improved throughout the day though, with my highest score being 10 to 21. It was fun though, so that was the main point, right?!

I am the only white person on the team. There is one other non-Asian girl named Trince, and she is from the Philippines! Everyone else is Chinese or Korean. It’s really been great for me to be able to meet other Asian kids at school, because typically I run with the other western kids.

Through knowing so many Asians now, I’ve been able to try lots of their homemade food and stuff. I’ve tried homemade riceballs and homemade dumplings. Everything I’ve tried here so far I have liked, although I have gone all out crazy and tried chicken feet or beef flavored candy!

This weekend, however I took a leap of faith and tried something that a lot of the kids on my block seem to enjoy: seaweed. It comes packaged, flattened out, much like textured paper, very thin. I saw my little neighbor Xavier crunching on the green paper-like stuff and saw my cousin Annie run over and ask for a piece. When I asked what it was Annie quickly told me that it was seaweed and that it was ‘really yummy!!!’. Xavier offered me some, and I hesitantly took some delicately in my fingertips. I put it in my mouth and chewed. It was salty, and other than that I can’t really explain the texture. The taste though wasn’t far off from being a non-potato, potato chip, if you know what I mean? I guess you’ll have to try some for yourself! One of the foods here that I’m obsessed with is the Chinese yogurt! It is very liquidy, so much so that you drink it. It’s actually considered a drink here in China, because it is in an option under the drink section on a menu. I LOVE it! I drink one in the morning and sometimes another for snack. Annie always puts her hands on her hips and smirks at me, and sometimes shakes a finger saying that I eat too much of my ‘favorite yogurt’. But how can I help it? It’s just sooo good! Also I have found a new love for a popular European food…Nutella!!! Annie and I BOTH share this love for Nutella, so I don’t get any scolding for eating crackers full of this spread!

All is well in China so far. I’m enjoying spending time with my cousins and aunt and uncle and also getting to hangout with my friends on the weekends! School is going well as well. I love my teachers and am learning a lot inside and outside of school! My Chinese is slowly improving, but it helps that I have to use it on an out-of-class basis.

Hoping that you guys will adjust quickly to Daylights Savings! Hah! But on a more positive note, it DOES make it easier to chat on Skype because we’re only 13 hours apart instead of 14 hours J

Well I’ll check back in later. Until then,

China Girl

Knowing Chinese Would Help.... A LOT!

Let’s be glad that my mom didn’t know about this until AFTERWARDS! Haha

Friday, I tried out for the Badminton team for school. Try-outs were after school, so afterwards I needed to take the bus home. My school has two sets of busses: Early bus, which leaves directly after our last class, and then late bus, which leave an hour after our last class. The late bus is made for afterschool tutoring, sports, or clubs. What I WASN’T aware of is that there are a different set of busses, not the usual 50 bus fleet that takes kids to and from school. Late bus has about 15 busses that make more stops but have a lot less people. Due to this, MY bus wasn’t there, so I didn’t know which bus to take to get home.

Thankfully, I thought quickly, and called my neighborhood friend, Jake, because I knew that he would know which bus to take. Unfortunately, he didn’t know the bus number, just the location of where it should be from where you walk out to the busses. He told me it was the second to last bus. He said there should be a sign on the front that indicated the stops it will make. I didn’t see my neighborhood on the list, but he said that if the sheet said ‘Golden Lough’, that it will be on the same route and I should be able to get back to our compound, Seviar. I hoped on the bus that said ‘Golden Lough’ and sat down amongst a bunch of adults. I had never seen adults on our bus, but I had never taken late bus, so I thought that maybe it was normal. After 30 minutes of riding and the bus almost empty, nothing out my window looks familiar. I start to get really worried, because there are a few busses that go as far as an hour away to take kids home. I try to call Aunt Pam, but she doesn’t answer. I call Jake and tell him that I’m not home yet, and that we are in a weird area. He figured out that I had taken the ADULT bus (explains all the adults I saw) and that I should have taken the SECOND row of busses, not the first. He then tells me to ask an adult if we have stopped at Seviar yet. I ask this Chinese lady near by, but apparently she didn’t speak English and then got up and left the bus. I asked another lady, and she said that she had never heard of Seviar. Great. Now how am I suppose to get home? I talk to Jake and he says that I need to get off the bus and take a taxi home. Luckily I have money. The problem? I know no Chinese, I have never taken a taxi alone before, and I have no card to give directions to the driver. This is just great.

It’s still raining and getting dark, and it’s freezing. I have my school uniform on, which consists of a skirt, flats, and a short sleeve shirt with a fleece jacket and a my gym bag. Fortunately the last of the people on the bus were two British ladies, whom were extremely nice and told me where to get off on the bus to catch a taxi as fast as possible. I hoped off the taxi and waved one down, just as I had seen many people do. I call Jake and he and the grumpy taxi driver babble for a while. I’m getting a little nervous, but I can’t hear what Jake is saying, but only hear the part of the conversation of the taxi driver, which is full of grunts and lots of ‘’huh?’’s. Finally he grunts what seems to be a satisfied grunt and hands me back my phone. Jake seemed confident enough that he told the taxi driver the right way to go, but informs me that he told the intersection, so I might have to walk a little bit. As long as I knew where I was, it was fine with me! I called my Aunt and got a hold of her, telling her that I would be late because I took the wrong bus. The taxi driver and I drove in silence for about 20 minutes. A little girl across the street, Sophie, 11, texted me to see where I was, and I informed her about the late bus mess-up. She was very concerned for my well-being and was good moral support for the matter, asking if I had enough money, and if the driver knew where he was going. J it was good to be able to avoid the awkward glances from the taxi driver. Hahahha!

We then stop and he grunts at me, indicating that I should pay him and get out. Uh, no way dude, this is NOT my compound, and from the looks of it, nowhere NEAR it! I call Jake and after I describe where I am, he says that I’m not far at all from our neighborhood. He tries to talk to the taxi driver, but he is impatient and rude, and tells Jake he doesn’t know how to get there. Jake told me that I needed to get out and either catch another taxi or walk a mile to Seviar. Well I went with plan ‘A’, because it’s cold and rainy and dark. I walk about one block and FINALLY realize where I am! What a relief. If our taxi driver had driven another mile, I would have been home. Well, I wasn’t going to walk another mile, so I expertly waved down another taxi and directed him with hand motion. *tap on shoulder and point straight*, ‘grunt’, *tap on shoulder and point left*, ‘nods head’, and then I’m home!

So with no Chinese I was able to get home, with the help of Jake and the moral support of Sophie! Haha I guess I owe Jake one, but let’s hope it’s not helping him with taxi drivers!!!!

The next day, Uncle Mark drilled me on my street intersection until I finally memorized it! I know can jump confidently into a cab and say ‘Xin Hou Gia, Ren I Lu’. If only I knew this BEFORE I took the wrong bus.

Tomorrow I must take the late bus tomorrow, but hopefully I will take the RIGHT one this time!

Shanghai New Years Trip!

Hey Friends! This past week I got to go into Shanghai during Chinese New Year! If you’ve been reading my blog, or know a little about CNY (Chinese New Year) , you would know that the CNY Celebration lasts for exactly 2 weeks! On the 4^th day of CNY , we went into Shanghai for a 2 nights and 3 days! It takes about 2 hours to get into Shanghai from Suzhou.

When we arrived we went to a little kids amusement park. It was fun for the kids… okay yes, it was fun for me too, because they had bumper cars and a carousel :P The rides weren’t the main attraction there though…we were! Lot of people started at us, and we many people throughout our trip asked for pictures. We then went to lunch at KFC. KFC in China serves french-fries, but they also serve the ‘standard’ chicken and stuff, but even KFC in Shanghai is as greasy as it is in the States! It seems everywhere you go, you see funny English translations, and here, we saw a funny sign in KFC. Bad grammar AND misspelling! Teeheehee!

We then wanted to go to Shanghai’s famous Shanghai Financial Building. This building holds the Guinness Book of World Records for the Highest Observatory in the world! This is a picture of me with the 'Official' Guinness Sign.

And guess what? We got to go to the top! This humungous building stands at over 400 meters, or 1200 feet! We flew to the top using the ‘Light Speed Elevator’ that goes an astounding 30 feet a second! There was a video for on the way up to the top, and it showed a picture that stated “There is no problem even if three persons, each weighing 80 KGS, jump together on one square meters reinforced glass.”

It then showed a picture of three stick figures jumping! Hahaha! Once to the top, we stood over Shanghai with only a that thick layer of glass between us and the ground! It was a scary feeling to be up so high, but we came on a great day to see the city, because it wasn’t smoggy like it usually is. Aunt Pam was right; the sky DOES clear up once Chinese New Year starts! It was funny, because in the middle of the ‘walkway of glass’ there was a grey sheerish material covering the glass, so that you couldn’t see through it to the bottom. On the edges, it was just plain, clear glass. All the same material, just one you can see down, and the other you cannot. Most everyone walked on the grey part, because even though they were made of the same ‘reinforced glass’, and the same amount of safety, EVERYONE felt safer on the grey part! Even I felt like I was taking a risk by walking on the part where you could look down and see people smaller than ants!

Leaving the building, we once again we saw a hilarious English translation… The ticket stand read ‘Ticket Wicket’. I have no idea why, or who thought of writing that? Haha but I sure gave me a laugh!

On our last night in Shanghai, I woke up to fireworks exploding at midnight (Yes, I am repeating myself, but this fit into my story here as well!)! TONS of them! I knew they were near by, VERY near by, because the windows were shaking and through the curtains there was so much light it seemed as though there was a lightning storm! After I heard a few car alarms and was starting to break a sweat, I jumped out of bed to see how close they were! Well, this is China, so I should have guessed that they were BLOWING THEM UP 100 FEET FROM OUR HOTEL!!! Sure enough I look down and saw the man light and run away as huge fireworks lit up our block on the street and firecrackers vibrated through the air! We were on the 17^th floor, so they were practically blowing up in our faces! All around the city, people were lighting up their fireworks in celebration of the 5^th night of Chinese New Year. It turns out that the Chinese shoot off fireworks on the 5^th night in attempt to get Guan Yu's attention, thus ensuring his favor and good fortune for the New Year. Guan Yu is a famous general who served in one of China’s civil wars and is worshipped and respected as the epitome of loyalty and righteousness. Each day, in fact, has some sort of food to eat, or firework to explode, or prayer to be said. Wikipedia has it ‘in a brief’, so you should check it out! Anyways so here of some picture of distance fireworks and hopefully my video will works so that I can show you some close fireworks outside of our hotel room window!

The last thing I just HAVE to mention is another funny food thing. The 2nd day we were in Shanghai, Aunt Pam noticed a Dunkin' Donuts down the street from our hotel, so we decided to go there for a late breakfast! Every thing seemed normal until I needed to decide what donut I needed. I look down and see this!

If you can't read the label, it says ' Dried Pork and Seaweed Donut'...

Yeah I was thoroughly grossed out, but I managed to ask for a sugared donut that looked safe, but didn't taste as great as Dunkin' back in the States. When I get older, I am going to open a Krispy Kreme in China, and I plan to get rich this way! All the foriengers here are like "Dunkin' is soooo good". Well, kiddos,...I've got some news for you,... if you think THIS junk is good, come to USofA and try a melt-in-your mouth Krispy Kreme...only then will your life be complete :)

Anyways I’ll try to keep up with my blog better, because, as you can tell, I haven’t been keeping up so well :P I’ll check back in really soon!