Mystery solved.. maybe

Today was a free day so the first thing I did was call Craig. No particular reason just to say hello and check in. The time delay was pretty bad. I had to wait at least five seconds for him to respond to my questions. It was cheap though and relatively easy so don't be surprised if you receive a phone call from me at 8:00 or 9:00 at night. I was thinking that we had spoken for about ten minutes and the final bill was 9 Yuan so I'm guessing 1 Yuan per minute. That's about $0.14 US so pretty cheap.

After the phone call I went off to find breakfast. I went into the large cafeteria on campus and one of the pancakey, eggy, green vegetable-y round things and tried a little loaf from the bakery section. The round thing was pretty good except it was a bit greasy - most things in the cafeteria are - but the bakery thing just wasn't good. So far I have not been impressed with the Chinese ability to master sweets. The consistency was wrong, it had very little flavor and it also managed to be somewhat greasy.

After my scrumptious breakfast I started looking for the four people who had visited ETSU in January. I got lucky pretty quickly and found the one who spoke the most English - Hu Jian. He recognized me immediately and remembered my name. I had run into one of the others on the street so he may have had advance warning that I was on campus but I know the other one (Ma Shilai) actually remembered my name so I was pretty impressed. He called two of the others into his office (I would learn later that the fourth was off-campus) and we chatted until lunchtime. They looked at my itinerary and wanted to know if I had chosen the other places we will visit. I explained that Professor Xiong and had chosen and they told me that the other places were "just so-so" not beautiful. They showed me some places where I should go shopping, told me which buses I should take to get to the subway and even wrote out the Chinese for some of it for me. I gave them the gifts I had brought from Martin Guitar (thank you, Bill) they seemed a little confused. I tried to explain but I'm not sure they completely understood. They had translators the entire time they were at ETSU but Karen and I discovered that they could speak English. Still, their English is a bit sketchy. Much, much better than my Chinese but sketchy nonetheless. I have all their cell phone numbers and am to call them anytime if I need anything. Everyone here has been so nice.

We went to lunch after and I ate in the faculty cafeteria for the first time. The faculty cafeteria is much better and cleaner than the student cafeterias on campus. The student cafeterias look like some of the less than desirable Chinese restaurants at home. The worst part is that you come out smelling like that. Not good when the queasies hit and you can't stand to smell yourself. I digress. They were chiding me for not choosing the right foods. They said they Chinese eat mostly meat and vegetables for lunch and my plate had mostly bread. This was true because the bread products are the easiest to identify, least likely to cause regret when you discover that you have eaten pig's ear and also least likely to cause stomach problems later. They insisted that I was skinny and brought back a tray of various meats and vegetables for me. I ate several of the dumplings but had no desire to eat the other unknowns. Oh! Almost forgot. I had potatoes and carrots! They were cooked in a very innocuous brown sauce. Never thought I would be so happy to see a carrot.

Came back to the room after lunch to drop off some things I had purchased at the Kwik-e-mart and awakened my roommate. She and I have very different time schedules. I try to be respectful and not get up too early. I didn't worry about waking her today though. She woke me up when she came in at 5 a.m. so it didn't seem unreasonable for me to wake her at noon. Dropped off my stuff and had planned to head for some open air markets nearby but became distracted and stopped off in the little park area on campus. You can read more about that at the end of the post.

Henry had asked me to meet with one of his students who had some questions about how her computer skills might transfer in America at 2:00 so I headed off to the Wu Mart to kill some time. Bought some more "wheat digestive biscuits" and just poked around looking at all the foods I hope I will never eat. Something smelled really, really fishy. Like bad fishy. Should probably explain the Wu Mart. It is mostly a grocery store but this particular Wu Mart has a small section at the front of the store where they sell clothing and various electronic devices. I just like cruising the Wu Mart and looking at all the vegetables and strange meats. The Chinese have different food handling procedures than we do. Eggs and meat are not necessarily refrigerated. I went to the Wu Mart earlier in the week just after they opened and saw several Chinese women rummaging through a bin filled with chicken. I guess they were choosing the best pieces. Each woman left with a little bag full of various parts. Legs and thighs seemed most popular.

Shopped up back at the dorm right at 2:00 to find Michelle explaining to Liu Yaxi that I wasn't there. Many apologies and then off to find a classroom where I could look at her work and she could ask whatever questions were on her mind. She is a sophomore at NCUT and will be attending Cal Poly in the fall. She is currently an interior design major but wants to change to architecture. She has basically taught herself how to use AutoCAD and wondered if her skills would be in line with the American students. I'm sure it won't be long before she completely surpasses her American counterparts. She was going to spend the summer learning more. She spoke English very well but it seems she may struggle in the classroom initially. We had a little trouble understanding one another.

Tried to find the open air market after meeting with her and just confirmed that I would be completely lost if dropped into the middle of China. It should have taken me 15 minutes (although I didn't realize this when I left) to get there. I walked for two hours. I finally found it but the hours are from 5:30 to noon. Not sure if I will fool with it again. Although I know where it is now so it may be a nice walk one morning.

Went to Henry's class at 6:30 to make myself available for questions. They were not a talkative bunch. Henry eventually coaxed a few questions out of them and we talked for about 30 minutes. I stopped at the Qwik-e-mart afterward for dinner. No more Chinese for me today. I am eating only American junk food. I have a Fanta orange soda (aside from tea this is the only caffeine I have had in China), a Snickers bar and I couldn't decide between French chicken, Italian red sauce, and Mexican tomato Lay's chips so I just went with the "American Classic Flavor." I will have a few wheat digestive biscuits in a little while. I don't know if they help my digestion or not but they claim to and they taste pretty good so I have been eating the heck out of them. Probably packed full of sugar and MSG. No pictures today so I'm going to read some American news and then settle down with a book. For those of you who don't know, I am posting pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mmyyrraa/. They are currently up to date.

The solved mystery:
Whenever we are out walking or visiting tourist sites the Chinese invariably look at our faces and then immediately look at our feet. They only do it to the women in the group and they do it to all of us. We thought maybe we were committing some Chinese foot faux pas. Many of the Chinese women were little stockings regardless of the type of shoes they are wearing. I thought maybe they were offended by our naked feet but many of the young girls on campus wear sandals without stockings so that didn't seem right. I asked Liu Yaxi today why people look at our feet. The size? No, she said, my feet are bigger than yours. She said she thinks perhaps it is because of the very colorful painting. She said many of the younger women now have colorful toes but mine are more colorful. So it is my Cover Girl "fuchsia girl" nail polish or I am committing a horrible foot faux pas and she was just too polite to say anything.

Tomorrow is the second Chinese traditional handicraft day. I think Henry said we will make the red knots you see everywhere. I hope it goes better than my paper cut butterfly-dragon. We then visit the Temple of Heaven and the Hongqiao Market. My friends told me to beware of fakes at the market.

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Written this morning in my notebook...
I was headed off to go shopping in the open air market across from the nearby Sam's Club but was easily distracted by the music playing over the loud speakers on the buildings on campus. I had imagined something more sinister would echo through the campus when these loudspeakers were used. Perhaps that has been the case in times past but not today. Today they are playing sort of sweet bordering on sappy English pop music. Well pop music sung in English, I can't recognize the song or the voice. It seems to echo the mood on campus today. Finals end this week and the seniors will be graduating soon. It is sunny today and warm but not quite hot. The sun beats down and my fair skin heats up quickly making it feel warmer than it is. There is a cool gentle breeze blowing. It seems like a perfect early summer day in Beijing.

Sometimes it feels a little strange to have people talking all around you but not understand a word. Mostly it is perfect for the introverted Myra. There is no need to be polite beyond a smile and the occasional Ni hao! I almost wish I could speak to one of the students today because the mood on campus is just so much lighter; it seems to invite conversation.

So I stopped off in the park under some pine trees to listen to the music, listen to the birds sing and feel the nice breeze. The little area is very pleasant but small. There is an older Chinese woman walking short laps around the low walls that are perfect for sitting and reading, writing or studying. It is impossible to tell her age. Her face suggests that she is only 50 or so but she has gray hair and walks as if she is much older. It doesn't matter either way.

The music has stopped and the spell has been broken a bit. I wasn't enjoying the music but am said that it is gone. I suppose I just needed to hear some music in English. The woman has sped up her walking and I can now hear the young girl sitting about 20 feet away who is reciting something in English. I'm too far away and her English is not good enough to understand what she is saying.

My definition of clean has changed. I am wearing the same skirt I wore a couple of days ago. It seemed fine when I put it on but I just looked down and realized that it is covered in dust and dirt. It is impossible to be clean here. I had a book sitting on the shelf next to the window in our dorm room that I hadn't touched for about three days. When I picked it up this morning there was a layer of dirt and sandy grit. My skirt has that same layer. I dropped off a laundry bag full of clothes this morning with the very pleasant Chinese woman who works in the apartment/dorm. I guess I will need to give her another load tomorrow so that I can be moderately clean for our trip. I brought all khaki and light tan clothing because I thought it would be easier to create outfits. Didn't realize that I should have packed for dirt instead of flexibility. I'm sure my bottom will be filthy when I get up.

Oh yeah. Spell is broken alright. I just felt something fall onto my head. I reach up thinking that a pine needle has fallen into my hair. Umm no. Not even bird poop.. Worse. I have a big blob of pine sap in my hair. Lovely.
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The miscellaneous ramblings of a silly American in Beijing. I can tell you from experience that wet wipes do not remove sap from hair.