Last year
I needed to pull up a date from last January for something at work. I was in China this time last year and I usually kept a journal while out there. After reading it again I realized it sounded more like a post to my blog than a personal trip journal, even though I wouldn’t actually start my blog for another six months. I found what I was looking for and then decided I’d post on of my weekend days out there. It’s long...
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January 17, 2004:
I slept horribly; I couldn’t stand the thought of not knowing how I got back to my hotel. Was I passed out completely, did they have to carry me? Was I belligerent and obnoxious? Was I just really sleepy and drunk and managed to make it back with a little bit of help? I hope the latter is what happened.
I felt horrible too and I needed to call [oldest daughter] around 9:30 AM to catch her at her birthday party. I finally got through to her and it sounded like everything was going well. I think everyone was there as I talked to just about everybody [in my family]. Afterwards I called Y.Z. [A Chinese coworker who had invited me to his house the night before, we started drinking a lot of bijou] to thank him for dinner and getting me back to the hotel, he sounded appreciative and didn’t hang up on me so maybe at least I wasn’t too bad.
I then called Carl [Another Chinese coworker] and pushed out shopping until 11:30. I think I would have had to push it out until 4:30 PM the next day to really get rid of the hang over. I ordered breakfast in my room and started to get ready. The eggs weren’t so great but they brought a fruit plate that hit the spot. I ate a bunch of fruit and I’m sure that helped considerably. I took a pill for my head and went downstairs to meet Carl. He had more medicine for me so I brought it back up.
We went to the mall to look for robes, where I knew they wouldn’t have the right kind. Sure enough so we decided to go to the grocery store downstairs to get some tea. I got two types and decided to also take them back to my room. Carl went with me and Q. T. called at one point to confirm we had made good tea choices. We went to the Gold Street [super busy shopping street] and had lunch. The place is very famous of course but was pretty good. I was surprised I had any appetite at all but I think I did pretty well considering.
Afterwards, I found a cool cricket holder thingy and decided to buy it. We wondered around looking for J’s silly abacus and amazingly found them, at an office supply store no less. I picked one out and we walked around a bit looking at other stuff, partly because it was neat, partly because it was butt cold outside. Then we headed towards Culture Street again, and what do you know, but the taxi driver kept pet bugs. He had this mutant cricket grasshopper thing that could probably eat a cat. We compared cricket holders and Carl relayed their conversation to me: he didn’t let it fight, he could give it a bath (?), and it lived about 100 days. We started looking for robes again and Carl decided we should go to another street that sold traditional clothing. We hopped in another cab and off we went.
There I saw more normal robes [I was looking for a short traditional style silk robe], maybe they were made of real silk but they looked like something I could find just as easily at JC Penny’s. He also pointed out the dead people clothes. This was kind of creepy. They were basically sleeping bags for dead people made out of the traditional silk designs you see everywhere. Then, we went back to Culture Street. I was ready to give up but we came across another silk place we hadn’t been in before. They had exactly what I wanted but at a higher price and it came with pajama stuff too. They didn’t want to haggle much so we decided to look around a bit more. After unsuccessfully stopping at one other place, I realized I needed to buy the other one or just leave. I bought it.
So, finally we were now off to buy DVD’s. So, what do you know? This taxi driver remembered me from last November when I had ridden with him before. A city of 9 million or so and taxi drivers remember me? We went to a big technology store, Cybermart I think. We looked around awhile and then found the DVD’s. I picked up a few at one stand and a few more at another. I decided that was plenty for today so we went back to the hotel. I thanked Carl and went to my room. I killed some time doing email and stuff and then went to Cozy’s for dinner. I had pizza and a couple beers. I was ready to leave earlier but between various visitors I didn’t leave until 10:30 or so. The singer from the band came to say hi, the owner, a girl from the bar, and two other giggly girls at another table wanted me to sit with them afterwards.
I decided to at least say “hi”. I think they were college students that just wanted to practise their English. I stayed for a while but decided to leave as politely as possible. I told the taxi driver “bin jin wan li” [Chinese for my hotel], but of course we were headed for the TV tower [the exact opposite direction]. I asked to go to [a nearby, more common hotel] instead and he cussed a little in Chinese (I think something like "dumbass that’s the opposite direction from here"). Then as we approached I used my limited Chinese and pointed to get dropped off at my hotel where he said something like, “Oh, bin jin wan li!” Oh well, I made it.
***
Pretty lengthy for a personal journal I suppose, I guess it was just a sign of things to come.
Fej
***
January 17, 2004:
I slept horribly; I couldn’t stand the thought of not knowing how I got back to my hotel. Was I passed out completely, did they have to carry me? Was I belligerent and obnoxious? Was I just really sleepy and drunk and managed to make it back with a little bit of help? I hope the latter is what happened.
I felt horrible too and I needed to call [oldest daughter] around 9:30 AM to catch her at her birthday party. I finally got through to her and it sounded like everything was going well. I think everyone was there as I talked to just about everybody [in my family]. Afterwards I called Y.Z. [A Chinese coworker who had invited me to his house the night before, we started drinking a lot of bijou] to thank him for dinner and getting me back to the hotel, he sounded appreciative and didn’t hang up on me so maybe at least I wasn’t too bad.
I then called Carl [Another Chinese coworker] and pushed out shopping until 11:30. I think I would have had to push it out until 4:30 PM the next day to really get rid of the hang over. I ordered breakfast in my room and started to get ready. The eggs weren’t so great but they brought a fruit plate that hit the spot. I ate a bunch of fruit and I’m sure that helped considerably. I took a pill for my head and went downstairs to meet Carl. He had more medicine for me so I brought it back up.
We went to the mall to look for robes, where I knew they wouldn’t have the right kind. Sure enough so we decided to go to the grocery store downstairs to get some tea. I got two types and decided to also take them back to my room. Carl went with me and Q. T. called at one point to confirm we had made good tea choices. We went to the Gold Street [super busy shopping street] and had lunch. The place is very famous of course but was pretty good. I was surprised I had any appetite at all but I think I did pretty well considering.
Afterwards, I found a cool cricket holder thingy and decided to buy it. We wondered around looking for J’s silly abacus and amazingly found them, at an office supply store no less. I picked one out and we walked around a bit looking at other stuff, partly because it was neat, partly because it was butt cold outside. Then we headed towards Culture Street again, and what do you know, but the taxi driver kept pet bugs. He had this mutant cricket grasshopper thing that could probably eat a cat. We compared cricket holders and Carl relayed their conversation to me: he didn’t let it fight, he could give it a bath (?), and it lived about 100 days. We started looking for robes again and Carl decided we should go to another street that sold traditional clothing. We hopped in another cab and off we went.
There I saw more normal robes [I was looking for a short traditional style silk robe], maybe they were made of real silk but they looked like something I could find just as easily at JC Penny’s. He also pointed out the dead people clothes. This was kind of creepy. They were basically sleeping bags for dead people made out of the traditional silk designs you see everywhere. Then, we went back to Culture Street. I was ready to give up but we came across another silk place we hadn’t been in before. They had exactly what I wanted but at a higher price and it came with pajama stuff too. They didn’t want to haggle much so we decided to look around a bit more. After unsuccessfully stopping at one other place, I realized I needed to buy the other one or just leave. I bought it.
So, finally we were now off to buy DVD’s. So, what do you know? This taxi driver remembered me from last November when I had ridden with him before. A city of 9 million or so and taxi drivers remember me? We went to a big technology store, Cybermart I think. We looked around awhile and then found the DVD’s. I picked up a few at one stand and a few more at another. I decided that was plenty for today so we went back to the hotel. I thanked Carl and went to my room. I killed some time doing email and stuff and then went to Cozy’s for dinner. I had pizza and a couple beers. I was ready to leave earlier but between various visitors I didn’t leave until 10:30 or so. The singer from the band came to say hi, the owner, a girl from the bar, and two other giggly girls at another table wanted me to sit with them afterwards.
I decided to at least say “hi”. I think they were college students that just wanted to practise their English. I stayed for a while but decided to leave as politely as possible. I told the taxi driver “bin jin wan li” [Chinese for my hotel], but of course we were headed for the TV tower [the exact opposite direction]. I asked to go to [a nearby, more common hotel] instead and he cussed a little in Chinese (I think something like "dumbass that’s the opposite direction from here"). Then as we approached I used my limited Chinese and pointed to get dropped off at my hotel where he said something like, “Oh, bin jin wan li!” Oh well, I made it.
***
Pretty lengthy for a personal journal I suppose, I guess it was just a sign of things to come.
Fej
posted by Fej at 8:30 PM
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