vanquishing my to-do list

Besides musing on the distasteful news of my brother’s university enjoying a fluke football win against my alma mater that happened while I was unconscious (which, I contend, should somehow diminish its significance), I hadn’t planned on doing much today. Yesterday had already been eventful enough: with Carolyn I went to the gargantuan Book City in Futian District where I purchased two books of piano music (Debussy and Rachmaninoff) and didn’t even get to canvassing the entire joint before we made off to our Ikea rendezvous with Marissa and Lucy. That resulted in me lugging home a couple of fancy lamps, a nicer vase for my happily growing bamboo plant, additional kitchenware and Omar. It wasn’t out of the question to just sit in my room and bask in the glory of Scandinavian mass-produced domestic hipness (and ruminate on its many theoretical paradoxes).

But, I got bored of sitting around and decided to go out. It also helped that I was hungry again.

First stop:
兰州拉面。A hole-in-the-wall noodle joint south of my school, which has a couple of tables and a gigantic menu covering one of its two visible walls. The proprietress, after shooing away the lackey who could not communicate intelligibly with me (an incident which, I felt for the first time, was not my fault) brought over a plate of super tasty noodles. When she brought them over I set aside my notebook that I had been lesson planning in, which she immediately scooped up and began reading out loud from. “Lesson…Three…Movies. Ha, I can still read some English!” she crowed to the kitchen staff.

Second stop:
Beside 兰州拉面 there is a small grocery store that I had spied a while ago, but never ventured into. I did. Then decided to walk over to the better grocery store a block north.

Third stop:
华乐坊。 A music shop on Gongye Ba Lu (Industrial #8 Road) that I had scoped out many times before. On the way to the better grocery store, I poked my head in and asked the proprietors about taking erhu lessons. The pair, a young man and a young girl, perked up and told me that the erhu teacher would be free to speak with me in half an hour.

Fourth stop:
满家福. The “better” grocery store, closer to me than Walmart but better-stocked and cleaner than the one next to my school. Purchased: a jar of sunflower oil, a moon cake to taste, and a pack of frozen dumplings with a smiling Jackie Chan in chef’s hat and apron emblazoned on the wrapper. (Similarly, Jet Li can be found on subway endorsements sipping from a carton for the Chinese “I Love Milk!” ad campaign.)

Fifth stop:
逸林建身室. One evening while I was returning home I heard techno raving from somewhere above my head. Confused, I looked up and saw on the second story of the corner store a large sign in which I somehow recognized characters for “gym.” The entrance happened to be next door to the music shop, so I walked up the stairs and immediately got lost in a sea of pink tutus: ballet class was in session on the dance floor next to the stairwell. After finding the information desk and explaining again that I was not a retarded adult but a foreigner, I was treated to a tour of the facilities and settled down to hash out in my broken Chinese a yearly charge. The final price: 1380 kuai for a year. While I could run for free on my school’s track, there are no weights to lift here, and 1380 seems a pittance to pay for that for an entire year.

Sixth stop:
The music store again. After waiting for a little while, the erhu teacher emerged from a room after a young girl dashed out ahead of him. After speaking to her grandmother, apparently about some instrument repair issue, he turned to me and spent fifteen minutes on a bench outside introducing me to the rudiments of proper erhu positioning and bowing, which was difficult because of the language barrier but not impossible. A small crowd gathered around us to watch, including the friendly shopkeeper I had spoken to earlier. One man laughingly said to him “You said that he was going to teach a foreigner, but he does not look foreign!” The shopkeeper laughed and explained to the others: “He is, ah, I am going to say something bad…” he faltered in Chinese, then looked at me with a twinkle in his eye. “FUCK,” he happily proclaimed in English. I started. Without skipping a beat, he resumed in Chinese: “This kind of word, 香蕉。” I recognized the word for banana. He chuckled and looked sheepish. “Is this offensive to you? I am sorry. Some do not like it,” he asked. I smiled and said I didn’t mind. The derogatory expression for being “yellow on the outside and white on the inside” had always amused more than bothered me. The free erhu lesson on the Chinese sidewalk continued for another ten minutes, after which I asked the shopkeeper how much an erhu would cost to purchase. Answer: there are 680 kuai, 1180 kuai, and 2280 kuai models. Thanks, I’ll come back in two weeks after I get my paycheck. Bye!

Seventh stop:
TEA 元素。 As I approached the bubble tea cafe I saw one of the attendants I had met the other day eating outside with another attendant. When he saw me he got up and motioned me inside, smiling, and I asked him to please, don’t worry about me, thank you, enjoy your dinner, haha. I got some rose tea and thanked the friendly tea guys, but I have things to do at home, I’ll stop to sit and chat another day, bye.

Turning the corner to walk back to 育才三中 (school-slash-home), I came face to face with a young lady who started upon seeing me – Samantha, one of the Year 2 English teachers who also lives in my dormitory. “Hi, what are you doing?” she asked in her perfunctorily-correct-but-always-vaguely-confrontational English (part of language exchange in this case is getting used to friendly people who unintentionally sound hostile). I explained. “Ah, OK. I am going to the bank. Will you be in your room later? I have some questions to ask you,” she commanded with a smile. Okay. See you later. I wondered what she might think about my Ikea lamps, but fortunately I never had to worry about their sanctity being broached as she later phoned in her questions – about the proper way to address an English letter – instead of stopping by.

Proud of myself, I returned home from my circular jaunt around the neighborhood, whose people I am starting to get to know. Yesterday I had noted that while I had a lot of time here in China, and many goals to accomplish with it, I hadn’t really started yet on any of them. Resolved as of yesterday and partially done today: make a list of goals and tick them off, one by one.

- Exercise, both cardiovascular and weight training. Now in progress.
- Learn erhu. Now in progress!
- Write. Partially in progress; this blog is going very successfully, although the other writing project isn’t.
- Write letters to friends back home. Must first find out my home address, something I keep forgetting.
- Learn to cook. Not yet done, although I’ve almost finished assembling my kitchen.
- Learn Chinese. While my conversational Chinese is getting better by speaking to people, I haven’t really opened my books yet.
- Explore your neighborhood. Done! : )