So begins the winter season and no country other than the United States seems to hawk it like China! There are shoppers, set ups, and lights everywhere. Sales abound everywhere you go, but the odd thing is.... They are not Christians?!?!? Only a small 7% of China is Christian. The majority being Buddhist and Taoist. I mean I totally understand, a true shop-a-holic will use any excuse! We have even heard that Hong Kong has a line around the Louis Vuitton store. A velvet rope, because they can only let 10 shoppers in at a time, otherwise total chaos ensues. A grand vision, I must admit!
this has been a usual crazy week. I love the craziness really, and I suppose you do too or else you wouldn't be reading to find out what insane crap has happened here week to week, so let's get started shall we?
Sam starts Winter Break on Wednesday. What I am going to do with her for 2 weeks, I have no clue. I see a lot of cheap toys and manicures in her future!
This past Wednesday I went with the Club ladies to an Electronics Market. Turned out to be an old mall, with 7 floors of everything for phones, computers, cameras. Anything you can plug in or add batteries to was there for the haggling. I managed to get Dan a new Camcorder for less than 150 US. Not bad, touch screen and everything. Of course it did involve bargaining, walking away and being called back for an hour and a half to make sure we got the best deal and lowest price. To be honest, I would rather pay full price and get the hell outta dodge, but I was with a power bargainer, so I patiently played along.
Outside this Electrical Phenomenon was a place called Women's World. An outdoor market full of apparel. I felt bad shopping my ass off, while contemplating how to tell these people that Women's World usually means "The Fat Chicks Section" of a store. lol, but I held my tongue as I purchased Mommy and Daughter UGGS for only 40 dollars. In box, with tags and everything. Plus managed to hurriedly snag Sam 2 Burberry trench coats as I was dragged out of there to catch the bus back to reality! So, in all, HELLS YEAH for the Electronics Market. I left screaming to everyone that I would definitley be back as soon as I could manage it!
Sam had her first school, holiday concert Thursday night. Since she commutes to school, Dan, Sam, and I hired a car and settled in for a hair pulling 2 hour crawl in Shenzhen traffic to make it to the theater 2 minutes before show time. I literally ran by and threw her on stage. Snowflakes not only melt, they should arrive on time. As soon as I figure out the afore mentioned Camcorder, I will happily post my filming debut on FB!
Also of interest (or not, but hey it's my blog)We are fortunate enough to own a washing machine here. I may reside in China, but I refuse to beat Baby Gap clothes against a rock for cleaning purposes. Unfortunatley, everytime I do a load of clothes, all of the water leaks out of the bottom of the machine and all over the laundry room floor. Like I was told to do, I called the Property Manager's office, she supposedly speaks some English. After telling her what the problem is, she sends up a Maintainence man, talks to him on my phone, talks to me, talks more to him, then proceeds to tell me that apparently the problem has to do with the Battery and the Paper. I struggled to hold onto my last ounce of patience while I explain to "Miss Some English" that a washing machine has neither BATTERIES OR PAPER in them, then I hung up on her! I would rather mop up the floor after every load than deal with some snot who thinks they speak English, when really all they know how to say is Hello, Goodbye, and Thank you!
So, I kick out the maintenance guy who really was very nice and go out on the balcony to smoke a cigarrette and calm down. My eyes wander to the apartment balcony below and over one and what do I see. She has not only her laundry hanging out to dry, but also her dinner. I KID YOU NOT, she had one row of undies and one row of seaweed hung out to dry. That was enough to send me into a moment of hysterical laughing and forget all about my leaky washer! Atleast I don't have to worry about how wet my dinner might be!
And finally, last night we went down to the town square to grab dinner at a new restaurant. There are always local artists there on the weekends doing portraits of people, so we decided to get Sam's done! She sits down for the artist and no sooner does she get settled and he gets to sketching, she begins to draw a large crowd of on-lookers! There were atleast 40 chinese people gathered around her, taking pictures of her with their cameras and phones. Then they began to get bold and even squat down beside her to get their photos taken with her. I was sitting in a chair beside her to make sure she sat still and kept looking at the artist and I was getting blinded by flashes! It was like going out with Paris Hilton. People were saying things to her, trying to get her to look at them so they could get photos, so we are sitting there trying to be still for the artist and there is a crowd of people saying "Nihao, nihao" and flashes going off. I even had to step aside so I would not be in their photos of her. Now I know how Dina Lohan feels everytime she tries to do the simplest things with her daughter! Photos are on FB!
Until next week, tis the season to go into debt so get off your computer and go buy me something, damn it!
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