Storm of the (half-)century

China is currently experiencing the worst winter storm in 50 years. This means that the generally mild weather here has turned decidedly cold. And rainy. And miserable. I suppose that I should feel grateful that we're not buried under piles of snow like other parts of the country, but mainly I'm just pissed that our apartment has tile floors and doesn't have any heat (it does have AC units, just no heater).

Two consequences have resulted from this situation:

First, I broke down and bought myself a pair of thermal underwear (men's XL, of course, since that's the size I wear here) and have resigned myself to wearing the thermals, my summer robe, two pairs of socks, a blanket (as an insulating skirt), and my totally rad Steelers sweatshirt in the house. It's so cold in here that we can see our breath. I don't have gloves, but I wish I did. Typing has been kind of difficult.

Second, we've had to modify our laundry drying routine. Usually we just hang it on the balcony. But since it's cold and rainy and humid, that doesn't work. The laundry just stays wet and starts to get kind of funky. Instead, we've rigged up mini clothes lines throughout the apartment. It's been difficult to find things to anchor the line to since we don't have much furniture and the construction of the apartment is rather crappy (e.g., tape will pull the paint and plaster off the walls). But we're managing. Here (see photo), we've used the front door and our shoe closet to anchor a line for drying some socks. I think they look kind of cheery -- it feels like we're camping. (Before you ask, no, there aren't any laundro-mats around here, which means there are no dryers).

At least we're not traveling anywhere over the (Chinese) New Year holiday. News reports from all over the world paint a pretty bleak picture.

Guangzhou II

On Saturday, I, D, and 18 of our colleagues chartered a small bus to Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton).

Our first stop was the haizhu market. Almost everyone in the group was intent on buying Christmas decorations here -- kind of hard to come by in China. This market is typical of China -- a multi-story building filled to the rafters with hundreds of odd little shops selling all kinds of stuff. It's easy to get lost in these places.

I picked up some little trinkets -- little goodies to pass out in class for "prizes" or to give to people as small gifts. D, however, came across the atrocity pictured to the right. For some reason that I fail to understand, D fell in love with it, and now it lords over our apartment.

Our second stop was for lunch, which we received free of charge from the Spanish consulate in China. It seems that Spanish Chamber of Commerce was co-hosting some big shin-dig, and one of our colleagues, who is from Spain, arranged to get us in. Lunch was served outside in a part alongside the water. Free Spanish beer, Spanish-style hors d'oeurves, and paella, which was cooked up in gigantic paella pans. It was a good way to spend the afternoon, and if Metro's siren song hadn't been calling, we probably would have wasted day there drinking cerveza and stuffing ourselves with free grub.




I've posted a bit about Metro before -- it's a useful store to have relatively nearby since it has food from non-Chinese countries (ex., Olive oil, bleu cheese, etc.). D and I mainly treated it as a booze run since Metro also stocks US favorites like Seagram's Gin and Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum.

This store is kind of tricky. In some ways, it's like Cosco -- bulk sizes of popular groceries. Odd collection of things like light bulbs and bathrobes and printer cartridges. But then you'll encounter something like the meat aisle, which in Metro looks like a slaughterhouse (like in the first Rocky when Rocky uses the sides of beef as punching bags). At Metro, you can buy a half pig that's hanging from a big meat hook. You can buy parts of the cow (also hanging). Fish in various states of life, death, and dressing are available too. And then there was this:


It even had it's teeth and eyeballs still in its head. Now I can't get that damn song from D's Barbecue Blues album out of my head:

Take a big slice of gator,/put it on a big piece of bread./Salt will make it better./So go ahead, go ahead, take a big bite, Fred./ Alligator/Alligator meat! Alligator!/Alligator meat is really all you need.

Day trip -- Guangzhou

D and I and 4 colleagues hired a van for the day to take us 2 hours north to China's 3rd largest city. Our mission: visit Shamian Island, make a pilgrimage to IKEA, and finish off the day with some indulgent purchases at Metro, a German-based cash and carry store (kind of like Sam's club, but with fancier stuff and smaller portions).

First we hit Shamian Island. Our poor driver had to struggle to find a parking spot (the entire country is on national holiday, so there are tons of tourists around), but we were glad that he did because on the island we found . . . a Starbucks.


See how happy D is? I must admit, it was quite nice to walk into a highly air-conditioned clean and sparkling slice of Americana. And the coffee tasted like Starbucks. And was in a paper cup. And was served by people who understood my order. All luxuries to be savored.

There's a big market on the island; it's called the QingPing (Bright Peace) Market. There wasn't anything especially peaceful about it. Lots of interesting sights. Dried goods of various kinds. Crazy looking tourists and locals haggling over everything. Live scorpions in plastic buckets being picked up with chopsticks and bought (for dinner? for entertainment? who knows). Ramshackle apartment buildings looming overhead. And rows upon rows of dogs and cats for sale.

Puppies:


Kitties and Puppies:


A poor lonely kitty (who was not happy to be standing on those little bars that made up its cage floor):


After the Island, we headed to IKEA.

It was everything that I had ever hoped it would be and more (I'd always wanted to visit an IKEA, but never lived near one). The place was packed, packed, packed. We muscled our way through the cafe and ordered some lunch (Swedish meatballs with potatoes; walnut torte; salad). This was my view from my window-side table:



We did manage to purchase the bookshelves that we've been needing -- got the cheapest ones IKEA had to offer: Flarke.

IKEA was a bit draining on all of us, but we sallied forth to Metro. What a fabulous place! It has a little bit of everything -- kitchen hardware, clothes, electronics, furniture, and food. We only spent about 40 minutes there, so I didn't get to look around as much as I'd like. But I still managed to procure some treats (including a bottle of Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum for only 10 USD and a bottle of Seagram's for about 9 USD). They even had Heinz Ketchup and Hellman's Mayo. I didn't even get to look at the deli case where they had imported olives and cheeses. Something to look forward to next time!