Yesterday was a momentous day: it's the day I first made a kid cry.
Now, that sounds bad. I didn't actually do anything. I'd been warned from time immemorial that a tall white stranger would often be enough to get a 3-year-old screaming. Frankly, I'm surprised it took this long. I'd expected it from my first day observing those classes, nearly four weeks ago now.
Something I appreciate more and more about America, as my time here progresses, is just how mingled we really are. White is still the majority, and may be for some time - we certainly have the cultural and financial majority. But it's not uncommon to see other races, to interact with them as children; to know they exist, not from stories or pictures, but from experience. For many of the students I'll teach, I will be their first encounter with a foreigner, and my moderately overweight, nearly 2 meter tall frame is daunting to someone barely above my knee. I understand the fear, I've braced for it, and so when it happened I felt more "I've arrived" than "I've hurt someone" or "I'm terrifying."
It's an interesting feeling.
As I didn't think the above story was enough content for its own post, I thought I'd share a bit of the supermarket world here. First, a comment again about how inexpensive food can be. This meal, for instance, works out to about $5 (30y). Most of that is the kebabs, which are 1.33y each (3 for 10y). The other things are called shuo zhua bing, literally "hand grab pancakes." A thin bread-like tortilla thing with an egg spread over it, some kind of sauce (one of those has ketchup and mayo, the other I don't know), stuffed with lettuce, onion, and cilantro (sausage optional - I actually tried to get one with sausage and one without but it was lost in the language barrier). I assume the sausage would bring the price up, but it'd still be notably affordable. Street food in general tends to be really cheap, and really tasty. When I'm more comfortable reading the symbols and words on the stalls/stands/carts, I'll probably eat more often at those than at restaurants. At least, while they still exist, until the winter freezes them out. I'll miss shuo zhua bing when that happens, as I'm not sure I can figure out how to cook them myself.
As usual, my posts are about food. Imagine that. Hey, this body takes work *pats large stomach*
This week, I encountered, for the first time since arriving, US pricing practices. You can see lower on the sign that many of the items are priced at a flat number. The Chinese yuan does split into decimals, though I've only once seen a hundreds place (e.g. one cent). Seeing tenths is less rare, with the half yuan (0.5) being fairly common. But I've gone nearly four weeks without seeing a "9.99" price. I didn't miss it. It's such a ridiculous practice.
As usual, I'm also intrigued by the varieties of familiar things. These are Bugles in flavors I've never even considered before. Much like the steak-flavored Cheetos from a few posts ago, the "normal" flavors just don't exist here, and instead are replaced by more unusual options.
Inside the supermarket here, I was struck by the presence of live seafood that you can buy. I assume they kill it behind the counter, never loitered long enough to see someone get any. It goes beyond fish, crab, and lobster, however, in some directions that I would not have guessed. Yes, those are sea cucumbers. I didn't even know those were edible, and here's an aquarium full of them for people to buy and cook at home.
I definitely won't be trying to do that any time soon.
Zaijian,
-L
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