Saturday Shenanigans

Chinese children have hours of homework every night. They are taught to memorize, memorize, memorize, follow the rules, be respectful to teachers, and memorize some more. That is how they are taught everything -math formulas, literature, and science - even music. It is a very different educational strategy than in the U.S., where students are taught problem-solving and creative thinking. It makes for good engineers and math and science people. It does not make for good free-thinkers, which really isn't conducive to the political structure here anyway.
Today my friend Kelly and I went to a tailor shop to get a dress made. It is fairly cheap to get clothing custom made here, though I've never done it. Kelly needs to get a dress made for an upcoming wedding. When she found a design she liked, she tried to ask to see fabric samples and get an estimate of what it would cost to make that dress. Between us, our Chinese was good enough to ask the questions. Unfortunately, the tailor's assistant was unable to think outside of the box, so to speak. Since they don't sell the particular fabric pictured, she couldn't help us. After one and a half hours of trying to find out if certain dresses were available in different colors, and what it would cost to make them, we left the store having found out nothing. She could not get it into her head that we could change the fabric color or fabric of a dress, even though it is a custom tailor. Very rigid thinking! Very frustrating for us Westerners - especially my free-thinking friend Kelly!

Then we went to another part of town, right outside the "expat neighborhood". China is full of these little storefronts on the ground floor with apartments that go several stories up above the storefronts. Skinny little streets full of bicycles transporting all sort of items and people - it's not unusual to see a family of 4 on one bike, or a guy with a stack of mattresses 10 feet high on the back of a bike. The skinny streets are lined with all these little shops, one after the other, all basically in the same building with the occasional narrow alleyway. They sell so many things in these little shops, though you sometimes wonder if it's new stuff, where it came from and how long it's been sitting there. And how clean it is. I've always sort of avoided going there because I'm not confident enough of my Chinese and I never know which shops sell what. I found some great little shops today with Kelly - she took me to this Malaysian shop that sells all these funky clothes and jewelry and knicknacks. We found some very groovy clothes and we were also able to bargain down a bit. I ended up with a beautiful, hand-beaded shirt, a skirt and a beaded tank top for under $60 - not dirt-cheap but certainly a bargain considering the quality of the stuff. We had a blast and we were able to really practice our Chinese at the shops. My new resolution is to get out of this neighborhood more often and USE my Chinese so it improves - it's so easy not to use it where we live, which is too bad because it never really gets better that way. Kelly's resolution is to run the Great Wall of China 1/2-Marathon next month. (Which resolution sounds easier?) I'm even going to get really brave and visit the wet market, which I've been avoiding due to fear of seeing Fido or Snowball there. I've found out they have live chickens but no domestic pets there - whew! They sell fresh, cheap vegetables and fruits and meats there. I will avoid the meats (uh, animals), regardless, because, brave or not, I am NOT going to kill, behead and pluck a chicken. I'd rather run the Great Wall 1/2 Marathon.