July 16 - My First Chinese Haircut‏

'Sup, homies?

Thank you so much for all of your e-mails - I'm working on replying individually to them, but it takes time; thanks for your patience. It means so much to me that we have the love, support, and prayers of our friends and fam at home.

My hair is soooo shaggy, so I called Summer yesterday and asked if she could take me to a salon today and interpret for me. (And Beads, I'm so sorry - I missed our skyping appointment. Dang it!!! Write me and we'll reschedule.) She and Maria picked me up this morning and took me to a place on Stinky Street. Oh my goodness, was it ever hot. And...squalid. That's the word for it. But bless the hairstylist's heart, she gave me a really good cut. I wanted to shorten up my a-line a bit - again, much of what I wanted was lost in translation, so I ended up with a bit of a bob, but it's alright. As long as it's short. In this weather, short is good. She took probably half an hour to 45 minutes to cut my hair, and she did a fantastic job. And guess how much this haircut cost me? ONE DOLLAR. No, I'm not kidding. One. Or six yuen, to be exact. I asked Summer and Maria if it's customary to tip hairstylists, and they said, "Nonononono." I read in one of my books that tipping is just not common here, that it's more of a capitalist thing.

While I was getting my hair cut, Summer and Maria had a good time looking at my Mandarin/English dictionary. And then they had a great time asking me what I know how to say. So I said some of the stuff I know - "Do you know English?" "I'm American." "I don't speak well." "I don't speak Mandarin," etc. They said my pronunciation was fantastic. Thanks to Rosetta Stone, dude. Thanks, Megs and Mark, again, for downloading that for me. I need to listen to more lessons. So then Summer and Maria set about teaching me some other things. I wanted to know how to say, "You're welcome," because when people take pictures with us, they always say "Thanks," and I don't know how to respond, except for to nod and smile (sound familiar, Patty?). So I found out today that, to say, "You're welcome," you say, "Boyo shuh." Easy enough.

The hairdresser told me (and Summer interpreted) that she has seen my family walking up and down Stinky Street. Well, of course she has. We're hard to miss. She then asked if we don't believe in birth control. :) I told her that Ben and I definitely believe in birth control, but that we always wanted a big family. I also told her that, in the area where we're from, big families are common. That a couple of my friends have five or six kids, that my brother-in-law's family has eight kids, and that a family down the street from me growing up had 12 kids. Summer, Maria, and Hairdresser were sooooo shocked by this. I asked her about the law for number of children, and she said that the law is, you can only have one child, but if you were an only child, and your husband was an only child, then you're allowed two. Can you imagine having the government dictate the number of children you can have? I'm so grateful to be an American.

I asked Summer and Maria to show me a local swimming pool - luckily, it's just down Bombed-Out Road, then you turn right onto Perpetually Flooded Road, walk for about half a mile, and you're there. There is an indoor pool next to an outdoor pool, but you can't go from one to the other. The prices were pretty decent - about $2 per adult - and the facilities were really good, so that was exciting. There are swimsuits and floatie toys for sale up and down the road that the pool is on - I've noticed that, at least here in Baoding, the women are very modest. I mean, they all wear miniskirts, but I haven't yet seen a bare midriff or a low-cut shirt. Which is cool. And the swimsuits are also very, very modest. No string bikinis to be seen anywhere. And all of the bottoms of the suits have ruffles to cover the bikini line. Pretty cool. I was hoping they had some beach towels for sale on this road, but there were none to be found. Maria and Summer suggested we walk down the street and up another to a department store to pick some up. I didn't have enough money on me to buy six - I was in charge of getting lunch, as well - but I did buy two. In the department stores, you pick out what you want. The sales lady that is helping you writes a ticket of sorts. You take the ticket to the cashier and pay her, then you take this stub thing back to the sales girl and show it to her to show you actually paid, and then you're allowed to take the wares away. Interesting. It was about $15 for two large, plush beach towels.

I decided to get Pizza Hut again for lunch. Because I'm naughty. Summer used her student card to get me an 18% discount, which was really sweet. Summer and Maria are spending the summer writing their post-graduate theses. Then they head up to Beijing this fall to do their internships. I assumed, since they were both so good at English, that they were English majors, but Summer is a waste management major, and Maria is a land resources major. Smart girls. They said they'll arrange for a new interpreter when they leave. I'll miss them.

Some stranger asked Summer if she could use Summer's student discount card, so Summer sighed and gave it to her. But then we had to go retrieve it. While Summer went inside, Maria said, "Summer is very can."

"Can?" I said.

"Yes, can."

"What does 'can' mean?" I was thinking she was using the Mandarin word for "nice."

She said, "You know, nice."

"Ohhhh. KIND."

"Yes, KIND."

Pizza Hut was really busy (it's a Saturday here, and everyone is out celebrating the weekend) and had a half an hour wait for carry-out, so we went to a department store next door to walk around in the cool while we waited. In the basement was a huge place for traditional Chinese snacks. Summer bought these bread thingeys called "Chien." They have many, many layers, kind of like baklava. Oh my goodness, they were actually good. I can honestly say that this is the first thing I've liked here. It was a nice discovery.

We took the kiddos to the pool this afternoon - we chose the outdoor pool. It was nice and cool. It felt fantastic. People just stared and stared at our powder-white skin. I'm getting used to the stares. I wonder if this is how movie stars feel?? A group of little boys came up to us and befriended us. They teach English in the "primary schools" here, so they knew a little. This one kid, who said he was eleven years old, picked up Dylan and carried him all around. Dylan did not know what to do. Ben was like, "Why is he holding you?" Dylan said, "I do not know." But he sat and allowed himself to be carried around. It made me giggle. The kids asked various things, like, "Is your baby a boy or girl?" "Are you from America?" and of course, the old standby, "Are these kids all yours??" They were adorable. The water really was quite cold, so we got out for awhile (and warmed up instantly). The little eleven-year-old boy got out with us, and then the sweet thing went and bought us some food from a street vendor. I couldn't tell what one skewer was, and he couldn't say what it was, but whatever it was, it was seasoned with cumin. Ben thinks it was some kind of fish. And then he brought us another skewer, and said, "This is chicken." We had just barely eaten, so I was honestly full. I was trying to tell him, and he finally said, "You not hungry?" "Yes, I'm not hungry." He shrugged and wandered away. Then he came back with a camera to take his picture with us, of course. What a sweetheart.

I told Maria and Summer, when I was with them this morning, that it's Ben's birthday on Monday, and they got soooo excited. "We want to have a party for him!" they kept saying. They arranged the WHOLE thing. We're going to eat at a restaurant not far from here. They took me to the bakery on Stinky Street to pick out a cake and arrange for it to be finished on Monday. Summer says that it's customary for a friend to bring the cake to the restaurant a little bit early. Then, when the Birthday Boy comes in, he sees the cake on the table, waiting for him. I ordered the cake with the dragon on it - it is soooo cool-looking. I'm really excited. It only cost $15. Summer is calling all of Ben's work associates and inviting them. Maria's mother's birthday is on Monday, but she insists on coming to Ben's party instead of her mother's party. I kept telling her that she should be with her mother, but she is not going to miss it. Summer says that first, you eat your dinner. Then you sing some kind of happy birthday song, and then the birthday person eats a special kind of noodles that stand for longevity.

Summer asked me why Ben would want a dragon on his cake, since she read that westerners believe that dragons are bad. I told her that, in midevil times, they believed that, but that people think they're pretty cool now. :) She says dragons stand for good luck here. I told her that they're perfect for a birthday cake, then.

She asked me more about teaching English at the university. I told her I felt really unqualified, but she said that all Mr. Tsuo wants is someone to converse with his higher-level English majors, just like I was conversing with Summer and Maria today. Again, I'm not going to push for it, but if he wants it, I'll do it.

I need to get Ben a birthday present on Monday morning. I think I'm going to see if they have any DVD's in English for him.

Oh my goodness, they have these crazy, crazy thunderstorms here. Almost every single night. It's weird - it never rains in the day. Always at night. And there are so many tall buildings here - the thunder strikes soooo loudly and close, hitting all of the lightning rods on the taller buildings. It has woken me up several times. It's thundering right now. I think it's so cool. And the rain here is "fat rain," just like Forrest Gump described Vietnam. It rains long and hard. I love it. And the streets need the cleaning. :)

Cars and taxis honk here like crazy. All you hear is honking. They do it more to say to bikers and pedestrians, "Hey, I'm driving on the wrong side of the road for a minute - watch out so I don't hit you." It seems to be just like a kind thing to do. If you get honked at, you know that someone is generally worried about hitting you. No one takes offense. Bicyclists are so funny - they wear these big things that look like visors, but they have sunglasses material on them. And they lower them over their whole face. Then they always wear a long-sleeved shirt backwards - maybe in case there are bugs that hit their shirt? If they don't have a long-sleeved shirt in front, they wear these long glove things, but without fingers. They're like elastic sleeves. It's interesting.

We haven't found any LDS church members here in Baoding, and it's too expensive to travel to Beijing every week to attend the branch, so we are planning on having church on our own every week. CES has sacrament meeting speakers online that you can watch, and then you can conduct your own primary. So that is our plan for tomorrow. Ben got special permission from our bishop to prepare and pass sacrament here in our hotel room.

Ben just brought some food home, so I'll sign off for now - we're trying this fast-food place called "Dico's." I'll let you know how it goes. :) And then I have to wake the baby and feed him.

Love you tons,
Kar