The Week in Numbers - #15

Personal stats for the past week beginning last Monday to Sunday:

cups of coffee* consumed: 8
pints of Tsingtao consumed: 2
times I broke my vow to never eat in the same restaurant: 2
cost of my new bike: US$20
hours spent at the Intro 2009: Beijing Electronic Music Festival before it was shut down by the police: 5

You know summer is here when. . .

Exposed Belly, originally uploaded by nataliebehring.com.

. . .the menfolk start rolling up their shirts and exposing their bellies. Today I saw many a pale belly leading the way for its owner on the sidewalks from Wangfujing to Wudaokou. I've yet to see this hot look on the streets of New York (yet).

In contrast the womenfolk keep their bodies under wraps. Despite today's 86 degree F weather, I saw women wearing shorts with tights and socks with high-heeled sandals. Women of China, it is way too hot to be modest and layering up. Be free and be cool! Let your sweat run free.

The Week in Numbers - #14

Personal stats for the past week beginning last Monday to Sunday:

cups of coffee* consumed: 11
pints of Tsingtao consumed: 2
times I broke my vow to never eat in the same restaurant: 1
time spent climbing Hongluo (Red Snail) Mountain: 1.2 hours
filled seats in Megabox, theater where I saw J.J. Abrams's Star Trek: 25%

Book Cart Binge-ing

Beijing is a relatively dry city so street vendors abound. Selling ceramic coffee cups, Communist propaganda posters, toothbrush holders shaped like Hello Kitty and everything in between, I can browse, haggle and buy to my consumer heart's content. And this heart has a weakness for books.

Thankfully some book vendors have a few English language titles in their bicycle-drawn carts. Despite having two unread books from my previous book cart binge, I bypassed Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series and Barack Obama biographies and picked up three books. Today's loot: Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (read it many times but gave my old copy to a co-worker), What Would Machiavelli Do? by Stanley Bing and delightfully trashy chick lit Secret Diary of a Call Girl. Three books for 28 RMB. A fair price? At least it's cheaper than The Bookworm's wares.

I remember a time when Eat, Pray, Love was the book to read in New York. Subway cars were lined with women clutching the overhead railing with one hand and a paperback copy of that book in another. Recommended to me by a particularly sensitive masseuse during a wine-and-spa weekend in Sonoma, this bestseller helped galvanize me into making some life-changing decisions, one of which led me here.

The Week in Numbers - #13

Personal stats for the past week beginning last Monday to Sunday:

cups of coffee* consumed: 13
pints of Tsingtao consumed: 1
times I broke my vow to never eat in the same restaurant: 3 (jeez, I'm not doing so well here)
Bon Jovi songs I rocked during Saturday night KTV: 2
hours spent browsing and trying on summery dresses at the new H&M store on Qianmen Street: 2

Missing

Earlier this year my mom and a Portland friend sent me care packages filled with goodies: MTA subway map, Stumptown coffee, Brooklyn Industries t-shirts, earplugs, Dayquil. Yay! But when I am asked on the spot "what can I send you from home?" my mind usually goes blank. Everything is seemingly Made in China, so what do I possibly need from the US which I can't get here? So I started keeping notes about items, which I've needed or miss from home, and can't purchase readily or of a good quality.

On the list so far:
anti-perspirant that actually works and passes the black dress test
delicious cheese (not that sliced crap in the supermarket)
freshly made pesto
electroluminescent wire
spray foam
a superb croissant
Brooklyn Beer on tap
a straight answer (the chabudou, vague answers drive me nuts sometimes)
prosciutto
tampons
fitted bed sheets

While I can probably find the food and personal care items from Jenny Lou's, a supermarket which imports many of their goods from US and Europe and sells them at a significant mark-up, part of me balks at paying US$15 for a small container of jarred pesto with an expiration date of 6 months (ew).

I'm going to compare notes with other expat friends to see what is on their "missing from home" list. Wow, many of these items are food-related. This is probably due to my skipping dinner tonight. Based on the items on my list, it would seem that I am a starving, sweaty woman. So attractive.

Cute I am Not

How did it come to this? I walked by a street vendor two days ago selling t-shirts emblazoned with the usual assortment of NYPD logos, Chinglish statements and cutesy pandas. My eye picked out a tee with 4 Hello Kitties wearing Kiss-style makeup. The headline: Hello Kissy.

Usually my brain would simply register, "aww, how cute." But two days ago my brain also registered, "aww, how cute. let me buy one." Whaaaaa? I almost never wear these kind of tees with logos and fluffy animals, so why is my brain immediately jumping to how awesome I would look in it? Has exposure to millions of folks wearing such tees with bedazzled jeans affected my sense of perspective? China, what are you doing to my sense of personal style?!

P.S. Last month I gave into the "aww...buy" instinct with a gray t-shirt dotted with sushi rolls and "I heart sushi." Not a purchase I would have made in New York. I don't even heart sushi in real life, but the tee was so darn adorable.

The Week in Numbers - #12

Personal stats for the past week beginning last Monday to Sunday:

cups of coffee* consumed: 3
times I broke my vow to never eat in the same restaurant: 2
nights I spent sleeping a yurt: 1 bitterly cold one
hours riding in a cramped minibus: 19
hot pot dinners consumed: 3 (I think that I'm officially over my hot pot obsession)