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.

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.

Birth Control for Gerbils

After learning about yesterday's US judicial ruling about access to Plan B aka morning after pill, this eye-catching headline from the AP caught my attention: "China uses abortion pill to cut gerbil population."

On a somewhat related note, I've noticed that personal care stores like Watsons stock baby supplies right next to condoms -- a deliberate decision stemming from their consumer research?

(Notice how my mind bounces from thought to thought to thought. . .)

Practice Makes Perfect

My spoken Mandarin skills are weak, so I try to practice as much as I can with shop clerks, taxi drivers et al using my limited vocabulary. Sometimes I learn something interesting, like today. On my way to The Place this afternoon, Purple Passion's signage caught my attention. This was the first sex shop I've seen in China. Practicing my conversational skills in there has got to be more interesting than the "Where are you from? You're American?! You look Chinese. You're from New York? Where are you parents from? How old are you? Why are you in Beijing?" interrogation I've received from almost every taxi driver who has driven me anywhere in this city.

My conversation with the salesclerk translated from Mandarin:

"Hello! This store is very cool," I said gesturing to the wall display of dildos.
"Hello! Thank you," responded the salesperson.
"Do many Americans come to this store to buy things?"
"Yes, Americans come here."
"I'm American. Please tell me, do many Chinese come to this place to buy things?"
Salesperson starts laughing, "Chinese and American come here to buy things. A little more Chinese than Americans."
Running out of vocabulary words, I blurted out "Thanks. Bye!"

While thrilled to throw the word "cool" in my conversation (I just learned that word last Friday), I still need to beef up my knowledge of slang. While studying chinaSMACK exclusively will give me a potty-mouth, I need to balance that with some nice, positive vocab words. If you know of a source online or off, please let me know.

Tasty Boards

I spotted these familiar-looking boards in a shop. Recovering from the melamine scandal, the classic White Rabbit Candy crosses industry lines into the skateboarding world. I loved these chewy, rice paper-wrapped candies when I was child.