One of my delightful blog readers said she’d love to hear about a typical day in my life, here in China. While I’ve rattled on about various expat experiences, I’ve probably tried to spare you the gory details of my day to day trivialities! And at the risk of boring you all to tears, mostly my days are not too dissimilar to those I might have back at home. Still, visitors always ask me, “What do you do all day, here in this mad city?” Well, in a nutshell, I take my daughter to and from school, I work, I do chores, I have coffee, I shop! The usual! But wait! Before you hit delete…. there’s (probably) more! Yes, admittedly, there are a few little challenges/hiccups/weird 'China moments' in between that run of the mill stuff. A year in, for much of it, I don’t bat an eyelid… Perhaps this is my new normal? I’ll let you be the judge. Instead of a day in the life, here’s what a “typical” week might look like in the middle of China! Monday: Brace myself for the mad school run! These days most drivers we have (which is whoever happens to be available from the hotel, where we live) don’t speak any English. Like nada! This means there’s a lot of nodding, smiling and charades. But at 7:50am, charades can be a bit much so it's with a 'Nihao' we roar off along Xi'an's roads, swarming with erratic morning traffic. Ava is strapped into her car seat, but it’s not compulsory. (She could be sitting on the roof for all they care….Yes really!) Depending on the driver, I’m either listening to blaring talkback radio in Chinese (at least it sounds like it to my oblivious ears), Country and Western (in English) or some big tunes from seventies rock stars like The Eagles! (Don't ask me about the latest hits…...Ed Sheeran who?) Or it’s radio silence…just the cacophony of horns to hum along to, with the odd crackling of random fire crackers to break up the relentless screeching of horns. 40 minutes later, (at least) 20 near misses with various busses, bikes and trikes (a few expletives under my breath later) and we arrive at school. (For more on what it's like...you can read this post!) We stumble out of the car and weave our way through cars coming in all directions to cross the road to school. (In the early days we could be stuck there for who knows how long! I now (smugly) feel quite accomplished at crossing the road.) The security guard at the gate greets us with a big, smiling ‘Zao Shang Hao’ (Good Morning) and we roll in to what is one of Xi’an’s three international schools. Ironically most of the foreigners here, happen to be teachers and their kids (and make up a large portion of my new found friends). Ava’s school is an International Baccalaureate school with students made up largely of Koreans and Chinese and then about two dozen or so are westerners from England to America, Europe the Middle East and beyond. At the entrance, a board tells us the temp for the day and the all important pollution levels. If its over 200, it means the kids won’t be playing outside. For most of the spring/summer months it’s low and we don’t think about it too much. Come winter, it’s a different story. Coal powered heaters are fired up across town and it’s a speedy run through the chilled winter air, up to our necks in puffer jackets, scarves and masks, ready to do battle with a smoggy environment. Tuesday: A year in China and it’s time for a visa renewal run, so that we can stay another year! (If we so wish). Thank God, we are not required to go through the ridiculous rigorous medical we were subjected to last year! (Read about that debacle here.) Nope this is just a quick sit down in front of a camera for a photo and a very smiley (please let us stay) ‘Nihao’ to the lady, who it seems has the power to push this through very quickly IF we give the right look (and enough cash). Without the hotel's HR person to fill in countless forms and visit several different departments, we would be utterly lost! No two ways about it. There is zero English spoken in any of these departments. I head to school with Ava while the hotelier hails a cab and tells the driver where to take him in Chinese! (A proud moment in itself!) This afternoon, it’s time for my Chinese lesson, which usually fills me with a mix of both dread and determination. I pick Ava up from school (aka drag her kicking and screaming from the playground) to make the slightly less chaotic afternoon run home. The driver is asleep as we approach….it seems in China they will take every opportunity for a quick snooze. I have to knock on the window and probably scare the living daylights out of him! Home (well, to the hotel’s business centre where I have my 1.5 hour lesson) and my Lao shi (teacher) meets us in the hotel lobby (while our Chinese Bao mu (babysitter) who also works in the hotel restaurant, takes Ava (which usually involves too many cupcakes, barbies and some Chinese singing for an hour or two)! This afternoon we are learning the ins and outs of a house…furniture, computers, washing machines….upstairs, downstairs, front gardens…..I inhale yet another coffee to keep me focussed…… Wednesday: International day at school means everyone’s dressing in their local costume and bringing dishes from all over the world. Small Person is dressed as an Australian cow girl in her Akubra. Most days after school, I let her play for half an hour in the playground with the other kids who aren’t taking the bus (most do, many of them as young as three). I’m always intrigued by the myriad of different languages that buzz around me while I wait. It’s interesting to see how birds of a feather flock together. Most of the Chinese parents huddle together in one corner, the Koreans in the other, and the rest of the westerners hang about….(usually waiting for the inevitable scream of a child galloping through the playground in tears of either joy or the 'someone's just pushed me' variety…). The lack of mingling is largely due to the language barrier… That said, for the Small Person, having children in her class that don't speak English is perfectly normal and inspiringly, no obstacle to their communication. There is a huge Korean population in Xi’an due to Samsung having its largest plant outside of Korea, here. Many of my neighbours are Korean and many of Small Person’s classmates are Korean. There's even a Little Korea Town, where I've just enjoyed my first authentic Korean BBQ. Tonight, I arrive home to a new addition to the house! We have a new lounge! I didn’t ask for it, but it's all part of the original ‘hotel residence’ plans that went on hold. Now it's finished, I'm not complaining. But this construction site on my balcony means I’ve had many random strangers hanging outside my home day in, day out for several months, now. Sometimes they are sleeping, often they are spitting, shouting and smoking and occasionally they are eating lunch or dinner with their families (on my outdoor table) as the sun sets! Nice for some! Thursday: We (excitedly) have visitors in town all the way from the Land Down Under…and today I accompany them to see the famous Muslim Quarter. It’s Golden Week, so crowds are even more mammoth than usual. We inch through the chaos, shoulder to shoulder. Bikes loaded sky high try to defy the law of nature and squeeze through the solid crowds (hopefully without running over someone’s toes)! Our visitors' eyes have that boggled look that says, "Get me the hell out of here!" Today smoke is thick in our faces from so much street food being sizzled and seared…. we escape down a side alley way to the Great Mosque entrance for some tranquility….and breathe. After a wander around, the big question: If it’s not street food, where to eat? We decide, with five kids in tow, Maccas is a good option. For a start they have toilets. The line though is out the door. With a long day ahead, we have no choice but to wait almost an hour in the queue - the only white people being eye-balled up and down by rather amused locals. A few are game to take photos and attempt to snuggle into our small people. There’s a good reason my first words learnt in Mandarin were “Please don’t touch her!” We pray there is a western style toilet at our destination, but at the end of the line we find three terribly messy (and believe you me, this is being polite) squat toilets …even better with doors that don’t lock and keep swinging open revealing all and sundry! (Those revealed, don’t seem to mind)! We decide to grimace grin and bear it and I attempt to give my visitors a quick lesson in the art of squatting, whilst wearing jeans and boots! There’s a lot of shrieking and giggling amongst the undeniable horror! Chant the mantra: Friday: It’s the Australian Football Grand Final….our expat friends invite us over for a good ole Aussie shindig. How can we refuse!! Of course the number of Aussies in town is few and far between so we rally in the Americans and the English as well (who stare blankly at the fast paced game of footy) and we chow down on some homemade Aussie pies. A non-baker I’m usually the one bearing the cheese platter and wine (also because living in a hotel I’m fortunate to have access to some decent cheese!). Later and we’ve agreed to meet some newbies in town. An american couple (readers of this blog) have been asked to come on secondment to Xi’an. They are keen to get the lowdown. I try not to scare them too much as they sit with us not knowing whether to laugh or cry, gripping their glass of wine just a little too tightly. (I remember the feeling, well!) Saturday We’ve signed up (or rather my lovely husband signed me up) for a Charity Run as part of the Starwood Hotels ‘Run to Give’ campaign. I am not really a runner, so the fact that we are up early and standing on Xi’an’s ancient city wall on a Saturday morning ready to race around it is in itself quite baffling, but admittedly quite a stunning start to the day! There’s a huge turnout, the sky is unusually blue with not much hint of pollution and it’s warm. As I huff and puff my way around the wall built thousands of years ago, looking at the red Chinese lanterns swinging in the morning light, I wonder how I got here. A friend's birthday means we are all going for Chinese Hot Pot, which is an extremely popular outing in much of China. This time we are given our own little pots, which sit just to the left of us on hotplates hidden under the table. Once they are bubbling, you add your fresh meat, noodles and cook yourself. (Note to self: don't put phone on table near hot plate!) Sunday The hotel is on high alert today, the red carpet has been rolled out (literally)! Despite Xi’an’s location (seemingly in the middle of nowhere), we seem to get a lot of VIP’s popping in. (Indian PM, former US President Jimmy Carter.) Today it’s the Russian Deputy PM along with China’s Deputy. (Both women I might add!) Police have closed off roads around the hotel and seem to be hanging everywhere! A mobile scanner is set up outside the hotel for bags and for a brief period no one is allowed in or out. The hotelier is running around like a chook with his head cut off….(nothing new there) and the grand ballroom is fit for a king! Later I manage to escape from the hotel to get to the hairdresser for a blow-dry. I can’t mention my typical week in China without mentioning this place. It is a place that has both intimidated and invigorated me over the last 12 months. For a start only one of the dozen staff can speak any English…so over the year there has been a lot of staring at me - repeat, a lot! Thankfully as time goes on we are all becoming more comfortable with one another. I am no longer the foreign species on the block to be prodded and poked. My visit is not your typical visit to a hairdresser where it’s all about the endless flow of coffee, head massages and trashy magazines. Sadly, there are none of these luxuries….instead, I am given a full immersion into Chinese, whether I like it or not. My Chinese book is ogled by the locals, keen to see what this strange foreigner is learning….I am made to repeat the words out loud…and conversation is mostly in Chinese. (Which whilst at the time leaves me feeling like I've been dragged through a bush backwards is ultimately invaluable.) This week I’ve been shopping and my excited bevy of onlookers want to know what the crazy lady has in the bags. For a brief moment (again) I feel like I am on another planet ….and then I hear Madonna’s ‘Get into the Groove’ playing across the salon and I smile to myself. You see, I know the words! It’s the one moment in which I have the upper hand in an otherwise alien environment. I walk home to get ready for the afternoon school run…. I see a mum holding her child over a drain, for the toilet…..someone else is squatting down low on the side of the road eating their lunch (who needs a seat), street carts are parked on every corner bearing all sorts of indecipherable goodies, cars ride along pavements, their horns honking…. and people are generally shouting at each other (all in the name of normal conversation). Of course, the rest of my week I can be found at my desk, writing, working….doing chores…just like any other working mum. A week in my life….all fairly normal stuff. Or is it? I don’t really know anymore. This is China. *Note: I may take creative license with the actual days and times of said events. … [Read more...]
Life in a Chinese City – What’s it Really Like?
China! It's the country on everybody's lips. The topical talking point on the global table. But aside from being home to the world's biggest economy, what is it really like living in one of the 654 cities, outside of Beijing or Shanghai? Ask anyone who's lived in the megalopolis that is China and they'll tell you (surprisingly) that every city is different, really different. Xi'an is commonly known as a second-tier city. Even though around 200 Chinese cities have more than one million people, the only first-tier cities are Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen - largely due to their size, economic development, infrastructure and cultural significance. I've only been here four months, but what I've witnessed so far (as a foreigner) is a city with a fascinating fusion of sheltered innocence and simplicity perched on the edge of aggressive progression. For me, it's both intriguingly exciting and at times, scarily confronting....(if not a little mind boggling and mind blowing)! It may be 2015, but here in Xi'an, North West China, people are still smoking like it's 1975. In what is most likely a win for smokers (but perhaps not for the rest of the population), smoking inside is still a perfectly normal pastime, even though it was banned a few years ago. Bars, lobbies, restaurants and often toilets are peppered with people inhaling and exhaling with vigor. I've even seen a bus driver lighting up on the school run. There are no road rules. Crash helmets are not critical, in fact they are not even considered… and the more bodies squeezed onto the back of a bike, the merrier. Traffic for the most part is manic and let's just say you could be forgiven for thinking some driver's licenses were retrieved in the bottom of a cereal box. For more on this read School Run in China. Kids, forget about singing to the tune of "Let it Go" - the temperatures might be on the chilly side up north but it's not cold enough in town for 'Frozen,' yet. You won't find Peppa Pig jumping in muddy puddles or the latest episode of Disney movie, Planes buzzing through the cinemas. Super heroes like Batman and Spiderman are not required here. Barbie is still queen of the toy kingdom and Mickey and Minnie are still prince and princess of Disney. Even old faithful, Winnie the Pooh is met with a puzzled look from locals. Roller blades reign supreme….kites are a fashionable mode of fun for kids and the good old Rubick's Cube is making a popular comeback…or perhaps it's yet to be solved in this part of the world. Forget about leaving a message on somebody's mobile phone, voice mail simply doesn't exist. Receive a missed call and the etiquette is you'll call right back - ASAP. The mobile app What's App doesn't get a mention up here, but We Chat is where it's at. A cross between Facebook and What's App everyone and anyone is on this app. Facebook, Twitter and Google are banned but Weibo and Baidu take their place. Internet is patchy and compared to the western world, notoriously slow, but the only people you'll find complaining are the pesky foreigners! You won't see people glued to their phone on the streets (just as well because cars are driven on the footpath, so it's important to keep your wits about you)! You will find Samsung's US$7 billion semiconductor plant on the city's outskirts (the single biggest inbound investment on the mainland) along with one of the largest aviation industry manufacturers in China; not to mention 50-plus universities. When it comes to being ill and calling for a doctor, forget about a course of antibiotics by mouth, here the no frills hospital "injection" is the drug of choice. That said there are pharmacies dedicated solely to medication. Rows upon rows, boxes upon boxes bearing Chinese labels are yours for the taking, including antibiotics sans prescription. On the other hand, finding good old fashioned Vicks, Panadol and cold & flu tablets is a task in itself. Got a stomach bug? Rehydration drinks are yet to be flavored. Hydralite who? Retail shops and giant shopping malls are definitely in abundance - but just because almost everything is "made in China" doesn't mean it's here on the shelves. I wrote this post on that! It's back to the basics when it comes to stocking up on cosmetics and toiletries in supermarkets. Dental hygiene is clearly priority, with rows and rows (and rows) of toothpaste and toothbrushes up for grabs; along with a plethora of shampoos and soap! Forget about anything more advanced in the beauty department. Hairspray (at least more than one or two brands), hair product, face wipes and makeup brands are still minimal. Exposure to the western world is coming, slowly but surely - with some global brands like Starbucks, McDonalds (as recently as five years ago), KFC, Haagen Dazs and designer clothing stores like Gucci, Hugo Boss and those famous high street stores H & M and Zara making themselves heard, but for the most part, Xi'an is still a city in 'big brand' lockdown… With counterfeit culprits on every corner, every cashier you meet will scan your notes through a machine to ensure it's the genuine thing! When it comes to using credit cards, most places will only take Chinese credit cards. The local fare in Xi'an, is generally a mixture of the spicy, meaty and a little greasy. Shaanxi noodles are a hot favorite and every Chinese meal inevitably ends with a big bowl of these thick noodles, (of which it is considered highly rude not to finish). The province's famous Han Bao Bao is a tasty version of the western hamburger using a pita bread type bun to sandwich a pork filling. Pigs brain, lungs, ear; lamb's stomach, sheep's blood (need I go on)...is all perfectly normal fodder for a dinner date. Let's just say nothing is off limits or left to the imagination. Western staples like cheese, bread, butter, chocolate (yes, I call this a staple), pasta, sauces, herbs etc are available (through stealth investigation) but don't expect to get more than one or possibly two brands to make your selection from. When it comes to alcohol around here, it's all about Baijiu. This is China's infamous 60 per cent proof liquid you could be forgiven for thinking was the elixir of youth or the toast of the town! It's been brewed for thousands of years and even today at every business or formal gathering, guests must individually toast the host with a shot of Baijiu… and the host must return the favour with everyone (which can make for a very tipsy host indeed - just ask my husband). More on that here! Taste buds are evolving with red wine or "Hongjiu" starting to make its presence felt, but tradition dies hard, locals still preferring to scull it in small shot glass sizes over lunch or dinner. Outside of five star establishments, here in Xi'an, white wine is still to make a name for itself and (much to my disappointment) not to be found on too many beverage lists. In this nation of tea lovers, coffee has only recently come into play and quirky "cafes" are springing up around the city bearing menus with Mocha, Cappuccinos and Lattes, but by and large don't expect low fat milk, that stuff is for the faint hearted. It's full cream or go home. Recycling is yet to make a name for itself, in fact it's non existent. The pollution can be every bit as bad as you hear and masks are as much of an accessory as a hat and gloves. You can see it, smell it and taste it. Alternatively (and strangely) it can disappear as quickly as you can click your fingers, making way for crystal clear blue skies and sparkly sunshine. Despite a burgeoning population of 8.5 million people, Xi'an is a city where daily life still remains relatively simple. A city where the past and present is rapidly colliding, creating a culture that shyly teeters on the edge of change. One foot in, one foot out - it's tradition versus modernity with every step. This is life in an ancient Chinese city. … [Read more...]
China – Two Steps Forward, Three Steps Backwards.
We all have those days don't we, where everything we attempt to do is just plain difficult! The Gods are not smiling on us…..we usually just put it down to one of those days….and hopefully, move on. Tomorrow is after all, another day! At the moment as we try to settle into a new country, namely big bad China - those days, typically tend to be more frequent than not. (Don't mention the power cuts!!) The hotelier, Miss A and I have at times felt like we are living out a scene from the Griswolds… (If you don't know the term....the movie National Lampoon's Vacation is aptly a comedy series about the misadventures of the Griswold family, whose, quote: "attempts to enjoy vacations and holidays are plagued with continual disasters and strangely ridiculous predicaments.") Say no more! In a nutshell, everything we attempted required an almighty dollop of patience with a splash of humour on top! "I'll have a Sprite thanks. Actually make that two lemonades for us." Waitress returns ten minutes later, "So do you want one Sprite and one lemonade?" "Isn't that the same thing?" "No it's not." And breathe….. Clearly our confronting and extremely inconvenient lack of Chinese is mostly to blame for the shenanigans that ensue, but there's also a cultural divide that means ways of doing things aren't necessarily aligned amongst all parties. (Note how I say that in the politest way possible!) To top it off, Internet is intermittent at the best of times. VPN's drop in and out….phone service is patchy…with plans seemingly chewing through data at a rate of knots. Banking can be a painstaking affair in any country, but here in China, we managed to find ourselves both credit card-less and cashless for a (thankfully) brief period of time. Our Hong Kong credit cards it seems are not geared to work online (something about 'activation' is eventually revealed) and banks back in our home countries have gone into lockdown mode, blocking our cards after suspected suspicious activity in a foreign land. While I appreciate their quick action - attempting to book a flight online for the 15th time (what? of course I'm not trying to escape!) with dodgy internet and cards that are stalled at every turn, can turn even the most patient man I know into a frazzled, bug eyed cot case!! For a few days our eft-pos cards refuse to work in the ATM's and it's difficult to decipher the problem laid out before us in Chinese… and well… getting a Chinese bank account, of course, is no simple task for a foreigner. Obviously the lap top the hotelier uses for his day job is not happy with so much frenzied activity because it has a meltdown and promptly packs it in. Of course getting it fixed is like asking asking for the winning lotto ticket numbers, as is getting a straight answer! With the hotelier diligently downstairs working, I get a phone call in the hotel room - a man we can call 'MR I.T' says he is here to fix the laptop. I reply that Mr Walkden is working in his office. "No he's not, the door is closed," he says. Me: Ahhh OK, well I guess he could be anywhere in the hotel, I'm sorry I don't know. The dialogue continues something like this. Mr I.T: Can I come back later to fix the laptop? (Brief experience tells me if I let him go now, we may never lay eyes on him again) Me: Can you call him to see where he might be right now? Mr I.T: No. Me: Okaaaay, Where are you? Mr I.T: Outside room 5306. Me: (half dressed) realize Mr I.T is at my front door. Hastily throw on some clothes and greet him, reiterate, no the laptop isn't here and nor is Mr Walkden. Would you like me to call him? Mr I.T: OK. I call the hotelier…who's conveniently just up the hallway, in the executive club having a meeting and tells me to send him that way. Mr I.T nods enthusiastically in agreement….but apparently he doesn't make it there for several hours!? Lap top is eventually fixed that evening, but by the time the hotelier boards a plane the next day, it is no longer operating. And breathe….. So all the while I am negotiating with Mr I.T, we are told the hotelier's visa is ready and he must fly to Hong Kong asap! We also discover we need passport photos for everyone, pronto! Not an easy task it seems. We find out nowhere in Xi'an is able to specifically take this kind of photo, bar some photo booths on the other side of town in the underground train station. (While China is home to the globe's biggest 'new travellers' - in reality, only a small portion of the 1.3 billion population actually holds a passport.) So we are advised we must get to a photographer's studio at once! We meet downstairs and are bundled into hotel car and driven five minutes to a slightly ramshackle area and dropped off at a shopfront door, literally. (Actually, I think we are on the footpath.) Picturing the site of us three 'Gweilos' entering, has me chuckling to myself. We enter the nondescript shop where a lady sits at a computer, with a few aptly framed photos on display. She babbles to us in Chinese and when she realizes we can't speak her lingo, promptly turns around and goes back to work on the computer. (Pesky Gweilos, I know!!) I try a few lame words in Chinese like 'now' and 'photo'? but for some reason whenever I am in a 'situation,' the Chinese I have supposedly learnt, eludes me. I am blank!? Please explain!! Again she replies in Chinese and turns away, ignoring us. The hotelier decides it's time to use the 'bat phone' to call for help. Tina - our 'ever patient personal translator' is on the line and speaks with the lady on the computer and it all seems clear. She will take our photos but she doesn't know what size passport photos are, so this is going to take some organizing. So we hang up and wait….and wait….. and wait. Nothing is happening. Time is ticking.....people are starting to stare through the glass at us and some are taking photos! We call our ever 'patient personal translator' again and this time we get the green light! She's ready to do the photos! We are shuffled into a studio. James goes first and is told (we think) to do his jacket up and straighten his collar (these are clearly not just any old passport photos). She pulls at her ear and I think she's telling me to listen, but eventually work out she wants my earrings off. It's a bit like playing charades, we stifle our giggles. Ava's turn and for the 'ever posing show pony,' sitting still without cracking a smile is proving difficult. The lady is faffing abut with Ava's hair until she's satisfied and gesturing madly at her to keep her hands by sides (this is not a modeling shoot young lady)! Finally, we are done. We pay about US$20 and are whisked out of the shop into our waiting car. I feel like Brangelina again (clearly minus her looks and money...oh and the six kids)! I am then off to the hair dresser where I decide, as well as getting a blow dry I will be doubly brave today and ask to get my nails done. I have practiced the word for 'doing nails'….so they seem to get my gist -- but immediately start to wrap tinfoil around each finger. I know this is the way to remove a certain type of gel (you ladies will know it as 'soft' gel) but alas I have 'hard' gel and never the twain shall meet! I know that it is not going budge with some mere tinfoil, so I try explaining it's hard gel, I even use my trusty chinese app, but appear to be failing miserably. Time to call Tina our 'ever patient personal translator' again - she explains and again it all seems clear, they know it's hard gel but this will certainly work. Ok, you're the boss, I think, so I sit back and relax….a few minutes later the foil is off but the gel nail is not. Hmmm dilemma, now I can see they are really confused… there's a lot of spirited chatter back and forth. All I can do is smile meekly. She attempts to scrape it off and so I make the noise for machine….bzzzzzz…..but they look at me like I am slightly crazy. I point to the nail file and she attempts to file it off. It takes a looong time, but it sort of works. I am sure they are stumped with the weird 'white' lady with her 'white' hair and ironically strange 'white' nails….Who is she and why does she keep coming back!! But they bring me two tiny apple-like looking fruit to try (I later find out are called Nai, or Crab Apples), so I figure maybe they aren't too annoyed with me. Meantime, my new found hairdresser has been learning English and is like an excited puppy dog, sitting next to me while my nails are finished. We both decide in our broken English/Mandarin this relationship could work! I teach him, he teaches me. I decide to really push the boat out and test the waters to see if he can 'colour' my hair. My slightly er darker/grey roots are showing through and it's not going to be pretty. He seems to understand eventually and shows me his colour chart with two types of blonde. Just two. Not a lot of choice but perhaps that's a good thing. I learn the word for foils and show him pictures on Pinterest. Here's where it gets tricky as I want to explain that I don't want my hair too gold, so I find the word for 'gold' and say 'not want' in my best chinese, so he thinks I want 'white' but I say no. I search for the words, caramel and beige but these are lost on him. If I say ash, I will surely get grey hair. Xi'an is greying my hair by the minute so ash colour won't be necessary. He proudly shows me a picture of the only white woman's hair he has colored and says she likes red. Does she ever. It is the brightest, boldest fire engine red I've ever seen! He tells me again he is the best hairdresser in Xian after all, and says "just let me try." But to me that alarmingly sounds like a toddler asking to "just let me try pouring the milk on my cereal." We all know how that ends! I remain noncommittal and decide to do a poll on Facebook that night. Enthusiastic hairdresser and I connect on We Chat (the What's App/Facebook equivalent) and I leave with some 'Zai Jians' and see you next week - it's been an intense maintenance session…I'm not really sure what just happened, but it was reasonably successful, I have my hair done and my nails look reasonable enough for public display. Two steps forward, ten steps backwards. This is China! And breathe....... Proud to share this one over at Seychelle Mama's for My Expat Family. … [Read more...]