THIS Happens In Front of Our Apartment Complex

When I showed this video to my Chinese friend Yolanda she said that this is exercise and each lady pays around 10rmb ($1.60) a month to be taught the moves. Wow, what a workout! Groups of ladies of a certain age meet in open spaces like this all over the city and even the country. I've seen it in at least 3 different spots in Shekou, and Yolanda says her mom does this in Harbin in the North of China. And every single lady is so poker faced about what they're doing! Wouldn't you be cracking up if you were doing this in public? This is obviously very serious business.

Fakesgiving at the Hilton

When I was a kid, American Thanksgiving used to get on my nerves. As Canadians, we celebrate the holiday in October, but then come November we're forced into a week of TV repeats and football games for no good reason! We don't even have a turkey dinner to distract us from the lack of new Golden Girls episodes, we just have to wait for the Americans to finish up their holiday and allow us to resume our lives again. Well, this year it wasn't so bad.

A Canadian teaching family invited all the Canadian teachers to their home for a big turkey potluck back in October and it was awesome. Some of their American friends were there too, and invited us to the American Thanksgiving dinner at... the Ritz. Now, Melodie and I don't get to the Ritz very often. We have much more experience with Ritz crackers than with the fine dining and luxury hotel chain, but we were really excited to be fancy for a night in probably the only country in the world where we could afford to.

On Thursday night we met at the subway stop near our school and took the subway to the Convention Center Station where the Ritz is located. Over 50 teachers and their kids went to this dinner. Basically we took up two thirds of the restaurant!

It was niiiiiice inside the hotel and restaurant. We'd been seated for about 30 seconds before we headed directly to the carvery station. There was lamb (the sign was labeled "lamp"), ham, prime rib, and turkey. Dude thought he could get away with only giving me one slice of turkey. Don't trip, Ritz!

Fancy ketchup.

My first course: one of each meat, mashed potatoes, sausage stuffing, and french bread. Obviously, I'm watching my weight. In addition to this traditional holiday food, there was a crapload of lobster, sushi and seafood available that everyone seemed to really like. There was a noodle station, and lots of other chinesey dishes, too.

While we were getting our first plate of food, flutes of champagne appeared at our table!

 

The wait staff was very attentive. Everytime I stood up to get more food (which was often), I came back to my cloth napkin being perfectly re-folded. I tried to crumple it up and even hide it, but it always looked like it had been pressed and ironed by the time I got back.

This is only one fourth of the desert table. They were torching fresh creme brules!

I took one of almost everything. The plate's only so big, right?

After having the traditional turkey dinner and gorging on dessert, I decided to have another savory course. They were BBQing meat to-order, so I got a grilled steak, mashed potatoes and some salad. Yes, I'd been so indulgent that I ate a guilt salad.

Located directly behind us was this, a chocolate fountain. We could smell it the whole time we were eating, and I'll have you know that it smelled amazing!

Cookie skewers + chocolate= a fine ending to a meal.

And here was our group at the table. It was a great night with great company.

With Kerry and Kathy in front of the Ritz Christmas tree.

Canadian Thanksgiving was in October, America's was this month, I'll have Christmas dinner in December... now, which country celebrates something in January that I can pretend to celebrate too for turkey-related purposes?

It's Beginning To Look (and Feel) A Little Like Christmas

Christmas is still more than a month away, but our little part of China is already starting to look pretty Christmassy. Wal-Mart has started selling some straight-outta-the-70s Christmas decorations and stockings, Starbucks has introduced their holiday drinks, and everything is just starting to feel a little more festive than usual. Pretty cool, considering almost none of the Chinese celebrate Christmas. Thanks for thinking of us, locals!

Yesterday this giant Christmas tree appeared in Sea World square near where we live. We stopped for a photo shoot tonight after Kathy's birthday dinner at McCawley's.

 

Of course, we don't get snow in southern China, but the season is definitely changing. I would say this week is the first time it started to occasionally feel cool here. We've had a few days where the temperatures was in the mid-to-low 20s- and I promise I'm not being a wuss- that temperature feels colder than the mid-20s at home due to the humidity in this region. The leaves and flowers are starting to fall from some of the trees, but most of the plants here are the kind not to lose their leaves- I haven't seen any frond-less palm trees yet.

 

On Sunday, it started to feel a little bit cool in our apartment. We tinkered with all of our air conditioning units (we have 4!) to see if any of them had a heat setting, but only our bedroom unit does. We expected none of them would, so at least the bedroom will be warm this winter! Since we know exactly how crisp an unheated apartment in this part of the world feels in the winter from our time in Taiwan (it feels like you're camping on a dewy day for months), we knew there was no way we'd go the winter without a heater for at least our living room area, so we went out and bought a mid-range oscillating one for about $50 at RenRenLe. I don't know how much of a difference it will make, because our apartment is so open, but it feels nice when it's blowing right next to us. We'll see if we need to pick up another one as the season progresses. Anyway, by the next day, we had our air conditioning on again, but we know that won't last much longer this year.

So, after we got home this evening, the weather and the decorations in the area had inspired us to bring out the little Charlie Brown tree we bought at the Daiso dollar store in Hong Kong a few weeks ago. We decorated it (that took a long time lol) and I made a little star out of tin foil. This year is going by so fast, it's hard to believe Christmas is only 1 month and 5 days away. And we'll be celebrating it on a beach in Thailand. Can't wait!

Left Behind

Moving sucks, but when moving to a new apartment or home in Canada we have always been very careful to take all our belongings with us and to leave the place spotlessly clean. Why? We want our security deposit back. It's a good incentive to make people accountable for their own mess when your landlord or the homeowner can charge you for leaving your crap behind. This doesn't seem to be a concern in China.

When we moved into our apartment, we were very greatful for the things that had been left for us. New to the country, and certainly not having the intention to be lifelong residents, we had no interest in spending money on sofas, beds, tables, TVs or anything like that. Our apartment came with most of the furnishings we needed to be comfortable, but we also inherited a number of things that weren't so useful. I'm not sure if these things were left to help us get setup or just simply left behind unwanted by the previous tenant. We've stuffed most of these things in a back room off our kitchen, so if you see anything you like, let us know and it's yours!

Headless Mickey and Minnie coffee mugs with coral stuck on top. There was a piece of coral on Minnie too, but I kind of liked it so I put it out on display in our hallway. These mugs are $10 a piece at HK Disney, by the way. How could someone leave such valuable items behind?

Porcelain snowmen from yesteryear. For some reason it pleased me to know that Christmas had at least once been celebrated in our apartment.

Creepy art time! We were left three pieces of art, proudly displayed in our dining room when we arrived, including the two haunted-looking kittens above. It wasn't long before I took them down and tossed them in the back room. 

Another current resident of the back room, a strangey 60's looking portrait of a cottage in, I'm guessing, not-China.

I left this painting of the three tigers up, on our balcony above the washing machine. They're kind of cool, but maybe screaming for a more modern frame.

This fancy basin is currently being used as a rag water bucket by our maid :)

We also inherited these three cool-looking plants. We really like having plants in our place for us to slowly kill, so we moved them into our living room and bedroom when we first started living here. Too bad a colony of teeny tiny bugs lives in the pots too, so we had to move them back out to the balcony.

A piano is something else that was left behind in our place! Who leaves a piano behind? Anyway, I really like nesting dolls, so I was pretty happy to find a set in the back room. I've put it out in the living room as decoration on top of our piano.

The dolls get kind of creepy the smaller they get.

The aforementioned piano also came with a piano bench which is stuffed full of old music, bills, receipts, and even some ID cards. If anyone wants to slip into a bar underage posing as Wei Wei He, have I got the card for you!

We are fortunate to have bright rooms with big beautiful picture windows in both the living room and master bedroom, which look out onto the water. Not so charming, however, are the 70s khaki pom pom horror curtains that came with. I'd love to replace them, but have no idea where to buy custom curtains in a place like this!

I like this left behind set of two children playing an Othello-looking game. The girl's hand is broken off, but I still sat them out as decoration in our hallway.

Under the children playing Othello is this piece of coral, stolen from the Minnie Mouse mug.

70s clock like something straight from my parents basement! Actually, the taste level in Chinese furniture, clothes, art... almost everything is so dated that I've seen almost identical clocks for sale at the department store near our place.

Two random foam camels found in the back room and currently on display on a shelf in our bedroom.

It took a long time for us to figure out what this is. Taking up an entire cabinet in our kitchen, where we have very little usable cabinet space is this rice dispenser. You fill the top with rice, then press the button for either a 100 gram portion or a 300 gram portion. It dispenses into the tray at the bottom. Chinese do love rice (I don't know if you've heard?) so I can see how this could be useful.

 

My very favorite left behind item is this pair of sandals, which we use for walking on our balcony. They read: "Fighter *Heather Graham*".

So there you have it, the most random of our random left behind items. We're still finding new stuff, too. A few days ago, Mel opened a cabinet in our office and there were 4 shelves full of old books and magazines (in Chinese, of course). If I had a yard, I could have a killer yard sale, don't you think?

Life Jacket Vending Machine

If you're drowning, this wont help you: it's a condom vending machine. Well, I guess it depends on what you're drowning in.

*found en route to a delightful Vietnamese restaurant with Kathy, Kerry, and Johanna today.

Da Fen Oil Painting Village

Mom and Dad Spoiler Alert: If you don't want to know what you're getting for Christmas, stop reading now.

For everyone else, this weekend we went to DaFen Oil Painting Village in Northern Shenzhen. Before we moved to China, we'd read about this place and that you can commission oil paintings at low prices there. We thought it would be really cool to have family portraits done to use as Christmas gifts... not your typical present and definitely one of a kind, right? Luckily, our friend Sylvia and her family were also interested in visiting the area, so we met up with them and had a great day.

The toilet restaurant was on the way and they hadn't been there yet, so of course we had to go for a urinal full of milk tea and a bathtub full of spaghetti.

Charmy shaved strawberry ice cream for dessert!

This is the ice cream shaver. I can't even express how awesome this stuff tastes.

We did a little bit of shopping (Sylvia's daughter was tempted by a pair of Ubgs), and then we headed off to DaFen Station, about 20 minutes away by subway.

From the station exit all the way to the artsy streets there are vendors all along the way capitalizing on the extra foot traffic. There was not one, but two spoon salesmen. 3 spoons for 10rmb... not bad and definitely hygienic.

This guy was giving haircuts on the street for 2rmb (30cents).

There was an armless man painting calligraphy with his feet, but I felt a bit shy to take his picture, so here's a man widdling combs from soapstone instead.

These guys were selling fleece blankets right off the spool of fabric. You could just tell them what size you wanted and they'd cut it and finish the edges for you right there.

Of, if you liked, you could just play a round of pool on the street. November 10th and it was hot and sunny- a perfect day for outdoor billiards.

Finally, we made it to the art streets. The "village" takes up quite a few blocks and every shop is stocked full of paintings- mostly reproductions, but some originals. The artwork was beautiful. Some of it looked like it was straight from a museum. On top of all the stores selling art, every alleyway was also full of vendors with canvases stacked frame upon frame on the street. If you were lucky, you could even watch some of the artists at work. 

Most of the more affordable pieces were stacked outside the stores to draw people in. Paintings like the ones above (would you like Winnie the Pooh orrrrr framed porn?) were 15-25rmb ($2.50-$4.00), while some of the stuff hanging inside the stores cost hundreds and one piece Sylvia looked at was over $1000. Most things could be had for $25-50 though, I'd say.

One of the displays set up on the street. A lot of the art was the same or similar from store to store, so you could bargain around for a better price, but you do wonder where they're getting all of this mass-produced art from!

The main square.

One store sold statues, including this nude Bruce Lee.

Alleys of art.

We had a bit of a hard time finding someone to paint our family portraits for us. We'd printed off photos to have the artists copy, and everyone who we talked to offered a different price. I'd heard this was a "cheap" place to shop and, although there are some cheap deals to be found for the already-made art, the prices we were offered for our custom work was way over our budget. The first shop wanted 800rmb ($135) to paint my family. I was shocked. I mean... this is China! But then the next one wanted 900. The next said 1300 and then finally the last person said 2250rmb, which is just under $400. Ummm... no! Finally, I talked to a guy who said 1350rmb. When I started to walk away he passed me a calculator and said "you say price". This was the first person willing to barter, and I eventually got him down to 650. It was still more than I expected but, it will be quite large and I think it will be a cool gift. Mel ordered one too, from the same guy, and we'll go back next month to pick them up.

After we got that taken care of it was time for us to shop for something for ourselves. We've never been in the financial position to be collecting oil paintings before, but I guess that's the nice thing about China- it's easier to live a little large sometimes (bought iphones yesterday, btw! Love them!). Sylvia stopped an artist in the middle of painting a picture and bought the painting he was working on. How cool is that? We're going to pick it up for her (it has to dry) when we go back for our paintings next month.

So here's the piece Mel chose... it's actually 3 canvases and it looks perfect over our dining room table.

...and here's my purchase from the artists village: Mr. Michael Jackson himself. Not at all what I thought I was looking for, but when I saw it I had to have it. I may have felt a litttttle ridiculous carrying this home on the subway. Hee hoo!