November 7th, 2009

Since I've been here, I haven't gone to visit many sights. For two reasons. First, I'm afraid of being scammed again and second, I'd rather go visit them with Mike when he arrives! So I've mostly been hanging out in my neighborhood on my days off. Usually, my days off involve getting up around 11 am, taking two hours to get washed and fed and around 1 pm, going to the Carrefour supermarket.

Carrefour is another interesting place for an aspiring dilettante anthropologist like myself. Here are the things you're likely to find there:

- oodles of cleaning products such as mops and buckets (because the dust bunnies just won't go away!!)
- humidifiers (because Beijing weather is incredibly dry)
- imported products for the homesick (like French bread and butter or peanut butter)
- pots and woks
- fridges
- food....

Things that you'll have trouble finding:

- deodorant (Do Asians just not sweat?!)
- drying machines (They simply air dry their clothes!)
- vacuum cleaners (For the same reason, they don't waste electricity drying their clothes in a machine.)
- chocolate (No, let me amend that, decent chocolate! Why hasn't Lindt decided to sell its brand here???)

And then, what fascinates me too in Carrefour are the natives' behaviors! Don't be surprised if they cut in line in front of you. Just like the French, they don't like to wait for daydreaming people to make up their mind and move forward! Don't be surprised either if they jam their cart into you. It's just a friendly reminder that you aren't moving fast enough!