As I did, I started to wonder: Do I like it here? In so many ways, it’s been fun, but it hasn’t
been the adventure I expected it to be. So much of it has been easy. It really
is just like life in any bit metropolitan city. There really isn’t a lot of touristy
stuff to do in Shanghai. So much of the cities identity is shaped by expats and
foreign business men.
The “Chinese” culture I have been exposed to has been
interesting. I love eating lunch with Vivi and Yang Renjeng. At the same time, I
cannot begin to express how much I dislike spitting out bones when I eat meat
(I am kind of considering going vegetarian after this experience.) So many of the
differences are so subtle, and no one is openly correcting me like they did in
Europe, that I really feel like I missing something.
I lay in bed thinking maybe
I’m not as cut out for this world travel stuff as I thought; maybe Prague was
just a fluke and I just got lucky.
My stomach was still cramping, but I was also getting a
headache from being hungry. It was well into the afternoon, and aside from that
pastry, I hadn’t had anything to eat today. Nothing particularly sounded good,
but I knew I needed some calories.
Then an idea popped into my head. As soon as I thought it, I
hated it. The backpacker in me wasn’t quite ready to give up on the adventure
of living in China just yet. But I knew I could order off the menu, I knew they
would have passed their health code evaluation, I knew exactly how to get
there.
So I got out of bed and got dressed. My clothes weren’t
completely dried, but I picked out a shirt and pants and dried them with Nate’s
hair dryer. Riding the elevator downstairs, I felt better. And when I got
outside and started walking, I almost felt good as new (it’s amazing what a
breath of fresh smog can do for you.)
I crossed over the bridge and continued on my way to lunch.
I still hated myself for doing this—especially just twelve days into my trip—but
for some odd reason, it just sounded good. I wanted to eat at a restaurant
where I was guaranteed boneless chicken, and I wanted it to be original recipe.
So I went into the KFC. As soon as I did, one of the
cashiers waved at me and said something. I recognized, “Ni Hao” but that was
it. I walked over to her and looked up at the menu. Everything looked so
different. I haven’t been to a KFC in America in a long time (except to get
root beer from the A&W side of the restaurant) so I am not exactly sure
what the US menu looks like. This was different from what I remember. For one, almost
everything was served as a sandwich. Some of the sandwiches looked like they
had some interesting things on them, including different types of peppers and sauces.
Additionally, there were no French fries. I also didn’t see any biscuits.
The girl behind the counter held out a laminated copy of the
menu for me to look at. I pointed at the chicken nuggets. I’d thought that KFC
served chicken strips but I didn’t see them. She said something else and I
pointed at the mash potatoes. She asked me something again, but I all could do
was shrug. She hit a button on the cash register and said something to me.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I don’t understand.”
The girl got frustrated but her colleague came over and
pointed at the display on the cash register. It ready 16.70 (about 2.50USD.) I
paid her and she immediately handed me a tray with my food.
I went and sat at a table in the middle of the restaurant.
The portions were incredibly small. There were probably about 10 chicken
nuggets, each about the size of a nickel (more like popcorn chicken in the US.)
They tasted different from US nuggets. I don’t know rather they were real
chicken or not, but they were super spicy. I’m starting to think “spicy” and “food”
are synonymous in China. I’m actually okay with that, as it does provide a lot
of really good flavor. The mash potatoes came in a little plastic cup and were
probably about ½ cup serving. They pretty much tasted the same as I remember
back home, although they weren’t quite as salty.
Looking around the restaurant was laid out different. The furniture
in the sitting area was all wooden and looked more like the seating a Starbucks
than at a fast food joint. They also didn’t serve sodas (beyond Coke and Sprite—this
KFC was not joined with an A&W) but they had a very long and extensive menu
of ice tea and fruit smoothies.
It made me realize, even though this was an American chain,
their target audience was not Americans. This was designed to appeal as cheap
food to local people in China. The menu was adjusted to have local flavor and
flare (sans bones in the meat) while cashing in on the Westernized brand. It
was, in essence, a Chinese version of American food—just like America has
created Americanized Chinese food.
I looked out the window a bit. I’ve noticed that bright
colors are very popular here. Despite being told in my packing materials not to
bring any white clothes (white is considered an unlucky color in Chinese
traditions) white jeans are very popular here. Men mostly where jeans and very
rarely wear shorts. Women seem to never wear jeans and are either in shorts and
skirts all the time. It also seems acceptable for men to unbutton or take off
their shirts on their way home from work.
Remembering that I needed shaving cream, I decided to take
the subway up a stop to the grocery store. I observed a couple other people
leaving to see rather or not I needed to bus my table. No one else did—in fact
some tables had several trays on them from where people had continued to use
tables that had not yet been cleared from former customers. Leaving my tray, I
headed out. As I did, I held the door for an elderly Chinese woman that was
leaving.
“Thank you,” she said in a very thick accent.
I was a little taken back she spoke English, but smiled at
her and said, “You’re welcome.”As she returned my smile, I realized that people really are very expressive here. If you smile at someone, they will smile back. If you wave, they will wave back. They don’t make eye contact quite as intensely as we do, but they will acknowledge you when they see you. It’s a long way from Prague where the old woman on the tram asked me to stop smiling.
Going back down into the subway was fun. I passed through
security and went down to get on the train. It was fun realizing I knew exactly
where I was going, and didn’t need to look at the map at all to get there. When
the train came, I crammed in. At the next stop, I got off and shuffled up the
escalator with everyone else.
The subway station was under the mall that the grocery store
was in. I followed the crowd into the food court that was on the lowest level.
The first thing I saw as I came through the entry was Dairy Queen.
I love America I
thought! I’d already broken my eastern food streak with KFC, might as well go
all the way with a Blizzard.
But then I saw something better: and Italian Gelato stand!
“You’ve been sick for
the past 24 hours,” my brain told me. “Why
don’t you give the chicken some time before diving into the ice cream.”
I rode the escalator up to the entrance of Carrefour (the
grocery store) and grabbed a basket. I hadn’t seen any sort of soap products
when I’d been here with Nate and Jessica, but then again, we’d gotten through
here pretty quick. Now, I had some more time to wander.
The first thing I noticed was the “international milk”
aisle. They had dairy products imported from all over the world. There were tons
of different brands, and labels reading both organic and non-organic. I noticed
however that all of it was whole milk. I don’t think non-fat is as much of a
thing outside of the US.
I also noticed was the prevalence of Jello fruit cups. They
are sold in individual servings and it seemed that almost everyone had a few in
their baskets. Near the Jello display was a display of jars that had a brown
spread in it. The jar was clear with a white label and a white lid. At first, I
thought I’d discovered Nutella, but reading the label, I discovered it was
actually a sesame spread. I think I will try it at some point, but I want the
stomach to calm down a bit first.
The Chinese also take their rice and soy sauce very
seriously. I have to admit, the rice and soy sauce that Nate bought—both at the
insistence of the sales people that they were the best brands—is very good. The
rice is so much bigger and fluffier than anything I’ve had before and the soy
sauce is sweet with almost no trace of salt what-so-ever. Here at the store,
there were troughs of different brands of rice that people were scooping up
into bags. They would weigh their bag and get a barcode to take to the front to
pay.
I also saw gallon sized bags of MSG, in case you need a little
to mix into your food.
What I didn’t see was toiletry products. There was nothing
even resembling soap. I wondered if maybe I needed to go to a drug store
instead—I know that internationally a lot of the time grocery stores sell
groceries while other stores specialize in other products, but this was technically
called Carrefour Supermarket; to me that implied a little of everything.
Just as I was about to give up, I saw a man carrying a
basket that had a jug of laundry soap in it. If they had laundry soap, I just
knew they had to have body soap. I stood for a few seconds looking around.
Traffic in the aisles of the stores flowed a little differently than back home.
People pretty much pushed their carts with them where ever they went, never
really taking a hand off of it. If someone needed something on the other side
of the aisle, they brought their cart with them—the whole 2 feet—to get it.
Soap? Soap? Soap? Where would I put soap? I suddenly noticed
that back behind the display that had liquor, people were filing into a corner.
It appeared they were walking into a dead end, but the shelving obstructed my
view. As more and more people walked to the corner, I realized no one was coming
out. While I have seen that the Chinese are very good at cramming into tight
spaces, this seemed a little obsessive.
So I went to take a look. As I got around the shelf, I realized
there was an automated ramp—like a moving sidewalk—that lead down to a lower level
of the store. The lower level was devoted to household products including…soap!
Right at the bottom of the ramp they had tooth brushes. I realized
I’d been brushing my teeth with tap water, and decided I was ready to give that
up. I bought a new tooth brush along with a full tube of toothpaste to replace
my small traveler size. The next shelf over was body soap. I was almost out of
my traveler size of that too, so I should probably stock up. I figured I could
get a two-for-one shampoo/body wash soap and save some money. I also wanted
something that had a lot of smell to it. I’ve never sweat so much in my life,
so any sort of odor protection I can get is much appreciated.
Along the same lines, I decided to get some new deodorant. Based
on advice about the weather, the stuff I brought is supposed to be prescription
strength antiperspirant, but I’m not buying it. I’ve never been a very sweaty
person, and I’ve never really had body odor…both of those facts have changed
since I got to China. I don’t care if I start smelling like an eighth grader
that just discovered body spray, I’m tired of swelling like sweat.
I don’t think I’ve ever spent so much time picking out soap
and deodorant. I think I smelled every brand they carried, before settling.
They also had a variety of different acne soaps and I decided to pick up
another small bottle of that. I haven’t had any problems with my acne since I
got here, but with as humid as it is, I want to be ready if an issue comes.
Shaving cream was a bit of a tighter commodity. All of the
aerosol brands were really expensive. There were a few gels that sold for less
than half the price so I decided to give one of those a try.
Checking out, it all cost about 17USD. I also decided that
my stomach was holding up well enough; I was ready for some ice cream. I tried
to find my way back to the main food court, but instead, I discovered there is
even a third level to Carrefour that I will have to investigate at some point.
I didn’t see the gelato shop anywhere so I retraced my steps back to the
subway. When I got to the entrance, I turned around and saw the DQ. Just beyond
it was the gelato.
I walked up to the counter and looked in the glass display.
They had “stracciatella” which had been my favorite at the shop in Prague. I
pointed to it and the girl asked me a question. I didn’t completely understand
so she held up a cone and a cup. I pointed to the cup. She smiled and filled
it. She handed it to me and I paid her.
Initially, I tried to find a place to sit, but all the
tables were full. As it started to melt, I decided to just go for it. Stepping
out of the flow of traffic, I took a bite. It was so thick and so rich. I felt
a flood of endorphins as I savored the taste. The vanilla was so smooth, and
the little dark chocolate chunks were bitter and rich. It was amazing…by far
the best gelato I’ve had since Rome.
When I finished my little serving, I through away the cup
and went to get on the subway. When I got home, I took a shower. It felt so
good to not smell homeless anymore. When I was finally all clean, I did a little
blogging until Nate got home. He’d gone off to explore some of the markets and
had effectively haggled for a new pair of tennis shoes. We made rice for dinner
and started cleaning some stuff up before my friends arrive tomorrow.
I started thinking, Rick Steves always wrote in his books
that, “If your trip is low on magic moments, make something happen.” Just going
to the store had been an adventure. Seeing people and observing what their
routine looked like was fun. Getting to eat ice cream: an even bigger bonus. I
realize, I am cut out for this travel thing…and I really, really like it! Everyone
makes mistakes, but in the end, what doesn’t kill you makes for a really good
story!
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