Monday, March 17, 2008

Special for you my friend! (Courtney)

So we have been shoppping up a storm of late...well actually, everyday it feels like we do shopping of some sort! Most days see a trip to the market, or to get street vendor food, or a popcorn run. And then there are the days when we trek out to get things for the house and random outings with Mr Pan. It feels like we do more shopping than teaching at the moment! So I thought I would do a post purely on our most recent purchases...
First, some Shanghai treats...
A couple of small painting we picked up at a market. Supposedly the fish mean
fortune and the blossom...hmm..happiness, good luck?! I reckon you could point
to a discarded piece of rubbish around here and it would have some "meaning".

The cutest dolls ever...end of story. Of course they are Japanese, not Chinese. Underneath you can see our rather large collection of pirate dvds.

Next, our recent adventures to the shopping mega mall of Wuxi. This place is seriously HUGE...

We wanted to get a remedy for the mosquitos...turns out a good old mossie net was in order! I have NEVER, EVER been involved in a more frustrating transaction. Mr Pan wanted to buy two as well, so we just said we would get what he was getting. Mr Pan is a wonderful man, and our one true friend in China...yet by the end of this I thought I was going to have to moonslap him, he annoyed me that much. He simply would not believe that we have a "big" bed, insisting that our bed is small and trying to get us to buy the smaller net. Our bed is absolutely huge, and there was literally nothing we could do to convince him. We said that the bed is bigger than Marcus, tried everything...nope, your bed is small you must buy this one. I am saying no, we are not buying the net because it is too small. I pull out the big net. Mr Pan takes big net from my hands, puts back in the box and replaces it with small net.."you buy this one". No Mr Pan, I want this one!!!! In the end, he called someone (yet to find out who this mystery person was) to confirm the size of our bed. We were like, we know how big the freaking bed is!!! We sleep on it every night! Whoever the person on the phone was confirmed the size of the bed and we were then allowed to purchase the net. Not before a round of haggling. I am not kidding when I say we were in this store for half and hour arguing over sizes and prices...needless to say it was after this that we went home. In complete disregard for the net it lies abandoned on the floor of our bedroom.

Here kitty kitty! Our new kitty bank...yup, it's a money box!

We bought a couple of rugs from the floor. I love the fake persian look...different, noice..

And of course the never ending supply of snacks that enter our house. Seriously, Marcus and I should not be able to go the supermarket together, as all we return with are snacks. You could not believe the quantity of candy, cakes, and just general sweet things that are available here. The supermakets are basically for toiletries, dried goods, chips and snacks. No actual "food". So next time you are at your local Safeway, take a look at the size of the fruit and veg section. Now remove every piece of fruit and replace it all with lollies. I'm not kidding you...

The very tasty looking animal biscuits and coffee gum. In reality, both bad.

Unfortunately the camera is full, otherwise I would also show you some of our other purchases, including the "special" pot Mr Pan made me buy yesterday. "Very famous in China!" (as is everything mind you). So I had to buy this special pot to make porridge for breakfast. Mr Pan thinks it is very bad that I eat cereal for breakfast, and that I should be making porridge. He raved on about this pot so much. Turns out, it is your standard pressure cooker. Of course, as all things go, Mr Pan came over this morning to give me a cooking lesson on how to use the pot (which nearly resulted in us setting the pot on fire, surprise surprise!). Tonight we walked up to one of the supermarkets to purchase all the necessary ingredients..namely red and green beans to put in the pot with the rice. I'm not such a fan of this idea for breakfast, so managed to sneak in some dates, sultanas and dried bits of peach!

Speaking of cooking (Mr Pan actually assured me today that the pot would not explode whilst he used it), we all remember the first day when Mr Pan exploded the microwave. Even now I could laugh uncontrollably remembering this. So we brought this up with Mr Pan the other day, saying how we thought it was really funny and trying to explain that Australians have a funny sense of humour. He says to us (read in a Chinese accent), "I feel very very bad that day, very sorry for you that I did that. I go home to Oolan (his wife) and say what happen. She say to me, Zili (his first name) you are a fool!!" Marcus and I are killing ourselves laughing again and he is deadly serious. The emphasis he put on the word fool, I could just imagine Oolan berating him!

We have also bought a very cool teapot, and a couple of tea cups. I am planning on buying many more in our time here! Along with a couple of plants, a vase for flowers, and quite a bit of decorating with all of your photos now on the walls. Yesterday we also got our hands onto the extra mattress thing for the bed, it has made a big difference, the bed actually has a bit of give in it now. It's still not ideal, but it's definately better.

Finally, a shot of a swan. Why you ask? Well at the school, around the lake there are all these black swans, and white swans. They pretty much keep to themselves, the black swans doing their thing, the white swans equally preoccupied. So the other day I was pondering whether they ever cross bred. The reason this came to mind, was because as I went to class on Friday I was crossing the bridge with a whole bunch of students when two of the swans got a little amorous. You had to hear the outburst from the kids!! So it got me thinking. Sure enough, a couple of days later what do I spy...a half and half swan! He seems to hang with the black swans, but kind of always towards the back. I wonder if he knows he is different?! Those mixed race swans!

Until next time.... =)

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