Shopping Trip

I am told that workers at the Liquin Market (above) are paid very little-- perhaps 800 yuen a month. This is technically $100 in our money, though its purchasing power is about three times that. Still it's very little. Liquin is an upscale place. No way these women can afford to wear the clothing they sell. Their uniforms are provided by their employer.

The other day, I spent 500 yuen (about $65) on pullover sweaters at Liquin. The ones I brought from America are much too baggy. The fitting room was so tiny, I wondered if I could fit inside. I gathered I was expected buy any item that fit. But I shop like an American, so I tried on over a dozen sweaters while the salespeople hovered about. It took awhile to make my selections. Chinese women prefer clothing decorated with feathers, rhinestones, and bows, and I had to find styles I could live with. Size was not as much of a problem as in the past. I now wear a Chinese size large-- the equivalent of our medium. There were lot of things in my size. I selected four pretty wool sweaters. The sales people seemed shocked to see someone spending 500 yuen at one clip. Half a dozen sales people came out to watch when the ticket was written up.

My Chinese is better these days, so I understood the question one of the workers asked: Ni Lao-shi ma? (Are you a teacher?) When I nodded, she asked if I worked at "Shandong da-shi"-- Shandong University. I am beginning to get the hang of this!

Different Flute















A peddler was selling wood flutes near the Liquin Market, by the university
gate. Its melody was haunting. Only cost a few yuen, so I bought one.
Usually I can figure flutes out, so I thought I'd be able to play it.
Wrong! Not only are the instrument's holes calibrated to a different scale
from ours; its curving mouthpiece seems to work differently from a Western
flute or recorder. It's sort of like an oboe with no reed. I can only get
a droning noise from it, and I can't change tones whatever I do with my
fingers. Maybe I'll hang it on the wall when I return to America.

Professionalism

My borrowed bicycle needed air in its tires, and the wheel had to be realigned. Students led me to the outdoor bicycle repair by the university's East gate (above). The repairman knew his business and fixed the bike in short order. But before he would release it, he wanted to know what I was doing with Professor Zhang's bicycle. The repairman fixes them all and knows who should be riding them.

Strange Fruit

Alyssa and I ate the sweet fruit (above), wondering what it was. A citrus fruit, it was smaller than a tangerine and much sweeter. A miniature tangerine? We ate and we pondered. Alyssa figured it out: Mandarin oranges! The real thing. We had not recognized them because we had always seen them in cans.