So tired

So, I have been homesick this weekend. I called my family in Mobile on Friday and talked to all four of them through speaker phone. I told momma that I was homesick and her response was the following:
"I know what you mean. Just yesterday when we were still in LaGrange I was sad too."
(At this point I was thinking that she was about to tell me how much she missed me too. I was thinking that it was so sweet how she knew exactly what I needed to hear.)
"I mean everyone was already down in Mobile and I was feeling left out and ready to get there. I guess that I was sort of homesick too."

Thanks momma. That's what I needed.

Thankfully, I was kept really busy yesterday. These two friends wanted to take me around and show me things. I met them at 11 at the main shopping street downtown, The Walking Street, and my friends informed me that it would be a day of surprises.

Before I tell you about the "surprises", I should tell you about things that effected the whole day.
Unlike most days in this city of smog, yesterday (and coincidentally, today) was a beautiful sunny day. Chinese girls do not like to be in the sun and so you will see more umbrellas on a sunny day than you will on a rainy day. Furthermore, if a girl is walking along with her umbrella, she will colapse it if she walks into the shade and then she will put it back up when she walks back into the sun. It doesn't matter if she is going to be in the sun for only 5 steps, she is still going to put up the umbrella. And they wanted to watch out for me, make sure that I wasn't getting any unneccessary sun. The problem is that I am a good 5 inches taller than these girls. All day long, I had to suffer from pokes to the forehead and detangle the end of the umbrella ribs (?) from my hair. I finally thanked them for watching out for me and explained that Americans liked the sun. "See how white I am, I need the sun to give me color." They took one look at my white arms and obviously agreeed that I needed some color, for they no longer tried to offer me shade too. I came home with a nice little triangle of red where the V-neck of my shirt exposed my skin.

The other thing that I should tell you is that one of the girls, H., apparently has the memory of an elephant. She remembered things about me that I never remembered saying. I am sure that I must have told her things to make communicating easier and yesterday, it all returned. For example, maybe she had in the past said something to the effect of, "Do you like goldfish?" And I, really having no feelings one way or the other about goldfish would have replied, "Yeah, I like goldfish." It is polite and is the easy way in a conversation that is already strained by lanuage issues. And then, when I least expected it, H. would come back and show me all of the goldfish in the town all the while reminding me that I said I liked goldfish.

So. 11:00. Day of surprises.

The first surprise was the picture booth thing. Like those picture booths you see in the mall, except you have to pick out the frame for each picture that you are goinng to take and the pictures come out small and on sticker paper. (Wasn't there a camera that did this not too long ago?) These machines are all over the place and until yesterday, I thought that I was going to escape. But H. & K. decided that we needed to take 36 pictures. After spending close to half an hour of picking out borders, we finally started taking the pictures. Being the foreigner, it was expected that I be in almost all of the pictures. Furthermore, it is not enough that you just stand there and smile; you have to make faces, or throw a peace sign, or other hand gesture. (I wish that I could have remembered some of the gang signs that Rebecca and my students taught me.) And the whole time, our faces are super close. I hate people being close to my face, especially when it is over 100 degrees, and so I just tried to make as many faces as I could to end my worst nightmare as soon as possible.

Next, we were off to my second surprise. "Remember Beth, you said that you like tofu." So we went to eat at a famous tofu place. It would have certainly been more difficult for me to have originally explaing that I don't despise tofu, but it isn't my favorite, that I would eat it if I were starving and it was the only thing around. However, yesterday, I regretted not taking the time to explain.

Next surprise, a Buddist temple. She had it right. I did want to see a temple and I had not yet done this. I won't write much, because you should really see the pictures. Let me just say that I don't understand a believe system where you have to pay money to get into the house of worship, light incense in hope of catching the attention of your diety, and then rely on an elaborate combination of kneeling and bowing before a statue made of metal that is shipping away. I just don't get it.

Then we went to the antique market. For almost 3 hours we walked around this antigue market. "Remember Beth, you said that you like Chinese antiques." AHHHH!
When you have seen one jade Budda pendent, you have just about seen them all. (Momma, I do not think that I will be going antique hunting with you and Aunt Pat any time soon.)

Then to the park, because apparently at some point in the past couple of weeks, I said that I had never been to a Chinese park. At least here we got to sit down. The time was now about 6:00 PM. And even though I have been downing the bottled cold green tea, this whole time I have managed not to use the bathroom because I know that there would be no chance of a Western toilet and I didn't think that I could find a decent (if there really is such) squatty. I could very well come home with a kidney infection.

Finally, H. says that it is time for dinner. She took me to a very good pizza place. And they had Diet Coke. I could have cried.

I finally made it home a little after 8 PM. I was exhausted. And filthy. After a quick shower, I watched a cheesy movie to decompress from a day struggling with language and then I went to bed.

Today, since it was so nice, I went to the pool for the first time. It was really crowded and the little kids had the tendency of just going to the bathroom where ever. (Have I told you about the split pants? From infant-hood untit potty training, kids are dressed in outfits that have a split in between the legs. This way, whenever they have to go to the bathroom, they can just squat down and go. Anywhere. It's part of the reason you NEVER go barefoot.) But other than that, it was very lovely.

We have 2 more days here before leaving for Beijing early Wednesday morning (your Tuesday night). I will try to write at least once more, but I can't promise.

And lest she become really mad at me, I should tell you that Sara Hood is the funniest person I know, with the exception of maybe daddy who just has a sort of sarcastic and sometimes sadistic sort of humor. Sara, I had been saving your cards because I knew that they would be great. And just like I will clear the rest of my plate before starting in on the cream corn (my favorite), I have been saving your cards. You didn't dissapoint: Asphalt. Still laughing.