Friday-Saturday in Suzhou

Well, my second full week in China has passed and the weekend is here Only seventy-six more to go! Time to look inward and reflect upon the events that have transpired. Sheer terror comes to mind! Our driver is an idiot!On the way home Thursday, he missed the first turn out of the plant, then would not turn around to go back. Instead, we spent the next one and one-half hours seeing parts of Suzhou and the surrounding area. I hate to pass that harsh a judgment after only three days, but when three Americans have to tell him how to get to the hotel after he got lost, idiot seems the fit. The van that we have is an eleven passenger, but we can only get three in it. One in the front seat, one in the second seat, which, because with only 10-inches between the seat and the wheel well/engine compartment, you have to sit sideways. The same in the back where there is about 8-inches between the third seat and the second, again you have to sit sideways with your legs stretched out on the seats. The fact that there are no seat belts doesn't really help our confidence level. We've taken to calling him Rong Ray Roscoe. Even Friday, his third day, he missed two turns on the way to work, and argued with us all the way home as to when to turn and when to go straight. He drives very slow when there is no traffic and speeds up when the road gets crowded. Monday we are supposed to get our 6-passenger van and if is comes equipped with the same driver, we will have a talk with the transport company!The search for apartments was going pretty good. Found three in the same complex, so we told them that we would take them. Talked with the owners and the agreed move in date was to be about December 1. Friday evening, the real estate agent, Sharon, called and said that one of the owners decided that they would rent to someone else that could move in earlier. Pucca (my gas turbine TA Brian's half Thai/Chinese wife who doesn't speak a word of Chinese) was really upset. We thought that if we got her some Thai food that would help. I talked to the concierge and he ask around and they came up with what he said was a small place nearby, close enough to walk. We had him right down the name and address of the place and the had them call a cab to take us there. After a couple of false stops he pointed to a small place. We piled out of the cab and then we couldn't decided which of the small places across the street he was pointing to. We had three choices, so I picked the middle one, when in and showed them my piece of paper. Her face lit up and started nodding, so I figured we had blundered into the right place. Got our menus and much to our surprise, they were in Chinese and English. Things were looking up. Got to looking and sure enough, there it was, right there on menu, on the second page of the menu, in the second column of the second page of the menu, at the bottom of the second column of the second page of the menu, in fact it was the last item on the bottom of the second column of the second page of the menu, was Thai noodle soup. That was it. One dish out of the whole menu. The rest of the menu was your basic Chinese food along with several curry dishes. With all of us being the adventuresome kind, not to mention we were already setting down, we plowed ahead and ordered. We were rewarded with tasty meals of curried chicken and curried beef served with sticky white rice and an order of shrimp fried rice. They only had Pepsi, but they were cold and did not need ice, so Pepsi it was. On the walk back to the hotel, we passed by more restaurants that you can believe. Seems that 4 out of 5 businesses in that area are restaurants, and most seemed to have quite a few people inside. Saturday, it was time for Jerry & I to go look at furniture. Sharon --that's right, our real estate agent -- picked us up to help us look at furniture. She says that it is part of her normal job. Can't see ReMax or Century 21 taking the time to help you pick out furniture. Anyway, Jerry's landlord had already selected some furnishings and wanted Jerry to look at it to see is he approved before he paid for it. We went to a store downtown where he looked at the dining table set, study furniture and the master bedroom & guest bedroom sets. Jerry told her that it looked fine to him, so we loaded up in the car to go to the International Furniture District where we would meet my landlord. When they say furniture district they mean furniture DISTRICT. There had to be a mile of furniture stores on both sides of the road. The buildings were two stories tall and had three rows of stores running the length of each. Each of the stores seemed to be a separate business, but there is a lot duplication. We walked up and town through two of the buildings looking at several different things. The landlord did not have bad taste, so I told Sharon that since he was going to own the furniture and I was just going to use it, that I felt that he should pick the furniture and if I did not like something I would tell him. He seemed to like that idea, so when it came to the living room furniture he went with my selection. The two colored blockish furniture he was looking at really isn't our style. The rest of the furniture reminds me of IKEA /Danish modern type of furniture. The flooring in the apartment is dark so the light furniture should help brighten it up. [Mona, if Sally's living room set looks just like yours, remember, I picked ours first!] There is a lot of what Jerry calls early Jetson's furniture in this country. You've seen it, the stuff that was deemed futuristic in the 1960's. Got all that done by 1PM so Jerry and I gathered up our laundry and headed out. Found the laundry we had seen the day before and found that the clerk spoke some English. We have our tickie and our laundry will be done Tuesday. And for about 1/3 the price of the what the hotel charges. Next stop was a photo shop where we finally managed to explain that we needed eight passport style photos. Up stairs we go to his studio -- a room with a chair and a piece of plywood painted blue. He set the plywood on the chair,set us on the chair and took our photos. Back down to the photo shop where one of the clerks downloaded the photos, cropped them, did a bit of touch up and after 10 minutes, we had our photos. Out the door, across the street(this can be a real trip) and decided that it felt like a KFC kind of afternoon. Went in and joined the group at the counter. For those of you who have never been in Asia, lines are not their strong point. Anyway, I got to the counter first, and seeing my big round white face (with the red nose) didn't phase the clerk a bit. She simply handed me a picture menu and I pointed to the #6 meal, a 4-piece crispy hot wing meal with fries and a large Pepsi. I tried to throw a kink into things by covering up the fries &drink under the picture of the barbecue sandwich, but she caught on right away. Got my meal and looked around for someplace to sit. Didn't see any. One of the young girls who was cleaning tables ask if I needed help. I said not help, just a table. She took us back to a table for four where a man and his small daughter were eating. She ask if we could share their table and he gestured to sit. Her English was much better than most of the translators we have at the plant, and she was also one of the few Chinese that seemed to smile all of the time. They are a people that are quick to laugh, but seem somber much of the time. Lunch finished, we hopped on the chicken bus (there are shuttles that run from one end of walking street to the other that have advertisements on them, so you can guess who the sponsor of our was) to try and find the post office. It was suppose to be right across the street from the Starbucks so we took the underpass, past all of underground shops and out the other side. Turned right so that we could head down so we'd be across from Starbucks. Didn't see it, so we kept going. We did see a wedding that either was 12 weddings or two weddings that had really elaborate brides maids dresses. Six couples got out of a mini-bus and went into the building and six couples came out of the building and into the mini-bus. Really didn't figure it all out. So I decided that it was about this time I drug out my handy-dandy point and grunt book. Showed a crossing guard the picture of a post office and he pointed back the way we came. Alright, so it was across the street and up a block & a half from Starbucks. At least we found it. Got Jerry's T&L package mailed so with everything we got accomplished, we're counting this day as a success. Walked back the hotel through the back ways with the little narrow streets with the small shops. Checked out a couple of stores,one that sold the little electric scooters that so many people ride here. The ones that look like a bicycle are about 1200-1800RMB or $150-$225; the ones that look like a Vespa run about 2600-3200RMB or $325-$400. Bicycles are in the $40-$60 range. Found a little shop that looked like it had some household stuff, so I grabbed good old P&G and went in. Four RMB (50¢)later walked out with my 10 coat hangers. Back to the hotel to start on this little epistle & watch a little TV. Actually get CNN and HBO in four second delay English. Kind of like watching a really badly dubbed movie. Back out for dinner and it was decided that the sign that said "Syrup Barbecue" simply begged to be checked out. Turned out the restaurant was in a hotel, which we didn't feel like going into. Walked down the street looking at the different choices for restaurants & menus trying to figur out what to eat. Then one of the many tourist buses on the little narrow street moved and there was a Korean restaurant. Decision made! Had kovikan, the thin beef cooked at the table with the little bowls of veggies,kimchee you stuff in lettuce leafs then stuff in your mouth. Kind of a Korean fajitas. Walking back to the hotel by a previously uncharted route,we ran into a place called Mahalo Hawaiian Ice. Decided that since we had never heard anything like that, so it too had to be tried. Turned out to be kind of a cross between an Italian Ice and ice cream in texture. I had chocolate, but the it had an different taste, almost like it was made with coconut milk. As much as I don't like coconut, it was actually pretty tasty. Walking a little farther, we saw where we are going to eat tomorrow night. A place called Amazon - Latin food. Hope that they have fried yucca. Who knows what we'll find next. I know it sounds like all we've done is eat, but that is the most interesting happening in my life these days. Living in a foreign country is kind of like that. You don't always get to play tourist. Much of your time is spent trying to find things that remind you of home, and food is great for that. Guess that after my hard and exhausting day, I'll get this sent and get rested for my next big adventure. In the photo album (link to the right) is a photo of a sign in one of the department stores here.