Have you all had your fill of adorable Alexander photos yet? I should hope not! I’m going to take a brief break from the cuteness, however, to list some of the most.. let’s say… “unusual” things about our travels thus far. So in no particular order…..
Ketchup, coming right up!– When in Taiyuan, we ordered pizza one night for room service (go ahead and make your sweeping judgements, folks! The Kellys were in China and ordered pizza.) However, the room service menu included such delicacies as “spiced donkey meat.” No joke. Brian sorta wanted to order it just so we could say, “Hey, this tastes like a*&.” But no, no donkey was ordered. What DID show up with just about every order of “western food” was a bowl of ketchup. You know, for dipping.. or something. Pizza, ketchup. Sandwich, ketchup. It was comical by the end of our stay in Taiyuan, but it did make me think that Dad Kelly would feel right at home here!
Soda, beer, same prices here!– This we figured out pretty quickly, and it has been a most welcoming surprise. Back home, order a soda, and it will cost you maybe $2. Order a beer, and it’s $5+ (except for you lucky folks in Portland!) Here, soda and beer prices are pretty much the same. We purchased a few local Pearl River brewery beers for our room, and each 600ml bottle was 6 RMB– roughly $1. Soda prices are about the same, ranging from $0.50-$1.00. Similarly, when we were in Pingyao, Brian purchased a large bottle of water from a street vendor. It was cold, and it cost 2 RMB– almost $0.35! Crazy!
Check the prices!— I was a little surprised when we checked into our hotel in Beijing to see all the little niceties included in our room– hotel slippers (replaced each day), bathrobes, toothbrushes, combs, you name it! However, the coffee pot came with a little sign “10 RMB.” Similarly, a very pretty tea set was next to several canisters of tea, each clearly labeled with appropriate pricing. There was free tea in a different part of our room– just no coffee. We learned ahead of time to bring Via packets, and we’ve been happily caffeinated the whole trip. The same thing for water– it’s standard to get two free bottles of water in your room each day, but there’s usually a bevy of others all with price tags. I’m including a photo of my most recent hotel add-on (which we still haven’t caved on yet)– the Victory teddy bear. This little guy is placed dangerously on the bed every day with his little price tag– I jokingly tell Alexander to avert his eyes! That bear is NOT coming home with us!
The Victory Hotel bear of guilt– we’re not buying you!
Emergency smoke masks– these have been in each hotel room and continue to freak me out.
Hats with Ears, and other fashions— Wow, Chinese fashion is something else. I can’t believe the number of stilettos and really high platform shoes. Today, Brian pointed out an adult woman wearing a straw hat, complete with cat ears. Women’s fashion is definitely wilder than men’s, but in all cases, the English phrases we’ve seen on t-shirts have been pretty funny. Last night, I saw a gentleman wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with a large star of David and the words “Kung Fu Panda.” I’m still not sure what that’s supposed to mean…
Chinese Grandmas– This almost deserves its own entire post, but I’ll at least give you a teaser here. We were warned numerous times about the “League of Chinese Grandmas.” These women, all well-intentioned, are the surpreme arbiters of children’s attire and have a sixth sense for when exposed baby leg is in a 20 meter proximity. Walk anywhere with your child, and out of no where, gaggles of grandmas will suddenly pounce on you and begin to inspect your choices for your child’s clothing, exposed skin, and general ability to parent (kidding about the last one!) When we were in Taiyuan, we got several “drive-bys” where elderly women were clearly staring, inspecting, and judging. In most cases, my feeble attempt to pull my sweating son’s pants further down his legs and hiking up his socks in the ladies’ presence earned a nod,and we were on our way. At Jinci Temple, one elderly woman began her review from far away, and gradually got closer, finally noticing the huge sun hat we had completely pulled over our sleeping son’s head. She actually gave me a thumb’s up and a big smile– parenting gold for the adoption world! That, of course was negated 5 minutes later when another grandma grabbed at Alexander’s exposed 1 inch of calf and began instructing Brian (in Mandarin or Jin?) about why we were ruining our child’s chance for future success by allowing skin to show. I say this all tongue-in-cheek though, as overall we’ve received many more smiles than lectures from the League. Still, I’ll be happy when we’re back in the USA, and a stranger grabbing your child’s leg is reason for prosecution, not pedagogy.
Because you’ve patiently read through this entire post, I’ll close with this morning’s adorable Alexander photo– he and Brian are posing before we attended our first Mass in Cantonese– no air conditioning in the church, more than 90 degrees outside, and an incredibly long homily. If Alexander could survive that, he can do anything!
The Kelly men before Mass this morning.