December 2, 2004
Shopping in Changsha
I did some serious shopping this week and got around to 3 different areas. On Monday, Grace, Kim and I took the bus to the Underground Market. I really didn’t know what to expect. I was thinking, “Underground”, that must be something like the black market?
No, as it turns out it’s just a mall under the ground. When we got off the bus I saw what looked like four entrances to a subway system. We took the stairs down to a whole world of small shops. I was hoping to find some warm sweaters and maybe a pair of fuzzy or flannel pjamas. Ninety percent of the stores were women’s clothes and unfortunately even the biggest sizes would only fit Emilie or Saylor! Chinese women are so small I think Barbie doll clothese is not a very big stretch for them. The fashions here are so different. They wear skin tight jeans and leather pants. They like fuzzy, furry trim on their jackets and high-heeled shoes and boots. I saw one girl wearing white go-go boots reminiscent of the 60’s! The young ones are very into fashion! Older women wear bland colours and mix patterns of stripes and plaid. I think they are more into staying warm than being fashionable. Makes sense to me!

Kim, being only 4’10 and a lot smaller than me found some turtle-neck knit sweaters that fit her. I on the other hand looked everywhere and finally found a man’s sweatshirt with a zipper and a hood in light blue. It’s my stay-at-home-keep-warm sweater that has taken the place of my green Old Navy sweater that I didn’t pack and wish I had. That’s all I bought. I was hoping there would be household goods stores or a stationery store but no luck. By the time we stopped for a veggie and noodle lunch and caught the bus back to school it was 3:30 pm (oops!) We were late but since Grace is the director’s daughter we didn’t get in trouble! Whew!
Tuesday Kim and I were leaving early for school because we she was going to take me through A.Best and big supermarket directly across from the school and next door to McDonald’s. We met Heather, Jurgen and Steve in the hall and they invited to go to Pizza Hut for lunch with them. So we did. We hopped in 2 taxis and ventured through the traffic. Pizza Hut was all decked out for Christmas. Santa met us at the door and all the waiter’s and waitresses were wearing reindeer horn headbands. It was nice to eat pizza cooked exactly like you would get it at home! After lunch, Steve, Heather and I went to Carrefour a huge department/supermarket. I finally found some towels, a reading lamp for my bedroom, black instant coffee (Nescafe) and granulated sugar. I was ecstatic! We cabbed it back to the apartment, dropped off our things and made it to school for 2 pm. Lots of time to plan my lesson for 7 pm!

Finally last night (Thursday) Kim and I went out for dinner down the street and headed for A.Best. I have wanted to go there many times but everyone swore if I went alone I would never find my way out. Yeah, right! I’m a seasoned shopper (I learned the ropes from my mom at a very young age and that’s something you never forget.) Turns out it’s three floors with escators up to each. The down ones are nowhere near the up ones. And it looks like they have hidden the down ones – they are tucked away in a corner behind displays. So who knows? Maybe I would still be there…………….

I bought a mirror for my bedroom, a light bulb for the lamp I bought on Tuesday (duh!), toilet paper and some writing paper. (I must write a few letters to people back home who don’t have computers and access to my Blog) And of course we all bought snacks for our crib game later that evening. Coke, chips and pistacchio nuts are the mainstay here. I also saw (but did not buy – another time) Corona beer, Snicker’s bars, bottles of Great Wall wine which I’m told is not too bad. Pantene shampoo, Oil of Olay products and many other name brands. So it seems I won’t be wanting for too much during my stay here.

I get stared at a lot. Seems whenever I go out I am the only person alive that doesn’t have black hair. Older women give me the dirtiest looks……….especially when Kim and I are smoking. I want to say: “Yes, I’m a Grandma too, and I smoke, so what?”

Changsha has many markets I’m told. The other teachers here tell me about a great place to buy DVDs really cheap! Six yuan (Chinese dollars) which is about one dollar Canadian. You should see their stockpiles! It’s a trip across town via taxi near the train station to get there, so the next time they go I will tag along. I’ve only seen a small part of Changsha so far. There are many more areas to discover!