I had only one goal in mind for today: go out and buy a pirated copy of "American Pie 5" on the street. I like having goals like this, because you never know what you're going to run into on the way (or what's almost going to run into you, i.e. a bus). Among the things I found:
1. A flyer for a pizza delivery service. The pizza is delivered by (what else?) a guy on a three-wheeled bicycle. Will have to try this soon, with my roommate's help! (I don't think my Chinese skills extend to ordering food over the phone).
2. The entrance to the subway (it's farther away than I thought).
3. The nearest hospital (just in case).
4. American Pie 5! For only 5 RMB! (approx. 65 cents). Hard to describe the packaging - the writing on the cover included English, German, and Chinese. Who knew speaking German would be useful in China? I will have to go back there again - they had a lot of good stuff spread out on the sidewalk.
5. The guys selling DVDs were outside of a huge indoor flea market that I had been taken to as part of my tour around the neighborhood the second day I was in Beijing. I went inside looking for random stuff to buy for people as presents. What a trip! The most accurate way I can think of to describe it is just a random assortment of all the stuff that fell off the back of the truck before it could be exported to the United States (and some stuff that never would have made it on, like the thermos I bought with a picture of an alpine skier on it and the words "NO REASON TO GET FREEDOM". I really don't think that's the message they were going for....) In any case, much random stuff was purchased, which hopefully I will get around to mailing soon. Charlie, my one regret is the present I was thinking of buying for you - a heart-shaped keychain with a picture of Mao on it. It was HEART-SHAPED. And it had MAO on it. Alas, I passed it up, thinking I could find something better. But if you really want it, let me know, and I can go back and get it for you!
6. After the indoor flea-market got too claustrophobic for me I headed out in search of the foreign-language bookstore. It was actually a Chinese bookstore with an English language section - the caveat being that the English language section included two shelves of classic British novels (Dickens, Shakespeare, D.H. Lawrence, etc.) and about fifteen shelves of business English (the amount of English learning materials in that bookstore was almost unbelievable). I wound up buying an enormous dictionary (the same one we had at FSI), the sixth Harry Potter book in Chinese, and "The Berenstein Bears and the Messy Room" in Chinese (SO cute!). While buying the books, I somehow managed to get myself a customer card, and learned a useful method for not having to fill out a lot of personal information on forms. Here's how it works: 1) Get the form. 2) Stare at the form like it's written in Chinese (because it is). 3) Slowly write your name (in Chinese), mark that you're female, and write your age. 4) When it asks what your cell phone number is, take your phone out of your pocket and try and find where it tells you what your own number is (I have no idea what my cell phone number is offhand - I really need to write it down somewhere). 5) By the time you get around to trying to remember what your address is, they will have taken pity on you, and will have given you the card without you having to fill anything else out. Success! 10% off.
On my way out, I looked to see what the new books were that they had on display. There were two groups. Group One had books about successful entrepreneurs telling their life stories, and books telling you how to get-rich-quick - the above-mentioned "Ability to Success" being one. There was also a six-volume series entitled "Economic Imperialism"....and I think it's referencing the future, not the past. Group Two had history books on World War Two. There were no current political titles - the closest I could find was a biography of Bill Clinton in English. Unfortunately, they didn't have any English language magazines either - when I asked the woman behind the counter, she looked at me like I had just asked for an ice-cream cone, and said, "This is a bookstore." Oh well. I stopped at a magazine kiosk on my way back home - the three Chinese language imports from America they had were Cosmo, Good Housekeeping, and Outside Magazine. I bought Outside - (户外) - hopefully will be interesting!
So, that's about it for today. I'm now headed back to my room to get started on homework, and drink tea out of my new Thermos. Today was a very tiring lots of walking type of day, but I can put my feet up tonight and watch American Pie 5 if I finish my homework in time... ability to success achieved!
