The nice thing about being in Beijing is that it's very hard for your life to settle into a boring routine. All you really need to do is venture outside with sort of an idea of what you want to do, and you're sure to run into something interesting.
Yesterday afternoon, my friend Cindy and I ventured out with the idea that we were going to seek out a "blind massage" place and get a massage. It had been recommended by one of the school directors, and we figured what the heck - we'll go see what it's all about. The school's handbook had the place marked on the map, and it seemed easy enough. Until we realized that the school's map was very, very, very inaccurate.
I'm thinking now that they might have done it on purpose, to make us ask random people questions, and practice using our vocabulary. I got to startle quite a number of people by walking up to them on the street and asking them, in Chinese, where the blind massage place was. NO one seemed to know, until we finally walked into a pharmacy and asked the people behind the counter - they told us it was across the street, and sure enough, there it was. Not quite sure what we were getting ourselves into, we knocked on the door, and sure enough, it was opened by a blind woman.
I'm still not sure about the whole blind massage thing. The woman was very nice, and we wound up getting hour-and-a-half long massages (clothes ON, as it was freezing cold!) for 100 RMB each, which works out to around $13. I felt a LOT better walking out than I did walking in, and I think I may go back next week - a very good way to relax after a week of classes! We were able to chat in Chinese with the people giving the massages, who were only able to identify us as foreigners by listening to our voices. I wonder what your concept of race is when you're blind - do you even think in terms of race, or only in terms of nationality? or of language, or accent? Shel Silverstein wrote a poem called "No Difference" (just googled it, which is how I remember!) about how human beings all look the same when you turn off the light. As wary as I was about getting a blind massage, it was nice to be treated just as a different sounding voice, and not a different looking person.
Speaking of being treated like a different looking person, the next stop after the blind massage place was the hair studio - my friend wanted to get her bangs trimmed, and needed me along for moral support (as well as to serve as a translator!) My knowledge of hair-Chinese is severely lacking, but I started talking to the hairdressers, who found me VERY interesting, and picked up a few words. "Zhi" means straight (not only in the sense of hair, which is how I can remember it). One hairdresser told me that if I came back next Friday for a haircut, he would make my hair "zhi". I tried telling him that NOTHING on earth can make my hair do anything it doesn't want to, and my hair, as a rule, is obstinately, randomly wavy. Wavy, if I can remember correctly, is "zhuan". I also learned the words for "layers" and "gradually tapered" (in a sense), but have since totally forgotten them. Part of me is tempted to go back and see what he does to my hair (I got a huge kick out of talking to him, as he has this awful Sichuan accent, which was good listening practice - for example, standard Chinese for "China" and "to speak" is "Zhongguo" and "shuo hua". His accent turned those words into "Zongguo" and "suo hua". No "h" to be found anywhere). However, I really like my hair the way it is, in its wavy randomness, so I think I'll keep it for now!
Off to find the foreign language bookstore - this day has been rather dull so far, and it needs some adventure! (but not too much) I'll try and write about my Chinese bookstore experiences later - maybe they'll have current MAGAZINES! that would be awesome. zai jian!
