Solo Excursion...
Today was my first solo excursion into town, which turned out pretty well, although I wasn't able to find the mouse trap I was looking for. Yes, I have a resident mouse in my room, living beside my bed to be more exact. I saw him a day or two ago, when he ran out of my room. I didn't expect to find him hugging my bed this morning when I moved some of the sheets to wash the floor. Maybe that's why I've got two beds?
So I took the bus into town, and decided to wander the streets a bit. There were tonnes of tiny shops, street vendors, and markets everywhere. During my wanderings I came across a traditional Chinese music/dance performance outside of some store. There was a five-piece band (drum, cymbals, sheng, and two suona), and 15-20 dancers. The dancers had their faces all painted white and red, and the women had on fancy wigs with fluorescent green or pink blouses holding coloured fans to match. I wish that I had my camera! What was cool about it is that it wasn't staged for tourists -it was only Chinese people watching (and me).
Eventually I made it back to the RT-Mart to buy an elementary school character copy book, and some sweets. I asked about a mouse trap, which involved some pidgin Mandarin, and a few actions (they thought me slitting my throat indicated I wanted to make a necklace out of the mouse!), but they didn't have any traps. As far as I can tell the lady told me to go back to the store on Tuesday and find her because she would bring something from home to help me out.
For lunch, I decided to go for Chinese fast food at Mr. Lees, a Chinese chain selling beef and noodles. They were actually pretty good, and I think I'll have to go back and try some of their other food too.
I've yet to see another foreigner since leaving the Beijing airport...