August 27, 2006

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...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Stephen, how´s it going?
Wow, I can see you have had some new experiences in China, eh? But sleeping w/ a mouse it´s just to much for me! You should get rid of that mouse as soon as possible!hehehe
Good luck there!
Joana

Anonymous said...

Stephen, are you sure that mouse isn't a stow-away from the basement? Perhaps this is the second one you saw that night.
Cathryn

Anonymous said...

Stephen,

It sounds like you are having a ver interesting experience! I'm so jealous, because I will probably never get the chance to do that after I start working in the "real" world. By the way, I just got a job teaching Grade 6 at Richmond Christian school! Fresh out of UBC! Pretty intense...

Melissa

Stephen said...

Yah, I'm supposed to be getting some mouse poison to help with the situation...
Wo zai Baoding jiao Yingwen :D
Congrats on the job Melissa! It'll be an interesting year for both of us I'm sure!

Anonymous said...

Good thing you are a seasoned mouse trapper. You must take after your grandfather.