My mother absolutely refuses to go shopping for anything right before Christmas. She hates the crowds and long lines. Over the last several years I've actually come not to mind shopping in a crowd in America because it feels like a normal day of shopping in Qingdao.
Chun Jie (aka Chinese New Year) is the Chinese equivalent of Christmas. Everyone goes out shopping for gifts and tons of food. Millions of people (literally) leave to go on vacations or visit family. Traffic is out of control and chaos ensues. Qingdao is a city of roughly 9 million people, but I never feel like there are that many people here until Chun Jie (well and when tourists flood in for the summer...but we have a lot more than 9 million people in the city then). There are people everywhere and the stores are crazy.
Every month our school organizes a bus to take us out to Metro (China's Sam's Club or Costco). Metro is really far away so having the bus is super nice. However, every year I forget that the previous year I swore I would never go to Metro within two weeks of Chun Jie. Yesterday I went to Metro and Chun Jie technically starts today....dumb move, Amy.
Shopping at Metro yesterday was an interesting experience. I started walking around and getting what I needed while dodging tons of other shoppers. No big deal. At one point I reached for an item and a little old lady grabbed my cart and started asking me all about what I was buying and why was I buying it. Umm...not too bad, but a little weird. I've had people look into my cart and comment on what I'm buying before, but never grab it. Weird, but still doing ok.
I went to grab something else and a middle-aged Chinese man stopped me and asked if I was cold...I wasn't wearing my coat, but we were inside. When I told him I wasn't he started asking me all kinds of questions about my life. Still not weird, things like that happen a lot. The weird thing was that after about 3 questions he told me I was beautiful, asked a few more questions, told me I was beautiful, asked some more questions, and told me I was beautiful again. After the second beautiful, I was uncomfortable...especially since we had already covered that I wasn't married. After the third beautiful, I kindly told him I had to go. He laughed, but finally let me go. Ummm...ok. This is getting a little weird. (Random side note - after this experience I realized that the reason he thought I was so beautiful was because I wasn't wearing make-up and Chinese people think red cheeks are beautiful and I have very red cheeks that are normally covered up by my make-up. Gives you a new perspective on beauty, doesn't it?)
I went to get in "line" to check out and to be honest, the lines were pretty legit. There was about 20 people in each line so I settled in for a long wait (the major reason I never want to go to Metro at this time...I spent 45 minutes in line). After 30 or so minutes in line, another line opened up and people literally tried to trample each other to get into that line. Two women started having a shoving contest with their carts to see who could go first. Umm...now we have reached weird and crazy.
After I finally made it through the line and got checked out (after a fiasco where my credit card wouldn't scan and I had to borrow a friends...now I was embarrassed too). We finally all made it back to the bus and left only a half hour late which wasn't bad considering how many people where in Metro. Then we sat in traffic for 15 minutes trying to get less than a block away because there was a huge traffic jam where everyone was trying to get through a street light at the same time and no one was willing to concede any ground. Uggghhh...seriously? Holidays bring out the worst in people.
However I finally made it home and got a fabulous phone call from a great friend in America so life was good and happy. Now today I have the pleasure of listening to the beginning of what will be about 3 weeks of fireworks...that go at least 12 hours a day until Lantern Festival...which is my favorite Chinese holiday. It's gorgeous and so much fun.
But for now, I'll just try to enjoy the fireworks, get through another week of school and then spend two weeks catching up with my friends and watching my favorite tv shows...I'll be up most of the night anyway. Anyone want to call me over Chun Jie vacation? I'm off school from Feb. 9-24th and I'll be awake really late each night (the fireworks are often too loud to sleep through). Just let me know. :)
Chun Jie (aka Chinese New Year) is the Chinese equivalent of Christmas. Everyone goes out shopping for gifts and tons of food. Millions of people (literally) leave to go on vacations or visit family. Traffic is out of control and chaos ensues. Qingdao is a city of roughly 9 million people, but I never feel like there are that many people here until Chun Jie (well and when tourists flood in for the summer...but we have a lot more than 9 million people in the city then). There are people everywhere and the stores are crazy.
Every month our school organizes a bus to take us out to Metro (China's Sam's Club or Costco). Metro is really far away so having the bus is super nice. However, every year I forget that the previous year I swore I would never go to Metro within two weeks of Chun Jie. Yesterday I went to Metro and Chun Jie technically starts today....dumb move, Amy.
Shopping at Metro yesterday was an interesting experience. I started walking around and getting what I needed while dodging tons of other shoppers. No big deal. At one point I reached for an item and a little old lady grabbed my cart and started asking me all about what I was buying and why was I buying it. Umm...not too bad, but a little weird. I've had people look into my cart and comment on what I'm buying before, but never grab it. Weird, but still doing ok.
I went to grab something else and a middle-aged Chinese man stopped me and asked if I was cold...I wasn't wearing my coat, but we were inside. When I told him I wasn't he started asking me all kinds of questions about my life. Still not weird, things like that happen a lot. The weird thing was that after about 3 questions he told me I was beautiful, asked a few more questions, told me I was beautiful, asked some more questions, and told me I was beautiful again. After the second beautiful, I was uncomfortable...especially since we had already covered that I wasn't married. After the third beautiful, I kindly told him I had to go. He laughed, but finally let me go. Ummm...ok. This is getting a little weird. (Random side note - after this experience I realized that the reason he thought I was so beautiful was because I wasn't wearing make-up and Chinese people think red cheeks are beautiful and I have very red cheeks that are normally covered up by my make-up. Gives you a new perspective on beauty, doesn't it?)
I went to get in "line" to check out and to be honest, the lines were pretty legit. There was about 20 people in each line so I settled in for a long wait (the major reason I never want to go to Metro at this time...I spent 45 minutes in line). After 30 or so minutes in line, another line opened up and people literally tried to trample each other to get into that line. Two women started having a shoving contest with their carts to see who could go first. Umm...now we have reached weird and crazy.
After I finally made it through the line and got checked out (after a fiasco where my credit card wouldn't scan and I had to borrow a friends...now I was embarrassed too). We finally all made it back to the bus and left only a half hour late which wasn't bad considering how many people where in Metro. Then we sat in traffic for 15 minutes trying to get less than a block away because there was a huge traffic jam where everyone was trying to get through a street light at the same time and no one was willing to concede any ground. Uggghhh...seriously? Holidays bring out the worst in people.
However I finally made it home and got a fabulous phone call from a great friend in America so life was good and happy. Now today I have the pleasure of listening to the beginning of what will be about 3 weeks of fireworks...that go at least 12 hours a day until Lantern Festival...which is my favorite Chinese holiday. It's gorgeous and so much fun.
But for now, I'll just try to enjoy the fireworks, get through another week of school and then spend two weeks catching up with my friends and watching my favorite tv shows...I'll be up most of the night anyway. Anyone want to call me over Chun Jie vacation? I'm off school from Feb. 9-24th and I'll be awake really late each night (the fireworks are often too loud to sleep through). Just let me know. :)
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