Pearls, Roaches, and other small things...

I went to the pearl market (Hongqiao) in Beijing the other day. My coworker is educated in the area and helped me purchase a brilliant single strand of round, lustrous pearls for less than $20. Do let me know if you want some pearls or a knock-off purse, these are essentials for all women really.

I also found a cockroach in my apartment the other day. It wasn't the large, black roach that I am scared to find but a small brown one that I quickly killed with a knock-off Puma shoe. However, I discovered the next day that squishing roaches leaves eggs and really doesn't help the problem at all. sigh.

I have also been to see the new Bond movie which wasn't entirely innovative or Bondesque but the opening fight sequence was entertaining and Daniel Craig, well, he's just delicious. I went to the underground (literally) Megabox theatre in the Village in Sanlitun (a major foreigner/tourist area/trap). I decided to sign up for a Megabox card which cost me only 20 kwai but saves me 35 KWAI every time I go to a movie (plus 35 kwai/friend if I take two people with me!!!). Now, I've never been known for my arithmetic skills but I'm pretty sure that the card pays for itself and then some on the first visit.

I'm going to the symphony at the Water Cube tomorrow. Am a little excited!! That is, if I can survive the lonely, cramped, and long subway ride there and figure out how to cross security, etc. As I keep saying, no matter how much I travel and no matter how far away from home I go, I'm still really spazzy about travel...and really any kind of life matter at all! ha.
More to come on this later...
Happy Thursday

Dongyue Temple

Today I can actually say that I was productive for once. Let's see, I did the following:
-three loads of laundry
-cleaned my bathroom
-cleaned my kitchen (-the floors in my apartment ugh I hate doing the floors)
-went to a temple
-read some Kundera in a Starbucks for about an hour
-window-shopped
-bought some vegetables, a humidifier, and a rice cooker
-made myself delicious Tom Yum soup (spicy Thai soup) for dinner
-updated my classroom blog
-uploaded photos
-changed my sheets
sigh...I'm tired just thinking about it. My sleep patterns have been a little wacky lately. I fell asleep Friday night around 8pm and slept until 2am, missing the opportunity to go to the bar. Saturday night I fell asleep at 10pm and slept til 4am, then was awake til 6:30 and slept til 8:30am. I have also caught up on so much trashy TV it is ridiculous (no wonder my eyesight is failing!!). There's something about being away from home with no regular crappy TV that makes me crave pop TV (ex. Grey's, Gossip Girl, all of Desperate Housewives, 90210--my heart jumped a little when I heard the theme song again!, How I met your Mother, Bones, House, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Office, Big Love...)

Anyhoo, today I went to a Daoist temple that is literally a five-minute walk from my apartment. It is an oasis amongst the chaos of the city!! It only cost 10kwai to get in (about $1.50 and was WAYYYY worth it!). Hope you enjoy the pics. Being at temples alone is much better for me as I'm not wondering where my companion has wandered off to and am forced to shut my trap and just take it all in. This was a much-needed, calm and sunny Sunday. Now if only I could create a calm and sunny Cindy...

No matter how much I try to tell myself that I'm evolving and growing, I still can't help but be flustered in Asian supermarkets. It took me until 3:30pm today to get up, shower, do some laundry, eat (twice :S), get dressed, and convince myself that I needed to go to the grocery store. Asian supermarkets (not even the markets) are filled with the standard five+-too-many employees seen everywhere in Asia who stare and shout and force their product on the many shoppers that breeze up the aisles. It seems that, as a meek and shy white girl, I only get bothered about 50% of the time, the other 50 reserved for embarrassed giggles and comments like "norangsec mori" (yellow hair)in Korea.

Yesterday I bought a toaster oven that has a rotisserie in it so I will hopefully be cooking, baking, and gaining weight for lack of something better to do. I still want to buy a rice cooker for about 10 bucks and a humidifier for prob 20 bucks. I may invest in a DVD player, too.

Tomorrow I might finally make it to the Daoist temple that is next to a fashion market, both of which are five minutes walking distance from my building. I need to go to the market to buy a black fall/winter coat since I left my black hoody and my black fall coat in a bar on Halloween. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I'm still just as classy as ever. Perhaps my time in Beijing will shake some of the chaviness outta me. Well, here's hoping at least.