25th July 2007 Yilan
This will be the last post from China, as we’ll be going home tomorrow.
Up at 6.30am. Not because I wanted to, but because C got the clean-crazy bug. She decided that this would be an excellent time to start sweeping the apartment and moving stuff around. Safe to say that my sleeping was over. All through the night C coughed, tossed and turned. At the same time it was lightening and thunder, so I didn’t sleep all that well.
I went and had a bath in the nearby public bath and returned just before children started invading the apartment. As always they came to learn how to draw and write from C’s sister.
We decided to go to C’s parents’ home where I could play around with the laptop, while C and her mother went shopping. I told C to go easy, since she is still ill with pneumonia, but that’s easier said than done. As we waited for the taxi I spotted a shop and asked C what that shop sold. C answered: “Massage”. I am always game for a good massage and especially now that I feel like I need one, so I asked C to check out how much it cost and was told 10rmb. Fair price and we entered. Turns out it was some kind of new age healing shop thingy. There was only a woman there and she checked out C pneumonia and gave her some sort of warmth/glow treatment. According to C it felt good and helped a bit. Faith moves mountains, right?
Afterwards the woman used some sort of apparatus to scan C’s hand. It was half light and half camera of some sort, because the inside of C’s hand showed up on a TV screen. Pretty gross if you ask me. I was up next. I weren’t asked but I’m getting used to that. My pictured revealed that I was fat (fair enough I guess), had problems with my head (fair enough, I was still dizzy) and my stomach (fair enough too).
Anyway the real doctor/masseur apparently was hung up on some business with his/her ill mother, so he wouldn’t return until later. The woman in the shop promised to call us when he was ready. So later we’ll probably be back for some massage.
At our way back the taxi driver (not our regular) almost ran down a bicycle and got angry on the poor fella for hammering his hand into his car. Idiot cap driver. I told C to never pick that fool again. He was the lousiest we ever used so far in Yilan.
Ate lunch at C’s parents and spent the whole afternoon playing some Football Manager 2007. It was a much needed rest. Even though I feel on top again fluwise, I still enjoy not having to do a lot of stuff like when we got here.
It’s slowly nearing the last day here in Yilan/China.I must admit that I look forward to going home. I love it here and C’s family is great, but I miss my own family and Danish stuff like real bread, normal toilets, in-house baths and being a regular Joe again. The curious looks and “celeb” feeling I get here are getting a bit too much. I have to prepare everything I do in public. Like going to the public bath for example. There I have to check out is there are some too nosy Neds there, who will disrupt my plan to bath, and if so, I hurry through the whole bathing procedure and skip the sauna. I hate having to build new “friendships” and say “Ting bu dong” until the whole room laughs and finally shuts up.
I also hate that the employees in the public baths think that I am not capable of doing anything myself. For example if I want to unlock my locker there, I can be sure that someone is immediately taking over if I don’t get it open within 2 seconds (not exaggerating). Looking around no one can open them the first time, but the weiguren always need special help. It’s like they believe that only China has invented science fiction stuff such as locks and bathing. I also have some problems convincing people here that shampoo is enough to wash your entire body. I just can’t explain it to them. I don’t need 2 different kinds of soaps to be clean. I may be scolded for this one, but I bet that body shampoo and regular shampoo are pretty much the same substance. They are just adjusted to look/smell distinct and then bottled differently. I never feel any cleaner after using body shampoo. Just more stupid for carrying it around.
C came back after buying a shitload of crap. There were nice things, but also some things that made me wonder if we really need it. It doesn’t matter though, because C always gets her price and she is not high maintenance at all. Usually she buys good stuff at cheap prices. Here everything is so cheap, so I don’t mind her having fun shopping at all.
We ate dinner and headed back home. I needed a bath again and C the same. After bathing we wanted to get a massage. The woman from the shop in the morning never rang back (as expected). I didn’t mind as both C and I didn’t like her much anyway. C asked around for a massage, but only came up with spots that did a little more than just relax your muscles. No thanks and finally we found a real spot. The massage was bad. Not very bad, but just not good at all. Also it was a man giving me the massage, which I don’t like much. Not exactly sure, but let’s just settle with gay fear or something, okay? At 10rmb I wouldn’t say the massage was worthless, but sure had much better massages at barber shops back in Beijing. We decided to get one at the public bath tomorrow instead. It is way more expensive so it better be worth it. I badly need to get my back straightened and relaxed before our long journey home starting the 27th.
Back to the apartment to get some sleep. Tomorrow is our last real day here. The day after we’ll be going home. First by bus to Harbin at around noon and then on by train to Beijing. Then airplane to Amsterdam. Then another plane to Copenhagen and at last my buddy Kojak will pick us up and drive us to Aalborg.