Cleaning day and Carrefour

2030 3/29/10

I really don’t want to give intimate details in my cleaning process and so… well I won’t.

• I essentially reorganized things, stuffing a lot of it into my drawers underneath my bed.
• I washed a lot of clothes as well as towels and such.
• Mopped… a lot
• Cleaned the hookah

This consumed much of my day. Afterwards I ate lunch with Clement, Sandra, and Nina on the Mao (kind of our name for the area all around the giant Chairman Mao statue, which includes a giant lawn that a lot of people hang out at).

At 13:30 Clement, Sandra, and I met up once again to go to a Carrefour they found. For those you not in the know (I sure as hell missed it) Carrefour is like the French Walmart, and it’s one of the world’s largest store chains. So we headed down two stations South of our school to this magical wonderland that is Carrefour.

Our reason for going? Simple, nutella. Now I have actually heard of nutella before this point in time but I’ve never actually tried it, though I know you can find it at most American grocery stores. If you happen to see it pick it up, it’s quite scrumptious on bread. It’s kind of like a nice peanut butter and chocolate mix, though supposedly it’s healthier, who knows. I also picked up a bunch of little things like washing detergent, conditioner (try finding a conditioner for curly hair in China, do it, I dare you), honey, and also some new type of tea.

There’s an important note here I want to make, in general things you NEED in China are super cheap, this includes food in general, water, cups, soap, toothpaste, etc. But things that are things you WANT are actually more expensive, such as mouth wash, high end electronics (cameras, etc.), make up, designer clothes, etc. So essentially if I could live in Shanghai, receive an American salary but occasionally travel back to the US to pick up a few things, I would be living pretty.

As far as this tea goes it’s actually my favorite thus far. Not as good as the Arabian tea I have back home, but good none the less, and what’s weirder is that it seems to consist mostly of flowers. Anyways you throw some honey in it and you have a nice mild tea, that you can reuse a few times.

Now I’m trying to decide what to do for the rest of the night, it’s kind of a tossup between watching a movie, walking around outside, or smoking on the balcony. I guess it kind of depends, sadly Clement and Sandra bailed because of homework, and Yeirm hasn’t answered yet so I’m leaning away from watching a movie alone. Hookah sounds nice, but it’s a little too cool outside, and honestly I think my lunges would appreciate me choosing walking instead. Anyways if something particularly awesome happens I might post an update, but I think I’m just going to go walking around and then call it a night.

Have a good one, thanks for reading.