A haircut

It was time. Since I left New York I had not gotten a haircut. I thought about it. But that was not doing the trick. I was starting to resemble the lead singer of a 70s funk band. I mean, more than I already normally do.

So let's see, I wander down Tianhe Bei Lu on the way to my school pondering into which Asian hair salon I shall place my fate. There was one block where I'd walked past a Korean and a Japanese place a few times. Inspecting the sign carefully and comprehending very little except an apparently low price for a basic wash & cut, I venture in armed with my prepared mental list of haircut-related words that I'd looked up diligently in my dictionary prior to attempting this little adventure.

So I walk in, and all of this takes place in Chinese of course. Yes, I'd like a haircut. Ok, purple gown/robe thing to wear. Sure, you can tie it for me. Ok, the key to the place where you are putting my backpack and aged flannel shirt so I can retrieve it later. Ah, tying it to the robe, that's interesting. Ok, now we will follow the young lady to the back area where I will lie down on the hard washing table with my head in the sink. I know some of this won't be as exotic to my ladyfriends but it is a far cry from the Sicilian barber shop in the east village where I have been going for the last year or two to get my hair cut. So anyway, this girl washes my hair more thoroughly than it has ever been washed in my life. And yes, I know how to wash my hair. But this is like 10 minutes for the first wash, then rinse. Then another 10 minutes of full scrubbing and massaging of my entire head including sharp kind of pulling motions that feel like she's trying to extract my brain through an imaginary hole in my crainum, or one that she is attempting to create. Then conditioning comes next. Then the massage begins to move off my hair and onto my neck. Then I realize I'm actually getting a full massage. This story does not have a "happy ending" for those of you are wondering. It was a rather enjoyable massage though apart from the fact that my muscles were tremendously resistant to the idea of relaxing at all. Oh, and I was happy because she told me to relax in Chinese early on and I just learned that word two days ago and understood. So quite a while later I am whisked to the barber's chair or the stylist or the hair designer or whatever they are called these days and a slightly gay man with a haircut from the 80s version of Duran Duran does some work on my hair. I mean, I'm not that complicated, it seemed fine to me. Then, they take you back to the headsink area and rinse you out all over again. Then you go back to the chair once more for additional styling and appraisal from the rest of the staff seeing as how not too many foreigners drift into this here salon apparently.

The most amazing part about that whole thing to me was that I was there for something like an hour or more, got like 4 headwashings, a massage, and a haircut and it costs me 40RMB. That would be $5 US dollars. No tip, no additional costs, nothing. To me, that is amazing. It's almost enough to make me not wait another 5 months before my next haircut.

And as a brief related cultural aside, I was buying produce the other day at a supermarket near me. The standard move for vegetables is you put the stuff in bags just like you do in the US, except they have a table at the produce department where you then bring your bags and they weigh them and print the appropriate sticker so by the time you head to the checkout, it is already priced and ready to go. So that's easy enough, but for some reason lemons are the one exception. I put 3 lemons in a bag and brought them to the weigh station and they said no. I do not know why. They are priced and paid for individually despite originating in the produce section. This is one of China's great mysteries.

What am I doing?

Well, let's see. I walked through Baiyun Park the other day with a group of 5 other people or so. We walked up hills and steps, granted not that taxing, but I felt surprisingly healthy that day and not even particularly sore after walking probably the most hours since my rice terrace hike in Longji way back when. I spent most of the day speaking English and listening to a great deal of Italian and Cantonese. I played Ping Pong a while back too and actually beat a Chinese person, although the rumor is she let me win. I still felt good about the victory.

In my apartment, I did laundry for the first time. As warned by the previous tenant, the spin cycle does not run automatically nor does the water drain. While pressing random buttons to attempt to initiate said spin cycle, I pressed the one that opens the door and spills that water out into the living room instead. So I cleaned my apartment which looks nice now. I'm also getting the hang of washing dishes in the one sink with no hot water in the bathroom/kitchen. My hot plate cooking is progressing, I think I figured out how to simmer now. Saute is going to be the final step to greatness, last time I tried the oil turned awful black awful fast. Despite that setback I have managed to make some soups with noodles and vegetables that have come out decently considering I have no recipes and I am totally winging it. I bought a toaster oven to add a new dimension to my cooking output in this apartment. As a result, now I can include toast with any meal, just watch me. In a more ambitious step, I roasted a head of garlic to mix into my second homebound attempt at hummus which actually came out really good and I had to pat myself on the back for that one. A nearby imported foods store has yielded a bounty of canned beans on top of my refrigerator and increased the methane content of my apartment's atmosphere by unknown and impressive quantities. That is undoubtedly more than any of you wished to know.

I looked through my un-uploaded pictures on my camera and they are mostly food. I should weigh way more. This week I ate at a Turkish restaurant that was pretty good. They had hummus and other vegetably items. I mostly cooked. Sunday after the park I went to a Cantonese restaurant. The vegetables tasted good. I did not sample the snake or the chicken despite it being clear from the cage behind me that the ingredients were very fresh. I ate at a sushi restaurant one night. The vegetable sushi was good. I found Ore-ida fries in the imported foods store. I nearly cried. I haven't made them yet, maybe as part of lunch tomorrow. I have been considering eating fish lately if my stomach didn't improve, but the word from the latest doctor is lab verified, and there is nothing serious wrong with me. No parasites, no bacterial infection, no gestating alien soon to burst from my sternum. I have been diagnosed with something called chronic gastroenteritis. The doctor said it happens to tons of people and is the number one thing he sees in foreigners who come here. He was surprised I didn't have anything sooner. He claimed two weeks prior to my visit to have the same thing himself. So is that good?

Anyway, I've been attempting to be more social venturing out here and there for dinner, drinks, walks and whatnot. I have been studying Chinese on my own and wrote a nifty little program I'm proud of which helps identify new Chinese words derived from characters I already know. It needs some polishing but the idea works. I have been reading a lot. I read Les Miserables, Made in America and Notes from a Small Country both by Bill Bryson, and a novel called Backpack given to me by a friend. I only have one book left about life on the Silk Road around 750AD and then I'll have to go book shopping again or borrow some from somebody. I'll always have my Chinese language books which take a bit longer to go through. I still haven't gone through the Calvin & Hobbes translation of Revenge of the Babysat which I purchased way back in Kunming, though I take it in the bathroom with me every now and then. Apart from reading I've been playing the guitar a lot. I'm really glad I bought that thing. I've been playing along with some songs on the ipod and figuring out old songs I should've figured out a long time ago. I don't know if I'm actually getting any better but I can tune to Drop D other stranger and lower metal tunings really quickly now so that's something. I have also been figuring out Ben Folds's songs and other piano stuff on guitar, so that's kind of a nice change. I'm sure my neighbors' are developing an advanced appreciation of rock & roll anyway, especially around 1am or so.

So all in all, life in Guangzhou. I look out of my windows at the tall apartment buildings and the shopping complexes surrounding my apartment building and think how strange it is that I am actually living in China. I must have gotten used to it somewhat. I no longer pay attention to people staring at me. I'm no longer shocked and amazed by how different things are. I read the Chinese signs best as I can wherever I go but I feel more like I'm in Chinatown than China. It's remarkable the extent to which I've adjusted in such a short time. Hard to believe it is closing in on 5 months since I left New York.

It's late, time for bed. Trying to be on a slightly more sane schedule and not fall into my old 4am NYC nights. Tomorrow is another day.