So, I was going to use this post to write about serious matters, and I will start with the rest of my Xiamen visit before down-spiraling into dirty jokes.
Wed. morning in Xiamen we went to a professor's house to do an interview. He lives on the campus of Xiamen University and is an Urban Anthropologist. Who loves to talk. Really really loves to talk. He went more than half an hour over the allotted time we had given him, and when we told him we had to go he started to show us his photos. As well he had this super strong accent, so I'm not quite sure what happened during that hour and a half of my life.
Afterwards we went to the Industrial sector of the city for an interview with some developers, and it was an interesting one as not only could I follow some of the conversation, but they were young, polite, and it gave me a chance to see what is being constructed in the city at this point in time. That area had a very different feel to it, just less crowded I suppose...
We had lunch with them, and went to this cafe place where the waitress kept trying to explain to me that I probably wouldn't like the Chinese food and so should probably just get the western-style steak. I ordered beef over rice wrapped in lotus leaf. It was okay, but not spectacular. An interesting part was that our hosts, the two young people from the other company, both ordered some cool coffee-ice-drinks, but we didn't order any drinks, wanting to be polite, and I thought it odd that they didn't invite us to order drinks, but oh well.
I was totally unsure of how to conduct myself at this meal. It was sort of a semi-business lunch, but I didn't think that really formal Chinese manners would be appropriate, however the one joke I tried to crack was either so not funny that I should be ashamed, or it was just not at a good time. It wasn't even much of a joke, just a little quip, but I didn't even get half a smile from them. Stupid corporate world...
So after lunch we went back to the hotel for a rest before heading out to Gulangyu, the scenic, touristy island right off of Xiamen island. We took a ferry over that circled the island first before docking, and the instant we were off the dock we were accosted by people interested in being our tour guides. Eventually we got some guy from Anhui province to be our tour guide for a discount (as he was unofficial) and he helped us find our way to the various sites of the island. I thought the island as a whole was quite pretty, the aviary nice (I'll upload a few cute photos/one video clip from that later), and the rocky peak at the highest point of the island really great, but as with many Chinese tourist places, I found the actual tourist sites quite grating.
A little on Gulangyu, though. This island is also known as 'the Piano island' because apparently at its height some disproportionate amount of people owned pianos. Now in its garden one of the major attractions is the Piano museum, which I went to and did like a lot. This was a spectacular collection, including a mid-19th century Steinway, several harpsichords, roll pianos, uprights, grands, baby grands, tabletop, and some others I don't know the names of. We took the tour there, and there was a little mini-performance by the tour guide at the end, but she just played a re-arrangement of the island's theme song which is apparently famous throughout China. I thought with that much respect towards pianos she should have at least played Debbusy or Bach or something, to respect the spectacular instrument she was playing on. But that's me being a snob.
For dinner we went to a place that our guide recommended, and it was fresh seafood which we picked out from the bucket again. When we went upstairs to the table our waitress was this little middle schooler who said she was sorry for us because we ordered too much. Well, she was right. The food was mediocre and very overpriced (the same price as the amazing meal from the day before, but less food of worse quality!) and we were not pleased about that, to say the least.
Our waitress had just finished what we would consider seventh grade, and worked at this restaurant during her summer vacation. She got to the restaurant at eight every morning and worked until at least ten-thirty or eleven every night. Her boss didn't feed her much, and for all that work she made about 650 RMB a month or so. Apparently she had siblings and didn't expect that her family would be able to afford to send her to college, and the money she made went to supplement her family as paying for her schooling was already a stretch. She was pretty smart and very outgoing, and really kind. She kept saying she felt sorry for us, but we probably felt sorry for her. However it was nice conversing with her anyway, and I hope that she manages to go to college in the end, as she would enjoy it.
So our tour guide got 15% commission for bringing us to that restaurant, and as it was such a flop and he made so much money off of it we didn't pay him for his services. He agreed that was fair and didn't care much because that fee was a very small part of what he made off of our meal. The rest of the evening is just us going home and then we flew out the next morning.
In other news, Anne is over, I bought the new Harry Potter today (at the Shanghai museum gift store, of all places!) and my toilet is clogged. Well, neither Anne nor I were particularly phased, because we have two plungers here and figured that would do the trick. However, we've plunged for about 45 minutes to no avail. We watched an online video advising us on what to do, we've tried some home tricks like putting dishwashing detergent down the toilet to help, and still it sits there quite clogged. So we're going out tonight, but if we can't get it fixed I plan to call a plumber tomorrow, provided I can even figure out how one goes about finding a plumber. Anyway, if anyone has any advice on how we can fix this issue, please tell me ASAP. Until then, I would just like to remind the world that shit happens and that there are so many more jokes that could be made here and I'm going to show restraint because I've got to go, but feel free to leave any jokes you'd like in the comments section. I've got so much more to share, but for now I will leave it here.
Hope everyone in America is doing well, and a shout out to Mer who I owe one. Until next time!
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