Shopping weekend

Teenager and the quest for a taxi with the oversized case

Last weekend Teenager prepared for her big trip back to the States. She is leaving ahead of us because she needs to take some test so she can do Running Start(early college) when we go back in January.
First we went on the GuZheng quest. The GuZheng was the big 16th b-day present so she really wanted to take it home.
Her teacher told her we could get a hard case from her friend's shop. So we went all the way downtown. First we stopped at the place we got interesting jade. We were disappointed because the vendor said because it was cold she had no selection and would be getting no selection. We bought a few things then moved to the next booth where and old bitty attempted to pickpocket me. I have met my fair share of pickpockets in China, it actually had been nearly 8months since the last attempt to steal from me. I used to work with monkeys so I view this as a weaker monkey trying to steal food from a more dominant or higher ranking monkey. The monkeys will sort it out scratching and biting and usually the low ranking monkey goes crying back to where it came from. Of course, I'm civilized. But when you try to rob me, naturally I must defend my things. I really see it as picking a fight. The pickpocket chooses to bother me so I can either fight or flight or force them to do that. Last year a woman in a fur coat attempted to unzip my purse and instincts kicked in and I slammed her up against the wall in front of my children. She was in a fur coat, so really, did she need to steal? After that I realized I needed to chill out because I don't want to become such a violent person. Some guy actually got my camera last year and I stared him down and Teenager screamed in Chinese and he decided to give the camera back. Most of the time it is kids and I feel sad for them because I know someone is forcing them to do that. Anyway this 50-60 year old woman tried to get in my purse in the crowded mall. I grabbed her hand out of my purse and she immediately admitted defeat by showing both hands and rolling back her sleeves a little. Ugh...we let her go.
So we went on to the GuZheng store where they overcharged me for this beat up used hard case. It was freezing because it is Harbin, and thats what it does, so we wanted to take a cab home. No. The case was too big and no cabs would let us roll down the windows. So we had to take buses which was so cold and we were so unwelcome with that big case. Mutiple busses.

You know its cold when the ice cream isn't in a cooler

Ice cream vender "off grid"

We get home and thaw out to find that the instrument doesn't fit!!!! So we have to make a zillion calls and it is decided that yes the case can be returned, but the GuZheng needs to be bubble wrapped put in a box. Since no taxis would take us we decided to return the case the next day and bubble wrap another day. After riding 2 buses back with the case the next morning, we were happy to be free of the case, but wanted to go to the material market.

and more silk

silk

Teenager doesn't love material like I do, but she offered to take me for an early birthday present. Fur and silk are all mixed in this massive dirty warehouse. We bought enough silk to make all new curtains for the Lummi Island cabin (the crackheads stole every curtain rod and curtain, why, why????). Then we bought some fur scarves. In America, I used to be against fur. Mainly because of the waste of the meat product and the cruelty of the industry. In China, I know they ate that animal. In fact, I know they treated that animal just like they treat the chickens and their dogs. Once I had a student whose aunt raised foxes and sent him to college, so I really have changed my opinion on the fur issue. Plus it is soooo soft. Harbin is suppose to be the cheapest place in world to buy fur. The scarves I bought were actually even the by-product of the coats. They take all the trimmings from fur coats and make them into balls and string the balls together. One of the things I admire most about the Chinese is that they don't waste anything.
After the shopping we had to pack up my girl. The ayi's son drove us in his new car to the airport. He is a taxi driver. Before he had a normal red cab, now he has a little red car. I guess he is a private driver now. He is a sweet boy. The airline lady was so mean.

We went to check in and she was only going to let her take one bag even though she was transferring to an international flight. Then she was trying to short us on the weight saying the weight to Canada was less than to the US, well Miss Smartypants

Getting ready to meet the agent

lost that argument because Teenager was flying all the way to America via Canada. Unfortunately the bags were slightly over so we had the heartbreaking repacking scene at the airport. Teenager was trying to be all grown up about it, but the ayi's son was seeing that her heart was breaking so as the airline lady was printing the labels he was unzipping the bags and stuffing back in some of her things. It was really touching.

Teenager got stuck everywhere she went...she left our apartment on Wed 8am China time and I finally got the message she arrived at her destination at 2am China time on Friday morning.

Harbin, China