The Search for Souvenirs

Before tonight's story, a brief (ok, not so brief) preview of today's happenings.

I'd not anticipated returning to the cafe until tomorrow, but Mia received a call from one of her best friends this afternoon inviting her to dinner and shopping. Fan is a close friend, a VP at a Nanjing bank, and real connector of people. Her other best friend, Zhou (pronounced "joe") is out of town until Monday. So, i find myself trying to slow down my reading since i've polished off four of my eight novels and i'd hate to have nothing to read on the plane ride home. here are today's events and then the souvenir story.

Today, after five days of heavy, monsoon-like rain, it stopped. the skies didn't clear which was a blessing. When they do, the humidity will kick up several notches and life will be unbearable. After breakfast, we walked five minutes to the local ticket office to pick up train tickets to Shanghai next Thursday. Normally, train tickets go on sale 14 days in advance. because of the Olympics, local trains now go on sale 5 days in advance and any trains to Beijing go on sale only three days in advance. pretty scary if you're really depending on the train. We're traveling down to Shanghai on Thursday afternoon to meet my son, Christopher Clay Chiu Ming Bridges, at PuDong Airport. This is his first trip out of the US and, i hope, a memorable experience. From there, we expect to take the overnight train to Beijing, arriving around 10am Friday morning the 8th. We'll rest, shower, pick up our tickets, and watch the opening ceremonies on TV in the hotel. While hotels have raised their rates 500%, our rooms are arranged through Mia's college friend at nomial rates. Oh, how lucky. By the way, trains leave every few minutes to Shanghai, a tribute to China's GREAT transportation system. it's really incredible how many people move through the system. We're on the "kuai che" (fast train) so the journey will only last 2 hours 18 minutes at 155 MPH.

In any case, Mia asked the ticket office about ticket sales to Beijing. While we can't purchase tickets today, she wanted to test the waters. What if we were to leave in 3 days? Sure enough, tickets were available. Another test. What if we were to leave in 4 days (meaning that tickets went on sale yesterdy). Sorry, tickets for that date are sold out. This means, of course, that demand is VERY heavy and we'd better get in the ticket office early monday morning, which is three days before our trip. One hitch. We already have tennis reservations from 7-9am on Monday, so Mia will play with JiaWei and I for an hour before leaving for the ticket office.

By the way, the internet cafe consists of perhaps 60 c0mputers, perhaps more, spread over several rooms. It's open 24/7 and costs 2 yuan an hour (about 30 cents). About half the computers have regular chairs and the other half have barcaloungers. Because of the cheap hourly rate, many people just pay the hourly fee to sleep overnight here since it's much cheaper than a hotel. In fact, Mia tells me there is a special rate for them. Go figure.

In the afternoon, we taxied to a store where we could shop for household art and vases. We ended up purchasing two nice paintings which, it turns out, don't fit in my suitcase. They won't carry on, so we'll be looking for a box we can place them in for the journey to our house.

The Search for Souvenirs
This is an issue that plagues me each and every year (and my own damned fault). This is my seventh visit to China and each time I've brought home souvenirs for friends and co-workers. It started off innocently enough, but the task has ended up consuming a bit too much time every year. yes, i could easily find the nearest piece of junk, buy 10 of them, and end my task. If you know me, you know that's not good enough. Sometimes, the search is completed quickly. However, more often that naught, it drags until the last minute as i try to find the "perfect" trinket to give my co-workers and friends. I've gone overboard at times. A few years ago, I found a very nice cylendrical jade pencil holder, bought ten of them (at the last minute) and dragged them home. They were MORE than heavy, consuming a sizable portion of my suitcase.

This time is no different. Mia and I have traversed several shopping destinations and have almost come up empty handed. we did return, yesterday, to buy seven of an item i thought might be interesting, but the search will continue until i'm satisfied. At times, i must admit, i wonder if the purpose of my trip is to purchase trinkets. At times, i want to scream my surrender. However, my quest continues, as it must.

As part of my surrender, I purchased some BaiJiu today at the store. BaiJiu (white lighting to those of you at home) is a clear, fairly potent whisky. more, next time. thanks to those of you who read and more thanks to those who comment. i'm honored. I LOVE my job and LOVE escaping here to Nanjing to be with Mia.