I'm a Handyman (Not) and Bikes

Wednesday, August 27. Cleaning and blog in the morning. Then try to take shower but have "new showerhead" fiasco!

The showerhead and hose that were in my apartment when I arrived had a serious leak where the showerhead connects to the hose so a lot of water was being wasted. Also the hose was not in good shape. So one of the things I bought at Carrefour was a new showerhead and hose (about $6). This morning, I installed the whole thing and was very proud of myself - until I tried to take a shower and had Old Faithful squirting out where the hose joins the water pipe and practically no water coming out of the showerhead! So I pulled the old one out of the trash to do an inspection, and it looks like I need a washer! Until I find one, I've put the old one back on. Can't wait to try asking for a washer in Chinese. :)

We have lunch in the school cafeteria, then walk to the square to meet Nick and Ashley. Nick has ridden his bicycle to the square because he is loaning it to David for the school year. So first we walk down the street to get something to drink. I've fallen in love with cold milk tea. (Cannot believe that I have had NO coffee since arriving in China).

Then we take a bus and a taxi to go to the "used goods market" where everything from computers to mattresses to furniture to bicycles is sold in stalls, each one operated by an individual family. (From what I understand, the families live above these little stalls.) Lots and lots of cute children here. Tiffany and I are looking to buy bikes and Nick is helping us bargain for them. Chinese people think Westerners are rich so it isn't always easy to get the lowest possible price.

As we're looking, it starts to rain, so we end up trying out a lot of bicycles in the rain, riding them on the packed dirt alley between the stalls and through lots of puddles. But it's warm enough outside that we never get chilled. And it's kind of fun! We reject one vendor who wants (we think) too much for his bikes (180 rmb). I have Nick tell him that we can get a new one at Carrefour for 199 rmb, and the vendor says "so go to Carrefour!" But he turns out to be really nice because even though we end up buying bikes from vendor across the way, he comes over and talks to us in English. Apparently, no hard feelings here - it's all part of the game.

Tiff finds a silver bike for 150 rmb and I get a red (what else?) and white one for 160 rmb (about $25). Both ride well and have decent brakes. These are "ladies" bikes, with upright handlebars and no gears. The "mountain" bikes with gears (more expensive, of course) are "men's" bikes. We ask Nick what if a woman wants to ride one, and he says, then she rides on the back of the man's bike! In fact, I can't tell you how many men I have seen riding bikes with women sitting on the rack over the rear tire. Now I understand. :) The bikes also come with a rear rack, a front basket and a kickstand, all good things, and will be fine for tooling around town. (In case any one thinks I should have written "toodling around town," I want you to know that I just looked up "tooling" on dictionary.com and here's what it says: Slang - To drive or ride in a vehicle. So there.)

After finishing these high level negotiations, we walk over to the restroom building. There are some little girls playing around but they won't come too close despite the fact that they are obviously fascinated by the "wei guo ren." Nick translates and says they are afraid of us! It's hard for us to understand, but imagine if Martians suddenly appeared in your backyard. You'd be afraid too, if for no other reason than you wouldn't know what behavior to expect from them. Well, it's the same thing here.

Nick and Tiff ride our bikes back to our apartment building. Ashley and I take a taxi to Ashley's school where we meet Kelly and have a long walk down Tiantan Road to the Enjoy Going (I kid you not) travel agency where we meet up with Nick, Tiff and David. We are trying to buy tickets to go to DongTing Lake tomorrow. But agency wants us to take their tour, so the rest of the group goes to the train station with Nick to buy tickets. I bike home (fantastic!) to shower and change.

We are on the west, or newer, side of Zhuzhou, where everything has been planned and laid out with wide streets, some with alleys actually separated from the street and some with wide bike lanes. So it isn't a problem to ride a bike here. Different story perhaps in the older part of the city but I plan to ride only on this side of the river!

I walk back to the square to meet up with the entire Zhuzhou crew (except Suzanne who has gone to Changsha for the evening), along with Nick's parents and Ryan's liaison, Vicky. It's the same wonderful restaurant we went to last night except tonight we are in a private room and Nick's father has already ordered all the food. All of us would love to treat Nick's parents to dinner because they have done so much for us, so I tell Nick to tell his father that, in our country, it's the custom to give the bill to the oldest person at the table (which is definitely me). Nick's father laughs and says (Nick translating) that while I have the position of respect as the oldest person, he's the oldest man. Pretty quick comeback, I think. China is definitely still a somewhat chauvinist society. More on this later. Lovely evening with much toasting. Nick's father proposes a toast to all the men. Of course, we can't let that one go by and toast all the women. Nick's mother seems to get a kick out of that!

Sidebar: On the way to dinner, I stop at the little neighborhood store that we have frequented before (for fans, extension cords, garbage can, tape to fix cracked toilet seat so it would stop pinching me!), hoping they would have a washer. I had brought the new shower hose so I could point inside to show what I needed. Well, first they bring me a brass fitting that the hose would screw into. Then I started drawing what I thought was a picture of a washer, and they bring out a showerhead. So then I show them that I have a shower head, continue drawing the washer and pointing to the inside of the fitting at the end of the hose. Finally, the nice woman seems to figure out what I need and writes it down on a piece of paper, but of course I can't understand anything she's saying and can't read what she's written! She indicates that she doesn't have any, but then suddenly pulls out a length of hose with fittings at both ends, and washers inside each fitting. I nod "yes" enthusiastically, so she actually tries to get one of them out to give/sell to me. I couldn't believe it. Fortunately, she wasn't able to get it out so I will look elsewhere. But I kept her note with the word for "washer" in Chinese on it! :)