A Short but Interesting Adventure

Anybody ever wonder if a woman on a shopping mission would have survived back when our good and great God changed up the language people were speaking (Tower of Babel) so nobody could understand each other? Yeah, me neither. But today I received an answer to that question anyway. And it is a resounding YES. We packed up a few items (passports, diapers, wipes & snacks), bundled up a ready to nap little monkey and ventured out on our own in downtown Beijing this afternoon. The term “a few blocks down and a few blocks over” does NOT mean the same thing here as it does at 4th & Broadway in Paducah (shout out to my PFGW peeps). A half hour later we were standing in front of a ½ mile wide, ¼ mile tall billboard of Kobe Bryant hawking some new sneakers (ok not quite that big…but huge)…with a bunch of large, fancy stores with elaborate Chinese characters over each one. Marcie put on her big girl panties and off we went into a couple of department stores and market shops in search of … whatever. I was simply along for the ride…keeping my bearings on which way the hotel was as best I could. We never did find the supermarket Mary said would be so easy to find, but we did come across a convenience store (yes, it was written in English on the outside), so I stocked up with 6 liters of bottled water for 14 Yuan ($2.12 US) and off we went. Aside from being the only non-Asian people within a 3 block radius of our hotel (again, don’t think downtown Paducah), the trip wasn’t too bad…except when I decided it was time to cut back toward the hotel and picked a “side street” instead of a main thoroughfare. The authenticity of the side street was pretty cool…the stares and the characters who were giving them were, um, not.

We survived, Maggie napped and now we rest. Thinking about supper…I’ve often wondered since we got here if I might be the only person in town who is eating Chinese food three times per day? (heh heh) It’s ALMOST like having a Chong’s on every corner, downstairs at the restaurant and picking up the phone when I dial room service. Pave the streets gold and show me a mansion…’cause I’m in heaven.