Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer and shopping

At 9:15 this morning I got a text message from Egg, one of the graduate students working with us. She wanted to know if we wanted to go shopping at 9:30! Two things are true: 1. I need much time to prepare to go shopping. 2. But this is how most things work here… you never really know what’s going on until a few minutes before it happens or when it is actually happening.

So this wonderful Monday morning we set out to find me a bag/purse/anything that will carry my wallet and a book. I was shocked at the sight of the market place. People were everywhere. It was like the routine Saturday morning shopping crowd. So we squeezed through the people, safely crossed the street using the “buffer” method, which has become very popular with us lately, and entered the first market. This market is a little hard to explain. There are about 7 floors of shops all squeezed in like sardines. The first floor is just bags, the second is shoes, the third is a combination of jewelry and shirts, the fifth one is dresses and I don’t think we made it up any more floors. The shop keepers will stand at the front of the shop and clap. This is quite annoying but apparently quite effective since they all do it still or maybe they just haven’t gotten enough rotten stares or letters of complaint. I just want to poke them but I’ve refrained.

The colors are magnificent. The styles are bold and very unique. There are sparkles and bling are everywhere but mostly on the shoes! We weaved our way in and out of the shops with little success in bags but too much success with earrings, which was not the goal of the trip but oh so tempting. So we marched onto another huge market.

One of my most amused moments in Chengdu was about to happen. Many of the shops along with clapping have apparently had success with loud music as a means of drawing people into their shops. As we were about to cross the street we came upon the shop on the corner of two very busy streets. Then I heard it, “…sleep in heavenly peace.” I stopped and walked up the stairs to the shop and I was not disappointed because the next song was none other than “Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer.” My smile stretched off my face and I started singing right there. Amy and I were chiming in all the extra parts… “like a light bulb”. I wish I could say that we were singing at the top of our lungs for all to hear because that would have made the story so much more interesting but alas it was actually quite soft. I was so highly amused that I started laughing and I closed my eyes to try to imagine the snow, the scarf, the hot chocolate but the humidity and got a big whiff of “the” smell brought me back quickly. The smell that is a combination of crushed red pepper and the other really spicy spice only found in Chengdu. I opened my eyes and I was clearly the only one besides Amy that had stopped to listen to the music. Everyone else was scurrying around getting to the next place they were going pretending that Christmas music in July blaring from the corner shop was just as normal as the humidity in July. Egg looked at me in confusion, grabbed our hands, and led us across the street just in time to miss the car that was headed strait into the crowd of people. I guess that shop had no idea the delight they brought to a few meigouren (Americans) today but I’m glad that experience happened.

Tonight I’m still smiling because I remember one time in mid July I went to a Chinese restaurant in Boone. In the background they had Christmas music playing. I laughed then too! What a good idea… Christmas music in July!

For those who are still worried about whether I found a bag or not… I did. Unfortunately, it was not in the Christmas music store. I’m ashamed to say that I don’t even know what they were selling. But the bag is exactly what I was looking for and it will carry the book that I’ve been reading: River Town.