A couple of weeks ago, I (Rachel) was walking down the sidewalk on a sunny, blue-sky Saturday morning. As I approached an area with benches and trees, the bird songs got much louder, and I came upon one of my favorite sites in China:
Elderly men chatting together beneath the cages of their pet birds--hung in the trees for fresh air, birdy company, and a little showing off.
As I continued on my walk, to meet my friend at the bus stop, I thought, "I'm so glad I live in China!"
Josh took these particular pictures over a month ago, on a grey and misty Saturday morning in a different park, but you get the idea. (The only bummer is that the bird cages seem rather small for the size of the birds. But overall, they still make me smile.)
The following pictures were originally taken to be used in language class, so we could learn the names of places around our neighborhood. We ended up using drawings instead, but I thought they would me a good blog post.
The shop on the left is called "Line Community Charges Supermarket," which made us laugh when we first got here, and took us a couple of weeks to remember how to say... in English.
It's actually a very useful little place though, because we can pay our internet, cellphone, and gas bills in the same place. They're sprinkled conveniently throughout the city. If you think long and hard enough, the name sort of makes some sense.
The next three pictures are of our nearest intersection, and it's a busy place in the morning!
This lady and her husband fix window screens, clean out stove hoods, and probably do a variety of other handy things, advertised on their sign (which I can't read). They cleaned our stove hood for us when we moved in, so now she and I smile and greet another whenever I pass by. :)
(The car is parked on the sidewalk because it's early enough that not everyone as left for work yet... and there's a huge shortage of parking spaces. That's just one of the reasons I'm really glad we don't have a car!)
The shop on the left sells fruit, which is handy when we need to pick something up last minute. The one on the right sells milk and yogurt, and lots of other little things. The trunk in front is selling sugar cane, I think...
Bank and ATM... banking must be a booming business in China-- they are everywhere!
This is a picture of our friend "The Bread Man," he asked us to take for him. He certainly has a real name, but we don't know it. Every weekday
morning on our way to class, I stop by his cart for sweet, fresh
pastries that his wife makes and he bakes, right there on the street
corner.
Meanwhile, Josh goes on down the street to our favorite "Bing Man,"
where bing is a generic term for breakfast bread... this one being like a
crepe/burrito with egg, lettuce, spicy bean sauce, and something fried and crunchy. Then we meet back up and continue on our walk to class.
We're planning to get the picture printed this weekend, so we can give it to the Bread Man. :)
