The weather in China had been fairly bearable, all things considered, until we arrived in Guangzhou. Here… as soon as you hit the over air conditioned (is there such a thing?) hotel lobby, you can begin to feel it. But once those doors open, the heat hits you like a ton of bricks, literally. It is so thick and heavy that it hinders your breathing. Just sitting outside will cause you to turn into a bucket of sweat. Just imagine walking!
I’ve never done as much laundry as I have in our few days here in Guangzhou. We sweat through everything!
Today I went walking around, and made some revelations. First off, I realize how American we are. Every city we get to, the first things we want to know are 1. Where’s the starbucks? 2. Where’s the McDonalds? 3. Where’s the Carrefour/walmart? Ok, not really a revelation, but I though it was funny.
Here in Guangzhou, we have a Subway nearby, so most people have been eating subway… a lot. Ive had it several times already, often ordering the footlong and having half for lunch and half for dinner. It’s cheap, it’s not Chinese, it’s easy, it’s quick. What else could you ask for? The owner is an awesome Chinese guy who went to grad school in the US and decided he loved it so much, he’d bring it to Guangzhou. He knows all of the regulars’ names (which actually happens everywhere we go when our group begins to frequent some location like that), gives us free cookies, and has even offered to do a late night delivery for us post-show. Talk about nice, huh?
And our presenter… must be the nicest person I’ve met in China so far. Ok, so he thought I was Maddy for the first 2 days, but that’s a compliment, so I don’t mind.
Our show has been going well. We are performing in this huge historical center (it’s a tourist attraction, so saved some money there!), probably the biggest theatre we’ve performed in, but the performance area and stage are smaller than usual, and there’s practically no wing space, so a lot of the set pieces that come in from the wings had to be cut. But the adjustments are happening magically well. It took some getting used to, we had to change a lot of my act 1 scene changes because of the wing space, and had a few bumps the first performance, but by the second, all was seamless. The space is otherwise just huge! And the audiences seem very receptive here, clapping in all the right places, laughing, it’s been excellent! Pictures of the theatre will be going up soon.
A few nights ago, a group of us went to the expat area and ate at a german restaurant, I had a fuzzy navel (lordy haven’t had one of those since college! Couldn‘t taste the alcohol and I do believe I got very tipsy) and a roasted chicken mango salad (excellent!) and then a much larger group of us went on a riverboat cruise. It was long, and nice to see the sights, but they kept blaring loud Chinese something-or-others, and it was pretty annoying. Of course I got photos from the cruise, coming to my photo bucket soon.
What else exciting?
A few nights ago, we celebrated a cast member’s birthday- in a hotel room. We attempted to squeeze a whole lot of people in a hotel room (the hotel was trying to charge a fairly high per person fee for a room). There were some great snacks and it was fun. I was exhausted, so I snuck out pretty early on. But it looked like a fun time for all. Happy birthday, T!
Cave bar…. Ah yes, I’m awaiting the incriminating photos to appear on face book. A group of us took a field trip to a local bar here. I’m not sure how anyone heard of it, but I think it was in or near the expat area, and it was kind of like a cave, getting down to it, sort of. So there was lots of smoking and it reeked of beer, but once the dancing got started, it was so much fun. They had this trio of dancers, 2 girls and a guy, and every other song or so, they’d come out in a new costume and do a choreographed dance on the dance floor. When they saw that we (SOMA people) were copying them on the sides, they started inviting us out to dance with them.
At some point, two very scantily clad girls appeared and began dancing on platforms on either side of the DJ. I did get a drink, I had my very first Sex on the Beach. Since again, I couldn’t taste the alcohol, I thought I might end up tipsy again, but not even close. I wonder if any was even put in the drink. But folks told me that there’s so much other stuff in it that you may not be able to taste it and there might be very little of it. It was delish though. So we were all dancing and having a good time, when the dancers came out again- in lingere! So they start dancing to a sexy song in their red nighties. When suddenly, they grabbed one of our male attendees and proceeded to tie him to a chair using his own shirt! But I feel as though that’s all I can share. He’s doing just fine with his own sharing. It was quite funny to watch!
Yesterday, after about 10 hrs of sleep, I joined the kids on a trip to Shamian Island, this itty bitty island in Guangzhou. Apparently, if you go there, people assume you are adopting a Chinese baby. So the moms I was with (not me, though) were constantly being asked if they were adopting- “Nope, just shopping.” I hear Guangzhou is the capital of Chinese adoption, so I guess that makes sense.
We ate at a Thai restaurant. While they had massaman curry, it had weird things in it, so I went with a red curry chicken- so delish! They put a ton of basil or something in it, overpowered the curry taste, but it was still delish! Then we all kind of went our own ways. There are all of these little gift shops, and they all basically sell the same things, but wow do the prices very. One thing I ended up buying- I got it for 40Y ($5.75US), but other stores were selling it for 80Y and one even for 120Y! I did some bartering, got a few nice gifts. I got taken in the first store, because I hadn’t realized what I wanted was in many of the stores, but it’s fine, it was still worth it.
One store, I wanted to buy something, but getting the price for it was difficult. There were 3 employees who were helping our group. So individually, I asked each one the price for the item. Each gave me a different “base” price, but gave me the same “special” price. Uhuh.
We were told about a store on the island that benefits children of the orphanage. They had some chintzy things there, and some very expensive things there. They had a whole American Girl outfit section too, which I thought was fun. And one of the gifts I bought for about 84Y in another store (the one I got taken in) they were selling for 190Y! Sure, I want to help the children, but over twice the cost? Not worth it. The employees (owners?) were incredibly nice, spoke very good English, were very helpful (about 12 of us ended up in the store at the same time, they may have been a bit overwhelmed)… Had I not spent so much money that day they had a few things I would have gotten, but I’d spent already 600Y.
There were some fun stores, as well as stores named Jennys Place and Sherry’s Place, which shared a front door J And some others.
Today as I was making my not really revelations, I was actually wandering around, and walked to the mausoleum. The description made it seem like it would be really cool, but I felt fairly disappointed. I don’t like feeling I’m being sold “fake” and the first few things I came across in the museum just disappointed. “Relics” had pieces sloppily glued together with bright orange glue (shall I mention these were green and metal colored objects?). “Remains” (didn’t look much different than garden dirt with some rubble mixed in) were also superglued to pieces of paper laid out to look like the shape of a body. It just felt… weird. False. The tomb itself was pretty cool. It was built in Elephant Hill, and when modern builders went to make room for apartment buildings, they stumbled on the tomb. Something like 15 people were buried with him, it was kind of crazy.
But it was hot as all getup, and while the buildings were nicely air conditioned, I did have a bit of a walk back, where I proceeded to get very sweaty- again.
After a bit, I met up with a few of our girls and we headed over to the China Post (there are several locations around our hotel, but only one sends packages). It was in a crazy spot, easy to get to, but you definitely need to be showed the first time. Came back to the hotel and did some more vacation research, job research, and audition research. Vacation is nearly booked, but it’s just too early still for jobs and auditions.
So now I am ridiculously tired (I set my alarm this morning…why?) and have to leave for the theatre in an hour. Do I nap, or will it only make it worse? Eh, they seem to be doing construction right outside our door. I’m sure I could sleep through it, but maybe I should stay awake.
Earlier today, while I was climbing over the 6th set of stairs to cross another street, I got to thinking about those things in China I just won’t miss.
Things I Won’t Miss
1. Mystery meats
2. Mystery smells
3. Drivers (cabs, buses, bikes, carts, etc)
4. Hotel beds
5. Loogies
6. People (mostly children) relieving themselves on the sidewalks
7. Stairmaster bridges
8. Non-communicative adults
9. Lack of people’s abilities to wait their own turn
10. Smoking everywhere
11. Being bugged while shopping, like it’s my first time ever walking in a store and can’t make decisions for myself, or being told what I want.
12. Lack of chivalry
Things I will miss:
1. The sights
2. The friends
3. The expat communities
4. The audiences
5. The excellent cast and crew
6. Our translators (some of the nicest people ever!)
7. Performing
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