Sunday, June 9, 2013 at 7:43 pm (China time)

I am really tickled pink by the way I can save money through making a choice about the packaging of an item.  A bottle of soy sauce is about 6-8 RMB but in the future I can buy plastic bags of soy sauce and refill my soy sauce bottle.  These plastic bags of soy sauce cost only about 50% of the bottle of soy sauce.  You can buy vinegar and talcum powder the same way.  Do you remember that once upon a time, we would buy a ballpoint pen and then just buy the refills?  I had not done that in the U.S. for many years.  BIC pens are so cheap now.  Besides I can pick up a couple at conferences!  Here in China, I bought a red ballpoint pen, at 1 RMB, for grading papers and bought three refills for 2 RMB.

Every day I put my garbage, outside my apartment , in the hallway.  The cleaning lady would pick it up in the morning and she is also here on Sunday.  Here are pictures of the hallway.

You can see the two plastic bags of garbage I left in the hallway. I try not to leave them out in the afternoon--not because I cannot but just so that the hallway does not look tacky.  I tried to find out if the cleaning lady would like me to sort through my recyclables so that she would not have to go through my plastic bags.  No one understood me!  Perhaps my sorting would be viewed as trying to get her job away from her.  This perception is something I often run across in China.  At the fast food locations, no one buses their own trays in China.  There are cleaning staff who do this.  The only place I have seen customers busing their own trays is at Ikea, where a huge sign explains why it is necessary to clean up after yourself.  As my students tell me, it is the culture in China!

Last Saturday, Nancy and I went to the Railway Station market again.  Actually it is not one market but several buildings with small vendors selling all kinds of goods.  The first floor has purses, toys, stationery, jewellery and shoes.  The second floor has men's clothes, and the third and fourth floors are for women's clothing.  In the streets, you can find similar items but for only about 50% of the prices.  However, you cannot find everything on the street.  This time, the police were out, talking to the street vendors who had to stop selling their goods.  It was about two hours later before the vendors went back to their businesses.  The food court is in the basement of the buildings and can be very hot at lunch time.  So Nancy and I went for breakfast instead, and we had delicious dumplings.  We got 30% more dumplings than we did at the market near the Jilin campus.  The soya bean milk was 1.5 RMB but Nancy complained that we could have bought the same drink for 1 RMB on campus!  That would be about US 17 cents each.

I have been longing for steamed fish since I arrived in Changchun.  However, it is not easy to get steamed fish in the restaurants since it takes a little longer to cook.  Nancy did find a restaurant that decided that it was better to have a customer than to turn one away.  Of course, we were a little late for lunch, at 1 o'clock, and so the restaurant was not too crowded.  Below is the picture of the steamed fish and it did look absolutely delicious.  It was also a big fish for two Chinese ladies!  The seasonings were soya sauce and sesame oil with julienne ginger, chilli, and green onions.  You can steam fish this way in your microwave.

About 30 minutes later, the fish looked like this (see below)!  I even ate the head and the fish eyes!  With two bowls of rice and a vegetable dish, Nancy and I staggered home stuffed!  The fish was a little expensive--40 RMB.  The whole meal cost me 68 RMB (about $11 USD).  However, remember that I am trying to live like a regular Chinese, and not a U.S. visitor who thinks everything is cheap in China.

Well, it is time for me to walk to Walmart now to buy some essentials and to also check into my investment! Walmart here opens at 8 am and KFC is right there with them.  I have not yet been to a KFC to see what it is like.  See you soon.