summercomfort (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
summercomfort) wrote2024-08-05 02:28 am
summercomfort) wrote2024-08-05 02:28 am
(no subject)
Back from month-long trip to China! This was my first time going back in 12 years. Surprisingly, not as many things have changed as I'd expected. The "order and pay for everything on the phone" thing is definitely new, and the "you can get any random order delivered to you in 30 minutes" thing is frighteningly easy, and there's definitely more bathrooms with sit toilets and toilet paper, so that's nice. But the street level mom-and-pop shops are still much the same, and the malls are still the go-to for fancy foreign stuff, and there's still plenty of squat toilets with no toilet paper.
- there's much less boba than expected! Apparently boba is over as a fad in China -- there's milk teas and fruit smoothies everywhere, but most shops don't have boba. :(
- seems like my worries about online ordering and digital payment was mostly unfounded -- I can't pay individuals, and there's some apps that don't allow foreign cards (Taobao, for example), but there's plenty that do, and it works quite well on either the street level (where I'm just scanning QR codes), or with large chains (where they're scanning me). But it's a little more awkward with smaller chains that want to install a mini-app on WeChat that requires local connections or other some such.
- Miss Rutabaga did not have a good time, alas. Or rather, it was too much and too new for too long. Her food finickiness are an issue (I had to resort to online-ordering foreign foods to be delivered, because she couldn't deal with any of the local foods.) It's a pity that our family in specific and China in general is such a food-oriented culture, because she really... doesn't care about food. So getting dragged to various banquets and dinners full of local cuisine was not a good time for her. I think for future trips abroad, we'll definitely need to pack her some backup food staples, but also we need to try to expand her palette a bit more over the next year. Maybe have one day a week where we eat something that she doesn't usually have, just to get her used to at least putting up with less-than-ideal foods when the situation calls for it.
- Similarly, a whole day of tourism activities was very draining for her. If we were to travel with her in the future, the pacing might have to be half-days, or whole day + half day rest.
- Between Miss Rutabaga and me, we were roughly sick for half of the trip, which really sucked. :/ in the future, I think a 2 week trip would be ideal, instead of 4 weeks
- It's sad how much the family has splintered since the passing of my uncle -- everyone is in their nuclear family clusters, and it was hard to visit and spend time with them in a larger collective. :/ On the other hand, one of my cousins who I thought would never marry got married! To a very sweet nerd, and they apparently spend weekends flying to Japan to buy doujin at Akihabara, so maybe we can have a Japan trip with them. :)
- OMG getting to eat xiaolongbao and shengjianbao every morning mmmmmmmmmm
- it was hottttttttt. Like, 95-105 every day, with 70% humidity. (So not as bad as Delhi, but also I come from a place where summers are like, 80-85 and dry.) In the evenings it dropped down to a balmy 90. I think this is exacerbated by the fact that everywhere was air conditioned, so the outside was made hotter. I wonder what a heatmap of the city would look like...
But anyway, overall decent trip to China. Next time I really want to visit Luoyang! We're talking about going in the wintertime, though, since it'd be cooler. (Which then leads to the question -- this winter or next winter?)
-----
- School is starting soon, but trying not to think about it until it's actually here.
- goals for next week:
--- acquire cat with Miss Rutabaga
--- do some tie-dyeing
--- pick a part of the house to actually organize, deal with various detritus
--- some Chinese School stuff
--- take Miss Rutabaga to the Exploratorium
--- maybe work on a creative project? I should really restart my "do 15 minutes of something creative every day" thing.
--- get over jetlag (I'm awake from 1am-5am, fml)
- there's much less boba than expected! Apparently boba is over as a fad in China -- there's milk teas and fruit smoothies everywhere, but most shops don't have boba. :(
- seems like my worries about online ordering and digital payment was mostly unfounded -- I can't pay individuals, and there's some apps that don't allow foreign cards (Taobao, for example), but there's plenty that do, and it works quite well on either the street level (where I'm just scanning QR codes), or with large chains (where they're scanning me). But it's a little more awkward with smaller chains that want to install a mini-app on WeChat that requires local connections or other some such.
- Miss Rutabaga did not have a good time, alas. Or rather, it was too much and too new for too long. Her food finickiness are an issue (I had to resort to online-ordering foreign foods to be delivered, because she couldn't deal with any of the local foods.) It's a pity that our family in specific and China in general is such a food-oriented culture, because she really... doesn't care about food. So getting dragged to various banquets and dinners full of local cuisine was not a good time for her. I think for future trips abroad, we'll definitely need to pack her some backup food staples, but also we need to try to expand her palette a bit more over the next year. Maybe have one day a week where we eat something that she doesn't usually have, just to get her used to at least putting up with less-than-ideal foods when the situation calls for it.
- Similarly, a whole day of tourism activities was very draining for her. If we were to travel with her in the future, the pacing might have to be half-days, or whole day + half day rest.
- Between Miss Rutabaga and me, we were roughly sick for half of the trip, which really sucked. :/ in the future, I think a 2 week trip would be ideal, instead of 4 weeks
- It's sad how much the family has splintered since the passing of my uncle -- everyone is in their nuclear family clusters, and it was hard to visit and spend time with them in a larger collective. :/ On the other hand, one of my cousins who I thought would never marry got married! To a very sweet nerd, and they apparently spend weekends flying to Japan to buy doujin at Akihabara, so maybe we can have a Japan trip with them. :)
- OMG getting to eat xiaolongbao and shengjianbao every morning mmmmmmmmmm
- it was hottttttttt. Like, 95-105 every day, with 70% humidity. (So not as bad as Delhi, but also I come from a place where summers are like, 80-85 and dry.) In the evenings it dropped down to a balmy 90. I think this is exacerbated by the fact that everywhere was air conditioned, so the outside was made hotter. I wonder what a heatmap of the city would look like...
But anyway, overall decent trip to China. Next time I really want to visit Luoyang! We're talking about going in the wintertime, though, since it'd be cooler. (Which then leads to the question -- this winter or next winter?)
-----
- School is starting soon, but trying not to think about it until it's actually here.
- goals for next week:
--- acquire cat with Miss Rutabaga
--- do some tie-dyeing
--- pick a part of the house to actually organize, deal with various detritus
--- some Chinese School stuff
--- take Miss Rutabaga to the Exploratorium
--- maybe work on a creative project? I should really restart my "do 15 minutes of something creative every day" thing.
--- get over jetlag (I'm awake from 1am-5am, fml)
no subject
I'm glad you had an overall good trip.
My own finicky child turned out to actually have an eating disorder, ARFID. I hope that is not true for Miss Rutabaga.
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The easiest way to heat frozen buns is to cover it in a wet paper towel and microwave for 1-2 minutes -- tasty bun every time!
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Hooray for traveling! sends recovery vibes
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<3 <3 <3
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Otherwise: you're getting a cat! Amazing!! I hope you find an amazing cat!
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Yes! The mom-and-pop shops would have a sketchy print-out of a QR code taped somewhere, and you can scan it with your phone and then pay them that way. Some of the more advanced ones would have a little QR code device that would actually announce how much you paid, so they don't have to check their own phones. :)
I'm excited about getting a cat again! But also, finding an adult ginger cat is harder than expected??