strange things are happening....

Dear God. If I never shop another day in my life I will be the happiest person on the planet. We left the University at 9:30AM to go shopping and did not come back until 7:00PM. Enough said.

I have already talked about shopping about 2,000 times, there isn't much more I can say. Although, it was noticed by Val that all these stores are over-staffed. In America there would be one person, maybe two on the floor and then one behind the counter. Here, there are four behind the counter, eight on the floor, and one or two greeting customers at the door. The people on the floor are so excited to actually get to do something they follow you around the whole store. My favorite part of the day was this convo...
worker: "Where are you from?"
Me: "The United States."
Worker: "Ohhh. U.S.A. California?"
Me: "No, Chicago."
Worker: "Ohhh. Bulls! Michael Jordan. Beautiful thing."

I just laughed. As everyone has told me, people in China love their NBA and they all love Michael Jordan. I rarely even think of MJ anymore. He was so excited. It was cute.

Other than that the day was fairly uneventful.

As I mentioned previously, the city is in the first stages of it's Olympic manicure. Other than a sign or two, two weeks ago you would have no clue the Olympics were starting in a month, but now you would have to be a complete moron to not know. There are banners everywhere, on light poles, buildings, overpasses on the highway. They have also started putting up displays (for lack of a better word.) This is the best way I can describe them...they are a metal outline with a hollow center that is filled with flowers to give it color. Anyway, they are popping up everywhere, in front of the mall, all over Tien'anmen Square. I have never seen any transformation like this before. At school they make things look all pretty for Homecoming or Christmas but NEVER to this extent. Not to say that it should, I mean this is the Olympics, but that is the only basis of comparison I have. It is crazy. Even though we were only here for a few weeks and never experience the city pre-Olympics, I feel like they are changing my city. I can only imagine what it feels like for people who have lived here their entire lives and watched their home completely change. I realize this is all part of hosting the Olympics, but it worries me to think about how much Chicago might change if they win the 2016 bid. That is neither here nor there, just random thoughts.

The best indication that something big is coming is that tourists are flocking to the city. We noticed more white people in the mall yesterday. It was funny because we were offended by this. For the last three weeks we were essentially the only white people in this city and suddenly, out of nowhere, other people are showing up. We feel like they are invading our turf...you would think it was our own country. They don't know how to use the subway. They think that if a person doesn't understand raising their voice will make it better. We get embarrassed by them.

Well....I just thought I would give you an update. Nothing exciting happened at all. I will make sure tomorrow's is better! Have a good day!