NEW FRIENDS

Two posts in one day! This will not be a usual thing once classes begin next week.

This morning I finished the majority of things I have to do for lesson planning for next week. So, having reached that goal I decided I wanted to explore the city some. I was chatting with two of the other American teachers here and somehow knitting came up. One of them mentioned that she knew of a yarn market, but had never been. I brought my own knitting needles here to China (I love to knit, mittens especially), but didn't bring any yarn since I knew I could buy it here ... so when she mentioned a yarn market I jumped at the chance to go!

After lunch and a 15 minute cab ride we entered a building that had a couple of signs in Chinese and bad English (i.e. Knttng Marker) pointing to the fourth floor. We climbed the stairs and found stalls and stalls of yarn, pre-made sweaters of all styles, and lots of good thick long underwear! After wandering for a bit, we settled on a stall that had a good selection of yarn and a young woman working there. She was extremely helpful and patient, especially when I tried to explain to her in my broken Chinese that I had no idea how much of the yarn that I had picked out I wanted to buy, but I wanted to make (insert an action for "mittens")and how much did she think I needed? After I settled on 8 liang (a Chinese measure of weight), I asked if she had a business card, that way I could come back when I wanted to buy more yarn. She didn't have a card, but offered to exchange cell phone numbers, so that way if I return and couldn't find her, I could just call her! We parted as "new friends" 新朋友.

This little story is all to say two things: I'm finding people here to be very friendly, and relationships are extremely important in this culture. To get things done, even the simplest of things, it's always best to do it through people you know.