Traditional Chinese Comb Gift, Neat Thermos

I didn't know before I lived in China that wooden combs are a traditional gift to give to girls/women, especially as a goodbye gift.

At the tourist neighborhood of CiQiKou in my city, there were shops selling decorative wooden combs and hairpins, but I didn't think much of them, I thought it was just a tourist trap item. But in the days before I left Chongqing, I received several nice wooden combs as a going away gift.



They’re made of wood and painted with enamel. All the combs I received came in these nice boxes and were made by the same company; I’m not sure if this company is well-known for combs, or if they are the ones who sell in my area of China. One student wrote cute little messages for me all over on the box itself:



The combs are often stylized, such as this yellow comb I use on a daily basis and is carved to look like a fish:



All of the female volunteers I know were given combs as gifts, so I think it’s a pretty common practice, but one I’d never heard of. I asked someone why a comb was a traditional gift and she said, “Because it’s useful and beautiful.” Yes, they are both of these things! I find the wood makes my hair look more smooth than using a plastic comb, too.

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My Chinese friend Cassie gave me this neat little pale pink/gray thermos as a going away gift; she knows I took a liking to the Chinese custom of drinking hot water and tea, so this was a really thoughtful gift. It’s extremely lightweight, well-sized for your hand and the thermos lid has this neat screw-off compartment for holding dry tea, instant coffee or any kind of mixer. Ingenious! It’s made by Tayohya, but I couldn’t find any stores selling these in the U.S. online. Maybe in Chinatown I’ll come across one. I use it constantly, it’s very well-suited to being carried around.

The Writer’s Club

A few weeks ago, we joked that we should have a Chongqing PCV Writer’s Club, in which we’d write bad/cheesy romance pieces, then read them out loud to each other a la open mic beat poetry night. Did I mention it has been raining FOREVER in Chongqing? It’s making us all a little crazy.

So last week in our downtown Starbucks, the Writer’s Club* had their first meeting. (I should mention, Starbucks here are almost like libraries, with sectioned-off rooms, long tables with study lamps for laptops, super comfy couches and lounge chairs, and all the free wi-fi you can handle. You can basically hang out there all day and no one blinks an eye. Also, they make all their specialty coffee drinks in non-coffee versions, which is great. I wish they did this in the U.S. They do this because many Chinese don’t like the taste of coffee. So, a caramel frappuccino will have whole milk instead of coffee, along with the caramel flavorings etc. They also have more teas on the menu here.) We each spent about an hour hunched over notebooks, then read our pieces out loud. Let me tell you, I don’t know when I have laughed so hard in all the time I’ve been in China.

Some were beautifully poetic, some were limericks that an elementary school kid would love to recite, some were hilarious narrative pieces. But the best part to me? Reading them aloud in a Chinese Starbucks, counting on the fact no one nearby spoke fluent-enough English to know what the heck we were talking about.

Language geek sidenote: it’s eye-opening the cultural knowledge it takes to write and understand parody. If any Chinese English speakers HAD been listening, it’s unlikely they would have found it 1/10 as amusing as we did.

I was quite impressed with the writing skills of my fellow PCVers. Can’t wait for our next meeting! I have half a mind to gather and self-publish our pieces as a keepsake for us to take home. For the record, I did a Twilight/Ninja Assassin-themed parody I couldn’t stop laughing through as I read out loud. I won't share the whole thing here, but I will say that one of the lines was, "Need an umbrella, baby? Or do you want more Rain?" ('Rain' of course being the cute Korean star of Ninja Assassin. Now you know why I couldn't stop laughing!)

And yes, when you’re a poor American living in China, this is the sort of thing you find very entertaining. I know you all envy my glamorous life!

*We actually gave it another name, but this is a public blog, so I’m calling it this publicly.

A Few Local Products I Love

So, the toe thongs reminded me of other new-to-me products I have used here and really liked. (And I forgot to explain something about the toe thongs: people here rarely go sockless, so the toe thongs are a way to wear socks even if you are wearing slingbacks/pumps, etc. I get comments from my Chinese tutor all the time about my habit of not wearing socks, she thinks it isn't healthy.)

Sweetened condensed milk in a tube, not a can. It's so convenient! Made by Nestle, and comes in flavors like strawberry and chocolate. The regular flavor is really good in hot drinks. A little goes a long way.

Plug-in insect repellent. It's made by Raid. It's like a Glade Plug-In, but instead of fragrance it releases unscented mosquito repellent. Most windows here don't seal shut, so mosquitoes get in quite easily. The little jar of liquid is replaceable; they cost about $1.00 and last about a month. If the voltage weren't wrong, I'd bring a supply back to the U.S. You can also buy repellent coils that burn like incense, but I don't like those as much because they have a strong smell. But the coils are used under tables at outdoor bars and patios to keep bugs away, and I really appreciate them there!

Dry, loose tea. The tea here is excellent. I drink mostly Jasmine and Oolong, and they taste so much better than the bagged tea I used to drink in the States. I will have to look for Chinese tea when I return. (And I'm sure I will experience sticker shock!)

My 1-minute electric tea kettle. I'm definitely buying one of these when I get back to the U.S. (That other machine is a water distiller. The Peace Corps provides them for drinking/cooking water. You can buy bottled water here that is germ free, but the metals aren't necessarily removed. The metals content in the water here is higher than what the PC considers to be safe, so they give us these distillers. I distill about 2 gallons of water a day. It takes about 4 hours for each gallon. Basically I am running a distillery in my house, but for water!)

Coffee and Chocolate = Bliss

If they sell 'coffee and chocolate chip' Chips Ahoy cookies where you live, you should buy some and eat them right away. You're welcome.