Did I just get saluted?

After a long day of staring at my screen and fighting exhaustion-induced doubts, I left lab at 5:40 and went home. As it turns out, I’m supposed to pay rent for the whole year by tomorrow. I stopped by the front desk and they said I could turn in just 6 months at a time, but that still meant that I needed to go to the bank. Bank of America has cooperative agreement with China Construction Bank, so I looked that up on the map and memorized the cross streets. Suzhou and Haidian. Suzhou and Haidian. Suzhou and Haidian. Along the way, I stopped by a minimart on campus to pick up a few things.

Oh wait, I don’t speak or read or write or understand Chinese, remember? A healthy dose of (potentially inappropriate) gestures found me shampoo [$2.60/400 ml] and body wash [$3.08/400 ml] (try playing charades on the latter with an older lady. It looked like I was trying to seduce her) and toilet paper (I found that one without help) [$0.83/4 rolls]. Then I picked up some apples [$0.20 ea] and bananas [0.14]. These prices aren’t dirt cheap, but maybe I’m paying a convenience tax. Turns out that those baozi are still the best deal I’ve found yet. I also found a curious collection of thermoses sitting outside a small sink-filled building. Adjacent to it was what looked like a huge boiler. Perhaps you can stock up there on hot water?

Continuing off campus, I passed a Dairy Queen (but do they have frozen hot chocolates??), KFC, McDonald’s etc. It reminded me a lot of Bangkok: crowded, busy streets with food and trinket and odds/ends vendors. And Asians.

After an inconspicuous withdrawal, I returned to the South Gate where the guard suddenly stood at attention and saluted me. I’m no dignitary, but I suppose I was wearing a communist-red shirt. Well ni hao to you too, comrade!