Don't Wag at Iowa...

Yes, I saw this written on a shirt yesterday, while I was walking down the street. I didn't have a camera, so I thought I would go back today. (I wanted to get my hair cut anyway.) I went back to the shop, and the shirt wasn't in the window anymore, and they wanted 189 yuan for it, and they wouldn't let me pay them to take a picture.

I had a great day. I went to Coffee Language downtown. I had coconut black tea and pumpkin-seafood soup. I had my book The Changeling, which I haven't read for a long time. It was very relaxing. They were playing really great music too, Neil Sedaka, Skeeter Davis, Sinatra, and one that sounded like a Sinatra song, but it was in Chinese.

I got a massage and a haircut. The massage was as good as usual. The haircut was my first one in China, and can I just say: These guys are good...These guys are very good. At first, I had to wait because the place was busy. It looked busy enough that if I was in the States, I would have to wait for an hour. The great thing about businesses here, is that they always have a huge staff on hand. So, I waited for 15 min, watching some fish in a fountain and drinking complementary green tea. They took me to a basement area, where they had set up some bed-like implements over wash basins. There are mostly men down there, and their jobs are to wash people's hair. American salons could take a lesson from Chinese salons because in Chinese salons your head is not supported by your neck in the wash basin. There is a little rubber square attached, which supports the back of your head. They massage your head for 30 min, very thoroughly. At the end, they clean your ears. I mean they put a swab in your ear, and it was so creepy. I was like, "I don't even know you!"

After that, I went back upstairs for the main event. I said "yi li mi-one cm,' and he got it. I think he checked the work of my American salon, and just followed the basic idea of what I had done previously. Another observation is, I don't speak much Chinese, but the stylist actually only cut off 1 cm, as I asked. I don't think I have ever succeeded in getting such a small amount cut in the States, where I enjoy stylists who speak my language, and I can tell them the "I'm trying to grow my hair out" story.

-吴佩芙