(no subject)
The last time I was in China--four years ago, summer before freshman year-- I went and got my lion's mane tamed down to a manageable thin, silky, straight-permed style. This trip, again a summer before a freshman year, and again with an incredibly long, but not nearly as fluffy lion's mane, I made a trip to the salon with my mom. It was a weensy little place, a busride and a short walk away from my Grandma's apartment, but the AC was blasting and the prices were insanely low, so my mom and I settled down for cuts.
Now last time, I was rather pleased with my hairstyle; the endless hours of sitting still with a formula smelling like rotten eggs stewing in my hair was well worth it. This experience, and this hair, though, are definitely not worth the time or the 20 US dollars we spent.
After thoroughly washing (and commenting on) my long and thick hair, they started me off with an excruciatingly long cutting session; the stylist working on me was cutting and thinning out my hair while simultaneously talking to his sister on his cell phone (the entire time, I swear) and yelling at his employees to save my long locks which were now flying all over the place (which I guess was flattering, considering the girl sitting next to me was getting extensions). My hair was washed yet again, and after some blow-drying, the white goop was applied copiously to my head. It smelled awful. I then had to sit under one of those big heating sphere things you always see sixty year old women using in movies for a good twenty minutes. It was not pleasant; the smell got worse with the heat AND I started to sweat the stuff all over my face. Then more washing and drying. Then some flat-ironing. Then more goop. Then twenty minutes of "DON'T MOVE YOUR HEAD" while the goop "shaped my hair". Then more washing and drying. Then more flat-ironing. Then instructions telling me to basically not do anything with my hair for a good seventy two hours. That's three days of no ponytails, no buns, no pigtails, and no washing. That's right. No washing. Ugh.
And finally, five and a half hours later, half starved to death because it went through lunch, I come out looking like absolute crap. I have no hair. And my mom looks like a twenty year old boy. Yet another fabulous day in China.
My mom and I went to the internet cafe really early this morning to take care of some university bills. When we got there, we couldn't do anything about the bills because both our checkbooks (and thus, account numbers) were in America, and we didn't have enough money in our accounts anyway, so we had to wait for my dad to transfer money from savings to checkkings. Anyway, after buying a chemistry book online for about $200 and talking to Y about the weather, we left. On the way home, we stopped to look around a little convenience store I wandered around and found the snack food aisle, where there were a bunch of bags and wannabe-Pringles cans of Lays potato chips in a variety of different sizes and flavors/ Now these Lays flavors are not the same ones we find in Safeway, no no. While there were normal ones, like plain-salted and barbeque, and "cheese", which I guess is normal-ish, there were also ones adhering to and trying to impress the Chinese folk here in the Orient. There was "pork braised in brown sauce" flavor, and "spicy seafood" flavor, that came with a small McDonald's-barbeque-sauce like container of dipping sauce (for potato chips, yes). There was "Italian red meat" flavor, and "cherry tomato" flavor, and I, inspired by one of my last good restaurant meals in America before I came to this not-as-fun place, purchased a can of Lay's "Thai curry crab" flavor potato chips. They taste like a mild barbeque flavor with a hin of whatever was in that Thai soup. Mmm... .....ish.
Now last time, I was rather pleased with my hairstyle; the endless hours of sitting still with a formula smelling like rotten eggs stewing in my hair was well worth it. This experience, and this hair, though, are definitely not worth the time or the 20 US dollars we spent.
After thoroughly washing (and commenting on) my long and thick hair, they started me off with an excruciatingly long cutting session; the stylist working on me was cutting and thinning out my hair while simultaneously talking to his sister on his cell phone (the entire time, I swear) and yelling at his employees to save my long locks which were now flying all over the place (which I guess was flattering, considering the girl sitting next to me was getting extensions). My hair was washed yet again, and after some blow-drying, the white goop was applied copiously to my head. It smelled awful. I then had to sit under one of those big heating sphere things you always see sixty year old women using in movies for a good twenty minutes. It was not pleasant; the smell got worse with the heat AND I started to sweat the stuff all over my face. Then more washing and drying. Then some flat-ironing. Then more goop. Then twenty minutes of "DON'T MOVE YOUR HEAD" while the goop "shaped my hair". Then more washing and drying. Then more flat-ironing. Then instructions telling me to basically not do anything with my hair for a good seventy two hours. That's three days of no ponytails, no buns, no pigtails, and no washing. That's right. No washing. Ugh.
And finally, five and a half hours later, half starved to death because it went through lunch, I come out looking like absolute crap. I have no hair. And my mom looks like a twenty year old boy. Yet another fabulous day in China.
My mom and I went to the internet cafe really early this morning to take care of some university bills. When we got there, we couldn't do anything about the bills because both our checkbooks (and thus, account numbers) were in America, and we didn't have enough money in our accounts anyway, so we had to wait for my dad to transfer money from savings to checkkings. Anyway, after buying a chemistry book online for about $200 and talking to Y about the weather, we left. On the way home, we stopped to look around a little convenience store I wandered around and found the snack food aisle, where there were a bunch of bags and wannabe-Pringles cans of Lays potato chips in a variety of different sizes and flavors/ Now these Lays flavors are not the same ones we find in Safeway, no no. While there were normal ones, like plain-salted and barbeque, and "cheese", which I guess is normal-ish, there were also ones adhering to and trying to impress the Chinese folk here in the Orient. There was "pork braised in brown sauce" flavor, and "spicy seafood" flavor, that came with a small McDonald's-barbeque-sauce like container of dipping sauce (for potato chips, yes). There was "Italian red meat" flavor, and "cherry tomato" flavor, and I, inspired by one of my last good restaurant meals in America before I came to this not-as-fun place, purchased a can of Lay's "Thai curry crab" flavor potato chips. They taste like a mild barbeque flavor with a hin of whatever was in that Thai soup. Mmm... .....ish.