Spotted the Thief

I saw the thief the other day. He was hanging out at the entrance of the market, and I thought to myself, "I think that is the thief." So I decided to watch him. He was about 10 feet away, and I saw him spot a woman, and then he did this pregnant lady pose near the lady (with his hands on his hips and his hips were out), and he was looking down into the lady's open purse. He then leaned over to get a closer look into the purse.

At this moment, I thought, "what should I do? Should I scream? Should I run over?" Fortunately, the thief ended up walking away. The lady never even noticed.

I keep thinking back at that moment and wondering if I would have been brave enough to be the hero, and say something. I heard a story the other day on this foreigner who chased down some bike thieves for an unknown bike owner. This guy was a hero; I am not sure what I would have done. What would you have done?

Nice to meet you, thief

Last week, I went to see my butcher friend. When I got there, I said hello to her and her husband. There was a guy in front of her store, and he started asking my where I was from. I thought, "he is just a customer who is curious." So I told him that I was an American.

At this time, the butcher started saying to me, "come to my house, come to my house."

I said, "I can't come right now." But she kept asking me to come to her house and tried to get me to stand behind the counter. Eventually she stood between me and the man. At this time the man walked away.

The butcher turns to me and says, he is a thief: "Didn't you notice how I didn't acknowledge him and kept asking you to come to my house?" Oh! I didn't notice. I think I needed better clues than those.

At this time, I became really scared. I don't think I ever had a conversation with a professional thief. The butcher kept wanting me to stop talking to the thief because now he will recognize me as a target. I guess I am able to recognize him now, but I know if he was to steal from me, he could probably do it really quickly. This thief looked like a regular guy in his 40's (although the butcher thinks he is in the 30's). He is really skinny and wears regular looking clothes. There are no signs that he is a thief.

By the way, don't be scared that there are more pickpockets here just because I have blogged twice about thieves. Alvin and I are glad to report that we have not been pick-pocketed in our time here.

Catch the thief!

A couple weeks ago I was sitting at my butcher friend's store, and all of a sudden a 20 year old man runs down the produce lane and then turns the corner in front of me and runs by a line of outside pool tables. Close behind him, a 30 year old woman was running too. When she passes me, she screams, "thief, thief, catch the thief." The thief runs past the pool tables. The woman continues screaming, and so a young college student who was holding a pool stick, starts running after the thief. By this time, the whole market came to the butcher's shop just to get a better view of what was happening. The thief, the pool stick man, and the woman turned another corner and were out of view. About five minutes later, the pool stick man comes back and starts playing. He seems pretty smug, like he caught the thief. Five minutes after that, the woman returns with her purse. She then approaches kid, and thanks him, and tries to give him money.

My adrenaline was really pumping at that time, and I was shocked to have witnessed such an event.

The funny part is that after the event, I told my husband and another friend, I believe he calls himself the Captain, and they both separately proclaimed that this would be a good business venture: to have one person pretend to be the thief, and the other be the hero, and then get rewarded. How shady!

Edamumus

Thanks to my friend EChen who sent me tahini and a great hummus recipe, I have been hooked on hummus. I also found this recipe for edamame hummus from food network, which Alvin and I like to call edamumus. It worked really well with the lamb kebabs that I made.
Edamumus Recipe



I ended up adding a pinch more of salt and not too much lemon the second time I made it.

Winter is Coming

It is official: Two weeks ago, I unpacked all my winter clothes, and on October 10, 2010, I put on my long underwear.

Picture-a-thon: Low Tide Fresh Scented Laundry

Very few people in this city have clothes dryers - so all clothes are hung up to try. Most apartment units are designed with a section of the home (called the yang2 tai2 阳台) set aside for hanging up and drying clothes. On every street, you're sure to see clotheslines here or there with clothes hanging up to dry in the daytime.

This, however, was an unusual sight. A line of clothes... followed by... 3 fish (with flies buzzing around). Some people prefer Febreze. Others... like their shirts to smell like dead fish.

My first Chinese painting

For the last two months I have been taking a Chinese art class with a Chinese art teacher at a vocational school. This is my first painting. If you look closely, the lines are not that good, but overall it was a fun learning time. In class, I have already started the next painting, and I already see myself improving.

Picture-a-thon: Muslim Cultural Center

During the mid-Autumn festival I also went to visit a Muslim Cultural Center near our house. It was very informative, and very huge.

Picture-a-thon: "It's Better"

Picture-a-thon: Movie Studios

There is a movie studio (kind of like Universal Studios, kind of) near our house, and over mid-Autumn festival I went to check it out with some friends.

Here is the entrance to the studio. It says: "Under whatever harsh conditions Chinese people could create the wonder that convinces the whole world."


Inside are a couple of side attractions, like a mock wedding. The bride throws a ball down from the balcony to a guy in the audience, and then the guy has to put on the groom costume and pretend to get married.

Picture-a-thon: Massage in the Park

Once in awhile, in areas of high concentrations of people, you will see groups of people in white lab coats. If this was in the States, you might think...

scientists investigating a hazmat incident

doctors attending a nearby conference

actors shooting a pharmaceutical ad

But here, everybody knows who these people are. They're Chinese massage therapists that set up chairs and give 15 minute massages to anybody who wants one. Cheap too... probably something like USD $2. Not a bad way to top off your afternoon walk in the park.

Picture-a-thon: Mickee Mouse

We went out walking/shopping in the city center yesterday, the weekend of the National Holiday. Tons of people. This weekend is probably the 2nd biggest shopping weekend of the year.

And so, of course, to please the crowds, Mickee Mouse came and paid a visit! We see Mickee Mouse quite a bit actually - on bedsheets, backpacks, clothes, advertisements... and once in awhile, we get to see Mickee in person!

I'm not cartoon artist, but I can that there's something about Mickee that is not authentic. Something about the proportions of his facial features. He looks more like a cross between Mighty Mouse and the Mickey Mouse from the 1930's. There's something about that's off.

I think the kids can tell. We saw two kids run to their parent's arms, screaming in utter fear, as Mickee approached. I think I heard one of the kids sobbing in Chinese, "Mom, he's not real! He's clearly a mediocre Chinese knock-off of a well-known international brand!" Scarred for life.

We snapped a picture and ran away too.

Picture-a-thon: Taipei

In July, we were able to visit our family in Taipei. It was a great time with family, was able to go to a couple museums and hike in the mountains, and had some great food.