Feb 15th - Happy ValenChine's Day

Yesterday was Valentine's Day here in China - that's right, a day ahead of the rest of the world. I think that's so we can get a good crack at all the good chocolates over here, then whatever crap doesn't get bought, we ship over to Canada. That's right, the Chinese actually do celebrate this, the pinnacle of the Hallmark Holidays - only it's celebrated a little differently over here. I've learned that it's not really acceptable for a couple to kiss in public. For some reason, public displays of affection get the same reaction as say, the bubonic plague in the rest of the world. Still, some Chinese couples can be seen walking hand in hand, with a big bouquet of roses in the girl's hand.

Since I am pretty much incapable of making purchases on my own, I couldn't buy my wife anything for Valentine's Day. She understood. We decided instead, to celebrate by having some "alone time" away from her parents, relatives, etc. Dinner and a movie sounded like a reasonable solution, since it's 20 below outside so skinny dipping was out of the question. We went up to the Mega-Plex theatre or whatever it's called, and asked the cashier if they had any movies with English subtitles, so I could watch.

I was standing back a bit, but I heard the cashier shouting "Mayo, mayo" - so I thought she was desperately needing some mayonaise for her ham sandwich. We must have caught her on her lunch break, which would make me angry too. When my blood sugar gets low, I can get a bit testy. But no, mayo roughly translates, means "It doesn't exist." - I'm sure she doesn't literally mean that Chinese movies with English subtitles don't exist, but that they don't have any. You never know, they might not have that technology here yet.

Afterall, they still use paper for everything. Cash only, no debit. You know how back in Canada you can sometimes avoid the big lineup at the theatre by using their self-serve debit machines? Well, not here in China. Every store, every service, is cash only. Even on Valentine's Day, you couldn't buy overpriced flowers for your loved ones, unless you had cash on you.

After the movie debacle, we went for lunch at Mr Lee's California Beef Noodle King. That's really the name. It kind of reminded me of KFC, only without the chicken, and bowls of noodles in beef broth instead. They actually have KFC here, but the Colonel looks slightly more Asian, I guess so the locals can identify more with the brand. Our lunch was pretty good, and the whole thing cost less than $4 CDN for both of us to eat.

We went out to the mall after that - my wife wanted to buy a few things. I tried on a couple of shirts, because I was politely told that my sweater had seen better days, and it seems that I am not a "Medium" over here. Like Russel Peters says, I am Shaq in China. I actually tried on a XL shirt that just barely fit! To all you low self-esteem dieting types back in North America: You definitely want to stay away from China if your self esteem depends on what size clothes you can squeeze yourself into.

After I bought some new duds, we walked around in the "Ice City" for a while - there is one street that is completely shut down to cars & busses. Down the middle of the street there are these big ice sculptures shaped like various things: rats (it's the year of the rat), olympic athletes, and I'm pretty sure one was a potato. Either that or the sculptor messed up.

Our Valentine's Day was pretty low key, but that's just the way I like it. We ended off by signing our names on a giant paper heart at one end of Center Street (that's the one with the sculptures). Ours were the only names written in English. The girl taking our picture wanted to say Happy Valentine's Day to me, but she wasn't sure how to say it in English. I wonder if they even know the story of St Valentine, or if it's just a national day to appreciate that special someone. Not in public though.. that's strictly forbidden.