"As You Like (it?)," Slippery Shoes, & more Toilet Adventures, aka Peeing into a Hole

Last night after class I went with some fellow students to dinner in downtown Kunming.  I can't believe how much of this incredible city I have yet to see, but the walk over to the restaurant surely whet my appetite in more ways than one.  It will be Harvey's (guy from Boston who helped me with plug conversion on my first day) last day here on Wednesday so he invited everyone out.

The walk over proved especially challenging for me, as earlier that day a torrential thunder-and-lightening storm had hit the streets of Kunming out of thin air.  By the time we were outside though the rain had ceased and the temperature was hot, so I stayed in my summery dress and rubber flip flops....Bad call.  It turns out that the streets of Kunming are silky smoooooth!  The walking paths are made up of marble-like stones, and either they come perfectly shiny and chiseled or they sand them down like crazy.  Whatever the case, I kept slipping on them all over the place from the wet left over from the rain.  It was kind of comedic actually...once you ignore the possible danger of my slipping and breaking my tail bone in the middle of the street in a foreign country.  Funny, balancing on level surfaces was never something I've had to worry about.  I'm learning so much here!

In the seldom moments where I wasn't as focused on precisely distributing my weight evenly so as not to break my neck, I chatted with another really awesome guy who just got here yesterday and is staying for six weeks.  His name is Pete and he's from England.  He just graduated college and is about to start a masters at Oxford University in history.  Even so, he only just turned 21 because in England they only have three years of college, not four.  We talked a lot about accents, and he told me feels like he can tell what kind of person an American is based on their accent--lazy, mean, nice, dumb, etc.  He said he finds most American accents attractive in the same way us US-born fawn over British ones.  Wow, that's a first!

Restaurant where we ate in Kunming

When we finally arrived at the restaurant, the teacher from the school who was accompanying us on our trip helped us order all kinds of dishes foreign to my taste buds.  Chinese food here isn't at all the same as in America.  The dishes are all spiced differently and I have yet to see or taste soy sauce in any dish.  After taking our order, the waitress promptly doled out wine glasses filled to the brim with beer, which she kept refilling almost obsessively throughout the meal--Try as I did, I don't think my glass ever got the chance to be empty.

After dinner the party walked over to a really tiny bar called "As you Like," named for the famous Shakespeare play, of course! (...waaait whaaaat?  That can't be right.  Call me crazy but I'm using my Drama Major card to call them out on this one.  For anyone still confused, Shakespeare's play is called As you Like it.)  Hmm It seems that lots of businesses here steal names and things from other cultures, but they're always a little off.  Maybe something gets lost in translation, but it baffles me that someone would name their business without even checking to see if the name actually connotates what they think it does.  We walked to get there for about 15 minutes until we reached a high-walled alleyway, with two angry dogs yapping away at us.

The sign outside the "bar"

First things first, I heard Harvey (a regular at "As you Like") tell us all to go around the corner and give the man at the window 3 yuan (that's like 45 cents).  I walked with the other guys, not quite knowing why.  I assumed that we were going to go pay a cover charge or something like that to get into the bar.  Nope!  Turns out he had directed us to the bathroom.  Didn't especially have to go before but figured I might as well check off the public-restroom-experience sooner than later.  After paying to use it, I walked in to find that the "toilet" was more akin to a hole in the ground that you squat over.  And toilet paper?? Non-existent in these parts....Oh well, will be better prepared next time around.

Chinese Toilet

After my fun-filled toilet adventure I finally stepped into the bar.  Or shall I say "bar?"  The thing basically looked like a converted, albeit very nice, living room.  The nine of us filled up the entire room.  The place is run by two sisters, and it shuts down at 11pm.  My guess for this is that the girls sleep in the loft above the place at night.  After my initial surprise, I settled in on a small round stool around a coffee table (no joke,  Someone's living room!) and we all took drinks from a big refrigerator sitting in the corner.  Some people bought homemade ice cream that the chef (wait, chef?  In a bar?  Yes, and he also made homemade bread) had just finished whipping up before we arrived.

We stayed there for a while just hanging out and getting to know each other.  I connected with Pete the most, so I'm really glad he'll be here during the entire time I am.  I was basically the only girl there in the middle of all these guys, but there was no aspect of bro-i-ness so it's pretty easy hanging out with them. Later I asked Harvey if this was a typical bar in Kunming, and he said no, definitely not.  Most of them are more like the ones we are used to in the states, complete with dancing, poorly lit rooms, and open past a middle schooler's bed-time.

Outside As You Like

We took a cab home around 11:30, which I was especially down for considering the whole slippery-ground ordeal, combined with my  uncoordinated state.

I still can't get over how cheap everything is here.  Damage from my night: 55 yuan for dinner/drinks ($8), 6 yuan to pee (twice) (90 cents), 20 yuan for my bar tab ($2.98), and 15 yuan split 5 ways for the taxi ride home (45 cents).  All in all that's only $12.33 for a great evening!