HOW TO STAND OUT
Be 9 inches taller and 50 lbs heavier than everyone in site (check)
Wear a cowboy hat (check)
Be six to eight shades paler than everyone else (check)
Constantly be looking at a phrase books (check)
Buy every plunger that the grocery store has in stock (check)
ON THE SEARCH FOR ART WORK
I hope to find a poster of a drawing while I am here. I think it is from the 11th century. It is a qigong drawing of the enter body in story. Each organ has a story. It is beautiful.
Some how I was foolish enough to think I would be able to find one in about 10 minutes.
Wrong.
It makes sense. It is kind like finding a picture of beautiful piece of Native American art work and walking up to the concierge at some Marriot some when and expecting them to know where to buy a copy.
When I first asked the concierge at our hotel (who speak little English) he told to me that he could not explain the drawing to me. Then (with the help of the phrase book and lots of pointing) he understood that I wanted to buy a copy. He was dumfounded at the request.
After some begging for help he gave me the name of a bookstore downtown.
My first cabbie drove in circles, and I knew it. He also stopped every other cab he saw and went and talked to the driver. After about ten minutes of this, he put me in another cab.
This is odd, only because I was heading to the center of town. It would be like a DC cab driver not knowing how to get to the White House or a NYC cabbie not knowing where Time Square was. Maybe he was afraid of driving over the bridge, or he did like me.
Cab driver number two got me down town. Since getting here we haven’t ventured from our little part of town. I had no idea how big the city is. Downtown is huge.
The bookstore was beautiful. 5 stories. I went to the culture section of the bookstore (because in the US anything qigong is culture or philosophy or religion). After some pointing at my photocopy and the phrase book (and the help of three people) I was sent to the fifth floor, science and medicine.
Of course.
So with the help of 5 staff people we ended up in the middle of the acupuncture books. Which is close, but not quite right. So more pointing and they realized that I was looking for a poster of what I had in my hand. Not a poster of the acu-points on the human body, but a copy of what I had.
No luck.
Do you know where I could find one?
No luck. None of them had any idea.
I keep being amazed at how willing everyone is to help out. I can’t image everyone trying so hard back in the states. Sure there are lots of helpful people at home, but here everyone is going out of their way. Trying their little English. Being embarrassed they don’t know much, but trying anyway.
I am in their country. I mispronounce the two things I know (hello and thank you) and they keep smiling and trying.
The cab back was an adventure in it self. We traded some paint with another cab in turn three.
Was the trip a failure?
No.
I didn’t get what I was looking for, but I did get what you would expect from trying to find an obscure artifact in a country you don’t speak the language and signs you can’t read.
An adventure.
We passed a traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital on the way home. I will ask there tomorrow.
If nothing else, another adventure.

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