Gifts, and A Diverted Shopping Trip

Monday, February 8, 2010

We have been wracking our brains for appropriate gifts for Sheri’s parents. In addition to the wonderful hospitality they’ve provided for us, it’s very likely we’ll be invited to their home for Chinese New Year.

My searches online for appropriate gifts have told me more about what not to give (clocks, anything in groups of four, anything wrapped in white, which signifies death) than what makes a good present.

The one good suggestion, giving something made in your own country, is a cruel joke for shoppers back home and almost ludicrous here.

Today, though, I hit a site that tells what to give your host for Chinese New Year! Anything to eat or drink is good. Thank heavens. We may actually be able to handle this.

Bernie’s decided we’ll go to Walmart in Dalian, not the Trust Mart that’s owned by Walmart here in Kaifaqu. We need to replace the broken closet rod in our room. And who knows, we might even find a suitable gift for the Zhous.

We need Autumn for this, though, for two reasons: it’s hard to get a cab into Dalian since the driver may not be able to pick up a return fare, and, if we buy more than two bags full or something bulky, we couldn’t carry it on public transport.

Autumn agrees to pick us up at 3:00. On the phone we’d gotten as far as agreeing to take us to Dalian, but hadn’t proceeded to exactly where we wanted to go.

In the car we tell Autumn that we want to go to Walmart. (Hearing her say Walmart is a sweet little experience all its own.) Yes, we know there are three, maybe four, Walmarts in Dalian. The closest one will be fine.

Autumn calls someone on the phone to ask which is the closest and we begin driving in that direction.

After driving for ten minutes or so, Autumn asks why we want to go to Walmart. Why do we not go to Metro? The Canadian teachers –all kinds of people-go to Metro. They have nice things, nicer than Walmart. Walmart has cheap Chinese goods (she said it – I didn’t). Metro has things from other countries.

Our decision is based on two things: If Autumn is not familiar with the location of a Walmart, we might be in a situation where we will make her lose face, and that would be terribly wrong; also if Metro has goods imported from other countries we might be able to get an American import there as a gift.

Metro is next to Ikea. I guess we could stop there if we were homesick for West Chester.

Metro is a supercenter-type store, with groceries and appliances and electronics. Fortunately, they stock closet rods, the first thing on our list. I’m able to buy European-produced milk which I’ve been hoping to find if I can’t get it from the U.S. We get salmon, chicken and steaks for meals this week. There’s a good selection of cereal here and I buy boxes to replace what was at the apartment when we came. When I say it’s a good selection, that means a good selection for any Chinese store, not for Kroger back home. There may be fifteen kinds of cereal here, not the dozens and dozens of choices we have in any supermarket in the U.S. The Chinese just don’t eat cereal for breakfast.

Mid-way through our shopping, trip, though, we don’t have gifts for our friends. We’d thought about California wine and good chocolate, but we haven’t found either, though we know we can get good chocolate at the stores in Kaifaqu.

Another tour around the wine section and this time, we spot something that is thoroughly American: Jack Daniels. Tennessee whiskey from a hollow in the Appalachian Mountains looks right to us hillbillies.

I’ve picked up a box of brownie mix. That will be something homemade (well, me and Betty Crocker) to which is a good thing, at least in America. The chocolate will be easy to get –young women are standing around the Dove and other manufacturers’ displays in the stores in Kaifau passing out samples.

This is the first place we’ve seen paper towels of any kind. These are the z-fold kind, but that’s better than having to wipe the floor with a dish towel or clean a mirror or glass tabletop with a wad of toilet paper.

We pick up paper plates and bowls as well. We like these for snacks and lunch.
Autumn meets us at the checkout. She’s amazed, apparently, at how much stuff we bought (not a lot by checkout standards in the U.S.) but she’s totally blown away by our paper goods. She picks up the package of bowls, asks Bernie what they are, and returns it to the cart. Clearly this is not a common purchase in her experience. Autumn is noticeably affluent, so it’s not a question of price.

As westerners, we do use a lot of paper goods and we know we need to cut back on our consumption.

Still, there’s some irony in getting reminded here.