Out and About

Settling In

I and the new teacher in the other university program were taken on a tour of the local area by the welcoming spouse of the new teacher’s colleague. Were were shown a place that serves delicious meat-filled buns, where the local greengrocer was, the pizza joint, a hot pot supply shop, a place specialising in milk, and the better mart out of a mixed bunch. We also went on a chilly 15 minute walk to the wet market which was down some narrow road and indoors. It was sprawling and filled mainly with fruit and vegetable stands plus a few chicken, pork, nuts/grains/seeds stands and a nice place at the back stocking beef. Big cuts of beef were hanging from hooks and he had other slabs on the counter. An overhead display showed a picture of a cow segmented into various types of steaks. I pointed to one of the slabs, asked for half, then we ambled back.

A Goose Chase Or Two

In the opposite direction, along a far more built-up shopping street, that oddly looked much like streets in Da Nang, Vietnam, with about the same number of hairdressers, foot massage places and beauty salon was meant to be the closest local proper supermarket but hidden away inside a building down an escalator. I’d ventured out there on the Tuesday night with the other new teacher, and tried to find it but to no avail. The area was teeming and noisy with music and loudspeakers, scooters everywhere. I did find a supermarket but not the highly recommended basement one. On Wednesday, I was introduced to another expat teacher who has lived here for many years and is a wealth of local knowledge, culture and history (and more importantly knew where to buy good coffee). She recommended a bar downtown, up some little hill. I finally bit the bullet and summoned my first DiDi taxi ride (China’s Uber), stupidly during peak hour traffic. We eventually arrived somewhere, with the driver stopping at the top of a narrow street that wound around Hubu Hill (that has some ancient horse training platform on its crest. Brilliant neon views of a small cityscape greeted me, with one cylindrical tower changing colour and showing videos. (Turns out that was Suning Plaza in the downtown area, a few hundred metres away, and the largest mall in Xuzhou).
 
As nice as all this was, it was bitterly cold and I couldn’t find the bar. I kept walking up and down and opened the door of a place where the We Chat maps had pinpointed the location of the bar. I startled an elderly couple who were seated eating dinner, but I asked them in Chinese where the bar was and was met with a point in some unknown undeterminable direction. However, I just couldn’t find it and was almost going to give up. With much to and fro, and bone-chilling coldness settling in, I finally discovered that I had been dropped off at the correct place (next door to the couple eating), but the bar was unusually opening later than normal and the entrance wasn’t lit up. Of course, had I looked up more, I might have made out the barely discernible unlit sign for the bar in the darkness but it was very easy to miss. I went on a little touristy walk for 15 minutes down a flight of steps, along what I found out was the old restored part of town. Everything was closed but the location made for nice photos.

A Happy Place

Despite being only 5 degrees, hypothermia was settling in, and luckily the bar had just opened when I walked in. I was greeted by the owner, a local who spoke fluent English and taught it by day. The bar was small, with soft lighting illuminating the dark red colour scheme. Outside was a large patio looking out over the nice view. I sat at the bar, enjoying a couple of small servings of fried goodness, but trying to work out exactly what the white sauce accompanying the fries was. The owner was busy conducting a lesson in the corner, then some more locals came in, a guy and two ladies. The guy owns a restaurant nearby and also works at the bar. Suddenly I was asked to join them all, and I sat there, not really understanding what was being said, unless spoken to me in English, but still felt cozy and warm. Indoor smoking is still permitted here and it seemed I was the only one who didn’t partake in such activities. It definitely gave my Melbourne lungs quite the workout. All in all, I had a good time, made some new contacts, and enjoyed a glass of wine on the house.

craft beer grandma

what $A9 can buy!