Retail Therapy

We received word that the lighting situation in our future apartments resembles that of a prison with single hanging bulbs. We also received word that despite the fact that we’ll have access to four Wal-Marts, it is impossible to find any source of lighting larger than a desk lamp [Wal-Mart takes on a whole new role in China; stay tuned for a blog about Wal-Mart adventures].

Some members of Team Harbin and a newfound friend, Jeremiah, took a day trip to the other side of Beijing. Some time walking, and 2 bus rides {and our first double-decker bus!} we were graced with the looming presence and glory of perhaps the greatest thing Sweden has ever contributed to the world—IKEA. Now, Rochester (or Harrisburg for that matter) has not been deemed important enough for IKEA to share with consumers. Most of these stores are only found in larger metroplolises...of which Rochester (and Harrisburg) are not. However, Beijing is home to the second largest IKEA in the world (the largest of which being in the motherland of Sweden).

Your eyes do not deceive you, that IS a fork.

The journey itself was tiring enough, taking two hours to cross the city. Refueling was definitely necessary, and this massive IKEA happened to come fully equipped with a café and restaurant. Cuisine included salmon wraps, kung pao chicken, cinnamon rolls, and even spaghetti and meat sauce (which to my American taste buds looked exceedingly tempting). However, the dish that I {and everyone else} chose to get came prepared with a golden ticket…mashed potatoes. Let’s talk about a momma’s kitchen comfort food. My taste buds were exceedingly happy.

The best part of the day was something that couldn’t be captured in a picture. The 3^rd floor of Beijing’s IKEA is purposely set up as a showroom, glimpses into what could be. Its often been said that dating Chinese couples will go to IKEA for a date and ‘play house’ in the show rooms. The 3^rd floor also becomes rather busy during the daily lunch hour where everyday citizens will “test out” the beds and take naps {truly, the Chinese have a gift at being able to sleep anywhere}. Upon making our way through the floor in search of our lamps we passed a showroom of a child’s bedroom. Of course it looked as though it popped out of a magazine but there was something not quite the norm.  There, in the back of the room, tucked in the bed was a little girl, dressed in her pajamas reading a book to her grandmother who sat beside in a rocking chair. It was so cute!

We meandered our way to the lamps with aisle after aisle of cool and fashionable options, designs, and prices. I mean it! The things that we were able to find were the equivalent of $10 US dollars for awesome lamps! We eventually ended up with a cart like this…

Lauren showing love to the lamps.

After paying for our products we took them over to the home delivery center which was another journey in and of itself. Newsflash: We don’t really speak Chinese and we needed to ship these belongings hundreds of miles north: a great time to have a language barrier. The lamps were all put in a huge box—I’m talking a box that kids can crawl through and play ‘tunnel’—a box that I and a friend could fit in and ‘chill’ if we so desired. We don't really know if we properly communicated our address, or put down all the necessary information the sales representative was asking for, but we do know that it cost us only 375 kui [$62.50] to ship. Here’s hoping [and Lifting Up] that our box of lamps will actually make it to Harbin.

Team Harbin all dolled up and blurry-eyed after our Commissioning Service

We will be departing Beijing bright and early Monday morning (I haven’t seen 5am in awhile) on a day train to our new city. Our new home. We don’t know what things are going to look like, or when we’ll have internet, but rest assured—whether or not our IKEA box ever makes it to Heilongjiang East College—we’ll have Light with us no matter what.