Today I was extremely proud of myself for accomplishing some major things that I’ve needed to do since I got here: Getting a multi-trip deducting balance metro card, taking passport pictures at a little automated booth in the metro station for all the administrative things I need to take care of and getting school supplies (see previous post here)!!!

I felt like I deserved something so I went into a Watson’s on West Nanjing Road (a little personal care and beauty store that is everywhere here) and picked up these little items.

1. Cotton Swabs. These are the same everywhere. Moving on.
2. Biore Pore Pack Whitehead Removing Strips. Well these are just GENIUS. GENIUS I tell you. So everyone is familiar with the white blackhead removing strips Biore makes. And everyone who has used them has done the post-use move where you stare at your blackheads and then hold the strip at an angle to see your whiteheads (one of those gross secret single behaviours that women do I guess…) Some genius decided that if we make BLACK strips then people can easily see WHITEheads!! I thought it was so clever I had to try it. Now I have never seen these before so I am assuming they are geared towards the Asian market, but if you’ve seen these in other places please let me know. Can’t wait to try them.

3. Watson’s Mini Wet Wipes. I cannot begin to describe to you the depth and breadth of the tissue/ wet wipe assortment in China. They have all types and all varieties. Wipes are king. I decided to get into the area from the shallow end and purchased some alcohol free wet wipes in “fruity” and “blossom” scents for daily use.

4. Slippeycom facial hair trimmery things. According to the helpful diagrams on this packaging (the only things I understand) these are great for eyebrow and mustache areas. I won’t specify which of these areas I need them for but suffice to say I can’t find the product I usually use (Nair depilatory cream for face) and so this seems to be the next best thing and kind of necessary at this point because “wolf” is never a sexy look for a woman. WHILE I’m on the topic I would love to know how Chinese women manage their hair removal. I have only seen a lonely pack of Venus replacement heads and no depilatory cream since I’ve been here. I don’t want to make assumptions that they aren’t sold , because I truly haven’t been looking very hard, but I feel like hair removal is something that dominates part of my grooming life but clearly it’s not a big part of the market here…I will keep resarching…

Oh and finally, this has nothing to do with beauty, but it’s my blog and I get to pick what goes up here so BLEH.

The high point of my week so far was THIS:

I turned a corner on West Nanjing Lu and walked BAM! Into a yarn and knitting store where I promptly bought a pair of good quality knitting needles and 5 skeins of cute yarn for 185 RMB (about 30 USD. In the US this same purchase might have cost me $53 or more). I love to knit. I don’t often finish things but I’m an extremely anxious person and the repetitive movements and dedicated focus that knitting requires helps mellow me out. I haven’t done it in a long time as the yarn I like can be expensive and it is quite a useless hobby in Trinidad where you can’t knit much that you can use there (bikinis is about it. And a knit bikini is the world’s least practical item EVER).

So what I am about to say is going to sound very cheesy. Prepare yourself. But for people who knit, it’s like a community. I got to work right away attempting a pattern I saw at the knitting store that I had worked out in my head (which is actually kind of a big deal cause knitting patterns takes MATH). An hour later I ran back to the store to show the older lady who seemed to run tings there my progress. She told me I was going well but that I should be doing 4 rows at a certain point instead of 2.

She spoke no English and I speak no Chinese.

It’s so wonderful that you can fly all the way around the world and feel like no one understands you and find that you speak the same language as an old Chinese lady in a knitting store: the language of stitch lol.

Anyway this is the progress I’ve made on my scarf. Can’t wait to finish it because the next idea I have in my head is to rip off a scarf  now sold out on Nastygal for $68.00!!