It is kind of nice sometimes...

...living in China, that is. There are plenty of things in China that make me want to scream, break things, cuss, and pull my hair out. But there are also times when living in China beats living stateside. Like tonight, for example. As Chyloe was cooking dinner I took the 5 minute walk down to the market where I 1) got a pair of pants hemmed (5 rmb, 10 minutes). 2) As I was waiting on the pants I took Chyloe's watch to the watch guy to get fixed (2 rmb, 2 minutes). 3) Since I still had 8 minutes to spare I took my broken shoe to the shoe guy to get it stitched up (5 rmb, 10 minutes). 4) Since I could see that this was going to take a few minutes I went upstairs to pick up Chyloe's dry cleaning. By this time the shoe and the pants were done so I picked them up and headed home only to find, to my delight, the popcorn guy had set up shop just outside the gate so 5) I picked up some sugary warm popcorn (5 rmb, 2 miutes). So, in 25 minutes and costing only 17 rmb ($2.50) I was able to accomplish what would take an entire day back home. As I was walking back home and enjoying the cool autumn breeze, my warm popcorn, and the sounds of kids playing on the playground, I had to stop and encourage myself that living in China can be quite delightful at times.