Crowded Streets

Last week I went over to our personal tailor's dress shop to ask them to make me some khaki pants. These women are awesome. And they are surrounded by bolts and bolts of beautiful Chinese silk. It's incredible. They've made several things for us, including a few Christmas presents sent back home to family, but this was the first time they have made anything specifically for me. Their faces lit up today when I walked in the store because last time I told them that when I came again I'd bring my daughter. Much to their disappointment though, I left Eden at home today since the temperature has yet to rise above freezing for the past few days.

Pants in hand, I made my way back to our apartment on foot...sacrificing ever having feeling in my fingers again so that I could maneuver the camera well enough to satisfy you, our reader's, desire for more pictures of Silk City.

So here it is readers. A few views of Mei Shi Jie...the street that has (almost) everything.

Sorry. I know that's a little blurry. But I thought she was cute in her blue hat and yellow gloves.

I approached the sweet lady in the purple scarf selling these "mini-sweet-oranges" and discovered a secret to photo taking in China: Don't ask, just do it. I asked her if I could take her picture and she replied, "No no no! I'm not good to look at, but these oranges are. Take a picture of the oranges."
So I reluctantly took a picture of the oranges. But just know, the lady was far more beautiful than the oranges.

Between our home and Mei Shi Jie is one of the craziest (among many) intersections in our city. It's not Number One on the Crazy Intersection Scale (that's gotta exist) by any means, but it's pretty chaotic as far as we're concerned. You can just tell there's no order to it at all. Bikes, pedestrians, cars, motorcycles...all just do what they please. But, well, that's normal for intersections in China.