homeless

Actually there’s not much to say about the second-hand market. Just that it’s not far from the supreme master’s restaurant and that it’s dusty. There’s pictures, so I thought I should address it. Hah. The supreme master Ching Hai has a world-wide network of followers who promote chaste love and vegetarianism. One of her ‘love shacks’ or whatever they’re called (ah, yes, let me point out that one cannot miss the signs all over the hall which read ‘love shack’ ‘go veggie’ ‘love green’ etc.), is in Kunming. Women work there making vegetarian food which is disturbingly similar to fatty meat in flavor. The “vegetarian chicken curry” tasted so much like fat I couldn’t eat it, I am NOT vegetarian. The 饺子 (dumplings) were good, but the food was definitely NOT why one would go there. A tv screen constantly set on suprememasterTV attracts commands everyone’s attention (and there aren’t many people). The supreme master is a middle aged Asian woman who is in telepathic contact with Martians and part of whose face seems to be recovering from a paralysis. I recommend that you go see her website or, even better, the Wikipedia page. It IS worth it. Just to make it clear we’re not talking about raelians (someone mistook the restaurant for a raelian joint, but NO) from my understanding of it she’s only in contact with Martians, we’re not actually from outer space. But don’t take my word for it, I only ate there once (my new room-mate L. on the other hand is quite a fan for reasons that escape my understanding…)(I think the reasons may have to do with the idea that he’s funding a Martian organization)(which is an incorrect belief). ANYWAY, I was talking about the amazing tv station, where conferences and infomercials are subtitled in 30 languages. This makes it VERY hard to follow anything. Yet, I did understand that the talk aired at the time had taken place in Mexico, or at least I assumed so since the Governor (or whatever his title was) of Veracruz was attending and even spoke himself.

But enough about the supreme master (although apparently they deliver for free).

I will not get into the details about my personal experience with Chinese non-boyfriends. But it may just be that a chinese man may decide you're meant to be after randomly meeting you during a trip in the Nujiang valley and might declare his love to you after less than a week since meeting you and drunk text you regularly after that. It is particularly embarrassing when eventually you have to tell them to stop texting you since you have run out of money and do NOT want to deal with the drama. They might just buy 200 yuan in minutes on your phone. This might of course only happen if the Chinese man in question is quite wealthy and owns an SUV that is (literally) twice the size of your room. The SUV may or may not also be padded in leather and have tinted windows. After swallowing a fish bone at the third (completely innocent) dinner and having my hand held I decided it was time to clarify that I was not going to be his girlfriend. After days of despair he informed me that all he wanted was to be an older brother towards me. It may also be that he texts you with interesting chinese jokes that have to do with fish, cats and elephants...