Day 23: A Haircut Day

Today, finally found the time to go and get a haircut. Liangxun and I went to 建设商场, the shopping center that housed the supermarket and on the students' recommendations, went to a salon called 发源地. Apparently this is a very well-known franchise that has outlets nationwide, so we felt quite at ease because we are assured that this place has some standard at the very least.

The process was somewhat efficient, first a junior staff would bring you to an area where they will wash your hair, then they will enquire if you have any stylist in mind. If you do you will be asked to wait until the stylist is available, if not they will find whichever stylist that happened to be free to do your hair. The stylist (each assigned numbers) would then come and ask what styles you are looking for.

So I told my stylist that I had no preferences, but was looking for something like this:

My stylist took a brief glance and said sure, but because my face is longer (and bigger) he would just trim my hair at the sides. And here is my new look:

Not much difference right? But still looks good, although I must really learn to style it.And here is Liangxun and Me right after we finish cutting. Check out his extreme makeover!

Anyway around 5pm, Joanna, Weilin and I set off for 电脑大世界at 广埠屯 which is some 23 bus-stops away, so we decided to take a taxi there.

Along the way, the driver related to me about how he and his friends used to walk from some hill to the East Lake and play, and they could even buy buns or a whole kettle of tea for just a few cents, but now the East Lake is so polluted and smelly and everything is so expensive. He also pointed out to me the campus of the Wuhan University where he and his bride will get married next year. He also told me how he met his wife-to-be, which was actually arranged and matchmake-d by his parents and grandparents. Soon, we reached our destination.

BUT IT WAS CLOSED! Wasted trip. So decided to take short walk around this new area before going to 汉江路 to shop, otherwise we would have really wasted the night.

We ate some food from some food stalls, such as this stall that sold all sorts of fried chicken and other meats, but nothing exotic.
We also couldn't this small bakery that had a strong banana smell wafting from its oven, so we tried its banana cake and orange cake. Very nice indeed.

Reflection:

Today, in a bid to be adventurous, the three of us set off on our own armed simply with knowledge of where we are going and what the place is called. Unfortunately that simply isn't enough, because we departed too late, and the journey got delayed somewhat by heavy traffic, so we ended up making a wasted trip. However every cloud has its silver lining, because we got to explore a new area and new food and other stuff, such as jaywalking across a 4-lane road with heavy traffic. In short, because we didn't plan and do enough research, we ended up going to the IT mall just as it was closing, but we also got the chance to see more of this huge, huge city.