a sketch story and a haircut

This evening, as I was walking to meet a friend for Chinese Muslim food for dinner, something pretty sketchy happened. I was walking down WenJin Lu, and a guy on a bicycle rode past me. Right as he passed, and as another bicycle guy was riding next to me, the first guy dropped a fat stack of 100 yuan bills. I was listening to music, and when I saw what it was that he dropped, I said "oh my god." to myself, in english. The bicycle guy next to me got off his bike and picked it up. I was pointing at guy #1, who was riding off and had turned right into a parking lot, towards the China Construction Bank. Guy #2 kind of hushed me, and told me that we would keep walking together, and when we got a little ways up, we would stop and look at it. And he also said something about seeing if it was real money, i.e. not counterfeit. So I was kinda shocked, but I kept walking and he got off his bike and was walking alongside me. Maybe a couple minutes later, guy #1 rides up to us and says a bunch of stuff, main point being, he dropped some money, did we see it? Couldn't understand the details. Guy #2 says no, he doesn't know what the guy is talking about, he didn't see any money. I probably should've said something, but I was a little worried of the consequences of ratting him out. So I kept quiet, said nothing about not being able to understand some of what he said. So he says ok, sorry to bother you. and rides off. Guy #2 and I continue to walk, and he says ok, we'll walk up and look at it after a little while. But I just told him that he could go, that it was ok, I didn't want to see it. So he says are you sure? and I say, yes, it's ok. And so he rode off with the money and I felt super bad for not doing anything. sigh.

ON a brighter note, our ex-associate coordinator, Susan, who left the program in the middle for a better, real job, emailed our listserve telling us that an ex-pat magazine, free in Shenzhen, called That's PRD (for Pearl River Delta, where I live), which she writes freelance for, is doing an article about this summer's new hairstyles and makeup and they need models of any ethnicity who are willing to get their hair cut for free. Sorry, that was a really long sentence. But since it's for a magazine article, it's likely that the cuts will be a little more cutting edge. But it's free and it's at the Esprit Salon in the Mix C, the superexpensive mall in downtown Shenzhen. So I emailed her back right away saying I wanted a haircut, and asking for more details. Turns out that they only need 2 people, and since I was the first to respond, I get to do it. My hair has grown really long since I've been here. Haven't cut it since leaving the States. And I like it long. But I've been planning for a while to get some bangs. And then this came along. and well, I need a haircut anyway. It'll be a great time. Funny if anything. And I'll get to be in the magazine! So they'll cut our hair and then do the photo shoot, and if we hate the style, they'll re-cut it afterwards to something hopefully more to our liking. I'll keep you updated. It's scheduled for this friday evening. Yay!

Post script: they actually only needed one person, so I was lucky respondent number 1. And as you can see, it was more about the styling than the haircut. Not crazy at all. I'm happy with it. Not fobby, but it's pretty asian.

And here I will respond to comments, since I cannot access blogspot here in China. I can post entries, since I post on blogger.com, not blogspot.com. the wad of money I will estimate to be around 4000 yuan, which is a little more that $500. That's my monthly salary. Not exactly high pay for a foreigner, but a very good wage nonetheless, considering the number of hours I work and the free housing I get.