Chapter 5 – Day 2
The girls had psyched themselves out by assuming that they wouldn’t sleep well that night because of jet lag, but what happened was contradictory. They slept like rocks, for they were all worn out from the flight and their long first day. Evelyn didn’t even budge when Cynthia snored loudly!
They woke abruptly when the alarm clock went off – but no one had any intention of getting up!
A bit later, Lizboa rolled over in bed and took a glance at the clock.
“Good gracious!” she cried. “It’s already 7:15 – and we must be down for breakfast by 7:30! We set our alarm clock for 6:45. We had better hurry!”
The girls jumped up in bed after hearing what Lizboa said. They took their tooth brushes and tooth paste and their washcloths and rushed to the bathroom. Oh dear – the bathroom was too small for all 6 to get ready at the same time!
“It’s too crowded,” groaned Alexis.
“Let’s leave Cynthia, Baixue and Lizboa to do their washing-up in the bathroom – and the three of us can change! When they’re done, we’ll do our washing-up and they’ll change.”
And that was how they rushed through their morning routines. They flew down the stairs to the little glass room where they had breakfast, and they were there right at 7:30.
“Phew!” sighed Baixue, relieved. “We were extremely lucky! I gather that the Super 8 clock is a few minutes slow – my watch shows 7:35!”
Breakfast was simple. There was cereal, toast, muffins and eggs – and pre-packaged hot chocolate. The girls were hungry and each ate at least 2 full plates of breakfast!
That day, as Lizboa called it, was “rehearsal day”. They had a day of intensive rehearsals. They went back to the school where they had their rehearsal yesterday. After breakfast, they had only one break from the rehearsal – lunch. They thoroughly enjoyed the large plates of fried meatballs, sweet stir-fried lamb and quick-fried tripe. These were all things that existed in western cuisine, but the girls marveled at how the different ways of cooking changed the flavor. Their performance in the afternoon rehearsal was better than the first, for they had the energy boost from such a scrumptious lunch!
At that rehearsal, their conductor made a very influential speech. “This is our very last rehearsal before our competition. We have tried our best and worked hard to get everything perfect. I’m sure that we will do exceedingly well tomorrow. Even if we are the worst of the lot, we still can be proud of ourselves, because we did everything in our power to make our performance as engaging as we could. I thank you all for your unstinting efforts and remarkable perseverance. Tomorrow is our competition. I give you three words as advice: do your best!”
“We will do our best!” cried the girls. “Thanks, Mrs Jenkins, for working so hard to train us up for this competition.” With that, they boarded the school bus to go to dinner.
They were famished, and would have liked to have a big dinner, but to their surprise and annoyance the dinner was light. They only had some cold, thick noodles with sesame sauce. There were carrots and chicken strips for toppings.
Lizboa, feeling not even half-full, went to Mrs Jenkins. “May we request some more noodles? We’re still quite hungry.” Mrs Jenkins replied, “Is that the case? Good! You should be hungry! You can feast on snacks later – we’re going to the night market!”
Lizboa ran back to her table and told the others.
“What’s the night market like?” asked Evelyn. “What sorts of food does it sell?”
“Snacks, mostly, some of them quite exotic,” said Baixue. “Look – it’s a really special experience and I don’t want to give away too much – I want you all to get a surprise!”
The girls wanted to know more, and tried to get Baixue to tell them more during their bus ride over to the night market, but Baixue was too clever to fall into their traps. As they approached the market, Mrs Jenkins gave each girl 100 RMB from their payment for the trip so they could buy the foods they wished to try.
“About how many US dollars is one RMB?” asked Lizboa after Mrs Jenkins gave her the money.
“Let me think,” said Baixue. ‘Um… 1 RMB is about seven cents US currency.”
When they arrived, the girls got off the bus, staring curiously at the new environment. The night market was a very merry place. The market consisted of many stalls set closely to each other. You walked in the middle of two arrays of stalls.
“Wow! Look at all these stalls!” said Evelyn. “Everything looks tremendously good. I shan’t be able to choose what to buy! I want to buy the whole market!”
Alice wanted to buy a really nice-smelling pancake at the beginning of the market, but Baixue advised her not to. “It gets cheaper as you get farther inside. Those pancakes are common – you’ll find them again, I’m sure.”
Cynthia put her nose in the air, and sniffed. “What’s that burnt smell?”
They hunted down the stall the burnt smell was coming from. To the surprise of all the girls (besides Baixue, of course!) there was an array of different bizarre foods. Baixue told them what they were. “Those are fried scorpions – 15 RMB a stick. And those are silkworm cocoons – they’re also 15 RMB. And those are centipedes – they’re more expensive – 30 RMB. Those over there are locusts – they’re delicious, like fried chicken, but only 18 RMB a stick. And there you can see seafood – seahorses and starfish.”
Baixue bought a scorpion, and started eating it, commenting on the crunchiness of the texture. “Is it – does it taste funny?” asked Lizboa.
“Oh, actually it’s quite delicious – just like greasy popcorn, really. It’s only the appearance that gets you psyched out!” said Baixue.
“Really?” asked Lizboa. “Then I’ll get a scorpion too.” She bought one and started munching on it. “Oh, it’s wonderful! That buttery aftertaste!” she exclaimed, taking another bite. “Why don’t you try it?”
Cynthia was disgusted. “Fancy trying a scorpion! Well – you’d make a good pair with John the Baptist – he ate grasshoppers!”
The others laughed rather scornfully at Cynthia’s insipid joke. No one else tried any bugs, but they did try small bites from Lizboa’s scorpion. They said it tasted interesting, but certainly not ghastly.
Their next stop was a stall where a foul smell filled the air. “That’s stinky to-fu,” said Baixue. “It’s only the bad smell – it doesn’t taste bad or anything. It’s deep fried, too, and most people love it!”
Alice tried a package of them. She said yes, they tasted delicious – provoking Alexis and Evelyn to buy a package too. Lizboa tried a piece from Evelyn’s – and she loved it, just as Baixue said – but she refused to buy a package.
“There’s still plenty of the market to come! I’ll save my money for the upcoming stalls,” she said.
They came to a soup stall. Baixue told them that it served sour and spicy soup. She highly recommended it, and everyone bought a cup, even Cynthia, for she adored spicy things.
They thought that the combination of tastes was distinct and scrumptious. They went on in the night market, buying other typical snacks – Alice tried a pancake, Evelyn tried deep-fried ice-cream, Alexis had a soft-boiled egg, Lizboa tried pig’s heart, causing much disgust in Cynthia -- and Cynthia herself tried Tanghulu, which were sugar-coated fruits, according to Baixue. Baixue, knowing the market so well, sought out her favorite foods.
Towards the end of the market, there was a Chinese snacks store – but all the snacks were packaged. The girls bought different snacks to bring back and give to their parents and friends – and in the case of the 6th Graders, they had money left, and they bought snacks to munch on in their hotel room and on the plane.
Alice had used a bit of her own money and bought a pack of sesame candies for Esther, her best friend. “I’ll send it to her when we get home – and I’ll give her a write-up of our trip, too – and make her awfully envious!”
“Esther is nice,” said Evelyn. “She’d never be envious.”
“Yes, th
at’s true,” said Alexis. “What a shame! I should like to see her cheeks red and her eyes glowing!”
Chattering, they got back on their tour bus, and went back to their hotel.
They got ready for bed. As they were in their final stage of getting ready – putting on face cream and setting the alarm clock – the doorbell rang, and outside was their conductor. She peeked in.
“Goodnight, girls! Mind you go to bed soon – you just must be well-rested! It’s the competition tomorrow!” she said, and went to the next room to address the same words.
“Goodness – competition tomorrow!” said Lizboa. “I’m so excited I’m sure I can’t sleep a wink.”
“Yes – but let’s try, anyways,” said Alexis. “We must do well!”
“If that’s the case,” said Evelyn. “Then – goodnight, girls!”
* * * * *