Monday, December 02, 2013

My kid can sleep anywhere

When we first moved to China every time I walked outside I wished I had a camera.  Everywhere we went something "blogworthy" was happening.  There was the guy in the alley walking his monkey.  The little children with split pants doing their business, well, anywhere the spirit moved them.  The restaurant around the corner that serves some of the best noodles I have ever tasted, despite the tree growing out of the middle of the building.  The dumpling shop that sells them 10 for $.85.   The fruit and vegetable sellers that stock every kind of produce imaginable.  The butchers that sell every part of every animal, most of which I prefer not to imagine.  The old men walking around with their shirts pulled up above their bellies when the temperature climbs.  And on and on and on.  But, my camera is huge.  It has all sorts of bells and whistles, most of which I don't even begin to know how to use, and it weighs a ton.  It takes great pictures, but hauling it with me for errands is just not practical.  But, I have a mental list of things I want pictures of before we leave and slowly I am crossing these items off my list.  Here is one such image I collected just last week:


It's hard to see, but if you look closely at the crib in what is, in fact, a sample bedroom in a corner of an IKEA showroom, you will see a small child under the covers, sound asleep.  At IKEA in Beijing, this behavior is unremarkable.  Every time I go to IKEA I see people sitting on couches and chairs, watching the TVs that play IKEA product advertisements on loops.  Families sit at the sample dinner tables eating their lunches.  Many of the beds are occupied with lounging and often sleeping adults and children.  And those that aren't occupied sport mussed bed clothes.  In fact, I have yet to see a made bed in the Beijing IKEA showroom.

This is really one of the stranger things I have ever encountered while living here, but apparently that is only the case for me and other expats.  For the locals it is completely normal behavior.  No other customers seem troubled or bothered.  The staff work around these people who have quite literally made themselves at home.  Even I  found myself tiptoeing out of the bedroom after realizing that the child was asleep.  But, luckily, I happened to have my camera with me, so I crept around the corner and shot a photo.  And, voila, an excellent and highly blogworthy example of the unpredictability that comes with living in China.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Love this blog! Love hearing your voice in your writing! Love the reminders of Beijing! Miss you!

Cassidy said...

What an expected oddity.

Adrianne said...

I could only DREAM that my kids would crawl into a bed and sleep while I roamed IKEA. But seriously? That's crazy.

 

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