After three months, I'm willing to admit it. China smells different.
Bry and I didn't realize it at first but... the only thing you smell when you're outside is food. The people here don't use beauty products overflowing with powerful smells. We didn't really realize that we were becoming used to the lack of smells until David's box finally arrived.
Bry failed to open the box on her own so I helped her out with our huge kitchen knife. We happily dumped out all our loot.
After the shock of seeing 108 tampons wore off, what was left behind was a smell so strong that I started to get a headache. There were three different smelly things in the box. The first two are in this picture. Cosmos don't seem particularly smelly in America (or maybe they do to you), but no one over here wears perfume. I hadn't smelled women's perfume in weeks.
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| No, not in a bad way. |
Bry and I didn't realize it at first but... the only thing you smell when you're outside is food. The people here don't use beauty products overflowing with powerful smells. We didn't really realize that we were becoming used to the lack of smells until David's box finally arrived.
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| When did the mail start taking forever to get between China and America? |
Bry failed to open the box on her own so I helped her out with our huge kitchen knife. We happily dumped out all our loot.
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| So many tampons!!!!!!!!!!!! |
After the shock of seeing 108 tampons wore off, what was left behind was a smell so strong that I started to get a headache. There were three different smelly things in the box. The first two are in this picture. Cosmos don't seem particularly smelly in America (or maybe they do to you), but no one over here wears perfume. I hadn't smelled women's perfume in weeks.
The other smelly item was a t-shirt from David. We had promised one another that we would sleep in each others t-shirts- it seemed romantic at the time. When I arrived in China, however, I was dismayed to discover that I had forgotten the t-shirt David was letting me borrow. Two months into our captivity- I mean... our teaching contract- David finally sent a box from America to us.
A full MONTH later, the box was hand delivered to my doorstep. When we opened it- whoooooooooosh!
David had been worried that I might forget the way he smells, so he sprayed his Batman cologne onto the t-shirt and put it into a zip-lock bag.
When I questioned the intense smell coming from the bag, he admitted that he had probably drenched the t-shirt in about 50 or 60 individual sprays all over it. I really appreciate the effort. My whole bedroom smells like man, now. My man. Batman.
A full MONTH later, the box was hand delivered to my doorstep. When we opened it- whoooooooooosh!
David had been worried that I might forget the way he smells, so he sprayed his Batman cologne onto the t-shirt and put it into a zip-lock bag.
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| Yes, this exists. |
When I questioned the intense smell coming from the bag, he admitted that he had probably drenched the t-shirt in about 50 or 60 individual sprays all over it. I really appreciate the effort. My whole bedroom smells like man, now. My man. Batman.
The point, though, is that people here don't seem to wear perfume or cologne. The only smells one is assaulted with in a regular manner are mainly pleasant. The man that baked sweet potatoes in the street makes a killing on a daily basis because the delicious aroma wafts all the way down the road. The smell of barbecued meat does the very same, and so the only smells you encounter outside your own house seem to be tangible things available to purchase for only a few yuan. Amazing.
No teenagers doused in Axe.
No men sporting Old Spice.
No old women and their mysterious (sexy) musk.
