Irritation

 

Meet the current bane of my existence. 

I kid you not.  Here’s the story.

We were out of toothpaste, so on our daily walk to buy veggies, fruits, and whatnot, Connor and I stopped by a general store (our favorite one last year, but this year we usually frequent the Meek Shop) to pick some up.  I don’t know why I chose this shop, other than I knew exactly where the toothpaste was and could find it easily.  Shame on me for abandoning our Meek people.

So, one of the few things that you can actually find American brands of in China is toothpaste.  I stared at the small selection of Crest and Colgate and made a split-second decision to go with the Crest.  I grabbed the tube that looked minty fresh – green and leafy means mint, right?

Wrong.

Justin and I were brushing our teeth at the sink that night, and we both stop and look at each other and spit. 

“What is that taste?” he asks.

“I dunno; it’s terrible,” I answer.

We are flummoxed by the strange taste in our mouth and are very liberal in our use of mouthwash that night.

We continue to use this toothpaste for the next few days (I’m cheap, I admit it, we hate the taste but I won’t toss out a perfectly good tube of toothpaste) and have the weirdest taste in our mouths ALL THE TIME.  It’s highly annoying, and I end up snacking more than usual just to keep the foul taste at bay.  Bleck.

So, I was shopping with Rachel and happened to mention our toothpaste predicament to her.  She burst out laughing and explained that the same thing had happened to her and Ryan a long time ago.  It’s not mint.  It’s tea flavored toothpaste.

Only in China.

We’re about a third of the way through the tube, so I’m expecting a bad-tasting mouth for a few more weeks.  At least Justin and I both have the same problem, otherwise he probably wouldn’t kiss me for a while. 

Oh, and speaking of bathroom bottles and stuff, we ran out of our Pantene shampoo.  So…

Jackie Chan shampoo!  It’s the only one I could find on campus that says “shampoo” on it in English. 

Maybe the next characters I study should have to do with things like flavors and shampoo versus conditioner.  Hm.

Okay, I have a few pics for the grandparents.  Connor and I went to watch Justin and Uncle Ryan play basketball, and some of the students took pity on Connor and let him borrow their ball for a while.

He was beyond excited.

Okay, that’s it for now, folks.  Hope you all have nice, minty-fresh breath!