IKEA

A day without destruction or anything going drastically wrong! Now that I’ve got one of those under my belt, I can breathe a deep sigh of relief. Don’t get me wrong, the day had its share of ridiculousness and adventure…

IKEA.

A Swedish furniture store that’s probably a lot of fun to visit in the States…not so much in China. We were able to pick up a lot of stuff that we needed for the apartment, but what should’ve taken an hour max turned into quite the ordeal.

First off, we get into a taxi outside of our apartment and I proceed to put my seatbelt on…which I’ve done or attempted to do many times in taxis here. The taxi driver proceeds to turn and say, “Oh, no no no,” shaking his hand and laughing.

I’m not sure if I insulted his ability to drive a taxi or what exactly happened. He was wearing his seatbelt. BJ in the front seat was wearing his. But apparently he didn’t want me to wear mine. Turns out he’s one of the better taxi drivers I’ve had and he probably just wanted to assure me I was safe.

On the way there we were talking with him a little bit with the little Chinese that we know when we passed a guy on an electric bike honking his horn like crazy.

Now, I’ve come to learn in the past few days that honking is NOT a rude thing here. It’s actually a courtesy in most cases letting the person in front of you know that you’re behind them. Whether on a bike or driving a car, you’re always responsible for what’s in front of you and letting people know that you’re approaching and people behind you are supposed to watch out for you. Not the most comforting thing when you’re on a bike and there are taxis and cars diving in and out of the bike lanes but they’ve kept their eye out for me so far!

Back to the biker honking his horn – there was absolutely no one in front of him for several blocks, so everything I just said did not apply. I began to laugh to myself but thought in the back of my mind that there was still the possibility that what he was doing actually served some sort of a purpose…

Nope. The taxi driver soon noticed what I was laughing about and also began to laugh hysterically at this crazy biker!

Okay, getting back on track…

IKEA.

Picture Sam’s Club, or maybe Costco. Now add two more levels and 10 times as many people and you have a glimpse into IKEA – China edition.

No one really told us what to expect, but for the first hour or so we walked around the third floor (which I’m pretty sure you HAVE to start at) looking at all kinds of displays of living rooms, offices, bathrooms, and bedrooms, and picking out things that would come in handy. NO IDEA how to buy any of those things…

Eventually we figured out that the 2^nd floor is where you pick up the items that are showcased on the 3^rd floor. Maybe this is entirely normal for any IKEA store but imagine our confusion trying to figure out prices and how to buy things in Mandorin and Swedish (is that a language?).

The 2^nd floor was great. Lots of everything you could ever want or need and then some. Probably should’ve STARTED there in the first place…

Eventually, after another hour, we made our way down to the 1^st floor where you pick up larger furniture items and check out. Now imagine doing all of this over the course of a few hours with other people walking around frantically, SHOULDER TO SHOULDER, some pushing carts through areas that needed to be MUCH wider for them to do so.

Quite the afternoon, but it was kind of fun!

Fun to do one time.

I will never go back to IKEA.