Croc Envy

• Rachaelb's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Beijing

Trip Start Jun 18, 2008 Previous
Entry Trip End Sep 04, 2008 Next
Entry

  Beijing, China
Thursday, July 17, 2008

I have a confession to make. Despite my initial judgment of the Crocs shoes as sort of ugly, I have become Crocs obsessed. Everyone dresses pretty casually here in Beijing, and although my job has no dress code, I am not allowed to wear flip flops. Fine, I understand, I wouldn't expect to wear flip flops to work in America either. But I only came to China with one pair of work-appropriate shoes, and Crocs makes a few feminine styles that could pass as wearable at the school. The Chinese may look down at me for wearing flip flops, but Crocs are really trendy here now, and I'd be at the cutting edge.

Now, part of the reason why I came to China with only one pair of flats is that shoes in America do not fit me. If I put my feet on one of those shoe store floor mats with the outlines of feet and their respective sizes, I come in somewhere between a 2 ½ and a 4. Kids. Pathetic, I know, and it's a curse. It's not cute to have small feet when it's impossible to find shoes that fit. So, here I am in China, land of the bound feet, and I am certain that I have come to the one place in the world that caters to tiny feet people like me.

Nope. I have two theories as to why I have had a dismal time finding Crocs my size. Either it was a fallacy that Chinese women have small feet, and their average is also size 7, same as America. OR all the women's 4s and 5s are sold out because this is the most popular size. Kind of like looking for a size 6 jeans at the Gap. Good luck.

This is a long way of saying that I am suffering from severe Crocs envy. I am even jealous of people's fakes, which I have also not found in size 4 or 5. They just look so comfortable, and in Beijing's unseasonably rainy season, they're much more slip-proof than the average shoes.

In other, more relevant/less materialistic, news, Beijing's ex-pat life may be screeching to a halt. Last night we went out to the Lush quiz night because 1. It's Wednesday, so what else? and 2. our friend Marc was supposed to guest host one of the five rounds of trivia. The original plan was for me to go to Wudaoko straight from work so I could secure a table, but I was tired from teaching all day and decided to rest back at the apartment rather than continue being on my feet until dinner. This turned out to be a good decision.

Lush has decided to suspend all its regular weekly events because the government perceives them as primarily a restaurant and secondarily as a bar. For Lush to host events is now potentially problematic since it's a large gathering of foreigners, and pre-Olympics, you can't be too cautious. Many of the famous (and infamous) ex-pat locations that are written up in all the guidebooks will likely be closed during the Olympics. I don't understand why they'd be willing to shut their doors and lose business based on speculation instead of mandate...which is why I find it most disconcerting.

In so many instances, white people are considered invincible celebrities. So, is there a chance that there is some danger in being white during the Olympics in the event of some type of shake down? I think that it's completely stupid to get worried over nothing. To the best of my knowledge, there is no threat and no reason to get freaked out. However, even beginning to think about what's at the tip of the iceberg reminds me that certain things cannot be taken for granted here in China. What's a right in the US may only be a privilege in China. Privileges can quickly be revoked.

We'll know better with time, but for now maybe it's best to squeeze in a couple more trips to the bar districts in the next few weeks in case things get weird. And, hopefully, by then I'll be sporting some new Crocs.

Print this entry Share Beijing hotels

Previous Entry Next Entry