I have a curfew

I just realized something today. I have a curfew. A curfew that is only enforced by my change purse. Stan and I like to go downtown and visit with out friends, Kyle and Rebecca Hooper, and Kris and Michael Bowen. It is about a 20 minute bus ride, and it’s really not that bad if we can get a seat on the bus. BUT...if we want to hang out with our friends until 10:00 or 10:30 PM, we cannot take the bus back.

Ok,let me break it down for ya. So a bus ride costs 2 kwai if you want air conditioning, and 1 kwai if you don’t, per person. (1 kwai is equal to 15 U.S. cents.) A taxi costs 17 to 18 kwai from Kyle and Rebecca’s school. The bus stops picking up passengers, (chen ka men...in Chinese) at 9:30 P.M. So, basically I have a 9:30 curfew. haha, it’s funny to think about it that way. Sometimes we just stay an extra hour if we feel like it and just take a taxi. Everything is so cheap here anyway! Well, this was a short blog, but a fun one right!? Yeah. Oh, and sorry the picture is kind of blurry, but that is a Hangzhou taxi right there. Well, thanks for thinking of us! I love you all!

It's Not a Free Country

Today I needed to buy a DS card for my camera. We were eating at a seafood market close to Kyle and Rebecca’s school. It was very good, by the way! There are a lot of different electronics stores along the way, so I thought I would stop at one on our way back. I turned to Rebecca while we were walking back and said, “Hey, I wanna stop in here and get a card for my camera. You don’t have to go if you don’t want to.” And then, a little more tongue-in-cheek, I said, “I mean, you CAN do whatever you want. It’s a free countr-.” And then I stopped short. It is NOT a free country. I realized something I had been saying my whole life, in jest, was something I could not say truthfully now, in this country. It was weird to experience that.

They like to think they are free, but it is not like America. It makes me appreciate America. I don’t believe America does everything right and is the best at everything, but I do appreciate America. The things I see China doing right are things like living more simple lives. They should be commended. Some people live simpler lives because they are poor, but most people just do what they have to do, and have what they need, and nothing else. They don’t have all the fluff that American’s have, because they do not see the need in it.

Well, anyway, I feel like I have rambled. I just thought I would share that little experience with you. Thanks for thinking of us! I love you all!

I wish you could read this...

I really think that the Chinese people don’t care if the English is right. It cracks me up! These two pictures are professionally done, and some Chinese person typed the words out. And that Chinese person’s Chinese supervisor said, “Ah yes, the english is correct on that.” It must have happened that way, because there is no way a person who speaks english as their native tongue could ever have proof read this. Never. I know you can’t read it very well, so I will let you know what it says.

The picture to your left is a sticker on the outside of our shower in the apartment. And it reads: “Cautions: 1. You’d better not take a in-water bath or take a Turkish bath while you don’t feel well, if you suffer from heart disease, hypertension, and diab-etes. (Children’s mustn’t bath while being alone.) 2. After having a drink or fierce exercise, you’d better not take a bath. 3. The water temperature should not go over 45 degrees, and the appropriate is from 30 to 38 degrees. (C) 4. You’d better not take a bath for a long time The appropriate is from 15 to 20mins. 5. After the shower, you’d better drink water in time and take a rest.”

You’d better! hahaha, it made me laugh so hard. Oh yeah, and those periods that aren’t there, and the spaces that aren’t there, which should be are not my mistakes.

The picture to your right is something inside our shower. The lighting inside the shower is weird, so I couldn’t get a good picture. Please read carefully...And it reads: “Shower Computer System Micro-computer xontroller. Welcome to use products of our company Wish to bring beautifall anjoy to you! This is our aim of service” The end. I’m not making this up! This is all I have for today, but I have seen some pretty funny professionally made signs that are just as bad, lol. So you can look forward to those! Thanks for thinking about us!

An Interesting Experience

Something you may not know is that most Chinese citizens grow up using, and still use what we like to call “squaty-potties”. You literally squat to use the toilet, and above are a couple of pictures to help you understand how this works. Some places have a western toilet amongst many other squaty’s, but it is rare. Some of them even have footholds, so you know where to put your feet. Upscale, I’m tellin’ ya. In public restrooms, you may or may not have a toilet paper dispenser. So, we all carry a small package of tissues with us. This particular squaty-potty did have some toilet paper. It is definitely a different way of living. It’s weird to see a woman in a business suit go into a stall where you know she will be squatting in that suit. It’s so opposite from what I am used to. It feels like you should only be doing something like that to use the bathroom when camping. lol...so I used one for the first time yesterday.

I went with my waiban, Vincent yesterday to the Med-exam all of the foreigners needed to have. “It is for your health” is what we were told. Well, anyway, we went and I got my blood taken. That was less scary than I thought it was going to be. I had to pee in a cup, using the squaty-potty. I got an ultrasound done to check if I had some sort of liver damage. I got an EKG done, and eye and throat exam, and an x-ray done. The system of things being done was very cattle-like. I felt like cattle. I literally moved from one room to another, and I barely got dressed from the EKG before they were asking the next person for their papers. It was very “interesting”.

Anyway, the Chinese have something called “guangxi” or “face”. If you do something that is looked down upon, you will lose face with others around you, authority, etc. So, Vincent and I were standing in the enormous line, which we both new would take hours to get through the day with the rest of the lines looking just as long! So, Vincent said, “Do you think it would be appropriate for me to stand in another line, and then you get in that line when you are done with this line?” I said, “I don’t know.” He stood there for a minute, looking around and said, “I don’t care if I lose face! I’m going!” It was so funny, because it is a big deal to lose face for some people in China, but he did not care because he just wanted to get out of there! All in all, it was a fun day, but it was different than I am used to. After the exam, I was handed a thermometer and told, “This is for your health.” Yeah...Thanks. That’s all for now, I hope you enjoy my experiences! :)

I Need English Directions!!

I bought a phone yesterday!!! I also bought a camera, finally! But here’s the deal...I don’t know if you knew this, but the manuals were in CHINESE! I thought for sure, since we, in America are kind enough to supply different languages in a manual, that China would be. No no. There was no other language. Only Chinese. I’m learning more and more about China everyday. So, I googled my phone (lenovo E212) thinking, surely I will be able to find this manual online. Because you can find anything online! Anything! Well, not this. I looked for hours, and hours, outreached to my mother to ask for her help, asked all my friends if they had any suggestions. This phone’s manual is not available in English on the internet. So please, if you are able to find it, lend me a hand and email it to me! :)

The same thing with the camera I got. But I did find this one, because it is a common camera in English speaking countries. As you can see in the picture, it is a Sony Cybershot. I got a camera case with it for only 10 kwai. Which is about a buck fifty in America!! So cheap! No, I didn’t take this picture either. That would be ridiculous to take a picture of your own camera. I would have to do some sort of mirror trickery, and then you probably wouldn’t even be able to see it. So, yes, I googled this image as well. That’s exactly what my camera looks like, mine is even black! Not like that’s a hard color to find, but still. Yes, I love google. haha. Ok, I love you all, don’t forget to think about us, we are doing well now. Almost have a week under our belt. Thanks for reading, more to come!

Are they afraid of the sun?

Well hello there friends! I’m so glad you have decided to join me on my journey to China! I’m glad you can visit me here at this site! I’m a little new to blogging, so hopefully it won’t be too boring. With that being said...

We got here late last night and went to sleep. When I woke up this morning and looked out the window, I saw lots of umbrellas walking around, but it wasn’t raining. I told Stan to hurry and come to the window, because there were a bunch of girls walking around with umbrellas. It was so funny to me! I realized after going out and walking around, that they don’t like for the sun to touch their faces. They like to keep their skin as white as it can possibly be! And that is why they carry around umbrellas! It’s so funny, because in America we spend days at a beach, trying to do the opposite to our skin.

We also met with our Waiban today. (A waiban is someone who works at the foreign affairs office. Our waiban’s name is Vincent.) Ok, so we met with him today to talk about when we would start classes (since we got here yesterday, we were hoping it would be later than sooner). So we asked him, and he said, “Classes start tomorrow! So you not have much time!” Uh...yeah, that’s right.

After meeting with Vincent Sunday, we got to meet with our 5 other friends and it was very much needed. It was a hectic Sunday, but a good one. I’m excited to learn more about this country. So tune in later to learn more with me!

Note: I did not take this picture. I don’t have a camera yet. I googled it. :)