1. People drive like nothing I have ever seen before. And even worse- people walk out into the middle of it to cross the street!! Traffic lights mean nothing. We were almost in 3 wrecks today on the way to the other side of the city in a cab.
2. People who do not drive ride bikes and mopeds, up to 4 per bike. They can pile whole families on one moped. And they really do not even hold on.
3. There is no rush on anything here, but if they are waiting on you, you will hear about it. Confusing to me.
4. Split pants are alive and well, even in a major city of 8 million people where we live. If you do not know, babies and toddlers do not wear diapers but pants with a slit where the babies crack is, front to back. If they have to go, they squat down where they are and have at it....yes, a little disgusting, but not as bad as the poor mom/grandmom picking junior up afterward.....beyond gross.
5. There are buildings in terrible shape, but a crew of 10 was out cleaning the guardrail between the two lanes of traffic in front of our complex. Again, I ask my favorite question.....why?
6. People here are really friendly. They are very curious about us, but very nervous about talking to us. The language barrier is a big issue. If they think you know Chinese, they will talk and talk to you.
7. The grocery store is a very foriegn place for me and it takes me twice as long to shop. Many labels are in English, but some are not and you kinda have to guess. What we thought was salt was MSG. But we are trying our best to find things we like to cook so we do not have to eat out every meal.
8. Eating out can be very very cheap if you do not really care what you are eating. We ate Korean last night and ate lamb, goat ish meat, pork of some kind, some slimey verggies, etc.....but the bill was only 50 RMB for me and Bob.....comes to about $7.50.
9. Squat pots need to be outlawed.
10. Chinese like very firm, hard beds. When they delivered our new bed, I thought they had forgotten the mattress and just brought the boxsprings. Yes, I am serious, that hard. But I got a big piece fo foam today to put on the bed so tonight I may actually get sleep and be able to walk in the am.....TG!!!!!
Thanks for thoughts!!! We can feel it and we sure have needed it. This is definately a foriegn land we are living in!!!!!!
