Learning

Things I have learnt about China so far:

• Chinese people do NOT queue.  This is a strange and alien concept to me.  After all, I’m British, and if it’s one thing us British folk are good at, it’s queuing.  In China however, you do not queue, no matter how British you are.  The Chinese will push, pull and shove to make their way to the front and if you just stand there patiently waiting for your turn you will be standing there for a long, long time.
• Chinese people stare.  Like, really stare.  White people are not a common occurrence in China.  Especially tall white people like me.  Children literally stopped and stared at me.  Grown men stopped their conversations as I walked past and turned around to watch me walk away.  Women look at me in confusion.  Today, Jessie and I were sitting at a café, and I noticed that a woman had stopped to take a picture of us.  It is very odd.  But, as my friend Kimberly says…
• See no evil, hear no evil and smell no evil.  For it does smell here.  Quite a bit.  Not everywhere (particularly the tourist places), but in a lot of parts.  It is no wonder really, when toddlers do not wear diapers, but instead have holes in their clothes where their bottoms are, and are expected to squat and relieve themselves anywhere.  You have to shut your mind off to the smell, otherwise it will drive you mad.  After a while, you don’t notice it.  Which makes me wonder… I’m becoming immune to the smell, and smell lingers.  Do I smell?  Will my parents greet me at the airport by hugging me and holding their noses?
• Food.  Food is very different here.  Obviously – I’m in China.  However, if you come to China and you expect to eat the type of Chinese food that you would have delivered to your door back home, you are badly mistaken.  Tonight, I’ve had bean sprouts and noodles with a friend egg.  Last night I had grated potato, cauliflower, omelette and blanched tomato.  Eggs and tomato are a staple part to the Chinese diet.
• Driving is CRAZY here.  The roads have lanes, but they’re more of a guideline to follow rather than a requirement.  Cars swerve all over the place, and you’re unlikely to go two minutes without hearing a car horn.  People do not look before they change lanes and cars are forever swerving to avoid a collision.  It’s terrifying.
• People spit.  All the time.  This is normal and accepted.  You must be aware of your surroundings, or you risk being spat on.  Not just normal spit either - big hunks of phlegm.  Children, women and men do this.  Anywhere (though I have yet to see this happen inside).  The belief is apparently, that your body is filled with evil toxins, and spitting them out gets rid of them.