I've become so relaxed here that I can almost forget that I'm living in a totalitarian communist government (cringe). I even managed to get into a totally awkward conversation with a couple of Chinese friends about the North Korean bomb test. They said that many people in China think N. Korea is where China was 50 years ago, and it simply fears the Western Imperialist Threat. Curious, I found this enlightening article which points out how differently China views the issue. I guess that's why it pays to get out of town.
In another issue of cross-cultural adaptation, I'm becomine increasingly comfortable with the Chinese conception of the word "clean." Not to say that people are dirty here, but they just like to keep different things clean. We like our streets spotless and we enjoy resting our bums on U-shaped plastic seats (why are they U-shaped?). On the other hand, the Chinese have floors you could eat off, and their advanced squatting technique allows complete separation from touching any surfice tarnished by butt grease. Brilliant. Still though, I think us foreigners are most shocked by what 1 billion people crammed into will tolerate.
As this Friday concludes my first week of work, I got to enjoy that long forgotten joy of looking forward to the weekend! (It's hard to appreciate the weekend if you don't have to work during the week.) See ya Monday!
P.S. I promise next time to post some more pictures. All I have for now are my friends tasting this corn bred to be eaten raw.
1 comment:
As a boy from Illinois this corn deserves at least one blog comment. They look Good. Which reminds me of a story --- To help raise money to send all of us Boy Scouts to Philmont Scout ranch in New Mexico (we didn't know where New Mexico was -- we just got on the train later to get there, and we had never seen a mountain) all the families --- Moms, Dads, little sisters and scouts --- went out into a corn field after the automated harvest to pick up the remaining corn missed by the very efficient machines. It was cold and damp, but great fun -- the only time any of us city folk had done it. We gathered a lot of bushels of corn. Forget kilos -- Have you ever measured in bushels? --- and we took it in our cars and trucks to the riverside silo along the Mississippi and we got some $ for our trip to Philmont, just up the road from where you lived as a wee lad in Las Vegas NM a "few" years later. Have Fun! ++++++ Stephen
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