Sunday, DEcember 10, 2006

WOW! So I've been here 3 months already! I love it here! I'm not sure if I really fit here, but I really enjoy being here, everything is so
new and such an adventure. It's crazy being in such a new place! In some ways it feels like I have been here a lifetime, and in other cases, such as my chinese, I feel like I havent' had enough time to really even start getting good yet. anyway, here is my latest update~ PS, if you like these, FOR GOD"S SAKE TELL ME!

ok so first of all my thoughts on china,

As I am in the taxi going the wrong way down the highway, I had one of those, " I live in China" moments. this actually happens at the weirdest times. So the thing was , he missed the right side of the highway, so he just went down the other side. Sweet. the funny thing is that these things have almost ceased to surprise me anymore. I think there are no such things as traffic rules here. honestly. it's all relative to what the given sitation requires. if the guy in front of you is going too slow, you flash your lights, and go into the other lane into oncoming traffic to pass him, i mean in the middle of rush hour traffic, this is not a highway with a double white line. nope.

I went to the market yesterday so grab myself some food, there are guys riding past me on bicycles on both side and staring, it's stopped bothering me. I think that I actually dont'
mind at much anymore. i went down to grab myself some lamb on a stick, it could be cat for the price, but it tastes good
so there is no sense in thinking about it. *I think I ate cat in mexico. dont' ask.
So I went down to get some lamb, i have by the way, become addicted to roasted lamb on a stick. I got some thick crepe like thing with pieces of onion and egg in it. absolutely delicous. it happened again. i looked around, "yup, here i am, living in china." weird man. I've gotten to the point where I can at least communicate with people which is cool. this by no way means that my chinese is even decent. but the other day my 2 assistants were conspiring against me, RIGHT in front of me and I UNDERSTOOD! WOOHOO! I was still pissed despite rejoicing my linguistic skills.

I tried to go to Yiwu the other day, that is not the story, my train was delayed 4 times, and I finally couldn't go because I woudnt have had enough time to get back that evening. so anyway, i'm standing there in the waiting area and everyone is staring. yep. thats' zhuji, deal with it right? so there are these guys with food carts wandering around selling to-go meals. so I am standing there and one of them thinks that it would be funny to come up and talk to me and ask me where i'm going. so i answer in chinese that i am going to visit a friend in yiwu. they all seem to think either that my chinese is hysterical or that it's hysterical that i answered in chinese. probably the first, although they understood me. So anyway, now everyone else in the whole waiting room is checking out the spectacle of the foreign girl talking to the food vendor guys. yep. ALL of them, like 200 people. sweet... so then I am turning bright red and so I start sending texts to my friend ben and rhiannon, like, DUDE < all these people are staring at me, i dont' like IT! so then about 5 guys come over to see what I am texting with my phone. one guy is looking at it and says: TING BU DONG! ( i dont' understand!) he asks, "zhe bu shi han yu ma? "" ( this is NOT chinese!) I say, "shi yin wen." (it's english). they all think thats' fascinating, and 5 more guys come over to investigate the situation. ahhhh , ooooo, she's writing english. anyway, i talked to them for a bit, it was really weird,but funny too. they weren't doing it to be weird, but in zhuji where there aren't many foreigners, they are very curious. it's funny though. but I dont' like 200 people staring at me!! heh/
So my thoughts on china:

Ok, so they eat everything here, I mean everything. even chicken assholes. you think i'm kidding. I mean they are literally cut separately and roasted on a stick. after all , they roast everything here. While my friend ryan, rhiannon and me were sitting at a bbq place here in zhuji where you can buy meat and grill it at your table, i think she said it best when she shrugged and said, " you know, just because you CAN eat everything doesnt' mean you SHOULD>" This includes chicken assholes of course!! haha! We are meanwhile roasting our lamb and eggplant as this girl at the table next to us is eating icecream and eating a roasted fish at the same time. You know, china is really unexpicable. honestly, no words or about of blogs could accurately describe what kind of environment we are in. so you got culture shocked in europe?? hAHA! dont' come here man, you will question everything you know.

there are very few things that really gross me out, but the other day back from shanghai I was honestly grossed out more than I have been in a long while. Every country has rednecks right? So why shouldn't china have its provincial people of ,,,,, a less cultured nature.. Ok, so there are things here
that are different from western society right?
It's perfectly acceptable to hock up the phlegm in your throat at ANY given time, walking down the street, in a restaurant, on a train, whatever, and spit it wherever. This is most common on the street. In the nicer trains, people dont' actually spit on the floor as often when you take the soft seat cars, which is kind of like first class/.
But the hard seats are different. this is where you dont' even neccessarily get a seat, and everyone is spitting and throwing shit everywhere. People are arguing over seats, they have their bags of fruit, veggies, chickens, whatnot right there with them on the train.

so this woman and her husband are sitting in front of me. The seats are such that there are 3 seats on each side facing each other for a total of 6 with a little table in the middle. THere is a little tray on every table. chinese people love to eat sunflower seeds and eat oranges on the train. better not get on the train without these two essential items or you are not chinese! hah. anyway, so there is this little tray, for the peels, seed shells, etc,. the woman's husband is spitting his seed shells into the tray, as he should. the floor is clean at this point with no spit or seeds
on it. The lady however, spits them right out onto the floor. ok, this happens everywhere, but it was the voracity for which she ground the seed up in her mouth like a baby does with it's first solid cheerio, and sifting them through her teeth and pushing the seeds up to the front of her mouth with a grinding, nlllmmahhhhh whistling sound. these seed shell remnants clung to her lip and flapped while she tried to breath hard enough to unstick them. it was gross man. the seeds flapped on her lower lip whileshe strained the remaining pieces and moved forward to spit them onto the floor and not on herself. gross man. but was she done?NO!
she had a pieces of vaccuum wrapped chicken leg she had in her purse. she drug it our, tore through the wrapper with her teeth, and began devouring this precooked chicken leg.. she chomped off all the meat and then proceeded to CRUSH the bone, I mean, the whole bone baby~!! but she had to get the marrow! best part!! so she slurped and sucked this piece of mangled bone dry! i mean, this woman could suck a football through a garden hose people!! damn! i was both disgusted and amazed at the slurpy mhteeeeeeeeeeee sound she made as she sucked every possible module of marrow out and then CRUNCHED the bone, I mean, she ate the whole thing~!! like a dog crunches and gnawls man! out of a 7 inch piece of chicken leg, the only thing that remained was about 1 centimeter of unchompable bone or cartillage!
************* i want to note that I am not easily grossed out people, it was just the WAY she was eating that really disgusted me for some reason.

Earlier in the shanghai train station, I broke down and went to KFC, I was tired and hungover and I didnt' want noodles or fruit, or seeds, which is basically what's available at the train stations in china. I opted for some chicken wings. they were greasy and fried and spicy and delicous and I have to admit, even though I never eat at KFC in the states or here, I thoroughly enjoyed them!

So no sooner as I did this then I figured I should go to the bathroom quick before my train was boarding. The woman in the sink area was gutting and cleaning her chicken in the bathroom sink! yep. she had a crate where she could put the innards after she ripped them out of the chicken that was cut open that she was washing in the sink. Her friend next to her was washing another chicken and doing the same, while a custodial employee was arguing with them, and presumably telling them that they couldn' t do that! They had this expression like: what?! dude! this is fresh!! It doesnt' get any fresher than this! gotta clean it while
it's still warm!! "
(** it doesnt' get any FRESHER than that!! I mean, they probably killed it in the taxi on the way to the station***)

So anyway, to update, after my commentary..... So this all happened while I was in shanghai, somehow I always seem to get the best train stories in shanghai! hah,

Anyway, so last weekend I went to hangzhou with my dear friend rhiannon who I am so lucky to have here in zhuji. I know several foreigners who have shitty foreigners who are clicky or stuck up or just plain lame in their city, and I am so lucky to have rhiannon, carol, ryan, and pamela and toh here with me. Anyway, Rhiannon finally had the same day off as I did and so we went to hangzhou to meet up with some
friends of mine. After some unsuccessful sweater shopping, ( we both didnt' bring enough winter clothes*) we went to
MAya bar to meet Adam and his friend from Korea to eat chicken tacos with pico de gallo. It's not the same,but good enough!! We met up with my friends