Random China Quirks

So today was just like any other Sunday with sacrament, a great Sunday school lesson, grilled cheese sandwich for lunch (that part actually isn't like any other Sunday here in China but it is at home :) ), afternoon nap, scripture study, dinner in the cafeteria, and an evening stroll around the neighborhood with Sierra and Aimee. When we got back we had some delicious brownies we made and then Aimee, Sierra, and Emily H. came over and we planned pretty much the rest of our Chinese lives. We decided since we only have a little over a month left that we need to do something fun, crazy, or adventurous every day before we go home and we have a pretty good calendar going. You'll just have to wait until each of those things happen to find out what they are!


I do have to say though that there are some things in China that are not very common in the states...some "Random China Quirks" that we find interesting. Here is a list of a few:

1. Men grow out their fingernails...(We don't know if this is because they think it looks good or if they are just being lazy but so many guys do it and its not just a little long, they are long!)

2. No raspberries?-We found out this week that Vivi has no idea what a raspberry is and haven't ever seen them anywhere. They aren't in China as far as I'm concerned because nothing is flavored to be raspberry like so many things in the states are.

3. If you stick your chopsticks straight up in your rice it means death and is extremely offensive.

4. The number 4 symbolizes death-because of this we don't live on the fourth floor we live on 3B and of course the foreign teachers teach on the fourth floor, the whole floor is just for us! It is a bad sign if your phone number or license plate has a 4 in it, they are very superstitious with that number.

5. When they bring you food at a restaurant it is served family style with a turn table in the middle of the table. It is impolite if you don't finish most of the food on your plate that you dish up but not necessarily if you finish all the food in the big dishes they bring it in.

6. In the province we live in the dishes at restaurants are sealed together in plastic to show you that they are clean. This is only at sit down restaurants but after you open your dishes you are supposed to pour tea into them to sanitize them and then there is an empty bowl you pour it into. Weird? I know.

7. Anything is considered a taxi-There are men sitting on street corners on their scooters/motorcycles or even motorcycles with carts attached on the back that are just waiting for anyone who needs a ride!

8. The laundry hung out to dry in front of people's businesses, yep right on the sidewalk for everyone to see underwear and all.

9. You DON'T sit on the curb-if you are tired of standing you squat

10. White skin is beautiful so everyone, even men sometimes, use umbrellas to stay out of the sun...I've even seen people shimmy against the wall to stay out of a five foot patch of sunlight. Oh, and even whiting commercials with masks to make your skin whiter.

11. Face masks, taking your temperature to go into school, to go through customs...they are freaked about the swine flu but yet this brings me to my next one...

12. No soap in 90% of public bathrooms

13. Where's the milk? We haven't found much milk unless you want soy milk from off the shelf

14. Fruit markets are where the good fruit is at not necessarily the drug stores

15. No cold drinks anywhere-they serve most drinks room temperature, especially water

16. Our kitchen is on the back porch...what? haha :) We love it anyways

17. Weird ice cream flavors-corn, green bean, red bean, you name it...that's one of the things on our list that we have to try before we leave!

18. It's now 70 degrees here, the perfect temperature if you ask me...no, all our kids and their Chinese teachers think its freezing so they have their long sleeve uniform shirts on with jackets and maybe even a long sleeve shirt underneath while I'm still in a skirt and t-shirt. They think we're crazy haha.

19. I've seen kindergarten teachers take their kids to their apartment with them because their parents haven't come to pick them up yet...

20. Discipline-lets just say it's much different here

21. School schedule-Our kids are in school from 7 a.m. until after 9 p.m. they get served all their meals and get an hour or so nap time in the middle of the day but I'd sure hope so with how long they are in
class for.

22. There are little three year olds that sleep at the school without their mommies

23. You have to wave down a waitress when you want to order, pay, or ask a question

24. Some buses have girls on them that take your money and give you a ticket instead of just putting your money in the box

25. Doesn't matter if there's a double yellow line...you drive on either side of the road!

26. FOUR grown men/women on ONE scooter, that takes talent I tell ya

27. Trains...I don't want to talk about those

28. Babies with their split crotch pants haha

29. Once again, women wear jackets on their arms (so they have it on their front instead of the back) in the BLAZING heat while riding their scooters so they don't get tan

30. And finally, squatters...you just never get used to them haha (for those of you who haven't experienced them, they are holes in the ground to go to the bathroom in instead of a seat to sit on) BUT Chinese people are SO used to them that you'll see footprints on the seats of western toilets because they don't know how to NOT squat.

Yep, thats all folks.