Celebrating the little things

Here in China, where nothing is the same and I can’t read a single thing, I have to use different strategies to accomplish the little things in life. For example, buying shampoo and conditioner. How do I know which is shampoo and which is conditioner? I can’t read what the bottle says because everything is in Chinese characters. So I use the logic that usually shampoo has the lid on the top and conditioner has the upside down lid on the bottom. Small victory.

I have to learn the bus routes and roads by land marks, not by street signs. I can hop on the #1 bus in front of my neighborhood and take it down the street, across the train tracks, past the university, turns left at the movie theatre, etc. The #98 bus goes across the train tracks, past “Dona Donuts”, past all the cell phone stores, and into the city center. No idea what street it is on, but I recognize when I pass all of these things, I know to get off at certain points for certain things. Small victory.

Odd things to get used to in China:

They don’t throw toilet paper in the toilet but in a garbage can. The plumbing is not the greatest, so all toilet paper gets put in the trash instead of flushing it. Sounds gross at first, but I have gotten used to it.

No dryers. We either wash our clothes by hand or in a washing machine and then everything is hung up to air dry. Not a big deal, just getting used to putting on slightly stiff clothing at first.

Chopsticks. I was never very good at them at home, but when you use them for every meal, you get better pretty quickly. My hand muscles are also adjusting to the grip needed for chopsticks. Slippery noodles can be a challenge.

Using cash for everything. They don’t use credit or debit cards to buy things, only to take money out of the atm, so I am getting used to carrying a lot of bills around with me all the time.

Yelling for the waitress. The waitress does not come around unless you have called her, usually by yelling loudly across the restaurant. Sounds rude at first, but if you didn’t, you wouldn’t get any service.

The currency exchange. The current exchange is about $1 USD = 6.8 RMB. So when I went to Wal-Mart (yes they have Wal-Mart in China), I spent about 400 RMB, which sounds like a lot, but is only about $60.

So many motorbikes and bicycles on the street! The traffic is crazy and I could never drive in it, but the Chinese have it figured out. Lanes don’t really mean anything and stoplights are optional to some people. Motorbikes drive on the street and on the sidewalk and pedestrians are on their own. Everyone honks at everyone, but it works for them. I have not seen any accidents yet or many dents in cars. The bigger the vehicle, the more right of way you have.

More to come...

At the city center, Kunming