Back to the dreaded list

No culinary exploits to comment on this week so I fall back to the old top 10 list.

10. So its Christmas time right? Interestingly enough, it is Christmas time here. The Chinese people know who Santa Claus is and at the In City mall they lit the Christmas tree last weekend. Notice that it’s a Christmas tree and not the politically correct “holiday tree” or whatever the pc crowd is calling back in the States so they don’t offend anyone. It is not overblown or overhyped, they don’t beat you around the head with Christmas sales or other things but when you go around town, you can see small signs of Christmas on windows and stuff. One of the hotels, Hotel Mercure, out near the plant has a giant inflatable Santa Claus on the top floor, just reaching over the top of the building. It’s been there for about two weeks but when I first saw it, I was surprised. Of course, the Mercure is not a Chinese owned hotel chain but it was still interesting to see a huge Santa. Last night while we ate dinner at Visto (an Italian place) at the In City mall, they were pumping in the Christmas music big time. What was more interesting was hearing “Feed the World” (the irony of that song wasn’t lost on us as we’re sitting there), something I had not heard for years. They had all of the Christmas tunes going on so if you sat back and ate your dinner without looking around, you would never know you are in China.

9. Another note about the In City Mall, we walked to the mall which is about 1 km. We tend to walk to many places that are under 2 km away unless the weather is really bad. A total reversal of what we did in the US. In the US, even if I had to buy gas for the lawn mower from the corner gas station which was perhaps a 5 minute walk, I hopped in the van and drove over there to pick up the 1.5 gallons of gasoline. It seems so strange not to have a vehicle even after all of this time because you could do so much more but it is what it is. Anyhow, it was sprinkling a little so we carried the umbrellas to keep the rain off. When we walked inside the mall, we closed the umbrellas and tapped them on the floor mats to try and get the water off them. One of the aiyees from the mall came over and took our umbrellas and headed back to the front door (Somebody stop her, she’s taken our umbrellas!). There’s this stand at the door that we didn’t see where you take your umbrella, drop it down a hole in the top and then pull the umbrella out the side and bingo! Your umbrella is wrapped in a thin plastic “umbrella condom”. She hands them back to us and off we go. So now, as we walk around, any condensation from the umbrella gets trapped in the plastic bag and doesn’t drip on the floor (which could be a safety hazard or whatever). It seemed strange but “when in China”.

8. The church was holding their Christmas service today in a larger auditorium than normal so it was a much longer taxi ride to get to church. You had to carry your passport to ensure that you were not a local attending the church since I don’t think it is licensed or something to allow for locals to be a part of the church. Once you move into a government building that has been approved for the church, locals can attend but not until that point. I don’t know if you read about the mega church in China that was closed down for “various reasons” but it was a sobering reminder of where we are. Although we can worship as we choose (as long as we don’t draw attention to ourselves or try to recruit locally), it’s not the same for everyone. These are the times when you have to remember where you are and you need to understand and obey the rules regardless of any inner conflicts. You feel free to do many things but you always must be sure to keep a “low profile” in order to remain in the country. It’s just one of those trade offs that you have to accept or you’ll never make it here.

7. As you might imagine, the martial arts are a very important part of the culture here. You will see many older people practicing their Tai Chi in the mornings in the parks and other public places where there are trees and more of a natural surrounding. This week, on my way out to the bus, I saw an old lady doing here Tai Chi with a sword. Yes, that’s right, a nice shiny sword that she was using as part of this spiritual exercise of Tai Chi. It made me think that if she tried this in Atlanta, she would be hauled away for using a deadly weapon. Since Tai Chi moves in very slow motion, the only thing she was threatening was my attention span (Isn’t that interesting, there’s an old lady with a sword….I’ll stop and watch for a minute. BOR-ING! Oooh, look another scooter with 4 people on it, let’s see if they make it through the intersection.)

6. I’ve been fighting a cold for a couple of weeks now (H1N1?) which means that it was time to get some meds to try and alleviate some of the symptoms while my body tried to fend off the cold. You can’t just run down to Walgreens and pick up some cold medicine, it’s only sold at pharmacies, which don’t sell anything but medicines, no magazines, cards, etc. You also can’t find the stuff you would take in the US, none of the medicines that you are accustomed to taking and know which ones are for which symptoms. Instead here, you are relying on the people at the pharmacy to help you out. Tammy went to the place at Singa Plaza (the hangout area for Westerners) and demonstrated the symptoms to the people behind the counter. They went over and picked out the meds and headed for the counter. Take 4 of there 2 times a day and 1 of these three times per day. Tammy has to write it on the box to be sure she remembers and brings them home. What are they and what do they do? I’m not really certain but what are you going to do? The choices are pretty limited, either take the meds or don’t. I trusted that the medications were okay and so I took them. These were better than the 999 meds I took in March, those made me loopy. These ones diminished the symptoms of the cold and allowed me to function normally (which some could call loopy but it was a “normal loopy”). The most interesting part was when we needed more of the meds (they don’t sell the 50 tablet packs and stuff, typically there is a very limited amount of doses in every package they sell, usually about 3-4 days worth of the meds) Tammy took the package back and asked for more of these. The pharmacist then gave the “oh no, not those ones…try this instead” response. So she came home with another package (take two of these and call me in the morning…if you wake up) with similar instructions on the side of the box (2 pills, 3 times per day). It’s kind of maddening because even if you want the same stuff, you could be seen as insulting the pharmacist (at least I hope they were trained to do this as opposed to being told “sell this stuff or you’re out on your butt”) by not taking their recommendation. Either way, it worked and I’m feeling better, thanks for asking.

5. Since we’re on the topic of colds, the “Kleenex” tissues sold here aren’t like the stuff we are used to. Napkins…not the same. Paper towels…not the same. It’s odd but everything is different for whatever reason. The Kleenex seem to be more for show than for blow. They are much smaller and have much less strength than the stuff sold in the US. If you want to blow your nose here, better get either toilet paper or a paper towel if you don’t want the dreaded “boogie hands”. Perhaps we blow our noses differently but if you blow your nose with the force of a slight breeze, this thing explodes like a water balloon.

4. I’ve had the first Chinese fire drill at the plant just to ensure we are ready should anything happen. It wasn’t like I expected, after all a Chinese fire drill has a different meaning in the States. The most interesting thing was that once everyone was out of the building in the rally point, the safety guy asked for a head count to ensure everyone was out. The people started to get into formations, not crude formations but much like the military “fall in”, they started to assemble into groups of rows and columns. I had no idea where we were supposed to stand but I felt a little weird since I had not stood in formation in quite some time (and no one was yelling at me to “drop and beat your face”). You’ll see formations here quite often outside of restaurants and other establishments as the crews prepare for their shift. I’m never certain of exactly what they are told (“drop and give me 20”) or why they have these formations in a public place but it is definitely something I haven’t seen anywhere else.

3. I’m not very good at “Name that Tune” as many would attest. Riding home on the bus the other night, I heard some music that sounded familiar but it was in Chinese. I kept straining to hear over my fellow bus riders and tried to focus in on the music. The song was very familiar but it definitely was being sung with Chinese words to the same music. Okay, I can name that tune in 8 notes…I mean in English. It began to bug me because now I would keep replaying it until I could remember. But as luck would have it, when we stopped for a red light things dulled down enough that I got a good long listen to the song. It was definitely something from the Bee Gees; but what the heck was the name of the song? Of course I kept trying to sing through it myself (yes, I was using my inner voice, the one wearing the gold chains, wide collared shirt with the top 4 buttons undone, the bell bottoms and with the platform shoes). Finally….Nobody gets too much heaven no more, ta-dah!!! Admitting that I figured it out might actually be worse than saying I couldn’t figure it out. It was really strange to hear the Bee Gees sung in Chinese, the poor woman, she couldn’t hit the high notes like the Bee Gees but she tried.

2. Did you know that Amway is in China? I didn’t but I found out last week when I went to the neighborhood center for some supplies. A man there spoke with me briefly and indicated for me to call him as he handed me his list of Amway stuff to sell. Perhaps it’s just me but it seems a bit bizarre that an outfit like Amway with the quasi pyramid scheme (you call it what you like but to me it’s one of those borderline things) fits in with Chinese culture. I’m not certain but I’ve heard it’s kind of big here so perhaps it’s just me (and it usually is).

1. Last but not least, the past 6 months or so I’ve been working to bring our new plant online. As we’ve hired more people in and things begin to round into shape, there’s one thing I’ve noticed. I’m getting too old for some of this stuff. We have a large contingent of very young people working for the company, some from technical school which puts them somewhere below 25 years old. I try to show how some things are done which requires a little bit of manual effort to demonstrate the technique/process. I never thought some of this would bother me but there are days where I feel really old out there. I feel like I need an afternoon nap and then I need to go out on the porch in my rocking chair and talk about the good old days and how these young whipper-snappers can’t cut the mustard. Perhaps it’s the lack of getting the exercise from the soccer league and stuff but there are times where it hurts just to sit in the bus on the way home (this really is more due to the distance between the seats being like a cramped airline since the gaps aren’t built for taller people). It’s all a part of getting older but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.

My final thought for the week......What has happened to my Cowboys? Beware the ides of December or something like that. Thankfully I can't really watch the games so I have to read all about it. I just want to make the playoffs and win one stinking game to get the monkey off the back, is that too much to ask?