Viewing Habits

What’s on TV tonight? It’s a question that we used to ask all of the time. During football season it was the discussion not on what we would watch but which game we would watch. Over here, we don’t really have that luxury and had to make sacrifices, most notably the change in our television viewing habits. Our “blackbeard” (aarrrrggh!) satellite box allows us to see a few of the channels from the US but we don’t have nearly as many options (but we are thankful to have at least a few English options, if we were in a more remote area of China I am pretty certain we would have zero options). Many times we are actually watching previous seasons of shows rather than the current season for anything. What else can we do to keep up with our favorite shows? Well, there still are a few options on the Internet to watch shows but some (as I mentioned previously) have been blocked by the US Government (thanks again! Way to balance the budget!).

The other option we have here is to purchase DVDs of our favorite shows (or shows we could never watch in the past). Of course, the season may not be the current one but if we show some patience, we can wait until the end of the season and purchase the entire season on one (or maybe two) DVDs. We can also go back and buy television shows that have gone off the air (Seinfeld, etc.) so we can watch them over and over (The Simpsons never gets old…unless you talk to Tammy, she’s about over the Simpsons references). We can also watch the latest movies from the US. Unfortunately for us (or maybe fortunately depending on your viewpoint), we never really have been strong movie goers so we have bought a lot of movies but haven’t watched many of the movies we have purchased. It’s not that big of a deal though because we didn’t spend $19.99 for the movie, we spent like $1.00 for the movie. If we find ourselves with a lot of time, we’ll be able to sit back and watch movies for days. Our collection happens to pale in comparison to many of the other Expat’s collections but we’re happy with it. We’re still filling in the blanks and getting those movies that we have always wanted but never had the inkling to run to the DVD store and buy them. Some of the movies are the classics like Casablanca, The Wizard of Oz and stuff like that just so we can look like we have some class but then again, we also bought Dumb and Dumber so perhaps the points we gain from the classic movies are countered by the other movies (when we buy Weekend at Bernies, then I know we’ve gone over the edge and there’s no going back).

So today kids, we are going to play Siskel & Ebert and tell you about the movies and shows we have watched over the past months. Many of the shows come from recommendations from friends back home, some we liked and some we really didn’t like but we gave them a try.

From the movie genre, Despicable Me, Tangled are the latest movies we have watched. I think the other ones we have watched recently have all been the animated movies. Despicable Me was pretty funny, Tangled…not so much. Tangled went back to the old Disney style where it was more of an animated musical as opposed to a movie. Too much singing ruined the movie. We’ve bought a lot of the animated movies here, some were older like Monsters vs Aliens. That was another good one that I bought early on here and can still sit and watch it and enjoy the movie. I have to buy another copy since the copy I purchased was a so-so movie. Alice in Wonderland was another one we bought which was obviously taped at the theatre (since you can watch the guy in the front row get up to go get some popcorn or whatever). Many people would probably throw away the so-so movies but we’re going to keep them just because. It’ll be one of those, “remember the movies we got in China” flashbacks.

As far as television shows/series;
Nurse Jackie – A Showtime series, we watched seasons 1 and 2. This show stars Edie Falco (she played the wife of Tony Soprano from “The Sopranos”, maybe you’ve heard of it) as a drug addicted nurse who is having an affair with a co-worker (placing her husband and two girls on the backburner). We haven’t ever had HBO or Showtime or any of those channels so this was a show we first saw on the flight home from China this summer. It was kinda funny and very quirky but an oddly entertaining show. It’s not a great show and seems to takeoff of House without the medical focus but instead focuses more on Jackie. I watch shows like this and wonder about the message behind them. Sometimes I think they want to create likeable characters with major flaws and challenge you to judge them (if you dare!). They want to justify the actions of the character and show that people can be flawed but still deserve some kind of sympathy or something from you but by God, don’t judge them. I don’t know, if I start down this road I don’t think I’d watch a lot of TV. It’s not a bad show but it’s not one of those shows that I have to watch.

24 – I love 24, we purchased the entire series and have finished off season 8 (the final season). Once again they kept you hooked all the way through and brought back some of the characters that you loved to hate from previous seasons. This is another show that you watch and think that Jack Bauer should be what every undercover agent should be but you know that in real life people would be crying out for a public hanging of the man because of his torture techniques to get information. It’s like this with just about every movie, you love the cops that go out and bend the rules to get the bad guy but in the real world, all of those “more enlightened” people would want them fired and thrown into prison. Eventually 24 had to end but it was always an entertaining show and kept me looking forward to the next episode. I’ve got them all so I can watch them again whenever I want. It was a corny ending to the final season but nothing ever works out for Jack and who knows…maybe he’ll be back.

Dexter – This show wasn’t really for us. The premise of a serial killer working for the medical examiner’s office was a little too weird (are we supposed to feel good that the serial killer kills bad guys…..I do. Anytime the bad guys get it, I’m happy). We couldn’t really get into the show or the characters after watching about 6 episodes, however we did purchase the first 3 seasons (it was the only option) so perhaps we’ll come back to the show in the future. But maybe not, it was just weird.

Hot in Cleveland – This show was an absolute riot. Betty White makes the show, her comic timing and line deliveries are perfect, we’re waiting for the second season to see if they can continue to build upon the first. It is a little risqué and goes with some more tongue-in-cheek references but overall it’s a very funny show. Definitely not for the kids but I liked it and hope the second season comes out soon.

Sons of Anarchy – This is a show about a biker gang (don’t judge them because of their tattoos, they’re just people) called the Sons of Anarchy or Sam Crow, among other things. It was an easy show to get into and if you can get past the language, violence and borderline gratuitous nudity, it’s a show you could handle. Somehow this was on FX or something but I don’t know how based on what we saw. We bought Seasons 1 and 2, then were able to get Season 3 shortly after the real season 3 ended. We liked it a lot and hope there will be a Season 4. It’s definitely not for the kids unless you want to do a lot of explaining. Again, they try to suck you in to believing that these guys aren’t really all that bad, they are just a motorcycle club (that runs guns, drugs and anything else for a buck) that’s down on their luck. You come to hate the FBI and ATF agents in the show that go against the club so it’s a show that has you rooting for the bad guys (should I feel guilty?).

Some other strange mini-series that we have watched over the past few months are Rome and Spartacus. These shows are both set around the same time in Rome (duh!) and are close to the same but they are not similar in writing or effect. Rome was an interesting show that was at times overly graphic and contained a lot of bare butt (among other things). Definitely not a show you want to watch with your kids or your parents. However, the characters (and therefore the writing) were very compelling and kept you watching despite the other things in the show that made you wonder why they had to do that. Rome could’ve easily survived without the nudity and such but I am sure they were trying to depict the debauchery that was Rome during the heyday of the empire. Now Spartacus, we picked this up because of the Rome series, but it is another story. The special effects I can only assume were supposed to be 3D but they look like a bad comic book or perhaps an odd takeoff on the old Batman and Robin (“BAM!!!”, “BIFF!!!, “POW!!!”). They just look dumb and make you giggle when you see it. In comparison to Rome, this series makes Rome look like the Amish were the producers. If you watch for more than 5 minutes without seeing nudity (first name Seymour, last name Butts) or something worse, they are slacking and I am certain someone was fired. We’ve watched only a few episodes and it was just too much, little story, lotta other stuff. Perhaps it will get better but I doubt it.

If you have suggestions for other shows or movies that you liked, let us know. We will go out and find them and let you know what we think.

Expectations

I’ll take a moment to make a comment about workers in China. This is a general comment and is not applicable for everyone but it’s no different than the general comments made all the time in the media. I’ve stayed away from posting stuff that is work related due to what I have seen on the Internet about people being fired for making admittedly bad decisions and posting negative information about their boss, colleagues, company, etc. I don’t think this is quite the same so I will forgo the usual paranoia and post it.

For years we’ve been told that Americans are lazy and don’t want to work, this is why there is migrant (now known as displaced foreigner travelers as opposed to illegal immigrants [call the PC police, radical elements are running amuck on this blog]) labor to do the work that “Americans won’t do”. Low wage jobs or jobs that require someone to work hard are left others to handle, too many people are too good to do this kind of work (or at least that is what they would have you believe. Mike Rowe shows you otherwise, if you don’t know Mike Rowe, you need to watch Dirty Jobs on Discovery Channel).

This isn’t an “American disease” as we have been led to believe. In the US, the job market has been and continues to be very poor and people are scrambling to find work, many are looking at jobs that perhaps 5 years ago they would’ve overlooked but now a job is a job and most people just want to contribute to society rather than sit back and let someone else pay for them to get by. Good people that are hard-working and loyal to their companies have lost their jobs due to circumstances that are outside of their control. In China, there is an expanding job market, especially in the larger cities. So it seems that perhaps the Chinese are now the people that don’t want to work. I’ll give you an example (these events are real; the names of the people have been changed to protect the innocent). A worker accepts a job to work for a company. (After a probation period, the company could choose not to continue to employ the worker if the worker doesn’t show any promise during the probation period.) At that time they understand the salary of the job and the work required, it’s all pretty straight forward. (You should see the resumes here, they contain age, marital status, some even have photos, and many other things that are taboo back in the US..a topic for another time.). So they go through the orientation training (usually between 3 to 5 days) and then begin the actual training for the task they are hired to perform. Then after two weeks on the job (and still within the probation period), they don’t show up to work. The supervisor tries to contact them and cannot contact the worker. This is a violation of the company policy and the worker will be given a verbal reprimand which will go on his permanent record with the company (dun-dun-daah...make the sound with a very ominous undertone). The next day, he comes back to work and is given the verbal reprimand. Then he is supposed to sign a document indicating that he was given the warning and understands the warning. This is when it gets interesting. He declines to sign the document and proceeds to indicate that the job requires him to work too hard and doesn’t pay enough. It’s at that time that he decides to resign (you can’t fire me, I quit!). In China, people don’t quit, they resign. I don’t know why this term is always used but I guess “to quit” has a bad connotation where “to resign” is more of a positive spin on the term. Resigning is more like I left on my terms as opposed to quitting where it’s like you gave up and the company had the last laugh. Perhaps this is cultural but this guy actually decides that it is better to resign than admit he was wrong not to show up to work. We see this “logic” used in so many different scenarios here that it is almost comical. Anytime someone does something wrong, you need to leave them room to wiggle out of actually being wrong. You use terms like “maybe” to describe what might have happened when you know darned well exactly what did happen. This has been probably my biggest hurdle to overcome when an issue comes up. They try to find any possible explanation for what happened (the machine was working right, the lights over the machine weren’t on, the planets weren’t aligned properly…) rather than admit they were wrong or they didn’t do the right thing. They know what happened, you know what happened but you shouldn’t let them know that you know else they lose face. It’s like strange takeoff of the Abbott & Costello “Who’s on first” routine. My personal favorite excuse, "the work instruction doesn't say we should do that every time".

I’ve heard of other similar instances where workers will just not show up to work. In some cases, they change their phone number and do other things to avoid being contacted by their former employer. Many times, if you speak to their co-workers you will hear them talk about the former employee being unhappy with the amount of work required and the low pay. It’s such a strange situation knowing what is happening back home (dude, it’s a job keep working until you find a better one). It’s definitely not an American thing, it can happen anywhere. It’s more about the person and their work ethic and not about their country of origin.

I will take this a step further to talk about what may be the culture here (I can never be sure because so many people tell you different things). People here expect the chance to advance in their company (much like many in the US expect something). When someone takes a job to operate a machine, they can become very skilled at this job and actually enjoy the work but if they don’t see any chance for advancement they will typically seek another job after about 1-2 years with a company. Keep in mind that again, I am talking in generalities but this is what I am told and what I have experienced. People take jobs and may love the job and the company but the grass (bamboo) is always greener somewhere else so they look for another job. This is more true of the younger generation, as people get past 30 and start to have a stable home life (kids…if you call that stable), they seem to be more inclined to find a good paying job and stick with it. The younger kids…not so much. It’s even more evident around this time of year. People collect their New Year’s bonus and then the resignations start. They head home to be with their family and then they decide not to come back to work. It’s much more rare here to find people that have been with the same company for a long time, as opposed to what used to be the normal situation back home (before the economic downturn), people stayed with a job if they liked the company and the work.

Why do I tell you this (besides the fact that it is very informative)? Because of the reason I am an Expat. I am in China to train people to manufacture our products using the equipment and procedures that I know work best. I also try to train them on how to troubleshoot the equipment, determine what is or isn’t a quality product and how to work efficiently among many other things. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn’t. I am training in two separate departments so I’ve got a lot of ground to cover with a lot of different people. Somehow, I’ve got to give my 18 years worth of experience to people in whatever time I have with them. In one department, we originally hired 6 people, of those only 1 remains. In the other department, we also hired 6 people, only 3 originals remain. Is it me? It’s tough not to take it personally when people you have come to know leave to go off and find other work. In some cases, I was happy to see people go (bad attitudes or very poor work ethic). However when the people I have worked the most with are starting to leave; it becomes much more difficult to accept. One of my best workers told me just before the Chinese New Year that she wanted to resign. She was very upset and crying about her decision and I had a hard time trying to understand why she was leaving even as she talked to me about the decision. We have worked together for 18 months and I think of her as family so it was tough for me to listen and not react negatively to what she was saying. Back home, I would’ve said she was homesick and needed to go home and think before making her decision but since there is a cultural barrier that I may not understand, I could only ask her to reconsider and wait until after the holiday to make a final decision. She’s 22 years old and is an excellent worker. She has a bright future with the company but she will not stay to find out what the future holds for her with this company. She has been to college and therefore is owed a better job than “just being an operator and Team Leader”. I hope it works out for her but there is a little part of me that wishes she finds out that her next job is much worse than this one (then I get to say the oh-so satisfying “I told you so”).

Why do I tell you this? I guess I’m just sharing the frustration of encountering these types of situations. When I have family & friends that are unemployed and are trying to find work, it’s tough to stomach that someone can walk away from a job because they are expected to actually work for their wages (granted the wages in US terms are low but for here, the pay is pretty darned good) or when they feel they can do better elsewhere. It’s not like they have a job when they leave, they just leave and find another job. When people I have trained leave, it means that I have essentially wasted my time on someone that won’t be around when I leave. So I have to start over with the next person and hope that the limited time I have to work with them is enough. This is the role of the Expat! Basically your job is to make sure you don’t have a job. I’m not here to entrench myself so deeply in the facility that any thought of me leaving would destroy the fabric of the universe (this is the one that would bring balance to the force). I am here to show people how to do the job and then go back home. I’m not complaining (not really), I’m just sharing.

Catching Up

Since it is the Chinese New Year, I am off from work and the kids are out of school (and Tammy is being driven crazy). This gives me a lot of time to get the Blog updated with the most recent activities that are happening. I want to write the blog at least once per week (something my friend Lon has challenged himself to do on his blog so I can’t take credit for the idea) but sometimes I get distracted by other things and don’t find the time to get the post written. Other times, I start the post but never get it completed so it sits in a folder waiting for me to finish the job (which may or may not get done). So I will attempt to catchy everyone up to date in a long post (which is no surprise to anyone).

First, let’s talk about the Chinese and their fireworks. The evening of Feb. 2nd is New Years Eve. Starting about dusk, fireworks started to go off all around us. I’m not talking about the bottle rockets, roman candles or those little sparkle fountains (although these were done as well). I’m talking about the 70+ shot mortar boxes and strings of 5,000 firecrackers. Seriously, it started around 7:00pm and didn’t really finish up until about 12:30am and when it was midnight….forget about it. From our view on the 9th floor in the middle of our apartment complex we could see many fireworks going off in all directions. The best were the ones between buildings where the fireworks were exploding and bouncing off from the apartments. These ones you could feel in your chest every time one exploded in a shower of green and red sparkles. I can’t adequately describe the experience except to say that it probably resembles (just by the sounds) what a war zone would be like during a mortar barrage. It’s fun to watch for about the first hour or so and then it becomes like a constant background noise. Then it ramps up to “these people are crazy” when the midnight battery of fireworks starts exploding all around you. We could see at least 8 different large fireworks displays going off just from standing in one spot. We knew this was coming but it is always a little more than you would expect. We have earplugs so we could sleep but after 12:30, it calmed down enough for us to sleep without them (until the fireworks started again about 7:00am).

Second, since we have returned from Thailand, Tammy has taken it upon herself to learn how to cook Thai food. We (Tammy and I) already really enjoyed Thai cuisine before we went to Thailand but now the family seems to be hooked. We found that one of the hotels held cooking classes on Saturdays and she went to learn (and to escape the madness). She first learned Ribs with Red Curry, Seafood Salad and Spring Rolls. She brought home the food from the class and it was exactly what we tasted in Thailand. So, she decided to go the next week where she would learn Pad Thai, Papaya Salad and Green Curry Chicken. Once again, delicious!!! Since then, we’ve had Red Curry, Masaman Curry, Spring Rolls, Pad Thai and Tom Yang Soup for dinner or lunch. Now, she’ll tell you that maybe we aren’t telling her the truth about the taste of the food but I’ll tell you one secret (and now it’s not a secret). If the food is bad, I’ll tell you. There’s nothing worse than eating a bad meal and saying “This is delicious.” Shouldn’t I tell a little white lie? The answer is simple. If I tell her that something is good, she’s going to cook it again (and again, and again). If it was terrible, that means I’ve got to stomach it again and again (till death do us part) until I finally admit the truth and she gets mad because I lied. It is better with food to be honest up front (just another of Scott’s rules for a good marriage). In this case, it’s no lie. The curry dishes are great (you can make the Tony the Tiger “grrrr-eat” here if you want), the spring rolls taste just like Flavors of Thailand (a restaurant in Jonesboro). She has a little work to perfect the Pad Thai but that’s about getting the right ingredients more than anything else. Once those ingredients are found (if we can find them in China, keep in mind shopping for ingredients is tougher here since we can’t read the labels), I think we’re on the way to Thai delights. She is also scheduled to learn how to make Indian curry and Samosas in the coming month so if I come back to the US a few pounds heavier, you’ll know why.

Third, I found out that my oldest brother now has a blog (you’ll find the link under the links section). Two of the Dudley clan have now decided to take on the blogosphere. Now that I know he’s out there, the gauntlet has been thrown down to keep posting on a more regular basis in order to maintain interest in my blog. There’s a lot of competition out there and now it’s all in the family. I shouldn’t neglect to mention that my niece also has her own blog but I’ll warn you ahead of time, she’s young and in love (insert sound of vomiting here). Her blog relates mainly to her preparations to get married in late June. It’s interesting reading from afar since we don’t have access to hear about the wedding on a regular basis. [In case you didn’t know, Tammy and I eloped to Gatlinburg, TN (the East Coast Vegas) we had very little wedding planning to do. We just scheduled to date and time and headed out.] Anyhow, it is interesting to read how things are going for her and fiancé Doug. I’m sure as the date continues to approach, the stress levels will rise but I think they can handle it. After all, it’s not getting married that creates stress; it’s staying married that creates stress. Sounds like a t-shirt doesn’t it?

Fourth (and speaking of t-shirts), the t-shirts you see here are funny. I am never certain if the people really know what the shirts say or the meaning of the words. Some examples;
* Think Liberation (really, in China?)
* Time’s up, take it if you want it. (worn by a young lady in Shanghai and no, I don’t think she was a working girl)
* Make Love, Not Babies
* Keep the Faith
* F___ my Life (with little hearts around it….and the F-word was spelled out, correctly I might add)
* I love BJ (unfortunately, the shirt is supposed to be I love Beijing but they use an abbreviation for Beijing that has other connotations in English…and I don’t mean Bob Jones. How do I know BJ is Beijing, because in Shanghai they sell the same type of shirt with “I love SH”, not so sure I like that one either.)
* Kiss me, I’m Irish (okay, I made that one up just because it’s funny. The others are real.)
It happens all of the time, we see these shirts and wonder a) where they got them and b) do they realize what they say. I mean, when you buy a shirt, typically you know what it says right? I mean, I don’t buy shirts with Chinese characters without knowing what they say (remember the ObamaMao shirt, I bought it and found out what it said before I ever put it on). Oh, and just so you know this isn’t just a China thing. In Thailand we saw a t-shirt that said “Sleep with me…free breakfast”.

This last note is about a story Tammy found online about an incident in Suzhou. This is a true story folks so enjoy it.
Car hits pet dog, owner forces driver to kneel for an hour
By

Tiffany Ap on Jan 14, 2011
This is a story that will make it so much easier for you to hate on pet owners who dress up their toy dogs in stupid clothing. In nearby Suzhou, a pet dog was accidentally crushed by a passing minivan. How is this news? Just stay with me.

The loss of a pet can be upsetting yes, but at the same time (please pardon my French), shit happens. There's no sense in attacking people over it or forcing people to kneel over your dead pet as an apology, but unfortunately for the driver and passenger of the car in this story, that's a memo the dog owner never received.

An eyewitness who requested to remain anonymous says he was watching from his building when around 12 noon, he saw a green postal minivan hit a dog that'd come out into the street suddenly. When the driver and passenger got out to check, the life had been well snuffed out of the pooch. The owner, a 20-something male, was furious over his dog, demanded 5,000 RMB in compensation, and even started getting physical with the men. When the two men from the minivan didn't have the money to pay up, he forced them to kneel in front of his dead dog's body for one hour.

An older woman who saw the commotion decided to call the police but neither side allowed the police to intervene when they arrived. After their hour of kneeling in the wind and cold was up, the dog owner took the body away and the two men who'd been forced to kneel got up and left without saying a word.

Take a moment to consider

This is our government at work, in a time of economic uncertainty, with jobs being lost by the thousands, what are they doing about it? Of course, they are seizing websites that dared to broadcast NFL games, TV shows and movies to those of us that wanted to watch but didn’t have the access to the correct TV signal. I guess is what they call focusing “like a laser” on creating jobs. This is a step by the government to take control of websites that allegedly violate copyright laws. Perhaps these sites were bypassing some of the legal issues but they allowed people to see NFL/NBA/MLB, etc. games when they weren’t at home. Did I pay for access….Hell No! Does that mean that I was supporting a criminal enterprise (I didn’t know that Al Capone was a silent partner at channelsurfing.net)? What about all of those people that go to Sports Bars on the weekends to watch games? How about if I invite people over to watch the game? Should the Feds break down my door? For me, this was a way to stay in touch with the local teams but I guess everyone wants their pound of flesh and if they weren’t getting paid…you ain’t getting the games (and we all know that this all revolves around $$$).

Compare this to what is happening elsewhere in the world. The Chinese government maintains the Great Firewall to prevent the citizens from getting “uncontrolled” access to news that may not be favorable to them. A recent example, the situation unfolding in Egypt (isn’t it a shame that Anderson Cooper got bitch-slapped [to be clear, this is sarcasm at its finest]? CNN has been taking a pummeling in the ratings and it’s well deserved). Try searching Egypt on a search engine in China and nothing comes up, it’s been blocked. Why? Good question. In Egypt, the government has shut down the internet and attempted to shut down many other outlets for people to communicate with the outside world. Isn’t this same thing that the Iranian government did during their “crisis” over the summer? You think this can’t happen in the US? Really?!?! Wake up and start paying less attention to American Idol and People magazine and start watching what is happening in DC. Consider if you will, a bill that is being proposed in Congress now that will give the President a “kill switch” for the Internet. This bill is sponsored by Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins (isn’t it a shame that the “Republicans” from Maine seem to always be on the wrong side of every issue, Olympia Snowe is pushing another similar bill to make my point even further...ladies, please do us a favor and move to Canada) and is probably not getting the recognition from the media outlets that it should. Consider the ramifications of having this switch; is it really a good thing?

All I wanted to do was to watch a football game, is that so wrong?

Wabbit Season

It’s that time of year again….Spring Festival which starts at Chinese New Year and ends at the Lantern Festival. So much of the world celebrated the New Year Jan 1st but in Asia, many countries celebrate it on Feb. 3rd. This year is the year of the rabbit in the Chinese zodiac. I won’t bore you with details on the rabbit but the one interesting thing about this year is that many of the Chinese that follow the older traditions of China will purchase a rabbit for a pet for 2011. They raise the bunny through the year and at the end of the year, they eat it (sorry rabbit, trix are for kids). This will bring them luck through the year, although it doesn’t do much for the bunny. I guess that during the year the rabbit is lucky to be fed very well but at the end of the year, the luck runs out (insert Elmer Fudd laugh here, I’m having wabbit stew). No different than the rabbit’s foot to bring luck back home, lucky for the person with the rabbit’s foot, not so lucky for the rabbit. This only holds true for the rabbit as far as I know. I don’t think that for the year of the Rat (Tiger, Ox, etc.) that they raise the animal and then eat it at the end of the year but you never really know do you. Perhaps it is because the rabbit is just so darned delicious, who really knows. All I know is that the rabbit leg I eat as Baschu is really good and I’m getting a hankering for some rabbit.

Anyhow, during this time of the year is the so-called “human migration” in China where most of the Chinese head home to spend time with family and friends. I would say that this holiday is much like Thanksgiving or Christmas in the US. It’s about spending time with your family and friends and eating a lot of food. So during this week, the airports, train stations, bus stations are very busy as people head all over the country to get back home. People can’t buy tickets more than 10 days in advance of their departure so about two weeks ago you started to see long lines outside of the train ticket stations around the city as people tried to get on the train they wanted to get home. If they couldn’t get the train ticket, they chose the bus although the bus ride can be very long. It’s cheaper as well so that also plays a role in what happens here. I think the worst day for travel will actually be this Sunday when people are trying to get back to work for Monday morning. I’ve seen the train station when I thought it was crowded, I really haven’t experienced anything like what they go through every year at this time. This same “get out of town” mentality actually holds true for many of the Expats as well, they head out of the country for this holiday if they can. Somehow, it’s gotten a bad rap and everyone says you don’t want to be here through this time in China due to the endless array of fireworks going off at any time and because everything is closed. Well, it’s really not as bad as all that. There are a lot of shops closed but not all shops close their doors because people still have to make a living. As far as the fireworks, the holiday officially started on Friday but we’ve heard only limited fireworks and nothing that lasted more than a few minutes. Tonight (Lunar New Year’s eve) will be much different since this is really the New Year celebration so we expect fireworks to be going off at all hours and for long periods of time. A pair of earplugs and it’s not a problem. But ask me tomorrow morning and I may have a different answer for you.

So, now to the point of the post, today we went for lunch at Mr. Pizza (still not the point, hang in there). While we were eating a woman came up and asked if we were the Dudley’s (no autographs please). It turns out that her family is also the Dudleys. Strange but true, of all places to find another family with the Dudley name, Suzhou, China. She chatted for a moment or two and then headed out the door. The other Dudleys have been here only 6 months and her daughter goes to SSIS with Warren and Jacob, although she is in the 11th grade. It was just odd. First, there aren’t that many foreigners still in Suzhou at this time of year. Most get out of town if they can afford it. With our Christmas trip to Thailand, we couldn’t afford another trip. Second, that they have the same last name (although they don’t seem to be related in any way but who knows). Third, that we would all be eating lunch at the same place during this time just seems very strange. It’s a small world people; I mean what are the odds of this happening?