chinese nappies? + left handers

When you see little kids and babies you'll notice something very odd about the pants they wear. On the backside part they all have cut down the centre. Now, it's not that all kids wear tight pants that rip when they bend over, it's actually a design built into each pair.
You see, these pant slits are strategically posititioned right down the middle between the butt cheeks, and are juuuust big enough to allow a piece of poop to slip out. Girls can use this apperture for both types
of business, but i'm yet to check if the boys have another openning in the front of their pants for a 'no 1'. I haven't gotten close enough to a kid to check, and it was hard enough taking these pics without looking like some paedophile.

I suppose it's also useful since it can be quite hard to find a public toilet in xi'an. Along the streets and roads theres a series of lowered elevation squares, each with a tree or plant. suffice to say, it's not advisable to step down too often into these squares, as you never know what you might come upon. Or as this photo shows, never walk near fences either! I actually feel really sorry for these kids as i can only imagine how cold it must be with a gaping hole in your pants. I'm already cold enough as it is without holes in my pants.


For those who don't know, i'm actually left handed. I had no idea before, but actually nobody writes with their left hand in china. I've been told that all the kids are forced to use their right hand, so theres no left handers here as they aren't allowed to flourish/develop. Or maybe you still do have some ambidextrous ppl here, but surely if they never practice with their left hand they probably are only right handed. I'm guessing the mandate on using the right hand has something to do with writing chinese characterse properly. hah! now i've got an excuse for messy writing. or maybe they just thought ppl are abnormal if they use the left hand.

Anyway, whenever people see me write they're always at first horrified, then facinated. (actually i still think left handers look funny when they write!) Then they ALWAYS make the comment that they hear left handers are smart, to which i tell them i've heard left handers are considered artistic, but that i'm not much of an artist. this is ALWAYS the routine i go through everytime someone new sees me write. but for some reason i still haven't remember the chinese word for 'artistic'. weird.

a chinese xmas, crossing roads and puppies in a basket

It's been a forgetful xmas this year since i've been struck down with the flu. Spent most of the day moping around the house drinking water or sleeping. Its a real shame too cuz i wanted to get out and see how the locals celebrate. From what i've heard, many of the chinese seem to treat xmas eve like it's new years eve, gathering in the streets in big crowds dressed up in masks and setting off their own fireworks/crackers. since i was too sick to go out and see take my own pics i've cheated and found a link to some newspaper's pic
http://www.xbfzw.com/news/shiping/2008/1225/081225124691277CC7DGIGDF49FB17H.html

Crossing roads is quite a harrowing experience here in china. I absolutely shit myself every time i have to cross one. They have zebra crossings here, but they don't mean nothing.
In order not to wait a lifetime you have to cross each lane as they free up, so usually paedestrians are standing in btw various lanes in the middle of the road. the problem is car lane lines don't mean anything either, so you hope cars can see and drive around you( So it's advisable to wear bright c0lours at nite). Luckily though, most vehicles slow down at turns, and it's almost like a game of chicken to see who flinches first. Though where usually back in aus it's between 2 cars, this time it's between car and paedestrian! And driver's don't give paedestrians wide berth either. you can actually feel the heat radiating from cars and buses as they slice past your face. Add to this the unpredictability of china drivers and you've got u'rself quite a heart-stopping adventure everyday. i use to be chicken when it came to crossing rds - oldies would cross while i'd be waiting another 5 minutes for clear space. but now i'm a lot better at eyeballing cars and inching across lanes.
since motorbikes and bikes are alot more common here, alot of them drive on the footpaths as well as the rds. and sometimes you even get cars driving on footpaths! (our bus driver decided to take a shortcut on one occasion - see pic)
So even when you're walking along footpaths you still have to be fully alert for things that can mangle you.

On a brief note, if you ever want to buy a puppie you can always get one from these street vendors who sells em out of a basket. they probably are for keeping as pets though, since eating dog meat in this part of the country isn't common!

Protein difficiencies + Blending in

For the most part if i don't open my mouth or whip out my camera i seem to blend in with the locals and nobody pays me a second glance. I feel sorry for the few scattered white people in xi'an, who get absolutley gawked at everywhere they go, and sometimes even hassled. The downside of looking chinese and not knowing the language is that people think you;re a moron when they try to say something to you. Inthe clothing stores you get followed and given a breakdown of all the specials and sales, but cuz they speak so fast i never know if they're just telling me about whats on offer, or asking me a question, so usually i just have to say 'i'm just browsing' in chinese. sometimes i'll tell them 'sorry, i don't speak chinese too well', but that usually results in confused looks. saying that i'm from australia or australian doesn't clarify things either. At first i thought i'd just tell everyone i'm japanese, but then i remembered, ooooh world war 2, so now i just tell em i'm korean or thai.

i'm still a little chicken when it comes to going out and eating by myself since thers still so many characters on a menu i can't read, so only been going to places i've been taken to and know what i'm getting.

one thing i've noticed about the individual noodle dishes is the lack of meat. and if u do order the 'meat option' , its more like a garnishing of meat ! Guess thats one reason why people in western countries have bigger builds. i really feel like i'm lacking protein these last 2 weeks. so much so i'm even considering popping into macca's or kfc , heaven forbid. still, i'm always interested to see how the menus on these food chains differ btw countries. i'm sure they won't have the mcpooch at maccas or the zinger feet at kfc, but i'm sure it'll still be exotic. not that it's any easier to order though, since the whole menu is still in chinese characters. and when i tried to say big mac to friends the other day they didn't know what i was talking about. surely they must have it, but just goes under another name. da ma ke?this method of sound translation of western names sometimes works, but sometimes it's not the case. actually i have been to kfc once already with some local friends to rest, and of all things they decided to get a round of milk for us all. yummy, more melamine.

by the way, i've been having that big bowl of milk for breakfast every morning for the last 2 weeks and still no sign of trouble yet.

Killer taxi rides + Chinese drinking customs

Sunday 7th Dec (con't)
That night after the recruitment session the uni shouted all the reps from the vairous companies and schools to a free dinner in a restaurant. We had our own little private function room, complete with complimentary bai jiu (local schnapps) and 2 packs of smokes awaiting us at the table! alot of people smoke in china (it's pretty cheap - about 5 yuan or $1.25 aussie for a decent brand), so maybe that's why so many people need to express phlegm.

bai jiu goes down pretty easy, and can range anywhere from 45-52%!

the meal was pretty good, but all night we had different reps from the university coming around every few minutes to toast our table. i couldn't understand what they were saying, but i'm guessing it had something to do with wishing us all prosperity in our businesses and hoping their grads would perform well. and they were toasting this bai jiu stuff at every table doing several rounds! after an hour or so these guys started cranking out the chinese opera karaoke hits, and everyone was singing along and clapping.

man i thought all us asians were weak drinkers, but obviously these businessmen were seasoned drinkers. though their faces were still as red as hell! some of the guys from other co's at our table really didn't wanna get too drunk, so a mini physical struggle would ensue between the uni rep and the co reps over who's pouring for who, accompanied with much shouting and cajoling. and when they finally sorted out who was pouring, they'd try to top each other with what must've been flattering remarks about about each other's co's! Luckily i managed to fly under the radar and keep away from the action along with my principal. Quite an experience.

The following nite i had to take a taxi to meet up with a friend for coffee. Since i'm aware that some ppl are out to rip off foreigners i try not to give away the fact i'm an outsider. I managed to tell the taxi driver where i wanted to go in the best local accent i could manage, and luckily he didn't need any further directions. Trying to blend in though means i can't open my mouth, so i'm sitting there in the taxi silently trying to look all cool and relaxed..... and then the driver starts driving on the other side of the road with oncoming traffic only about 50 metres away. My knuckles must've gone snow white gripping onto the handholds, and i didn't exhale for at least a minute. i can say i got to my destination in record time though, and probably paid a lot less than what i would've payed without the suicidal driving.

The sad reality of very large numbers

Sunday 7th Dec
Ok, gonna start this entry on a serious note.
Since i had no plans today the principal allowed me to accompany him a to a careers fair at one of the uni's to recruit new staff. When we got there the queue of students waiting to enter was absolutely massive. I don't know if this scale turn out is normal by china standards, but i'm sure the world economic crisis has reduced the available jobs out in the work force.

I ended up doing a lot more than observing, as su peng wanted recruits who could speak good english and got me to speak to all the potential candidates in english to test them out. Most of em were quite nervous since it was like a first phase job interview, but i tried to be as friendly as possible. I did have to ask all the necessary questions like 'what job experience do u have', and what are you studying, and it was sad when they couldn't say they had any experience or skills, and that their english was clearly not very strong. Still though, they all seemed so keen to apply, and it really saddened me that most of these guys wouldn't get a return call. i guess it's the same in any country, but here the situation seems even more dire due to the large amount of graduates coming out. Maybe it was also their broken english which made it seem even more heart breaking. and you just know that alot of these students have parents who have saved their asses off to pay for their uni fees.

The uni lies on the outkirts of the city, and it has quite a different feel to the unis back home. the campus of this partiucular uni feels quite sparse, and it's practically built out in the middle of nowhere next to 2 small villages. Theres like no gardens or public areas within the grounds, and all the deparrtments and lecture rooms are located in large centralized massive buildings. check out the pic above of the library! you have to walk quite long distances between these centralized bulidings and the dorms.


One of the funny things i came across was their system of hot water supply. Since the dorms only have cold water all the students have to collect their hot water from the 'hot water' room each day. It reminded me of villagers going down to the local well to collect water, except these were uni students in the 21st century!



One of the other workers from the school also gave me a tour of the adjoining villages. Since the students often go in there to buy things and eat the local economy of these villages has really picked up. The one we visited still contains one of the houses that Chiang Kai-Shek used to reside in. Theres a pic of the billboard advertising this attached. On the way back to the uni we passed this villager who i just had to take a pic of. She looked like could've been one of those peasant workers from those old Communist advertisements, with the rosy cheeks and big toothy smile.

Spitting, and Melamine anyone?

Saturday 6th Dec
Breakfast is vastly different to what i usually have back in oz. I awoke to be greeted by 2 plain pieces of bread, a hard boiled egg and of all things milk. And i'm not talking about a glass of milk, I'm talking about a large BOWL of milk. Fan-bloody-tastic. Nothing like a good dose of melamine each morning to kick start the day.
I had to ask aunty how to eat it, as i thought there was some special way to do it (dip the bread in the milk?) to which she replied 'anyway u see fit'.She must've thought i was a moron. It's a little strange having plain bread without margarine or butter, as apparently these spreads are uncommon here. since then i've gone and bought my own though.

I'm starting to once again remember the challenges of living in a foreign country where u don't speak the langauage. Everyday is a game of charades. I'm gonna be a charades master after this trip, and i challenge anyone to a game when i get back. Sometimes though i tend to just wave my arms in outwards circular motions or make box shapes with my two hands for every single item i try to describe (like that's really gonna help translate). Ok, maybe i won't be a Master Charader when i get home.

My breakfast was frequently punctuated by the sounds of firecrackers going off downstairs. we're up on the 10th floor of a 35 floor appartment block, but you can still hear the things going off on the ground floor. Someone was getting married, and there was a guy with a megaphone directing the whole thing and organising the entourage of cars. It was quite funny to me.





Decided to walk to school the first day, and have been everyday til now. I just love taking in all the weird, wonderful and the somewhat disturbing sights along the walk. The first thing i think eveyrone notices is the spitting (hocking?). But i hadn't realized it's rampant everywhere. i was expecting to witness one loogey every hour or so but it's actually like every minute or so. I can't understand why everyone is producing so much saliva or snot. is it the pollution or diet? I haven't noticed myself needing to expel yet. And that brings me to my next point, it's not just stuff coming out of mouths, it's coming out of nostrils too! Charming. Oh and it's not just men who do it, it's on for young and old, men and women. I was pretty surprised when i first saw and heard a young girl loading up and releasing. Wow, if i ever dated a local chinese girl i think it'd be a bit of a turnoff. Anyway, since loogeying is so rampant it's pointless trying to dodge every wet splotch on the ground. Just don't look down. see no evil, hear no evil.

So got to the school around midday and met the principal, su peng. he's a local about my age, pretty friendly and helpful. Like i mentioned before, he ended up accompanying me that arvo to the markets to buy a jacket. Thankfully he speaks good english, which makes things alot easier. The school has some inhouse cooks (su peng's parents!), and they whipped up some welcome jiao zi (dumplings) for me. there was like 4 other types of dishes and soup, so it was practically a feast.

Anyway this post is long enough already, so will talk about the crazy traffic rules and markets next time.

Back to the bossom of the Motherland

Here we go again, another country and another language to learn. I suppose this language experience carries a litte more significance compared to past experiences in spain or chile, since i'm coming home to the 'mother country'. I have some positive expectations about china and the people, but then again i'm sure there'll be some aspects that i won't like. At least i can say it'll be an eye openning experience....

Friday 5th Dec

Strange thing happened on the flight. Stewardess came around asking if 'i'm chinese?'. I said yes, but i can't speak chinese. she just smiled and gave me a feedback survey to fill in, all of which was in mandarin! so i felt pretty silly sitting there with this thing in front of me, but managed to fill out most of it in the end with the aid of the smiley and frowny faces on the form. but there were some faceless questions which i had to randomly answer. when it came to filling in my details i left that part blank...




It didn't start off too well, after i forgot to bring my winter jacket, and only had like 2 jumpers. The temps have been lingering around 0-10 degrees max and down to negative 3 min! Had to get to a market the next day and get myself a new jacket. luckiily the school principal was nice enough to accompany me, as i'm sure i would've been badly ripped off on my own. I've heard you should start bargaining at 10% of the marked price, or even end up paying 10% of the price!

The host family are an elderly couple in their late 50's. the couple don't speak much english, which is good from a learning perspective. at least unlike my spanish mama they don't have a dog who understands more of the local language than me! still tho, understanding more than the pet dog would've been a good motivator yet again. Uncle (or shu shu) seems like a really mellow guy, but aunty (ah yi) seems to be a bit of a harder shell to crack. I think she's slowly warming up to me though.It's a little weird having to live with a host family again, feels like i'm a kid again. It's like i'm 27, but you're a guest in this persons home, so you have to obey all their house rules and customs. anyway toilet and shower don't look to shabby at all, so i'm pretty happy with the place.