Cough, cough! That is what I have been doing for the past week now. For the past week I was ailing with a cold. However, I did not let that stop me. If you remember from my last post, this week was National Holiday in China. On Thursday I was able to go to the China Open and see Serena Williams and Novak Djacovic play tennis. Being able to watch two of the world's greatest tennis players of my day was pretty amazing; though both didn't seem to be playing at their best. Nonetheless, it was still great to see them play.
Now, for a couple other things; first to my Asian friends-I don't mean anything in the following post to be disrespectful to you or to your culture, but I simply say it for understanding. To my non-Asian friends, and family, reading this know that when I return home, I may have picked up a few "quirks" from China.
First of all, when eating, I may put my head down and eat and slurp my noodles. This is perfectly okay here in China. To the westerners, this may seem rude, but it really isn't; it is just the way of eating noodles with chopsticks. So if we are eating spaghetti or some type of noodles and I start slurping my noodles while keeping my head down, it is just because I have picked this up here.
Next of all, if ever we are in a crowded area, I may start throwing elbows. This is completely normal here in China. The other day I was getting on the subway, and this older lady (at least 70-75 years old) elbowed me out of the way to make sure she got in and where she wanted. Yes, this seems rude and it did seem rude at the moment, but then I got to thinking. (especially after seeing a graphic about the world's population.) I realize now that I currently live in the most populated area in the world. There are so many people here, that if you don't look out for yourself, you get lost in the shuffle or even get hurt or taken advantage of. This goes completely against my southern roots where you hold the door for the people coming after you; but here, if you do that, you never get inside. This happens even more when driving. It is amazing to see how people drive here. It is a free-for-all. I am not wanting to drive in the city, because it would totally stress me out; but the way to do it is act as though you are in a school of fish. When the school moves, you move along. You really can't move alone until you are on the outside of the school. Like driving, you use this same mentality in the crowded subways, and hallways, and ticket lines and such. So, if you see me driving wild, or acting strange in crowd, just chalk it up to living in China for a year!
(This photo was found on Yahoo!)
One thing that I love here, is using chopsticks. Actually, it is a love/hate relationship. I love using them because I believe it slows down my eating so in the end, I don't eat as much. The concept in my mind is that at home (in America) I ate usually about the same amount of time per meal. Using spoons and forks, one obviously can eat more in one bite than using chopsticks. (well most people!) After 30 years of eating that way, I have gotten used to eating a certain length of time; now I eat with chopsticks here, and when I have eaten about the same amount of time that I have always eaten, I feel like I should be done-weather or not I am full. Many times I realize that I am not full, but I am not still hungry. I think that by doing this I have lost some weight. (that's a good thing!) Now, the hate part, I am still not a pro at using them. Korean chopsticks, I absolutely HATE! The Korean chopsticks are typically metal and are so hard to grab anything with. I try to use them, but I typically end up asking for the chopsticks that they give with to-go orders. Chinese chopsticks I am much better with; in fact I have actually gotten used to eating noodles and rice with them; but I still need practice with them.
(This was found running a Google search.)
So, in essence, when I return and do something odd (or what seems odd to you) know that I probably just picked up a different habit here. Embrace it as I have embraced the culture here, and accept that different people are exactly that, different. We all weren't taught like our mom's and dad's taught us; not every culture is the same, not every family is the same-embrace the differences and know that those differences make life interesting. ![]()
