China Moments

Like "Senior Moments" but, like with China.

So the adjustment is going very well. I am having fun being back and having the opportunity to hang out with my parents again. But I thought that some of you would like to hear about some of my China moments - well the top three, the rest would bore me by telling you.

1. Toilets. Y'can't smell the public ones from down the hall. There is paper in every stall, each stall has its own door, and you can sit down. I must confess, I still sometimes throw my used paper in the garbage can rather than flush it down. I do have to say though that I LOVE going to the bathroom without an audience. Not that I really had a huge problem with it (at least later on in China) but I still prefer doing my business without one.

2. Chinese and Chinglish. I did spend most of my time in China speaking English, but I didn't know how much I got accustomed to saying certain things in Chinese. And now when I need to ask or say the English equivalent, the Chinese comes out first. Usually it has to do with asking for something, asking where something is, asking what something is and asking what the price is of something. But there are other things too, but I won't go in to all of the excruciating details of all of that.

3. English. I often find myself not listening to the English being spoken at me. It is just too fast sometimes, so I just glaze over and not really listen to anything of what is being said. I also find myself speaking really, really slow and often using very simple English. Sometimes in public, I think that other people may think that I am a foreigner because my English is, at times, so strange, slow and simple. Either that or a little retarded. Sorry, but it's true.