PICTURE BLOG!

Those of you who read this blog on a regular basis are well aware that my blog... well, it doesn't look good. It's boring. It's white text on a black background. It's simple and I like it, but it's not visually appealing. Well, I feel that change is on the way. I haven't started attempting to upload pictures yet, but I'm about to. We'll see how it goes. In the meantime, here's the normal, humdrum banter I usually come up with... (we have to get this out of the way. Delayed gratification: get used to it)

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Somewhat ironically, in China, I find that it's members of the 40+ age group who treat me most normally on a day to day basis. These people often own shops or stores and the situation usually involves me purchasing something from them. The thing is, they treat me like a customer, not like a foreigner. This seems like it would be a negative; something I'd want to be cautious about, but it's actually very refreshing. Why? Because the alternative (i.e. being treated like a foreigner) almost always involves Chinese people attempting to speak English (and butchering it in the meantime), being generally offensive, being generally awkward, staring at me without speaking, etc. In other words, it's just nice to be treated as a human instead of as a spectacle.

This is why I feel that I make the healthiest connections with the 40+ group, and it's often guys that I'm talking to. They enjoy asking about me and what I'm doing in China, but they only breach these topics after knowing me for a while. Again, this may seem normal, but the alternative is, for example, a college-age student who thinks they have perfect English, and, therefore, comes off as being very imposing, obnoxious, and just in-your-face. They just want to use their English, but they often end up tossing consideration for the foreigner out the window in the process.

So, it may seem awkward, but I can say that my best Chinese pals right now and in the past are my local fruit stand owners, BBQ(烧烤) restaurant owners, butchers, vegetable stand owners, etc. Also, these enterprises are usually family-owned, so I end up being acquainted with their entire families.

It's cool.

P.S. I've laid things out as though they are pretty cut-and-dry. That's definitely not the case. There are 45 year olds who are jerks and creeps and sassy, and there are college-age and young professionals and others who are great friends... I'm just speaking generally is all.

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When some Chinese people knock on doors, they knock rapidly 3 times. I normally respond and say, "I'm coming!" or, like, "Immediately!" or "Wait a sec!" Even if they hear me, they will knock again. 3 times. Louder than the first time.

I hate that. It's the small things, ya know?

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This may just be an echo from my more competitive approach to learning language (which has been lessened significantly), but it's still irritating when Chinese people with whom I'm talking start going on and on about this foreigner they used to know who had the best Chinese ever and it was so beautiful and standard and blah blah blah. I know a bit about why it happens (I mean, there just aren't many foreigners who can speak Chinese really well. I'm not including myself in that group of foreigners by any means, but...)

A typical test of this sort of thing is to do a comparison of the same situation in America. If you met a foreigner in America who spoke English, would you, at any time in your relationship with that person, mention and go on about some other foreigner that you know who had legendary English skills? Not likely.

Completely different situations, I know. Completely different! But that doesn't change the fact that it still irritates me just a little bit.

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I'm headed to Hong Kong next week to get another tourist visa while my employer works on getting my long-term visa set up. It's kind of annoying, and there should be a bit of trouble involved. It's complicated, and I'm not a fan.

But it's all the good!

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Alright, folks. Here we go! (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

Near some friends' house (where I stayed when I first arrived in China this time)

Chinese New Year fireworks! This is a small table of them. The government (read: man) sets up a ton of orange tents throughout town during New Year that are just packed with fireworks... the real deal. That's where most folks go to buy fireworks.

And this is kind of what the aftermath looks like... but it gets cleaned up exceedingly quickly. (Sanitation people clean it up)

I cook for myself. This is from when I had just started, so it looks okay... I've gotten better.

The view from my balcony/kitchen

Looking right

Looking left

My phone is cool; I can take panorama pictures that actually look good. I'll take a panorama of my view at night and post it later. In the meantime, here are some others:

A simple view of the teacher's office at one of the branches where I work.

Some friends at a local bar (Shamrock) (They didn't really know what I was doing, so obviously some of them reacted to my picture-taking, and others didn't)

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So there you go! It worked! And guess what? I have videos!... but I'm withholding those to make sure you don't miss my next post. (Disclaimer: I have no idea if I'll be able to upload the vids. I'll do my best.)