It’s definitely a new world for me out here. New customs, new people, new everything pretty much. And I know I’ve only scratched the surface of what there is to discover from this beautiful country. So here’s a run-down of some of the things I’ve learned in my first couple days:
1) Forming lines doesn’t get you anywhere: In every aspect, lines don’t do much except where absolutely necessary (such as the line to checkout at a store, and even then you better be paying attention) whether you’re looking to get your bowl of rice or to use the ATM, if you don’t be assertive, you’ll be waiting for a long time.
2) If you ever wanted to know what it feels like to be a celebrity, come to China: Everywhere we go, people stare and point. One time while we got of the bus to use the ATM I caught one guy stopped at a street corner, mouth hanging open. They’ll take pictures and they love to practice their English with you. They’re also very helpful. While at the store I wanted to buy some fruit, so I put it in a bag and started heading to the register, but I was stopped by a lady who couldn’t speak English but was nice enough to show me that I had to take it to this guy to get it weighed and labeled first.
3) There’s a reason they keep their hair short: The humidity here is crazy, we have air conditioned rooms but as soon as you step out the door you’re hit with a wave of humid heat and by the time you’ve taken two steps you’re sopping wet. Everywhere you go all the women either have short hair, or it’s put up, definitely not surprising. It also explains why they always wear a lot of dresses and shorts.
4) It’s big bus eat little car out there: Basically right of way is determined by who’s bigger. Half the time our bus driver would be driving down the middle of the road. Also horns are used quite frequently. Taking a trip into town was exciting, I can’t count how many times we turned in front of oncoming vehicles who would screech to a stop to avoid hitting us.
5) Germaphobes Beware: Meals here consist of sitting at a table with about 7-9 other people with an array of dishes in the middle that you fill your bowl from. And there’s no serving spoons or anything, you just use your own chopsticks to get food then eat then get more food etc etc. We’re all very close now haha
6) Don’t count on knowing what’s going on: you never really know when or how things will happen around here. For the first couple days we weren’t even sure when our first day teaching would be ( Which is the 1st btw…..hopefully). When we were waiting to go out into town we were told to be ready to leave at any time cause the coordinators could pop in suddenly to get us. We’ve been told we’ll get internet, When? In the next couple weeks. Where’s the missing fridge? Hmmmm, I don’t know, we had ten but now we seem to only have nine. When are you going to register us with the police station? Sometime tomorrow…probably. Haha some days you don’t know how to keep your head on straight.
I’ve also discovered that running in the humidity isn’t all that bad (in the mornings), giant spiders cast really cool shadows on buildings, gigantic grapes and green apple Fanta are really yummy, and when it comes to mealtime our motto is “I don’t know what I’m eating, but it tastes good!”
I can’t wait to see what else this country has in store for me :D
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