A day in the life...

Yesterday when I was at the supermarket, I saw a lady holding her child over the trashcan to pee. Chinese people are so strange when it comes to things like bodily functions. Men hawk and spit all over the place. I am constantly seeing piles of what I am pretty sure is vomit surrounding bus stops. I don't know what it is about bus stops that makes people throw up, but it must be something. Also, I have heard that Chinese children become potty trained at a very early age. And lots of toddlers where little onesies that are split in the crotchal region so whenever they have to go to the bathroom, they can just squat where ever they please. So it's ok to have children pee anywhere and everywhere, but it is a HUGE faux pas to pick a piece of food out of your teeth. I guess such a thing isn't exactly considered polite in the States, but it's really not the worst thing you could ever do either. However, if a Chinese person catches you doing such a thing, they think it is SO disgusting. Like I said, Chinese are strange.


Yesterday I also got my haircut. It was worth it for the experience if nothing else (and it was SO cheap--40 yuan or about $6 USD). I went with a couple of other girls on the program. To start, they had us lay down on a massage bed (instead of the typical chair in the States) with a basin for washing at the end. Then I was shampooed and conditioned along with a wonderful long head slash neck massage. After that, they proceeded to clean my ears with a q-tip. That was weird. I hope my ears were clean, I wouldn't wish lots of earwax on anybody. After that I was given an arm and hand massage. Then they gestured for me to flip over and it ended with a back massage. It was fantastic. Then came the hair cut part of it all. There was only one girl at the place who spoke any English. And her English wasn't up to technical hair cutting terms. The day before Luisa asked for one of their haircut books, so we had all picked out what we wanted in advance, so we were able to point to the picture. None of us have anything that looks like what was indicated. But whatever, that's all part of the experience. My hairdresser was very good and very meticulous. I ended up with shorter hair and bangs that start very far back on my head and come down to just past my eyebrows. Apparently though, my hair naturally parts in the middle. Who does that? So lame. So the bangs have a tendency to want to part down the middle. Hairspray here I come...

Today in Chinese class, we had to use our Chinese skillz to find our way to the Xiamen post office. The Chinese teacher is so cute. She is constantly bringing in little helpers (nieces and nephews, friends, etc.) so that we have other people to practice Chinese with. And she does fun little exercises like set up a restaurant in class so we can practice ordering food. Today she had her friends posted en route to the post office and we had to ask each one for directions. Love it.

In other news, I have recently seen two movies that I highly recommend. First, "Traitor" with Don Cheadle. So suspenseful. He is a bomb specialist (I guess) who supplies a terrorist organization with weapons for suicide bombings. Seriously, so good. And it was comforting to hear Arabic and understand. Second, everybody should watch "Slumdog Millionaire". It was in theatres right before I left for China, but I didn't get a chance to see it. One of the girls here bought a copy (much like in Syria) and I saw it a couple of days ago. I don't even know what to say about it--just go watch it.