HAPPY LUNAR/CHINESE NEW YEAR

Until I got here and then began to notice stuff, I never realized that the Chinese New Year and Mardi Gras are at the same time and coincide with the lunar new year. I only focused on what happens in America. I am glad I am learning to open my eyes.

I call a lot of things mundane or minutiae. But really, life here is interesting. I am learning a lot about how the rest of the world operates. Some examples.

When you go to a restaurant you do not get a chance to sit, relax, have a drink and talk with your companions. The server hands a menu to one person and waits for the order. No asking if you want something to drink, no chance for everyone to review the menu and no chance to relax. Some restaurants are different; they have a display case full of food and, before you are shown to your table you must order your food.

Another big difference is that the ordered dishes do not come at the same time. The food comes in dribs and drabs. I think it has something to do with the way the food is consumed. Everyone shares every dish. People take the chopsticks they use to eat and pick food from the communal dish. It took me a while to get used to it, but now I do it freely. I do object when someone touches something and does not take it. Most Chinese do not say anything but appreciate it when I chastise the person that makes that mistake. I am not mean about it but, I do let them know it is not right.

An aside. I went to Mc Donald’s the other day. While waiting in line a young woman dropped her apple on the floor, she then giggled/whined to her friends about the apple she dropped. She failed to pick up the apple. After a few minutes I tapped her on the shoulder and pointed to the apple, two of her friends giggled and told her to pick it up. She picked it up and put in the trash. I have followed the lead of government television commercials and let people know they should not litter. Another thing I do is give up my seat on the bus for women with young children, older adults and others that appear to need the seat more than do I.

One other thing about Mc Donald’s and KFC (I don’t go to KFC often, once since in this country) customers do not clean up after themselves. People walk around and clear your place after you leave. When I try to throw something out I am stopped and an employee takes it from me. I still try and sometimes I get away with it.

Back to restaurants. There are few to no bars here. When people go to a restaurant the restaurant expects the people to stay FOREVER. And they do, people sit and continue eating and drinking for hours.

Another aside. If patrons do not like the dish it goes back to the kitchen and the server pays for the dish.

What else do I take for granted? The frequency of buses.

There are a lot of buses. Two routes are the 211 and the 517. The buses on this route seat no more than 25 people but, they accommodate up to 75. Anyway, these buses run a short route yet, they run every ten minutes. You wait 15 minutes for a bus maybe 1 time a week. The buses look decrepit but I am told they are no more than 2 to 5 years old.

The lunar new year is Spring Festival here. It is like our Christmas or Thanksgiving. People go home to see family. Nothing stops them: Until this year.

We have been in the midst of a severe winter storm. More snow and colder than it has been in 50 years. I was on may way to an interview and saw 200 hundred army soldiers cleaning the street. They have no snow or ice cleaning machinery here, it is all manual labor. Tanks have been on the expressways in southern China packing down the snow or breaking up the ice. 1,000,000 people have been stuck in Guangzhouz, unable to get home for the lunar new year.


I think that is it for now. I may update it later but I will post this on the 5th of February.

Terry

Ok, an addition. I am eating kelp and noodles. Separately but, kelp and noodles are what I eat. I forgot, I am eating a lot of rice. I do not make it every day because of the carbs. I am loving rice, I t was a discovery to find that different rice tastes different, and I don’t just mean brown and white rice. There is sticky rice and dry rice. There is rice with pearl like grains. Long rice, short rice and medium rice. I made dinner for a friend and his favorite part was the rice. Tells you something about my Chinese food when the best part is the rice.

The salt consumed here is out of this world. I will not talk about MSG. I tell them to hold the salt and MSG and they look at me as if I am nuts. Now a meal with peppers is dull, I am getting into the spicy food in Jiangxi Province.

TTYL

Oh yeah, I went to the interview with JMC and learned that they were looking for someone younger. I later learned that the company is on a big get younger kick. It is ok to officially acknowledge that here. I am still in the running but, now I know how far away it is I am not going to be unhappy if I do not get the gig. (They would give me a driver and that would be fun)

the following is a link to a story about the weather: http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2008/02/03/china-lunar-new-year-approaches-with-tragedy-growing/