Skip to main content

Sweaty, Smelly and you still want my picture!

It was easy to find my group at the Beijing airport by following the 75 white people! Our huge group drew alot of attention even the security didn’t seem to mind us blocking all the stairs and hallways as we waited for the whole group to make it through baggage claim and customs. I quickly realized my bags were way too heavy. My 80lbs gym bag kept falling off my shoulder, so I figured I could just balance it on top of my huge duffle bag and wheel them together with just the computer bag and my purse weighing down the other side. So all 75 of us get together and head for the escalator. So I wheel my duffle bag over and step on, my bag however is too heavy for me to lift along with me. So I start going up, loose my grip on the bag which slides down the steps and my gym bag flies off and behind that. As fast as I can walk down, the steps are moving up and all of my colleagues are standing at the bottom of the elevator blocked by my bags! Great first impression! The worst part, everyone was too tired to laugh.

The squatty potty
I had my first encounter with the squatty potty yesterday and I have decided to hold it for the rest of the year! Not a fan. My Chinese teacher today said in China you can always find the bathroom by following the smell and you will notice most people are skinny like her because they use the squatty potty. I agree the Sqautty potty is not big girl friendly. Basically it’s a toilet bowl in the floor with sticky wet tiles for you to slip on around the bowl. It technically flushes but its more like a gust of water that pushes everything to the front. In theory you pull your pants forward and squat down to pee. I confirmed this by walking in on the girl in front of me who for some reason didn’t lock her stall door. I however imagined pulling my pants forward and peeing all over them so that I would be wet in urine rather than just wet for the rest of the day. Therefore I decided to take my pants off completely and hold them in my hand, while pushing on the wall to avoid falling in. then unwade my wet sweaty pants and squeeze them back on. Lovely

Comments

  1. omg. come home right now. lol... good luck with the squatty potty

    ReplyDelete
  2. Eeek! Sorry to hear about the squatty potty! (At least you didn't walk in on mean suite mate!) Why are you still sweaty and smelly? Are there squatty showers in China too?!

    ReplyDelete
  3. You will eventually master the sqautty potty...I love and miss you Christy.

    ReplyDelete
  4. OMG!! First of all, you should have had me pack for you. Next the toilet----yes, never leave home without kleenex in your pocket. Some of those toilets don't have paper. LOL about you taking your pants off. Jane Lam

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Make yourself at home, but don't touch anything

Not long ago I got this text from my husband, "My sister called, she's at our house. My dad let her in." I was automatically filled with questions; Did you know she was coming? How long is she staying? Did she bring the kids? Is everything ok? His answer, "I didn't know and I don't know." As if that would satisfy my unrest! Now I like my sister in law, Meimei, she is probably my favorite of the in laws. She makes an effort to speak to me directly even though my Chinese is not good enough to keep up with the group conversation. She is kind and playful. Her 2 children are sweet to me and mostly well behaved. I enjoy her visits but cannot understand why she would show up unannounced when it takes at least 4 hours to travel here! And she is a repeat offender. The most intrusive occasion was when my daughter was less than a month old and Meimei called from the bus, announcing she and her 2 small children were on the way. I was st...

Why China?

Everyone always asks me, "What made you what to go to China?" And I always answer that I had a friend that did the same program and she talked me into it. (sorry Boom-Boom). And when else can you take a year off from your life? Its truly a once in a life-time opportunity. But the truth is I needed a change, I felt like I was in a dead end job, spending more than I was making each month, barley speaking to my roommates, and burnt out at church. I spent four years working towards an economics degree because it came easy to me and then 3 years learning that numbers on a computer screen make me crazy! I won't to do something I have a passion for, and I am hoping that teaching will be my passion. My life needs a complex overhaul in order for me to make a change. I got so comfortable in the dual work that I was afraid to go into the unknown. I remember all my dreams in college and my fearlessness, it scares me that my ambition is fading. My life needs adventure and challenges. ...

Don’t nobody wanna see that

So a few grievances I have with my school. The top of the list would be the bathroom situation. They do have a teachers’ bathroom, which is quite a nice upgrade from my past schools. However, this bathroom, like many Chinese bathrooms, has no toilet paper or soap. Grr. But on top of that there are no lights! There is one window at the end of the room and 8 stalls. So if you close the stall door there is no light! Also of the 8 stalls only 2 have working locks. I have figured this out by accidently opening the stall door to find one of my co workers crouched down inside. And then they wanna talk about it later! No thanks I am working as hard as I can to erase the entire memory. So the unspoken rule is that you never open a stall door, ever. If they are all closed you assume they are all full and wait for someone to leave the one with the lock. But even with this fool-proof system, yesterday I walk in to the bathroom with all the doors swung open and one of my coworkers doing her...