laughing traveler

One of the biggest treats in China is a genuine Whopper from Burger King with your American friends! I recently learned there is one 10 minutes from my school, a discovery that would have made me very fat if I had found it earlier this year. The food taste EXACTLY like it does back home, which is shocking but wonderful. However importing all those ingredients makes the food relatively expensive. So, like the pizza-hut, they class the place up and market it as a fancy restaurant. There is a Starbucks style atmosphere with cozy booths and hip art painted on the walls. They advertise business space and encourage business meetings and interviews to be held in one of their private rooms. It’s an adventure every time we go. One day when it was very crowded and the manager came up to me and my friends and had us sit down. Then he sent over one of the workers to take or order! Mind you, there is a line of Chinese people at the register, but we were somehow chosen for the VIP service! They bro...

The relationships in china always start in an unexpected way. My favorite teacher, Mrs Li, came up to me in the office one day and said, “I think we will be friends.” and that was it! Anything I mentioned, she sprung into action and got it done. This is the same teacher that brought me to my first Chinese wedding and took me to the fashion factory. When it was just starting to get cold, she asked me one day when I was free to go to the factory again, because she thought I wasn't wearing enough clothes. A common phrase I was told by all of my co-workers who were shocked that I wore short-sleeves in 70 degree weather! This was around Christmas time, so I was very busy. “How many classes do you have this afternoon, let me see.” she said grabbing my schedule and walking away. When she came back a few minutes later she said, “OK now you have no classes, we go to the factory. This is Ms. Qian she has the car.” And that was it. I grabbed my purse and we were out the door at 2 pm on a Mo...

It’s always small things but some days seem to be over powering! Ross and I decided to have a panda day as explained in my Chengdu blog! So the plan was to meet in a western area to splurge on our favorite junk foods and hibernate in her apartment for a batman movie marathon. On the metro getting out to Ross I had my first china moment of the day. As I was sliding my card to exit the metro, some young punk kid steps on my foot slipping through the 2 inches between me and the gate. He sneaked through the exit on my 2kuai! I was so shocked the gate almost pinched me when I hurried through after him. In my best dirty Chinese I have learned I yelled “bia chi!” which means “idiot.” He turned in shock momentarily before returning laughing with his friends! I see people try to cheat the metro fee all the time, which is silly. One - bc it cost 2 kuai which is maybe 30 cents and two - there is a metro guard watching. This further confirms that Shenzhen police are worthless. We learned from a...