Highway my way...

Finally, blogspot firewalls have been unblocked~! Just a few key memories, before I go to sleep:

Taxi drivers drive like mad here. There are no rules. Well, there are- if the traffic light is red, it means you should watch out a little more- and if there are no cars, you can go. I had a conversation with a taxi driver one day which was quite amusing, and it all started because he actually STOPPED at a red light. He told me that he was looking for a wai guo ren wife, which is a foreigner. I asked him why he was looking and he told me that it was because when there are red lights in traffic, foreigners actually stop. He also said that foreigners have more manners than chinese people. He was obviously talking about foreigners of western descent... anyway I disagreed with him- foreigners stop at red lights, not because it is polite, but because it is inherent in their culture to stop at red lights. We have been raised to obey traffic rules- and if not, the penalties can be quite hard on the pocket. I told him that policemen in Australia fine us if we disobey road rules- policemen in China just look on.

I went with a bunch of friends to eat dog the other day. Yes, the deed is done, and I don't feel any worse for trying it. Apparently, the Southern Chinese in GuangDong province are reknowned for their ability to eat almost anything. Over here, dog does not seem that popular- there was only one other table dining in the dog-restaurant. If I had to give a flavour, bland would be my description, but someone else said it tasted like deer.

Visited some hot springs an hour away from Kunming yesterday. It was heavenly dipping into different pools of hot/warm scented and flavoured water set amongst a forest of beautiful trees. I will upload photos soon. The ultimate relaxation experience- we also had an exfoliating scrub, massage and a salt scrub. I think I showered three times that day. I'm cleaner and more well scrubbed than ever before in my life.

I think foreigners living in China will never quite live like a chinese person. It is not so easy as Australia to be assimiliated into the national culture, even if you could speak the language and understand the culture perfectly. I never understood how greatly appearance influenced a person's mindset as I do now, living in China. I may disappear into the crowd sometimes, looking like a chinese person... but once I talk, everyone knows I'm not from the area. Others cannot hide so easily. Western people particularly live a lifestyle in China that may be considered priveledged sometimes. It's cool to be looked up to just because you look white. Just because you may be able to speak english. I cannot get a job teaching english so easily just because I look chinese. The larger schools need a western face for advertising. Forget the fact that the person they are using as their figurehead's mother tongue is swedish, and they are definitely not as good at english as I am! Other times it is fun to be overlooked. I don't receive the constant staring that others experience.