习惯了吗？

Due to dryness in the Yunnan province, the Chinese government has resorted to shooting rockets into the air. This act has prompted an environmental change- almost every night last week, it rained cats and dogs. How very strange.

In class the other day, the teacher asked us to talk about what we were not yet 'xi guan' about... that is not accustomed to in China. Here were some of the answers:
- The staring
- Children shitting on the side of the road
- The slowness of the checkout chicks at Carrefour (Coles is much more efficient!)
- The slowness of everything
- The spitting

The usual complaints. I'm ok with those things, it doesn't bug me as much as it seems to have bugged others. I've only seen a kid relieving himself once, and as long as they don't spit on me it doesn't matter. The slowness of Carrefour is something that you have to just take in your stride- besides I've never been in a rush to go anywhere afterwards. Life is just easy come, easy go.

Three points of 'strangeness in China' for myself:
-Lack of hot water during the cooler days. I'm supposed to have hot water at home, generated by electricity but it seems that it only effectively works during the warmer days. It's probably the solar power kicking in then. Having said that, today's weather is crisp and I had a steaming hot if not powerful shower. At least the water doesn't trickle.

- Using chopsticks for absolutely everything! I understand noodles, I understand rice.. but when I had a bbq with some lovely Chinese people on Sunday, I just really wanted a fork and knife. A fork, so i could bloody hold the fish and a knife so I could take some meat off it. And eggplants, don't talk to me about them! Their texture is such so that it is difficult to separate. It was a fun night, we drank tea and bbqed from 3.30pm- 10pm. Six and a half hours of eating and drinking, that is a record!

-The constant reliance of mobile phones. Chinese people seem to live by their mobile phones, and so do the rest of the population residing here. If an sms is sent, a reply is expected almost straight away. You are considered rude if you don't reply. A few times when I missed some calls, the next conversation started off with 'Why didn't you pick up my phone call?" I've improved my sms replying skills dramatically since arriving here...