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As suspected I haven’t been at all committed to this blogging business, to be honest the last few weeks have flown by, which is probably down to the fact I’m counting down the days that I go to Japan for Christmas.
Things have been a lot more festive here than I thought they would be and started off with my first ever Thanksgiving! It was a wonderful night of bottomless glasses of red wine - thanks to the wine waiters and of course our own stash under the table! The food was amazing, my first three course meal 6+ months. Okay four course, it was a buffet. I've never been happier with a plate of mash potato in all my life... As the dreaded “tell us all what you’re thankful for” speech came up I floundered a bit, and could only really think of what I’m not thankful for. Shit. Now that’s led me to think, what has China really got for me?
One thing I’ve heard everyone moan about at some point is…..*drum roll*… the staring. Yes, that glazed look of wonder, which seems to haunt me everywhere I go. Sometimes I can get a smile out of them (old men), sometimes even a bit of embarrassment(teenage boys), usually I just try to stare them out(everybody else). When I first got here it really bugged me, I’m just me, from the outside I thought I looked normal enough.. I really didn’t get what there is to stare at. After countless Chinese people telling me it’s just out of interest, I’ve come to accept that it is not offensive and even stopped noticing it. In fact it is my Chinese friends who now say “Gosh everybody is staring at you, that’s so weird”… Thanks for pointing it out. Anyway I’ve always been good at zoning these types of things out, even the cries of “Lao Wai” (foreigner) don’t bug me so much anymore.
I do love people’s reaction though when they hear me speak Chinese, now I know that my Chinese isn’t great, and my tones seem to depend on my mood at the time, so its funny to be praised for even the simplest “Ni hao”. I love the way they falsely give you complements. They know and I know that I am making no sense, but they'll keep telling me how great I am. Chinese people are so encouraging! What is bad is if they ever catch you doing your homework, I was in a park with some classmates, and the number of people that came up to us and marvelled at the fact we, real life foreigners, were writing characters and proceeded to grab our books and examine what we'd been doing (without asking of course) then take photos of what seemed to be the highlight if their week, was a bit ridiculous. We were discussing the other night how being a foreigner in China kind of gives you a taste of celebrity life. And it is not fun. I don’t need people pointing out to me all the time that I’m foreign and oh, my skin is so so so so so white, just like I imagine people back home don’t need reminded that they work in that box in my front room.
However, I am becoming a lot more sympathetic in regards to the great amount of social problems in China. It seems that in some sense people will never be considered more than a number, in the hospitals where the treatment of patients is get them in and out asap, and of course there is no such thing as privacy, to the simple task of using the supermarket/ buses/ lifts where you are usually being shoved out they way or cramped into a corner. The reason for all of this is simply because in China, "there are far too many people".
Now there are some habits, I don’t believe there are any excuses. For one there’s the spitting, it is so gross. People spit everywhere, needless to say restaurants and buses are common spitting ground, of course the home is often a favourite, my morning and night time soundtrack is usually my Ayi hocking up in the bathroom. And the excuse, “it’s a reflex we can’t help, like throwing up…” so they’re all puking on the street.. nice.
The way of eating fish is also one that gets me queezy, while I’ve never really eaten boney fish because, well it takes too long to get those bones out, the Chinese save time by putting it all in their mouth and eating the flesh as they spit the unwanted bones simply on the table top, or if you’re feeling really fancy onto a tissue. The same goes for nuts, the floors in tea houses are usually littered with these soggy shells.
I have to admit I’m used to is all now, but I don’t think I could have grown as used to it all as I have if it wasn’t for the people that I’m sharing it with, we might not all have the same experience, but whether its our Listening teacher exerting all types of gas through class, or that horrible time we had at the doctors, I know that there is always someone to tell who will be equally as disgusted and find it just as hilarious.
One thing I would like to mention when comparing China to Britain is that in general, people treat foreigners really well, if there is racism then from what I can see it only comes in the form of ripping us off or taxi drivers refusing us. Nothing like the violence that goes on in "developed" countries that is caused by racism. I have only seen one fight in the whole time that I've been here and that was two old men in their underpants who drank too much baijiu and then came over to give us a personal apology! (I'm sure if I came across the same situation in Glasgow on a Friday night knives and buckfast would be involved)
What was probably one of my best nights in Dalian so far was our evening of decorating the tree at Carly’s as she made some awesome brownies, singing Christmas songs (with a guitar and everything like) then trying to handle mulled wine and egg nogg. I really did just think, as this year draws to a close, in the end, there were some positives after all. I’ve met some great people from both Edinburgh and beyond that have ended up feeling like a family, everyone has fitted so well together, which may be surprising considering how different we all are. But it’s the people that I’ve ended up being here with, including my Ayi – spitting and all - that have really made the difference. And even though it is now far too late for thanksgiving I finally realised that I do have something to be thankful for, and China isn’t so bad after all.
