When we’re aboard we look for the things that are most familiar to us. Which is probably why bad English is hilariously everywhere in China. Since it’s like the only thing I can instantly read it sticks out like a sore thumb.
A hip modern café called “GRANDPA”
At home (Kansas home) we wash our dishes by hand. It’s not that we don’t have a dishwasher; we even bought a brand new dishwasher that we never use. At my cousin’s place in China there is no dishwasher, instead it’s replaced with a dish sanitizer, which not only sanitizes your dishes by bringing it to higher temperatures but also dries them and serves as a storage area. For a culture that mostly hand washes their dishes, it’s a brilliant idea.
Dish sanitizer!
Drivers here in China (or at least this part of China) are terrifying. People complain that Boston drivers are the worst in America, but really, it’s nothing compared to driving here. It’s rare that people ever use their signal lights, getting cut off is normal, everyone weaves in and out of traffic, crosswalks exist but are totally ignored (both by pedestrians and drivers), I don’t think I’ve seen pedestrian light yet, etc. My grandma and I were on our way to the marketplace and crossing the street was terrifying.
It was like that one scene in Mulan where Grandma Fa closed her eyes and crossed the road with the lucky cricket, only I was Grandma Fa, and my grandma was Cricket. She held my hand tightly as we inched across a busy crossway. It’s not even like cars will stop for you, they’ll swerve around you, and drive on sidewalks. But we made it safely to our destination and I took a few pictures while she bought our lunch.
I’ve been thinking what aspects of culture we pass on to our kids and what’s not, specifically my grandparents to my parents to me. In China people primarily drink hot water. Filtered water is first boiled before anyone starts drinking it. It might be for sanitary reasons, to make the water potable, but it is also traditional, hot water, hot tea, etc. What we do now at home (Kansas) is we filter our water using a Brita filter, boil it, and then stick it in the fridge (cold drinking water). Here in China I let my water cool down to room temperature and my grandma asked if I wanted to add more hot water in it. I think the explanation was something like cold water is bad for your health. This summer I lived in Arizona, since I’m lazy and have gotten used to drinking tap water at college I primarily drank unfiltered tap water with ice. That probably would’ve been a total no go here.
I’m not sure what it is but it’s probably good for me
Another thing I’ve been thinking about is eastern medicine vs western medicine, partly because I’m sick right now. My relatives have been loading me up with tons of Chinese medicine; yesterday I think I had 1 herbal tea, 1 herbal drink, 2 types of Chinese medicine pills, and ibuprofen. It sounds a bit excessive but I was being polite and didn’t say no. But that got me thinking about what I normally did when I got sick in the states. I’m pretty sure we do have expired cold medicine and cough syrup hiding somewhere in the house, but when me or my brother gets sick we primarily drink BanLanGeng (a Chinese herbal drink). I don’t know the active ingredients in it, and I don’t know if it actually does much to help, but it’s become habit. That’s basically our cold routine. I’ve been indoctrinated in it enough that I have a few bags at college that I’ll drink/offer skeptical friends who usually don’t drink it.
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