Pudding and Chopsticks

So here I am still working, kind of, with almost an entire country on holiday. It’s great, not really.

Anyway, at least Starbucks is open. I can have real coffee. So here I am.

Like I said before, Starbucks is slaying it here. They recently expanded the second floor to double the space it was before. It’s always packed.

MARK MY WORDS, STARBUCKS IS GOING TO SLAY IT HERE.

Anyway, the reason I wanted to write a little post today is to give you a little insight to what I would think average rich, or well off Chinese parents do. Am I saying all Chinese parents do this, no, but I’ve seem my fair share do this exact same thing, so I guess it’s fair to say it’s a trend.

So I sit down and I see two adults, both playing on Iphone 4s. I also see one kid, maybe 3, 4, playing by himself. He comes over and we start to chat. Mostly about why my nose is so big and why he like drinking milk. You know, important diplomatic relation type things.

Parents didn’t flinch.

I know this happens in the States too, but come on people. It’s no wonder adults have effed up personalities and do bad things. You are in a Starbucks ignoring your son, playing on your iPhone 4 while he is prancing around. Creating an effed up adult.

I don’t know, I mean, yes I have had a lot of friends have kids. I know how it is, I’ve come as close as I can to having kids without actually having kids. To be honest, I can’t wait, it’s going to be awesome. So when I see two parents ignoring their kids when they could be teaching them about something, how the world works, black holes, space time continuums and Legos. Come one. How can that not be fun.

I see a lot of parents here ignoring their children and it makes me sad. One day that kid will grow up and think he/she is terrible and can’t please anyone or some other personality disorder because you neglected them, instead you played a game on your phone. IT’S A EFFING PHONE PEOPLE. I know it’s magical but you have just given life to a person, I’d say that a little more magical in my book.

Well, yes it’s been awhile since I last posted. Why, well, I’ve been busy and just haven’t been in the writing mood I guess.

It usually goes something like, I have a great idea to write about, get home, ah, I don’t feel like writing.

Or, I need to write, I start and then realize it’s rubbish and stop give up and go to bed.

So I guess what’s been going on lately.

Been busy building widgets.

Turned 30 on 11/11/11. Interestingly enough.

It’s been getting colder.

That’s about it. Really. Nothing really interesting is happening in my life.

Girls, well, I’ll post something on that soon.

Peace.

Ok, so let me give you the back story.

I was in the warehouse over a week ago and needed to cut some material. I asked the warehouse people for some scissors. They gave me some big ass awesome ones. Probably would of cost the same as a Honda Accord in the States. But here with cheap materials and labor, they are super cheap. Anyway, I used them and gave them back. The next day I needed to do the same thing. I asked again and again they gave them to me.

So I haven’t had to use the scissors in a week or two because I bought my own. I wanted some so I went and paid pennies for a pair that I could cuddle at night with.

So what just happened. The warehouse women rolls into my office and says something like, the scissors you used last time where are they. I reply I don’t know, I gave them back. She said are you sure. I was like yeah, it was a long time ago. Pretty sure I gave them back but I don’t really remember. They’re not here.

She rolls out bitching about something.

I go to the warehouse where I worked and found no sign of said scissors. I then looked in my work area and again, no scissors. She finds me and I saw, nope, no scissors. I gave them back to that guy. She then replies, you forgot. How could you of given them back if you forgot. I said they are not here and I gave them back. The then says that I am a cheater/lying and something else. Now I am thinking that there is no way that I can no convince her that I don’t still have them. She probably already made up her mind. For one because I was the last one she actually saw use them. Even though it is possible that someone else asked the other guy and or knows where they are. They are big scissors and hard to loose. If I still had them I would of found them, they are like a foot long. It’s also easy to blame me because I can afford to by new ones. White guy is rich right.. Also because I don’t think anyone here actually likes me and when it comes down to it they will bury me with whatever they can find. Think Dalian oil spill. Perhaps the Chinese are responsible for the spill, no one will ever know, but by god, they spun it to make it seem like it was the foreigners company that was at fault. Thus it doesn’t matter who has the scissos, or if she will ever find them. I was the last person she physically saw having the scissors in their hands over two weeks ago. So before she even asked me she already made up her mind and was going to throw me under the bus.

Now this could happen anywhere. But lets take a look at what would or at least I think would happen in a civilized country.

Hey, Pudding, have you seen those scissors. Uh, no sorry. I’m pretty sure that I gave them back. Oh, really, I can’t find them.. huh. Well let me help you look for them. (look all around) Yeah pretty sure I gave them back. It was a bit ago I can’t really remember but I can’t find them at any of my work stations and I always give the tools I use back so, I can say with almost absolute conviction that I did in fact give them back to the other guy. Oh ok, well, I’ll just keep looking.

Done. Because really, wasting time on one pair of scissors is actually keeping you from actually doing something productive. But here in China, penny wise dollar short. I bet for sure she is going to keep looking wasting hers and everyone’s time and them bury me saying that I have them and there is now way in hell that anyone else does. The evil over paid foreigner did it..

So after she said that I was lying to her or cheating her I let her have it. I don’t take that crap anymore. So I just agreed. Yep, I’m lying to you and cheated you. I still have your scissors. To which she slams the door and locks me out of the warehouse. Good times..

Anyway, just thought like sharing this little gem..

Some of you know that I am a photographer, was a photographer and or still am. I do not work currently as a full time photographer. But I still do shoot. Anyway, I went to college back what seems like a decade ago and graduated. Did very well. I was in the last class to use traditional film techniques while embracing the future of digital. In fact I was the first in the major city I lived near to purchase a D2H. At the time it was the fastest, most bad ass camera you could get. The price was bad ass too. 3200$. Anyway, I bought it with a loan from family member which I paid back in full with my own very hard earned money. I worked very hard to do what I did. Went to school full time over 20 credit hours a week, and worked full-time, 40 hrs a week, and shot assignments for school and for my portfolio. I had to do this because I couldn’t afford the richer route of not having to work during college and having someone buy all my photography gear. I had to.

I love photography, I love capturing moments, hand crafting light on a product, and doing everything in-between. So why am I not a professional photographer now making boat loads of money in the States. Well let me tell you. It’s not because I didn’t work hard. I did. Could I of worked harder, that’s debatable. Everyone can work harder. I assisted, shot for papers, sports teams, magazines, etc. But why didn’t I make it big, well it’s going to sound like I’m just bitching up a storm and blaming my lack of success on other people. But however people read it as, there is truth in this. Read the comment below.

This is a comment about photography found on Gizmodo. Sorry I have forgotten what topic it was pertaining to. It’s been a few days since I saved the this text. Doesn’t make it any less relevant.

The problem with this is that when Cartier-Bresson said this, his weapon of choice was a Leica rangefinder with a 36 exposure roll of film. Not a Canon 7D cranking out 8 frames per second. 10,000 frames just isn’t really anything these days. Last year, I taught a photojournalism workshop and sent a number of students out on assignment to an event with the goal of capturing the essence of the event itself. In the course of an afternoon, every single person shot over a thousand images with the high number of the day being over FOUR THOUSAND images. In SIX hours. In film terms, 10000 frames represents 277 rolls of film and at today’s prices, nearly a thousand dollars in investment on film alone. Figure another 3-5 bucks per roll for chemistry if you shot B&W and decided to develop it yourself. And then the time involved as well. Almost by sheer procedure alone, you’re bound to learn SOMETHING about the photographic process along the way. With digital, there are no repercussions of going hammer down on the shutter and spraying and praying, and unfortunately, my students were living proof of this. My Nikon F5 will burn through a 5 dollar roll of film in 4 seconds at full tilt, but the thing that would keep anyone from doing so is just that- you have to pay for film. It costs money. Outside of the cost of a memory card, you can take millions of photos and it won’t cost you a dime. So back to my class. What it ultimately boils down to (and what I referred to in my earlier post) is that the vast majority beginning of photographers aren’t using their eyes, camera, and brain in conjunction. You can teach ANYONE to take a technically decent photo. Take a look at the “studio” at your local Walmart. The cameras are fixed to camera stands, lights are bolted to the walls and floor. Someone already did all of the hard work, so all the “photographer” has to do is make the brat smile and hit the shutter (the one and only button exposed on the camera, by the way; everything else is covered up by a bracket) at the right moment. The technology is just too accessible and too easy these days to put a quantifier like a 10000 image threshold on it. People get so enamored with the fact that they can do something now, but rarely think about what they’re doing.

 

I remember this football team I used to shoot. I did it for basically free. I loved doing it. I love football. I did it well. I didn’t give my images away, I sold them to parents and papers. Don’t take this as bragging but my images where good. Really good. So what happened. Well there was a parent of another guy, way older than I was that starting showing up and shooting. It pains me to see his images. They are soo terrible. How he started I’m not for sure. I can’t really bitch about him but there is a good chance that he didn’t put the study, the work, or the time into what I had done and learned. The parents really didn’t know what a good football photo was and what a bad photo was. I mean to their defense all they want is a photo of their son playing football. NFL quality or not, it didn’t matter. So this guy starting slinging all these bad photos around. I on the other had only let the good ones get out. I suppose that I being the perfectionist I am didn’t want people to see the outtakes if I had any. He on the other had didn’t seem to care, unless he didn’t know any better.

I also had this happen with a professional sports team. I didn’t make much money at it. But I had to take whatever they offered me. It opened a lot of doors. And if I didn’t work for peanuts some other kid would of. So I did. I didn’t sell out completely but any professional photographer would of turned down the job. I took it. It might of been the wrong thing to do but there was no way that I was going to teach this PR guy any lessons. Hell during the season he gave people free press passes for exchanging images with him. The guys that were getting free passes were not professional photographers. They were guys that could afford cameras, thought it was cool, didn’t study it, and didn’t need to make money doing it. I on the other had did. I did my 10,000 images, my hours of training. So yeah, that chapped my ass a bit.

I moved to Colorado to pursue two of may passions: Photography and Snowboarding. In hindsight I should of moved to Utah or Cali. Anyway, I have to compete with rich kids who didn’t go to photography school but had all the gear. I on the other had had to work a day time job. Vail is expensive.. Anyhow, this is what photography has become. Anyone can enter, there is no price for admission. Once there was. As stated in the comment. But now, soccer moms with nothing to do start photography businesses, etc. Putting trained hard working photographers out of business. I guess it’s the way the market, progression, and technology are.

So with today’s culture of everything for free, stealing images, etc. Along with the entry free for creative things being about nothing, and everyone wanted to do them, we are in for a drastic change in the creative community. Photos are already cheap. People do it for free. Undercutting a lot of professional people. It hurts. Agencies and mags settle for crappy photos just as long as they are cheap. It’s a bad cycle. I could write and discuss this topic for hours. Perhaps this post is a little jumbled and incoherent, but hey, I have so many things to say, so many opinions that I don’t know where to start.

So what am I to do, well I’m still at it. I just live in China. I shoot when I can and what I can. I have some idea that I am going to pursue in the near future. At least there aren’t any soccer moms here.

Below are some of the images that I found really quick. Really I didn’t have enough time to put together some awesome portfolio for this blog post. I literally have thousands upon thousands of images to dig through. Anyway, I might post some more oldie but goodies in the future. Give me something to do I guess.

It’s just been one of those days. Which has been happening a lot in the past month or two. Trying to find the good in living here in this city, and even in China.

Why has it been such a bad day, well, let me count the ways. I get a day off because it is Mid Autumn Festival. If you don’t know what it is Google it.. So with my brilliance I decided to head downtown. Well really it was the shear fact that I am bored as hell in the out skirts. Really nothing to do but drink and bang hookers with the latter being something I don’t do. So I headed in, which meant that I was on a bus with the entire population of eastern China. On a holiday everyone has the day off. So, everyone wants to go to the big city.

I walked through my apartment complex to be stopped by banging door guy. You can read about him here. He said that my coworker that was supposed to take care of paying something didn’t. Go figure. And get this, this coworker has since quit and left my place of employment. Now, this guy wanted me to give him my number, uh, yeah not happening, then wanted my coworkers number, I don’t know it, then asked my how I don’t know it. I told him I see him everyday why do I need his number. That seemed to satisfy him. Anyway, this brings me to another planned blog post about the level of competence here, or rather a lack thereof. Next time. So I told him that I would have someone call him or some bs tomorrow. Great some more bullshit I have to deal with. Great isn’t it.

So I head downtown. Did I mention that it was hot in the bus. Actual Chinese people started to complain about it, I get hot way way faster then Chinese people do. So when they complain it’s hot, it’s effing hot. Finally after waiting like 10 minutes to stop at a bus stop, there was a long line of buses to drop off, they turned on the air. Not after everyone started yelling at the driver and money taker girl. And after they yelled back. After an argument. Finally air.

I got off and got on another bus. It was supposed to be a short little ride to the place that I was going. But no, it seems that everyone with a car also wanted to come downtown.

Finally off the bus after an hour and at my destination. That stop went fairly well. Now off to the next one. I walked a bit, hit up the fake dvd store, then walked a bit more to the new shiny mall. Where I had some ice-cream. Did that go smoothly, well, kind of. I had to wait for 5 mins for a little fat kid to make up his mind about what he wanted.

Then I headed to Starbucks where I usually go. Found a place to near some girls that looked like students. They stared at me for a good 2-3 mins until I asked them if they had a problem. To which they replied no. Couldn’t get on the wireless, hrmm. Well that figures.

After a bit I head to the store across the way and walk around. After passing five Porsches, 10 BMW 700s, tens of tens of Audis, a Hummer, a Jeep, I get board and frustrated and decide to head back and cry myself to sleep. To the bus stop where I wait for 20 minutes in the blazing hot sun for a bus to arrive, FULL. Great. I then hail a cab, which stops, and we speed off. We then get to my street. He says straight, I say left turn. He confirms left turn, then goes straight. I say left turn, he backs up in the middle of the road. We then finally make it to my complex and I get out. Alive. Awesome.

I chill at home and watch a movie. I got a little hungry so I head down to a local spot I go to at least once a week. I order something I always get. I then go get a soda at the store and some dumplings at a different restaurant. Then it happens. Something that has NEVER happened. The new guy at my local place tells me that I can’t eat other places food in his place. Ok, I get it. It’s the same in the US. But that’s one of the reasons I like China. I can do whatever. Get food from three effing places if I want then eat it all at one place. But this time no, new guy didn’t like it. I think one of the workers that knows me told new guy to chill out.

Then my food arrives, yeah, after which I get this notion that it’s not quite right. I try a few bits and nope. It tastes nothing like before, the rice is cold, there is a lot of liquid in the bottom of the plate, WTF.. Great, can’t a guy get a little consistency here.. Apparently not. Anyway I was pissed so I spit out the food back on the plate in front of the workers, threw my money on the table and bailed to the restaurant where I bought my dumplings.

Again, lately it’s been hard to find things I like here. Really hard.

Last night you while you were sleeping the world was turning. You open your eyes, fold the covers over and sit on the edge of your bed. You stare down at your feet. You wonder to yourself what your feet looked like 37 years ago. Your knees crack as you attempt to sit up, an exciting youth makes for lazy knees. You squint as the morning light glares off your pupils.

You move your feet one by one. Placing the left in front of the right. So on and so fourth. You open the bathroom door and turn on the light. You can hear the flickering of the greenish florescent light. You see your face. You haven’t shaven in a few days. You pick up your toothbrush and start the today because today is just another day.

The water rushes over the colored bristles. Washing away the used toothpaste. Spiraling and snaking it’s way around the drain just like a circle of life goes round and round.

Your wife screams. The rushing water seems even faster now. The toothbrush bounces off the floor, landing in a dust bunny.

She is sitting on the side of the bed. Clutching her stomach and staring at you as run in. Her facial expression says it all. The neurons in your brain seem to all fire at once. But they are in sync. You know exactly what to do. It may be early, but it’s been a long time coming.

You’ve known for over half a year that this day would come. The day your wife would have to go to the hospital. This past week you’ve thought about it a lot. What you would do, how you would feel. More importantly you thought about the love of your life. The girl you met those years ago. The girl with the vigor for life. The girl that became a women and took your hand in marriage. What is she thinking, feeling, is she hurting, or is she thinking about you and how you feel.

You throw the bags in the car and race off. The country-side races by as you concentrate on getting to the hospital. Time slows.

She can still walk but just barely. She uses you as a crutch as you both walk into the hospital. Arm in arm you arrive.

The doctors say that everything is as can be expected. They have done this many times before they say, but the words don’t hold the weight that they should. You watch as you wife’s face slowly departs and drifts down the hallway on the wave of a hospital bed.

By the way you are pacing there should be a trail worn into the floor of the waiting room. Hours go by. The sweat drips from your forehead as you glance at your watch. The double doors open and there they are. She left as one but has returned as two.

You have never seen such beauty. The glow they give off is unparalleled. Your wife tells you to come over. Your heart races, your feet barely move, your palms are sweaty, and your breath barely escapes your exhaling lungs. She takes your hand, squeezes it tight. You can’t stop looking at him. Such a small thing. Tiny, delicate, a blank slate to the world. You look over at you wife who is crying, you then look back at your son. You’ve waited 9 months to see his face, and there he is, all 6 lbs.

You take a dry towel and immerse it in a nuke warm tub of water. Saturating it. You lift it out and twist it into a knot like shape. Wringing the extra water out. The water makes a playful splashing sound as it returns to the tub. You take your wife’s arm and gently wipe the sweat from it. It’s been merely hours. Your son is resting peacefully by her side. Every so often kicking his feet and batting his arms.

You’ve never seen your wife this beautiful. She has joined the club of motherhood. Just as your mother did when she gave birth to you. You lay her hand back down and pat the sweat from her forehead. Your wife’s eye’s close.

The nights are short, the sleep is even shorter. Two by two the blocks of hours go by. The hospital chair couldn’t be much more uncomfortable. But you are optimistic, tomorrow you go home.

Last night you while you were sleeping the world was turning. You open your eyes, fold the covers over and sit on the edge of your bed. You stare down at your feet. You wonder if his feet will look like your feet in 37 years. Your knees crack as you attempt to sit up. You can hear the faint sound of squirming. You squint as the morning light glares off your pupils.

You turn and see your wife sleeping peacefully with your son by her side. Looking around the room in wonder. His miniature fingers gripped into a fist. He looks up and sees you. His grayish eyes fixated in a stare. He smiles and shakes his head. You can’t help but smile yourself. As you do your wife’s eyes open. She sees you looking at your son, she smiles.

This is now a normal morning. And you like it.

Congratulations my friend.

You have now joined the club of fatherhood. A club where fishing, bikes, snakes, and planes exist. A place where the wildest imaginations run wild. Your son, a bridge between two sides of the world, will be your apprentice. A blank slate to everything, including language. Teach him well.

I congratulate the three of you, perhaps one day, I will be as fortunate.

I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit the last few days. We have a few customers in town and they, for the most part, are new to China. I like to talk, so it works out well. I get to explain what I think China is about and where it is going. I’m no expert, I just call them like I see them.

So, the double standard. Basically everything is a double standard. We want to be able to do something to other people but don’t want other people to do the same thing to us. It’s common. I’m not going to lie. So what double standard am I talking about, well, let me lay it out for you.

The China staring double standard. That’s what I will deem this topics title. So, in China you will have a massive amount of people stare at you. You could be the first non-Chinese person that they have seen. Of course that are going to stare. I’ve been here for a good stint. I am used to it, I don’t really like it, but whatever. I usually stare back and they then usually turn away. Works out well.

Now you may be asking yourself where the double standard is. If you are, listen up. I want people to stare at me, but only the hot girls. Yeah, you heard that right. But really doesn’t any guy? Of course they do. China makes you feel like a rock star sometimes. You roll into places sometimes and girls flock to you. You are now the envy of lots of Chinese guys. White skin, big eyes, long eye lashes, big nose, tall, with a passport. It makes you feel good.

But yeah. It happens with any foreigner anywhere. Asian girl in the Midwest. Bam. She can get pretty much whatever she wants. So why can’t a guy feel that way. Well in China they can.

So where’s my problem. Well, in other places I have been girls are a little more open minded, or something. I’m not for sure what, but they treat foreigners different. Smile at them, approach them, or at least give off some kind of clue, body language, wink, Jesus just something to say, hey there, I want to know you but I’m too scared to say so, or I like you or something….

But damnit. This city has none of that. NONE. In this city I am just another Chinese guy. Which in any other circumstance, for the most part, I want to be. But to the ladies I do not want to be treated like a Chinese guy, I want to be treated like a celebrity, like a foreigner. So there is the double standard. I don’t want guys to look at me, I want the ladies to.

What could be the cause of this. Well I have some ideas. Most are directly related to this city. This city is, well, it acts very much like a bigger city. The main city only has something like 600,000 people but it’s a rich 600,000. They also come off a little proud and shut off to outsiders. It is a tourist town. The real reason I may never know.

Am I supposed to feel a guilty for feeling this way, nah. I’m just being honest. I’m not ugly, nor am I some kind of closed off don’t know how to talk to girls geek, so don’t think I am one of those kind of expats that came to kind to pillage the women. I didn’t.

In America I would like to think that I would at least get a smile or have a girl look at me. But here I don’t even get that. So I would honestly say that it is worse than in America. It’s probably because they all think that I may never stay here, or can’t speak Chinese, or something like that. So why even try to talk to me. Probably a big hassle anyway. And why would you want a hassle when there are guys in Porches and BMWs that grew up in the same city as you. They’re rich and you have something in common. I can just imagine someone moving into my hometown when I was a kid, they would be an outsider, shunned, etc. I feel a lot like that here.

Oh the joys of being an outsider. Don’t they make you feel all warm inside.

I got the day off today because it is a Chinese holiday. Tomb sweeping or something. Basically it’s a day were people go to sweep the graves of those who have passed away. I am guessing that they don’t actually sweep the graves, it’s just an expression used to say that they are paying their yearly respects to their relatives.

So that leaves me at Starbucks again. Well not entirely. Today I did the laundry, cleaned the house and them went to buy a 3G sim card for the iPad. Awesome. I then walked a long ass ways because the weather was good and then I ended up here at Starbucks. Currently I have a cute girl sitting next to me. I am guessing that she has rich parents because she has a iPad. I doubt that she is a hooker or married, or even a mistress so that leaves a rich daddy to take care of her. She is probably a student of something. Which is why she is sitting next to me sucking down a vanilla frap. Waiting for me to say hello so that she can start to barrage me with English questions. Or I am over thinking this and she has a secret crush on me and has been staking me since this morning. That actually would be cool.

Oh forgot to a mention that she is watching An English TV show. Gee, why doesn’t that surprise me.

Anyway here are some photos from, well, recently.

Stay stunned for some blogs about important things.

Sitting at Starbucks again on a Sunday. There are what appears to be two Korean girls sitting in two different chairs around a single table. The thing is that there are a total of six chairs in all that surround this particular coffee table. However, in the way that they are sitting they are taking up the entire area. So for the most part no one else can sit there with them without it becoming weird. Such is the case with people that feel privileged, or with people in China.

Just had to switch to 3G on the iPad because the wifi here are Starbucks is not working. I wanted to download this new app to write with but it won’t work. I’ve found this to happen a good amount of the time. Most of the apps that you can buy in the app store are from the US. Thusly the servers are also located there. So sometimes when you want to download an app, connect to the apps server, and or save something it doesn’t work. So thank god to VPNs. I mainly don’t use the Internet without one on. Just the way it has to be.

There are a ton of topics I would like to write about but they come and go so fast that really I don’t have the time to write about them all. Maybe someday I will be paid to write about China for a living. I guess that would be cool.

So for now I would like to give you a run down of all the blog ideas that I wrote down from the past week.

1: The factory and things that stink.

2: Sweeping and the inefficiency of taking the time before hand.

3: The girl from GxG Jeans.

4: The window.

5: Scheduling things.

6: The hospital. Twice. I’m fine.

7: Interruptions, they’re awesome and not awesome at the same-time.

8: Excuses.

9: The paper work mule.

10: Hierarchy and Inefficiency in China

11:$h1tting in the street will be the downfall of a society.

I remember all these things because I recently downloaded this app called Evernote. It’s a note taking app that syncs with your iPad, iPhone, and mac. So it’s the bee knees. For instance I am on my iPad and I need to access a note that I took on my phone, bam, done, I just sync Evernote with the server and it brings up whatever that I saved from before. The only downside to this is that it has to sync with a server that is in America. So sometimes it doesn’t want to sync. Just the way of life in China and things that happen on the Internet.

Hopefully I can hammer some of these topics out right now while I am here, watching people drinking coffee. Now if I could only find a job where I would have to do this for a living. That my friends would be what we call, the ticket.

It’s kinda weird not being in the States for the fourth of July. But you know, I still get to stay in touch. I kinda miss …. well lets just leave it at that. There are many things that I did back home that I probably could get in trouble for. But anyway here I am in China. No fireworks, although I could go get some for cheap and light them off in the middle of the street and no one would blink an eye. But no, I am going to blog and tell you about a slice of Chinese life that I experienced the other day.

A pal and I were walking down a popular street the other day. It occurred to us that this street has a Dairy Queen on it. We bee lined for it and the air conditioning that it contained. Anyone that has gone to DQ with myself knows that I don’t joke around when it comes to my Oreo Blizzard. This is serious stuff. Since there is no way in H that I can say Oreo Blizzard in Chinese I had my pal order some. Big ones. I can remember hitting up A-basin the first month it was open and shredding the only hill in North America that had snow. My fellow Vail people and I would then hit up DQ for some much needed calcium. Ahh the good days in Colorado. Anyway, back to DQ in China. A large in China is a small in America. This sucks, but is also good. America is fat people. It’s true. Why, well, because when you order a large in America it comes in a 5 gallon bucket. Awesome… but not so awesome, if you know what I mean. So we took our Blizzards and had a seat in the back of the seating area near the bathrooms. Nice spot, cold air. About half way done with my little slice of heaven I noticed a mom holding a kid up to the sink. I could only see their back sides. Probably just washing his hands. The sink was pretty high. She then set him down and he looked like he wiped his hands on the front of his pants. Not big deal, do it all the time. Oh wait nope, he’s not done washing his hands, she lifts him back up and then I noticed it. He was actually peeing in the sink. His mom was holding him up to the sink so that he could them pee into it. I suppose that the bathrooms that were 5 ft from then were out of service somehow. Nice little slice of life in China, huh? It’s a little better then the clothes little kids wear with holes in the butt so that they can pop a squat next to a tree and do work while their mom looks on. Got to love it.

I leave you with a little roadside Chinese wisdom.. Happy fourth everyone. Stay safe, have fun, get out the welding gases.. Shhh. I didn’t say that.

Peace.