An extremely large part of staying for extended time in a foreign country is adapting to their lifestyles and culture. With the exception to a few things, nothing has really taken me by too big of a surprise here. Simple things such as not drinking water and hang drying all clothing are worth noticing, but I'm not going to delve too much into trivial tasks like that.
If this is your first post of my blog that you are reading, I would advise you to read a different one. This post will contain some crude and gross content.
The first thing that I noticed was that all of the clothing that infants wear has a cut in the back that their diaper sticks out from. In the past, there would be no diaper there and the children would go freely about their business. Thankfully, this is no longer a common practice. I did however see something very similar to this when I shopping for apartment supplies. I was outside in front of a store when a mother leads her child outside. The child then squats and shits right there on the sidewalk. After the mother cleans up the child, they both just walk away as if nothing happened. I couldn't believe what I had just saw. This was the first thing here that had really taken my by surprise.
The second thing that happened was at the supermarket near my apartment. I went to reach for a bag of chips when something fell and hit my hand. I first thought that it was loose product or something like that. Unfortunately, that was not the case. What had fallen was a mouse and it appeared to have crippled itself during his fall. A little freaked out, I walked away and left it there. Before I was 5 feet away, a woman that worked for the store came up and just stepped on it. Another employee then came and swept up the mess. I understand that this sort of thing happens everywhere, but it was still surprising to me.
If this is your first post of my blog that you are reading, I would advise you to read a different one. This post will contain some crude and gross content.
The first thing that I noticed was that all of the clothing that infants wear has a cut in the back that their diaper sticks out from. In the past, there would be no diaper there and the children would go freely about their business. Thankfully, this is no longer a common practice. I did however see something very similar to this when I shopping for apartment supplies. I was outside in front of a store when a mother leads her child outside. The child then squats and shits right there on the sidewalk. After the mother cleans up the child, they both just walk away as if nothing happened. I couldn't believe what I had just saw. This was the first thing here that had really taken my by surprise.
The second thing that happened was at the supermarket near my apartment. I went to reach for a bag of chips when something fell and hit my hand. I first thought that it was loose product or something like that. Unfortunately, that was not the case. What had fallen was a mouse and it appeared to have crippled itself during his fall. A little freaked out, I walked away and left it there. Before I was 5 feet away, a woman that worked for the store came up and just stepped on it. Another employee then came and swept up the mess. I understand that this sort of thing happens everywhere, but it was still surprising to me.
My next surprise was another supermarket. At the supermarkets and grocery stores here, they have fish tanks with live fish so that customers know they are getting the freshest fish possible. I never thought about how the fish gets from the store to the customer though. What I saw answered the questions that I hadn't really asked. A man chose the fish that he wanted and the clerk used his net to remove the fish from the tank. The clerk then lays the fish and the net on the ground and crushes the fish's head with a hammer like object. It wasn't the most pleasant thing to witness but I guess that's just how its done here.
The final part of this post isn't an event as much as its a series of observations I've had about our cultural differences. Eating here is something to witness. It's loud, messy, and very fast. When eating, people have very few reservations that people from America have. Spitting on the tablecloth, slurping the food, and being messy is perfectly acceptable. Another thing I've noticed is that you are expected to provide your own paper for everything. Bathrooms require that you bring your own paper as well as most cafeterias. And with exception to a few areas, people will just leave garbage wherever. I noticed many people just throw their garbage onto the sidewalk as they entered a store. What's shocking to me, is that most of these things are just considered the norm here.
I'm not trying to complain about any of the things that I've seen while I'm here. I just wanted to make it clear that people need to willing to go very far out of their comfort zone if they want to live internationally. These are the things that one needs to be okay with. Every culture is different and I'm sure the Chinese will see things that people do in America and have disgust or surprise towards it. I want this to be both a look into some of the extreme differences between our cultures as well as a warning for people who want to travel so that they can live within another nation's culture.
I'm not trying to complain about any of the things that I've seen while I'm here. I just wanted to make it clear that people need to willing to go very far out of their comfort zone if they want to live internationally. These are the things that one needs to be okay with. Every culture is different and I'm sure the Chinese will see things that people do in America and have disgust or surprise towards it. I want this to be both a look into some of the extreme differences between our cultures as well as a warning for people who want to travel so that they can live within another nation's culture.