The Last of the Random Thoughts

1-      The longer I am in China, the worse I am getting with my chopsticks.  Today I tried to use them and I was so awkward. It felt as if it was the first time I had used chopsticks.

2-      I was standing on a corner, watching an old woman collect plastic bottles from pedestrians.  I quickly took her picture and in the process, caught her attention. She came over and said something in a loud voice.  I thought she was annoyed with me.  But she wanted to tell me that I come from “a wonderful country”.  A long time ago, she met an American and he was polite to her so she thinks we are all polite.  She stared at me a little bit, checked me up and down, laughed to herself and then went back to her task.

3-      She gets 1 yuan for every 10 bottles she collects.  So she gets 10 Yuan for every 100 bottles and that is about $1.75.  She told me she collects about 30 bottles a day. So she makes about 50 cents a day.  She is 80 and this is her daily income.  The government sends her 10 Yuan a month.

4-      Today, one of my students noticed that I had blue eyes so she came right up to me to take a closer look.  We were just about nose to nose and I was a little uncomfortable with my lack of personal space.  And when she moved away, I saw that a line had formed and the other 8 students wanted to have a look as well.

5-      There is a new building going up right next to my dorm.  Workers have been working from 630Am to 700PM, seven days a week for the entire time I have been here.  They must be behind schedule because last night, around 2:00AM, I heard a car outside.  It woke me up and I got up to see what was going on.  The car drove right in to the construction site and six adults got out of this small car.  Three of them were women and they were holding small children, swaddled in blankets.  They placed the children down on the ground in a corner of the exposed building and the six adults went to work, the front lights of the car serving as their only source of light.

6-      A student offered me some food from her plastic bag.  “It is delicious”, she tells me. When I looked it, it was filled with fried chicken feet.  NO THANKS.

7-      I had a wool jacket tailor made for me- $40.

8-      We were in a hot pot restaurant and food just kept coming to our table.  A jelled block of something brick color arrived.  I asked what it was.  “Goat blood. It is delicious.”

9-      Selia met a man from Poland.  “Have you ever heard of Poland?” she asked me. I told her a little bit about Poland and she told me, “I think I have to teach myself about the world”.

10-   I am at the airport, waiting to go home.  Our flight is delayed so tea is served to everyone.