What do they do about your garbage in China? Does someone come in a truck once a week and haul away the dumpster contents? Is recycling a known practice?
- Garbage is an interesting thing here. We throw everything away in the same bag, and then the ayi places it in a bin in the hallway. She will take what she wants out of it first (plastic bottles, mostly) and then put the remainder in the bin. Next, someone, from the complex?, comes and takes what she wants (metal cans, paper). Next, someone else comes and collects the garbage bag and it goes to the dump. There, it gets strewn out and picked over for the remainders (food scraps, clothing scraps; sad, but true). What is left gets eaten by animals or stays there. Basically, everything gets recycled somehow. As far as frequency, the nearest I can tell is three times a day. We here people in the hall all the time going through the garbage. I think we are going to start sorting out the metal, plastics, and paper to make it easier.
Do Chinese people do as much "disposable" stuff as Americans do?
- No, the Chinese do not use as much "disposable" stuff as Americans do. As you can see from the answer above, everything gets used as much as possible before it is discarded.
What kind of hours do people keep at work? Are they in at dawn, out at dusk? Do they take a real lunch break?
- The hours kept depend on the job. Office workers mainly work from 9:00 - 17:30. They get .5 hour for lunch. Street vendors usually work from 7:00 - 22:00. Lunch breaks are whenever they have time to find food. Construction workers are interesting. They appear to work 12 hour days (daybreak to sunset 05:00 - 18:00) and take somewhere around an hour for lunch. It's hard to tell with them because there are so many of them. For the most part, the earliest I see people working is 05:00 and the latest is 22:00. Everything kind of closes down at 22:00 except for the bars and restaurants.
Do people chew gum, drive, and talk on the phone at the same time? Or just drive and talk on the phone? Or just drive?
- Replace the gum with cigarettes and the occasional hocking a loogie out the window and all of the above apply for those who drive cars. For those who don't drive a car, replace the mode of transportation with a moped or a bicycle and keep the activities the same.
Did you purposely scramble certain words in your section on books, or did the server do that to you? Why?
- Yes, I purposely scramble words. We have email not get sent and know that certain television stations and websites are blocked at certain times. Welcome to the land of cen***ship. It is one of the fre***ms people in the US truly take for granted...
Things I saw yesterday:
- a Chinese fire drill
- a man at a booth hitting nationals with a blow-up hammer so that I could get to him to buy something
- a little girl walking through the masses in what appeared to be a junior bridesmaid's dress. Amazingly, it was still white...
- about 1 gajillion, million people all trying to push, shove, walk, shuffle through a 10 foot wide alleyway
- Have you ever tried to tread water at the top of an escalator because there is no room for you to get off and you are at the top? Try it, it's quite fun. For those of you who don't want to be embarrassed in public, stand at the very front of your treadmill and try not to get thrown off...
Okay, enough for now...
6 comments:
WOW! You saw a chinese fire drill?! Does it happen at every light in town or just random occurances?! What does that really look like?
I'm still laughing!
Karen
I always share my news with Mary the receptionist here at the office. She asked me if I could print off what Mark had just written. So, I printed it and then I noticed there were some pictures I had missed. Sorry Natalie but I totally missed your blog about your interesting day at the fair etc with the family. I don't think I could stand the shoving and pushing. We put up with that when we were in Hawaii and it got old real fast. You could be standing waiting to get on an elevator and the would just come and push their way in front of you to get in first and then push you aside when it was time to get out... That was Japanese but it sounds like Chinese are the same way.
I am wondering exactly what a Chinese fire drill is??
I was also wondering about the toilet paper situation over there. Do you get to flush it in your apartment? Or, does everyone, everywhere have to put it in the wastebasket? I was thinking about the people digging through your trash and that just would not be a pretty picture...
Back to work.
Love to you all Mom Berg
I have a new customer that lives in China with his wife. He is here visiting his family until the end of the month. He said he is going to teach me a new word everytime he comes in. I repeated the numbers 1-5, but they didn't stick in my mind. He went over how one word can be interpreted 4 different ways based on how you pronounce it. I forgot what word it was though. Too confusing while I'm at work. It is fun telling him what I am learning from you guys and then to hear about things from him too. He said he doesn't see people peeing in the streets, but has stopped a pick pocket & witnessed a woman letting another woman know she was pick pocketed, but she did nothing to stop it.
He said you should never pay more than 5 yen for a movie. And he is guessing the people walking backwards in the morning are doing their Tai Chi.
I wrote down the city that he lives in, but forgot it at work. It starts w/a G, for some reason I'm thinking Gui is the beginning. He has been living there for a year, but hasn't been to Shangaii or Pudong yet.
Oh, as far as getting pushed around... I'm use to it because I'm so small. Back when I use to go to the bars, I got pushed around all the time so I already know how to push back. I'm kind of excited to see how I'd fair against pros.
Laurie
Thanks for the picures. The picture with the kids is pretty cool. I'm afraid I have to agree with Angie about the shoving and pushing. I'm afraid my Irish blood would start to boil rather quickly. I had a lady pull right across in front of me with a big truck at noon time today in the parking lot by Taco Bell. She just took her time as much as to say "just try and hit me". Needless to say, I was not a happy person and she got the horn in her ear.
We are learning alot from all of your writings - very interesting to say the least. I think I know why the kids begged to "just stay home".
Love to all,
Mom R
Thanks, Mark, for your thorough (and often amusing) responses. The idea of recycling is a good one, but the stark reality of it is quite, um, sobering. Probably not a job I'd want.
I like the idea of starting work around 9:00 in the morning. By the way, does everyone use military time there?
The mental picture of flying loogies is one I shall not soon forget. Bianca was wondering if a loogie was something like a human hairball? Or in her words, "all that tobacco needing somewhere to go?"
Here are a few more questions:
* Friends of ours in Malaysia mentioned a fruit that is much-sought-after by the Chinese, because they believe it prevents cancer. Any idea what it is?
* Please help us in our upcoming History of Transportation unit...you've mentioned cars, bikes, mopeds, buses and footpower. What other modes of transportation do you see there? Anything ancient like rickshaws still around? (Or was that a Japanese thing?) Japan has the bullet train. Does China have a high-speed equivalent?
*How is a Chinese fire drill different from an American one?
Man, these comments are getting long...
Betsy
Hello Bergs!
You guys are doing a fabulous job with all of the information in your blog! I love it! Ed's dad may start reading it too! I sent him the address because he thought your posts sounded interesting.
Well, I am a free woman for about 10 days. Then, I start my summer classes. I am taking 3 classes this summer...9 credit hours in 10 weeks time...not too bad. I know it will be a lot of work, but I am willing to do it.
I have to say, I am not sure I could handle the smoke being blown in my face like you mentioned. Also, I am just not sure about all of the attention everytime you go outside of your home. I kind of like my privacy. I really can understand the kids just wanting to stay home for a day. I still think they will relish all of the fond mememories. And that story about Levi correcting you on what you were telling your ayi just cracked me up! Ed and Jason thought it was great too!
Better go...love you guys...
deb and graf's
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