Monday Monday

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Today was rather uneventful. I got some reading done in the morning, then had class in the afternoon. Class pretty much wipes us out, so afterwards three of us girls went to a Korean restaurant down the street. It was very good, but we weren't always sure what we were supposed to be doing with all the things they gave us. The restaurant was set up similar to a Japanese steakhouse in the sense that each table had a burner and hood with which we could cook our own meat. The difficult part was knowing what to do with all the sauces and condiments they gave us. We also had a big "flinzen", or a big sheet of thin egg with some veggies cooked into it. That is about all the excitement I had for the day.
Since my day was rather uneventful, I would like to fill you in on yet another cultural difference that I have observed here in Beijing. Apparently when children are potty training, there are special pants that they wear. These pants are slit down the back, so that two and three year olds are running around with their butts hanging out. It is quite a sight. I personally think that kids should keep their diapers on until they are fully potty trained. It just doesn't seem very sanitary if a kid has an accident.
In response to Carla's question about the given names, I think it would be very difficult to just switch names for some people because at least in my office the reason they all have English names is for correspondence with foreigners. So if Kitty just changed her name, it might be kind of weird if she has been corresponding with someone and all of a sudden just starts signing her name Cathy. The person on the other end might think it is a different person and would find it difficult to understand if she had just changed her first name.
Also, since this is a catch up day, I would like to revisit the yellow sidewalk path topic because I have been paying more attention to them. After closer observation, I am pretty much sold on the idea of the path being there for the blind because normally the bumps are elongated ovals, but when it comes to a place that a person should stop the bumps turn into circles. I have also noticed that the path is not always rubber, but more often brick. It is rubber inside buildings, but not as often outside on the sidewalk because what rubber I have seen outside is cracking.

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Comments

[carla]

potty training pants
Maybe that's what Justin is waiting for! The right potty training pants! :-) It does sound rather unsanitary. Back to the names, so why ask for another English name, if you already have one? (I'm just not getting the hang of this!) So Kitty would use another name just for correspondence with an English speaking country? But continue to be called Kitty on a daily basis? (Is Kitty a Chinese name?) This is very interesting but confusing.

[Chris Budke]

Yellow Path
Tekla, I enjoyed your journal. glad you are diong well. Will look forward to learning the true identity og the yellow path as time goes on.

[Lisa D]

Yellow Path
Oh well... there goes my fantasy about it being the yellow brick road to oz. Have you asked anyone there about the path? I do hope this isn't going to be one of life's little mysteries. Tekla, are people curious about you? Do they often try to question you about anything such as where you come from, your culture, etc?

[Beverly Dziengelewski]

Braille Path
Cool let your feet do the reading. Puts a whole new spin on saying "Braille me."