My Top Ten

---

Sorry for the delay, but here are my “Top Ten.”

Top Ten Favorite Things

1. Adventure and opportunity. That pretty much covers it.
2. Making new friends, both Chinese and non-Chinese.
3. Public transportation and the easy and lazy way of life it provides me.
4. My students. I don’t dislike them, but they aren’t my number one.
5. The easy access to fresh fruits and vegetables.
6. The random assortment of things to do at anytime of the day. Be it a disco, KTV, crazy gyms, out of this world spas, and amazing arcades.
7. The crazy Chinese toys that they invent. Almost anything that looks like it if for a kid isn’t. It is for me! That’s right, adults.
8. The appreciation that you feel when your eat food that you grew up eating.
9. When I am talking people don’t listen , so if I am angry and need to rant, by all means rant away.
10. Chinese marketing ploys. Clapping to make you enter the store or clubbing music in linen shops.

Top Ten Least Favorite Things
1. Distance from my family and friends.
2. The language barrier. Even though I am learning the language, it is still there.
3. The non-airtight apartments. It is better for the environment, but terrible for cleanliness.
4. The unidentifiable origin and the smell of the stink that invades my bathroom in the morning.
5. There aren’t any full length running tracks. They are all 250 Meters. I don’t really mind the short track but rather the need to do so much math in order to go a decent distance. Pretty annoying.
6. Having to be rude in order to be kind. Yeah, it is kind of uncomfortable.
7. The water. You can’t drink it from the tap. So you can only drink bottled water, and the only way to get water is to pester the water guy (who likes us less and less as time goes on).
8. The kitchen sink is too low. When I do the dishes the problem is not that I am doing the dishes, it is the pain inflicted on my back.
9. The time difference.
10. I am a foreigner and everyone believes that it is something that they must state out loud and bring to my attention.

Brian

---