It's warming up in China

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Still plugging away here in China! We’ve now filmed four episodes of Just Follow Me and we’re working on posting the third online. We keep asking about the second episode but we get a Chinese answer, meaning that we get an answer but it doesn’t pertain to the question we asked. This happens numerous times every day.

Yangzhou is getting a bit mundane, which is to be expected since we’re well into our third month here. But the people here never cease to amaze me, humor me and most often make me wonder when logic and intelligence went out the window. I’ll back those up with stories.

We joined a gym last week that’s about two blocks away from our apartment - an easy bike ride. The gym is almost brand new and we’ve yet to work out there when anyone else is working out too. We’re almost convinced we’re the only members. The gym has a full sized bar/lounge/internet café next to the weight room in case anyone wants a beer before the next set. It also has a really nice outdoor pool that is not open yet. As the staff explained to us, the pool won’t open until July because it’s not yet hot enough outside for swimming. And this is when intelligence went out the window. Last weekend we reached a high of 35 degree Celsius, 95 degrees Fahrenheit, and we’ve had countless days above 80 degrees Fahrenheit. But the pool remains closed because it’s not yet hot enough. This makes me wonder a) how hot it’s actually going to get this summer and b) exactly what temperature is appropriate for the Chinese to go swimming? On a really hot day we can walk around Yangzhou and find people wearing sweaters, long pants and coats. Parents still send their children to class wearing multiple layers of clothing.

We witnessed a fight the other day in the city center. The first fight we’ve ever seen here. It was between two men on the side walk who had drawn a good sized ring of spectators. We got close enough to get a glimpse of what was going on. The two men were red faced yelling at one another. It looked like a drunken bar fight but outside in broad daylight. However, it might have been a drunken fight because the Chinese like to drink heavily with lunch. Both men attempted to throw punches but missed so they resorted to throwing bicycles at each other. Yes, bikes. No sidewalk is without bikes so naturally this fight broke out near tons of parked bicycles. So then men picked them up and chucked them at one another. The fight settled with no major incident and one man wandered into the crowd so the fighter left standing in the middle opted to throw more bikes at different men. I can’t say what happened from there because we decided it was a good time to move along.

Something we see more frequently in the city center is how Yangzhou waters the trees, shrubs and flowers that line almost every street here. It’s done by a truck with a giant water tank on it and a hose. The hose, however, isn’t a garden hose. It’s a fire hose. Everything gets watered by a fire hose spraying out water at the velocity needed to put out a fire. It’s a miracle the trees are still standing, not to mention the flowers.

We watched a lady buy four pints of Hagen Daaz ice cream the other day from the grocery store. Each pint is $11 bringing her total ice cream purchase to over $40. How can ice cream be worth that much?

I'll let the pictures tell more stories!

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Photos

Snail
Someone probably ate this for dinner

I can't decide what to call this
It's a lawn mower -looking device with a wooden bench seat driven with levers. Make sense?

For when the pool finally opens
Here are the vast options for swimsuits.

Comments

[Tyler]

$40 for ice cream
Why is it $40 for 3 hagen daaz but $10 for a wedding dress? I see what you mean about things not making sense over there! BTW I'd def still pay $40 for ice cream, esp when it's 90 degrees out and not yet pool season.