First month in China - lessons learned

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Can’t believe we have actually managed to make it this far- OK so it’s only a month but hey! Especially since after the first week here I didn’t think we’d make it to the end of our second week! It feels like the time has gone so quickly, but yet it also feels like a lifetime ago since we disembarked from the plane into the extreme humidity…. It’s definitely been a rollercoaster of a ride, but we’re getting there and so many more things to see and do.

Things we’ve learned about China so far:

- A simple question never receives a simple answer. Reading between the lines is becoming an acquired skill.

- Never take said advice as guaranteed to be correct- most of the time it isn’t.

- Mosquitos are NOT my friend.

- Durians are NOT my friend.

- Beans in tomato sauce are soya beans in tomato sauce and NOT baked beans as we know them.

- If it’s got 4 legs and it moves, the Chinese will eat it. If it flies and it’s not a plane, the Chinese will eat it. Apparantly this philosophy is most favourable in the Guandong region – lucky us.

- Children here don’t do weekends and are in school nearly 7 days a week. BUT, at the same time they are very spoilt and are definitely not as well behaved as we were expecting.

- Health is very important here and the older people here actually do walk down the street backwards slapping their arms.

- They have rules for everything, but many of the rules are very contradictory. It’s ok to drive the wrong way down a street, but attempt to walk into an entrance through the wrong door and that’s a major no no.

- The traffic system is organised chaos-it’s crazy, fast and often dangerous but weirdly seems to work. Cars pull out suddenly with a warning toot of the horn and straddle both lanes. People just walk out on the road and cars swerve round them without any problems, and cyclists like to cycle the wrong way down the road.

- A toilet is a hole in the floor and a not very dignified ordeal, especially for a woman.

- Sign language and hand gestures are a completely alien concept to the Chinese.

- Translations are taken literally. For instance- if you order a white coffee, unless it’s on the menu, they’ll say they don’t have it (i.e- unless you say coffee with milk).

- Chinese people will keep refilling your bowl/cup whenever it is empty. The trick to stop them from refilling is to leave some food left in your bowl or continuously say no, no, no.

- A smile and a wave goes a long way.

Next week we're off to Shenzhen for the holidays so watch this space.

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Photos

Our apartment block
Lanterns for the full moon festival

Our school
Koala English- building at the far left of photo