A slice of life - Julie

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In some ways, I feel like there are so few differences between life here and life at home. My life follows a pattern: Work, eat, play, sleep, work, eat play, sleep...repeat repeat repeat. Perhaps I'm getting used to it, perhaps life is the same everywhere. Then, the details stop that train of thought. A certain news item rips through headlines to remind me that I'm not in America anymore. And though I want to scream and shout at the unfairness, at the lies and deceit, at the violence, I can't. I'm a foreigner, which means my opinion is invalid. I'm an American foreigner, which makes it even worse, since everyone knows that "America wants to take over the world".

Today, I taught my class the word "xenophobia". I asked them to define it. One guy answered "A xenophobic person don't like foreigners. Like Americans don't like foreigners."

This is how Chinese people see Americans. "We" are a violent aggressive mean country and we don't like other people. Oh, some Americans are ok, like me, like Alex. But the rest are a nasty bunch.

Seems like there's a love-hate relationship between the two countries. Both want to play at being friends to develop stronger economies, but both bad-mouth the other in the safety of their own press. Though, I would point out that one country has a free press and the other does not. (That's if you can still call it a free press, even if most newspapers are owned by one or two big conglomerates). At the very least, the press isn't subject to governmental approval.

Bah. Enough of this! Keep your eyes on the headlines, because it's only going to get more interesting. Check out China Daily Online for a look at the other side. Let me know what you think of that pile of nonsense!

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Photos

Snack Time!
Who wants bananas and mayo?

Need a bag?
I know just the place!