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The following is a combination of things past participants in our program have written, as well as other expats living in China...I only kept the ones that make us laugh the hardest/resonate with us the most. I know a lot of it might not make sense to you all, but it's a good reminder for us of things we've become to used to this year...😊
You Know You've Lived In China Too Long When...
- You no longer pick up your tray at McDonald's
- You have difficulty eating with a fork
- NOTHING phases you
- Without thinking you cover your mouth and nose when the bus drives by
- You can do the Chinese squat while carrying random electronics and talking on your cell phone
- You can tell the difference between stinky tofu and urine
- You speak English and think no one can understand you
- You get used to the toilet paper roll on every table
- You say "Waaaahhh!"
- You stare at foreign people, and they stare back, but you don't talk to each other
- You look at foreigners and think, "Why are YOU here? You're not in THE PROGRAM!"
- You can't tell white people apart anymore
- You call other foreigners 'waiguoren', literally 'outside person'
- You don't flinch when the bus is within an inch of another bus
- The 5 second rule is no longer applicable
- You grunt for yes or no
- Your English grammar becomes Chinglish (and you talk to people back home in it)
- You squat, even when there are Western toilets
- You prefer squat toilets, and get grossed out when you see Western toilets
- You add "maybe" to the beginning of every sentence
-You don’t blink an eye when a complete stranger wants to take a photo of you with his family
-You cross highways without looking
-You think seatbelts are sort of uncomfortable
- You shout on the phone in confined spaces to ensure no one misses your important information
-You start to enjoy the taste of bai jiu (Chinese liquor)
-Pollution, what pollution?
-You see three people on a motorcycle and figure there’s room for two more.
-You don’t notice your gastrointestinal problems anymore.
-You can’t put a proper sentence together in your native language.
-Drilling on the walls in the wee small hours in the morning is considered acceptable behaviour.
-You start making lists like this.
😊 I'll make my own list soon of things we're going to miss about China. Just last night we were thinking back to our first day in Beijing, and how far we've truly come!
This last weekend was another great few days in Hong Kong. Pete had previously arranged a hostel for us 4 girls as part of Elyse's birthday gift, so we headed over the border after Chinese class on Friday, leaving the boys to fend for themselves in Shenzhen. The border was really crowded exiting China (entering HK was a breeze) and it ended up taking us close to 3 hours to get from downtown Shenzhen to Hong Kong Island! Pretty crazy. We were all tired and hungry, so we immediately ate at an Indian restaurant we'd previously been to in the bottom floor of our hostel and then went to 7-11 to buy some drinks and snacks for later. After drinking a bit in the hostel room, we finally ventured out around 11pm, though we were all pretty tired and agreed going to bed sounded pretty nice...
We definitely rallied and made it though, staying out in Hong Kong until 5am! It was the first time we'd been out in HK without the men (or even really out at all to clubs in HK), and it was much needed 'girl time' for all of us. We danced for hours, laughed, talked to people from all over the world, and just enjoyed the craziness of Hong Kong in the early hours of the morning. Every corner you turn finds a person speaking a new language...
Saturday morning, Kelly & Cali headed back to Shenzhen and Pete & Martin came over the border to meet up with Elyse and I. The four of us spent the rest of Saturday exploring Lamma Island, another part of HK that we'd never been to. It's a pedestrian only island, and really beautiful. We took the ferry to one side, hiked for about an hour to the other side and then took a different ferry back to the main Hong Kong Island where we then ate more Indian food, drank a beer & went to bed. Sunday saw the four of us doing one more 'new' things-- going to the horse races at the Hong Kong Jockey Club! Martin and I had never been to horse races anywhere, and we had a lot of fun for our first time. We didn't win any money, but that's okay. 😊
It was probably our second to last weekend in Hong Kong, a place that has been our second home for the year! We'll be flying out of there, of course, so will spend the last few days there soaking it all up.
Other than that, life here is just winding down and we're definitely feeling the crazy mixed emotions of sadness and excitement for our return. We're playing games in our classes and starting the goodbyes, and let me tell you, having 60 Chinese kids say at once "I will miss you!" definitely makes you pretty sad. Our contract has us teaching until June 15th, but we just found out today that we'll be off from June 4-9 while the Senior 3 students at our school take the college entrance exam & the rest of the students leave the school. This means we'll see each class probably only once more, since we see them every other week!
As sad as it's going to be to say goodbye here, I can't wait to hug everyone back home...and sink my teeth into a burrito. 😊
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Elyse
non-member comment
Good byes
Sometimes I just want to copy and paste your blog as you just say it so easily and we have 2 different followers. Thanks for hanging out this past weekend in HK, as always we had a great time.