Week 6: In the Absence of Twitter

It's a bit surreal that I only have about a month left in China. 30 + days still seems like a good amount of time, but the last 30 seem like a blur. I also feel like I have been writing too much on each blog post, to the point where I am no doubt oversupplying my readers with content. So, I will try to be more laconic in the coming weeks while holding out hope that my few remaining voracious readers will voice their displeasure and demand more proverbial putts going forward.

A few random thoughts that I probably would have tweeted if I were able to do so in China...

• Mark my words: lung cancer is going to be a major problem in Beijing in the future. Although the air quality has been much better (or maybe I'm just getting used to it, who knows) in the past couple of weeks due to a healthy amount of wind blowing the pollution away, you can't go anywhere without running into smokers. Sometimes I will be walking on the sidewalk and there will be four guys walking in a row ahead of me, all smoking at the same time. In times like these, it is nearly impossible to avoid breathing the secondhand smoke that inevitably comes drifting my way in this miserably large cloud. Then there are the hardcore smokers who smoke without using hands and while biking. Remarkably, they puff in and out without ever removing the cigarette from their mouths. People also openly ignore "No Smoking" signs in restaurants and stairwells, puffing away at the table while the waiters and attendants do nothing to stop them. [Matt: I've thought about you several times in these situations and how you would probably enjoy being in my shoes.]
• Watch where you step. That pool of liquid on the ground might be baby urine. It always strikes me as odd when parents let their little ones simply pee on the ground outdoors, sometimes in a tree planter patch of dirt, other times right on the side of the sidewalk. Instead of diapers, babies simply have a slit in their pants, providing convenient access for peeing in public. I even saw a mom let a 10-year old pee on the side of a wall, in a heavily trafficked area. C'mon people. [Trace: I wonder if you'd still find these babies cute while they were urinating in public. The jury is out on this one.]
• There's something pretty fun about meeting new people in a foreign country. Everyone has a more interesting story to tell, something different from what I'm used to. Whether it be English-speaking expats or Chinese middle-aged white collar workers or even the barbers and masseuses I happen to encounter, everyone has a wonderfully different story to tell. I take a bit of pride in being able to talk to anyone among these drastically different groups of people, and especially enjoy trying to pass off as a Chinese native who doesn't know English. Sometimes I'm successful, but other times people can see right through me. One of the taxi drivers I encountered bluntly asked me if I grew up in a foreign country, because he noticed that I reached for the seat belt upon entering the cab. [Mwen: you'd be proud of me. It's like I'm you at Tea Station, but all the time.]