Status Quo

At home I love going to thrift stores! I love looking at what other people don't want anymore and using it for myself. I can get it at a discounted price and have an awesome outfit! Its also great getting hand me downs from other people. People don't want a certain item anymore bam its mine! In China this idea is seen as almost an insult...

I was going through some clothes the other day I didn't wear or didn't want. I thought, oh I will take them to work and see if any of the girls (foreign or local) want the clothes. I then realized that was a big mistake once I got to work. The girls thought that was hilarious! They were like haha why would we do that. I told them we did that in America. They thought it was funny.  I had forgotten an important aspect about Chinese culture... Status Quo.

In China a person's status quo is very important. You want to be seen as a higher class person. This concept stems from ancient culture. As many people know, Chinese people want their skin to be white. Being white is a sign of being royal. In today's culture its almost the same thing. If you are brown it means you are working in the fields, you are not rich and can have an inside job. Girls will hold umbrellas, wear hats, and put cream on their faces to maintain pale skin. Yesterday at the beach someone got a bit darken in the sun and it was a major freak out!

 Same concept goes with clothes. If you were secondhand clothes it means you can't afford to buy new clothes. If you buy clothes at the market then it means you can't afford department store clothes. You need to show everyone that you are rich, higher class. You need to have a smart phone.  One of my friends here as a credit card bill that is so high that she can't almost afford her rent. But she wants to make sure she can afford material things so she looks upper class.

Same  goes at restaurants.  At home its usually one dish per person. I have been out with the locals and they have seriously ordered half the menu. You want to order a lot of food to show that you can afford it. They you are not pinching pennies!

It is polite to leave food on your plate, it shows that you are not leaving hungry. Rice is seen as a filler food, so you hardly ever order rice. Its a cheap filler food. Same with noodles. Its better to get vegetables and meat. It show you can afford to eat more of than that then filler food.

Status quo is very important in China. Keeping this thought in mind, I will nevertheless continue to mix my Western ideals into everyday life while respecting Chinese culture.

Water Cube

Typically on my birthday I spend the day hanging with family and just relaxing. This year since I am in China I decided to live it up! I headed over to the water cube at the National Aquatics Stadium to go to the Happy Magic Water Park with seven of my friends!

The National Aquatics Stadium was where the Olympic swimming events took place. Its where Michael Phelps won his gold medals!!!! They have converted half of the water cube into a water park. The other half still has the diving pool, the racing pool, and the warm up pool. The racing pool is still used for events, but the warm up pool is open to the public.

Then we all headed over to the water park! The water park had about 8 different water rides. There are pipeline rides, water slides, the tornado, toilet bowl, the lazy river, different raft rides. There also was a wave pool. The cost to get in was about 40 dollars, you rented a locker and then got a cool wristband that opened it. So no worries about keys or anything. When you walked out into the water park you had to go through a mini shower so that you are rinsed off.

The pool was crowded but not super crowded. It could have been a lot worst.

Naturally being in China, there were naked children in the pool, rude lifeguards, and no personal space.  The children in the pool were funny. Most people in China actually don't know how to swim. So the children had on life jackets, inner tube rings, goggles and were in an actual intertube. The water park provided life jackets for people to wear. At home no one would ever take a life jacket unless it was for a small child. Here almost every one had a life jacket on. As you can see in the picture there was lots of floatation devices in the pool. The pool also wasn't that deep either. About half the pool was knee deep. Towards the end you could get to the deep in, which was probably 2 feet of the pool. And the deep end was about 6 feet deep, not that deep.

Another interesting part of the trip was the lack of well safety in the water park. I decided to go on this raft type ride down a slide that was a lot of fun. My friend Amy and I pop on into the lazy river. We are going down. As we go down, life guards are throwing water in our faces from water bottles. Then we get to the end, the guy at the end is like wait to get out. He then proceeds to take are inner tube and flip us over. We are in waist deep water and I happened to be right next to wall. So I smack my head on the wall, and gulp down delicious China pool water. I was not happy. Number 1, you don't flip someone's tube in waist deep water, number 2 you dont do it if the person is near the wall 3. They weren't doing in to Chinese girls...

The rides were a lot of fun at the park. I typically don't go on water rides but after going on these I am now a believer in them!

The park was a lot of fun. Was it over priced yes, would I go again no. But I am glad I am did it and got to experience a water park inside an Olympic venue!

Details

Growing up my family went on lots of vacations. We enjoyed going to historical places, learning historical facts and packing as much as we could in one day. As an adult this love of traveling and seeing places has never gone away. I know people who live in Beijing and don't care about seeing the historical places. They are like oh its just another temple or palace, boring. They don't care about the history left behind. I have even know people who have lived here for a year and haven't been to all the places I have been. For me its easy, I love seeing things. I figure while I am in Beijing I will see all that I can see! To me each time I go to a place is another adventure, and another discovery waiting to be found. Going to the same place twice has never bothered me. I enjoy seeing things in a different light each time.

Last week I traveled back to the Summer Palace for the third time. Some would say, three is a lot. But I had a great time! I saw things that I hadn't seen before. I began paying attention to the detail and hard work that went into building these places. Up on a hill are these beautifully decorated buildings. They were designed for prayer to Buddha. The building has layers of intricate wood craving and painting on it. This wasn't something that was manufactured, not it was done my hand. (most likely by slaves... but still the attention to detail is inspiring)

On the ends of every building are a specific amount of lions to protect the building. The roof tiles are painted a beautiful shiny green. On the bridges are lion statues for every post. These are small things but all these details make a wonderful sight. Its stopping and seeing the small thing. The first time you go to a place, you wouldn't notice these things. But the second and third time you start to notice.

I recommend to anyone who travels, to stop and look at the smallest detail of work that is put into things. Then stop and imagine how much time and energy it took to create these wonders. The amount of people it took, they didn't go the lazy way about. They didn't paint the building all red, no they stopped took their time and made a awe inspiring building.

Retrospect

I have lived in China for 11 months. In 11 months I have gotten quite comfortable with the way of living. Yes, I miss home but the adventures never cease here in Beijing. At the beginning of October my adventure in China will end. I am sad to go but I know its time to move on. I will be moving to Prague for five weeks and hopefully staying there longer.

Many people have asked why I am leaving China. I don't hate China. China has been very good to me. China has helped me grow and see the world in a different light. One game that I like to play now is where is every at right now? Before I always thought narrow minded. I only thought about people in Pennsylvania and that time zone. Now though I have friends and family around the world. It is crazy to stop and think while I walk down the street in the middle of day people around the world are doing different things. And when I leave a place, nothing ceases it continues. At home the world goes on. I bet if I went back to Pittsburgh the same group of people would be getting on the 5:45 bus to get to downtown Pittsburgh. Just the same when I leave Beijing, the same people will be walking across the bridge to get to work at 8:30 in the morning.


But in all fairness, I know China is not home for me. I miss things that only a Western culture can cure. I miss religion. I miss seeing churches and having a religious society. People here are not Christian. There are very few churches around. I have seen maybe three Catholic churches in the time that I have been here. My work schedule does not allow for me to go to church on Sundays. That being said, the churches here have one mass in English on Sundays. There really isn't daily mass in China either. Christianity is frowned upon here. Only if you hold a foreign passport are you allowed in a church.


My health is not the greatest here in China either. I am a healthy young women back at home. In China I constantly have stomach issues, minor aches and pains. My throat is constantly swollen and sore (thank you pollution). I need to move to an area where the air is cleaner and I can restore my health. In the 11 months I have been here I have lost about 15 pounds. Every time someone sees me they are like did you lose more weight. I am not complaining I lost weight, but I know its because of the food. The highest rates of cancer in China are lung and bowel cancer.

I am very glad I moved to China. I am glad I got to see the world in a different light. This is an experience I will not forget! And in the next three months I am in China, I will be having more crazy adventures!

Weather

The weather in Beijing is so unpredictable. At home I would love to watch the weather forecast on t.v. I constantly was watching The Weather Channel or the new to get the weather. Here in Beijing the only weather forecast I have is the one on my phone. Sometimes the girls at work will tell me if its going to rain or if its going to snow but usually I have no clue.

Recently I have been watching the weather pretty intently on my phone. I have begun noticing that the weather is not accurate at all. One day it will say its 90 degrees, I walk outside and its only in the 60's and doesn't get warmer then that. It says its sunny, its cloudy and rainy. Its so unpredictable. One second the forecast says rain tomorrow, then two seconds later partly cloudy. Apparently there are no satellite weather forecasts here.

Today the weather said rain and it did actually rain. I went out into the streets to get out of the apartment. People are so funny here in the rain. Every single person has an umbrella. If you don't have an umbrella, the umbrella sellers come out in full force. They are really cheap (1.50 USD). The drainage system is not that great here. The water just puddles up everywhere. On the subway they have service announcements about rain.

They basically state:

Don't use your cell phones during thunderstorms.
In case of a mudslide, an announcement will made over loud speakers, drums will be pounded. You need to take your card out of your window that states how many people live there...
Don't drive you car in water that is 50cm deep.
If your house begins to show cracks, call a number and they will come rescue you.
The city will have pumps that will drain water into the drainage system, drive around it.
Don't dump stuff into the gutters, in could cause backup and flooding.
If you are going hiking, watch the weather forecast. IF you don't you could get caught on a mountain and bam a landslide happens.

It was really interesting to watch. At least they are watching out for the people in Beijing!  Basically in Beijing, prepare for anything. Open the window to check the temperature. Bring an umbrella, if the sky darkens and the wind picks up its going to storm.