Wow

Very frequently I find myself saying wow under my breath in China. When a woman gets her monthly visit here I find myself constantly saying wow. At home its no big deal, you go on with your life. Some people may make jokes about mood swings, making women very unhappy. However here its a different story. There are all kinds of rules of what you can and can't do during that special time.

• You are not allowed to eat red meat.
• You can't drink anything with caffeine in it.
• You should drink warm water and brown sugar.
• The air condition can't be on.
• You shouldn't really go out and do stuff- you should stay home and relax.
• Going to work is optional. (plenty of girls have called off)
• You need to use tissues not toilet paper.
• You can't take pain medicine
• You can't have any doctor's appointment during this time.
• You can't have your teeth pulled because the bleeding is related.

These are just some of things I hear everyday at work. I am just left standing there thinking wow.

Pregnancy is another thing here that makes me say wow.

• You need to wear a smock that will keep the microwaves away from your baby.
• You can work but its highly recommended that you don't.
• You can't go near the microwave if it is on.

The unexpected wow factors is common place in China. Everyday something small or big happens that leaves me saying wow.

• When people don't know how to get on an escalator
• How can people possibly walk so slow
• Why is there a big pile of pee in front of the toilet?
• Did you really just pick your nose and wipe it on the hanging thing in the taxi??
• What is that smell?
• Why run to the escalator when you are just going to stand on it?
• Stinky tofu
• Getting 10 chicken nuggets at McDonalds
• Cleaning lady yelling at me for hitting the soap dispenser when the bathroom is a mess.
• The pollution smells like ash.
• Having a room full of people and its 80 degrees and no one turns on the air.
•  The weird smells from construction sights
• Fireworks at breakfast.
• Raw meat laying out in the middle of the store.
• Wearing a coat on a 70 degree day.

The list could go on. Everyday in China I just say wow.  Thankfully its Chinese New Year holiday. Vacation here I come!

Pollution

Growing up I read all kinds of books. I remember reading about sickly people and how they would go out into the country to get some fresh air. The fresh air made them stronger. Just like the saying- I need to go out and get some fresh air. Meaning out with bad and in with the new. 

 The longer I live in China the more I see and feel the effects of pollution in the air. At home an air quality action day consists of air particles being about 40 in the air. A typical day in Beijing is 100. In the winter it is normal to have days over 300. I have an app on my phone that warns me when the air starts to get unhealthy.

The winter especially in Beijing causes the air pollution to go up. Coal is used to heat the buildings in the winter. Factories outside of Beijing are actually the culprits for the air pollutants. When the wind blows a certain way bam its in Beijing. And sadly the city of Beijing sits in a valley. The air gets trapped in the city.

Recently I have noticed that my health is not what it has been at home. I am a healthy 26 women. I don't smoke. Since living in China I have had bronchitis 3 times. My lungs randomly will wheeze up. I can feel the tightness in my chest when the air is bad. In addition depending on what is in the air headaches develop. And what is scary is that I will not be the only one. At work it seems we all get headaches at the same time. It is common place to have a cough everyday here. Phelm and mucus in your throat is normal. People spit up on the street all the time simply because they are trying to get the bad stuff out of their lungs. Not to mention minor aches and pains are more common place. You feel as if you are falling apart. Drinking hot water actually does help, because the hot water soothes your throat.

It is scary to see and feel the effects of poor air quality. Lung cancer and bowel cancer are the leading causes of death in China.

The air is not always terrible in Beijing. But when it is you can feel it. I can't wait to go and breath some fresh air. My lungs will do a happy dance.

In a nutshell..

So its been a while since I have wrote on my blog!I have been a bit busy. My brother visited at the end of September. So this blog entry will be a little long.
First here are some photos from Mark's visit!

 At the Great Wall (for the 7th time)

 Wofo Temple

 Fake Terracotta Warriors in the corner..well we are assuming they are fake..

 Temple of Heaven







I went home in October for a few weeks then  I came back to China.

  Originally I was going to travel to Prague but circumstances have kept me in China a bit longer!

Since coming back to China in October things have been fairly quiet. I celebrated Halloween at work with my children and Rose

 I then ventured off one day and saw the Drum and Bell Tower. I climbed 62 steps to get to the top and see the drums!

The Bell Tower









Thanksgiving was next. I planned a Thanksgiving party for everyone who works at Disney English. About 50 people showed up!








After Thanksgiving was another Christmas in Beijing.

Everyone gets homesick at Christmas in Beijing. No one wants to be here. So I tried to make it as fun as possible. We had a cookie making party!

 Oops...

 Teaching Rose and Vivian how to make cupcakes!

On Christmas I had some of my close friends over. We tracked Santa on the Santa tracker. It was a nice way to spend Christmas Eve. Not like I would at home but we had a good time!










New Years Eve came and went. And now I am planning trips that are coming up this year before I head home in April. This year I plan on traveling to Singapore, Harbin Ice Festival, and Tokyo.
In the meanwhile I am having fun in Beijing! I tried ice skating yesterday..

Chinglish

All throughout China are signs written in very poor English. Most of them are very comicial, some leave you shaking your heads and others you are like what the hell!!

These are a few signs I have seen around time. I could post hundreds more... 

 This is outside one of the few Catholic churches. The fact that you need a sign to inform you about what to do in a church says something in and of it self..

 What water?

 Two random things posted on one.. Watch out your wallet may like to slide?

 hahahaha

 Naked flames???????

My friends and I always get a good chuckle out of them. We think its hilarious that they don't ask a native English speaker to make sure the English is grammatically correct. They always use Google Translate.

Recently I decided to download google translate to read some of the comments the girls have been posting on Wechat. (social app here in china that everyone uses since texting isn't free in China!)

Here are the direct translations of some of them:
-Meow star who is really an amazing animal
-Sister, this ice cream to eat today, let me jump dance white
-Two weeks did not how to cook, and today still vegetarian, shrimp are frozen for nearly one week, do not want to do, too much trouble, but also difficult to handle.

Seriously most of those don't make sense. I had one of my friends who is Chinese read the comments and she said that is what they literally say in Chinese.

Chinese and English are so different. Thats why at first when people learn English its very choppy and doesn't sound good. When they translate from Chinese to English it is just very literally. Only if you have been studying English for a while would you know to add the effects that make English flow.

In Chinese there are no his/her, no ing, no past tense, nothing that really sets are language apart. That is why most of the Chinglish signs are so funny.

Meanwhile the signs get the warning out... though still not quite sure what a naked flame is...

Garden Expo

Last week I went to the Garden Expo. I mean to write a blog post about it earlier but got busy over the past week!

All over Beijing have been these ads for the Garden Expo. I figured wow it will be great to go and see some green gardens!  So I ventured out to the edge of Beijing to see what I thought would be spectacular gardens. When we first arrived there I was less than impressed. They had little huts they called gardens there were merely gift shops with trinkets from those countries. (most likely made in China)

 Aside from the rest of the Garden Expo was ok. They had themed gardens. Here are some examples.

This is a European Castle with a European garden in the front. I wasn't impressed...

 This is an Arab Palace with a floating garden. The plants were fake.

 After moving away from the international section and getting into the Asian gardens things looked way better. They Expo people clearly knew how to create gardens from areas around China.


This is a Japanese Style garden.

 Random waterfall.

They also had random sculptures depicting they celebrate the world.








Overall the expo was interesting to go to. It was a bit disappointing I was expecting something like the Elizabethan gardens I have seen at home. (haha who was I kidding!)

Glasses City

One of the amazing things about China is the ability to buy glasses for very cheap! I can get a pair of prescription glasses for 15 dollars! I also can get a pair of prescription sunglasses for about 20 dollars. And these sunglasses are the fashionable ones, not the crappy expensive sunglasses you get from the eye glasses stores.

I have been able to get seven pairs of glasses and two pairs of sunglasses!
Here is the collection of glasses!

As you can see I own a lot of glasses! It is really cool, they make the glasses in the store!

 Now I will say that you are not getting the fancy lenses but honestly I can't tell the difference! All the stuff they say in the stores about oh you need all these because your eyes won't be able to handle it, really isn't true!

Being able to get all kind of fashionable glasses for 15 dollars is awesome!

Tianjin Eye

This past Tuesday and Wednesday I went to Tianjin to visit my friends Lauren and Marika. We had a lovely time together. It was nice just to relax and have a good time with friends. While I was there we started talking about what Tianjin is famous for: The Tianjin Eye.

The Tianjin Eye is basically a giant Ferris Wheel that is built in the middle of the bridge. As far as we know it is the only Ferris Wheel built on a bridge. It is a slow moving ride that gives you a birds eye view of the city! The smog wasn't so bad that day so it was  perfect day to go!

 In the Ferris Wheel car. As you can see we are side by side to the road!

This car took us up and around! It was nice and air conditioned and we had some great views!

View from the top! Overall it was a really neat experience to have! And I got to see what Tianjin is famous for!