China 101: What to Do on a Nice Day
There is a multitude of different things one can do on a nice day. Literally a cornucopia of options. Go for a walk, a jog, have a picnic, go explore the town, play a sport, get drunk in the sun (one of my personal favorites). On nice days people do different things, lots of different things. In my experience, in America, there is usually not one constant thing that happens or that people do on every nice day.
In China, however, things are a little different. If you haven’t figured it out already, China is a lot different from many other places. China is somewhat unique, which is part of why it is so interesting and exciting to me. There is one thing in particular that happens on every nice day. It is a constant, an inevitability, a truth. You see, students in China are usually crammed into very small dorm rooms. There is usually four students in a single room not much bigger than most bedrooms in the US. So there is not much room for doing anything more than sleeping or a bit of studying.
Also, there are no dryers in China. I have not seen one and none of my compatriots have seen any. I’m guessing you could find one somewhere for sale (you can find anything in China) but I would bet it would be grossly overpriced. The result of this is that all of your laundry must be hanged up to air dry. And since there is literally no room to hang up laundry in the students’ dorm rooms, on every nice day since I’ve been here I have seen this:
It’s particularly funny when you walk down the street and see bras and panties flapping in the wind outside someone’s apartment. This just barely scratches the surface of some of the strange things I see every day, but are common place here. You would be amazed and it definitely takes an open mind to get adjusted to these things. I am still in the process of getting adjusted. Some of the cultural differences and methods are just flabbergasting and/or frustrating.
Some things, like the laundry, just make me laugh a little. And some things make me want to tear my hair out and run down the street screaming like a lunatic. It’s tempting. Anyway, it’s not like people could stare at me any more than they do now.
What are some crazy things you’ve seen or experienced in a foreign country?
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I remember the first time we went to England — I was about 15 — and were checked into our dorm rooms by a black grad student. My parents were so thrown by his accent . . .
I think the hardest thing to get used to for me would be the difference in meat packaging — neat, cello-wrapped packages in the US, carcasses on hooks elsewhere.
I have completely avoided buying meat here so far. Mainly for two reasons: I’m extremely paranoid of food-borne illnesses and I’m trading cooking to a vegetarian coworker for use of her washing machine. Good thing I love vegetables just as much as meat.