1. Fruit is like a dessert here. It is eaten at the end of a meal and some will say it is bad for digestion to eat bananas without any other food. Fruit can also be given as a gift.
2. Speaking of digestion, that is the main reason why almost everyone in China drinks warm water. They serve warm water during the summer at restaurants, and consistently drink warm tea (this is more during the winter, but also during the summer). The Chinese believe there are various health benefits associated to drinking warm water such as improved circulation, and promoting a healthy digestion. When some of our cooperating teachers at the school returned from a 2 week stay in England they told us that they have been drinking too much cold water and they were "feeling the effects" in their digestion. Another tidbit about drinking warm water. One student told me that some athletes will drink water after a hard work-out during the summer because it will help the body cool down faster.
3. Wendy, one of our wonderful English-speaking Chinese teacher friends said that there is a superstition among some Chinese people that if a child believes ghost stories then they will wake up with a fever the next day. She proceeded to say that doctors do not know how to remedy the sickness, but there are natural (or "other" in her words) remedies that can help.
4. In China the saying "it takes a village to raise a child" is actually practiced. There is a group of 7 or 8 grandparents (most families in a home, or more commonly apartment, consist of mom, dad, dad's parents, and children. Because both parents work the grandparents are the ones who will watch the small children) that come to the college to let their grand-babies play. They all look after each other's child while keeping their own close by. They all tend to share toys with each other. Yesterday this was really evidenced when Andelyn was running to the bathroom in the teacher's cafeteria.Tessa and I were eating and before we could reach her a Chinese lady had already taken Andee to the bathroom, pulled her pants down and had her in the proper pee-pee position for going in a squat toilet. The lady just told me to go back and eat, which I did.
5. When we found out Tessa was pregnant we wanted to get some pre-natal vitamins. Tessa asked Wendy where we cold get some and she said: "why would you need those? just drink lots of soup."
6. Ping-pong is a big deal here. I went to play with a student and I was just wearing jeans and a T-shirt, same as my student, and when we got there (to the table tennis training room which was a very nice facility) he said he needed to change. He disappeared for a bit and came back in work-out type clothes. I thought maybe this was an isolated event, but when Tessa and I stayed at a hotel in Xi'an (西安), China we were told we were not allowed to go play ping-pong due to our footwear. We had just been swimming and were wearing sandals.
7. The concept of marriage and family is very strong, and also very different. Most modern Chinese in the city get married in their late 20s or early 30s. They feel it is necessary to have started their career and created a stable life for themselves before they get married. They argue that stability is the financial of a happy family. i asked my students what they hope to find in a spouse and one of the most important factors was stability for her and her family ( and that includes her mom and dad). Divorce is becoming popular, but still rare. 1 or 2 of the students out of 60 knew of someone who had been divorced. The main reason is for the children. Interestingly, between having a happy marriage or a stable life. Almost all of my students would rather have a financially stable life.
8. The education system is a whole new world. We were able to visit a kindergarten, and it was very interesting. First of all, the building was painted in all of the colors of the rainbow, and not muted pastels, but bold bright yellows, blues, and pink! Next the classroom had about 40 students, and there were 3 teachers. Each teacher was responsible for something different. One of the responsibilities was to prepare food and feed the students. Apparently the teachers teach more than just simple math they also help the students with life skills. Wendy was explaining that the teacher will make sure each student is eating enough food for each meal. Wendy's child had trouble eating enough for his age until he entered school and after a while he was taught how to eat enough. Teachers in general are responsible for more than academics. They are also expected to help with discipline and behavioral management.
9. A good Chinese friend came over to teach us how to make a local food called huo shao (火烧). My whole cooking paradigm has changed and expanded. We cooked eggs in a bowl that was placed in boiling water. Made a past out of flour and oil that was used to infuse in the pastry part of the huo shao. Soaked dried mushrooms in a bowl until they were big. Chopped up the biggest green onions I've ever seen and mixed sausage meet with a spiced water. It was great!
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