Settling into the Chinese Culture

After a fairly smooth flight from Los Angeles and taxi ride from the airport, I arrived safely at my dormitory on Beijing Normal University’s campus.  Throughout the past week since my arrival, I have been keeping track of a few things that I have noticed while settling into the Chinese culture and that I think you all might find interesting:

1)  With Chinese food, you are essentially trading the comfort of always knowing what you are eating for meals that cost less than a U.S. dollar.  Even if you can read a few words on the menu, you’re taking a risk with the words you cannot read.  You quickly get used to the idea that you can either try very few things being a picky eater or just go for it and, for all you know, you could be eating donkey.

2)  Umbrellas are no indication of the weather; they are used everywhere, all the time.  If it is raining, you will see a sea of umbrellas, like you typically would anywhere else in the world.  If it is sunny, you will see a sea of umbrellas, shading the Chinese people from the sunlight because white skin is an important quality to the Chinese.  If it is cloudy/smoggy, you will see a sea of umbrellas, for reasons I do not yet understand.

3)  Drivers honking their horns does not mean that they are angry.  Traffic in China is just defined by these rules: you drive wherever you want, in whichever lane you choose or across three different lanes at once if you would like, and you honk your horn simply to tell other drivers around you that you are there.  For example, rather than angrily honking your horn at someone for cutting you off, like you would in America, you honk your horn in order to tell someone that you are cutting them off and that they should not hit you.

Hope my fellow Americans all around the world had a safe and happy Fourth of July!

 This was the view from my dormitory room the morning after a big thunderstorm.  The rain cleared out all the smog, and the rare blue sky looked absolutely beautiful!