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These are fantastic. I've got a real life recipe for grilled wasabi shrimp that's even better, but these are seriously the next best thing! (Also, the name is just too funny!)
18 July 2014
16 July 2014
Birthday Cake Oreos
Lest the bathroom post make you think it's all suffering and hardship here in China, they also still have birthday cake oreos! (I never thought they could improve on oreos with all of those novelty flavors, and then they did!)
Bathrooms Abroad
One of the assumptions I got disabused of from an early age was that the whole world uses Western-style toilets, the clean, comfy kind that you just sit down on and go while reading a book that some poor friend will borrow later and never realize that it spent most of its time with you sitting on top of the place you relieve yourself. (Not that I think that's gross or anything of
course!) The funny thing about this assumption is that it doesn't even match the reality in the West, where all too often I've found it easier to wait till I'm home than to use some of the rarely (never?) cleaned restrooms one can find at rest stops and restaurants.
Even so, many people move abroad without even thinking that the changes to their life could be as basic as how they use the restroom. Pictured is what I'm told is the norm here in China, was the norm where I grew up in Africa, and is often the norm in Eastern Europe as well. (I've found in Eastern Europe that even in places with Western-style toilets people often use them they way they would the 'toilet' in the picture.) And the 'Turkish toilet' pictured is one of the nicest versions I've encountered in my many years living outside the West!
All that being said, I'm fortunate enough to have a Western-style toilet in my apartment here. (It was a relief to see, I can assure you!) But when you're preparing for a move always remember to work on those leg muscles just in case how you make a move becomes drastically different!
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| A "natural position" toilet. |
Even so, many people move abroad without even thinking that the changes to their life could be as basic as how they use the restroom. Pictured is what I'm told is the norm here in China, was the norm where I grew up in Africa, and is often the norm in Eastern Europe as well. (I've found in Eastern Europe that even in places with Western-style toilets people often use them they way they would the 'toilet' in the picture.) And the 'Turkish toilet' pictured is one of the nicest versions I've encountered in my many years living outside the West!
All that being said, I'm fortunate enough to have a Western-style toilet in my apartment here. (It was a relief to see, I can assure you!) But when you're preparing for a move always remember to work on those leg muscles just in case how you make a move becomes drastically different!
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14 July 2014
13 July 2014
RMB Coinage
This is a brief follow-up post to my last one on assumptions. There are plenty of other websites that break down the Chinese currency much better than I can, but I thought I'd post a brief overview of the coinage since it's what puzzled me when I first got here. (Thanks entirely to my own erroneous assumptions of course!)
The Chinese rénmínbì (RMB), yuán (¥), or kuài is divided - among other things - into three coins, the 1 yuán (at the top of the picture), the 5 jiǎo (in the middle) and the 1 jiǎo (at the bottom). The ¥1 coin is pretty straightforward, but the 1 and 5 jiǎo coins didn't make sense to me until I googled them and realized that the 5 jiǎo is the equivalent of ¥0.50 or 50 cents and the 1 jiǎo is the equivalent of ¥0.10 or an American dime. (All this time I thought the cashiers were shorting me by giving me nickels and dimes for change - oops!) Assumptions - they'll get you every time!
The Chinese rénmínbì (RMB), yuán (¥), or kuài is divided - among other things - into three coins, the 1 yuán (at the top of the picture), the 5 jiǎo (in the middle) and the 1 jiǎo (at the bottom). The ¥1 coin is pretty straightforward, but the 1 and 5 jiǎo coins didn't make sense to me until I googled them and realized that the 5 jiǎo is the equivalent of ¥0.50 or 50 cents and the 1 jiǎo is the equivalent of ¥0.10 or an American dime. (All this time I thought the cashiers were shorting me by giving me nickels and dimes for change - oops!) Assumptions - they'll get you every time!
Assumptions
I've been thinking this morning about the assumptions we all make. Assuming a store will carry something we're looking for when it doesn't normally, that the babysitter will know where the formula is 'cause the kitchen is organized sensibly, that our significant other can read our minds and knows why we do what we do.
I grew up changing countries a fair amounts, so moving to China I thought that I suffered from no illusions. I knew there had to be some assumptions I was making ahead of time that would turn out not to be true, and somehow I went from that knowledge to the assumption that I wasn't assuming anything ahead of time. China was a new country and a new experience, and I would just take it like it was!
And yet I got here assuming that my employer covered my [cell] phone, and discovered that they meant a landline. Over the last week I've had the growing suspicion that virtually all of the cashiers here were cheating me on my change because of the denomination of coins I was getting, and then I did some googling and realized that coins here do not work the way they did in North America, Eastern Europe, or East Africa. And there are so very many more, and more to be discovered as the days go by!
It's amazing just how many assumptions we make, even when we think we're not! Day after day I try to see what other assumptions I have lurking inside, waiting to be uncovered, but even so the discovery of new ones comes as a surprise. Another of life's lessons that has to be learned over and over again!
I grew up changing countries a fair amounts, so moving to China I thought that I suffered from no illusions. I knew there had to be some assumptions I was making ahead of time that would turn out not to be true, and somehow I went from that knowledge to the assumption that I wasn't assuming anything ahead of time. China was a new country and a new experience, and I would just take it like it was!
And yet I got here assuming that my employer covered my [cell] phone, and discovered that they meant a landline. Over the last week I've had the growing suspicion that virtually all of the cashiers here were cheating me on my change because of the denomination of coins I was getting, and then I did some googling and realized that coins here do not work the way they did in North America, Eastern Europe, or East Africa. And there are so very many more, and more to be discovered as the days go by!
It's amazing just how many assumptions we make, even when we think we're not! Day after day I try to see what other assumptions I have lurking inside, waiting to be uncovered, but even so the discovery of new ones comes as a surprise. Another of life's lessons that has to be learned over and over again!
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