Ha-ha! Bet you all opened this one up thinking I would have some big announcement. Nope, we are not pregnant, trying, or even thinking about another one so put your mind at ease. But, a lot of my friends here are pregnant (both Chinese and Western) and it has really brought to light some interesting cultural differences I'd like to share.
Let's start with what you can eat in drink while pregnant. In the US, we know to stay away from certain cheeses and seafood. Well, in China they say to stay away from watermelon (but nobody could tell me why) and do not drink anything cold.
I know the ladies out there may be wondering about maternity fashion in China. It's ugly, I gotta tell you. Picture 1970's tent tops and really unflattering overalls. The Chinese think it's bad for the baby if you wear tight clothes around your belly. But the best part is that most of the maternity tops here contain a special shield that supposedly protects the mom to be from radiation. Radiation caused by cell phones, computers, and fax machines. In fact, my Chinese friends were in shock that I sat in front of a computer for the entire 9 months of both of my pregnancies without protecting myself from the radiation! "And nothing is wrong with your kids?" they ask? "It's debatable but in general, no- they are fine" I respond. I find it funny that they are so concerned with protecting themselves against radiation yet they are breathing in poisonous air and showering in chlorine saturated water everyday.
Want to find out what you are having? Unless you hold a foreign passport, too bad for you. They will not tell the mother the sex of her unborn child here. Since they can only have one kid, too many ladies opt out if it's a girl- know what I mean? Nice.
Ok, so you make it through your 9 months, give birth, and now what? In the US, you are in and out of the hospital in 2 days and back on your feet asap. Here, you are in the hospital for a week with a routine birth and even longer with a c-section. Next, the new mom is not supposed to get out of bed for 30 days after giving birth! But wait- there's more. The Chinese also believe that a woman should not shower for 30 days after birth- eww! They think the water is dirty so you can get infected (probably true, now that I think about it).
That's what I've learned so far but as my friends get closer to their due dates, I am sure I will have more to share.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Carrefour sucks.
A lot of people wonder what I do all day since I am not officially working at the moment. As you may imagine, managing daily life here takes up a lot of time and one of the biggest challenges of my week is grocery shopping. Unfortunately, the choices are limited to: 1) local Chinese grocery store- um, no. Can't read any of the labels and have no idea what 90% of the stuff in the store is. 2) High end western style grocery store- ok, if you want to pay over $10 for a box of cheerios, $8 for a box of frozen waffles, etc (and I am not even exaggerating a little bit on these prices). 3) Carrefour- a place that sells reasonably priced western items as well as chinese items with translations on the shelf labels. Sounds like a winner- right? WRONG. This place makes Wal-mart look good.
So, let me give you a play by play of a typical trip to Carrefour (or crapfour as Sev refers to it).
First off, I wander in and grab myself a cart all the while trying not to think about how many kids in split pants sat in the cart before I got it. Now I am ready to thread my way through the aisles. I stop for a second to grab something off the shelf when "wham" someone slams into my cart and shoves it half way down the aisle. They don't bother to apologize or even look up because this is totally normal behaviour. It's kind of like playing bumper cars except with a shopping cart (after several months in China, I now do the same). Ok, now I need to figure out where the bread crumbs are at. I ask an employee in chinese where I can find them. She grunts back an answer I don't understand and gestures toward another aisle. I peruse the area to which she directed me for at least 5 minutes but no bread crumbs- or maybe there were bread crumbs but I couldn't read the label- this happens to me a lot. I give up on the bread crumbs.
I am now ready to proceed to the dreaded meat section. There are always crowds around the meat counter and the normal pushing and shoving is happening. I take a deep breath and plunge in. I come out with a couple packages of pork chops. I also note that there are open bins of frozen animal parts everywhere and people are digging through them with their bare hands. Then putting their hands back on their carts- mental note to sanitize myself as soon as I leave. Quick pass through the seafood area- not even sure what most of the stuff is but they have turtle on special today.
Open bin of pig's feet- yummy.
Turtle- it's still alive in the bag.
Almost ready to check out- walk past several merchandisers with microphones who accost every customer by tying to get them to sample their product. They never bother with me since I am a foreigner- thank goodness for that. Cringe as I approach the check lanes- every single lane is at least 5 people deep. See one with four people and literally run to get in line. Just barely beat out a local who had the same idea- ha. Stand in line for no less than 20 minutes as the cashiers here are in no hurry whatsoever. Get bumped in the butt by the person's cart behind me- twice. Give them the stink eye. Finally unload my stuff onto the conveyor. Now, I have to decide if I want to pay with cash or card. Both are problematic. If I pay with cash, the cashier will spend five minutes checking my money for fake bills. If I pay with card, she will have to leave her station and take my card to some other lane to run it. I don't know why but this happens all the time so I've given trying to figure out which lane actually has the credit card machine.
Finally finished! Realize I've already been in the store for well over an hour. Head to the parking lot and call my driver. Load up the car and then sit and wait another 10 minutes to get out of the parking lot since some yahoo has decided it's a good idea to drive the wrong way through the parking garage. Listen to all the other drivers honking incessantly as though any of us could go anywhere. Curse Carrefour and call Sev to bitch about how much I hate this store. And I have to do this twice a week. Argh!
So, let me give you a play by play of a typical trip to Carrefour (or crapfour as Sev refers to it).
First off, I wander in and grab myself a cart all the while trying not to think about how many kids in split pants sat in the cart before I got it. Now I am ready to thread my way through the aisles. I stop for a second to grab something off the shelf when "wham" someone slams into my cart and shoves it half way down the aisle. They don't bother to apologize or even look up because this is totally normal behaviour. It's kind of like playing bumper cars except with a shopping cart (after several months in China, I now do the same). Ok, now I need to figure out where the bread crumbs are at. I ask an employee in chinese where I can find them. She grunts back an answer I don't understand and gestures toward another aisle. I peruse the area to which she directed me for at least 5 minutes but no bread crumbs- or maybe there were bread crumbs but I couldn't read the label- this happens to me a lot. I give up on the bread crumbs.
I am now ready to proceed to the dreaded meat section. There are always crowds around the meat counter and the normal pushing and shoving is happening. I take a deep breath and plunge in. I come out with a couple packages of pork chops. I also note that there are open bins of frozen animal parts everywhere and people are digging through them with their bare hands. Then putting their hands back on their carts- mental note to sanitize myself as soon as I leave. Quick pass through the seafood area- not even sure what most of the stuff is but they have turtle on special today.
Open bin of pig's feet- yummy.
Turtle- it's still alive in the bag.Almost ready to check out- walk past several merchandisers with microphones who accost every customer by tying to get them to sample their product. They never bother with me since I am a foreigner- thank goodness for that. Cringe as I approach the check lanes- every single lane is at least 5 people deep. See one with four people and literally run to get in line. Just barely beat out a local who had the same idea- ha. Stand in line for no less than 20 minutes as the cashiers here are in no hurry whatsoever. Get bumped in the butt by the person's cart behind me- twice. Give them the stink eye. Finally unload my stuff onto the conveyor. Now, I have to decide if I want to pay with cash or card. Both are problematic. If I pay with cash, the cashier will spend five minutes checking my money for fake bills. If I pay with card, she will have to leave her station and take my card to some other lane to run it. I don't know why but this happens all the time so I've given trying to figure out which lane actually has the credit card machine.
Finally finished! Realize I've already been in the store for well over an hour. Head to the parking lot and call my driver. Load up the car and then sit and wait another 10 minutes to get out of the parking lot since some yahoo has decided it's a good idea to drive the wrong way through the parking garage. Listen to all the other drivers honking incessantly as though any of us could go anywhere. Curse Carrefour and call Sev to bitch about how much I hate this store. And I have to do this twice a week. Argh!
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