This year as we sit around the Thanksgiving table, I'll be giving a shout-out to roll-on deodorant. Who knew? It's fantastic! Last summer, however, our first summer in China, I was using solid sticks of deodorant. While riding the bus downtown in a big city, I noticed some man looking at my underarm with great confusion... likely because of some small bits of white that had gathered up during the daily hustle & bustle.

Why the confusion? Well, friends, apparently deodorant is not such a universal product as one might have imagined. Now, when I'm chilling in my apartment blogging with my sweet-smelling underarms, this is no problem. HOWEVER, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon when I enter a classroom packed with 80 high school students... we have a problem. Somebody needs to get the deodorant train over here. Fast.

One final note: I have no idea what's going on in this picture, but it was mildly related to the topic of deodorant and made me laugh, so here's as good a place as any, right?

Photo Source: http://www.bedbugmundo.com/bad-smells-may-fend-off-bed-bugs.html

This week, I told my little students to put on their inventor caps and we talked about inventing new things. In one of my classes with particularly poor English, I gave them 3 minutes, dictionaries in hand, a partner beside them, and a teacher at their disposal, to complete this sentence:

"If I were an inventor, I would make..."

Answers I received were the following:
-I would make a local duck.
-I would make a W.C. that is very interesting.
-I would make a superman.
-I would make invisible clothes.
-I would make no any pollution car.
-I would make an angle.
-I would make fly house.
-I would make dinner.

Some days I don't quite know how to respond. We usually just laugh together.

An excellent phenomenon starts going on about this time of year. The weather feels like spring, the sun is out, the birds are chirping, and we, thrilled at signs of Spring, put on shorts and t-shirts in celebration of this long overdue temperature change.

But... looking around, no one else is dressed like us. They're all wearing pants, many are still wearing winter jackets, the babies are bundled to the MAX, and yesterday, I even saw a woman wearing pants that were puffy and thick like a snowsuit! Really? (I mean, this crazy, too-many-clothes thing is not going down inside climate controlled homes; no, everyone is walking around under the furiously shining sun.)

Well, I think people here are even more amazed at our lack of clothes than we are at the excess of theirs. More people than usual (which is quite a lot) stop to stare at our partially bare arms and legs. Then you hear them talking about us, "很健康” which means "So healthy!"

Yes, if you wear less than, oh, I'd say two or three layers of clothing this time of year, you could very well be marveled at. I often walk into class and remove my coat only to be greeted with a collective gasp of "ooooh!" and "eh-sku-sah-me, are you cold?" When I smile and respond, "No, not at all," there are always several who sigh in admiration, "Oh, you are so healssy!"

And now, the featured photos for this entry. Number one is a picture of Austin with some people we visited recently. You'll note the contrast in wardrobe:

And the second picture. This is what an infant or toddler looks like from winter all the way into the spring season. These kids are bundled up!

I was riding my bike down the street yesterday afternoon, taking advantage of the sunshine. Back streets here are full of little treasures. Shops come and go, sometimes remaining for a season, at other times popping up for just a few weeks at a time to sell some excess factory merchandise. Today I passed a shop full of bras with a huge sign reading, 10 RMB. Well, friends, that’s roughly $1.50 for a bra, and there was no riding by.

Here’s the downside to bra shopping in China: Most of the inexpensive bras are marked with a band size (32, 34, etc.) BUT there’s no letter because for the most part, everyone here wears about an “A” (I mean, it seems pretty obviously apparent, though I’ve not conducted an official survey). SO… I and my other C and D friends were not personally going to have any luck at this store, but I did have a little friend getting married soon, and I decided to be more than prepared for any bridal showers popping up.

So I parked and locked my bike and walked into this little shop with a bargain bin in the middle, bras lining every wall, and a megaphone repetitively announcing that there were bras available for just 10 RMB. I began shopping for my friend’s size, carefully making selections when suddenly, there was a man standing in front of me waving a bra in my face and jabbering a bit too fast, probably some bra-specific words my tutor hasn’t covered in our sessions just yet.

I wondered to myself, “Who is this man?” and take a look around the store. Suddenly, I realized, “Wow, this man runs the store!” Now, a man running into a store to riffle through a bra bargain bin for his wife is one thing. But imagine this man in kindergarten when asked, “What do you want to do when you grow up?” Did he say, “I want to work in a seasonal bra shop and wave bras in the faces of unsuspecting women”? Well, whatever the case, seemed to be thriving in his working environment.

He pointed out the features of this bra, including the lace and the fact that it was filled with watery liquid for whatever effect those bras are supposed to have and forced the bra into my hand. I took it and said thank you before turning away and burying my head in another rack of bras where I could privately laugh at the surprise of this unashamed man providing bra recommendations. I pulled my jacked around me a little more fully as I briefly became aware of this man’s awareness of my size in making recommendations.

I continued shopping and he seemed fairly interested in what was going on with the customers in the store. Finally, I had it down to 4 bras, two of which were the same color scheme. I was really debating which to buy and finally decided to invite him into the inner circle of my decision-making. “Which one do you like?” I asked him. He gave me a pretty definite answer. What a shopping partner.

And so, if you happen to be that friend with an upcoming bridal shower, get ready for some nice bras.

Chosen just for you with love,
Me and the Bra Guy

Before coming to China, when I thought of Chinese people, I often conjured up images of a bunch of really skinny people, people living in a beautiful country-- much of it looking like the pictures of ancient China we see on calendars, people eating rice, people making great academic achievements. And, I was right at least in part on each of these fronts.

However, in light of so many skinny people, what I wouldn't have pictured is the lack of health in the food here. Now, I know America has its share of health violations in the eating department, though I'd say Austin and I strive to eat healthier than many/most Americans when possible and reasonable.  So, I have been amazed and challenged by so many things in the food arena here, for example:

-Many/most street foods are deep fried.
-The first three ingredients in almost all foods you can buy pre-packaged in the supermarket are white flour, oil, and sugar. (There aren't really "baked- not fried" options or whole grain options.) All dried fruits except for the occasional raisins are sugar-coated. All "juice", save for one brand, is only 10-30% juice.
-People somewhat rarely drink milk that doesn't have a bunch of sugar and sweet fruity flavoring to it.
-Just about every dish we've had in restaurants here comes bathed in oil (among other liquids, I'm sure, but the oil is unmistakeably present.)
-There are not very many whole grains available-- no whole wheat flour, whole grain bread, no brown rice to speak of, no whole wheat pasta (though the fact that they have pasta at all is impressive to us, so we don't complain).
-Oil is sold by the gallon, actually probably in 1.5-2 gallon containers.
-Pork fat. Everywhere. And little knowledge that it's not nutritious... We've been to more than one home where one of the dishes is literally a big bowl of just chunks of straight pork fat with seasoning on it. Not kidding. Not exaggerating. At all. In some approximation of Austin's words as we walked down the street looking into shops for lunch, "I feel like my choice to not eat pork fat seriously limits my dining options in this country."

(Before I go further, let me say that I'm not trying to be a health snob. Whole grains and healthy foods have not always been at the top of my list, and still, I totally love reaching for the Oreos once in a while... I'm just saying I like to have options when possible.)

SO... What is the point? Well, partially just to share what's going on in the food department over here, but also to point out the sheer miraculous quality of this:

Yes, what on earth are the chances? While walking down some back streets in a nearby town a week or so ago, I happened into a shop that carries a few foreign food goods from time to time. When I wandered to the back aisle, my heart started beating much faster at the sight of these little goods: Brown rice powder and wheat germ!

I feel like this is the point when I realize I've gotten caught up writing and have spent quite some time building to the point I sat down and began typing to mention, and now it's like that awkward silence in a story when there's just nothing else to say. And it wasn't even a very good story.

The weather has been awful lately. In the past two months, we've probably seen the sun less than a handful of days.

So many days before that...          4 days ago...          3 days ago...              2 days ago...            yesterday...           SUNDAY!!!

So today, we put on some shorts and went out to play! We met up with some friends at the college and played some ping pong. Not being a big fan of any sport involving a ball (mostly due to lack of coordination and scarring childhood experiences), at first I served as photographer. Later on, however, I decided to take a shot at playing. Here's just one of the winning shots. You will note my excellent ping pong form, I hope:

On sunny days, we're not the only ones that go out to play... So does every blanket and piece of clothing on campus, it seems! Everyone likes to air out their quilts and dry their clothes. Our campus itself looks something like a quilt with all the different blankets draped over bushes, grass, trees, and anything else in the way!

Was there any doubt which tissues I'd buy? No, not really.

I've decided to start blogging again. I guess it's been a few months, and I know I don't exactly have dedicated readers who have noticed, but I just love to write, to journal. The past few months I've been writing more and more, writing my daily thoughts in my trusty journal, but it's time to whip out some pictures again and share a little more.

We had an absolutely disgusting dining experience recently, yet it was a whole lot of fun and we got some great pictures! We were invited to one of our student's homes and his dad introduced us to his rodent farm. Out back, he keeps about 100 fat part guinea-pig-looking, part rat-looking rodents.  We got to look at them, hold them, and pet them... and then ingest them. He fried up some rodent meat, paws and all, and added some horse meat and goat stomach as side dishes. Here are a few photos of us taking in our new experience.

Here are some more great local products... First: A tupperware container. When we saw it was "HowFun" AND a "Protects the Fresh Box", we knew this was the one we'd been waiting for.

Think you've seen "The Best Movie"? Well, you probably haven't. Austin and I have seen lots of movies, and they're all "The Best Movie," and "The New Viewing." We're sold.

And, in case you had any doubts that this was in fact the best movie, you can rest assured that it's "super new ranking perfect classic collections." What a relief!

Introducing... the products that tempt us upon arrival at the local supermarket. How can one resist? Take one look at the descriptions, and you'll be sold!

1.Strawberry Vinegar:
this is an excerpt from the back of the label.
"The drink was made of the high quality strawberry, and with internal advanced technology.  It will be the future fashion drink. This add the XO, also may directly or exchanges the water, with the drinks better."

2. Loaf of bread:
"YUMMY
Delicious Bread
once you try it you cann't stop it"

Again, how could I resist?

3. Chocolate snack:
"Julie's... bakes better biscuits."

Better than who? And where are the biscuits?  And look at Julie... Do you really trust a face like that?

4. Cake box:
Of course, if you want the very best there is to offer, you can always turn to a "Drofeffional Bakery." You have to go to school a long time to work in a place like that. :)