Just a quick note to say NIHAO FROM CHINA again! The Summer is over and we’re back from our wonderful vacation in Manila where life was like being at a country club. But I think that after living in China every thing is like being in a country club. I had no idea how physically and mentally exhausting it was to live here until I removed myself from the situation and allowed myself to slip back into my former life….now the difficulty is to switch back INTO China mode.

China mode being…

• You will not be able to understand anything: ACCEPT IT!
• You will not be able to reason with people, explain yourself, question anything: ACCEPT IT!
• SHIT (poo-poo, tae, feces, scheisse, crap, ka-ka) landed on the patio the other day: refer back up to #2 and ACCEPT IT!
• Taxi drivers believe they are Michael Schumacher: ACCEPT IT!
• The Locals never fail to gawk at you like you have 3 eyes: ACCEPT IT!
• Non-Chinese food is verry expensive: ACCEPT IT!
  
• The you-know-who confuse their brains for their asses: ACCEPT IT!
• You will order ketchup, and be given yoghurt (true story!): ACCEPT IT!
• Crossing the street is like being in a real live video game: ACCEPT IT!
• Going to the local Walmart is so harrowing that they should make it a part of the reality TV show “SURVIVOR” or “AMAZING RACE”, but such is life here: ACCEPT IT!
• Spitting (loudly please!) and whipping out the air-hankie are normal: ACCEPT IT!
• Common sense is not so common: ACCEPT IT!
• Our Apartment building smells like Binondo: ACCEPT IT!
• Local women have kili-kili hair: ACCEPT IT! (Matteo struggles with this one - he can’t get over that the teachers assistant in his class has hairy pits.)
• There is no such thing as personal space and people will come up as close to to as they possibly can while standing in line. (Note: most have bad breath, sticky skin, long dirty fingernails, and will eventually start spitting): ACCEPT IT!
• Driving vehicles on the sidewalk is always an option: ACCEPT IT PEDESTRIANS!
• more more more to come…
  

But yes…once you get past all this life is great! =)