A Word about China, from my friend Susan Tart

Susan was my Mentor during my stay at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has such a wonderful personality that it is impossible not to love her! She's funny friendly, wild, and basically anything you are looking for in a friend. Early this year, she has chosen to have her Study Abroad program in Beijing, China, for she is in love with Chinese culture and language. Of course.... China did not turn out as rosy as she thought it might be. Below is her last letter about the fascinating land before she returns to the good ol' United States:

At first I wasn't sure how I should end the last "this is China" email. China is too huge to categorize into one country and is developing at such a rapidpace that there is no way to sum it all up (for example, if you travel to Yunnan, you'll see nothing but a bunch of rice fields, ethnic minorities, and backpackers smoking the ganja growing on the rooftops of the natives'
houses).So, instead of trying to impress all of the intelligent, deep thinkers
that want a final analysis of China, I have written a few of the perceptions
I have concerning the "real" China...

1. In case anyone ever wonders why a guy and a girl might be holding
hands,
they will wear the same outfit to let everyone know that they're a
couple. I
haven't decided if this is cute in an Asian way, or just flat-out
wrong.

2. Restaurants are run like a Navy ship, and at least twice a day all
the
employees have to line up, do roll call, and get yelled at by the
manager.
They also march and take part in group chants. I have yet to figure
out the
connection this has with preparing food.

3. To combat China's unemployment problem (due to the overpopulation
problem),
the Chinese government is trying to employ as many people as possible.
Therefore, it is not unusual to count six women trying to clean up one
itty-bitty spill on aisle two of the grocery store (two of which won't
even
have mops but some sort of straight stick-like contraption that is only
making the spill worse). It's also not rare to see all these people
walking
around with mega chopsticks picking up trash. They're not too
efficient, but
I almost feel like it's my duty to help these people out and litter.

4. In China, babies don't wear diapers, they wear pants with the
bottoms slit
open. What's more, if they need to use the bathroom, the parents will
just
have them do the infamous "Chinese squat" on the sidewalk (grass if
you're
lucky) in public. Not that there's anything wrong with pooping the
natural
way or anything, but this just kind of makes me wonder how many times
I've
actually stepped in dog poop...

5. For a country whose government discourages religion, an absurd
amount of
Chinese people celebrate Christmas. Christmas lights and decorations
are
left up year-round. Christmas songs without the lyrics are played
practically everywhere you go. So if you visit to China, be prepared
to hear
Jingle Bells being played on the bus, The First Noel being played in
the
supermarket, or a Chinese pop song about a cute guy being sung to
Winter
Wonderland.

6. The women wear high heels everywhere they go. I even saw a few
women
wearing heels hiking the Tiger Leaping Gorge...which is why the Chinese
women
have moved up to 6th place on my list of international heroines.

7. Foreigners and Chinese aren't allowed to attend church together, nor
are
they allowed to sleep in the same hotels together. This isn't a
problem
unless you're stuck looking for a hotel at midnight and you keep
getting
rejected b/c you're not Chinese (of course that would have been me).
I'm
over it now, but I do feel sorry for all the mixed marriages out there.

8. There is no concept of a line. None. End of discussion. (However,
pushing, skipping, cheating, and any other devious tricks to get ahead
of the
person in front of you are perfectly ok.)

9. Every time an ATM is refilled with money, a van full of army men
with huge
guns pulls up and everyone must stand a certain distance away (I don't
know,
perhaps a street or two over?). I don't know what it's all about, but
I will
admit it's rather intimidating.

10. China is not really Communist. Yes, the government is very
paranoid, and
except for the whole freaky ATM ordeal, I never saw anyone on the
street
corner with a machine gun ready to blast the next person who spoke
above a
whisper (or is it just me that had that perception?) The press is
still
highly controlled, but the government is actually trying to incorporate
quasi-capitalism into its economy. Apparently what the word
"communist"
means in English and Chinese are two totally separate meanings.
Interestingly enough, the Chinese people don't understand how it could
possibly have a negative connotation in English, and they think that
everyone
should just stop hating. Hahaha

*Crazy China...*
I traveled with a few friends to the grasslands and desert in
Inner
Mongolia one weekend, where we stayed with a Mongol family and slept in
one
of their yurts. One of the traditions of the Mongol people is to sing
a song
and offer really harsh liquor to guests at greetings and before every
meal.
At first this seemed like a great tradition, but after about the third
time,
it was nothing but rough. We watched a dance performance that night,
which
was also pretty cool, but the entire time there were fireworks being
set off.
For some odd reason, we kept getting hit by these fireworks...in the
head, on
the arms, allover...they just kept falling right out of the sky and
attacking
us. If they hadn?t of hurt so much, it would have been freakin
hilarious.
I'm not sure what the celebration was for, but it got to be so bad at
one
point that even the dancers had to stop the show. Talk about crazy
(especially after being forced to drink liquor all day long).
The next day we went to the desert, which was only a few hours
away.
Now, I've never been to a desert before, but from everything I've ever
heard
about the desert, it's usually hot and dry. So of course the one day
out of
the year that we're there it is pouring rain. In fact, it was more
like
quick sand than a desert, and the Volvo that we were promised would be
a Jeep
definitely got stuck in the mud. Oh well, at least now I can say I've
gotten
to ride a soggy camel.

*Food Update:*
-Sheep Stomach: really, really nasty. The Inner Mongolians live off of
sheep,
and while we were there we were served sheep meat and sheep stomach for
every
single meal--I'm talking, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Not only that,
we
later found out that our food was cooked on top of sheep manure~Yummy.
-Pig Skin: somehow congealed in a burgundy jelly-type of tofu--also
really,
really nasty.
-Pigeon (popular dish in Hong Kong): I can't believe I ate the dirtiest
bird
alive and it was oh so good!
-Chicken Claws: I don't understand how people can crave these--they're
a bit
sour, but at least the claw nails ended up being un-sharp.
-Ostrich meat: tasted like beef jerky...only this was good.
-Dog: I finally ate dog the very last night I was in China. And,
believe it
or not, it was the most expensive item on the menu. I'm not sure what
kind I
ate, but the owner of the restaurant told me it was "big dog". It
looked and
tasted exactly like pork meat, but after only one bite the guilt set in
and I
turned from SuperSuzy into Wimp of the Year--I gave the rest of my
dinner to
the restaurant owner. :P

OK that's it ~miss you all.

Sushi (Susan Tart)