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From talking to the CCS staff, I have learned more about marriages and kids in china.
First marriages. Ladies cannot get married until they are 23 and guys cannot get married until they are 25. I believe they said this is to try and reduce the likelihood of them having kids at an early age.
The one child policy is enforced by issuing a $10,000 fine for each additional kid. One of the staff members is married to a Swedish guy, so she does not need to abide by this rule. The policy is also only enforced for the Hun Chinese, which are most of the people in china, but does not cover people in rural areas.
UPDATE: Thanks to Alice for fixing my numbers. Ladies cannot get married until they are 20 and guys cannot get married until they are 22.
Tonight, most of us went to a university in south Xi’an to an event called ‘English Corner’. Basically the gist of the event is english speakers show up and the students surround us and ask questions so they can practice their speaking and listening in english.
Continue reading English Corner
So I have about 140 china pictures loaded to flickr which seems like a lot, but isn’t. I have taken about 350 pictures so far and do not see a slow down any time soon. This morning I took about 70 pictures while we were riding bikes on the city wall over a span of about 80 minutes!
I am doing my best to keep flickr updated but it takes time to label each picture and rotate them the appropriate way. So please be patient.
ps – carolyn: I have been getting a lot of compliments at how well my photos are turning out. I have become the picture taker for night pictures because I get such great photos without using a flash. Yes, 99% of the night pictures have not used a flash at all. I do not know what you did to set up the ‘my’ setting, but you did a hell of a job. thanks!
This is mainly for the people from work and anyone else who creates web sites or multi-media packages.
Yesterday at work, they were telling me their requests: flashy (using flash), music, dancing girl (one of their students), flying birds, rotating images. I tried not to roll my eyes or break a smile. Apparently, no matter where you go, all customers want items on the web that we, as web developers, despise.
So far, I have been able to avoid these requests. Hopefully, I can keep this up.
Since I was joking about coming to china to find a mail-order bride, I also had the idea to make a sign that says ‘choose me’ and give it to ladies that I see on the street so I can take their picture and have you all vote who I should select. And thanks to Allison, I have a colorful laminated sign to do this with.
Unfortunately, up until yesterday, I have not seen that many ladies that I would want to give the sign to. I believe this is for two reasons: 1) I am having a hell of a time trying to guess ages 2) I believe the area of town that I am in is primarily for kids or older people.
Yesterday, I started seeing more though (maybe I am relaxing my standards). Tomorrow night we go to a college to talk english with the students. Hopefully, I will find some good prospects there, and, hopefully, I will have the guts to actually give them the sign and take the picture!
Wish me luck!
It rained Monday morning and brought a very nice cool breeze. We also noticed that it blew away the pollution because on Tuesday we could see much further and even saw a blue sky. Unfortunately, the blue sky is already covered today (Wednesday) by the pollution today.
Overall the weather has been nice – a little warm sometimes in the afternoon, but still nice. I am hoping that it rains more.
The humidity is definitely noticable. I sweat a lot easier (which I know you all wanted to hear) and even my sun block seems more watery. Since the weather has not been that hot, it has been bearabe.
The work schedule is pretty nice here for us. The kindergarden group teaches in the morning (about 9-11) and the medical group (traditional chinese medicine) works in the afternoon (about 2-4 or 5). I am working at two schools and it looks like I will be working the morining shift at Huiling and the afternoon at the other one (I go to the other school for the first time tomorrow).
The rest of the time is spent with optional activities like chinese language lessons, caligraphy, going to an orphanage and holding the babies, learning how to play mahjong (much different than the game in windows) and going to colleges and giving lectures about some subject in english. This is what is on the agenda for this week. Next week might be different.
If we do not want to do these activities or have free time, we can do whatever we want, as long as we are back by 1am.
CCS provides food for us at every meal. The cook is a professional cook, and a damn good one at that. Since there are 14 of us here, there is a lot of food prepared for every meal and I never go hungry.
I have not been brave enough to eat outside of CCS yet. I am probably going to try something over the weekend and see how I do. Wish me luck!
I am sure that some of you have been waiting to hear if I have fallen in the hole in the ground (ie – toliet) yet. Well, sad to say, I have only seen one hole in the ground toilet and that was at the Beijing airport. Luckily, there were western toilets next to it, so I ventured for the tried and true western toilets. The apartments all have western toilets and I have not been brave enough to try a public wash closet (aka – WC) yet.
I will let you know if I do use one and if I fall in.
In an earlier post, I made a comment about CCS having the only white people in Xi’an. Well, it turns out I have seen a handful of others, mainly around the drum tower and bell tower (touristy areas). A couple of nights ago a few of us came up with a new game. I am sure that most of you are aware of a game called slug bug – whenever you see a VW beetle you yell out slug bug and punch (ie – slug) the person next to you. Well, we did a variation on this called slug blonde so that we punch each other when we see another foreigner. ;]
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