We are civilized

This was on our door when we got home .
It says that we are a civilized household.

When we got back from visiting our friends, we noticed that almost all of the stores were closed in our neighborhood; no one was sitting at tables along the street (and there were no tables on the street); everything seemed clean and quiet. It was strange. We asked our cab driver if it was a holiday, but he said no.

Then, we learned from Asian Kate that while we were gone the Cheng Guan ("City Manage" as it is translated on the side of their cars) came through and were bribing stores with gifts to close shops for two days. They painted white stripes on the sidewalks, telling people to park their bikes only in those spots. They kicked all of the mah jong tables off of the streets. They put up rods in the sidewalk to prevent cars from driving on it. Officials from Beijing came to town for two days to see if our city is a "civilized" city, so our neighborhood was being forced to clean up.

There were police & "city manage" on every corner for two days. It was amazing. I could walk the streets without dodging boxes, people, bikes, cars, etc. It was quiet and peaceful in the neighborhood. Amazing.

Once those two days were over, it was back to business as usual.

just a bunch of bikes with culture, parking within the white lines.

all restaurants were closed.  there was nowhere to eat.  civilized people don't eat.

Where the uncivilized mah jong playing used to happen.

new civilized trash bins, already slightly cultured.

no driving on the sidewalk.  civilized people use roads.

Business is back to normal.  Four poles have been taken out.
Cars are on the sidewalk, and that guy is shooting snot rockets.

VIPs

Ten days in advance.

That used to be the earliest that you could buy train tickets in China.  Now, it's only five days in advance.

FIVE.

Ten days in advance seemed a little inconvenient during peak seasons, because you pretty much have to "get in line" in a culture that doesn't get in line early at the train ticket office, hoping that by the time you get there you have a clear enough mind to order the right date, time, and kind of tickets you want for the train, and hope that they'll still have tickets left. It's like when I tried to buy tickets for Jack Johnson on ticketmaster.com the day they went on sale and the lawn seats were already sold out by the time I got through.

Now it's five days in advance. And it is currently a peak season for train tickets, since students are leaving their homes and training to the cities where they go to school. So when, Aaron and I trained to visit friends, arriving five days before we wanted to return home, we immediately got in line at the ticket counter to buy our return tickets. We waited in line for an hour at 7:30 am, and by the time we got to the counter at 8:30am - the tickets had already been sold out for all of the trains going back to our city for the day we wanted to go back. The ticket office had only been open for 3 hours!

After failing the second day to come up with another option for how to get back home (and being told it would be best if we could just wait to go back home until the middle of September), we decided to get up at 5:00 in the morning and get a ride to the train station so we could be in line when the tickets went on sale. On our way to the train station, our driver could not understand why we would need to get up so early. Then we pulled up to the train station. It was busier than it was the other day.

We got in line, then noticed a line that had no people in it, labeled for "important people." Deciding I was important enough, or at least I could play dumb and say I can't read and/or speak Chinese, I got in the VIP line while Aaron stayed in the normal line. No questions were asked from the lady behind the counter. She booked the tickets I needed, and we were out of the train station within 15 minutes.

Lessons learned:

- status is a big deal in China.

- Though sometimes it is not awesome to have so much attention drawn to you as a foreigner, other times it really pays off.

- try not to travel by train mid-late August, unless you want to "accidentally" get stuck somewhere.

And pictures from hanging out with friends:

hipsters

The Chinese have a unique sense of style. The ladies in our city wear REALLY short shorts year round, just supplementing them with tights in the winter, & stilettos pretty much all the time. I don't know how they walk around the city like they do or ride a bus for that matter. Little kids here are dressed pretty cute - with the girls always having pigtails. The older kids like to wear shirts with strange sayings in English like "Candy - I gave two lollipops to the kid," or " Szyamcfalj the life." (okay I made that last one up, but there are shirts that just have a random arrangement of letters that I am pretty sure the wearer believes says something awesome).

The examples I listed above are of people who are trying to have style & to dress put together. However about half of the population here, seem to really not care about how things look together - they're just clothes. So unintentionally they make awesome combinations of different prints, hats, and accessories. Aaron and I recently found a website documenting these cool cats - www.accidentalchinesehipsters.tumblr.com

Check out the website to get a little taste of the hipsters we hang out with everyday. I personally enjoy June 23rd & July 31. Aaron's favorite is May 30th.

Back from Thailand....

So here he is - out of surgery.  Actually at this point we're back in China, no longer in Thailand, and he's been recovering for almost three weeks.

People tend to do some pretty funny things when they are coming off of anesthesia.  Aaron was his normal self, but instead the 28 year old Aaron, he was more like what I imagine 80 something year old Aaron will be like - falling asleep during conversations and when deciding what to watch on tv.  He still had his normal sense of humor, including one time when I turned my back on him for a second.  I turned back around and he looked like he had fallen asleep again, this time with his mouth slightly open (he never sleeps like that....though I frequent the open mouth breathing position while sleeping).  After a few seconds, he opened his eyes and said, "That was my best Stacy." He didn't even remember punking on me until I told him about it a few days later.


I know I have already mentioned the amazing hopsital we were at but here are some things from our hospital experience that I want to add:


A) We booked plane tickets, planning on staying in Thailand for 2 weeks so that we'd have plenty of time to get an MRI and then schedule the surgery - we didn't want to have to make two trips to Thailand for this.  Aaron walked into the hospital to meet with the doctor the DAY AFTER we got to Thailand.  The doctor said after your MRI we'll just go ahead and get you in surgery TONIGHT.  This was not an emergency procedure.  We found them to be super quick & efficient with everything.


2) I needed to know my blood type for something, but didn't want to schedule an unnecessary dr. appointment - so Aaron's Orthopedic surgeon's nurse practitioner had the doctor order blood work for me.  I never saw a doctor - just the lady who drew my blood & the nurse when she gave me the results. It cost me about 5 minutes of time and $18.  This would never happen in America.  In fact, in America I was told that insurance would never cover my blood type testing unless I had an emergency.  I was also told it would cost a lot out of pocket.  Only option - give blood (but not for me due to overseas travel).

D).  The food available there was amazing.  Aaron and I say that it's strange/embarrassing but the hospital has definitely moved up into the #3 spot of places we would go to eat in Bangkok.  It is that good.


And now pictures of the other things that make Thailand a joy to visit.  You'll probably notice they're pretty much all related to food....what fatties.:

fresh, sliced, cold fruit on every street.

Shwarma!  Middle Eastern food is easy to find right outside of the hospital.

Shwarma was the first meal we had when we left the hospital

Aaron had at least one slurpee a day from 7-11.
Here with his slurpee he's standing in front of another favorite - Thai food stands.

Our hosts - Jeff and Jessie Gordon.
It was great getting to spend a week or so with them and their family.

New Zealand all naturals ice cream - mint chocolate chip!

Schweppe's has a lime flavored soda that they sell in Thailand called Manao.
I am always so sad that they don't sell this anywhere else I've been.
We stocked up on the airport this time to take some back with us to China.