iforgotaboutthebadmitton(sp)andthekindnessofthechinese

In my list of strange things that the Chinese (and there is more of this to come), I forgot about the national obsession with badmitton( sp?). the game like tennis. You see it everywhere, they even do these jazzercise exercises with the raquets. You really haven't lived untill you have seen 40 older chinese all in synch with raquets. It's pretty awesome. I have seen them playing the game in classrooms, in front of stores, on the street, pretty much everywhere. They seldom use nets, if ever. They love it!

Youhome is a giant supermarket by where I live( ba yi lu- 8 1 street). Youhome has two floors, the first floor is like a k-mart or something, the second is all grocery. You can take your cart up to the second floor by escalator( it's flat, no steps, just an inclined ramp). Youhome has alot of stuff. They have American style stuff like cookies and chips( although the potato chips in China come in all kind of crazy flavors- steak, baked potato, tommatoo, duck, you name it). they have big ass catfish in tanks, they have roasted chicken, chicken heads, chicken feet, you name it chicken. One thing about chinese stores, is that they have maybe 2 or three girls in any given section to help you make your selection. Usually, they just point you to the thing that the store wants to sell the mos,. but Youhome is a bit different. Today, Winston and I were there and we got alot of assitance. Many, but not all, Chinese women like to take care of Americans like we were children, especially Winston, who is an African American with corn rows and is the nicest, sweetest guy that I have ever met. There is not any discernable racism against african americans in China becuase there are hardly ever any African Americans in China! If i am a novelty ( and i am) in China, Winston is doubly so. They love his hair and his freindliness( although he has had Chinese argue with him that he is not from America- they think all Americans are rich White people- they told him he was from Africa or Brazil). Anyway, at Youhome, we were looking at yogurt, which is a love I share with the Chinese. So many types of Yogurt, FLavors, pouches, liquid, big containers, small containers, ect. WEll, there was a really cheap deal, and the women at the ailse just looked at us and said no. now, you might think that they were trying to get us to buy a more expensive brand, but i know that they weren't . The brand that i got was slightly more expensive, but not much more. That yogurt was probably bad, and they were looking out for us. Chinese grocery stores are not above selling bad yogurt, which is probably why it was such a good deal. Later, i was looking at dumplings. I picked out a bag that looked good. A youhome worker came over and stopped me. I thought, jesus, she's not going to let me get this( becuase they can be a pain in the ass sometimes) and she reached over and grabbed another bag that had a give away bad ass apron tied to it. I explained ( without language) that i did not want that flavor, so she took off the apron from the bag it was on and tied it to my bag! then i had to buy a pot to cook my dumplings in. A youhome lady came over and inspected the box, making sure that the pot was in the box. you might think that this is store policy, but i don't think it is. poeple who run businesses in China will do anything to make a buck. they will oversell, rip you off, sell you bad products, whatever. You have to be careful. but the youhome ladies will help a brother out, becuase in their eyes, we americans are like children.
The women at the office i work at are like that, but they will kill you with kindness. So are many of the older teachers; i have to tell them that i am ok eating with chopsticks, no, i don't need special western food, please let me wash my tray like every other teacher, no, i don't need you to walk me to the bus becuase i am 38 years old. A few times, some street vendor has tried to rip off one of us americans( it's ok, becuase all americans are rich beyond belief, they think) and some lady will pop up out of nowhere and give them hell and take us away! The Chinese lady is a great thing (however, if the lady is a vendor, the situation is quite different). In general, the chinese are a very kind, gentle people. That being said, there are many who will rip you off or steal from you. Violent crime is almost non-existent, but thievery very, very common. But, i have encountered many kind Chinese who counter the thieves in my eyes.

Ok, so tommorrow will be part two of the long promised chronology....