( i wish i could add music to this thing, Intermission always makes think of some old lady kind of serenly jamming on an organ( intsrumnet, for my chinese and also my more perverted friends)
This is part of an email i wrote to my brother today. It contains much interesting( i think) information and i thought that if i added some stuff, it would make a good post. The rest of the Halloween stuff and such is coming, some of it is already written, but i noticed that i was turning what should have been a short, almost business like email into a post, so I went with it. My bother helped me out a little bit on may way over here, so I westerned unioned him some money. Others helped me out, and as soon as i am able, i will also pay them back.... anyway, i just thought someone might like to read it( except for the semi-political rant, a bad habit of mine that i think is just part of being an American.... god or whatever help me)
Steve ( iam turning this into a blog entry, besides the more sensitive personal crap, like your pimply ass and such)
today, April and i went to the post office. What a cluster fuck that was. The Chinese really fuck anything up that is even slightly bureaucratic in nature? forms over forms, poor April and i spend about 2 hours in that place( hell maybe about an hour and a half). it didn't help that we seemed to come at time when a ton of people who fucked shit up where ahead of us( MY CURSE IN ANY COUNTRY). Wherever i go, i tend to get behind the guy who has a super-complicated order or is just a douche, or the lady who fights with the sales clerk over the price of lettuce( surprisingly, this has actually happened in both China and America). And the Chinese, god bless their hearts, suck at lines. I don't know why, but they will just jump ahead of people and crowd around the window or whatever. Even though they are generally better behaved at the grocery store, i have had people just cut in front of me, or try to angle their carts in some obvious but strange angle ( which is also how they drive, as I have mentioned). Anyhoo, poor April got jumped ( line jumped that is, you pervert ) at least once. and the chinese do love to debate with company's. I think it may because haggling is part of the culture, and still is fairly huge, but you don't haggle with big companies such as western union, Mcdonalds and such. In most official type stores, you can't haggle, as in the grocery stores, malls( well most of them), restaurants, and most stores, but on the street and in booths ( and certain types of stores, less official i guess) you can and it is expected. The thing i have learned about the Chinese is that they don't just jack up the price, they really jack of the price! I also think that us foreigners get a special anti-discount because they think that all Americans are rich ( which is of course not true) and that all foreigners are clueless about their prices ( which is unfortunately very true of some of us!) So you may haggle with them and get them to cut it down by half, but find out later that you still payed 3 or four times the price a normal Chinese person would. And the Chinese are born with the ability to find a good deal, they thrive on it. It one of their strengths and weaknesses; sometimes they just seem very smart and frugal, other times, they seem damned cheap and stingy. Of course, it is probably ingrained in them due to the massive population, limited resources, historical poverty and having lived through some very though times. Even though China is ( or at least was) a socialist society, as Jessica has said ( to paraphrase my love), "in china, you watch your money, work hard, and don't waste things because if you get in trouble, no one will help you." the Government does help them out sometimes, but it seems to be fairly limited. In America, despite all of the shit people say, we are lucky that there are safety nets ( well, with some holes in them).Back to the point! Which at this point, i must admit that i have completly forget.
Oh, so anyway, after forever, everything cleared up and we got your money out. Since everything was in Chinese, i hope that their were no massive fuck ups. i hope you got the agreed upon am ount and that you receive it. All in all it was another strange, but thought provoking experience in China...
love,
you smarter, handsomer brother,
Patrick
ok, next up, Halloween part II( yes, i know, i am pat evon right)
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