China Town:

Okay so yes, I live in Houston, Texas. Some of your stereotypes may be true, but not all. I grew up in Houston's "China Town." It is a little different than the China Town's I have seen in Boston and California. There are a lot of Asian people of course, but they are mixed in with other races as well. The street signs are in both english and chinese and there are a lot of asian restaurants and grocery stores of course. It is diffuse though and goes on for blocks and blocks. If you go to a large American grocery store in the general area they will make announcements in English and Mandarin and maybe Spanish as well. The city buses only announce in English and Spanish though. It is also common to hear many different languages at stores all over the city, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Mandarin are some common ones. The start of Dental school is fast approaching so I have decided to try to learn a little Vietnamese before it starts and then focus on Spanish (if I can) during my breaks from studying. I will have to see how that plan plays out, but it is woarth a try.

Illegal copies:

I wasn't going to talk about this, but after reading an article in the NY times I decided to. One very negative view in the article (there were positive as well) basically said American's buy a lot of things from China and China doesn't buy anything from America, they only steal movies and music. I was desperatly trying to buy some legal Chinese movies and music. I had a friend who spoke English run around town with me, but we literally could not find a place that sold legal CDs or DVD's (this was in Kunming). There were big stores that had things that looked legal to me, but when my friend asked the owner, they said they were all illegal. My friend said that even the big department stores etc, have illegal copies, they are just in high quality boxes etc and he pointed out some ways to tell. In Beijing, I went to what I thought was a legal place (A very big store right on a main street). When I asked for a CD, I was quickly directed by the staff to a man who took me to an obvious illegal CD shop in a back ally. In addition to the "legal" looking shops there are big stores on main streets with obviously illegal merchandise (the American CD's and DVD's are in plastic bags). The most amusing thing (I should have taken a picture) was a big banner that said "Respect Intellectual Property" and immediatly below was a shop that sold illegal DVD's. I know this sort of thing really isn't bad for China, but I think the government should at least enforce the international law enough so that you can't have a huge established store on a main street selling all illegal CD's and DVD's. I always had an image that it was a guy on the street or a back alley, but not anymore. Store owners also aren't at all shy about telling you they run a "copy shop." They will say, oh no, these are all good prices because this is a copy shop.

Back in Texas:

Wow, I really can't spell without a spell check. I am pretty sure that is obvious from my previous posts, but I don't feel like correcting them. I am very happy to be back in Texas (from being in Boston). I didn't realize how much I missed the place. I feel like I really fit into the culture. I didn't think the people and culture were very different when I was in Boston, but now that I am back I am noticing a lot of the differences.

Merchants:

So just before I returned home I decided to buy everything I had been meaning to in China. I went to a number of shops in Beijing shopping around to try to get as close to what I thought the Chinese price might be for items. It is pretty amazing what high hopes shops have for westerners, especially American's, spending money. Usually I go to one shop and see something I like and try to get to a reasonable price and then just go to the next shop with it if I can't. When I first walk into a shop you can see how excited the first person to see me is and they run over and try to help me buy something. Sometimes someone at the door will even yell out "Foreigner!" and then someone will run over even if Chinese people are near their area etc. The problem is that sometimes their expectations are too high. I was looking for a Chinese chess set and a store only had international chess, but they wanted to show me anyway. I said I wasn't interested and they said they would give a good price etc. I said it is not about cost, I am only looking for Chinese chess. They got quite angry once I started to leave and said something I couldn't understand. I could understand if I put someone through some trouble and then decide not to buy, but they didn't even have what I was looking for.

Another time a shop didn't have a Chinese chess set, but said they could get one in 10 min. I explained that I wanted a certain kind, but they may not have understood. I clearly told them I wasn't sure if I was going to buy whatever they were getting, but I would wait if they wanted to get it. They said okay and ran and got the set from another store. It wasn't at all what I wanted, (small wooden pieces on a folded paper board), I said I was sorry, but I was looking for a nice one with a board etc, and then they wanted money (as much as the chess set cost) for the trouble of bringing the chess set over.

The last time was in a big store in a famous shopping street. They also didn't have a nice chess set, but wanted to make me look at something else. Two of the girls in the store, probably 15, tried to block my way out and grab my wrist to go look at something else. I refused and then one of them pushed me back and another one took a piece of paper out of my pocket that someone had given me that had directions. I couldn't stop laughing because they were probably half my height and wouldn't let me leave the store. I got the paper back and left a little later, but I couldn't believe how excited they were, they were practically bouncing off the walls and running around to keep me in the store. I later learned to stop understanding when people ask where I am from.

On the flip side people will also bend over backwards since they know you will spend a lot of money. I finally found the chess set and as I usually do, I asked before we started bargaining if they could go get a new one for me and then look over the pieces. After we agreed on a price they got out a new board and I had to look at three before I could find one that didn't have a big problem (cracked and dented etc.). Then we had to go through every piece and switch out the ones that were brocken or scratched etc. It took a while since sometimes the next chess set would have a piece that had the same problem. I apologized, but they said it was no trouble.

Fighting!

So this is a very superficial observation, but after being in China for over a month I have been able to witness some conflicts with people. I saw some men arguing over a bycicle taxi fair. It was more like stubborn discussion and although I couldn't understand their local dialect they had the tone a expression of trying to ask the other to be reasonable etc. I have also seen 4 different fights between women and they were all very dramatic. This is actually probably why I noticed them since people were standing around and there was lots of yelling. The most dramatic was outside of a cancer hospital in Beijing. Four women, who seemed to be family or close friends, were fighting. One appeared as though she had undergone chemotherapy and the other three were yelling at her and beating her up. I don't think they were doing any serious damage, but they would pull what little hair she had left and kick her in the back and then she would walk away a little and would be a little stubborn and then they would walk after her and do it again. One thing is that during fights like this no one ever trys to break it up or do anything other than watch (for example the guards and police right outside the hospital where this was happening).

Drunk Friend.

I was eating at a restaurant late in the day, three men had finished lunched and one of them was very drunk and just fell asleep on the table. The other two messed with him a little bit and we all chatted and after the other two finished their meal and paid the bill they just left their drunk friend in the restaurant. I asked if they weren't going to take him with them and they just left him. I couldn't beleive it. The poor guy. Needless to say the restaurant owner wasn't too happy with the situation, but what could they do.

Little Kids:

I was waiting at the train station and a little boy who was maybe 6 or so kept saying hello to me in English and then running away. It was very funny and he was tickled pink. Another time the son of a dentist and his friend who were around 8 wanted to talk to me as well and they thought it was the funnies thing in the world when I spoke to them in Mandarin. They would repeat everything I said and laugh and laugh.

Flight home:

I am finally back from my trip! I have a million pictures, so I will find a place to put them up after I get organized.