Rando Thoughts, Lessons, and Pending Questions

1. Washing machines are a luxury. Dryers are surplus (or shi) and a tad wasteful (at least in warm sunny cities).

2. Why Asians hold a strict "no shoes in the house" rule and wear slippers instead. I used to think the rule was overly OCD and that slippers were silly and funny looking. Then recently when brought to this world of Chinese Medicine, I thought the slippers were to protect the "kidneys," and that the no shoes rule was still OCD. Now, I am certain that both are used conjunctively because the streets outside are just gross and all shoes are "squatter-shoes."

3. Why Asians are stereotypically stingy in the US. In China, common denominations are 1 yuan, 5 yuan and 10 yuan = $0.17, 0.84, 1.67 respectively. 20Y and 50Y are large bills = $3.33 and 8.33. The largest bill is a 100Y = $17. Every yuan makes a difference --ie. every USD dime makes a difference. A bottle of water should be around 2 yuan. If they ask for 4Y, an extra 34 cents, you are being ripped off.

Just saying.

4. Think the secret to pain-free longevity is a combo of tea, hard beds, parks, and qigong.

Zi teng lu, Wistaria House

Zi teng lu, Wistaria House

5. My little nephews love (may be too strong of a word) vegetables. I took a pic of him eating broccoli (or as they call it, hua hua tsai cause I thought it was adorable and its not common to see 2 year olds chomping on their greens. I thought this may be representative of all Asian kids, but my cousin claims its just them, that they are the special ones. 'course.


6. Clarify the names of all your relatives before you see them. Not everyone is a simple Uncle Joe or Aunt Mary ---nope, everyone has their own special name depending how you relate to them. Are they maternal or paternal? Are they younger or older? etc etc. Whenever I am introduced to someone for the first time, the relatives around me congregate for a moment to figure out how I should call him or her. I finally decided to Google this. What this site explains isn't even comprehensive! http://www.expatintaiwan.net/family-names/

Had dinner with a bunch of relatives. I think I should draw a family tree.

7. Pending question --Why for ex. at restaurants, are you not just given one sufficient paper towel or napkin, but instead, a box of tiny thin tissues? Not sure which is more consuming...

8. Pending question 2 --Would I look different if I grew up in Asia, if so how so and by how much?