 |
| Chinese 100 Yuan bill with Chairman Mao's likeness. |
* Homogeneity (appearance, belief, expectations, manners, prices)
* Simplicity and unpretentiousness
* The wealthy and utterly poor living side by side, and no sense of entitlement (that I saw) to justify one or subjugate the other. (That won't last long.)
* Patient people in frustrating situations. (You'd think the whole country was on Prozac, but they just know how to navigate through the intersecting agendas of 100 people at the same time.)
* A beer or cocktail (or 2) every day.
* The kindness of strangers.
c0
And what I missed most while I was away… in no particular order…
* 100% American McDonald's hamburger and fries. There are subtle nuances among Western restaurants abroad to meet local tastes, but the American variety is in a class by itself.
* Drinking tap water
* Communicating with a vocabulary of more than a dozen words
* Diversity
* Google results that are relevant
* Writing
* Public toilets you can sit down on
* More or less informed news and speculation
* Elevators and handicapped access (we had a baby stroller so this was everywhere an issue)
* Western music
This is the very first song I heard after arriving in Chicago. I heard it in the hotel shuttle; it's always been one of my favorites and was oddly refreshing.
[2014-09-11]
c0
No comments:
Post a Comment