Your Questions and Our Silly Answers

Is there anything about traffic/driving in China that you wish we could apply in the USA? Absolutely. I love it that if the idiot in front of you is going slower than you would like, you just go around them, whether that be getting your vehicle on the curb or sidewalk or terrorizing an innocent pedestrian. The more liberal use of a horn would be fun too.


What are the cars like?
Same cars but more smaller models. There are not full-size trucks (I have not seen a pickup truck or a semi yet) and SUVs. They have many smaller models of vans than we do. Our minivan is the same as Chevy van back home. 


(Don't think I am stupid!) What is Chinglish?
:) I am glad that you did not look this up on your own. It is when there is an attempt to use English, but it is really poorly translated or spelled. It can be absolutely hilarious sometimes. Especially on clothing. Example:

Hannibal Lecter would take his girlfriend to the Gril Friend Nail Salon.

When you walk in the malls, restaurants, etc...do you smell familiar perfumes or Bath and Body fragrances like you do in the USA? If not, what are the fragrance tones? No. Ninety percent of the time the air smells like sewage. That is why when it is breezy here, it is often worse than when it is stagnant and humid. Perfume and deodorant is rare. 
AND much to my chagrin, there is no such thing as Bath and Body works or anything similar. I have yet to find a good smelling candle in a store. Once in a mall I found a booth selling pseudo Yankee candles, but their scents were all wrong. They don't have anything like cinnamon or apples. Two of my new friends have given me candles (I must have talked about it too much!) Our recent Chinese dinner guest did not understand what was "on fire in that glass" when she visited.
Josh would say there are frequently truck stop bathroom tones.

Is fashion the same?
In theory, yes. Two things have stood out to me: their insane heeled shoes when they walk so much and on such uneven surfaces and their obsession with Disney characters on clothes. (I could write a whole blog about how they have ripped off Disney in this country, but that would be a boring read.)

Are you spending more money than you would be if you were still at your house? Hard to answer after just one month, but I would definitely say it is the same, just on different things. Food here --especially if you are willing to eat "Chinese style" is cheap, cheap, cheap. Most of our dinners out run around 50-100 RMB, which means we are feeding our family of 4 on $10-$20 for a ton of food. Groceries are cheap too-- if I avoid the import aisle. There I might spend as much as $4 on a bag of Goldfish crackers. We spent $400 on the tickets for Hudson and I to get to Beijing and back (Tucker was free), but we have not had to pay for any gasoline for a vehicle. 

The picture focused on my baby boy.

What was going on if I took a step backward.

Have you seen any cemeteries? What do they do with their deceased?
I have not seen a cemetery in 6 weeks. We were told they cremate and then bury the urn right on top of one another.

Do you feel like a Dolly Parton among the Chinese women?
Ha! Of course. Anything bigger than a B-cup can not be found here.

Name 10 things that you can not find sold in stores.
Off the top of my head: coffee beans or grounds, string cheese, maple syrup, hand sanitizer, candles, any American beer besides Bud or Pabst Blue Ribbon, pepperoni, packaged cookies, chicken broth, and coconut oil (which is ironic because they have an entire aisle of oil). 

Chinese carry everything on their backs.

Do Chinese women wear makeup?
Yes. Generally very little. I have seen several who wore the "white face" base. Interestingly at nice department stores, they have Maybelline and Olay counters, not Clinique or Lancombe.

Ganbei!

Have you been through any actual neighborhoods of single home dwellings?
Nope. I would be surprised if they exist. I will investigate.  

"Money Come" Cat. In windows and near cash registers at stores.

What do you do if you need to see a doctor?
We would go see the doctor who goes to our Foreign Fellowship and pay out of pocket, I believe. I brought literally a suitcase full of medication, which has been helpful as Josh and I have sinus infections right now. (We did just go buy antibiotics over the counter though!)

Is foreign fellowship mostly Americans?
Yes. But there are a lot of other countries represented: Canada, Phillipines, Ecuador, France, Australia, Japan, and Taiwan, for certain.

Have you acquired any photos of roadside pooping?
No. I continue to be in shock every time I see a pooping-in-public situation. 

If driving is as bad as you say, how are there not more car wrecks? No clue. However, I will share what I have learned. So, the driving looks crazy to us because there are two fundamental differences in the driving here. First, if you are turning LEFT you have the right of way. So, imagine all those intersections that you drive through everyday and the person who is turning left across your lane has the "right of way." Therefore, if I am driving (here) and want to turn left, I have that right of way over both the traffic coming straight from my left in the near lane AND the traffic traveling straight from my right in the far lane I am turning into. 
The second "rule of the road" difference in China is that a merging vehicle has the right of way. So if you are coming in off of a side street or exit ramp, you just go for it without paying any attention to the traffic already on the road. Now, taxi drivers do not heed to any of the above rules. They do whatever they want. And, I firmly believe that U-turns here are a way of life. You would NEVER go around the block to get where you want, you would just do a U-turn right where you are. Josh's work is by a driving school and they practice (what would would deem illegal)U-turns with their students.

Best of all, honking does not only mean "You are a stupid driver!" It also means, "I am about ready to do something dangerous!" It cracks me up that if we are passing someone (in my opinion illegally) the driver of my car is the one honking! (I wish I was kidding.) This is why people are honking all the time: either they are about to kill someone or be killed themselves. Needless to say, you must be incredibly more defensive as a driver here.