a little bit of this and that

So, it's been a little while since we last wrote, but I can't say that we've been all that busy. The weather most recently has been a little bit warmer, mainly in the low forties and sunny. It is supposed to rain later in the week, which won't be all that pleasant. Other than that, the biggest thing in our lives is where we want to go for Spring Festival. Our first thought was to head south to Yunan or Macau, but our friends told us not to go to Yunan if all we had was a week, and Macau isn't out of the picture, but right now it seems a little complicated and expensive, especially where visas are concerned. Our second thought would be to head the other direction, straight up north to Haerbin, where the average temperature in January is -30 degrees celcius. January is however, the month Haerbin hosts the ice festival, which I've heard is really great if you don't mind wearing 5 sweaters. Dan has even agreed to buy a second pair of long underwear. However, we haven't bought the tickets yet, so we may still change our minds. One interesting thing is when I was talking to the travel agent on the phone, I told him I was a foreigner (not that that wasn't already obvious from my imperfect Chinese). At one point in the conversation, he said, "just a moment, I have someone who speaks Korean." Before I could say a word, heard a woman's voice saying "anyang hasaeo" (sp?) (which means hello, and is the only word I know in Korean). I still can't really get over that someone mistook me for a Korean, I guess mainly because face to face that would never happen. It was a little flattering though, because Koreans in general are known for speaking better Chinese than western foreigners.


On another note, I was teaching one Saturday and one of my students, who is five, said to me, "teacher, there's bird flu in Jinan" (the capital of Shandong province). I was a little disturbed by that, and I asked her, "how do you know that?" then she said, "there's also bird flu in Qingdao. People all over China have bird flu! It's everywhere!" Then she smiled and said, "teacher, what is bird flu?" After that, the other students (who are about 10) and I let out sighs of exasperation and continued on. We were talking about last names when again, the 5 year old shouted out, "teacher! what is the last name of people with bird flu!?" I guess that awareness and understanding are two different stages.

Finally, I don't really know anything about Japanese culture beyond my friends' anecdotes and the occasional samurai or anime movie, but I have a feeling some anthropologist could have a field day doing a comparative analysis of Japanese versus Chinese toilets. Pretty much all the toilets I've used in China not in a private home have been squat toilets. The level of sanitation has varied between atrocious to barely adequate, and even in the cleanest toilets there is usually a few drops of urine splattered around the edges. (On the whole though, I would prefer a public squat toilet as it means there is no sitting on the toilet seat dilemma.) Often, the toilet stalls have no lock or no door, and most are byotp and byos, or bring your own toilet paper and bring your own soap. (A small digression: At our school, the one of the woman's bathroom a)has no door and b) has only one stall door for only one of the three toilets. There is also no partition between the other two, and they directly face the outside door, so basically anyone peeing there does so in full view of anyone walking by.) In the winter however, the whole toilet experience has taken on a different unpleasant dimension as it seems few establishments think it necessary to heat the bathroom, which means that one must remove clothing in a room not much above freezing. Even worse is the sink, which shoots out a stream of icy water, which then has to be shaken off of one's hands as quickly as possible to prevent them from freezing in the cold bathroom air. There are a few Korean establishments with Japanese toilets, and this toilet experience is like none I have ever experienced before. The back of the toilet is larger and contains about as many buttons as an expensive washing machine, appearing to perform similar functions. There are detailed instructions in Japanese next to most of the buttons, as well as helpful diagrams, some showing water spraying out of the toilet bowl like a fountain. (Maybe Japanese engineers have carefully built an overflow function into the toilet, saving you the effort of having to clog it yourself.) The toilets also have arms, for comfort and with more buttons if 12 or so on the back of the toilet weren't enough. Also, the seat of the toilet, like those of expensive cars, is heated. The water in the bowl of every single one of these toilets (which I have to admit, is not a large sample size) is unfailingly blue. Since all the Japanese toilets I've seen are in Korean establishments though, I suppose any sort of comparison between bathrooms would only illuminate Chinese-Korean differences. I'm curious however, are these sorts of toilets common in Japan, or are they only the luxury brand toilets, found only in the swankest places or mainly sold for export? Any experts?