(Ed. note: To Our Dear and Faithful Readers: There is growing creative tension between the owner/publisher (henceforth referred to as “o/p”) and the lowly editor (henceforth referred to as “e”) of The Jiaxing Express. The o/p feels that the editor is: A) not doing his best work, and B) is beginning to repeat himself. As to A, this may be the case – maintaining the high standard set by the o/p is a challenge, particularly given the o/p does not have the time to contribute as frequently as the e and is able to create real drama in her writings. As to B, the e feels that either:

1. Some of the incidents bear repeating, or
   
2. Some of our esteemed readers may have missed the original recitations due to hair washing, oil changing or a myriad of other events which take up their daily lives, or
   
3. Our lives have settled into a mundaneness (a word?) which needs to be shared as well, or
4. E is now too old to remember what has been written about and what hasn’t, or
5. All of the above

As a result, our offerings may be a little less frequent in the coming months, as we rededicate the e to composing a higher standard of  communications.)

China Post

We have mentioned China Post in the past, but today I had to mail a letter all the way to Shanghai. I could have hand delivered the damn thing faster. First, you MUST wait for about 90 seconds while the postal “worker” finishes playing the game on his phone.  Then, (as you know the addressing of the envelope is reversed in China but what you don’t know is that) you MUST have your return address on it and in Chinese (luckily I had it on my phone). Then you MUST wait for 10 minutes while the postal “worker”  types (hunt and peck method) the address it is going to and the return address into the computer and produces a bar coded “stamp” and affixes it to the envelope. Then you MUST wait another 3-4 minutes while he weighs the envelope and figures out the amount you MUST pay ($1.10) and then writes by hand something which looks suspiciously like my home address on the receipt portion of the bar coded “stamp”. So, to sum up, if you plan on mailing a letter in China, you MUST allow yourself 15 minutes. BTW I was darn glad I was first in line and not third!

Halloween in Jiaxing

Second Annual Halloween celebration at the BC Program of Jiaxing Senior High School. Now I don’t know where some of these kids get their costumes, but for a group of people who had no idea Halloween even existed until we got here and explained it to them, they really get into it!

Parking

Once again, I share with you the Chinese penchant for parking where they want. The other morning we came out of our complex and here was this guy (Ed. note: I have been told by a strong feminist that the word “guy” is asexual). She/he had parked on a corner, half in a crosswalk, pointing the wrong direction overnight. How do I know it was overnight? His – or her – car was covered in dew.

Japanese Food – Smokin’ Hot!

We have been craving some sushi, so we asked around and one of the “boys” (new teachers) said that they had tried this place and it wasn’t too bad. The “grill master” was quite artistic in how he arranged and cooked the food. On a scale of one to ten, overall it was a solid 6.5. It certainly wasn’t up to Katsu’s standard in Port Coquitlam, but maybe for China…

I’m going to guess that you can figure out that not all (read any) restaurants in Jiaxing are smoke free. (Ed. note: Except for Starbucks

So there we were, had a mediocre dinner, and just settling in to watch the first episode of The Game of Thrones, (Ed. note: Judgment reserved until we see a couple more episodes. Reviews say it’s great, but from what we saw…) when, what to our wondering ears should occur outside our window but 5 minutes of (Ed. note: you only get a few seconds):

Please note: the big white blotches at the end of the video are the lack of the surrounding plastic coating, which is a result of the fireworks.

Saturday Morning Stroll

We went for a stroll this morning to get some chores done. One of them was to get one of Terry’s t-shirts altered/mended/changed. This woman was delighted to help us out. As Terry noted, the sewing machine had to be a treadle since there is no electricity on the street.

Also this morning we passed by the mall. Now there are many many restaurants at the mall and every morning tens of these carts show up. They take away the food waste from the night before. Usually these buckets are full, I’m not sure why these ones are empty.

These guys were way cool. They wanted to stare at us as we went by, but tried to do it surreptitiously. I gave them the chance to stare and smile.

Examples of This Posting’s Title

People in China:

Push their way to the front of the line to buy their ticket – and then patiently line up 15 minutes before the gate to the train platform even opens to get on a train that has RESERVED seating.

Drivers will cut in and out of traffic and cut off anyone who is even minutely behind them but they demonstrate absolutely no road rage.

People on the street will stare at you with great suspicion as if you do not even belong in their country and then smile and laugh when you say nie hao.

Every bus has a recorded “Bing Bing” and then it announces the next stop but frequently the recording gets stuck in a loop and repeats itself over and over and over which drives Terry and I crazy when we are on the bus but no one, including the driver, ever seem to notice.

Fireworks go off at any time – the other morning we were joyously awakened at 5:38 but the kids at school have no idea what firecrackers are.

Our Saturday Stroll Continued- or The Shoe Boot

Normally, I don’t really comment on The Shoe photo and let it do the talking. However, we were walking along (it is now about 12:15) and there are three or four wagons selling noodles, hotdogs etc. – lunch things. This is our conversation:

Terry – What are you taking photos of?

Geoff – The boots

Terry – What boots? (Geoff simultaneously brings the photo up on the phone) OH, THOSE BOOTS!