Okay so I have calculated that in the past month I have consumed cheese worth about 400 rmb.
Now that is 4800 rmb a year!
That’s two tickets to Vietnam!
It’s only when one adds up the cost that one can see the full impact of ones consumption behaviour.
I am having my very last cheese-sandwich ever in China right now. Since I am a vegetarian, this pretty much means I am not going to have anymore sandwiches period.
7 rmb fried noodles from now on!
I’m going through the new Chinese words we have to learn for the next chapter in our book… sometimes I really wonder what the use of some of the words are.
Like this week’s 对联 which of course means “rantithetical couplet”, whatever that is. I don’t think I have ever before in my life needed to use the word “rantithetical couplet”, I don’t actually even know what it means.
And also amongst the list of useful words we will learn this week is 水仙，which means narcissus. Another word I have never used before in my life.
Time to google to find out what rantithetical couplets really is…
Sexy?
Sarah had to answer this question when she signed up at the gym the other day. It’s hard because you don’t really know how to answer, like…do they want you to rank yourself on a scale from 1-10, or is it a yes or no question? Things in China are always that little bit more complicated, and also more fun 🙂
I’m thinking of signing up next week if I can straighten out my budget properly…
Grrr can’t find my camera. My small canon camera that fit into my handbag.
So annoying! I prefer to always have a camera with me so that I can take pictures of anything and everything funny I see.
For example like today when I wanted to take a picture of my old neighbour taking her dog for a “walk”. That is… the poodle was sat in a babystroller, but it looked like it was enjoying the walk anyways.
I also wish I had managed to snap a picture of Beijingers out and about trying to take a stroll with their cats in a leash. I wonder how long it will take before they realise that cats don’t make good walking partners, they just don’t ever seem to walk nicely on a leash. Naughty Beijing cats!
It’s a white New Year!
Woke up this morning to a white Beijing 🙂
Apparently this is the most snow they have had in 16 years. Okay, so it is about 3-4 cm deep, but whatever, I am SO excited!!!
I tried making a snowman but the snow was too loose, maybe in a few days time. It will snow again on Sunday so we’ll see if it goes any better then.
Everyone is out “shuffling” snow, cooperation in action!
A group of leftwing politicians in Norway want’s to ban stripping in Norway.
Sigh!
Just sigh.
Their argument is that it makes women into objects by them selling their bodies for men’s pleasures (not sure if they want to extend this to male strippers…ironically they seem to be forgotten in these women’s pursuit for gender equality). They also claim that women who strip are forced to such a life out of necessity, although they admit that none of them know a stripper (they also refuse an invitation to enter a strip club for a chat with those who work inside).
First off: Many jobs involve people selling their bodies and turning their bodies into a commodity. Actually I would argue that this is the case for practically all jobs in a market economy.
A carpenter also sells his/hers body through labour. And what about people working in theatres as dancers and actors? They are also using their bodies to sell labour for other people’s pleasure.
If anything should be made illegal for objectifying bodies then it should be the modelling profession. At least stripping requires some sort of development of talent, practice and training (especially if pole dancing is incorporated in the strip act).
Secondly, I really doubt that these women are forced into stripping because they are suffering and would not survive otherwise. Not in Norway. I would buy that argument if they were talking about the strip club in Swaziland. Those strippers are just sad and look miserable.
In Norway however, even though we have (relatively) poor people, our social security should be able to catch those who need help before they are forced into what these politicians view as prostitution-like work such as stripping. If the welfare network doesn’t do this then that is what they should fix, not make stripping illegal. That way, those working as strippers would be the ones that actually chose that line of work because they approve of it as a career rather than resort to it as an act of desperation.
And frankly LOTS and LOTS of people are forced into jobs they don’t like, or even despise, out of need. How many people actually want to work as a toilet cleaner? Was that an active career choice they made, or were they forced to take a shitty low paid job because they need money to feed and house themselves?
If we are going to argue that stripping should be illegal because people who work there would prefer another job if they could and that they actually feel really terrible, then we need to face up to the fact that quite a few people sit around bored and miserable in their jobs but stick it through because they have to. Is making these jobs illegal the best way to give people a better quality of life? Close down the grocery store! Or are there other measures we can take?
On top of this, there is no data on whether or not strippers are miserable in their jobs in the first place. The few strippers I have met (apart from the Swazi ones) seemed to love their jobs. Admittedly I have only befriended a small handful, but I can say for sure that there are women and men who consider their profession fun, challenging and of course, well paid.
So retarded.
The woman in the picture by the way is doing the Scorpio.
I was searching around the internet for some good images showing the axial precession of the earth. Remembering that my old astronomy lecturer Tony Fairall had a great one, I googled his name and to my shock and disbelief the first thing that comes up is an article in the SABC News notifying of his death!
So sad!
Apparently he died in a diving accident between Llundudno and Houtbay in late 2008, and I only found out now!
Tony was seriously one of the very best lecturers I have ever met. Extremely funny and explaining everything in a manner that makes it understandable to everyone. The kind of person that makes you really engaged in the subject. I even cried a couple of times after class because I thought astronomy was so frikkin awesome. His enthusiasm was truly contagious.
He organised a trip to SALT (Southern African Large Telescope), one of the world’s biggest, for my class back in 2005. This is was my first trip to SALT
This is the Fairall-9 Galaxy that he discovered
(Wikipedia)
I’m getting a cold so I went to the pharmacy to get something for my sore throat.
I bought what I thought was Chinese Strepsile type of tablets, but when I opened it I realised it was a bunch of tiny brown pills. So I went back to the pharmacy and asked them how I was meant to take them. The woman behind the counter told me to take 8 pills with water 5 times a day.
40 pills a day for a sore throat?
Right… Not going to do that, thank you very much.
Later I asked Ryan to read on the package what it was and he told me it contains antibiotics.
GREAT! No wonder resistant strains are evolving when the two most populous countries in the world just throw antibiotics at people like that.
On the subject of scary Chinese people… I find the contrast between Western and Chinese media reports on China’s rise very interesting.
Whereas in pretty much all western articles on China’s rise you will find the tone to be threatening, with headlines making you feel as if the Chinese are just around the corner and will invade a town near you any moment now, Chinese media focusses to a large extent on the growing friendships between China and the rest of the world.
Headlines on Hu’s visit to USA today in Chinadaily:
“Meetings build platform for stronger bonds”
“Common interests shared”
“New chapter with partnership”
Whereas Western media headlines go along the lines of:
“Cold meeting in the Congress” and “Hu meets China critics in the Congress”
“U.S. Warning to China”
“China’s march into Africa”
“Obama Presses China on Human Rights Issues”
“The world is turning upside down”
and so on…
(Hubama = Friends for ever! <3)
Obviously Chinese media wants to portray China as a well-liked country, a nation all others want to be buddies with. And yes, this is overstated, but so is the Western scare that the Chinese are coming to whoop our asses and that we need to take a defensive stance against this force of…the scary unknown! Whereas Chinese media focuses on points and opportunities for cooperation, Western media has got a serious case of the Samuel-Huntington-flue and throws the spotlight on potential confrontations.
China is not on a strategic war path to invade and take over control of the world. And no matter how much the rest of us sit here shitting our pants I truly do believe China is intent on seeking partnership with the international community. While the rest of the world might not believe in the "peaceful rise" rhetoric, the Chinese will continue to reiterate (to themselves if no one else will listen) that they are friends with everyone, big and small.
And although China will continue to refuse to conform to "imposed ideals" from the outside world, they also very well know where arrogance and a feeling of superiority will lead you, they've been through that experience 200 years ago and I doubt they want to repeat history.
China do want to learn, but on their own premisses. No one likes to be told what to do, but we all draw inspiration from those around us.
Shanghaied Sigrid 