mid-October already?!

[L]: It's now almost mid-October! Where did the time go? This past week, there was a school holiday. It was also Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. Our language teacher told us about some interesting nearby cities that we should visit on the few days that we have off... so we got on a local bus and went! It was quite an adventure and we got to see some beautiful scenery. But because it was just the two of us (Edwin and myself) and with a bunch of local people, we were able to go "undiscovered" (as foreigners) for a while until they heard us speak English to each other! Too bad we still don't know enough of the language yet--only things like, "How much does this cost?" "Do you think language studies are hard?" or "It's too expensive!"--definitely not enough to carry a conversation beyond 2 minutes. Sigh.

A recent picture we took (in a nearby city) early morning right before sunrise. (We wish we had this kind of scenery in our city...)



Though we appreciate many things about living here, there are still some things that will take time getting used to. Perhaps it will become "acquired fondness." At least we hope so! :)

* Seeing kids in pants with no bottoms, the "split pants" per se. I guess not very many kids wear diapers here... Whenever they need to go, they just "squat"...and go. The pants facilitate such actions. The results of the actions can be seen on street corners. No pooper scoopers here for them either!
* Climbing 4 flights of stairs to go home. This isn't too bad, except for the fact that our friends also live on the 4th floor. So going back and forth to their homes and ours will require us climbing 12-16 flights of stairs on a given day. I guess it isn't so bad because we don't climb them all at once. We get breaks in between. Apparently, they don't put elevators in buildings here (at least locally) unless there are more than 6 floors. We are just glad we are not on the 6th floor!
* Squatty potties! Though there are western toilets available where we live, the most popular and "of choice" seems to be the squatty potties (school, stores, anywhere...) And this is high class compared to the universal "troughs." It was only until I had to use troughs (one long community ditch) that I found new appreciation for individualized squatty potties.
* Spitting. People spit everywhere and all the time. We have often wondered how people can conjure up so much saliva in such short periods of time. Must be an acquired skill. We love the "NO SPITTING" signs when we see one -- but they come too far and few in between... sigh.
* Horns! Everything moving seems to honk -- cars, trucks, buses, mopeds, taxis, and even bicycles!!Honking is normal. It simply means, "I am on the road. Please move out of my way! So if one needs to honk 20 times (in 10 minutes) to announce one's presence on the road, than so be it."
* The way bus drivers drive -- they must think they are driving a sports car. But they are really not. It's still a bus. And 20-30 people are clinging on to their dear lives...
* Going to Wal-Mart (can you believe they have Wal-mart here??!! It's far away from us, located inside the city, but still accessible!) and finding that they sell live large bull-frogs, turtles, among other animals -- and mind you, it's NOT in the "pets" section but in the "meats" aisle.
* Having to "make-up" classes on Saturdays and Sundays (mandated by the school), if there are no classes on the weekdays due to "holiday"!