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The Tip of the Reverse Culture Shock Iceberg

July 16th, 2011 by Manda | 4 Comments | Filed in Life, Travel

I never noticed how dependent the US is on the concept of customer service until I came back from China.

Take my first two days back in the US, for example. My first night, my friend and I went out to dinner at a place that served all-American food. (The sandwiches were delicious. I think part of the reason why I loved mine so much was because there was so much cheese on it!) While we were there, neither of us had to shout “服务员！” to get our waitress’ attention. All we had to do was make eye contact and… bam! She would appear at our table. Hell, sometimes she would come over and ask us how we were doing without being prompted to come over. It was like magic. Not to mention totally unheard of in China.

My second day in the US, my friend and I went to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. The portion sizes! I’ve always thought the Cheesecake Factory served massive portions, but after a year of eating smaller portion sizes I was completely wowed by the hugeness of my chicken piccata. (I was very hungry though, so I managed to eat a lot more of my food than I thought I would. That’s something, I guess.) This waitress, like the one from the night before, kept coming to our table and asking us how we were, how the food was, etc. At one point I was getting rather annoyed with her attentiveness; I just wanted to be left with my friend and my food in peace! I’ve grown so unaccustomed to any form of attention or care from wait staff while dining out that it was alien to have this helicopter waitress hovering over me. I was also quite sad to part with the money required for a 20% tip when it came time to pay the bill; I’d forgotten about tipping.

Another weird thing is toilets. For one, squatters are pretty much non-existent in the US. I’m neither here nor there on this, as I can take or leave a squat toilet. But what I can’t get over is how there are toilet paper dispensers in each stall! Not only that, BUT THERE IS ACTUALLY TOILET PAPER IN THE DISPENSER! Most toilets in China don’t even have a dispenser for toilet paper. That might seem strange, but when there’s never going to be toilet paper in said toilet dispenser, it seems a bit useless to have the dispenser.

…never in my life would I have imagined I’d devote an entire paragraph to the topic of toilet paper in a blog entry.

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Travel Recap: Central and Southern China

July 7th, 2011 by Manda | 3 Comments | Filed in Travel

The cities I visited in central and southern China were arranged as part of my study abroad program. We visited Luoyang, Xi’an, Chengdu, Longsheng, Guilin, and Yangshuo. Most of what we saw were historical landmarks (such as the Shaolin Temple and the terracotta warriors) and everything we saw was beautiful (such as the scenery in Guilin and Yangshuo).

Highlights include:

  • Exploring ruins at the Shaolin Temple.
  • Tandem biking along the city wall of Xi’an.
  • Visiting the Panda Research Center in Chengdu. Panda cubs are so cute!
  • Eating spicy hotpot in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan. Sichuan, for those who don’t know, is basically a world capital for spicy, spicy food.
  • River rafting in Yangshuo.
  • Eating absolutely delicious Guilin noodles in, well, Guilin.

Photos behind the cut.

(more…)

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That Crazy White Girl

July 6th, 2011 by Manda | 3 Comments | Filed in Travel

“Manda, by the time you leave Beijing you’re going to be known as that crazy white girl.”

So said my brother, and I’m afraid to say he’s probably correct. In the last few days I’ve been in Beijing I’ve gotten into more arguments than I care to remember with locals. Most of them have to do with them trying to rip me off and me not putting up with it – I am practically a local, after all, and I know how much prices should be! One taxi driver tried to charge me 200RMB for what would be a 30RMB cab ride! When I called him out on his bogus “deal” he had the audacity to be offended by the fact that I called his offer ridiculous (and that I flat-out called him a cheat).

Of course, not all has been crazy; I’ve had some lovely encounters with locals that remind me of the Beijing I’ve fallen in love with over the last year. I had one taxi driver who sang along to Beijing opera-style music in his car (I normally hate Beijing opera, but he sang along so happily that I couldn’t help but warm to that particular song). I had a few friends who befriended my brother and I when we went out to snack on 羊肉串 (chunks of lamb roasted on a stick with spices) for a midnight snack. But still, no matter how many wonderful people I meet, every time I call out someone attempting to cheat me I inevitably end up looking and sounding like the crazy one – I am the white girl shouting in Mandarin Chinese and giving locals a run for their money in bargaining, after all!

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