Comments on daily life in China.

Staring is common, so being a foreigner means you get the attention of a celebrity.

I'd love to tell the starers to just go fly a kite, but they literally would, because it's a common pasttime.

Almost everyone assumes I don't know the word foreigner, so they don't change their volume when talking about me and are surprised when I turn around, understanding them.

There are innumerable kinds of electric bikes, far more than just the moped, and they don't hesitate to drive anywhere.

Red lights, speed limits, and police guards are only suggestions, as are one way roads.

A youth's bathroom is defined as the place where the urge to urinate hits--mall entrances, restaurants, pedestrian roads, or, considerately, a lone tree.

Somehow a cigarette on a sign encourages smoking, even if the image is behind a dark red circle and line.

It is appropriate to leave left-over food on the table instead of eating everything, but it is wasteful to leave rice remaining--the commodity more common than grass or dirt and sold by the sandbag.

Avoid asking for logic in Chinese pronunciation. More often than not, the answer is "it just is."

Babies and toddlers don't often wear diapers. Their pants simply have a slit down the back. Thus, a youngter's private business is a public affair.

To get someone's attention, you address them by their family name. I don't mean surname, I mean, if you want to offer your seat to a random elderly woman, you would say, "Grandma, would you like to sit?"

Similarly, I often follow students' stories of "brothers" or "sisters" with the question, "Actual brother from the same mother?" only to hear, "What? No. His parents live down the street."

If a stranger is your brother, than what do you call your best friend? How do you indicate you're, relatively, closer? You can call him/her your wife!