Party in the Park

So, a slight edit to my last post. A doctor from the same hospital that will be providing services to the Olympics came to talk to us today and addressed the culture behind getting into lines. His approach, rather than part of the collective culture, was that getting in the front of the line is part of the "every man for himself" culture. The system used to be that if you were in the back of the line, you may not get a bowl of rice, for example. So, to revise what I said in my last post, if you can get there first, do it because it may be advantageous: advantageous not necessarily because you will get there first, but because everyone may not get there eventually.

Today was full of meeting new people that will be studying with us. After meeting the people we will be studying with, we went out to explore our local neighborhood and try to meet as many locals as we could. We talked to some ladies working at a department store, danced with some people in the park, and finally talked to a couple (that work in finance) who were playing hackey-sack in the park. To give another example of #1 from my last post, after inquiring where they got their hackey sack, they gave it to us!

It was interesting to learn so much about these people, and try to communicate in a mixture of english and chinese. The parks here foster a great sense of community, from morning tai qi (spelling?) to nighttime dancing, you can choose to do exercise on your own or in a group. Another park had exercise equipment IN the park as well as a ping pong table. What a great stress reliever! I wonder if having simple exercise equipment (non-electric, simple, treadmills and ellipticals) in local parks would help America's obesity problem at all...

CHINGLISH ALERT:
No Louding