Random stuff #1:
One very nice thing I have discovered is that the Chinese tv stations give you a countdown at commercial time! So you know there are 3 minutes of commercial break during your favorite show, and you flip channels or go to the bathroom, or whatever, and can flip back in time to watch the rest of the show. Nice, no? Wish the stations in the States would do that. But of course they wouldn't. They'd probably get sued by companies that pay them commercial money.
So there's something good about the media being owned by the gov't after all!
Random stuff #2:
Alex's school had an open house today for all the 1st grade parents. And the teacher was teaching a lesson on family tree and the different titles you call relatives. Like grandfather, grandmother, aunt, uncle, etc. In English, it's fairly straight forward. You get your parents' parents and you call them grandfather and grandmother across the board. The same goes for aunts and uncles. Well not so in Chinese. You call your mom's parents different from what you would call your dad's parents. and you call your mom's siblings different from your dad's siblings. And whether the sibling is an older or younger one is also different. And then comes the cousins, nephews from different sides. By the time you are done, you can't figure out why you call whom what. I never did learn all that and am infinitely confused by all the different titles. Doh!
Random stuff #3:
I went to walk around the temple and Yu Gardens in town the other day (pics will be up later, when connections broken from the earthquake is restored), and found that there are lots of people trying to sell lots of things (similar stuff) to tourists. If you EVER come to Shanghai, unless you go to one of those "official" stores that charges you way too much to begin with (and they won't haggle prices no matter what), NEVER pay the asking price of anything in Shanghai. In fact, the vendors never price tag anything here and you ask how much, and they look you up and down and gives you a price, according to how rich you look presumably. First thing you should do is cut the price in half. Invaribly, they are going to tell you you are killing them, and they are not even making a profit, and how will they be able to feed their dying 100-yr-old great great grandmother (ok, I threw that one in). They lie. Ignore them. Tell them either that price or you walk. And sometimes you do walk. But very rarely will they let you walk. Because at half price, they are still making a profit. And probably a really big one. So here's your tip of the day. Take that to heart. It goes for anywhere else you travel in China too. Did I mention my mom bought this outrageous crystal lamp for their cathedral ceilinged living room at 1/5 the asking price? The asking price being 50,000RMB (which comes to about US$6579 at today's exchange rate) and she got it for 10,000rmb. See!
Random stuff #4:
My poor kids are going to school 7 days a week this week. Why? Because some idiot high up in the gov't decide that for the New Year's holiday, everyone should have off 1/1, 1/2 and 1/3. Not the regular Saturday, Sunday and Monday (1/1 being Monday this year). So they change the whole city's schedule (work and school) just so that instead of Saturday, Sunday, and Monday holidays, you get Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off, but you have to go to work and school on Saturday and Sunday. WTF?! Anyway, my kids are tired. I'm taking both of them out of school tomorrow, and we'll be visiting the children's museum here. Should be fun and relaxing for them. Woot!
2 comments:
We have 3 networks in the Netherlands who are from the government. En there may not be a commercial break in a program, only after the program. On the networks whom have owners there is a lot of commercials but not as often as in the states, but we have something else what’s irritating… calling games… games presented by an irritating person who try to get to let as much possible people call for the answer en price.
In Holland in old day’s there were different names for grandma dads site (opoe) and grandma moms site (oma). Now we call both grandma’s oma. The mother from mine oma (mothers side) was alive when I was young, that was sometimes Confucius because I most call her oma to. We call the child off my brother the same as a child from my uncle but for one I am a nice en for the other an aunt. Like in China is also in different cultures, they have it easier to talk about somebody by that name, because you directly know where the talking about… only if you understand off course.
Your random stuff 3 is in more country’s like that. I’m not good in it.
I’m surprised that your kids must go to school there, because you are on a holiday.
Well we are not really here for vacation. We are actually here so that the boys can learn Chinese, which is why they have to go to school. Without the interaction with other kids, it would be much harder. And besides, Alex's school in the US wants records that he's going to school in China, so they can place him in the same grade when we get home. Afterall, he's missing 3 months of school. A substantial chunk of time.
Nice that you guys have tv programs without commercials! But the calling in thing would drive me nuts.
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