Just another day in China

Just when I thought life in China was relatively commonplace..... China moments abound!!!!!

On Tuesday's Emmy and I get together with other moms for a play group. Often times it is at someone's house, other times we meet at a designated playground. This week we met up at an indoor playground called "Lollipop" It is a safe squishy place with slides and a trampoline for little kids to play, and I am sure, share germs. It costs 50 RMB about 7 dollars or you can buy a punch card which makes it cheaper. So we were sitting around chatting. A couple of Chinese grandmothers came up and told my friend that speaks Chinese, that Emmy looks small but is very tough and stands up to the bigger kids. Of course, I knew this, she has two older brothers to contend with and she can take care of herself. Little kids in China don't generally have siblings and they do not know what to do when this small blond haired fire ball comes at them....Then one of the moms gulped..."Please tell that I am not seeing what I am seeing!".... Yes, in the middle of the play area, a Chinese woman was holding a small boy, where through his spit bottom pants, he pee'd into a plastic bag. Mind you , there is a restroom that is not too far. Even if you didn't think you could make it, you could easily exit the play area to take care of business. Then she did not leave immediately. She was whipping that bag of pee all over the place as she adjusted the child's clothing. Next she tried to dispose of bodily fluid in the small waste paper basket behind the counter. Thankfully the attendants said no way. So she tried handing it over to people behind the barrier. Really! She could have simply taken the child out. I honestly think that most of the Chinese would find this over the top. But one can never tell, I have seen Mom's holding little weenies into public trash cans ready for discharge.

The same day..... I went with a friend to get a pedicure at a salon in Puxi. We both won some gift certificates at and auction and since the Concordia Gala is this weekend we decided to go together. On our way back we drove by a bizarre scene. Now I have seen a several squabbles in China. Most of the time it is two Chinese people yelling at each other with other people holding them back. I have even seen occasional contact, which is much more frightening in real life than when you see it on TV. So, on the street corner there was about five people huddled together. There was some commotion and yelling. Then I realized there was also hitting going on. It looked to be between a woman and a man and maybe involved a package. There was hitting and hair pulling and yelling. For some reason it didn't look like a domestic dispute. Meanwhile a few bystanders just stood there and watched. Half a block down we saw a police officer, maybe he didn't hear it, maybe he did. Everyone else just went about their business....it was so weird. The entire scene was disturbing, grown people fighting, passersby just ignoring what was going on. I don't know what else to say. I know grown ups get into fights in the US. Usually, it is drunk idiots. I find it so odd when I see middle aged, average looking people fighting on the street, but yet, I have seen it many times. Why does this happen? It may be part of the survival instinct here, while social norms are still in there infancy. I don't know and I don't think I will get used to it.

The final act of rudeness for the week. I was at our big grocery store and realized I had a bunch of these stickers you get with purchases. They had collected in my bag and the due date for turning them in was approaching. So JP and I stuck the stickers on the sheet and handed them in. While doing this, I noticed the woman behind me needed four more stickers to complete her sheet and she would get the free gift, a stuffed animal like Mega Mind or Shrek.... So when my form was approved I turned to her and indicated that I had extra stickers that she could have to complete her form. She smiled, then the lady behind her stuck her hand in and tried to grab them from me!!!!!!!!! What! Like it was some sort of free for all. Kind of how they acted when the apples went on sale. I put on my sternest look, No Ma'am!!! Shame on you!!!!!.....

How will the children here learn basic acceptable behavior when they have these sorts of examples from grown ups.