The longer I’m here, the more I’m buying into Tiger Mom.  There is truly a completely different mindset in Asian culture, but even Tiger Mom takes it too far.  I have yet to see any scolding or reprimanding.  Everything is jsut so well managed, that not a thing needs to be worried about.  (Other than the customer at 85 yelling at the cashier,  I wish I knew why. D:)

I have not heard a crying baby or child since I’ve been here, well Asian ones at least.  I’ve seen a bunch of babies.  I know because I always gawk at how cute Asian babies can be, but I have yet to see one crying.  The only crying I’ve seen were of white tourists in international restaurants, and damn that baby could scream.  Kids are super duper cute here, and they’re still playful.  AND they’re all single children.  You’d think they’d all be spoiled little shits.  I’ve always hated children in America, but China, China gives me hope.

Dogs don’t even have leashes here.  At first I just thought there were a bunch of stray dogs, but actually all the dogs have owners.  It’s just they let them run around as they wish, but the dogs always stay close by their owners side.  They never have to call their dogs, their dogs don’t just poop everywhere, and they’re the CUTEST DOGS I’VE EVER SEEN.  You’d imagine my lament when I saw cute dogs and thought they were all strays with rabies.  I swear people only have cute dogs here.  Only because the ugly ones are eaten. 

And most notably, every man holds his girlfriend’s hand in one hand and his girlfriend’s purse in the other.  Good kids, good pets, good boyfriend.  What more could a Chinese girl ask for?

A Louis purse, duh.

are better than American things in America.  Granted they are relatively expensive, but they cost the same monetary value in USD as in RMB, but a Like It at Coldstone costs just about the same as an entree at a sit down restaurant. 

But who cares?  It’s SOO much better here in Shanghai.  Take for example Coldstone Creamery.  Coldstone has sakura flavor, green tea flavor, and other flavors not available in the US that replace all the flavors that suck.  It still keeps the classic cake batter and sweet cream flavor here in China though.  It has the best of the United States and super tasty Asian flavors.  And on top of that, they have soo many more toppings than the United States locations do.  There are strawberry bits!  That’s all I can remember because I got sakura ice cream with strawberry bits and white chocolate syrup.  By far the best Coldstone I’ve ever had. 

Also, Pizza Hut is a respectable restaurant here.  And oh my god, it is so good.  The pizzas are all “exotic.”  They have all sorts of seafood on their pizzas, and all sorts of stuffed crusts.   Also they have delicious pastas, salads, drinks, what have you.  It’s all tasty tasty. 

I did in fact take that picture above.

KFC and McDonald’s are both food staples here in China, and they also have more delectable options than the United States.  I have yet to venture into MCD’s but KFC is pretty noms.  Their normal American sides like mashed potatoes sort of suck though. 

I figure I’m probably going to end up taking a shit ton of pictures of food, so I created a Flickr, mostly so I can share pictures with my family without the means of Facebook.  If you’d like to follow along my journey, flickr.com/photos/marypham.

Disclaimer:  I know very very very little Chinese.

Ni hao!  Wo jiao Mary.  Wo bu shi xiaojie.  Wo shi mei guo ren.  Wo lai zhong guo xue.  Wo hen e!  Wo xi huan chi xiao long bao.  Wo ye xi huan he ne cha.  Ni shi hao peng you!

Han yu hen nan.  Wo yao qu Beijing, Taiwan, Xi’An, Hong Kong!  Tai gui le! 

Tongue Twister:
Si shi si.
Shi shi shi.
Shisi shi shisi.
Sishi shi sishi.
Sishisi shi sishisi.

Qing zai shuo.

All of a sudden, I received a chat from an ex.  Now this ex, I haven’t talked to for over a year, and the last time we talked I cursed him out for being a shady, disappointing asshole.  To say the least, we had a really messy break-up.  And at that point, I was done with him.  I didn’t think we’d talk again, nor did I want to. 

But when I received the chat, I stared puzzlingly at it.  I was webcamming with my current boyfriend when I got it, and he asked me what was with the face.  I told him that my ex just hit me up.  I’m sure my boyfriend was/is bothered by it (even though he said he wasn’t), but I assured him nothing was to come of this.  My ex and I had casual conversation.  He completely disregarded our past and at the same time subtley showed fond feelings for me.  I did, however, make it very clear I had a boyfriend and that I was very happy with him.  When I had to go, he asked me to talk to him again.  I responded with a maybe.

This situation is a delicate one for me.  Firstly, I’m a person of appearances.  I have a huge pride, and I hate to show any compromising feelings.  I didn’t want to seem bitter (and for that fact, I am not bitter) so I continued conversation with him.  And since then, he’s tried to talk to me twice, and I’ve responded but had to go quickly.  But the thing is, he’s very manipulative.  When we were talking, before we dated, we had this on and off relationship, meaning at random times he’d disappear from my life completely, then pop up again via chat.  He’s always had this way of getting me to miss him, and he does it all purposefully.  He’s also pretty selfish.  So when he said he missed me, he had to talk to me, without any regard to my life and what was going on. 

I’m happy as I am right now.  I love my boyfriend, and he loves me, and my life has only gotten better since my ex left.  I don’t want to get caught up with his mind games anymore, but at the same time, I don’t want it to seem that I still have unrequited feelings for him or that I’m bitter.  As it stands now, I’ll probably tell him exactly how I feel, that I only talk to him because I’m friendly, but he really isn’t someone I want in my life.