1. Energy-efficient escalators. My environmentally-friendly sister will love these! Chinese escalators seem really slow when you approach them until you step on and the thing speeds up. It's brilliant and something the U.S. should use more frequently.
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| No idea if this is how much energy Beijing saves, but it's pretty cool! |
2. How to ask for help. My adorable Mandarin teacher recently taught us how to curse in Chinese. It came about somewhat inadvertently; Scott and I asked her what to say if we were ever in trouble. Apparently yelling help doesn't draw attention in China. But if you say cao (f**k) really loud, it peaks the interest of people.
3. The metric system. I knew at some point in my lifetime I'd need to use the metric system like the rest of the world. But I never realized how often I'd be converting: when I turn on the oven to bake (celsius to fahrenheit), when I lift weights at the gym (kilos to pounds), when I buy yogurt for a recipe (grams to ounces) and even, this week, when I told a hairdresser to trim my hair two inches (actually 5 centimeters). I downloaded an app on my phone to help, but I'm constantly doing quick math (never my forte) on everything -- money, weight, temperature, even time (17:00 to 5 pm). It's a bit exhausting.
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| Doesn't seem simple to me! |
4. Locker room etiquette. Let me preface this by saying I'm not a modest person, but I do typically get in and get out of a locker room as quick as possible. A few friends had told me women here in Beijing like to hang out in the locker rooms. I didn't fully realize what this meant until joining a gym a couple weeks ago. It means women sit on benches completely naked and have cell phone conversations. It means they apply copious amounts of lotion to every inch of their body and use a special nipple cream that they rub on in a circular motion (I have no idea what it does). And it means they blow dry their pubic hair. Yes, you read that correctly. I've heard the practice is so prevalent that some Beijing locker rooms have signs that say hairdryers are for heads only (there's no such sign in my locker room or I would've snapped a photo in a heartbeat). And here's the kicker: a guy friend told me such blowdrying techniques also occur in male locker rooms.
What more can I say after leaving you with that?
Next time I run into trouble here in the US, I'll try the yelling that obscenity. See what happens!
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