Initially this post was gonna describe my living situation and daily routine, but now I feel like making a small list of the little things I’ve noticed in China that it never even occurred to me that I’d miss. EDIT: changed name for consistency

  • Love me some 2009 peanut butter

    Click on this picture to see the larger image, then look at the expiration dates.

    Food that isn’t expired. I can’t stress how frustrating this is. Granted, this wasn’t surprising on a lot of sketchy street vendors that hang around campus, but I was completely blindsided by the lack of ‘fresh’ food in grocery stores and convenience stores. In my vast, three-whole-day experience here, I’ve come to accept that any ‘western’ product at all, even if it’s Chinese Fanta, expired about two months ago. This is true whether you’re buying it on the street, at a 7-11, or even in the closest thing they have to an H.E.B.   ***EDIT*** according to Albert and Will, both legitimate Asians, this may well just be the manufacture date. If this is true, that’d be great.

  • Maybe it'll be good for my back, or something.Mattresses. You ever been so tired that you just want to come home and jump into bed? Here, that’ll get you a broken tailbone. We’ve got maybe a four-inch-thick mattress _protector_ between us and the comfy, comfy metal and wood.
  • Grocery bags. Hope you’re wearing cargo shorts.
  • Tap water/recycling bins. China’s a bit like Mexico in this respect. You have to bring bottled water everywhere, and just throw the bottles away. This is due to the presence of metals in the public water. Companies apparently use said water sometimes in their products, so consequently you’ll open a beer up only to discover that it tastes uncannily like rust. Happened to the girl next to me last night. Was kinda funny but also pretty scary, to be honest.
  • Toilet paper. Bring your own. You won’t find it in practically any restaurants or other stores in China. It’s only in some of the stalls in the dorms. You get used to carrying around some toilet paper in your pocket at all times, but it’s still pretty bizarre.
  • Way to go, international student dorm

    Fantastic.

    Toilets that don’t require you to squat. I thought I was done with this shit when I left Japan two summers ago. Imagine my surprise when I opened our bathroom stalls and was confronted by this:

I don’t mean to whine, though. Really, I’m having an excellent time, and most of this stuff just makes me laugh. Just gotta get used to it.