Just stuff....

Our new favorite coffee shop is across from the West gate of the school. It is quaint, and a pretty good attempt at a Western-style cafe with its bilingual menus, Natalie Cole CD on repeat and scattered, eclectic decor. But I love how the Chineseness always manages to seep through the best attempts at Western. Example: it is still highly over-employed, so much so that I watched a guy dust the leaves of plants for half an hour out of pure boredom. The blueberry muffin lacks the infamous muffin-top experience and most of its sugar, and the large latte comes in a bowl with no handle, like the way a Chinese would eat their morning porridge. But it is comfortable and the people are so nice....how could you not go back?
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Every day on our way to school we pass by a long string of advertisements. In the States these would be corporate-sponsored, but here they are from the government. The picture below is one that I found to be particularly interesting. It says: "Control the increasing population and promote the progress of society." Of course, accompanied by a picture of a happy single-child family with baseball gloves...

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This is a video at the request of Aunt Net....she wanted to see us actually interacting with Chinese folk. This is one of our crazy trips to the supermarket with the landlord you've already read about...