Saturday, January 07, 2006

Have I stayed too long in China?!? 1 of 2

I think it’s been too long I lived in China…why do I say so? Well, because now I’m back to Paris and some stuff keeps happening to me that says that I’m not quite used to living here yet!

So, it’s been definitely too long I was in China, because:

- Every time I automatically convert Euros to RMB and every time it’s more than 100 RMB (which happens like 100 times a day, especially in the supermarkets) I can’t help thinking “Wow, that’s expensive!”

- When I took the bus at the airport, I automatically rushed in without waiting for everybody to get out, because in China, if you wait, you never get in! And so people got angry and of coarse made a loud comment “Il faut laisser passer les gens d’abord!” (“You must let people go out first!”)…French complain… A LOT! Everybody knows that…

- I can’t believe streets are so empty; there are NO people in France!

- Everybody speaks French all the time and I understand everything people say! lol

- …where are all the bikes?...

- Nobody drinks hot water, even in restaurants; they only have cold water… And how come I don’t have a water machine in my room?!?

- People TALK! Yes, they do, and a lot, and ALL THE TIME! The first days, I had a feeling that French never talk at home, so they need to express themselves once outside… in China, you never talk to strangers. In France, you always talk, otherwise you are considered impolite! Quite a few times I was confused when people addressed me in the street with a “bonjour!”, I didn’t know what to say, lol! Have to get used all over again to say hello-thank you-good bye-have a nice day/weekend/afternoon to everybody. French are SO polite!...

- There are NO taxis here…and public transport is so expensive. The time when I could afford taking a taxi ten times a day is well gone…sniff!

- Apartments are so small!

- It rains all the time

- People are all dressed the same, and they only wear dark colours! However, they definitely have more style than the Chinese (no offence, it’s just so different!)

- People use perfumes! I didn’t notice it before, but when you go down the street, you can feel that every person going by has a different perfume. Conclusion: they don’t use perfume in China!

- I almost never need cash here, all payments are by credit card and cheques

- The food tastes SO good! I spend hours choosing yoghurts, ice creams and … stinky cheese of coarse, I missed it SO much!!

- Restaurants are closed in the afternoon…

- And everything is closed on Sunday!

- More than that, you must have a one-year visa now to buy a mobile phone with a one-year “abonnement”! So I can’t have one for at least three weeks, because when you come here, you only have a 3-month visa and you have to apply for the long one at the “préfecture”, which takes a while… Great! It’s no good to be phoneless…

(to be continued, there is a lot more to say about being back to Paris after a year and a half in 中国!)

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