Thursday, July 26, 2007

More Lessons

Woke up and it was a beautiful sunny, clear day, figured that I would take a picture of the harbour and the statue of Koxinga, who was a pirate and a politician, and happens to protect the seas (according to the locals here). As I was taking some pictures, I heard voices speaking very loudly on a bull horn, little did I realize I was taking pictures from the Chinese naval base. Okay so I'll admit not one of my more brilliant moves, but the pictures turned out nicely.

During our daily happy hour on the 2nd floor, we met some more people who were also living here and working with our friend Roy and the Mexican. (my new name for him, since we never got it in the first place, or perhaps we did but it was many tequilas, and vodkas later). A very sweet couple who have been here for the past 6 months. They too gave us some helpful tips and tomorrow we are going to the Metro (German version of a Sam's Club) Hey Lisa T..you were right, I am making friends. Their advice was everything, and they meant everything is negotiable, even the dept stores where you can negotiate the tax. The second thing that we learned this week and was confirmed by our new friends is that the Chinese lie a lot. Not that it is a bad thing here, as the Chinese do not like confrontation, but also they do not have the guilt that we have back home. When confronted they just laugh. It's a way of live and as long as they do not lose face, it's all good. A little frustrating for us, since it is hard to distinguish the reality of the situation. Such sheltered lives we've lead.

The Mexican recommended a great restaurant that overlooked the harbour, and had asked if we liked Chinese food. No actually we don't....uh, hello, what country do you think we are in? The view of the harbour was spectacular and the meal including two bottles of Tsing Tao was $12.00. Yup, it's going to be hard to buy dinner back home at Keefers or MK again.

Today's lessons were:

1. Don't take pictures near any military base especially in a communist country
2. Everything is negotiable
3. We like Chinese food

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Picture is beautiful, I have been enjoying these every day! Thank you!
Trudy