Journey to Another World: Day 14

This is my final post from China. THIS is my FINAL post from CHINA!!!!! Getting on a jet plane tomorrow. Yahoo! At 12:40am Thursday morning Indiana time we will get on a plane headed for Korea. We are praying and hoping for no delays because there is a typhoon working it's way across China from the coast right now and we really don't want the last leg of our journey to be filled with delays or missed flights.

Today was a free day. The only official order of business today was the receiving of Jordy's American Visa. Without the Visa, Jordy would not have permission to enter the US. At about 5pm, our guide Becky dropped off Jordy's passport with his Visa sticker attached along with the official papers needed for US immigration when we land at LAX.

Since we had nothing we HAD to do, we took it really easy. We got up slow, meandered to breakfast, watched tv, read the newspaper and I read part of a book. We ventured off the island and walked around some side streets. Ate our last meal at Lucy's and finished our day with Pizza Hut. We figure we need to re-acclimate ourselves with American food. LOL! To be honest, the Pizza Hut here is incredibly high class and the pizza was pretty awesome.

Not too many pictures today:

The following pictures are for all my women friends. Chinese women are obsessed with their height. They hate being short to the extent of wearing insane heals all the time. We saw women walking the Great Wall in heals, the Longmen Grottoes in heals. Everywhere, women are wearing heals. Some of the shoes are quite elaborate and colorful. Of course I didn't think to take pictures at the time. So, here are just a few from our short walks today.

I have to say I love some of the higher fashion here in China. Girls and women wear the cutest dresses and outfits. I have to keep reminding myself, we are not here to shop, we are not here to shop, we are NOT here to shop. I've behaved myself but it's been hard. Truthfully, there are a lot of poor people in the three cities we have stayed. We've seen our share of interesting combinations simply because we know many can't afford much. I will say I've seen some very bizarre combinations. Skinny jeans are definitely in vogue for men here but so are mens' capris and jeans many times stop a few inches before the ankle for men. We've also witnessed men wearing all sorts of strange shoes with shorts. Today we saw a guy wearing gray dress shoes with casual shorts and ankle socks. I should have taken more pictures of clothing but it requires a level of intrusion that I tried to avoid.

This is a typical bathroom sink in a bathroom in China. Let's play "What is missing?"

Same game here. This another squatty potty in a bathroom. What is missing?

Now, this is not my picture but it's a bit hard to catch this picture in real life. This is the split pant that many Chinese parents use for their potty training child. No diaper, just squat and go.

I'm showing you these pictures to talk sanitation. You don't realize how good you have it until you visit another country that doesn't have the same sanitation standards. If you are a germ-a-phobe, don't even bother visiting China. The first picture shows you a sink with no soap anywhere to be found. I don't know why they even bother installing sinks. All you are doing is rinsing, no washing. The second photo I posted shows you that many bathrooms don't even have toilet paper. If you don't carry your own, you aren't wiping. I hate to admit it but I have forgotten more than once. Thankfully, I forgot under the best conditions and some days I sweat too much to know the difference. Okay, you really didn't want to know that!!! There are a few bathrooms that have toilet paper dispensers on the wall before you go in to the stall. So, if you don't forget to grab some on your way in you better get a good estimate on how much you need before hand. The trash can is for used toilet paper and of course the usual stuff. The last picture of the split bottom pants is just a reminder to me of all the kids that I've seen peeing on the streets. This is completely acceptable here and is actually considered good fortune where ever the child pees. This means, watch your feet. You never know if that wet spot on the sidewalk is urine, or something else. And because there are many dogs, and very little grass in the city, the dogs do all their business on the streets and sidewalks. Watch your step! There is a reason the Chinese tell you to take your shoes off at the door. The hotels we've stayed at have provided us slippers for use in our rooms. Also worthy to note, very few people pick up after themselves. People litter everywhere here. We've seen multiple meal boxes left curbside. We've watched people throw stuff into the rivers. It breaks my heart! And last, the smoke. Smoking is HUGE here. If the smog doesn't kill you, I guess the cigarettes will because so many people smoke and I feel like I've smoked a few by just being in the constant presence of cigarette smoke. I'm ready to come home where we value the quality of our air, our water, our earth, and our bodies. I'm grateful for the regulations in place that keep our natural resources preserved.