likes and dislikes

Likes

• I think most of you can guess what tops my list for likes....FOOD! Although I really haven't gone out much to eat, what I have had is 非常美味 (very tasty).
  
• I like (however, I'm sure many people will be in disagreement with me on this one) that there is no hesitation no matter where you are to release phlegm buildup. I must admit there are moments I find it disgusting, like in the middle of eating at a restaurant. Otherwise, I think it's healthy to expel the buildup from all this pollution.
• Bars have fruit plates instead of salty snacks. Although this too has it's faults, drinking and salt work pretty well together. BUT, the fruit plates are no ordinary plates of fruit, they are usually a work of art, watermelon rinds carved to look like a a beautiful bird tail, etc. Less bloating the next day too. ;0)
  
• Meeting a lot of new and interesting people.
• Taxi rides around town only cost a little over a dollar.
• People ride bikes everywhere.
• Fruit is the common gift brought when invited for dinner.
• Tboy's dancing
• Everyone who knows someone in Shanghai, giving me their connections' info. I love when people share friends with you while you are far from home!
• Chinese are happy to hear you try thier language and are eager to learn English from us.
  

In between

• While I'll be the first to say, as someone who has been in car accidents, I can get a little paranoid as a passenger and for that matter even as a pedestrian with these wild drivers everywhere. I do appreciate the ability to get where you're going however you need to do it (especially when I tend to run late).
• I can't stand the fact that I usually can't understand what is being said but I appreciate that people just continue to rattle on in Chinese to me even when I tell them I don't understand Chinese. Perseverance!
• If you say 'thank you' more than once or 'sorry', they consider it too much and annoying. Sometimes I don't like this because I am really thankful or sorry and want the point to get across, but I think in America it can be overkill with how often we say 'thank you' and 'sorry' over little things.

Dislikes

• Smoking everywhere, in elevators, restaurants, houses, offices. Yuck!
• There's a huge lack of smiles around here! I keep trying to rub off on people but I just get blank stares back most of the time.
• The COLD WET weather, chills ya to the bones!
• The pollution, it's so bad!
• The utter disregard of environmental degradation. People litter everywhere. Companies let their toxins drain into the rivers. Trucks do not seem like they have to pass any kind of smog check whatsoever. Recycling, WHERE? The results of an industrial revolution coinciding with a technological revolution. They weren't meant to happen all at the same time!
• There is no sense of common courtesy like in the US. Lines...HA! people cut in lines all the time. They push, they step on you, they spit where you're standing, they stare and stare and stare without saying ANYTHING, not even a hello back, no 'sorry's' or 'excuse me's'.
• So often the languge is executed in a fashion that makes them sound mad, creates a wierd vibe.
• Half the taxi's don't know their way around!
• Clubs that have so much security, you can't enjoy yourself without them telling you to move or not to do something.
• The blocked websites. What the hell is happening with CB and Rihanna GDI?!
• The red tape!
• The porcelain holes in the ground that us ladies must squat over to pee everywhere, even in fancy schmancy spots with delux looking bathrooms.

I'll keep adding to the list as time goes on. Hopefully the likes will outnumber the dislikes or at least the quality of likes will reach above that of the dislikes. Let's keep optimistic here, after all that is something i'm good at, why mess it up now.