The World is Their Toilet

Ok, before I get to the title of this post, first I want to update on PaPa – they’re doing some tests but it is looking like he is showing signs of congestive heart failure, but the doctors seem positive that once everything is sorted things will be ok. Keep the prayers coming, please!

Other than that, things were pretty low key here today. I got over to BodyPump this morning which was a great workout, then I came home to meet Ping Me and let her in. While she was here I mostly chatted online to stay out of her way – talked to Carrie, Mom, Kendyl, and Ashley so that helped to fill my time!

Then I had some lunch (leftovers from last night – yum), did some Pilates and stretching, got cleaned up, used my STRAIGHTENER (whoop!), then read until Curt got home… so yep… a whole lot of nothing for today! I just didn’t feel like going out, and didn’t really have a reason to, so I just enjoyed the day inside.

The day got more exciting once Curt got home as I begged him if we could go to Zapata’s, which is a yummy Mexican restaurant within sight of our bedroom / living room by the fountains. He agreed so we went and had some amazing fajitas, and tonight I DID decide to do the free tequila shot that comes with the meal, since Curt also got fajitas and he had one, too. We asked the waitress for some salt and limes, clinked shot glasses, and had a shot. We both decided shots are good, but tequila shots wouldn’t be that great if it weren’t for the salt and lime, haha!

Then we headed to Cold Stone, and just as we were finishing paying, the fountains came on! We have seen the fountains numerous times from our balcony, but as they don’t always come on, and not always at the same time, we never know when to be down there, so we just happened to catch them this time! They are like the Bellagio fountains in Vegas – big, lots of lights, and choreographed to music that they play loud (it's good music), fireballs, lasers, etc. and they were gorgeous.

What made for some laughs was that the wind was blowing SO hard again tonight, directly into the people and crowd, so when the huge rocket fountain would jet sky-high, the wind would blow it *everywhere* and people were running in all directions to avoid getting soaked! It was hysterical. What was even funnier, was that there were 4 motorcycle cops in the area, and the cops here always have their lights on, not just when they’re pursuing someone, and they would literally all be talking together in a group, and then speed off to another area of the promenade, then chat again for a couple seconds, and speed off somewhere else. Curt was making funny Chinese voices saying “Huh – now we go over here, lights on, lights on!” which was making me die laughing because it looked like that to us. I didn’t have the camera with me, but did have my iPhone so here are a couple of blurry shots... the last one is of water misting out of this huge machine, and lights projecting from behind to create a projected screen image, in this case Kung Fu Panda, kinda cool to watch a movie on water! These pics are taken from about the middle of this promenade area so you get an idea for the space that I'm referring to...

Rewind an hour or so, but as we were walking to dinner, on this same promenade open area, I saw a Chinese man walking towards us with a small baby in his arms, and as we got closer I looked, then took a second look, and noticed the baby’s bottom was completely bare! It had these pants on with a circle cut out where the butt is, like on purpose (it actually reminded me of those dirty cards you see in the store with a cowboy wearing chaps, and no underwear)!!! I said to Curt (sure the guy didn’t understand English – one of these days this might get me in trouble) quickly, “Oh my gosh that baby’s butt is showing!” and he replied that yes, they make the pants that way so when they start using the restroom, they just hold the baby out over whatever is available for the baby to do their business as I guess it saves in diaper costs?! So that was some food for thought… I catalogued this with my experiences in China of bathroom etiquette, as just YESTERDAY I was less than 10 feet from a man when he decided to whip out his willy and go on a shed?!

So after dinner, we went over to the Renaissance for Curt to pull some more cash, then we walked home along a shopping area I haven’t ventured to yet… it wasn’t quite as nice as what’s closer to our house, but they had some restaurants, a couple pet shops, massage places, etc. So we’re walking and talking, and I see a little girl squatting, and at first I’m thinking she’s picking something up off the ground, but nope – I see her coochie, and then I notice the steady stream of pee! This girl was at least 3 years old! And HER pants AND panties were open crotch! Like no seam, no nothing – just squat and go, easy access, RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SIDEWALK where everyone walks!?!?!!! I was shocked and once again said loudly and quickly, “Oh my gosh that girl is peeing on the sidewalk and look at her pants and panties!!” and mind this isn’t a remote sidewalk, this is in like a mini mall where the storefronts are less than 5 feet away… it was too much… hence the title of this post, “the world is their toilet!” I’m trying not to judge, I’m really not because I kind of think it’s funny, but really they must know that’s not sanitary. I will however draw the line here and say hell no will you catch me wearing flip flops in public again after all of these private part sightings! I guess the only people catching sight of my pretty toes will be whoever comes into the house! Sigh…

So after some laughs, and petting an adorable little merle collie in front of the pet shop, we headed home. On a more somber note, today was/is Muster so we turned out all of the lights, and said a prayer with a moment of silence for all of the Aggies who passed on this year and said “Here” for them. Last I checked Suzhou only had 2 other Aggies, both Chinese (though I should check again?!) so Curt and I just honored Muster on our own this time…

So that was the day – probably going to chat some more online this evening, do some more reading, and reflect on how happy I am to be an Aggie and that someday people will say “Here” for me.

Love,