Cultural Observation

We're still alive!  This week was much better than the last, thanks to your love and thoughts. 

I wanted to share with you some interesting cultural observations I made this week. 

First, they say that our city only has two seasons--summer and winter--because the mild temps of spring and fall are so short-lived.  Thankfully, we are experiencing spring-like conditions, so we're trying to enjoy it while it lasts.  (We're especially thankful that our apartment is finally getting warm again...I did mention "National Turn Off Heat Day" back in March, right?)  It got up into the 80s a couple days last week, so, of course, our family breaks out the short sleeves!  I think we were probably about the only people in this city of millions to do so.  Everyone else kept trucking right along in their long-sleeves and sweaters and jackets.  Boy, did we get some strange looks as we bared our arms and soaked in the warmth!  I was asked several times by concerned aunties and grandmas, "Tamen leng bu leng?" which means "are they cold?" (about Katie and Caroline).  I wanted to say, "Are you kidding?  They're sweating!"  I didn't because a) I don't know how to say that and b) for them to express concern about my children's health/comfort is their way of reaching out and saying that they care.  From our previous year teaching here, I was already well aware of the Chinese concern about body temperature and dressing habits.  I asked another expat friend of mine what he thought was behind this strange (to me) phenomenon, and he wisely theorized that while we Westerners dress according to our own feeling or comfort preference, they dress according to rule.  He said that after May 1, we'll likely see many more bare arms.  It's observations like that that remind me I really am in a foreign culture and that I haven't even begun to plumb the depths of just how "foreign" I am in it.