Archive for December, 2016

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The Culture of Windows

December 25, 2016

Posted by Kanga. Please do not reblog.

I was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest (USA), Central Oregon to be specific. This is a region where curtains are not only used to keep out too much sun, but also used to keep people from seeing into your home. While living in the Oregon High Desert where summer temperatures can reach and exceed 100F, at 10 am my mother would go around the house closing all the windows and drawing all the curtains to keep the house from heating up. Once the sun went down, the windows would be reopened to let in the cool night air. The curtains would remain closed, however, to allow us to sit in the comfort of our living room without being on view to anyone passing by.

At one point, I spent 15 months living in the faraway land called Ohio. Window culture differed there. As a single woman I continued pulling the curtains in the evening against any prying eyes. When I left on vacation, I put lights on timers to simulate someone being home as a deterrent to burglars, but the curtains would also be drawn to maintain the same evening pattern as when I was home and to keep it from being obvious that there was no one in the home. My landlady complained about this because it did not fit with her window culture and she thought it made the house look like it was vacant. She thought I should leave the curtains open.

There was another Ohio window culture that I found strange. They put candles in their windows, electric, of course. Sometimes there were candles in every window of the house. No one did this where I came from, except maybe as Christmas decorations. Seeing the candles in the Ohio windows made me think of the old custom of putting a light in the window for family members who left home, e.g. off to war. This made Ohio seem like the most depressing place on Earth.

Now, I’m in rural England and am informed that the curtains should be opened before sitting down to breakfast. If curtains remain closed during the day, it implies that someone has died.

view out of a window, several flowering plants on the windowsill

No one has died today.

Posted in culture | Tagged | 2 Comments »

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Wandering East London

December 24, 2016

Posted by Kanga. Please do not reblog.

four story brick building

Spitalfields Market

If you have followed our travels previously, you should know that we tend to wander around neighborhoods just to see what we can see, instead of following a typical tourist itinerary filled with museums and touristic sights. We stayed in Whitechapel, but did not bother with the Jack the Ripper tour.

This trip was heavily influenced by the fact that Daddybird has been following the Spitalfields Life blog, so many of the buildings and places we sought out are historical places mentioned in that blog.

neoclassical church colonnade and spire

St Leonard’s Anglican Church, Shoreditch 1740

We wandered into the Shoreditch neighborhood and happened upon St. Leonard’s Church which had a sign announcing a carol service that evening at 6 pm, so we made a point of coming back in time for a bit of Christmas music.

red stone building with arched windows

The Jamaica Wine House – used to be the first coffee house in England ca 1652

Daddybird’s itinerary included buildings like the one above which was the first coffee shop back when coffee was the new, exotic drink.

root beer float

What have we been eating? (surely you wonder about this) Our breakfasts have been English, but all other meals have ranged from Turkish to Pakistani to American. I generally don’t drink soda/pop/cola (whatever you call it), so having a root beer float was a pretty fantastic blast from the past.

fried chicken and waffles

I had not had fried chicken and waffles before, but now I understand. I understand.

See Day 1 pictures here. (129 photos)

See Day 2 pictures here. (89 photos, 3 videos)

See Day 3-5 pictures here. (131 photos)

Posted in Christmas, England, historical site, travel adventures | Tagged , , | 1 Comment »

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Shanghai Sacred Places

December 16, 2016

Posted by Kanga. Please do not reblog.

Ci Xiu An Buddhist convent statue
Xiaotaoyuan Mosque
Pure Heart Church
Xia Hai Miao (Sea Temple)
Opel Moshe Synagogue

December is time for the Historic Shanghai Sacred Places tour. We enjoyed seeing a variety of religious buildings – some still in use, some turned into museums, and some repurposed to something completely different. To see all the pictures, click here.

Posted in historical site, mosque, museum, Shanghai | Leave a Comment »

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So Rude!

December 11, 2016

Posted by Kanga. Please do not reblog.

Rudeness is a topic that has been ruminating in the back of my mind for a while. Having lived outside my home country for 8 years now, I endeavor to avoid using the word “rude.” Unfortunately, it is a frequently used complaint by expats and vacationers.

I recently watched a Youtube video by a young Irish woman who had a terrible vacation experience in China. I’m a little surprised that I was able to watch the whole thing because she was painting all Chinese people and the whole country with a broad brush based on her bad experience. I think her accent helped make the story palatable. That, and watching her wretch in reaction to the habit of spitting. As the story (rant) went on, it became more and more humorous. I am not posting a link here because I don’t think she really deserves more views.

She did have a truly unpleasant vacation experience and the company that arranged her travel and hotel ripped her off and she did not get her money’s worth. However, that doesn’t mean it is okay to say all Chinese people are rude, cheating, etc.

Rudeness is a culturally defined concept. What is rude to one culture is expected or overlooked in another. Expecting your cultural standards in another country is both stupid and, let’s face it, rude.

The unwritten rule in China (urban China) seems to be “keep moving.” For example, cars rarely stop, slow down, or wait. If the car in front of them stops or slows down, they drive around it. If there is a pedestrian in the cross walk, they drive around the person rather than stop and wait. Scooters, motorcycles, and bicycles do not stop for red lights. They just blow through the intersection, pedestrians and oncoming traffic be damned. In terms of pedestrians, the keep moving rule applies there, too. A crowd funneling into an escalator just keeps taking little steps and pressing forward and eventually everyone gets on. People getting onto a train or into an elevator don’t wait for people to get off. Keep moving!

I was waiting for an elevator once with a mother who had a stroller and a middle aged Chinese man. When the elevator came, I moved forward based on my American culture of “ladies and old people first” and the Chinese man moved forward based on his cultural rule. We squeezed in simultaneously. We exited the same way. The mother with stroller could probably call us both rude.

I could gripe constantly about the “keep moving” practice, especially the scooters, but that just wears at the soul. (If I do go off the deep end, it will probably be because of the scooters.) The “that’s so rude!” attitude isn’t constructive. On the bright side, when we return to California (famous for bad driving) we get to look around, pleasantly surprised, and say “the driving here is so considerate!” It’s all relative.

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fkangayayaroo%2Fvideos%2Fvb.186200120%2F552899724223%2F%3Ftype%3D3&show_text=0&width=560

Update:

front loader tractor on city street

I see your rural tractor and raise you an urban front loader.

 

Posted in China, culture, Shanghai | Tagged | 5 Comments »