At last! Taizhou, my new City and more!

Hello my lovies! I am sorry for any lack of updates. I moved into my new apartment and the Internet was not properly set up. But now it is! And I have so many updates to post for you!
So keep an eye out for them!
Now back to our regularly scheduled program!

TAIZHOU! 

Pronounced Tie Joe.

This beautiful city is absolutely something I never would have expected to live in.

With just a little over 5 million people, Taizhou is a mix of new and old held by traditions and customs as well rapidly growing industrialization.

It has been over a 13 days since I arrived and I am still blown away with how incredibly accepting people are. Of course I get stared at. I stick out like a sore thumb. Mostly everyone here (especially the women) are slender, while I, on the other hand, am the complete opposite: I stand taller than most Chinese women (even some of the men) and have a whole lotta curves!  For example, here in the picture, this is Mrs Wang, (known to me officially as "Auntie") the cleaning lady of the school who was told me (via translator) that it was an honor to be able to make the apartment clean for me. She was incredibly sweet. I tried to give her a little gift for her troubles and she refused it so adamantly I did not press further in fear of insulting her. Things like this are very common. I have met a lot of truly kind people.

The other day I was walking from my hotel (my apartment was not ready) to a central mall to meet a coworker to get a bank account. Well, I got lost and naturally I got stared. A lot . Everywhere I went I was stared at. A old man who had been staring at me for a while approached me and my first thought was that this guy was bad news. However, the old man, who by the way knew not a lick of English, said something to me in Chinese and when I showed him the address of the place my coworker had written for me in Chinese on my phone. The old man then proceeded to take out a piece of paper from the back of his bicycle and very intricately cut off a clean piece of his paper. I was intrigued. What was he doing? My thought was that he was going to draw me a map.
Ten seconds later, I realized what the man is doing. He is rewriting the address. More Chinese was said. Then he pointed straight ahead. I thanked him (pretty much all I know how to say is Thank You and a handful of other useful words). As I carried on to my merry way, he proceeded to follow me in his bicycle, then riding ahead and asking people if they new the location of my address.  This continued for 20 whole minutes. At one point he asked me (I'm assuming by the way he was pointing at his bike) if I wanted to ride in the back of his little bicycle cart. Of course, I said no thank you.
Long story short he led me to a part that I finally recognized and I told him I knew the rest of the way. I have gotten pretty good at overly gesticulating. I managed to snap a picture of my hero before we finally parted ways.

So I do get stared a lot. It doesn't really bother me. Not really... okay only really rude ass staring that makes me feel like I'm walking around naked or the candid (but VERY obvious) picture taking. Even then, it doesn't bother me too much since I just ignore it, and I just wish people wouldn't be so obvious. In the U.S. (like in many other countries), it's considered rude to stare. As kids, it is engraved in our brains not to stare so you can only imagine someone who comes to China, as a foreigner. The feeling might be slightly overwhelming and invasive.

I would prefer if people just asked me up front if they want to take a picture with me. During lunch time at work, my coworkers say they feel like they are famous because of the amount of stares we get thrown our way. They can't believe so many of their fellow Chinese stop and gawk.

I went to a fast food place and the first thing I got asked was if I could get a picture taken with the cashier. How do I know she asked me that? Because she held her phone in her hand and her finger hovered over the camera button. I said I would love to. Then when my food was done I got asked if the owner of the store could have one too? How do I know he was the owner? He wanted a picture with the logo of the store's name in the background. He thanked me profusely. Didn't get his picture but I did ask the cashier if I could take one with her. 

I went to the bank that day I got lost with my co-worker Apple, and the bank tellers had never seen an American Passport. Neither had the onlookers and they also wanted a look see. The first teller came, looked at it, and told me it was a fake. Then another teller came and saw it and said it might be fake it might not. The manager of the bank came and said it looked real but admitted they had never seen one in person. All of this, was being said out-loud (its a Chinese thing to talk loudly) while a bunch of nosey lookers wanted to see my passport. I was extremely uncomfortable not with the way they moved my passport this way and that way, and even sniffing it but with the way total strangers were taking a close look at my passport too. Finally, I had enough and snapped these two pictures. Of course, the people who have their heads turned or looking away only looked away when I pulled out my camera and snapped the pictures. As you can see, some didn't care. 

Funny enough, the manager of that bank then asked me (via translator) if could help her with something to which she started playing a video of a woman counting from one to ten in English. It was clear the woman was not a native speaker and even managed to skip a number all together. I told Apple my coworker what was I supposed to be looking at. I thought this might have been some sort of test to see if I was really America and pointed out that the lady in the video skipped a number. But, it turned out that the manager wanted to see if the lady in the video was a native English speaker. I told her no, she has an accent and she skipped a number. The manager at the bank was disappointed since that was her daughter's English teacher. I hope she gets her money's worth.

Even the security guard, when I pulled out my California ID to show to the manager (pictured above holding my passport), snatched my ID out of my hands so he could look at it, be nosey, admire it. Well, excuse me! I snatched it right back and put it back in my wallet. He at least had the decency to look sheepish. The other women in the bank, did not however.

I did manage to get a bank account with a different branch who, thank goodness, knew what they were dealing with. 

What else am I missing? 

If you have any comments or questions let me know in the comment box below! 

There are still many stories I can tell you all of my adventures here in China.

Until next time!

Zai Jian!