I am getting pretty sick of China. Maybe it's just that I'm homesick and I need a break but I've definitely been noticing more and more things that really suck about living here.

1.No matter how long you live here or how fluent you are, if you don't look Chinese, you're a foreigner. Even to people you've gotten to know quite well, you're a novelty to be stared at and puzzled over. Like an animal in the zoo.

2.When a lot of the people here see foreigners, they see dollar bill signs and will try to get whatever they can out of you. From the guy you've bought noodles from every week for a year suddenly trying to scam you out of an extra 1 RMB to the parents of the really young Chinese kids pressuring the school to offer FREE Chinese classes taught by foreigners, it just seems never-ending. I understand that people are often struggling financially but not every westerner has money to burn and it's tiring to be cheated all the time.

3.Why is the food always drenched in oil? I can't escape it even by eating simple vegetable dishes. The least oily food I've found here is plain bread and noodle soup with a greasy film on top. I won't go into details but I don't think it's very good for the digestion. Every foreigner has stories to tell about getting sick from eating the food here and that's not even including the food poisoning stories.

4.It's so loud! Fireworks, car horns, construction sounds, karaoke, it's hard to escape even in a small town like this. Even just people talking on their phones feel the need to scream everything. I could walk around with earplugs in all the time and not miss a thing. It'd all just be at a more reasonable volume.

5.The Government. I don't even know where to start with this one...I used to complain about corrupt politicians and bureaucrats at home but trust me when I say this: You have no idea. I've never seen a system so completely disorganized and inefficient. The ONLY way to get anything done involves greasing plenty of palms while you do it. It's absolutely a matter of 'you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours'. If the government tells you to jump, your only choice is to do it quickly or pay the price.

People think that due to oppression, Chinese people never complain about the government but it's not true. Everyone knows that the system is unfair, in fact there are almost weekly protests all over the country with thousands of people but we never hear about them in the media. The participants are often beaten or thrown in jail without trial and it's all kept hush hush. I think it's ok to write this here because blogspot is already blocked by the Chinese firewall anyways.

Another thing is that there is just so much emphasis on 'saving face'. I know that this is a cultural difference but I didn't realize how frustrating it could be until now. It's almost impossible to speak directly on many topics, instead you must word things so carefully and talk circles around the issues. Almost no one takes responsibility for mistakes or oversights, instead it is pushed on to 'someone else' and if you press the issue it is considered extremely rude. Even getting a simple question answered is sometimes a huge ordeal.

There is much about the 'authorities' here to complain about but one of the most ridiculous is the love of flamboyance and pomp in all official affairs. Every time someone of high standing in the government does anything there are fireworks, red carpets, processions, speeches, flowers, gifts, etc. I believe that after the fall of the Qing dynasty, all of the reverence placed on the imperial court was simply transfered over to the communist government. At least it's entertaining.

Well, I'm pretty much spent now. Thanks for reading my rant, I feel better for having written all this down. Only 2 more months until I get to have a break from all this stuff. yay!