In which I wax eloquent about stuff of very little import...

The other day, G-man and I were talking about how China is safer, in many ways, than America is.  At least it is for me as an American.

At least, the dangers are different.

See, I'm not worried about things like walking across campus by myself at night.  (Partly because there are guards at the gates and students' curfew is around 9:45.) 

On the other hand, there is always stuff like your van nearly driving into one of the supports for an overpass when you're on a holiday trip to Shenyang.  Which could happen in America too, but is more likely to occur in China, I think.  Or your bong bong could drive into -- well, anything -- and be obliterated.  Which would not happen in America, because bong bongs would never make it onto the road.

However, tonight I figured out the real danger of China.

Pieces of my kitchen ceiling flake down whenever I boil water, loosened by the steam.  In the event that I happen to leave cup without a lid sitting out on the counter, it's entirely possible that said pieces will fall into the cup.  It is also possible that I will later be extremely thirsty and forget that a chunk of ceiling has fallen into the cup, fill it up without looking, chug most of the liquid, and then realize that maybe the odd taste was connected with the suspiciously soggy plaster-like substance that was adhering itself to the bottom of my cup.

Yeah, gross.

In other news, two things that make me question how much my identity is changing...

1)  Tonight I found myself thinking, Wow, this hook would look good affixed to my door.  The backing for the hook is shaped like an apple.  And is sparkly.  And has a smiley face on it.  I haven't stuck it there yet, but I'm still thinking about it.  This is how the new teachers end up inheriting apartments covered with random hooks all over the place, I guess.

2)  I used to not be able to do an Asian squat (feet flat on the ground) at all, even though it can be maintained for way longer than the American squat.  And then suddenly, one day, I realized that I was doing it without really having practiced or meant to.  And now it's feeling more and more natural.

I would love it if the language kicks in in the same way.