Great American Institutions
Every other night or so on our way back from dinner (eating out is so inexpensive here and Randy can expense most of our meals), we stop by a place called Home Bar that is owned by a girl named Fei Fei. I wouldn't take Myles anywhere near some of the bars in this neighborhood (that'll be the subject of a future post), but the girls who work for Fei Fei completely dote on Myles. They keep ice cream bars in the cooler for him. Usually we sit outside the bar, though nights when the crowd is outside we'll go inside. Most nights, though, 8 pm is a pretty tame hour.
A few nights ago Myles was surrounded by women who were wiping his chin and just giggling over him, when he announced he was done with his ice cream. One of his devotees took the remains of the ice cream bar and his napkin and threw it into the street. Another, a girl named Mickey who has been selling flowers in the bars since she was in her early teens (she's 18 now), said to her cousin, a younger girl who also sells flowers with her, "You know, you can't do that States," and then to me, proddingly "Tell her!" as though my report would convince Kiki more than her own words.
"Well, no," I said. "In some areas you could get as much as a......4000 RMB fine."
That's about $500.
"No, really?" asks Kiki with her eyes wide. I know she has difficulty imagining any offense so awful short of murder or rape that would warrant a 4000 RMB fine. "Just for throwing your garbage in the street?"
So I explain to her and Mickey about the ubiquitous public trash cans. There are a few small ones over by Marine World, but none on the streets near the apartment building. It is more widely encouraged, I tell them.
Afterwards I thought of the David Sedaris essay where he is trying to explain to some French people about how in the States people clean up after their dogs, even famous actresses like Jodie Foster, and in his essay he claims to grow teary-eyed with patriotism describing this. Okay, I didn't get weepy, but I did chalk it up to one more thing I have taken for granted all my life. Public trash cans. Flush toilets you can actually sit on (in Shekou about half the eateries have these--the others have ones you, uh, position over--as do all of the restarants everywhere else we've been to outside of Shekou). Change tables for babies. Hairspray. Spray and Wash. Real skim milk (they have this stuff called Skinny Milk that is reconstituted from powder).
A few nights ago Myles was surrounded by women who were wiping his chin and just giggling over him, when he announced he was done with his ice cream. One of his devotees took the remains of the ice cream bar and his napkin and threw it into the street. Another, a girl named Mickey who has been selling flowers in the bars since she was in her early teens (she's 18 now), said to her cousin, a younger girl who also sells flowers with her, "You know, you can't do that States," and then to me, proddingly "Tell her!" as though my report would convince Kiki more than her own words.
"Well, no," I said. "In some areas you could get as much as a......4000 RMB fine."
That's about $500.
"No, really?" asks Kiki with her eyes wide. I know she has difficulty imagining any offense so awful short of murder or rape that would warrant a 4000 RMB fine. "Just for throwing your garbage in the street?"
So I explain to her and Mickey about the ubiquitous public trash cans. There are a few small ones over by Marine World, but none on the streets near the apartment building. It is more widely encouraged, I tell them.
Afterwards I thought of the David Sedaris essay where he is trying to explain to some French people about how in the States people clean up after their dogs, even famous actresses like Jodie Foster, and in his essay he claims to grow teary-eyed with patriotism describing this. Okay, I didn't get weepy, but I did chalk it up to one more thing I have taken for granted all my life. Public trash cans. Flush toilets you can actually sit on (in Shekou about half the eateries have these--the others have ones you, uh, position over--as do all of the restarants everywhere else we've been to outside of Shekou). Change tables for babies. Hairspray. Spray and Wash. Real skim milk (they have this stuff called Skinny Milk that is reconstituted from powder).
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