Two blogs in one week? How could it be?

So I've said in the past that while I'm happy for the few number of people out there read my blog, I'm not writing it for the public - I'm writing it for myself to remember what I did 2, 10, 50 years ago. Usually that's travel stuff, but not today. There's been something on my mind recently, and I'm going to get a bit sour on social/political issues. I've done this in the past, but if that's not your thing, no worries, hope to see you next time.

I've noticed myself putting down the US a lot lately. It's in a sort of self-deprecating, humorous sort of way, or at least I intend it to be like that. But there is some truth behind it. Honestly, I do like the US. It has the best food in the world, if only for its diversity. I love the "Can do" attitude people there have, I love the genuine politeness with strangers, I love how they pretty much get everything before the rest of the world, and I love how much it has to offer for tourists. However, there was just some part with the social makeup of the US that never really sat well with me. Something that made me feel like I never fit in, and in general did not like people as much as I should. I wasn't able to articulate it until recently, but I think I finally honed in on it:

In general, Americans are looking for something to be angry about.

Maybe this isn't some giant revelation, but let me explain a bit - the US loves to take sides so they can be angry about the other one. And I don't mean in just politics, although that's there as well. Sports teams are pretty much this, manifest. Your home team is automatically, the best team at that sport, and all others and their supporters are terrible. I know that people (hopefully) think that in jest. But some don't, or at least they're very convincing actors. Even minor fanboy stuff like if you're an iPhone or Android person - you may think the others are just "not right" or insert other derogatory things. Oh, and Cincinnati chili! People will argue up and down what the best chili is, and everyone who disagrees is an uneducated moron. I am super guilty of this - I like Gold Star, but I poked fun at Skyline fans. As long as I'm being completely honest, both are good. I have a preference, but honestly I nor anyone anyone else should make someone feel bad about their preference.

But I think this is just the non-serious tip of things. It's not always a team thing, as you may have heard this story recently about a girl who wore a Chinese dress (旗袍) to prom. (By the by, I've brought it up with Chinese natives and read online, and there is 0 outrage that I can see over here about this. If you're curious this video is a good watch.) But this has remained a big issue sort of recently, enough that the Washington Post took time out from the many, many important things happening in the world to report on it. And all I can think is... "Why do you care?" In the grand scheme of things to be concerned about, this is so far down the list it's infinitesimal. Maybe the idea of it offends you - and that's cool, you can think not nice things about her and then move on with your life. If people say "This is a Qipao, from Utah.", then we get into cultural appropriation territory and I can sort of see your point. But until we get to that, in my opinion the outrage just makes you look ridiculous.

And to unfortunately take it up one more level in seriousness, gun control. This has become more of a front-line issue very recently with another school shooting. I have spent some time reading very conservative websites to see what's going on in that world, and man, what a super "with me or against me" situation Americans have made that out to be. Either you have to be hoarding enough guns to take down a battalion, or you support government gun-stealing ninjas. I don't get either of these positions. I have come out in favor of gun control in the past, because from what I've seen the data supports it. (namely, the US has the most guns per capita and the highest number of gun deaths) And that's really all I care about. You could argue my data sources are wrong, or I am making an incorrect comparison. But that's an attack on my argument, not an attack on me.

I think people get those confused a lot, and get their passion, or more frequently anger wrapped up in things. And it's really misplaced, because I think both sides want to save lives. Or at least, I hope they do. And if that's the end goal, are there really two sides at all? Why not three sides? (No guns, some control, no control). Or four? (Everyone gets a gun, some people get a gun, only police get a gun, no one gets a gun). Or five? (Everything is fine, arm teachers, raise the age to 21, improve mental health facilities, or try get rid of guns completely). All of these have been proposed, yet somehow get divided into only two columns. And there is this social pressure to pick one, and completely oppose the other. I'd say, what do the numbers say? They say if you really want to save lives, gun control is not at the top of the list. You should want to pump money into medical research and support tighter regulations on car safety. Because data says that's where the most deaths come from. And numbers can't be angry.

Maybe I've said all I can on this for now. And maybe you don't agree with me. But this type of strong opinion is something that I don't think I share with America, and in general people in Asia don't share. Maybe that's why I like it here. Until then, I think the US could use some foreign advice.

Heyyyyy future me.

This may be a shorter one, because I don't have too much to say this time. But, it's been a long while since an update, so I figured that I better write down the few things I have been doing, else I forget about them forever.

So for personal things, I've started down the road of getting my American Teaching License. Don't get too excited - this isn't because I have any desire to teach in the States, but only because it tends to look good on a resume. The only catch is that I don't know if I can get it. It's a big if, because I doubt if anyone has tried to do exactly what I'm doing. Usually a license requires classroom observation (in the US of course), and a renewal every few years.  I think I may have found a way around that, but it will require a lot of testing, paperwork, and waiting. Fingers crossed.

So, what have we been doing lately? Hmm. We uhh... got a toaster oven. I made bread once. It was okay. And the brownies were not bad. Yup.

Got that going for me.

Compelling reading, for sure. Alright, for more interesting stuff, our next Guangzhou Tourist spot was Huangpu Port. A bit out of the way, it required a bit of a lengthy metro ride down to the far side of the river. Now to back waaay waaay up a few hundred years, Guangzhou (back when it was known as Canton) used to be the only way into China for foreign goods. Well, this was THE port where all those foreign goods passed through. They have a small museum with, you guessed it, old trade goods that used to be kind of a big deal. In particular a fair number of clocks, which were all the rage since China didn't know how to do that until they copied the Europeans. This place also gave America its Chinese name, mei guo (美国).

Fun tangent for that, 美 = beautiful and 国 = country. The story I was told, and choose to believe because I can, is that the first ship to sail to China from America was shortly after the Revolution. Because the new country wanted to make a good impression, they got their fanciest ship and loaded it up with flowers. That combined with a giant shiny flag ('Murica) led people at Huangpu to call it "the beautiful country". Is the story actually true? I'm not sure, I've only heard it from other people, and have yet to find a source for it. But could be?

For the rest of the port, it's pretty much like an old town you can walk around. It has some kitchy craft shops and people taking wedding photos. Also an old lady that makes liquor out of her house. We sampled some rose, peach, and chrysanthemum spirits that were all unique in their own way, and bought a bottle of the peach. And speaking of alcohol, that makes a perfect transition to our visit by Elana!

You may have heard of Elana before, as she is the infamous globe-trotting friend who lives in Bangkok. She decided to come stop by GZ for a few days on her way to Hong Kong, and we couldn't be happier to have her. It was a brief, day-and-a-half sort of trip, so we tried our best to squeeze in way GZ had to offer - a walk around Beijing Lu, visiting some of the famous temples, Liwan Park, a lot of food, and some skyscraper sightseeing around Zhujiang New Town. It was a nice change of pace, to share the place you (now) know very well with a friend who doesn't. It also is a reminded that Ella and I still have a lot of GZ to uncover. We're slowly making progress, but especially the southern end of the city is pretty untouched.

Well, not completely untouched. I was asked, I think as a courtesy, if I wanted to join the Grade 2 class on their field trip. To probably their surprise, I said yes. I was told that I was the first foreigner to ever join the class on their semester outing, this time to Vanilla World. What is Vanilla World? It's sort of like a kiddie theme park about 30 minutes away. Despite then name I did not see any vanilla, just a bunch of carnival-type rides. The first half of the day, we chaperoned the kids around to various places. I got to ride on a few, although c'mon - none of them hold a candle to places like Kings Island. Think like, rides that are at a church festival. Anyway they loved them, and then we broke for lunch. I assumed we would eat with the kids, cause you know, they're like, 9 years old.

Nope.

I still don't know how to feel about this, but after the kids started eating all the teachers are like "Okay bye - meet you back at the bus at 3." Then we left the park to go have lunch in a restaurant. One of the teachers got pretty drunk, which was funny, but mostly we just sat around and socialized. I felt a bit guilty, because here we are eating restaurant fare while the kids get rice and a hot dog. After lunch we went back to just ride on the rides ourselves for the rest of the day. Sure we saw some kids here and there, but at no point was there any plan other than "meet here at some time". Only one person got lost that day, and it was me. I don't know if they made some announcement I missed, but suddenly the park just kind of emptied as all the kids ran to their meeting point. Except, nobody had ever told me where that was. I walked around for a bit and considered "Well... looks like I'm getting a Didi (Uber) home." But I decided to go back to the bus, and it was still there. About 20 minutes later, the group arrived. Amazingly, to the best of my knowledge, no kids were lost during the day. I don't know if I should give credit to the kids for being responsible, we got super lucky, or everything was just far more planned than it appeared. It sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen in the US. But in the end, everything worked out. So perhaps there shouldn't be.