Saturday, May 19, 2012

Ten Men Eating Sugar Cane

  • This will be my last written entry (I may make some photo entries via Ipod) before I go to Canada.  I look forward to seeing my relatives, a few old friends and acquaintances, and my parents.  My Dad is very sick and I hope to provide him and my Mom some comfort.  My wife Jenny, I expect, will be stellar in this regard and put me to shame.
  • I wish I could have taken a photo.  I saw ten men standing on the side of the road, all eating sugar cane.  Sugar cane is about the same diameter as a banana.  But instead of being eaten, it has to be sucked. 
  • Carrefour has a good selection of adapters if you decide to bring you Chinese laptop to North America.  Hat Tip to the True Git for telling me this. 
  • When I bought the adapter at Carrefour, I stood in line to pay for it.  A person behind me, with what I thought was a cart, pushed the "cart" right against the back of my leg.  This annoyed me and I looked back and saw an older woman.  The line moved, I moved ahead, and so did the woman.  She again pushed the "cart" against the back of my leg.  I got more annoyed and stood still to block her.  The line moved ahead again and again the "cart" was pushed against my leg.  This time I felt a wheel against my foot and decided to gently kick it.  I looked behind to give the woman the "evil eye" and saw that she was pushing a stroller with child.  There was nothing I could do then but forget about it.  This behavior I have experienced numeours times before in lines to buy tickets and McDonald's where a person would practically reach around me instead of waiting an instance.  Telling another foreigner about this, he recounted similar experiences and always with older people.
  • Some things you see, you shouldn't talk aloud about.  I know this, but stupidly in certain situations when I have a desire to talk so as to be heard, I violate this rule of conduct.  Last Sunday, I saw this person with a deformity on the street.  The man looked to be a foreigner.  I saw him as I was headed to McDonald's while tagging along with some teachers from my school.  When we arrived in McDonald's and got in line to order, I asked the teachers if that deformed man I had just seen was a foreigner.  It was then pointed out to me that the man was standing in front of us in the lineup.  I can just imagine what my face looked out when I realized.  I can tell you how I felt.  I was overcome with a stricken feeling that was akin to being suddenly slapped on the face.  I had to leave, I thought; but I was unsure what exactly to do.  I decided, finally, to go the restaurant's bathroom.  I did my business, went out a side entrance of the restaurant, and again returned to the restaurant via the front entrance where I had followed the foreigner without noticing -- this time, I was on the look out for him.  I can only thank God that I felt stricken at my stupidity and thoughtlessness.
  • I try to take photos of Bus Stops.  This fellow takes photos of mops.
  • Maybe, I will take a photo of a bus stop in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada.
  • I have tried to explain how much open space there is in Canada to the students by telling them about Brandon's location in Manitoba.  I draw a circle and write 30,000 beside it, telling the students that's how many people live in Brandon.  I then draw a line and write 200 km over it to indicate its length.  Brandon, I tell the students is at one end of the line.  At the other end of the line I write 600,000 -- that is the population, more or less, of Winnipeg, the biggest city in Manitoba (Brandon is the second).  I tell the students that along that line there is nothing, except a city, Portage, with a population of 15,000.  You don't even have to leave the Wuxi city limits to find ten cities or villages of similar population as Brandon!
  • Rain on Saturday which reminds me that I won't be going to B.C. on this Canada trip.
  • I saw an old man, on the bus, tell a younger person to yield his seat to older people.  The old man then tried to give the seat to an older woman.  She declined and so he took the seat himself.
  • I taught a student, in Beginner Private Class One, who told me she was studying golf.  I learned that she has gone to California to train.  I asked her what her handicap was.  She told me she hadn't any; she was always making eagles and birdies.

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