Things I've had to adjust to since being here

1. You cannot put toilet paper in the toilets. It must go in a trashcan beside the toilet, otherwise the toilet gets clogged. (Also some toilets you can't even do No. 2 (er hao) in.)

2. Pedestrians have no right of way. In fact, it pretty much sucks being a pedestrian. Hopefully I am getting a bike this weekend.

3. Bug spray is essential.

4. A good day means being able to see the mountains out the window.

5. All fruit must be peeled and sliced. Don't bite into it or you risk eating something you probably don't want to.

6. You can't drink the water. You don't want to anyway, because it smells funny. So I've been buying lots and lots of bottles of water, tea, juice, dengdeng. Contributing to the over abundance of plastic refuse problem, I am.

7. On the other hand, none of the shops will give you a plastic bag unless you ask for it and pay like 2 mao. Which is... less than 5 US cents, probably, but still I always forget to bring a bag to the grocery store and end up shoving everything in my purse. Awkward.

I'm sure there are other things. I'm already missing cereal and milk for breakfast, for example, but I'm not about to break down and buy me some corn flakes and soy milk yet. Yet. Oh and lastly, my plans for this weekend were disrupted when I went to the train station to buy a ticket to see Cheng in Dalian but they had none left :( Mai wan le! And it's too late to hitch a ride with some of the other kids to Mongolia, so I'll just be kicking it around Beijing this weekend. Things could be worse.