User Comments - pretzellogic

Posted on: 中国IT外包服务

Outstanding! Thanks lujiaojie! Thanks Cpod!

Posted on: Leaky Pipes and Faucets

Pretzell's guide to safe flushing (so you sophisticated westerners listen up):

1) if you're in a building that looks like it was built before 1990, do not flush paper down the toilet.

2)if you're in a location or building that looks like it does not get many foreigners, do not flush paper down the toilet.

3)I forget what those toilets that you have to squat over are called, but do not flush paper down them.

4)if you live, or are staying with friends in, one of the millions of 6-floor walkups throughout China, do not flush paper down the toilet.

These are only suggestions. You are responsible for costs, embarrassment, humiliation, finger-pointing and ridicule.

Posted on: Leaky Pipes and Faucets

Good question. I should have said, "my wife found this out the hard way", with regard to flushing toilet paper down the toilet. I was blissfully unaware of this experiment, being on a trip back to the US at the time. I should ask her, but I think the answer was that the building repair dude got out the trusty plunger.

the second time we had toilet issues, my 2 year old flushed a ball down the toilet. A ball big enough to go down, but too big to go all the way down and not be a problem. That toilet was out of commission for 2 days, as they needed to take the toilet off the mount. It cost 50RMB for the repair. I thought that was incredibly cheap, considering a plumber in the US won't even come to your house for less that USD 50 nowadays. Pulling the toilet and remounting it would have probably cost $250 in the US.

Posted on: Directions with a Map #1

Do Chinese say something like, "the hospital is at the corner of Jiàngtái road and Xiǎoyùn road"?

Posted on: Mailing a Package at the Post Office

So how would you say, "I want to pick up a package"?

Posted on: Leaky Pipes and Faucets

Brendaninaus, did you guys live in a six floor apartment building? Interesting to see tree roots climb up a few floors (I'm sure they can).

We got the lecture about the toilet paper down the toilet as well. I don't think any tree roots were found in our system.

Posted on: Leaky Pipes and Faucets

Unfortunately, modern toilet paper will not go down all narrow pipes. I've found this out the hard way.

Posted on: 中国IT外包服务

yeah, the site itself has some really great tools, the dialogue section being one. But for me, the other functionality the site provides for on-the-go learning are what I use. I really use pdfs and mp3s more than anything else. This lack of an english version of a pdf is not good for me.

Posted on: Designing the New Apartment 2

I assume that the couple is Chinese, so I didn't really expect them to remodel their kitchen the American way. But then they were complaining about lack of counter space, which is why I made my observation. Certainly the "old habits die hard" explanation makes sense for using a rice cooker.

It's interesting to speculate about where the Chinese are evolving their kitchens/bathrooms and so on. Over the next 20-50 years, as China becomes more wealthy (IF present trends continue....), then what would the average Chinese person think of how Chinese cook, clean and so on.

Posted on: Do you like China?

Are you sure it was just an mistake of translation? :)