User Comments - pretzellogic

Posted on: Surviving Winter and Singles Scene for Expat Girls

One of my wife's friends asked us what our impressions of China were while we were living there. He was considering moving to China because of career reasons.  But one thing that came out of the dinner he had with us to get the details of expat life in central China was that he was also hoping to get a girlfriend.  It was clear that he was not dating a lot of women here in the US.  I later found out he ended up dating a local girl.  So maybe Amber is right about expat guys/local girls. Certainly, a couple of data points is all we need for statistical validity with a high confidence level.

Posted on: At the Hair Salon

thanks pearltowerpete.  that's what I was afraid of.  Rarer than a unicorn....

Posted on: At the Hair Salon

ok, I usually don't ask such questions in this type of forum, but here goes....

Has any cpodder seen an African or African-American in any of these hair salons? Is there a barber/stylist anywhere in China that someone could recommend to a black person? As an African-American, I've seen zillions of hair salons, at least in Lanzhou where I used to live.  But since there were few black people in Lanzhou, I never saw any black guys getting haircuts.  I'm wondering what Chinese barber/hair stylist might have done to my head, had I been brave enough (or drunk enough) to let one experiment on me.  Or would it have been an experiment?  Maybe in Beijing or Shanghai, there's one place where all the black people are getting their hair styled/trimmed/shaved/braided, and it's being done by the Chinese employee at the Kenyan embassy or something that was familar with how to deal effectively with a black person's hair.  Maybe that Chinese person would have been skilled enough to braid Carmelo Anthony's hair when he wasn't playing basketball during the Olympics. Maybe i'm just paranoid.  Thoughts?

Posted on: I want coffee!

After a year of Instant Nescafe, I got used to it.  But then I would periodically go back to the office in MA, and then the office free cheap coffee would blow Nescafe away.  Sadly, I'd also become addicted to the occasional vanilla latte from the Starbucks across from Beijing zhan in the mall (I forget the name of the mall).

Posted on: Using 除了。。。以外 (Chúle... Yǐwài)

I third Calkins' motion.

Posted on: Let's Go to Beijing

I keep forgetting (as if you didn't say it often enough), that cpod is based in Shanghai.

Posted on: The Big Deal about Shenzhou 7

I'm happy that there was a lesson on Shenzhou 7.   I only understood "Russia" and "America", then of course I read the pdf and realized that I had been taught much more. 

Funny how the dialogue went in the direction of "why are we spending money on the space program when there are so many other needs in the country?"  That portion of the debate went on here in the US for awhile, and I heard more of it after Apollo 17.

Posted on: Stopped at the Gate

Thanks Amber!

Posted on: Stopped at the Gate

I never did this, but what would be the impact of just ignoring the guy at the gate? Is it like ignoring the doorman at some swanky Manhattan apartment, and the doorman calls the police?

Also, isn't wei4le also "in order to", as in

"wo3 mei2you3 lai2 zhong1guo2 wei4le he2 mei3guo2 pi1jiu3?

"I didn't come to China in order to drink American beer"

(sorry if my tones are waaaay off)

Posted on: Salt and Pepper

I like how the actress said, "what something?" which I interpreted to mean, "what?"

What was really more interesting was knowing foreigners that moved to China, but didn't like Chinese food.  I knew one family, and my wife knew of another few people.  The people that my wife knew or heard of constantly wanted to eat at McDonalds or someplace like that. I always kept hoping that my smirking would go unnoticed, but I suppose that it was because they were acquaintances that I just didn't come out and say, You want american food? go back to the US.