This evening marks one full week on the ground in China. Things are starting to settle into a routine, and most of us have the bus schedule memorized. The shuttle bus is brand-new; it both looks and smells it. New bus smell isn’t the greatest smell on Earth, but I don’t mind it as much as some of my colleagues. This evening, we all decided to go to KTV, and had a proper party. We rented a room, dimmed the lights, and had a merry old time.
About halfway through, we imported KFC. Now, if I said that and we were in America, you might judge us for doing it. However, to paraphrase Judy Garland, "We’re not in Ohio anymore, Toto". KFC is a huge thing in China. There are probably more KFCs in China than Starbuck’s and McDonald’s combined. Professor Hohman told us “you don’t know the half of it”, and then went on to tell us that the first year she lived in China, the only Western establishment in the town, or even the area where she stayed, was KFC. Apparently it was a thing for people to invite you out to KFC as well. If she wanted something else, she had to take an hour car ride to the nearest Papa John’s. We’ve noticed ourselves that besides Papa John’s, the only other major pizza chain in China seems to be Pizza Hut, which from what we’ve seen is totally different from what it is in America.
Also during this party, the fifteen or twenty of us went through a few dozen bottles of the local beer, which is called Tsingtao. This would be illegal in the US, but the legal drinking age in China, as with most of the world, is 18. It causes you to briefly wonder why we can’t have nice things, before simple reasoning reminds you that too many people would abuse the privilege and we would end up with a bunch of drunk high school seniors failing, not being able to graduate, and being forced to retake senior year. We went home in taxis (our main form of transport when there is no bus) in the early morning.
About halfway through, we imported KFC. Now, if I said that and we were in America, you might judge us for doing it. However, to paraphrase Judy Garland, "We’re not in Ohio anymore, Toto". KFC is a huge thing in China. There are probably more KFCs in China than Starbuck’s and McDonald’s combined. Professor Hohman told us “you don’t know the half of it”, and then went on to tell us that the first year she lived in China, the only Western establishment in the town, or even the area where she stayed, was KFC. Apparently it was a thing for people to invite you out to KFC as well. If she wanted something else, she had to take an hour car ride to the nearest Papa John’s. We’ve noticed ourselves that besides Papa John’s, the only other major pizza chain in China seems to be Pizza Hut, which from what we’ve seen is totally different from what it is in America.
Also during this party, the fifteen or twenty of us went through a few dozen bottles of the local beer, which is called Tsingtao. This would be illegal in the US, but the legal drinking age in China, as with most of the world, is 18. It causes you to briefly wonder why we can’t have nice things, before simple reasoning reminds you that too many people would abuse the privilege and we would end up with a bunch of drunk high school seniors failing, not being able to graduate, and being forced to retake senior year. We went home in taxis (our main form of transport when there is no bus) in the early morning.