Travel in China

You know, to be honest, there is a part of me that is dreading travel in China for a second time this year. As bad as I want to get Maggie home, I sort of wished they "delivered". I do love the adventure, the culture and the experience the trip represents, and at the same time travel in China is a tough. Here is why:

The Food: The Chinese eat anything that doesn't eat them first. The food served in China isn't the chow mein, sweet and sour pork, fried rice you eat in the US. In China, no part of the animal is wasted. Nothing. The bones are left in all the meat, making eating a logistical nightmare with chopsticks. Bean curd is almost always the safest option on the menu. The good news is bean curd is fabulous. Like nothing I have ever tasted. Last time, I was savoring bean curd only to discover the meat was frog. Poor kermit!

The Bathrooms: On this topic I will be brief. Let's just say Women's Rooms in China are a study in projectiles and your shoes get messy if you miss. I will be in lots of skirts this trip as the back of my pants fell victim to my errors on our first trip. The skirts worked great this Spring.

The Staring: For me, an American, who rode BART for many years and never made eye contact with anyone, the staring in China is unnerving. The Chinese think nothing of looking you up and down, chatting to their friend about you, pointing at you and asking you a question or making comments on your parenting capabilities that you are glad you can't understand. This cultural behavior happens everywhere. When it happened it a bathroom it really freaked me out. To have a room of women silenced and watching my every move in a bathroom I really don't know how to use, I just get a wee-bit uncomfortable.

As much as I am dying to hold Maggie in my arms and to get a date for travel, I know exactly what it means to travel in China now. And from a travel logistics stand point, I don't know if I am ready to go back.