Three Strange Sights

One
Driving back from a beautiful display of Chinese music, the guide and driver began talking excitedly in Mandarin. They were laughing, pointing, and in general had a surprised expression.

When our guide noticed all the Americans in the car trying to figure out where the excitement was she pointed to the SUV less than two inches from our van (I am not exaggerating about the two inches)

“A Monk”, she said. Evidently not only is it odd to see a Buddhist monk driving, but very odd to see one driving a brand new Porsche Cayenne. Evidently, there are “Kenneth Copelands” in China.


Two
We have seen few animals. We were told this is because people must obtain a license for all pets and so they keep them inside until after the dog catchers has completed their work for the day. We have seen a couple small dauschounds and Lasa Apsas and one scraggly cat, but yesterday we saw a full blooded German Shepherd. I would hate to pick up the poop for that dog in a city like this.

Three
We were the strange sight this time. We went to the grocery store and after a week of not seeing any children out and about, all of a sudden there were lots of school age children all headed the opposite direction as us. We commented that there must be a school close by and we were right and school had just let out for the day. Suddenly there was a massive wave of excited 7-10 year olds all shouting and pointing our direction. I think we were the first Caucasians they might have ever seen up close, or maybe it was the red hair.

Everywhere people stare at us, but this just about caused a riot.