Day One Observations

Observations thus far:

1. There are about three times the number of employees working every job. In the stores there are women employees standing in every isle. In restaurants, There are often 9-12 servers where we would have 4. There is excellent service here, but also little elbowroom if you want to look at purchasing a product. In the stores, employees follow me around, standing quietly 2 feet behind me. Every time I take a step, so do they. If I move 6 inches left, they move six inches left. If I move six inches right they move six inches right.

2. It seems like some people ignore me completely, some people stare at me unabashedly, and a few people talk very shyly to me. Everyone is extremely polite, however.

3. My blonde hair is a big deal. I got catcalls and whistles on the street all day yesterday. When I smiled and waved at some of my gawkers, I got stunned, but sheepish and happy grins. They often didn’t then look away, but watched me until I was out of sight. The only other place that blonde women seem to reside is on billboard ads, which abound.

4. The workers for the school building make 2-5$ per day. They live in little cement one-room shelters on the school site that will be torn down after the building project is complete. There are 300 workers on the project, almost all men about my age or younger. Similarly, the front of my hotel looks out on a luxurious street with businessmen walking around on cell phones, and cars rushing by. I went around to the back of the hotel and saw where the employees live. The houses were small, usually one room, laundry was hung on clotheslines at every entrance, and people were sort of lounging around. There was a visible difference.

5. The food is extremely delicious and comes in giant quantities that you are very encouraged to eat, eat, and eat more of. I came home and looked up how to say “I’m not hungry.” after Mrs. Chen at the school offices worried that I had not eaten enough lunch and was bringing out fresh vegetables from the kitchen for me to slice and eat, even though she had prepared a feast already on the table, and I had eaten my fill. Later, my dinner cost a dollar and I could only eat less than half of it.