52 Things You Don't Experience in America (Part 2)

14. Everyday trash pick up: Here, the trash is picked up, not just everyday, but twice everyday! Grant it, everyone lives in apartments and the trash bags are smaller than the kind you keep in your office in America, so it's a must, but it's still awesome. My trash receptacle is 9 steps down from my door. I average .986 on ringing the bucket without ever leaving my apartment!

15. Trash cans for #2 toilet paper waste: Heaven forbid that the western toilets be able to handle toilet paper disposal. Some can. Mine cannot. I have a poop pail right next to my toilet. It's kind of gross really. But, thanks to #14 (above), it doesn't have to stay for very long! 99.9999% of squatty potties cannot handle toilet paper either, so there are trash cans (sometimes) associated with those as well.

16. Family style dining: Most often, when you go to a restaurant, you order several dishes that are to be shared by everyone. The tables are usually round and have a lazy susan in the middle so those dining can have easy spin action access to all the dishes. Every person has their own little bowl, and you just pick out a little at a time. No one knows how much you eat. It's fantastic really. I WILL have a round table and we WILL have a lazy susan. It's great, really!

17. Noodle shops: One thing about this place that I love is the over abundance of noodle shops. There are a billion different noodles: rice, flour, wheat, Muslim, and the list goes on. They come in a bowl, there's some vegetableish something, there's some spices, there's some meat. They are delicious. More often than not, the sketchier the restaurant looks, the better their noodles are.

18. Red lanterns and other decorations: At least in my city, and I assume the same is true throughout, this place goes ALL OUT (well, sorta) with decorations for holidays. Just recently we have celebrated National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival. The trees on the main streets are covered with red paper lanterns, the streets have tons of potted flowers set in unique shapes and designs, and "art" has been added in several places. Christmas decorations will come out in mid December or so. They are not good ones! You know when you go to the dollar store and you see all the really cruddy decorations at Christmas and you think to yourself, "Who buys this mess?" The answer: ASIA. This country is like one big trailer park puttin' on the dog for Christmas. After Christmas comes New Year. EVERYONE decorates for the Lunar New Year. There's lots of reds, lots of mandarin orange bushes/trees, and lots of other great things like smoldering incense and sugar cane. Maybe I'll make it a goal to post some pics.

19. Western food that really isn't Western: In America, when you go to an "ethnic" restaurant, more often than not, it's relatively close. Now, I say this, and at the same time think, "But that's not really true for Chinese food." Anyway, there are some "Western restaurants" here that make a good stab at Western food, but just fall short. Maybe you do experience this in America. Maybe all my ethnic foods experiences have been lies in the culinary world. Maybe I'll never appreciate ethnic food again. Maybe I'll be in counseling when I'm 30 (which, dang it! isn't that far away) and confess, "It all started with #19!" Maybe Elbert is right, "That's not a taco!"

20. $1.32 cans of Dr. Pepper: That's right, I pay $1.32 for Dr. Pepper. I was without it for so long, and now I have it, and it's going to make me homeless. Wow, if I end up living here, I might squander my future children's education fund on Dr. Pepper.

21. Joy over McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut, and others: So here, these are our 3 Western Restaurants. At any given moment in time in America, I wouldn't really head to these first. Although, I do like McDonald's every once in a while. However, it's sometimes a special treat to have these. What's really amazing though, are trips to great places like Hong Kong, Thailand, and others that have REAL restaurants such as California Pizza Kitchen (SWEET TEA!!), T.G.I. Fridays, Western Sizzler, and a plethora of other greats. You should really have seen the joy in this kid as he drank an unlimited refills sweet tea and ate a BBQ chicken salad from CPK. I cried at one point! Have you ever cried over a salad and sweet tea? I bet you haven't...

22. Electric bikes with more than 2 people: Now, electric bikes already have ego issues, so I'm really not doing any favors by adding something about them twice, but this is great. There's nothing like seeing a family of 4 and their dog zooming down the street on an electric bike. It's exciting.

23. Dead animals on the back of bicycles and other 2 wheeled vehicles: Yesterday, I was standing at a red light waiting to cross the street. The man on his bike next to me had 2 plastic bags filled with dead, whole (including head and feet) chickens. It was amazing. My favorite dead animal to see on these 2 wheelers is pigs. Often I see deboned pigs slung on the back of motorcycles. It's awesome! They flap up and down as they go. MMM pork!

24. Chicken and duck feet for snack: Asians LOVE to gnaw on the feet of innocent poultry. I'm not quite sure how they are cooked, or what there is to eat on the foot of a bird, but they LOVE them. Here's a piece of useless trivia to help you sleep better at night. Did you know that Tyson Chicken is the #1 importer of chicken feet? No lie.

25. 1.6 Billion people staring at you or saying "Hello! Hello! Hello!" as you walk down the street: every time I go out I get "Hello!" at least 5-10 times. It's great. When I travel to smaller towns/villages, I feel as though I should wave and throw out candy.

26. High heels on 92.6924% of the women: High heels here say, "I don't work in the fields," so much women wear them. The sidewalks are not even. I trip all the time. How do these women not die? Can we say, "Thank you, Lord, for making me a man!"