08/01/2015

As I was reading over my last entry, I was reminded of my Chinese roommates in England. At one point, they made a comment about how “shopping” was considered their sport of choice. While it is of course not a sport, I think in a lot of these cultures, it is a bit of an event. In the US (or “America” as they know it here), we shop to either accumulate excessive quantities of “stuff,” or out of necessity. I think here, any time you buy just about anything, it is a way to engage with your community. You don’t really just select something and buy it, you shop around, look at various items, inquire where they came from and how they were made or grown (if buying fruits/ vegetables), and in the process, you get to know the shop owners and build relationships so that the next time you go there, you can ask about their family or whatever else there is to talk about. Especially around the more populated areas, I don’t think there is really a lot for people to do. It is pretty remarkable how many people are just sitting around in the streets hour after hour, day after day. I couldn’t do it, I mean, what is there to even talk about for that amount of time? I guess it’s not surprising that more gossiping tends to occur in these cultures. I don’t think it as bad here as what I found in Mexico where, at least the females, seemed to thrive off of drama and juicy gossip details, and to be fair, I’m not even sure it goes on here much at all. I don’t feel the same kind of judgment I’ve felt around Latinas or Middle Easterners. I’ve certainly endured the frequent stare, but I get the impression that it is more out of curiosity or even confusion – the whole single female thing seems to trigger this.

Well, thanks to a giant knot in my shoulder/ neck area that has been causing me a great deal of pain over the past week (which I largely blame on the stone-esque pillows), I am lying flat on my back (no pillow!), with my laptop on my chest and tilted towards my face as I use one hand to type. That being said, this is taking a bit more effort than it is probably worth so, I’m signing out for the night. Au revoir