Takin' Care of Business and Curfews
Now I completely understand if you're out in the country somewhere and need to take a piss, and there's no one around, you can just drop your pants and whiz to your heart's content just about anywhere you darn well please. However, this type of behavior is not appropriate when you are in a public (park, street, side of buliding, what have you) in the middle of arguably the most cosmopolitan city in your country! And I'm not just talking about China, people, in case you think I'm looking down on anyone. I've been to New York, and one of the things I'd rather not remember about that city was that I saw not once or twice, but several times, people urinating on Madison Square Garden. Now the difference between NY and Shanghai is that in NY, most of the people doing this were bums, but in Shanghai, it's pretty much randomly anyone. That's not to say that most people do this, but enough people do it so that you see it at least a couple of times a day if you just walk around. And most appalling is that tonight, I saw a family actually encourage their kid to just whiz on a tree in the middle of the sidewalk on a busy street, in plain view of pretty much everyone. Just to make sure this practice is carried on for generations to come. Argh.
In my Chinese class tonight, which I thought about ditching to watch the Italy vs. Mexico game, I learned that undergraduate students here actually have a curfew, and I think it's something like 11 PM. A Lights Out curfew, too, where they actually shut off the electricity in the building! Wow. We didn't even have that at my high school! And apparently, college students are not allowed to get married. By law. When I asked what would happen if they eloped, all I could get was a confused look and something along the lines of "well, they're just not allowed." I guess they'd probably be expelled, huh?
So you Americans reading back at home... quitcher whining!