chinese observations

As I've mentioned before, I take classes with a countless number of Asians --- mostly Chinese but also a few Japanese. (Chinos y Japoneses -- in Spanish) I've observed many things about them and apparently they've observed many things about me. Sunday night I attended a birthday party for one of my classmates, who's Spanish name is Celia -- her Chinese name is symbols and I don't have any idea how to pronounce it! During the party we shared observations we learned about each other and here they are:

1. Celia knows some English. She thinks its okay to call everyone "baby" and to slap them on the butt. Every morning she slaps me on the butt and says "HOLA BABY!" and every day at the end of class she says "See you later baby" (in english) followed by another slap. I had to explain to her why this wasn't okay -- she said she had seen it in movies.

2. Celia loves to watch Friends -- subtitled in Japonese and does not find any of the men attractive. In China, muscles are not attractive. Also in China, you do not want a handsome boyfriend. If he is handsome, he will cheat on you. Celia thinks her boyfriend is very ugly but very nice. She also told me he is very fat and has "chest like woman" -- aka man boobs however i met him at her party and he was very nice and very thin! When i asked her about this she said "no he has a gut, ill lift up his shirt and show you!" i had to tell her that would be rude.

3. the Chinese never ask questions in class if they are confused.

4. the Chinese giggle quietly to themselves because they do not like to make scenes. Celia is the exception. I don't know if she was raised in a liberal household or what but this girl has Gumption! she cracks me up she isn't afraid to ask questions, to call people out if they say something stupid and she even jokes around. Just the other day she told my friend Kristin "Kristin you have a pretty face but you walk like a man!"

5. my other chinese friends told me "Deanna your hair is very rare!" I assumed they meant because it's blonde. but when I asked why they said -- because some days its pretty and straight but other days its ugly and curly and pulled back! I explained to them that my hair isn't naturally straight and I'm far too lazy to wake up early every morning to straighten it. They did not understand why. oh well.

6. Asians do not drink -- with some exceptions of course. But the girls at the party did not know how to use a wine opener and when they bought wine because Americans were visiting the party -- they pushed the cork into the bottle with a knife.

7. I am very tall.

8. I ask too many questions in class.

9. I am thin, but I am only thin because I am tall. they say if i were short I'd be fat - I don't know what they mean, but they are very obsessive about their weight.

10. the chinese have been taking classes for 2 trimesters and yet speak far better Spanish than I do -- when I tell them I've been taking it for 6 years they nearly fall over and cannot figure out how I am not fluent -- it was hard to explain that I only studied it 3 hours per week at Maryland since here we take classes 6 hours a day.

11. Celia and I made powerpoint presentations to share with eachother about what is considered attractive in our respective countries. The men she showed me looked like women in my mind, but to them that is attractive -- if men have muscles it means they are manual laborers and are not rich -- not okay in China!

12. In China, you wear red to your wedding. The groom's parents pay for everything and the Bride's parents give the groom a gift -- usually, depending on their income, furniture, a car, or a house.

anyways, these girls crack me up! this past weekend they even invited me to a party! (details to come!)