Back in December I (Andy) took a quick trip over to Japan for work. On this trip my coworker and I stayed in a different hotel than the one we usually stay at. After getting checked in I went up to my room to use the bathroom. There was the computerized toilet. It had a big knob and a few colored buttons. I was not sure what each button did since the instructions were in Japanese. After taking care of some business, I looked around for a “flush” button. I pressed all the buttons on the toilet and nothing happened. I called my coworker and asked if he knew how to flush the toilet. He also had no idea. I went back in and pressed the buttons again. It was at that point I noticed the IR sensor on the back of the toilet. I figured if I held my thumb over the sensor and hit one of the buttons, something should happen. I kept my right thumb over the sensor and pressed the buttons with my left hand. After quickly pressing one of the buttons, a little water dripped down into the toilet. I figured I would need to hold it a bit longer to get the flushing to work. So once again I held down the sensor and pressed the button. Suddenly this little white pipe peeked out from underneath the rim. I stared at it thinking, “Hmmmm…. this looks interesting.” Then suddenly a water stream came shooting up at me and pegged me in the chest. I was a bit surprised and it took me a few seconds to realize what happened. I jumped out of the way only to see the water stream hitting the ceiling of the bathroom. It was at that moment I realized I must have hit the “bidet” button. I am not sure at what was more shocking; the stream of water hitting me in the chest or the stream of water hitting the ceiling. I made a mental note not to hit that button if I was sitting on the toilet.
Sailing on the South China Sea
Over our Christmas break I was able to do some sailing in the South China Sea off the coast of Hainan. I paid my 330RMB and asked if I could get a “coacher” with me too (that is how the brochure called the teacher). We got the boat positioned into the waves and off we went. After 5 seconds the “coacher” looked at me and made a motion to see if I wanted to man the helm. I jumped on the opportunity and we sped off into the ocean. The wind was blowing about 20-30 miles per hour. Needless to say our Hobie Cat was screaming across the ocean. My arms were pumping trying to keep us on course. The whole “coacher” thing didn’t work out so well because he did not speak English, and when I asked things in Chinese he did not understand. We sailed on a broad reach with the wind coming over our port side. We kept going until we were almost out of the bay. I looked back to the shore to see our hotel had gotten real small. After 30 minutes of tearing it up, the “coacher” gave me the signal to turn around. 30 minutes later we were back on the beach.
While we were speeding across the ocean, I had some time to look at the local fishing boats. Most of them looked like vessels from the movie “Water World.” They all had a few strokes of paint, but most of them were rotting away. I was amazed they were still floating.
Year of the Pig
2007 will be the year of the pig in China. It will not actually start until after the Chinese New Year in February. Our Mandarin teacher told us this morning that there will be a lot of babies this year because it is lucky to have a “pig baby.” Apparently babies born in the year of the pig will be lucky and wealthy.
This also brings up another topic of conversation. Maternity wear in China. It was pointed out to me that expecting mothers will wear overalls with little bears on them. Some mothers are so excited about being pregnant that they wear the little bear overalls a long time before they start to show.
Our Mandarin teacher also told us about the significance of wearing the same clothes as somebody else. For example, some of the couples we saw on the beach had matching outfits. It was explained to us that this is how people show they are a couple or related. Our teacher mentioned how sometimes she will wear the same outfit as her mother. I looked over at Alecia and asked if we could get matching outfits. Needless to say, that did not go over well. 
BSU and Pulled Pork Sandwiches
We had plans to watch the Fiesta Bowl yesterday at a place called “Bubba’s”. Unfortunately, most of the internet out of China was broken from the earthquake on December 26th, so they could not get their “SlingBox” system working. At least we got to enjoy some pulled pork sandwiches. I am very happy to hear that BSU won. Alecia and I had a bet going. She said if Oklahoma won that I would have to play card and board games for two weeks (I really dislike playing games).
Who Needs a Truck?
I am always amazed at what I see loaded up on bicycles here. Some guys haul fruit and other guys haul trash. The other day I saw one guy who blew them all away. This guy had a full size fridge strapped to each side of his bike. I could not believe it. He was swerving all over the road trying to keep from falling over. So the next time you are out riding a bike and the going gets tough, just remember, you could have a couple of fridges strapped to your bike.
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