A Bad China Day

Today I'm having a Bad China Day. 

Don't misunderstand, I love China. I married a Chinese girl. But in Shanghai-Expat slang, this is a common expression. It means something along the lines of, "all those little things that I can usually put up with just fine all happened at the same time today and I can't handle it anymore".

There are other expressions like it, such as "TIC" (This Is China) which means "things are different here, don't expect things to make sense like they do in your home country"; and "Only In China", meaning, "in all the world, you'll only see things as crazy as this in China".

Jeepers, why so negative? If they don't like it there, they should just go home, right? Well, a lot do. But it must be noted that most of the time, it's okay living here, especially if you can speak a little Chinese. Often times, it's freaking awesome. A Bad China Day is only one day, it is not a week or a month. They just come every now and again, and are not usually enough to send an expat packing.

Today's Mem: 我吃饱了, wo chi bao le, I'm full

I don't want to tell you anything negative, because its totally awesome here and everybody should come. It just has, how to say, some character. But that's what makes it so interesting! Shanghai expats have got to learn not to let the little things get to them.

Here is a mem I made from the famous Monty Python scene, which brings revelation to the character 饱, meaning 'full'. When you are really full, first you spew (left radical饣), then you explode (right radical包).