things that make my head hurt
One reason that everyone should travel outside their own country for an extended period is so that it really soaks in that people in other cultures not only do different things than you do, and have different opinions, but they actually think differently.
Cases in point.
- Many Chinese women here dye their hair. Dye it blacker. (Obviously nothing is wrong with black hair, but if it's already black?)
- Parents think nothing of making their 4-year-olds stand on the baseboard of the scooter, with no helmet, as they zip through downtown traffic. Sometimes they will have up to 4 kids riding with them on a scooter. I live in terror of the time when I kill one of these kids.
- I have had one young single mother here tell me that she was sending her young daughter to a foster family, because she thought that her mixed race girl would get teased too much in school because of her slightly caucaision features. The country she sent her away to? That shining star of racial equality, South Africa.
- And now one female friend of mine who is very cute with a small, flat nose, is going for cosmetic surgery. To get her nose enlarged. Why? Because she wants to be able to wear glasses.
Sigh.