lizzybennet | changes (Reply)

I've developed different habits since we've moved to China. It seems that I now feel more self-aware of my wastefulness. I've taken to re-using items that normally I would throw away (back in America). For example, every time we finish a roll of toilet paper, I save the cardboard roll in the center. Petey discovered that I had a drawer filled with toilet paper rolls and made them into toys. He drew faces on them and plays with them all the time. Another way that I'm less wasteful is that I don't throw away large peices of scrap paper any longer. I figure I can find a way to reuse them, and I do. Part of the reason I've developed these new habits is because of home school. I know cardboard tubes and scrap paper come in handy for art projects (and they have.)

However, another reason for these new habits is the Chinese environment that I'm in. I feel guilty being wasteful when I see people all around me being so extremely thrifty. Sometimes when we are out and about, we have people follow us until we are done with our drink and then ask us for our empty soda bottle. I've seen men with the back of their bikes loaded with old cardboard that they've collected and are taking for recycling. Mops are made of old clothes and tree branches, brooms are made of reeds tied together. How can I justify throwing away something that I can still potentially use? It's not like this country has room for landfills! They need all the land they can get to grow food or build houses.

Another way that I've changed my thinking is in regards to the laundry. Back home, I wasn't averse to tossing something in the laundry pile that wasn't necessarily dirty (I'm telling on my bad habits here.) If there was a shirt on the floor and I didn't know if it was dirty, I'd most likely put it in the hamper instead of trying to figure it out. Church clothes-- in the hamper every Sunday after only 3 hours of wear. I know! Very wasteful of me. But what did I care? I was the one doing the laundry all the time. Now that Chen does our laundry I feel very self-conscious about the amount dirty clothes our family generates every day. I try to re-wear clothes that aren't too dirty (like jeans). Also, now that the weather has turned cool I have a feeling that our clothes are not going to dry very quickly. This same principle applies to the trash. I feel like I don't want Chen looking at the trash when she takes it out and thinking "Why did they throw this away? It's perfectly good!" I know, I know. I'm just not house-keeper-haver material. This morning I found myself cleaning the house before she came because it was so messy from the weekend. I didn't want her seeing it that way :)

And now for some pics that I took last week when we window shopped in the underground mall...

Some construction workers loading up some scaffolding that they'd taken down. Some scaffolding is made of metal tubes, like these, and some scaffolding is made of bamboo (like in that scene in Rush Hour 2.)

I love the elderly people here. I think they are such cuties. I took this pic for that cutie sitting on the bench. He's just kicked back relaxin'.

The main entrance to the underground mall. There are several entrances, as the mall stretches for blocks and blocks.

The boyz

Coming down the escalator into the mall.

I took a lot of manaquin pics on this trip.

I wish I was brave enough to photograph some real people who dress like this. The mall is filled with them.

After we finished at the mall, I went to Skyways to get some bread. Remember the building that almost fell on me (well, you know what I mean...)? This is where it stood. What's it been? 2 weeks at most? The space is almost competely cleared out already!