Sam’s experience in China

I try to imagine Sam’s experience in China. I have always assumed that to a 15-month-old child (when he 1st arrived back in May), since everything is new to him, there shouldn’t be much (if any) culture shock to experience. But as I was updating my blog with my past few months’ experiences, I realize he actually has at least 1 “strange” experience in his short 23-months life that may have impacted him in some way (through my observation at least).
Strangers’ head peering into his stroller and go “Ohh…. Ahh…”

In Malaysia, no one will bat an eye if you go around with a baby in your arms / the stroller. Here, you get almost 50% of the people on the street peering into the stroller to ‘spy’ on the baby. If you have the hood on, they practically peer into the stroller to get a better look.

I try to imagine being Sam in the stroller and realize that it can indeed be a scary experience! Every few minutes you get a face peeking in front of your face with a wide grin / coo-ing away. Won’t you be scared witless too?

I guess it is the product of the 1-child policy here. Children / babies are a rarity. So coming across one is like meeting a celebrity! In Malaysia, we still have couples with 3-5 kids. What is another baby?

Winter news

Hubby has very thick skin (and fat akin to whale blubber), so anything above 0C is tolerable to him in T-shirts, Bermuda shorts and strappy sandals. Thing is, as we walk out as a family, with me and Sam all nicely bundled up & lo-behold hubby in T-shirt & Bermuda, naturally people cocked an eyebrow. In other countries, that is about all the reaction you'll get.

Here we have so many people stopping us on our tracks and asking “你不冷吗?”(Aren’t you cold?). After being asked umpteenth times; hubby finally had it. The next day as we were dressing up to leave, he was with a jacket and long pants. I asked if he is finally feeling the chill. He said “No, I just want to stop people from asking me 你不冷吗?"

:-)