Thursday, September 11, 2008

Backwaters

Living in a foreign country can be very frustrating and annoying with new customs and things that don't make any sense. Many of these topics I have already covered, but after going to the supermarket yesterday some of these people will get a little bit of a free pass. There is a relatively new supermarket in town like 8-9 months old. While most shops are little mom & pop places this is a proper supermarket with all sorts of Chinese food goodies.

It just also happens to be 3 stories tall, so in order to move the masses up and down they have installed some amazing modern technology (escalators). So anyway, onto the point of this post, I walked in yesterday and grabbed my basket to do some shopping and was waiting to get on the escalator and noticed there was a little backup. "What could be holding up a constantly moving escalator?", I thought to myself. Then I noticed it was an older woman early 50's probably who was having trouble timing her step onto the escalator. Kind of swaying back and worth as if she was getting ready jump in and do some Double Dutch. After about ten seconds she picked her step and went for it, and mounted the escalator without falling (phew!).

After witnessing this I couldn't help but laugh a little bit as it gave me some insight into some of the activity that we see the locals partake in every day. I think some people could call it a moment of clarity.