Crackers and Car Seats

So I haven't written in a while.
I've been busy, and I haven't had access. My parents went to the States for 3 weeks and I had to teach all of the classes at my Mom's english center, and while I did that I improved my parents apartment, I made four big trips to Ikea and would spend the nights watching the World Cup and eventually the Tour de France while putting together shelves and tidying things around the apartment.
When my Dad came home I purchased a VPN(it allows my internet connection to be protected, but more importantly it makes it look like my computer is in the US, so I can experience the freedom of the internet).
Right, so new things - I ate at a Cantonese Dim Sum place with a friend from church and I had roast pigeon, which the very idea of eating pigeon is gross to us because they are dirty street birds in America, but here they are a delicious addition to lunch. Oh man, I'm a pigeon convert, a dark rich tasting bird. Fabulous.
I got a full body massage, and when I say full body...I mean my entire body, places that I never dreamed a massage therapist would dare touch. With that graphic but necessary description out of the way, it was fabulous, it felt like a million dollars afterwards, and considering it was only 40RMB(under $6) I will probably go back again with relative frequency. It was lovely.
We had a heat wave for a couple weeks, and I'll tell you. I thought I would die. I would past out and die of heat exhaustion. We had temperatures of about 35C for two weeks, it would move between 33 and 35C but the humidity is what killed, it hovered around 85% the entire time. Even the Chinese were complaining. I've started carrying deodorant with me everywhere, and applying it every hour. The Chinese don't seem to sweat as much, which I find wholly unfair. So in order to not wreak everywhere I go, as soon as I leave the house in the morning, I'm constantly applying deodorant.
Next anecdote: I was out with a Chinese friend and she was asking if I knew anyone that would like to buy a car seat, because they aren't using it anymore, and they only had it for when they lived in Australia, but because they are required to use it here, they don't. This friend is actually very western and understands that many things the Chinese do don't make sense to westerners. However, this totally blew my mind. Just because it wasn't required, would never mean to me that I wouldn't use a car seat. As soon as she told me this, I noticed that whenever I saw small children, whether babies, toddlers etc riding in cars here, they were either in their mothers arms(usually in the front seat) or bounding around free and seatbelt-less in the back. And it occurred to me, this country spoils its children rotten for the most part, they bound around like little emperors and empresses, but when it comes to something basic, like protecting their mortal safety there is a huge disparity. Crackers here are triple wrapped to ensure they don't break enroute. But not children.
Tonight I went to Hong Kong to go to a fireside of Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, he is a General Authority in the LDS Church, and he spoke to the members of the Church in Hong Kong, it was relayed to four different locations and I watched at a satellite location. A few of us from Shenzhen were there and we spoke about it on the trip back. Elder Uchtdorf kept referring to Hong Kong as China, and though he is technically correct, Hong Kong is so different from Mainland China, and in turn Taiwan is quite different as well. We all hoped that he would be able to visit the Mainland some day and see the dramatic difference. Hong Kong and China are similar in the way that New York and Las Vegas are similar.
Either way, I enjoyed my trip and not getting stared at for an evening. I loved being in an actual church building again. I always felt like the interior of our chapels were so bland and boring. But being in one after meeting in a converted private house was really nice. The atmosphere and the feel were great.

I'll write again soon. I'll try to take more photos too, not just on my phone either.