Surreal Applause

Very odd thing happened last night.

The two bosses had invited the GF and I to have dinner with them.

They had met the GF two times previously. Once, over dinner. And the other time while she waited for me to finish a class. Many of the other teachers saw her briefly at that time.

The bosses said they wanted a chance to get to know her better. Okay. Fair enough. So, last night was the night for us to go eat.

Due to a convoluted reason, all of the teachers were in one room. And, I went into the room to tell the bosses to "get a move on". So, I asked the GF if she wanted to meet everyone.

(I figured it was only fair to ask her first. Probably a little disconcerting to walk into a room and have 10 pairs of eyes look at you. And not just "look", but look and judge/rate/size up.)

She said, "Sure". So, we walked in. I said, "GF this is everyone. Everyone, this is everyone."

And, then, all of the sudden, all of the teachers started to applaud.

WTF? What in the hell were they applauding?

The GF is cute and everything, but its not like she just finished reciting Shakespeare or something.

It was very surreal. Hence the title of this post.

In Beijing: Shoplifters will be hog-tied to the fullest extent of the law.

About a month or so ago, I walked into my closest Carrefour Shopping Mall. (The French version of Walmart. Fairly commonplace in Beijing.)

This is what I saw when I walked in.

I grabbed my phone as quick as I could and took this picture.

Guy was hog-tied with this plastic string stuff that people use here. I was going to take more pictures, but the security guys yelled at me. So, I beat a hasty retreat.

Chinese Workplace Safety Posters

Been a long time since I updated, and I had a couple of minutes to spare today, so I thought I would post a few pictures of something that has nothing to do with anything....

The following five pictures are of posters in the lobby of the building where my girlfriend works.

Pretty standard style of artwork for these types of posters in Beijing. The "message" in each poster is pretty much the same type of thing you will see everywhere in the world. And, the message is pretty clear, even if you can't read the language.

But, for those of you that are interested, I have translated the posters for you...

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"When you are drunk driving,
never hang your bottle of booze out of the window."

"5 years old = 5 points"

"Little snot is crossing on the red light? Fair Game!"

"Trucks carrying snails turn left here.
Then hang a right and go straight."

"Christians are allowed to drive a maximum of 16789km at 140kph"

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Like I said... Pretty much the same message you'll get from any safety poster anywhere in the world.