The official villain of this blog is the landlord of my apartment (the guy who took the air conditioning unit out of the bedroom)  but I'm adding a backup auxiliary nemesis: Pleasant Goat, star of the hit TV series "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf."

Pleasant Goat (also known as Happy Goat) is everywhere. On little ride-on toys in front of the convenience stores and on bouncy castles like this one in front of the Walmart. He's on clothes, shoes, strollers, snacks, pencil cases, hats -- I'll bet that you could not walk a single block in downtown Zibo without finding a representation of Pleasant Goat somewhere. 

There is a modern mall near my apartment with a modern grocery store and, until I recently discovered a farmer's market in the neighborhood, it was where I did most of my grocery shopping,   Now I get my produce and meat from the market but still go to the grocery store for other things. 

When I first started shopping at the mall, I thought that the clerks were saying "good morning" to me. And I was pleasantly trilling "good morning" back to them, even when it was afternoon or evening, and thinking how cute and hospitable they were. But I finally realized they were speaking Chinese when I heard them saying "good morning" (or something that sounded kind of like "good morning") to all the customers.

This attractive display of rice dumplings is for the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival.  I wonder if Chinese shoppers mutter, "What? Qingming Festival is barely over and already the Dragon Boat decorations are in the stores!" ...

For the benefit of any young ESL teachers coming to China from Canada who did not learn about Norman Bethune during their school days: Bethune is very highly regarded by the Chinese.  Upon learning that you are Canadian, a Chinese person, especially an older person, may mention  Bái Qiúēn, so if you don't know anything about him, it would behoove you to learn. You don't want to have a blank look on your face when Bethune's name is brought up.

Dr. Norman Bethune (1890 - 1939) was a doctor and surgeon. Like many intelligent, compassionate and educated people of his generation, the massive death toll of the Great War and the hardships of the Great Depression led Bethune to distrust capitalism as a means of human progress. At that time, Fascism and Communism were contending ideologies that won many adherents among the educated classes in the West. (This was before the horrors of Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia became apparent.) 

Bethune visited the Soviet Union and became a member of the Communist Party. He served as a battlefield surgeon during the Spanish Civil War. Later he volunteered as a surgeon for the Chinese Communist forces, who were at that time fighting to expel the Japanese occupiers from their country. Bethune died in 1939 as a result of blood poisoning contracted while performing battlefield surgery.  

I have read, and can well believe, that no matter how long a foreigner lives in China, they will never be regarded as anything but a foreigner. Dr. Bethune seems to come the closest to being an exception to that rule.

Lots of ESL websites have useful information about dealing with "culture shock." Culture shock is not merely about adjusting to a different diet, climate, routine or even language. Below is the best description I've found:

"Culture shock is precipitated by the anxiety that results from losing all familiar signs and symbols of social intercourse. These signs are the thousand and one ways in which we orient ourselves to the situations of daily life: when to shake hands and what to say when we meet people....  when to accept and when to refuse invitations, when to take statements seriously and when not.
"When an individual enters a strange culture, all or most of these familiar [social] cues are removed. He or she is like a fish out of water. No matter how broad-minded or full of good will he may be, a series of props have been knocked from under him. This is followed by a feeling of frustration and anxiety."