Life and Travel in China

Today I experienced a strong price shock in a lingerie store. Imagine an ordinary bra from an American or French brand (99% made in China), price 1,180 RMB, about PLN 500. The cost of producing such a bra is maybe PLN 40-50, what is the profit? Tenfold!!! And the funniest thing is that such a store does not go bankrupt and has some customers. I know that there are also expensive, luxury stores in Poland, but in China? After all, it is here that it is the cheapest in the middle of nowhere, everything for a bowl of rice. Well, as I mentioned earlier, I prefer to make purchases such as clothes in Poland, cheaper and of better quality.

Today I was in a bookstore, I found an album with a strong title "Guide to the World", three parts: North America, Europe and the Middle East. Well, the world has obviously shrunk. But there is Europe, I'm looking through it, there's a map on the cover, with Poland in the middle. I check the countries inside the album (such as a guide, photos, descriptions of monuments): Russia, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Czech Republic, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy... There is no Poland! Maybe Poland is no longer in Europe? And how is this poor Chinese supposed to know what Poland is and what is there anyway? Poland was left out along with Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, Romania... and other smaller countries. I ask who is responsible for this? Why doesn't anyone promote our homeland? And the Chinese are getting richer and richer, they fly to Europe for trips, but to Europe, that is, not to Poland, because in their book Poland is not in Europe!!!

It's Polish Christmas Eve here, even though I'm in the middle of nowhere. Of course, some dishes will be missing, because there is no sauerkraut, for example, but I will still prepare dumplings, borscht (I have the concentrate from my homeland), carp in jelly (I ordered gelatin from Poland), fried carp, and cabbage with peas. For Christmas, I even bought some better cold meats for a lot of money (because, as you know, they are not very popular in China), each slice of turkey breast cost me about PLN 1. Yellow cheese is also a delicacy here, so for Christmas I allowed myself such extravagance. And there will be chicken jelly, but it's worse with poppy seed cake, because I've never seen poppy seed here. In China, I had a lot of culinary adversities, but after three years here, I'm managing somehow!

Happy Christmas! Everything went according to plan for me, it was Christmas Eve with Polish dishes, and now it's time for a proper Christmas breakfast.

The Chinese are hard-working, but when they take time off, you can only envy them. A year ago, most companies had January 1 and 2 off to celebrate the usual New Year. This time some people are off until January 4th! Who celebrates the New Year like this in Poland? And in 5 weeks it will be Chinese New Year and they will have 10-14 days of relaxation. Just envy! And the best thing is that they don't care much about this ordinary New Year, they don't party, they don't drink champagne, some people just go to sleep, so what right do they have to have a New Year's holiday?