Men in trees? Viagra?

If you regularly read my blog you've caught on to the fact that there are some subtle differences between China and America. Ok, maybe more than some, and not so subtle.  The most recent of these to catch my attention would be the men you can see seasonally trimming the trees around the city.  There is usually a group of 8-10, some trimming the branches of the tree others collecting the branches that fall and putting them in piles bound for who knows where.  Of course trimming tree branches is not so strange, but doing it with a ladder made of bamboo and no safety ropes is.  I find I'm still shocked by how little concern the Chinese have in general for personal safety.  This is not even close to the first example that I've seen here.  Crossing the street here is an exercise in caution and awareness.  Pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way, and even if traffic is stopped you need to be constantly aware of the thousands of mopeds and scooters that buzz around the city on the sidewalks and the wrong side of the street.  If there are traffic laws that pertain to scooters I have seen no evidence of them!

The other more subtle difference to catch my attention this week makes me smile.  On my morning walk to the gym I walk past a local pharmacy.  I don't usually pay it any attention but I did happen to glance over one morning and caught one word in particular.  I had to take a closer look, convinced that I'd misread the sign, but no, I had not.  Yes, my local pharmacy is advertising Viagra and Cialis!  I guess it isn't so different from America, I mean we've all seen the cheesy commercials, but I've never seen it so blatantly advertised.

I've also been enjoying traditional Chinese flute music on my morning walk to the gym.  To get to my gym I have to walk through a long corridor with great acoustics, which is probably why they practice there.  I have also come across folks playing other instruments or even practicing some form of Chinese exercise. I think it is these small things that I will miss when we move back home.

We had a pretty quiet weekend.  We took the kids to dinner at Peter's Tex Mex, which opened last week across the street from our apartment.  The kids enjoyed American style hotdogs and smiley face french fries.  After dinner we stopped to let the kids pick out a DVD, for less than two dollars we decided we could be generous and let each pick their own movie.  Charlie was happy to carry home his new movie.  On the way home we came across a Porsche, this is hardly new, you see them often in Shanghai, but this one was pink!  Some people have too much money and too little taste!

Sunday Lily had a birthday party to go to in the Shanghai World Financial Center, aka, the bottle opener.  Lucas and Charlie got haircuts and we ended the day with a quick trip though the AP market.