Washing hands and other delights

OK, when we came to China I read enough ahead of time to know that hygiene is at a totally different standard than the US. And for the most part I can just say to myself "it's just different here". But I am still surprised at how freely people (not kids) use the streets as their personal bathroom. Yesterday I'm riding my bike down the street and there's a guy peeing in the median of the street! And it's not some side street, it's a busy one!
And there are a large percentage of men here with long fingernails. I don't know why that one gets me, but it does.

But one of the worst situations we have is with our very own Gigi. Twice now when I've been in the shower, she's come into the bathroom and washed her hands in the bidet!!! Yanking open the door and screaming at her merely causes her to turn her head and say "I washing my hands in the Gigi sink!". What are we going to do with this kid???

Although I have to confess that I know we haven't traveled anywhere outside of our comfort zone and cushy westernized corner of Shanghai because I have only encountered one squat toilet. Not that I'm relishing using squat toilets, but I guess it's a barometer for me of how far we're venturing out of this little corner of Shanghai.

Yesterday (Friday) I went to a Coffee Conversation, which is basically a networking event, for ex-pats at the Community Center Shanghai. I was surprised that there were about 100-150 women there. About 50% were new to Shanghai (less than 2 months) and the other 50% were old-timers. Here was a group of people that seemed very familiar to me! I went to this event with two purposes: meet someone with kids my age, and find out if the Community Center Shanghai offered stuff that I could use. I was successful on both counts, and thankful for it!!! I saw Barbara, an acquaintance from Dana's party. I told her I was looking to meet someone with little kids and she introduced me to Ginny, who lives three buildings away from me and has a 3 year old daughter. Wahoo! I told her of my desperation to find playmates for the kids because I am really disappointing the kids in the entertainment category. She promptly invited me to a playdate the same afternoon. I am consistently impressed and reassured by how nice everyone (Chinese & otherwise) we meet is, and how the ex-pat community takes care of its members. When we went to the playdate, Ginny had invited over two other moms and there were kids everywhere! It was so great, despite the fact that Olivia wouldn't talk to anyone and Gigi ate a mouthful of raisins and then deposited the whole clumpy mess back into the bowl of raisins.