... from Xiamen, China

The one thing I know for sure about China is I will never know China. It's too big, too old, too diverse, too deep. There's simply not enough time. That's for me the joy of China, facing a learning curve that impossibly steep. The certain knowledge that even if I dedicated my life to learning about China, I die mostly ignorant.                                                                          - Anthony Bourdain

I love China. And I hate China. Four months in, here's some questions I ask daily:

• What's that smell?
• Why does everyone stare? What do they think I'm going to do?
• Why won't my apartment complex open our beautiful pool? It's 100 degrees! 
• What do the dozens of strangers who've taken pictures of me (eating, in my swimming suit, sleeping on the train, when I'm about to cry, etc.) do with those pictures?
• Where's the soap? Seriously, schools and hospitals, soap!
• Where's all the obesity/crime/divorce/homelessness? 
• Why do I feel so much freer living in a "communist" country?

Tiny fish eating the dead skin off  Andrew's feet