I wrote this a while ago for mailing list I belong to. It has been edited a little.
About China:
1) It’s big, yet has only one time zone
2) There are a gazillion people, and they all stare at me
3) The people are generally friendly, curious, and kind, but they have no concept of a personal “bubble”, and have a somewhat different understanding of courtesy than we do in the U.S.
4) My students are college sophomores, but seem more like Highschool students — without the guns, of course.
5) Everyone’s home town is “beautiful” and “famous” for something, from fruit, to pork, to neckties.
6) It is old. Really old. But they haven’t yet discovered deoderant.
7) The Chinese language is cool, interesting, and fun.
The Chinese language is horrifying, evil, and only for masochists.