Oh, I wish I'd been there. at first i didn't know how i felt about the Fuwas (Friendlies). when i first got one in my mcdonalds happy meal, i thought, "what the hell is this creepy looking thing?" and then, when i learned their connection to the olympics, i thought, "jesus, how chinese. they have to have 5 mascots instead of one, and they have to make them all weird looking." but each day, i grow more and more fond of them. and damned if i'm not gonna buy the movie that stars them.

today on the way to work, something amazing happened. well, it seemed amazing to me, it would probably seem both boring and unimportant to most people. as i walked toward the escalator to exit the subway, i noticed that instead of the normal mass of people pushing to get on, people were heading toward the escalator in a calm and organized fashion. and once on it, they stayed to the right if they were going to stand still and left the other side open for people in a hurry!! this is something i'd always taken for granted in the states, but i never imagined that chinese people would get it down. see, chinese people have this mentality that they don't want to chi kui, which means sort of to lose out. so they always rush everything, particularly in transport. but maybe all these efforts to make the subway more "civilized" (wen ming) are finally taking effect. this could be big for china, really big. hooray civilization!