Play the Game of Life
Ryan Petersen's Blog

On Friday I joined a swimming pool and quickly identified several key distinctions between a Chinese swim club and those I am familiar with back home. First, the Chinese don't swim laps back and forth, but rather they all swim around in circles around the outside of the pool. It took me a while to figure out why people were always entering my lane, creating frustrating moments as I tried to work out the system of right-of-way. This is actually a brilliant solution for a country with too many people...you can fit lots more people in a circle going around the outside than in individual lanes. The pool was nearly empty though, so I guess its just something they are taught from a young age.

The next thing I noticed is that people generally behave very strangely at the pool. Their stretches on the side involve hitting themselves repeatedly on every muscle group. I imagine this must get the blood flowing in that direction...Meanwhile several people press their faces up against the bars of the fence so they can watch the people swimming, as if it were something completely novel (which it is, I suppose). The last thing I noticed is that when I was taking a shower several men made overt efforts to check out my wang. I imagine they were curious to learn if there is any truth to the rumor about the massive size of white people's penises. I did not disappoint

Looks like a regular American pool from here...

Labels: china