every rainy day i'm reminded of this - chinese people be loving them some plastic bags. it's kinda strange or maligned to me in a country where toilet paper is not considered a 'must' in most public restrooms that plastic bags are so esaily and widely available. walk into any mall and there's a plastic bag dispenser to dump your dripping umbrella into, most breakfasts are steamed buns and warm soy milk carried around in a tissue-thin plastic bag distributed by the steam house where purchased, and at the malatang (spicy soup) place we go to, they serve up your noodle soup in a bowl lined with a plastic bag.
i was somewhat puzzled by the umbrella thing in the beginning - my cheapo umbrella came with its own little pouch which to me signifies that you use said pouch to more neatly and color-coordinatingly carry your wet umbrella... but i have since misplaced the matching pouch and do the plastic bag thing if i must. i prefer to let it drip most of the time just to be a contrarian.
i still don't understand why my mom always carried around at least one or two plastic bags in her immense purse when we were growing up. i mean, they came in handy when she and dad took their two very motion-sickness inclined children on long road trips, but carrying one around at all times? i don't get it.
other fun uses i've noticed for plastic bags - in shower cap form which you wear over your shoes when entering someone's house (replacing the need to completely remove of the shoe), to stuff into the opening of your odd arm-warmer type item worn partially over the hand to the elbow (strangely these are usually printed with some sort of american football team logo - the lady at my campus cafe wears greenbay packers arm warmers), as a way of carrying all your worldly possessions. today, a man boarded the bus carrying two enormous plastic bags (think of what the woven sacks of rice are made of) and a bamboo pole.
No comments:
Post a Comment