A Tale of Two Cultures

Last Wednesday I was in St. Petersburg for a seminar with other Alfred Friendly Press Fellowship fellows. After the seminar I went to the swimming pool with other two girls.
Upon we arrived at the pool I jumped into the pool and began to swim. After I swam for 10 minutes I found I was the only one in the pool. The other two girls were still lying on chairs under the hot sun.
“Come on and swim!”
They didn’t go. Most of the time they were busy with putting sun block onto their bodies, drinking, or just lying on the towel when I was swimming.
Three days later we went to the beach. The same thing happened.
Most of the time girls just lied on the towel and read fashion magazines. They only swam for several minutes during the whole morning.
I had wondered before that why Americans build the best kitchen rooms in the world while they don’t cook very often. Now I have a new question:
Why do Americans go to the swimming pool or beach if they don’t want to swim?
If they just want to lie on the chair and relax, why bother fly for such a long way to Florida? Why not just lie on the chair at their backyards?
Katie, one of the girls who went to the pool with me, said:
“Go to swim” means exactly going to swim. But ‘go to the pool’ or ’go to the beach ’ means a lot.”
I guess that maybe Americans want to split the workday and personal vacation very clearly. Maybe they work too hard so that they want to go where they don’t need to think of any piece of work.
You know what does “Go to the pool” means to me in China?
It means a large terribly crowded dumpling bowl. There are always a lot of people in the pool that you can never enjoy swimming in the swimming pool. When I swam in China I was often kicked mistakenly by other swimmers. If I don’t want to be kicked the only way is to stand in the pool like an idiot.
To men, whether from China or the States, I guess, “Go to the pool” or “Go to the beach” also means beautiful women, especially hot girls in Bikinis.
Obviously there are more Bikini beauties in the pool in the States. However, there are more and more girls in Bikinis in the pools in China.
But the traditional culture still played an important role. About eight years ago when Bikini was first introduced to China I went to a swimming pool one day and was surprised to see a girl in a Bikini. She was so brave to wear a Bikini but at the same time she was so traditional that she wore a T shirt first and then put the Bikini outside the T shirt.