This Is China

On Saturday when I volunteered for T-Shirt Day, I met some other expats.

We were exchanging our impressions of living in China when one of them told us about her first day at work.

"My boss sat me down and said the first thing you need to know is T-I-C," she recalled.

T-I-C?

"This is China."

You can use T-I-C for any situation you come across in the most populous country in the world:

The horrendous traffic makes you 45 minutes late for your meeting;
Staff put your 100RMB bill through the bill counter, even though it's one bill;
Men hacking away but still have to have their daily quota of cigarettes;
Young children peeing in the street;
Drivers idling their cars so that they can have the air conditioning on...

You get the idea.