A real difference between China and the US customs I have recently found has to do with the discussion of salary.  Now I am the first to admit that I have discussed salary with friends and family on occasion, and in the case of my salary I felt no real compunction about not talking about it since the main reason I came here was not for the pay.  For the record I make 5000 yuan a month or about 667 dollars. In 2005, the average salary was 2450, and keep in mind that I do not have to pay for my room.  Anyways, the reason I thought of this is because at dinner tonight the manager jsut came out and asked how much we make a month.  We did not answer and she told us that she made 2000 yuan.
It is a very weird feeling for two reasons.  The first is that I feel bad that I fly in out of the blue and start making more money than alot of people here, even other teachers, and that does not include that fact that I live in the same amount of space as a teacher and his/her family.  The second has nothing to do with China nad more with making me think about waht I am going to do when i get back to the U.S.  I have no idea what kind of job I am going to get or anything like that.  I want to go to graduate school but after some research most grad schools do not accept students until after they have at least 2 years of work experience under their belt.  I also am coming to realize that even when it comes to grad school I do notknow whether to go after an MBA or an M.A.  There are some schools that have Masters programs that you can go to straight from your undergrad but I don't know if that is the best option, though I do miss college every day.  I know that St Mary's has one such program but again, who knows.  -Sigh- And I miss people back home alot, AND Thanksgiving is coming up which is reminding me that Christmas is coming up which I will be spending over here.   -Sigh-x2 
On the up side I did just buy all six seasons of 24 for 30 kuai(or 4 dollars0 and while the quality is not great at least I do not have to be left with cliffhanger endings, those kill me and I am already addicted to a few shows that I downlaod as they air.  And I did go surfing again which was fun even if I did get rocked by a good number of waves.  Life.