Jia you chao ren!

Within weeks of my arrival in Shanghai, I was informed that there would be a half marathon occurring in early December and it would be nice if I attended. Feeling that I could totally run 13.2 miles to complete a half marathon, I began training. I managed to run two to three times a week averaging about two to three miles for each run. 

About two months into training, I went out for my usual nightly run. When I’m running, I do so rather absentmindedly, making each turn without thought. As I rounded corner after corner, I noticed that a man on a bike seemed to be keeping pace with me. To double check, I sped up and so did he, I slowed down and he again followed suit. A plan formed in my head to beat him. Obviously this was not an achievable goal but I decided to push myself to the limit anyway. I finished a mile run in the six to seven minute range which I’d never been close to achieving before. 

The next day I decided to time myself to see just exactly what my limit was. Off I went on my run. It was just a typical night with a little weaving between people and cars due to my increased speed. I kept watch on the time and was very pleased with my rate. As I came up to the last corner I pushed it into overdrive, determined to impress myself. I reached the corner, hit a rough patch of dirt, twisted my ankle, and fell into a pile on the ground. I got back up, limped home, and proceeded to be overly dramatic about my injury and ran once in the next four months. 

With the lack of exercise looming over my head, the registration date for the half marathon decided it was a good time to make itself known. With still a month and a half left for me to train, I decided to register. And so I ran a few times and then got on a plane for a three week vacation to America. Take a guess what I didn’t do a whole lot of in America. 

While at home one night my sister decided a run was in order for her half marathon in a few months. Against my lazier judgment, I decided to join her. What started as an easy two mile run turned into me pushing my limit again and running seven and a half miles. My longest run at that point in time was about three and a half miles. This made me confident that maybe I could in fact complete a half marathon. 

In a matter of moments I was on the plane again to China. I sent a text to my friend announcing my return and he inquired back if I was ready for the marathon this Sunday. This Sunday… ha ha ha. I’d managed to run about four times in the last three months and the marathon was this Sunday. I mustered up the willpower to run two more times to “prepare” for the half marathon. 

At first I decided to exclude this next portion but of course, there’s never a dull moment in China and this is without exception. Friday night was check-in and gear pickup. The rest of the people I came with had registered in person so it was off by myself to find online registration. I got my number and went to pick up my stuff. As I walked and looked at the numbers I came to the realization that I was registered for a full marathon. I clearly remember scoffing at the idea of me running a full marathon when registering so clearly this was a mistake, an easily fixable mistake. Wrong. With the general flexibility of China, I assumed a quick switch was in order. That day, for whatever reason, insurance said “no, this is not possible” and therefore no switch is allowed. After ten minutes of tense discussion in Chinese and walking from booth to booth, it was decided, not officially of course, that I would run as the guy in our group who had paid his fee but could not run. No complaining if I fall and break my leg or something along those lines. Whelp. 

If it wasn’t already shameful enough that I’d probably get about half way through and fall over from exhaustion, it was requested that I wear a costume. I mulled the idea over in my head, not quite excited at the prospect of looking like a complete and utter mess. Against my better judgment, and since my friend was going as Spiderman, I ventured out Saturday afternoon to a costume shop and found myself presented with a pretty limited selection. In the end I decided with Superman, cape and all. As a note, bargain always. I didn’t realize until later on like a stupid laowai(foreigner), that I got suckered into paying about $30 for something that a Chinese person would pay $5 for. 

Saturday night consisted of a rather uneventful pasta dinner along with booking my ticket to Cambodia for vacation (maybe I lied). Thanks to jetlag still hanging around, I was asleep by 9:30. This also made getting up at 5:30 that much easier. I got dressed, walked out into the living room and laughed that I was the first one awake. Then I checked the time, smacked my head, and went back to bed for another hour. 

After an hour nap, I returned to the living room to find the others getting ready. Spiderman would be concealing his identity until the start of the race, then donning a mask and staying anonymous for the duration of the race. This was somewhat frustrating as Superman just has a stupid hair curl that somehow hides his identity. I possessed no such curl and therefore was going to be known no matter what. Deciding that a good confidence boost was in order, I wore the costume with false pride from the apartment door to the end of the race. 

Typically as a foreign white person in China, I tend to stick out and get a few inquisitive stares on the regular. I’ve gotten comfortable with this and tend not to notice unless I’m actively trying to catch people staring, which I sometimes do when I’m bored. Today though, I felt the eyes of everyone on the subway. Upon arrival at our subway stop, we remained at the exit as this was easier to locate our friends instead of trying to walk through the massive crowd of runners. This involved watching group after group pass by as they were released from the train. It was almost like a safari where groups would pass by, stare at the wild creature, take a picture, and continue on. 

Maybe you think of my example as an exaggeration. You’re wrong. People did in fact take pictures. Some were secretive and I would catch them out of the corner of my eye. Others would try and catch me without looking and then run away once eye contact was made. This bothered me somewhat but I tried to be a good sport about it since it’s not everyday Superman stops to run a half marathon. 

We remained stationary for about fifteen or so minutes. During this time I started counting the amount of pictures being taken of me. At this point, the count was already up to ten. About this time, the first person asked to take a picture with me. This picture brought a genuine smile to my face and managed to destroy a large chunk of insecurity present within my head. Finally, our group had assembled and we emerged from the subway. 

I was greeted by 25,000 runners, their fans, security, event organizers, and anyone else who ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. One cannot quite comprehend what such a large number of people looks like until you see it. With this large number came an equally large number of cameras and I gave up attempting to count the pictures being taken of me. 

Finally, Peter Parker decided to transform and Spiderman and Superman got to hang out together. We walked along to drop our bags off, stopping about every minute to pose for a photograph. As we made our way through the crowd, I realized I’d been tricked, or maybe I just didn’t know marathons very well. Nobody else was wearing any resemblance of a costume. However, contained within one opening of the crowd stood two Johnny Depp Characters, one from Pirates of the Caribbean and the other from Alice in Wonderland. Of course a picture was in order. 

As we stood counting down the minutes to the start of the race, it dawned on me just how stupid running a half marathon was with no training. However, I had invested about $60 in this race and I was already here, might as well suck it up and go for as long as I can. The race got underway with a walk for the first several minutes followed by a light jog as each runner got a chance to stretch out. I must say that I’m disappointed that I didn’t bring my camera, but that was probably for the better in the end. The first turn of the race saw the road corkscrew up one level and then straightening out into a massive bridge. The corkscrew itself was rather wide and you could see almost all the way around it and the entirety of it was covered in people. What an awesome sight to see. 

The next seven miles was filled with packets of people dressed in decorative outfits, shouting “jia you,” words of encouragement to keep running. Every so often I would hear a shout of “Superman!” and I’d throw up the peace sign, as is typical of China, at least I think that’s the proper response anyway. Some runners would run ahead of me, stop and take a picture, shout a quick thank you and continue on. Others would inquire as to why I was running to the finish line and not simply flying. This kept my spirits up and I chugged along. 

Every now and then I’d hear a person talking and attempt to eavesdrop with my limited Chinese knowledge. I heard one man say “chou yan” which is the verb to smoke a cigarette. I shook my head in disapproval wondering how a runner could smoke a cigarette now. I paid it no more mind and kept running. 

Seven and a half miles came and went and now it was time to almost double my longest run ever and finish. As is typical with my runs, the mental struggle began at about this point. I was impressed that I’d managed this far without thoughts of “Walk, who cares, WALK!” filling my head. Determined to be the victor in that battle, I used the encouragement of the crowd to spur me on. As I tuned in to the crowd, I heard “jia you chou yan” several times in quick succession and almost felt motivation, except I didn’t. Why were they encouraging me and talking of smoking cigarettes? Oh. It took me only eight miles to realize that the man talking of smoking cigarettes was actually saying “chao ren,” or as the English say it, Superman. 

As I continued to keep my mind distracted, I observed my surroundings. We we’re now zigzagging through the area that had once contained the World Expo of 2010. Every building, representative of a different country, had beautiful and unique architecture. What a sight this must have been in 2010. Today all that remains is empty buildings and vacant lots. 

My mind had recruited my stomach to take part in the battle to get me to walk. I noticed empty Snickers wrappers scattered on the ground. Oh how I could go for a snickers right now, or anything that wasn’t the sugared iced tea or water that I’d been given thus far at the refueling stations. With my snap back in to reality, I came across the next refueling station which lacked anything new besides another kilometer marker. At this point I had made it 17km or roughly 10.6 miles and more thoughts started to fill my head. Just about every body part involved in running was screaming for a break but I hadn’t given in yet and I continued on. 

Sadly, I only made it until the 19km marker or 11.8 miles and finally I had to stop. As I walked, most likely due to being dressed as Superman, I received lots of words of encouragement in both English and Chinese from my fellow runners. I gave it all my might to push on but my body said no. I’d noticed other runners stretching along the way so I decided that’d be a good idea. Five seconds later I realized that thought was wrong. A horrible pain shot through my leg, similar to the pain when you’re sitting in an awkward position and all of a sudden you’re flying into the air to get the pain to stop. 

And so I walked. Eventually a man, instead of offering a few words of encouragement and moving on, stayed with me and wouldn’t move on. I looked ahead and saw the finish line and decided to suck it up, if only for another two minutes. Except sucking it up was no small feat. At this point, the lack of training was painfully obvious. It was as if the muscles in the back of my legs near my knees had shortened by a few inches and refused greater leg movements than a slow crawl. But I continued on, cursing every step. Feet from the finish line, I raised my hands up in that typical way that Superman does, and I crossed that finish line. 

Now to locate anybody I knew, while lacking a phone, money, or a grasp of the Chinese language. I moved with the crowd of finished runners. Stuck in one line to collect my certificate, another for food, and another to return my running chip and then I was out into the masses of runners to find my friends. Luckily, within a few minutes I stumbled upon a friend with a phone and we were reunited with the group. 

We collected together to take some more pictures. Even more Chinese people stopped to take pictures of and with me. I’d thought every muscle in my body was tired already but then I started to feel pain in my face. Who knew your face could hurt from smiling too much? I wonder if celebrities practice exercising their smiling muscles. Tired of smiling and posing, off came Superman and I returned to my human.

Hangzhou Tour with Pictures

These are the pictures from my first trip outside of Shanghai. I visited the city of Hangzhou. The city is most famous for West Lake. My friends and I  arrived on Friday night. We went out for dinner and visited the night market. The next day it was raining but we visited the famous West Lake.  Eventually we wandered away from West Lake to explore the surrounding area. That night we returned home since the rain did not let up. Photos are out of order. Sorry about that.

Bird cage in the middle of the woods. 

There were many interesting paths that led off into the woods. 

Chinese people like to take pictures without asking for permission.

Perfect example of horrible driving. Guy tried to make a u-turn on a highway.

Woman washing clothes in the river.

Chickens in the backyard!

This was along one of the bridges that we crossed.

For some crazy price you could tour West Lake from this.

So much going on here.

First time leaving Shanghai!

Coasta Coffee right in the middle of nowhere.

West Lake

Pathway that runs through the middle of the lake.

Tea is found in most hotel rooms.

Walk along the night market.

English words on the menu! Except everything says "home style cooking." Oh well. 

Gas powered boats you could rent. Except they were closed.

A little bit of this, a little bit of that.

I’ve a Feeling We’re not in America Anymore 

There are so many similarities between Shanghai and the United states that some days you forget that you’re actually half way across the world in a foreign place. One such night I found myself with several others in my friend’s room on a Friday night following a long week of work. We were relaxing, listening to music, and talking. Around 11:30 there was a knock on the bedroom door and in walked four policemen. My mind starts racing; foreigners generally are not bothered unless they do something incredibly stupid and either get deported or sent to jail. I could not think of a single thing that would require such action. In what felt like an eternity, one of the police officers walked over, turned off the music, said something in Chinese, and then all of them walked out.

Chopsticks

Sadly there’s not oh so much to write about chopsticks but since they’re not such a popular thing in America, I figured I’d devote a third of a post to some interesting facts about them.

• Just like etiquette with American utensils, same goes for chopsticks. This means no banging your chopsticks since this is similar to what beggars do. Also, don’t leave your chopsticks sticking straight up in your food since this is similar to incense burning.
• There is a verb in Chinese for using chopsticks. 
• To compare chopstick prowess, people will see how many marbles they can pick up with chopsticks and move from one pile to another within a certain amount of time.
• My chopsticking skills have vastly improved since my arrival. I’ve been complimented by several coworkers on my technique. 

Interesting Cultural Happenings 

I never got around to reading up about China or studying the language before I arrived. Two things I regret. Along the way I’ve learned a little about both and want to pass along to you a few of the interesting things that come with a several thousand year history. 

• Writing people’s names in red is a big no-no. It means to wish death upon that person. When I was flying back from the United States I only had a red pen in my bag and had to fill out a form with my name on it. Ended up borrowing someone else's black pen.
• If a man is cheated on by his wife, he will wear a green hat. This is a dying trend since the younger generation is now wearing green hats for fashion.
• Saying thank you and your welcome is generally reserved for people that you don’t really know.
• There are many different dialects in China and many people cannot converse from one dialect to another. Personally, I believe they should be considered different languages all together. I think it is comparable to French, Italian, Spanish, English, etc people speaking together. China ended up as one country instead of a continent and thus it’s dialects instead of languages.
• Dairy is not very common in China. Therefore, almost all dishes do not contain any sort of cheese, butter, milk, etc.

A Suitable Gift: Part 1

I originally introduced this blog to talk of my interesting encounters in China. I’ve slightly staggered away from that path. To venture back on to that path, if only for a brief moment, I’d like to discuss one of my favorite experiences to date. 

When one goes to a faraway place, it is custom to return home with interesting things from the journey. This problem plagued me since my arrival in China. I ventured from shop to shop, week to week, unable to locate suitable gifts for my family. Like the United States, China is also full of cheap “Made in China” things and many of these shops didn’t offer anything of a higher quality. Not wishing to purchase such things for my family, I was stuck in a rut. As my mind wandered I thought of several potential gifts but each were quickly dismissed for various reasons. One day while sitting at my desk working it hit me. The answer had been literally under my nose the entire time, Chinese tea. 

In my pursuit of interesting places to visit within Shanghai, the Datong Lu Tea Market had continuously popped up. I’d never been but I figured it was finally time for me to make the trek. 

Early one Saturday, I located the market on my computer, 598 Datong Lu near Zhongshan Bei Lu, and headed out the door. The oh so frugal shopper that China has made me, I opted for the subway instead of a taxi, believing that Shanghai was now my city and I could easily find the market. I navigated the subway to my destination and then emerged in to a bright and busy market place. The street sign pointed me along the proper heading and off I went. 

I counted down the numbers as I walked, still a good five minutes to my destination. At about this moment I had arrived at the Zhongshan Bei Lu intersection. A little surprised that the numbers had dropped so quickly, I took a look around but did not see any signs of the tea market. To my horror, I looked across the road and found that Datong Lu was no where near the number 598 and whoever’s instructions I decided to trust were wrong. Or maybe I was. I gave my friend a call and he verified that the address I had was indeed correct. The first straw of hopelessness was cast upon the camel’s back. 

Determined not to let Shanghai conquer me so soon, I trudged on, still a slight hope that my address was correct. This could be possible with the use of the one ambiguous word contained within my directions, “near.” I crisscrossed all the surrounding intersections looking all about for any hope of a tea market. On one street, I found a giant billboard with “Datong Lu Tea Market” with an arrow pointing in “that” direction, wherever that may be I couldn’t understand because I found nothing. 

The camel was looking rather exhausted from the weight of the straw but I continued on. Number 598 Datong Lu must be the location. I retraced my steps back to Datong Lu and continued south. With each passing intersection the crowds died down and so too did my hopes of a tea market. The path I was on eventually turned into a tunnel, with 600 on one side. Surely my answer lay upon the other side of the tunnel! I crossed through to the other side, walked up the stairs, and as I stepped upon the last step, the camel’s back broke. I’d arrived at 590 Datong Lu.

Jet Lag and the Future of the Blog

Since it's currently on my mind as I'm taking the train home from work; jet lag sucks. It all started when I took the plane home a few weeks ago and completely reversed my sleep schedule. For the two weeks I was home I spent every waking moment fighting the desire to sleep and every sleeping moment fighting insomnia. I managed pretty well, only suffering the lovely side effect of almost no appetite for about four days. When I finally got over jet lag I got back on a plane and returned to china.

Apologies for being extremely lazy while vacationing. I'll try and have a few new posts soon. Below are some of the topics I'll be writing about soon depending on whether or not I've got enough content to actually make a full post. 

• Why China is Skinny
• Six Months Abroad and my Return to the United States
• My First Vacation Outside of Shanghai (With lots of pictures!)
• China Round 2

Input the Engineer, Output the English Teacher

It all began with a request from my boss to assist in leading an English discussion for one hour three days a week. I didn’t really think much of it at first, just going in to the discussion, speaking when I was required to and not much more. One day I saw a list of what everyone was in charge of leading and I saw my name and another coworker as the leaders for English discussion. About this point it dawned on me that even though I was an intern, I was not being treated as such. I was being given a great opportunity to be a leader while other interns are busy getting coffee or delivering mail. Always feeling that I possessed unrefined leadership, I took this chance and ran with it. 

It started small with the introduction of two or three new slang words and phrases every English discussion. Feeling that I was not utilizing my English to the fullest extent to help them, I pushed on. Next came the introduction of a very useful word game that occupied one of the three days a week. Not content with the setup of the other two days of English discussion I set out to change them as well. Monday became topic day where we would discuss a topic such as travel, movies, and sports. Friday became news with a discussion of one or two topics each week. Content with the state of the English discussion, I sat back and went with the flow. 

With maybe a week of calm, I got a request to setup the game I made within another group. Upon completion of that I was then requested to join their English discussion permanently. A week later another group asked me to assist with their discussion. Within the same week I was asked by my boss to visit a factory in another city once a week to lead discussion and be available to answer English technical questions. Within two weeks I went from leading one English discussion to a schedule filled five days a week with four different groups. 

I never thought that I would have the potential for being a teacher but this experience has taught me otherwise. Patience for people learning things was pretty much non existent six months ago but now I am much more patient and understanding. In time I’ve watched their English transform a great deal. When I first arrived I had to talk very slow but gradually over time I’ve increased my rate almost to the point of where it was before China. The most rewarding moment though is when I hear the slang I’ve introduced in English discussion outside of the discussion when we’re just sitting at our desks talking while we work. While I can’t that teaching is where my career path lies, it has been a great experience to improve leadership and get my feet wet in an area I would have otherwise not experienced.

It's a Good Day for a Grab Bag

小中大下上人!!

It’s been almost four months since I began learning Chinese and I’ve finally started Chinese characters. My logic for not learning characters was that almost everything is written in English. The grand total of times that I’ve found Chinese characters useful is to order food. I was curious though and asked my teacher about characters. She first introduced me to several simple words this past Sunday. As I went through my daily routine in Shanghai, I noticed these characters everywhere. It would be like I am studying all the time. Since learning these first few characters came so easily, I’ve decided to continue on and try and learn all the characters for the Chinese words that I know. 

Also, incase you were wondering, the title is “small medium large below above.”

On the next train out of Shanghai

This is rather embarrassing to say but I’ve not left Shanghai except twice for work since I’ve come to China. I decided it was time to look at a map, pick a place, and go already. Within a short train ride there are several popular places around Shanghai. A friend suggested Hangzhou, so Hangzhou it is. I haven’t done much research yet but I will be leaving next weekend to explore one of the many wonderful places outside of the main cities. 

Cranes 

Last week, on my first day out of Shanghai to visit another factory in the city of Taicang I looked out the window, soaking up as much as I could see. One thing that stuck out was the amount of large construction cranes that filled the scenery. I decided that the next week I would count the number of cranes I saw. Today, within a span of 25 minutes, I observed 57 cranes. That means that 57 buildings with at least ten or so floors are being built. I could maybe comprehend this number if these cranes were in Shanghai but we were outside of Shanghai. There was no city apparent from the highway, just large buildings being built everywhere along the highway. It boggles my mind just how fast China is expanding. Here is a picture of the difference twenty years made in Shanghai. You have to wonder what will happen to the rest of China.　

Pictures on a Bike

I decided last night to take a quick ride to my favorite Chinese restaurant to grab dinner. A quick ride turned into an hour and a half bike ride with my headphones in, relaxing and flowing along with the bicycles, mopeds, motorcycles, and bicycle/truck hybrids. I had no particular aim so I just took the path that looked most interesting. Somewhere along this ride I realized that my blog was lacking in pictures. What better way to use my bike than to incorporate it into my blog posts. Like something out of an activities catalog filled with such things as underwater basket weaving, photographing while biking was born. Sadly I do not trust myself to take my phone, camera, music player, wallet, and keys along for a bike ride, I had to make a sacrifice. If you thought I’d keep the camera you’re wrong. My music player has a camera that will suffice, albeit very blurry. Here are my pictures of the random happenings within Shanghai that I don’t have to motivation to write long posts about. Expect a few new pictures every time I ride. Maybe they’ll be blurry, maybe they’ll be clear, you never know!

Here is a picture of a bicycle/truck hybrid with way too much stuff piled on. Sitting on top of the pile is a man with another man driving. These seem to be much more the norm that regular trucks. The most interesting I've seen is one of these carrying a huge pile of Styrofoam which was roughly 10x12x15 feet in size. 

The dog situation in Shanghai is pretty weird. Dogs here for the most part go without leashes. They seem to be better trained than their American counterparts. While on the subject of dogs, there are lots of stray dogs roaming about. The interesting thing about them is that they've learned to adapt to the city. One day I was curious so I followed a stray dog around for a few minutes and he would stop and wait for the light to change to red so he could go. 

What does poor really mean?

Never really venturing outside of the United States before it was hard to imagine what life is like on the outside. While there are many aspects of life that vary from country to country, right now I want to focus on wealth. A typical soft drink in America costs about $1.60 and in Shanghai it costs about $0.40. A typical music player in America costs about $300 and in Shanghai it costs about $300. How is it possible? While you would expect a music player to cost about $75 in China such is not the case. It appears that anything that could potentially be a necessity meets the standard of living price adjustment while anything considered a luxury does not. For the people of Shanghai this means that vacations abroad, fancy electronics, and nice cars are reserved for the elite few. Now this doesn’t seem so bad but consider the fact that Shanghai is one of the most expensive cities in China. This means that there is many areas of the country that are much poorer. But this is China, and China is doing rather well.  However, if we continue along this train of thought, we can imagine the best cities in places like Africa might rival some of the lesser parts of China. I know I'll never be able to walk a mile in the poorest shoes, because such shoes are nonexistent, but I'm slowly starting to understand how truly lucky we are to be brought up in such good conditions. 

Language: Final Draft

Some time ago I expressed dissatisfaction with the state of language learning in the United States. While the United States consists of much English and little else, the rest of world that I’ve been introduced to knows at least two languages. In China and India, it’s the native language and English. In Europe, it is three or more languages. Content with my conclusion that Americans made no attempt to bridge language barrier, I did no further research. It was not until weeks later that bits and pieces of conversations I’ve had with many people slowly started create a new picture. 

The first crack in my conclusion came at a dinner one night with a friend of mine who was born into a bilingual living situation consisting of English and Chinese. ­­­­­I made the assumption that because he knew two languages that he was interested in language learning. As I pressed on in a conversation about language he said to me that knowing different languages is merely a tool for communication and nothing more. While yes, this is in fact a way to define knowing different languages, my choices of words would have added more emphasis for the opportunity to be introduced to knew cultures and ideas. This led me to the conclusion that I might be sitting in the minority of those who have a desire to learn new languages. 

Some time passed and again language came up as a topic, this time with my friends from France. They expressed their frustration in learning the English language and having to pass an English test to get a chance to interview for certain jobs …a test .. what? I pressed on and realized that I naively believed that each company operated within their own language. To operate on a global scale, English is necessary. 

Sitting somewhat in a state of denial about this new conclusion I continued on with more questions. First I went to my Indian friend who informed me that a large part of India is fluent in English. Then it was onto a Chinese friend who knows most of the people in the company I work for. I inquired about the languages spoken within the company. Besides English, there is one Chinese person who speaks French and one who speaks German. And that’s it. 

It finally dawned on me, the United States people do not learn new languages because there is little reason to. With my European friends, multiple languages could be found in their backyards. With my American friends, unless you’re sitting along the border to Mexico, you’re not seeing much language diversity. More importantly than that, which affects all international competitors, is the age of globalization. Sitting as the leader in this movement was the United States. For those wishing to reach the level of the United States, English was a required tool. Sadly, it would appear then that language learning is largely fueled out of wealth and necessity and not by a desire to enrich lives and experience new things.

I Bought a Bike!

In celebration (not really) of my five months stay in Shanghai I've decided to buy a bike. Also, only have time for a quick story today, expect more to come soon. I witnessed the other day quite possibly the best way to summarize the driving situation here in China. On a road with two lanes each way, a guy was in the left lane trying to make a left turn. All the cars were honking at this car because he was not making a turn. Finally when there was no traffic and he was clear to make the turn, cars started overtaking him on the left side, while still honking, so that he could not make his turn.

Two Posts in One Day

I've had a bunch of random pictures collecting dust on my iPod so I figure now would be a great time to clear them out. Enjoy.

Can't be too clean I guess.

Desk at work.

$2.70 for a jug of alcohol. At a price like that you'd assume it was water.

Any dinner with many friends or coworkers usually looks like this. Lots and lots of dishes of meats and vegetables.

$2.30 for dinner at a restaurant. This dish has beef, potatoes, peppers, and noodles with a side of some sort of scallion soup. 

These little shops boggle my mind. Everywhere there's little places similar to this that seem to have no traffic but continue to stay open.

American Vacation

The Right to Bear Arms

In the weekly English lesson/discussion with my coworkers, I’ve introduce the game of Taboo. (If you don’t know the game, look it up, it’s pretty fun.) One of the cards was “shoot.” The hint that the person used was “this can be used to kill somebody.” My brain quickly went to gun, but everyone else, being Chinese, said knife. The reason for this is not that China is stuck in the past but because guns are illegal to own. It’s got me thinking, what would the United States be like today if guns were illegal?

American Vacation

Who knew not having a single native English speaker to talk to regularly would start to get to me after four months. The twelve hour time difference and seventeen hour travel time are also having similar effects. To remedy the situation, I’ve decided to return to the United States for Thanksgiving. Not quite ready to return home for good, I’ll enjoy some good food, friends, and family and then return to China to finish my two months of work and one month of travel in Russia or South East Asia. 

Autumn Festival

The Autumn Festival is one of the few Chinese holidays I got a chance to take a part in. The holiday revolves around moon cakes, which you can see to the side. The whole family will get together and eat these tasty little cakes. They come in lots of different flavors with some wildly different than the rest. I tried coconut, red bean, and one which had a hard boiled egg inside. Each moon cake also has the hidden surprise of being 800 calories for a cake roughly three inches in diameter and an inch tall. And that’s it, that’s the holiday. In the spirit of not being so close-minded I decided to ponder this thought some more. This led to me thinking about American holidays. How exactly do you explain Halloween to someone who has never celebrated it? 

Lesson Learned: Keep an open mind, you’re beliefs and ideas may look just as silly as the person you’re guing with.

Getting from A to B

Lost within the United States is the use of gas scooters as a means of transportation and for good reason. People who drive scooters in China are generally crazy. If you’ve got a scooter you’re now invincible, you can drive in regular traffic and challenge huge trucks, drive in the lane designated for scooters(but probably not), or drive on sidewalks. Another fun fact that adds to the crazy is that under a certain engine power, a driver’s license is not required. Just last week I did a double take when I saw a girl, around twelve years old driving a scooter. Crazy is not confined to just scooters; it is found in cars as well.

Before you can drive a car, it’s time to pass a driver’s test. To pass the test here in English you must score a 90% on an exam most certainly not designed by anyone that has a solid grasp of the English language. I watched my friend try and study for the test and fail three times before passing. At First it’s comedic, the questions are so absurd, so you study and you laugh.

If a driver has driven a motorized vehicle for more than four hours running, he should stop the vehicle and rest for at least

a) 5 minutes

b) 10 minutes

c) 20 minutes

d) 40 minutes

Then you take the test and the bizarre questions you laughed at are now staring back at you. As expected, you fail. Now it’s back to the book to study some more before hoping that logical questions get thrown at you the second time around. But again this is not the case. This cycle repeats itself until you’ve managed to memorize enough to pass.

Congratulations, you’ve passed your driver’s test. Now it’s on to the open roads where you may end up with whiplash, broken bones, and a severe case of road rage. Overly aggressive driving is the norm when it comes to driving around here. I remember back in the United States maybe once in a year I’d possibly ending up in an accident when something goes wrong. In China, it’s about once every time you step into a car. The sad thing is, the way the style of driving has evolved, being non aggressive means you’re not getting anywhere on time.

Another great aspect of driving and living here, which is most certainly my favorite, is the horns. If I ranked the single most important thing that you should know to communicate the most ideas in China, even more popular than things like hello and thank you, is the horn. Everyone uses the horn and they use it all the time. It’s also very contagious, when one person honks their horn, most likely, at least another five to ten people will press their horn as well. Outside of heavy traffic, horns are used to let people know they’re coming. This would be fine and dandy if it wasn’t coming from a scooter flying down the sidewalk at thirty miles per hour passing by you with a ten inch gap.

The surprising thing is, that ten inch gap will never get any smaller, no horn will lead to a ten car pile up, and no scooter will challenge a truck and lose. I’ve been here four months and have not witnessed a single accident. Of the friends I have talked to about the traffic here, I have only heard of one accident and even that one wasn’t so bad. Maybe the drivers of China are not so crazy after all.

Battle of the Firewall

It's been tough trying to post these last few days since the program I use to connect to Blogger, Facebook, Youtube, etc has been giving me problems. I finally bit the bullet and purchased a program with a monthly fee that is much more stable. Blog posts should occur more often now. 

Wo bu ming bai ni!

I have to say, I’m glad I started this blog because I’m scared to think about where my English would be today without it. The people I interact with on a daily basis are Chinese, French, German, and Indian. Missing from this list are American, British, Australian, etc. Thankfully almost all of the people I interact with on a daily basis can speak English, but not all of them can speak it well. This leads to me greatly simplifying my grammar and vocabulary and slowing the rate at which I speak. After eight months here, I can only hope this blog and my limited interactions with my friends and family back home will be able to lessen the blow to my grasp of the English language.

P.S. the other day I was writing some stuff down and wrote “word” as “yord” and “check” as “chek.” …Uh oh.

America Town

Whenever I’m missing American food and want to pay four times the average price of a Chinese meal, I head to Munchies. This restaurant is about the closest you can come to American food without being in America. It’s got hamburgers, wraps, sandwiches, and Mexican. Not feeling too adventurous after my run in with Mexican food, I decided it would be best to stick to my friend’s suggestion of hamburgers which was a good one because they’re amazing. Sadly, my hamburger isn’t accompanied by the smells of barbeque, the sounds of football, and the sight of red, white, and blue but for now they are a good enough. (And no I didn’t get paid to write that.)

I went to China to become an Engineer and Came Back a Teacher

I think the best thing about China is that they don’t drink coffee and as a result I’m not in charge of coffee runs. The printer is also about two feet away so I’m not in charge of making copies of documents either. Thanks to being born in a native English speaking country, I’ve been given the chance to partake in some projects with a much larger role than a typical intern. One such project was being in charge of writing the final document for the standards of design for my engineering group. Outside of engineering, I’ve been picked to lead an English discussion three hours each week. By the time I finish my internship I’ll be qualified for ESL teaching positions. Sadly, not everything is positive but fortunately the negative isn’t so negative. Not being able to speak Chinese has led to me missing just about every word spoken in meetings except for the rare occasions where the presenter speaks English or one of my coworkers translates. Outside of meetings we sit in an open environment with four desks facing each other. I managed to get placed with the youngest and best English speaking people in my group so time spent outside meetings are generally pleasant. Overall, being a native English speaker in a Chinese company has led to many great experiences and opportunities that I would not have found in an equivalent American company. 

Sanitation in Shrink-Wrap

Could have just cleaned the dishes in the sink...

The Litter Effect

I think trash here is one thing that I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to wrap my head around. Maybe it’s just the fact that I’m living a city for the first time but I’ve seen a lot of people litter on the street. The amazing contradiction to people littering so much is the fact that there are only ever a few pieces of trash on the ground. The conclusion that I have made is that there are people paid to pick up the trash, lots and lots of people. Shanghai has roughly twenty two million people, about two and a half times the population of New York City. These people need jobs and for every job that requires one person to do, three people are assigned. This leads to empty clothing stores with six workers standing around doing nothing. The same applies for the trash situation. I feel that the people that litter watch their trash get picked up almost instantly and are almost encouraged to litter more. Hopefully this problem is figured out before it snowballs out of control.

We Could Just Add Recycling Bins…

The same craziness with littering carries over to recycling as well. China seems to lack an official recycling program but will still pay for plastic bottles. The result is many people whose unofficial job is to remove plastic bottles from the trash. I see these people everywhere. Just today I saw someone throw a plastic bottle in the trash and less than five seconds later someone else was picking it out and putting it into their bag. If only there was an official recycling program and then these people would be employed with a salary and the landfills wouldn’t be filling up at an exponential rate. 

Uncomforting Foods

For those of you that don’t know, Mexican food is by far the best kind of food. It’s got meat, and salsa, and vegetables. Most importantly though it has cheese and sour cream, two things that failed to make the cut for the Chinese diet. Since arriving in China I’ve attempted to find good Mexican food. On one of the first nights in my apartment I accompanied my roommate to a local European sports bar. Originally I had no intentions of ordering food but my eyes lit up after finding a chicken quesadilla on the menu, something I’d been craving but  had not had in over a month. With my mind changed and my order made I turned my attention to the tennis match to pass the time and keep my mind occupied. The tennis match had the desired effect and before I knew it the glorious quesadilla was set down in front of me. Less than a second later, the first bite was had, and it was glorious. Good feelings of home washed over me and I knew it would be a great night. Except the good feelings kept washing over me and eventually I was drowning in them. Hidden within the waves of good feelings was the true taste of the quesadilla. I think the taste could best be described by disappointment. It’s like a European, who knows little of Mexican food, took Chinese ingredients and tried to make what he thought was a decent quesadilla. Somewhere along the way he got lost and I ended up with the dish in front of me. I think that night has scarred me from ever attempting to try Mexican food again while in China. Only a few more months and I’ll be stepping off a plane in New York City, quickly hugging my family, and then making a mad dash for a good Mexican restaurant. 

Stairs, Elevators, and Escalators

I do believe escalators might be one of the only annoying things about China. They exist in every subway, food store, and mall. I generally don’t find them annoying in food stores and malls because I visit these stores at most once a week. The subway however, I’ll see about fifty escalators a week, which isn’t even an exaggeration, they’re everywhere! My gripe with the escalators is not their existence; it’s what they do to the people who use them. When a busy train lets off a large group of people at a metro stop, every single person will rush for the escalator. With almost everybody refusing to take the stairs, a line will quickly form where the people at the back are easily waiting two minutes to go up fifteen stairs. Yes I know, “just take the stairs,” you say, and I do. Except now I’m climbing through a massive surging crowd of people attempting to get through to the stairs. Once the stairs have been reached I’ll rush up and try to beat the crowd to the next set of stairs. At this point, I’m ahead of most of the people. At the next set of stairs I decide to risk it and use the escalator this time, hoping not to get stuck behind people who decide to take up the whole escalator. My path is clear and I quickly move up the escalator, taking two steps at a time, this sixty step escalator will be finished in no time. But as soon as I begin, it’s over. A few steps ahead a couple has decided to stop and take up the whole escalator. Instead of asking them to move, the following people just stop and stand as well. I’ve risked it and lost, now to stand and miss the next train. Next time I’ll be sure to stick to the stairs. 

That About Sums it Up

Similar

Thanks to the internet, my (and possibly yours) expectation of China was menus consisting of such wonderful things as dog and insects. The reality is that, at least for Shanghai, these foods are not very common. Just like in America, there’s the usuals of  chicken, beef, pork, fish, and vegetables.

Cheap

I’ve gotten rather used to the prices here and sure will miss them when I move home. On average I’m spending about $38 a week food shopping and my coworkers say I still pay too much. In America, I’ve come to the realization many years ago that eating out is expensive and for the most part will not be of a similar price to buying  the food in the food store. I took this with me to China and would bring my breakfast everyday to work. For about 85 cents I would eat a banana and a breakfast bar. The problem with this is that this meal is both not filling and American. To kill these two problems with one breakfast, I decided to give the street vendor outside the subway a try. For 70 cents, I could get two meat steamed dumplings and a soy milk. I must say that I’m a little embarrassed that it took me two months of work to give these a try because they are amazing. Just goes to show what can happen if you decide to step out of your comfort zone to try new things.

Awesome

So I originally intended to put pictures of awesome food here. Two things happened. First I only took one picture. Second, I cut the English description off. These are supposed to be Blueberry Lay's. I promise I will take more awesome(and weird) pictures on my next adventure to the food store.

Weird

While dog isn’t common, there are some other equally bizarre things that are. The meat section of the food store could be equated to the beyond of Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I've wandered in there a few times on accident to find random animal parts just piled up in their respective open freezers with no plastic covering. I’d like to believe that I’m more adventurous now with new foods but I don’t think that adventurousness will ever drive me to buy meat in China. However, I have motivated myself to try chicken heart and duck blood. I was also tricked into eating cow tongue. Sadly, I believe that my motivation stops somewhat short of foods like this and I did not enjoy them. I’ve failed of my dream to be able to compete with the openness of a garbage disposal to new foods but that’s ok; I’m happy where I am.

Chicken Nuggets to China

Today I realized that I’ve strayed somewhat from the original path of my blog. I like the direction it is heading so I will not alter that but I feel an explanation for the title of my blog is in order.

As a young child and into my early teens, I was an obnoxiously picky eater. To better understand what exactly this means, I present to you a stereotypical adventure to get food with my family. One night my mother decided to take me and my sister to go eat at our usual restaurant. As we arrived, I decided a trip to the toy store around the corner was in order while the rest of my family went in to sit down. Lacking foresight at such a young age, I didn’t realize my absence during ordering would hinder my ability to pick something edible from the menu. My ignorantly blissful state of mind was quickly shattered after returning to the table. To my horror, my family had ordered me chicken fingers. Any normal person would either like or dislike both chicken nuggets and chicken fingers. I was the special anomaly to the statistic in that chicken fingers did not resemble the same shape as chicken nuggets and were thus inedible. It was only after several minutes of fussing that I was finally convinced to eat the chicken nuggets.

Several years later found me being presented with my first opportunity to travel abroad to China for three weeks with my sister and our friend. This would be my first extended stay in a place that didn’t regularly consider chicken fingers and other similar American delicacies to be important enough to end up on the menu. Not content with such a situation, I decided to add my own items to the menu. Into my suitcase went forty health bars, enough to last my three week stay so that I would not have to try anything new. 

The first few days went rather successfully with me generally consuming only rice and health bars. Any ‘weird’ foods passed my way were discretely disposed of to my traveling companions. Around day five I took an inventory check of my health bars and found that I still had twenty bars left. Twenty bars!? At this rate I’d be eating nothing but rice for the last ten days of the trip.

Something had to change and fast or else starvation would slowly take over. I found my solution in a few words of wisdom passed on to be by my sister. “It’s only a mental thing, nothing more.” I tried to take these words to heart but a transition from chicken nuggets to chicken fingers does no way compare to a transition from chicken nuggets to chicken feet. In hindsight there probably isn’t much difference between the two except maybe a trip through the blender, but hopefully you get the point. Thankfully, I halfheartedly took these words to heart and managed to finish off the three weeks with no loss of weight or signs of malnutrition.

I can’t say that my trip ended exactly the way I wanted it to but it did spark my shift towards being more open to new foods. The gradual transition however did take its toll and four years later I was ready to go again to China, this time with a more open mind.

That Was Then, This is Now.

So here is the weather for the next ten days. Also just wanted to note that for the seven day gap between weather forecasts looked exactly the same. At least it's cooled down. 

Three Months Down Part 2

Night and Day

I packed my bags with several hygiene products that I expected to be in short supply upon arriving in China. I fully expected that China would be an extremely different place than America in all aspects. On my first trip to the food store I found that every item I packed in fear of not having could be found on the shelves. During the first few days I quickly discovered that almost all of my expectations of China were wrong. Another expectation that was completely wrong was that day to day­­­ life would be completely different. After three months, I’ve found myself waking up, going to work, coming home, showering, eating dinner, relaxing and going bed. As for the weekends, they’re filled with the typical fun and relaxation also found in the American routine. Because of this, I have come to believe that all people really aren’t that different, we go about our lives in generally the same way.

English and Chinese … and German­­…­ and French… and Indian… and … 

My feelings toward the language barrier are more dependent upon the day and less upon the amount of time I’ve spent here. I knew it was going to be a challenge coming into this so I’ve tried to be accepting of the fact that all my coworkers and roommates (no native English roommates) will tend to speak their native language and not the language I know. I’m lucky enough to already be fluent in the common language, English, that everybody knows a bit of. Thankfully, I’m not in the same situation as a French or Indian person coming to China who will only be in conversations where nobody speaks the native language.  My Chinese is progressing rapidly, sadly not quickly enough to be conversational before I leave, but at least I’ve got a good foundation so that if I ever return to China, the language barrier will be a non existent problem. 

Three Months Down Part 1

Two days from now will mark three months since I boarded a plane and left everything I knew behind. While this statement is of a very dramatic nature, the reality of the situation is not so shocking.

When it's one o'clock here, it's one o'clock there, what's the difference? Twelve hours.

While there is the obvious fact of distance separating me from my home, there is also the time difference. I couldn’t exactly comprehend what a twelve hour time difference meant until I lived it myself. Family members are not home when I leave for work and when I get home from work they’ve already left for work. Generally this means that communication with family is reserved for the weekend only. As far as friends go, generally only after 10pm will I have a chance to talk to them. You can take this how you like; personally I think it’s not so bad. I’m grateful to have the chance to talk to these people with the time I have.

I thought all you could eat was dog and snake...

The foods I miss are slowly starting to fill up my thoughts more and more with each passing day. I would love to be sitting at Qdoba or an all you can eat breakfast buffet right now. Sadly, these are not popular food choices among Chinese people. Luckily, Shanghai is home to just about every other food imaginable. Since arriving, I've managed to find suitable restaurants for Greek, German, Spanish, Mexican, Italian, American, Korean, Brazilian, Indian, and Mongolian. In terms of food stores, I know of several places to buy almost all of the foods I could possibly want. Sadly, this solution for food cravings comes with a markup of between two hundred and four hundred percent. For now I've managed my desire to buy these foods, preferring instead to save for travel. Although the desire to save for travel is strong, I expect at least once or twice I’ll cave in and spend $3 on a drink that costs $1 in America.

Blurbs

Always Connected

Homesickness has not been a major concern and I think technology is somewhat responsible for that. In just twenty years, we've gone from post cards and scarce phone calls to so much more. Thanks to the internet, I can now make phone calls for pennies a minute anywhere in the world. At my disposal for free there is video chat, email and instant message. I feel that China would be a much more different experience if such devices did not exist. I'm not sure whether to classify the difference as positive or negative. On one hand there's the fact that I wouldn't get to talk to anyone regularly from the United States. On the other though, the immersion into Chinese culture and language would be so much greater. It is hard though because there is only so much Chinese I can digest before I need an outlet for English. Hopefully with passing of time, my knowledge of the Chinese language will grow enough so that I will not need to retreat so much.

Building a Bridge Over the Language Barrier

I originally intended this post for just one short message but I figure an update on my language journey would be very fitting given the previous topic. I've now been learning for about a month and a half and I feel I've come pretty far. My vocabulary sits at around 200 words right now with another 200 words being looked at in my flash cards. With these words I've managed to construct some basic sentences. I've had a few interactions solely in Chinese and have managed to get by successfully. My next step is tackle the tones so that I can understand people and they can understand me better. Once I'm over this hump it should be smooth sailing but until then it will be a bump ride. For example, in pinyin, the words "buy" and "sell" are both spelled mai. The way to tell the difference is in the pronunciation. It can also lead to trouble because the difference between asking for help and calling someone a stupid pig is rather small. However tough the journey may be, I'm going to stick it out until the end and hopefully a stupid pig will help me out in my journey instead of kicing my ass. 

I wish I was kidding.

In case you didn't know, and you probably don't because I didn't know until yesterday, there's a massive storm headed for Shanghai. When I originally saved this picture from the weather.com report, I had no idea of the storm. I saved it to note the absurdity that is Shanghai weather. It was not until yesterday that my coworkers brought up the topic of the storm did I realize what was headed my way. Back in New Jersey, two inches of snow would warrant a big notice of impending doom in the coming days on the weather.com website. However, a storm with winds of potentially 100mph or so isn't of much importance it seems. Thanks weather.com!

P.S. The above weather forecast has been typical of Shanghai for the past week or two.