Every Day is an Adventure

Every morning I wake up at about 7:20. This gives me about 15 minutes to be fully prepared before heading out the door. I walk for a few minutes and take subway line 2, to 7, to 1, to 5 with roughly five minute transfer walk in between. Then I exit the metro, walk another fifteen minutes, and arrive at work an hour and a a half later. I do this twice a day, every day. Why you ask? Because I wanted the city but my company wanted the suburbs. Luckily I utilize this time to read, practice Chinese, play games, or sleep. One day I instead of my usual time passers, I decided to bring a camera to highlight some of the interesting things I see on my daily commute. 

These are x-ray machines that you're supposed to place your bags in. Most people ignore them and the security guards don't seem to care.

TVs in the metro stations. There are also smaller versions in the trains.

Too much reflection to fully express this picture. This right here I would consider the normal amount of people for a train. Seats fully taken with a lot of people standing.

Had to be sneaky for this. For 66% less than a taxi fare, these guys will give you rides on their motorcycles to work. They generally drive like maniacs. Took me several months but I finally took a ride. 

I think the irony of this picture is lost in the small size. The background says no dumping into the water.

It's interesting where you find houses in China. This road is completely full of factories except for this house, if you can even call it that. If you look close enough a kid is peeing on the street.

If you're a Shanghai resident than you can use these bikes. Being a resident of a city isn't quite the same in the United States. I'm not sure of the exact requirements but of the 22 million people living in China, 9 million are not residents. 

One of the paths I walk along to work.

What is the Next One?

My time in China is quickly coming to an end. Friday I turn in my laptop and work ID, Sunday I hand over my room key, and Wednesday I am on a plane to Cambodia. Since I will no longer be living in Shanghai, my writing will begin to reflect that. I have however opened an exciting new page and will spend the next few months experiencing South East Asia. My hope is that these experiences will be just as rewarding as my time in Shanghai and I can share them with you.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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. 

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.

Better Late Than Lose Face

Over the two months I've been living in China, I've heard the term "saving face" several times. The definition, at least how I understand it, is that being embarrassed in front of others is something to be avoided at all costs. The only way I could relate is to my American culture in which being embarrassed is not a very fun experience. To my surprise, I realized that the relation was not very accurate at all. Yesterday, as I was walking home from the food store, I passed two cars facing each other in a one way street. It'd only take about fifteen seconds for either car to move out of the way but instead, to save face, the occupants of both cars sat and did not move. I only got to watch for about two minutes but in that time neither car moved. Makes me wonder what things we do and how the rest of the world views them.

My Abode

Only two months late. Here are some pictures of my room. Picked the smaller room to save money for future traveling. Also pictured is a view from outside of my apartment. Sadly for some reason the Chinese Walmart stocked either flowers or purple sheets and purple is what I ended up with.  

Quiero un filete de queso.

Sitting around with my roommates one day back in the United States, discussion of Philly cheese steaks popped up and shortly thereafter we were on our way to Philadelphia to have ourselves a taste of the city's  most famous meal. After a short drive, we parked the car and made our way to spend the next  half hour standing in line, standing slave to the delicious smells of the kitchen. As the line moved, I took the chance to observe all the interesting pictures and signs that filled the windows of Geno's Steaks. One last sign stood as a warning to those about to order food: "This is America, when ordering, speak English." While such a phrase is an example is of an extreme nature, I still feel that a decent amount of Americans to some extent agree. It's almost as if the nickname the "melting pot" was given to the wrong country. 

Leaving the melting pot, I headed for a country I expected to be in a similar if not homogeneous state. To my pleasant surprise, my coworkers proved me very wrong. Every single coworker of mine speaks very good English as well as Mandarin and at least another Chinese dialect or two. Even more surprising than this was the discussion with my fellow foreign roommates. The average language count in my apartment sits at around two fluent languages with some knowledge in another one or two. It would appear as if the United States is actually looking into the melting pot, but only from the outside, not wishing to take part.

In the process of discussing language with my fellow foreigners and coworkers, I have been led me to realize just how bad the state of foreign language in America is. Starting with six grade we were sat in front of a TV for video language lessons. The only things these videos managed to do was turn me away from foreign languages. Seventh and eighth grade didn't hold much promise either. A select few managed to find their way into the Spanish or French class but the majority of students were unable to begin progress on a second language. High school followed this theme and only required two years of language for college bound students. On the other hand, my coworkers and roommates are leaps and bounds ahead.

In my attempt to search for a means by which to conclude this post, I will take the lazy way out and present you with a request. Respect others, try and understand their culture and beliefs and where they come from. Listen to what they have to say, if you disagree, feel free to offer your own thoughts but please don't try and shove it down their throats. Let us do our best to live up to the reputation and be able to proudly claim that it's just a misunderstanding and we are in fact the melting pot. 

To what lengths must we sacrifice?

A quick note about the prices, I converted them to USD so ignore the rather odd looking pricing.

Thanks to Rutgers' rather annoying engineering graduation requirements, an internship in Shanghai would require withdrawing from school for a year. The problem is, I've only planned about eight months of my time off for China and still have several months free time to fill. Since I'm already on the other side of the world and with no desire to return home just yet, I've began thinking of where to go. Before even arriving in China I dreamed of traveling across Russia via the Trans-Siberian Railway, eventually ending up in Moscow and then on to Europe to try and work or volunteer in Spain. Such a trip would not work on my current budget so I began looking for a new place to live. 

My first stop in my apartment hunt began with browsing two housing websites geared for English speakers. After almost two weeks of looking, nothing turned up. Next, I turned to my coworkers for advice. (A quick note before I continue, the Chinese in general are very helpful people. I will deeply miss this when I return to the United States.) They said I could save a decent amount of what I'm spending now on housing by moving out of the city and closer to work. This idea was rather tempting and I decided to think it over. Upon arriving at work the following day, my coworkers notified me that they'd gone home and spent some time searching Chinese housing websites and found some nice cheap places for me. 

Around the same time, one of my roommates was in the process of moving out of a rather small and somewhat cheaper room. I was temped to make the move to a smaller room in the same apartment but I couldn't justify saving $46 a month for a room that is roughly ten feet by six feet with no window. Thankfully my roommate made a good suggestion that had previous been alien to me due to previous living in America, bargaining. Bargaining is everywhere in China, besides your chain stores, you can typically bargain everywhere. I am determined to get good at bargaining since the last time I bargained I got ripped off and overpaid about $46 on a $123 dress suit, I decided this was a perfect opportunity. With the assistance of my coworkers and some of my own good thoughts on bargaining, I set to work lowering the price on the smaller room. 

The original price of the small room paid for by the previous tenant was $384. Since apartments in the suburbs can run as low as $261 for a nice room, that became my goal. With several back and forth text messages (Can't start bargaining in person, you'll end up failing miserably!) with my landlord, the price slowly dropped. Sadly, I didn't make it to my goal of $261 but still managed $307 and somehow managed to get free Chinese lessons from my landlord's husband and free meals at his restaurant. 

With cost being a much smaller issue, it was time to decide if moving to the suburbs would be a better fit. To clear my thoughts I decided to utilize a pros and cons list to decide what would be the best move. As I began to write the list I quickly realized I could end up in a very bad situation which could potentially make the next six months of living absolutely horrible. I've managed to find probably one of the best landlords one could find in Shanghai. She has lived in the United States for four years, will come within the hour to fix any problem, and is a very friendly person. From here, a new landlord could only go downhill. I've had bad experiences with my two previous landlords and not too excited to end up with a landlord that never shows up to fix problems or doesn't speak any English. Next up was the roommate issue. The people I live with are all great people and don't have any notable problems with any of them. I continued to write out my list and the cons far out numbered the pros of moving out.

Thankfully the list wasn't too balanced and a clear choice was made to remain living at my current location. I could have saved another $46 a month if I moved out of the city but I could have found myself in a position making me miserable for the duration of my stay in China. 

Lesson Learned:  In the pursuit of a goal, sacrifices may be a necessity but don't make so many sacrifices that the journey is ruined.  Remember, the journey can be just as important as the destination.