Thursday and Friday were my last days of teaching. We covered one final chapter in each class, and then Friday was a Test Review and "Words of Advice" on how to manage their individual finances. After the end of class, the students gave me a round of applause. Even though they do this for all professors, I was very appreciative of the gesture.
Thursday night, the Teaching Assistants and two university administrators took me to a fancy restaurant where we ate family style in a private room. We sat around a circular table with a revolving glass plate on the table just like a "lazy Susan." The server placed dishes on the glass plate and we rotated the food while we ate. Rather than serving our plate with all the dishes at once, we ate one dish at a time. The meal included turtle, Peking duck eaten with a type of tortilla, goose leg, goose liver with cucumbers (pate de foie gras), bullfrog cooked in spicy sauce, vinegar vegetables, escargot eaten with a toothpick that resembled a pitch fork, crab dumplings, and some other vegetables that I wasn't sure of the name. I impressed my hosts by asking whether the crab dumplings were male or female and they were surprised I would know the difference. The goose leg was just that - the leg of a goose (claws and all) cooked in a sauce. We were given one plastic glove to hold the leg and then ate it like a drumstick. The skin of a goose is too slippery to eat with chopsticks. All you eat is skin because there is no meat. Dessert was a sweet soup of sorts. Three of the four at the dinner had been to Washington and we talked about Mt Rainier, Mt St Helens, Pike Place Market and St Martins University.
Now that I have finished classes I have a few more errands to run before the trip is over.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Shanghai Museum and Yu Gardens
Saturday I toured the Shanghai Museum with Madam Jia and one of her assistants from the University. Madam Jia has worked for the university for over 30 years and acts as their unofficial ambassador to the world. The Shanghai Museum is the nicest museum in Shanghai with four floors of jade, pottery, calligraphy, painting, furniture and costumes. The museum had audio tours available in English that I used. All the descriptions were in English and Chinese, however. In the furniture area, I saw a real Chinese musical instrument (for my brothers and sisters, this is an inside joke). I also learned that bamboo is a symbol for a good man: flexible yet principled.
After the museum we ate lunch at a famous restaurant near the Yu Gardens. The Gardens are 300-year old gardens created by a noble as a sign of his wealth. We didn't tour the gardens since I had already seen the gardens at Suzhou (see earlier post), which are much larger.
Near the Gardens has sprung a shopping bazaar that has the feel of Disneyland, a mecca for both Chinese and foreigner tourists. Madam Jia knows several shopkeepers and restaurant owners and got us a table without a wait. The line had about 40-50 people in it. The restaurant was mentioned in my travel book as one of the best restaurants to sample Shanghai's specialty - dumplings. Beijing is known for duck, Shanghai for the dumplings. The lunch was excellent, which also included noodles, vinegar covered vegetables, thinly sliced beef, and cooked beans/peas. I couldn't tell the difference and I ate the whole pod, until Madam Jia told me to eat only the bean/pea inside. The dumplings were of four varieties - pork, female crab, male crab and vegetable - and were served throughout the meal in stackable steamers. Yes, the female crab and the male crab tasted slightly different. Madam Jia and her assistant tried to explain why, but it would be hard to re-explain.
After lunch we did some shopping, where I bought scarves and some knick-knacks for the kids. I also picked up a bag of bite-sized Dove chocolate bars to give to the De Vries family on Sunday. Because it was Saturday, the Yu Gardens was packed, and Susan, Madam Jia's assistant taught me a new phrase "bu you" (boo yo), which means I don't need it. Very handy to ward off the onslaught of Rolex salespeople.
As the taxi dropped us off at the hotel, Madam Jia pointed out a second cafeteria used by university students just across the street from my hotel. She introduced me to the guard and told him it was OK for me to eat there. The public isn't allowed. This cafeteria will be more convenient for me at dinner time. Cost for dinner is $0.90, which includes a full tray of food. There's also a washing machine and dryer which will save a little money from the hotel laundry service.
Today, Sunday, I visited the Urban Planning museum in the morning. The museum is much more interesting than it sounds. The place is dedicated to showing the urban expansion of Shanghai and specifically how it is preparing for the World Expo in May-October 2010. The museum includes a room-size model of the city of Shanghai as it will look in 10 years if all the planned buildings are completed. When I say room-size, I mean about half the size of standard basketball court - this thing is HUGE!
After the museum I attended church, where they had their Christmas program. The service was very international with both prayers in Chinese and singing in Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Spanish and English. I have a pinyin copy of Come All Ye Faithful if you're interested. I sang in the choir, which was pretty cool. Since the church is not your typical building, we rotated the chairs on the front right section of the room and that made a choir loft.
After church I strolled the Bund, took the Shanghai Tourist Tunnel (what a waste, but I had to try it), and then took the bus back to Pudong.
I got off the bus two stops early, on purpose. Just walking through Shanghai you see a big contrast between very rich and very poor. The very rich congregate at the Supermall near the closest metro stop to my hotel. The Supermall is 13 stories (2.3 million square feet) of shopping extravaganza with prices comparable to Seattle's Pacific Place Mall. Shanghai has even ritzier shopping, too on the Puxi side of the river. Contrasting the mall are the workers building new roadways and repairing existing ones even late in the evening on Sundays. You can see it in their faces they have led a hard life.
After the museum we ate lunch at a famous restaurant near the Yu Gardens. The Gardens are 300-year old gardens created by a noble as a sign of his wealth. We didn't tour the gardens since I had already seen the gardens at Suzhou (see earlier post), which are much larger.
Near the Gardens has sprung a shopping bazaar that has the feel of Disneyland, a mecca for both Chinese and foreigner tourists. Madam Jia knows several shopkeepers and restaurant owners and got us a table without a wait. The line had about 40-50 people in it. The restaurant was mentioned in my travel book as one of the best restaurants to sample Shanghai's specialty - dumplings. Beijing is known for duck, Shanghai for the dumplings. The lunch was excellent, which also included noodles, vinegar covered vegetables, thinly sliced beef, and cooked beans/peas. I couldn't tell the difference and I ate the whole pod, until Madam Jia told me to eat only the bean/pea inside. The dumplings were of four varieties - pork, female crab, male crab and vegetable - and were served throughout the meal in stackable steamers. Yes, the female crab and the male crab tasted slightly different. Madam Jia and her assistant tried to explain why, but it would be hard to re-explain.
After lunch we did some shopping, where I bought scarves and some knick-knacks for the kids. I also picked up a bag of bite-sized Dove chocolate bars to give to the De Vries family on Sunday. Because it was Saturday, the Yu Gardens was packed, and Susan, Madam Jia's assistant taught me a new phrase "bu you" (boo yo), which means I don't need it. Very handy to ward off the onslaught of Rolex salespeople.
As the taxi dropped us off at the hotel, Madam Jia pointed out a second cafeteria used by university students just across the street from my hotel. She introduced me to the guard and told him it was OK for me to eat there. The public isn't allowed. This cafeteria will be more convenient for me at dinner time. Cost for dinner is $0.90, which includes a full tray of food. There's also a washing machine and dryer which will save a little money from the hotel laundry service.
Today, Sunday, I visited the Urban Planning museum in the morning. The museum is much more interesting than it sounds. The place is dedicated to showing the urban expansion of Shanghai and specifically how it is preparing for the World Expo in May-October 2010. The museum includes a room-size model of the city of Shanghai as it will look in 10 years if all the planned buildings are completed. When I say room-size, I mean about half the size of standard basketball court - this thing is HUGE!
After the museum I attended church, where they had their Christmas program. The service was very international with both prayers in Chinese and singing in Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Spanish and English. I have a pinyin copy of Come All Ye Faithful if you're interested. I sang in the choir, which was pretty cool. Since the church is not your typical building, we rotated the chairs on the front right section of the room and that made a choir loft.
After church I strolled the Bund, took the Shanghai Tourist Tunnel (what a waste, but I had to try it), and then took the bus back to Pudong.
I got off the bus two stops early, on purpose. Just walking through Shanghai you see a big contrast between very rich and very poor. The very rich congregate at the Supermall near the closest metro stop to my hotel. The Supermall is 13 stories (2.3 million square feet) of shopping extravaganza with prices comparable to Seattle's Pacific Place Mall. Shanghai has even ritzier shopping, too on the Puxi side of the river. Contrasting the mall are the workers building new roadways and repairing existing ones even late in the evening on Sundays. You can see it in their faces they have led a hard life.
Friday, December 12, 2008
mei guo ren (pronounced may-gwo-ren)
This afternoon I visited the Shanghai Science & Technology Museum. It's a great place to take kids. It's a combination of the Bean Life Science Museum (in Provo) and the Seattle Science Center.
I then made my way through all the shopping areas downtown, including Fuzhou Rd and Nanjing Rd, and across the Huangpu River (via metro) to the Oriental Pearl Tower. In the basement of the Oriental Pearl Tower is the Shanghai History Museum. Friday evening it was pretty quiet in the museum so I quickly made my way through the exhibits, which were interesting. The signs were all in Mandarin, Japanese and English. Interestingly, World War II is known as the "War of Japanese Agression" and 1949 (when the Communists took over) was referred to as Liberation.
Finished in the main part of the museum I strolled through a small exhibit all in Chinese and a family of grandpa, grandma, mom, dad and a 5-yr old son were walking through. When the son saw me he jumped back like he had seen a ghost. So I said "boo!" Then I turned to look at the exhibits and I heard the kid say "mei guo ren" which means "American." I turned around and playfully teased him with "Bui shi, wo shi zhong guo ren," which means "no, I'm Chinese." The kid's parents thought that was funny and started talking to the son with something like "go ahead say hi." I told the kid my Chinese name and asked his and he told me. His parents must have thought this was a cool cultural exchange. I was just glad to be able to say something more in Chinese than "How much is it?" and "That's too expensive."
For dinner I had some amazing pastries from a bakery. I bought a salmon-filled flaky croissant-like pastry and a baguette stuffed with whipped cream and buttery sugar granules. These sound like French pastries, but the bakery had a Japanese name. I also ate a banana from a road-side vendor, who only had a few teeth, by the way.
I've decided to eat at either KFC or McDonalds once while I'm here. My personal rule is no eating American junk food when traveling abroad. If I want to poison myself, I might as well be close to home. In the case of China, fast food menus are probably different enough that it might be a cultural experience. KFC (1,600 stores in China) and McDonalds (760 stores) are on every major shopping corner. Other American retail brands I've seen in Shanghai are Cold Stone, Papa Murphy's, Burger King, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, and Best Buy. Toys R Us, Home Depot and Wal-Mart are here, but I haven't seen them.
Here's another interesting tidbit. According to the New York Times (12/12/08), when asked their personal philosophy, 68 percent of Chinese polled said it could be summed up by the phrase "work hard and get rich." Only 4 percent summarized their personal belief with a Maoist credo: "Never think of yourself. Give everything in service to society." Capitalism has met its match.
I then made my way through all the shopping areas downtown, including Fuzhou Rd and Nanjing Rd, and across the Huangpu River (via metro) to the Oriental Pearl Tower. In the basement of the Oriental Pearl Tower is the Shanghai History Museum. Friday evening it was pretty quiet in the museum so I quickly made my way through the exhibits, which were interesting. The signs were all in Mandarin, Japanese and English. Interestingly, World War II is known as the "War of Japanese Agression" and 1949 (when the Communists took over) was referred to as Liberation.
Finished in the main part of the museum I strolled through a small exhibit all in Chinese and a family of grandpa, grandma, mom, dad and a 5-yr old son were walking through. When the son saw me he jumped back like he had seen a ghost. So I said "boo!" Then I turned to look at the exhibits and I heard the kid say "mei guo ren" which means "American." I turned around and playfully teased him with "Bui shi, wo shi zhong guo ren," which means "no, I'm Chinese." The kid's parents thought that was funny and started talking to the son with something like "go ahead say hi." I told the kid my Chinese name and asked his and he told me. His parents must have thought this was a cool cultural exchange. I was just glad to be able to say something more in Chinese than "How much is it?" and "That's too expensive."
For dinner I had some amazing pastries from a bakery. I bought a salmon-filled flaky croissant-like pastry and a baguette stuffed with whipped cream and buttery sugar granules. These sound like French pastries, but the bakery had a Japanese name. I also ate a banana from a road-side vendor, who only had a few teeth, by the way.
I've decided to eat at either KFC or McDonalds once while I'm here. My personal rule is no eating American junk food when traveling abroad. If I want to poison myself, I might as well be close to home. In the case of China, fast food menus are probably different enough that it might be a cultural experience. KFC (1,600 stores in China) and McDonalds (760 stores) are on every major shopping corner. Other American retail brands I've seen in Shanghai are Cold Stone, Papa Murphy's, Burger King, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, and Best Buy. Toys R Us, Home Depot and Wal-Mart are here, but I haven't seen them.
Here's another interesting tidbit. According to the New York Times (12/12/08), when asked their personal philosophy, 68 percent of Chinese polled said it could be summed up by the phrase "work hard and get rich." Only 4 percent summarized their personal belief with a Maoist credo: "Never think of yourself. Give everything in service to society." Capitalism has met its match.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Shopping and visit to ex-pat bike shop
This morning I didn't have class so I rode my bike 4 miles to a shopping bazaar in the basement of the Shanghai Science & Technology Museum. Two people had told me about the bazaar so I decided to check it out. I didn't have an address so I wondered if "basement" was something like the "basement of the Alamo" in PeeWee Herman's movie. (Hint: there is no basement of the Alamo). Well, I found it, and at 10am on a weekday the place has few shoppers. Shopkeepers globbed onto me like bees on honey. The bazaar is just like the shops of the bottom floors of the Pike Place Market in Seattle, except in Shanghai the shopkeepers yell at you to buy their goods. "Buy shirts?" "You want DVDs?" "You buy shoes" etc etc. Hold on to your wallet!
I was on a mission to buy ties and cross that off my shopping list. I ended up buying about 25. I bargained for 10 yuan for the cheapest ties, equal to $1.50. I started bargaining with a second tie seller and told her I would pay 7 yuan. I had to walk away from her twice before she agreed to 7 yuan. Then her friend who owned the booth where I paid 10 yuan happened to walk by and told her I had paid 10 yuan, so she said the deal was off. I just walked away and bought somewhere else. By the way, I found a great shop with scarves, so I'll go back.
In the evening following my afternoon classes I took a taxi to SISU, a bicycle shop and cycling club for ex-pats. I met Bill Gaylord from Atlanta, GA who runs the business with three partners. SISU has weekly rides Wednesday nights. The club also hosts touring rides on the weekends. Unfortunately I teach Wednesdays from 6:00-7:35pm so I'll miss the ride next week. Maybe next time. Bill talked non-stop and told me something interesting: Shanghai is building 50 miles of new roads EACH WEEK! He said people ask him for updated maps, and he tells them no sense in trying to get a new map because the roads are always changing. I heard about this growth from someone else but didn't believe it until Bill confirmed it. Looking around Shanghai you can see it is the world's largest construction site. Not only are they building new roads, but the existing roads are all under construction, too.
I was on a mission to buy ties and cross that off my shopping list. I ended up buying about 25. I bargained for 10 yuan for the cheapest ties, equal to $1.50. I started bargaining with a second tie seller and told her I would pay 7 yuan. I had to walk away from her twice before she agreed to 7 yuan. Then her friend who owned the booth where I paid 10 yuan happened to walk by and told her I had paid 10 yuan, so she said the deal was off. I just walked away and bought somewhere else. By the way, I found a great shop with scarves, so I'll go back.
In the evening following my afternoon classes I took a taxi to SISU, a bicycle shop and cycling club for ex-pats. I met Bill Gaylord from Atlanta, GA who runs the business with three partners. SISU has weekly rides Wednesday nights. The club also hosts touring rides on the weekends. Unfortunately I teach Wednesdays from 6:00-7:35pm so I'll miss the ride next week. Maybe next time. Bill talked non-stop and told me something interesting: Shanghai is building 50 miles of new roads EACH WEEK! He said people ask him for updated maps, and he tells them no sense in trying to get a new map because the roads are always changing. I heard about this growth from someone else but didn't believe it until Bill confirmed it. Looking around Shanghai you can see it is the world's largest construction site. Not only are they building new roads, but the existing roads are all under construction, too.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Sunday dinner, American style
Sunday morning I went to the 94th floor of the World Financial Center, the tallest building in Shanghai. The elevator ride took a matter of seconds, climbing 430 meters (about 1300 feet, the length of 4 football fields). My ears popped going up. At the top, the view was like being in an airplane looking down on all the buildings, people and cars in Shanghai. Very breathtaking. The sky is pretty hazy, though, so I couldn't see past maybe 15 miles in any direction. After the view, I took the metro to church. I met several others in the branch and several people were visiting. I guess this branch gets 10-12 visitors each week. One of the visitors was a guy named Liu who joined the church a few years ago in Montreal just after emigrating from China. Turns out he is living in the same town I lived in the West Island area of Montreal. Small world.
One of the church members, Cameron De Vries, invited me to dinner with his family of 7. After church I went back to the hotel, then rode my bike the 6 miles to the De Vries's house. The De Vries family is like ours, pretty talkative. He and his wife Tanya have five kids, ages 11, 9, 7, 4 and baby. The little kids were watching that cartoon movie our kids love, Veggie Tales "The Pirates Who Don't know Anything." The kids treated me like a celebrity - "Hey Tom, look at my bruise" "Tom, watch me do this ..." It was a real treat to eat with them. They answered a lot of my questions about the ex-pat lifestyle. For example, owning a car in Shanghai is very expensive so they don't have one. They take buses and the metro or a taxi everywhere. Just to license a car here costs $5-10,000. Also, private schools are extraordinarily expensive, to the tune of $20,000/year per child, so the De Vries are home schooling their kids. I suppose the ex-pat lifestyle is easier for young couples, olders couples with no kids at home, or families with just one or two kids. The food was great, including pumpkin pie and cold milk. I haven't had milk since I got here. I was very complimentary of them and thanked them graciously for the food.
One of the church members, Cameron De Vries, invited me to dinner with his family of 7. After church I went back to the hotel, then rode my bike the 6 miles to the De Vries's house. The De Vries family is like ours, pretty talkative. He and his wife Tanya have five kids, ages 11, 9, 7, 4 and baby. The little kids were watching that cartoon movie our kids love, Veggie Tales "The Pirates Who Don't know Anything." The kids treated me like a celebrity - "Hey Tom, look at my bruise" "Tom, watch me do this ..." It was a real treat to eat with them. They answered a lot of my questions about the ex-pat lifestyle. For example, owning a car in Shanghai is very expensive so they don't have one. They take buses and the metro or a taxi everywhere. Just to license a car here costs $5-10,000. Also, private schools are extraordinarily expensive, to the tune of $20,000/year per child, so the De Vries are home schooling their kids. I suppose the ex-pat lifestyle is easier for young couples, olders couples with no kids at home, or families with just one or two kids. The food was great, including pumpkin pie and cold milk. I haven't had milk since I got here. I was very complimentary of them and thanked them graciously for the food.
Teaching in China and the trip to Carrefour
I had an epiphany today regarding my teaching. The first week was sometimes difficult and I felt frustrated because 1) the syllabus I prepared didn't match the days I was teaching, 2) the TAs wanted to change the chapters we covered, and 3) I didn't have the correct teaching aids to go with the textbooks. The teaching aids problem was solved right away. But, I was still frustrated by all the changes that were taking place. In my university classes, the syllabus is the syllabus and you can't change it. One TA wanted the course to go slower than I had planned, while another was happy to see us move quickly. Well, part of the reason we change the syllabus here is the language barrier. I lecture in English and the TAs then recover the same information in Chinese. The epiphany I had today was remembering that another China instructor, John Hough, had mentioned to me that in China (at least at this university) things change a lot, so I needed to be flexible. Now I'm feeling great about where the class is headed. I was even complimented today on how great an instructor I am from both of the TAs.
Monday is my longest day with four 95-minute classes taught. The schedule was altered just for today with the two afternoon classes changed to evening classes: one from 4:10-5:45pm, the other after the dinner break, from 6:30-8:05pm. I was surprised the students stuck with me through two evening lectures on "Operating and Financial Leverage" and "Working Capital and the Financing Decision." Some of you might be bored to tears with this stuff, but my banking friends would enjoy it.
I forgot to mention my trip to Carrefour, the French-owned store very similar to Wal-Mart. Carrefour has taken China by storm and the who's who of Shanghai shops in the several dozen stores around town. The ex-pats love it, too, because the store carries many items that are hard to find in the typical Chinese corner convenience and grocery stores, such as Pampers diapers. Carrefour sells local favorites also, such as duck neck sausages in a stay-fresh pouch. I thought they were little smoked sausages with a yellow duck picture on the front! I bought gloves and a stocking cap to use during the 30-40 weather we had over the weekend.
At the checkout line in Carrefour two men in black military-style uniforms complete with helmets and automatic weapons were escorting someone out of the store. At first I thought shoplifter? Alex, my host explained they were escorting the armored car driver with the cash. Maybe that's a new line of work for Thurston First Bank - anyone volunteer to carry the M-16?!
Monday is my longest day with four 95-minute classes taught. The schedule was altered just for today with the two afternoon classes changed to evening classes: one from 4:10-5:45pm, the other after the dinner break, from 6:30-8:05pm. I was surprised the students stuck with me through two evening lectures on "Operating and Financial Leverage" and "Working Capital and the Financing Decision." Some of you might be bored to tears with this stuff, but my banking friends would enjoy it.
I forgot to mention my trip to Carrefour, the French-owned store very similar to Wal-Mart. Carrefour has taken China by storm and the who's who of Shanghai shops in the several dozen stores around town. The ex-pats love it, too, because the store carries many items that are hard to find in the typical Chinese corner convenience and grocery stores, such as Pampers diapers. Carrefour sells local favorites also, such as duck neck sausages in a stay-fresh pouch. I thought they were little smoked sausages with a yellow duck picture on the front! I bought gloves and a stocking cap to use during the 30-40 weather we had over the weekend.
At the checkout line in Carrefour two men in black military-style uniforms complete with helmets and automatic weapons were escorting someone out of the store. At first I thought shoplifter? Alex, my host explained they were escorting the armored car driver with the cash. Maybe that's a new line of work for Thurston First Bank - anyone volunteer to carry the M-16?!
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Excursion to Suzhou
Today was a field trip to Suzhou, a city 1 1/2 hours west of Shanghai. A driver took Alex, my university host, and one of the University professors and her husband in a University van. Suzhou is known for its gardens and the Tiger Hill Pagoda that leans at 2.34 degrees. The Pagoda was built before the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The pagoda complex itself was first built around 934 AD. Makes American history look pretty recent. We walked around the ornamental gardens, which cover several acres. The gardens include walking paths and small outbuildings where wealthy nobles would relax. Very few people lived on the grounds. After the pagoda, we visited another ornamental garden in Suzhou, which is very world reknowned.
At lunch I ate with Alex and the driver (the others had eaten earlier). Alex treated me to a feast, including cooked vegetables, hot pot with lamb and spicy cabbage, sweet pork, and boiled freshwater turtle (see picture). Dessert was a type of pumpkin/soy filled donut that was very tasty. This was my first taste of turtle and it was very delicious. Hard to describe the taste, but to eat it you grab a leg or a part of the body with your chopsticks and take a big bite. You spit out whatever bones are in it and then eat the rest. The soft part on the edge of the shell was the best part and I cleaned out my quarter of the shell with ease. Toward the end of the meal the server brought rice, unlike the U.S. where we eat rice right from the start. After lunch Alex and I haggled for a few neckties. I paid 20 yuan for two ties, but some shopkeepers were offering two for 15 and I wished I had time to shop a little more but we had to go.
Driving home on the freeway was scary. The drivers here use their brights and the horn to let people know they are passing or want to get around. Also, people drive all over the road. The only driving rules I see are: the biggest vehicle has the right of way, and don't get in an accident.
At lunch I ate with Alex and the driver (the others had eaten earlier). Alex treated me to a feast, including cooked vegetables, hot pot with lamb and spicy cabbage, sweet pork, and boiled freshwater turtle (see picture). Dessert was a type of pumpkin/soy filled donut that was very tasty. This was my first taste of turtle and it was very delicious. Hard to describe the taste, but to eat it you grab a leg or a part of the body with your chopsticks and take a big bite. You spit out whatever bones are in it and then eat the rest. The soft part on the edge of the shell was the best part and I cleaned out my quarter of the shell with ease. Toward the end of the meal the server brought rice, unlike the U.S. where we eat rice right from the start. After lunch Alex and I haggled for a few neckties. I paid 20 yuan for two ties, but some shopkeepers were offering two for 15 and I wished I had time to shop a little more but we had to go.
Driving home on the freeway was scary. The drivers here use their brights and the horn to let people know they are passing or want to get around. Also, people drive all over the road. The only driving rules I see are: the biggest vehicle has the right of way, and don't get in an accident.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Fish Seller
It's difficult to see the fish gasping for air and flopping on the blanket, but they were mostly alive when I saw them.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Attending Rotary
Tuesday evening after classes I took the #85 bus to the metro station to go to the Shanghai Rotary Club. On the bus a grandmother was holding her 9-month old baby boy, who was dressed in a winter snow suit and hat. The temperature was about 55 degrees, but many people here dress their babies like it's a January blizzard. What amazed me more was the child didn't make a sound for the whole 20 minute bus ride. He sat immobile in his grandmother's arms, staring at me with this stone faced look. He never smiled or frowned at me, and mostly stared or slept.
The bus drops passengers near the Shanghai Acquarium that I plan to visit this weekend. I transferred metro lines in the busy People's Square station, which was packed with people. Entering the second metro line we all had to push to get inside before the doors closed.
I found the Rotary meeting at a very nice 5-star hotel. Rotary is very similar to the U.S., except this club only has 70 members and only about 40 were in attendance. (By the way, China only has two Rotary clubs: one in Shanghai, one in Beijing. The government doesn't allow Rotary to expand to the Chinese. All members of Rotary here are foreigners.) I presented the Lacey club's banner and got a Shanghai banner in return. The club has 19 nations represented by its members, and Americans are perhaps no more than a quarter of the members. All the business was done in English except the 4-Way Test. The speaker was one of the members. He is an Italian lawyer who is working with an Italian football team to play year-round in the Chinese leagues.
After Rotary I took the metro and bus back to the hotel, arriving around 10pm. I feel very safe walking around at night because most shops are open until 10pm.
Breakfast today was pastry rolls, brown noodles, and warm milk. Not sitting-out-too-long warm milk, milk in a coffee dispenser steaming as it comes out. Lunch today was batter-fried whole fish (yes, head and tail included), spicy kelp, potato strips (very yummy), tofu/pork rolls and some sort of soup. There are no drinks with the meal, and no napkins in the cafeteria. Also no forks. I bring my own baggie of Kleenex.
The bus drops passengers near the Shanghai Acquarium that I plan to visit this weekend. I transferred metro lines in the busy People's Square station, which was packed with people. Entering the second metro line we all had to push to get inside before the doors closed.
I found the Rotary meeting at a very nice 5-star hotel. Rotary is very similar to the U.S., except this club only has 70 members and only about 40 were in attendance. (By the way, China only has two Rotary clubs: one in Shanghai, one in Beijing. The government doesn't allow Rotary to expand to the Chinese. All members of Rotary here are foreigners.) I presented the Lacey club's banner and got a Shanghai banner in return. The club has 19 nations represented by its members, and Americans are perhaps no more than a quarter of the members. All the business was done in English except the 4-Way Test. The speaker was one of the members. He is an Italian lawyer who is working with an Italian football team to play year-round in the Chinese leagues.
After Rotary I took the metro and bus back to the hotel, arriving around 10pm. I feel very safe walking around at night because most shops are open until 10pm.
Breakfast today was pastry rolls, brown noodles, and warm milk. Not sitting-out-too-long warm milk, milk in a coffee dispenser steaming as it comes out. Lunch today was batter-fried whole fish (yes, head and tail included), spicy kelp, potato strips (very yummy), tofu/pork rolls and some sort of soup. There are no drinks with the meal, and no napkins in the cafeteria. Also no forks. I bring my own baggie of Kleenex.
Monday, December 1, 2008
First couple of days in China
The flight over was very smooth. I was a little cramped on the plane to Tokyo because I kept my carryon under the seat in front of me. I wanted to have the laptop ready to go, but I ended up leaving it in the bag. I finished my book "Empire of the Sun" instead, and read the Wall Street Journal. How fitting that I read "Empire of the Sun"which is the novelized autobiography of a 14-year-old British boy who lives in Shanghai at the start of WWII and is held in a prisoner camp for ex-pats. The kid is always hungry and has a passion for military airplanes. I felt like I was in the movie because I was on an airplane listening to Japanese stewardesses and flying to Shanghai. I've got to see the movie when I get back - it's with John Malkovich. It's not really a "war movie" per se.
I also slept on the plane for 1-2 hours. The plane had movies to watch but they were all lame. The Japanese guy next to me didn't talk or say a word the entire trip. There was a family (mom, dad, 6-mo old baby) on the middle aisle and their kid was the calmest baby ever for a 10 hour flight. Not one peep until the descent.
Plane food was nice - choice of American style or Asian style dinner and breakfast. For dinner I took the Asian style: chicken, rice, Japanese salad, fruit, veggies. For breakfast, which was served at 10pm my body's time, I had American style: cheese omelet, sausages, fruit and a roll. The food was great with no residual effects we'll say.
In Narita airport in Tokyo I had just enough time to get off the plane, go through security and then board the next plane to Shanghai. I wasn't in a rush, but when I got to the gate they were boarding. As I walked around the airport I kept thinking I should have packed a lighter carryon. But then again, if I had packed my electronic equipment and they would have lost my bags I would have had regrets.
The flight to Shanghai was 3 hours, but it went by quickly because I was tired. They served dinner because it was 4:30pm local time. Then I slept because it felt like 2am. The stewardesses were mostly Japanese, with one Chinese and one American.
When I landed at Pudong Int'l Airport all the memories of my 2002 trip came back to me. The airport and all of China have lots of people standing around. Guards, workers, etc. It's not like in the U.S. where we employ the minimal amount of people to get the job done. For example, in my restaurant last night there were three servers, but they could have used only one. Most of the time the servers stood in the corner just talking among themselves. The restaurant only had 3-4 tables occupied.
I met my host Alex after going through customs and immigration. He's about my height and somewhat quiet but very confident. He grabbed my baggage cart and we walked outside to a van that had a driver. The driver took us to the hotel about 30 minutes away. The freeways were pretty empty although it was 9:30pm on Saturday night.
Alex has very good English and we talked about the hotel, teaching, etc. He lives near the university with his wife. He doesn't own a car, but he has a moped and a bike. All the roads except the back alleys have bike lanes. You could bike this place for days. I plan to.
A quick note on traffic: just as all the guidebooks and John Hough (taught for St Martins last month) explained, traffic is crazy. The painted lines on the road don't mean much. The bus I took yesterday went into oncoming traffic to pass a slow private bus. Bikes, scooters, pedetrians, cars and buses treat red lights with contempt. The street corners have green and red"walking men" lights but you have to look both ways no matter what the street light says. I saw one guy parked in the middle of a busy intersection (equivalent to Martin Way and Marvin Rd) on his scooter texting someone. Everyone texts here in China, probably not unlike the U.S. But this guy texting in the middle of the street surprised me.
Alex dropped me off at the hotel, but he went with me to the room because he was going to help me find a route to church. The hotel room is a standard hotel room with a bed, desk, closet, chairs, table with a tea set on it, and a nice curio-like shelf. The walls are thin and I can here people in the hallways and the TV from the room next to me. The hotel's not very full, though, so it's not that loud. The bed is hard as a rock, but surprisingly comfortable. The sheets are little light and I woke up at night a little chilled. Next time I'll bring pajamas. The room has a bottled water dispenser, but I need to ask Alex if it's safe to drink. I've been strict about bottled water from a sealed bottle only. The room has a nice TV with 49 channels, but about 35 of them are various versions of CCTV - the Chinese government TV. There's only one English channel, also a CCTV channel, which is pretty boring. There aren't any American channels or movie channels, so TV's not really an option. Cnn.com will give me more info than CCTV. The internet connection is good, so I'll stay plugged in to The Olympian, etc. The hotel is big with 16 stories, a conference center, restaurant, meeting rooms, etc. The lobby staff were good to give me coins so I could take the bus.
Sunday morning I woke up at 6am and read. I ate some of the snacks Breda gave me for breakfast. I showered and shaved and got in my Sunday clothes. Oh by the way, I left two important items at home: my brown and black dress clothes belts! That's OK, I solved that problem yesterday for about $8. I dressed in my brown slacks, cream colored shirt, jeans belt, gray sweater, hounds-tooth sportjacket, new brown comfy shoes and my black overcoat liner. It was the perfect ensemble for the weather. Temperature outside was about 45-50, but blue skies. Those brown walking shoes were the best investment I made because I must have walked 5-6 miles yesterday. Sidebar: this is just my type of tourism - no rest at all - visit everything you can and fill your day. Time spent resting is wasted time.
I was going to attend the Shanghai congregation at 8am, but I underestimated the time to get places. John Hough had told me about the bus so I took the #85 bus on the road in front of the hotel which takes me to the nearest Metro station. The bus costs 2 yuan, about 30 cents. The only problem was I took it on the wrong side of the street so it took me farther away from town. I finally found the Metro, but stations aren't as frequent as say Paris where they're on every street corner. Shanghai: population 21 million, only 9 metro lines.
By the time I got on the Metro it was 8:30am so I had already missed the Shanghai congregation. The Pudong congregation meets in the same building at 11:30am so I decided to stroll around the city center -People's Park - which was on the way to the church any way. Very few crowds on Sunday morning, but a few people doing morning exercises. I found several museums that I will come back to when they are open.
In short, I strolled around town for about 2 hours and then took the Metro again toward the West end of downtown where the church building is located. Funny thing happened on the Metro. An older gentlemen signaled for me to take the empty seat next to him so I sat down. He then tried to tell me I had a bad haircut and there was a hole in my head on the backside. He made a circle with his thumb and forefinger to show me the size of the patch of hair that is missing. He was really trying to be helpful telling me that some barber had done me wrong. I tried to explain my radiation by showing him the "tan" lines on my face, but he didn't really get it. My Chinese isn't good enough to explain radiation. Luckily I was getting off the train at the next station.
The church is a 30-minute walk (1 1/2 miles) from the nearest Metro station. Next week I'll figure out the buss chedule and get there quicker. I had an English character address, but Alex wasn't able to pinpoint on a map where the building was so I decided not to pay a taxi. Besides, the best way to see things is to walk. The Chinese are very polite and I feel much safer here than in New York, Paris or Amsterdam. Knock on wood. I should add that in the real touristy area of The Bund, the old banking houses from the early 1900s, there are plenty of people who ask "Where you from?" (sic) and then want to sell you DVDs or Rolexes. They see a lone American guy wearning a suit and tie and assume I'm made of money. I just ignore them and they eventually go away.
In the tourist trap Nanjing Road area I found a 7-story bookshop. They only had a limited selection of English titles at costs comparable to the U.S. so I didn't buy anything and won't be going back.
I found out there's a better English bookstore on Fuzhou Road, near Nanjing Road. If I run out of reading material, I'll head there. I heard it has really good maps.
Church is located in a building of villas, large homes in a complex surrounded by barbed wire and guards. The barbed wire isn't military style, but it adds some security. As I approached the backside of the complex to ask if I was in the right place, two guys standing guard (but not in guard uniforms) saw me and the first guy said with a laugh: "Let me guess you're here for 1720 Mira Lane Villa". OK, I don't speak perfect Chinese, but I understood 1-7-2-0 and body language told me the rest. Is it that obvious I'm American?!
The villas are a very fancy gated community with no lawns. I suspect they cater to foreigners. The church has no parking lot, but it was announced in the meeting as a reminder that all drop offs and pick ups should be made either on the road outside the villa near the Starbucks Coffee or in the parking garage that is shared by the whole villa. He said "please repeat this to your drivers" which leads me to believe everyone has a chauffeur or takes a taxi.
The church is not labeled on the outside because of the government policy of no proselyting. I arrived at 11am just in time to see the Shanghai congregation leaving. At 11:30am the Pudong congregation started. Church services were crowded in the first floor of the 4-story building. Typical group of ex-pats, mostly American, but at least one South American family, and several Chinese from Taiwan. I'd say there were 75-100 people in attendance. A couple of large families and then a hodge podge of young couples, middle aged couples and student aged young adults.
After Church I wanted to see The Bund. I walked back to the Metro and on my way saw a wine shop "Trader Zhou's" - pronounced Trader Zoe's - I took a picture because Liz would get a kick out of it. I also just about texted my brother Vaughn right away when I saw a Giant Bicycles bike shop. That was on my list of places to see, but I had no idea how to find one. The shop was a little storefront similar to all shops on the street level. The shopkeeper and his assistant were smoking and working on some guy's motorized bike. They generally ignored me after saying "Ni hao". The shop didn't sell anything for more than $200. No racing bikes, mostly the small fold-up style and cruisers. I found out I can pick up a cruiser bike for $35 at Carrefour, the French-owned "Wal-Mart" of Shanghai. Alex promised to take me to Carrefour this week. I might buy a bike, but I'll have to find out the shipping costs first. The guy at the bike shop said he doesn't sell racing bikes (I used my handy Mandarin phrase book to converse,which amazingly has a whole page about bikes). "Tai gui le" (too expensive) is what he said. I pointed to a poster of a racing bike on the wall and he said it would cost at least $1,000. The same bike would cost about $5,000 in the U.S. so my interest was piqued in the cost of a bike that would sell in the U.S. for $1,500 - perhaps 1/5 the price?! The bike shop guy gave me an address of another shop that sells racing bikes. I'll have the lobby people show me where it's at on the map.
After the bike shop I took the metro to The Bund, which is along the Huangpu waterfront. I strolled around the downtown and found a belt - I also found some neck tie shops I might come back to. Ties are $1.65 - can you believe it. I'm looking for a little higher quality though. I might have to pay upwards of $3 for the ties. I wish Liz or one of the ladies at the office could help me choose scarves. I'm lost when it comes to scarves. Scarf shops in Shanghai are as ubiquitous as chocolate and lace shops in Belgium.
A couple of other observations:
1) the one-child policy is very evident. I see very few kids, but the ones I do see are doted on by their parents. The kids are dressed to the nines and parents treat the child like a fragile porcelain doll;
2) it isn't uncommon to see young girls and young women walking arm in arm around town. Boys and men don't hold arms, but girls do just as friends.
When it started to get dark I took the Metro back to Pudong, the east side of the river where my hotel and the University are located. I ate dinner in the hotel restaurant. They allow smoking in the restaurant, which drove me crazy. I'm not sure how often I'll eat there. There are no "non-smoking" rooms in this hotel.
When I came back to the hotel room, I found a gift of apples, plastic wrapped pastries, and breakfast meal tickets to the restaurant from Helen (who works for the University) with a note stating that if I need anything to contact her or Alex and that Madam Jia (she's sort of the head of the business professor exchange program) will invite me to dinner.
Last night I reviewed my lesson plans and PowerPoint slides so I felt very comfortable with the program.
This morning I had fruit and pastries for breakfast. Alex met me at the hotel and walked with me to the University. The campus is small like a high school because it the business school of a larger university located many kilometers away. The campus has an interior courtyard with trees and statues. Four-story buildings encircle a dusty courtyard, which only has one entrance to the main street and has an iron gate and guards. This isn't surprising since every business in China has an iron gate and guards. The buildings on campus are very nice inside with tiled floors, offices for staff and teachers, a break room for the foreign teachers, and bottled water dispensers.
The business school has about 900 students, with the larger campus housing 20,000. Nearly all the students live in dorms on campus. I was introduced to the Dean of the school and my two TAs. I taught four classes today from 8:20 to 4:45pm with two 15-minute breaks and a 1 1/2 hour break for lunch. The classes are taught in an auditorium and have about 200 students. I showed the class a PowerPoint with photos of me and the family. The class oohed and aahed when I showed a picture of Liz and me. Then the class burst out laughing when I showed them a picture of the whole family. For the Chinese, a family of six must be like seeing an alien. I used my laser pointer to tell the students each child's name and age. I started with Hannah - 10, Zach - 8, Claire - 6. The chitchat got louder as I said the names and ages. Then when it came to Rhett I asked the students to guess his age. Almost everyone said "4" and I said yes which started another round of laughter. I explained that I was a finance major in college and every thing I do is very calculated.
Teaching class is tough. The room has no heating and in the morning it was colder inside than out. I think it was about 45 degrees, not kidding, in the auditorium. I taught with my suit coat and overcoat on but my hands were very cold by the end of the first hour. The teaching is done from a podium with no way to walk around. The class warmed up by the afternoon and I was fine.
All classes went well, but it's hard to guage student learning. One TA told me 20% of the students will understand a lot of what I say and 80% will understand only a little. The students have one hour of lab time in Chinese with the TA for every 3 hours of lecture. The lab time is where they learn the majority of the course, but listening to an American professor gives them the feel for business vocabulary.
Lunch between classes was in the cantine, a student cafeteria. Lunch costs $1. The menu today was choice of four items plus soup and rice. The menu items were tomato/egg casserole, pork balls, chicken strips (at least I think it was chicken), boiled wax-gourd cooked with carrots and celery (maybe?), spicy kelp, and two other dishes that I couldn't figure out. The kelp tasted great and the wax-gourd tasted like potato-leak soup. The food was very delicious. Chinese etiquette is different than American. In China it's polite to become one with your soup bowl and plate. Slurping is acceptable and even encouraged. No water or other drink was served with the meal. If you want a beverage, you have to buy a liter of bottled water for 1 yuan ($0.15) or a soda at the student store.
One of the TAs is a big bike rider, and he has a Giant bicycle. He rode his bike 1,000 kms from his hometown in Central China to Shanghai as part of a group of riders. He offered to take me to the Giant bike shop where they sell racing bikes.
After class Alex took me to his apartment and let me borrow a few DVDs - I hope they have English subtitles. He also let me borrow his mountain bike. I wish I had a picture of me in my sport coat and laptop bag slung over my shoulder riding through crazy Shanghai traffic in the dark with no headlights.
Alex warned me to stay away from the barbershops which are a front for nefarious activities. The haircut I got before I left will be OK for three weeks.
Now back at the apartment I just killed my first cockroach. It was small. At first I thought it was a crane fly. I probably won't sleep so well tonight and I'm starting to itch already thinking about what lives under my bed.
All in all, this is a FANTASTIC experience. Trip of a lifetime.
Tom
I also slept on the plane for 1-2 hours. The plane had movies to watch but they were all lame. The Japanese guy next to me didn't talk or say a word the entire trip. There was a family (mom, dad, 6-mo old baby) on the middle aisle and their kid was the calmest baby ever for a 10 hour flight. Not one peep until the descent.
Plane food was nice - choice of American style or Asian style dinner and breakfast. For dinner I took the Asian style: chicken, rice, Japanese salad, fruit, veggies. For breakfast, which was served at 10pm my body's time, I had American style: cheese omelet, sausages, fruit and a roll. The food was great with no residual effects we'll say.
In Narita airport in Tokyo I had just enough time to get off the plane, go through security and then board the next plane to Shanghai. I wasn't in a rush, but when I got to the gate they were boarding. As I walked around the airport I kept thinking I should have packed a lighter carryon. But then again, if I had packed my electronic equipment and they would have lost my bags I would have had regrets.
The flight to Shanghai was 3 hours, but it went by quickly because I was tired. They served dinner because it was 4:30pm local time. Then I slept because it felt like 2am. The stewardesses were mostly Japanese, with one Chinese and one American.
When I landed at Pudong Int'l Airport all the memories of my 2002 trip came back to me. The airport and all of China have lots of people standing around. Guards, workers, etc. It's not like in the U.S. where we employ the minimal amount of people to get the job done. For example, in my restaurant last night there were three servers, but they could have used only one. Most of the time the servers stood in the corner just talking among themselves. The restaurant only had 3-4 tables occupied.
I met my host Alex after going through customs and immigration. He's about my height and somewhat quiet but very confident. He grabbed my baggage cart and we walked outside to a van that had a driver. The driver took us to the hotel about 30 minutes away. The freeways were pretty empty although it was 9:30pm on Saturday night.
Alex has very good English and we talked about the hotel, teaching, etc. He lives near the university with his wife. He doesn't own a car, but he has a moped and a bike. All the roads except the back alleys have bike lanes. You could bike this place for days. I plan to.
A quick note on traffic: just as all the guidebooks and John Hough (taught for St Martins last month) explained, traffic is crazy. The painted lines on the road don't mean much. The bus I took yesterday went into oncoming traffic to pass a slow private bus. Bikes, scooters, pedetrians, cars and buses treat red lights with contempt. The street corners have green and red"walking men" lights but you have to look both ways no matter what the street light says. I saw one guy parked in the middle of a busy intersection (equivalent to Martin Way and Marvin Rd) on his scooter texting someone. Everyone texts here in China, probably not unlike the U.S. But this guy texting in the middle of the street surprised me.
Alex dropped me off at the hotel, but he went with me to the room because he was going to help me find a route to church. The hotel room is a standard hotel room with a bed, desk, closet, chairs, table with a tea set on it, and a nice curio-like shelf. The walls are thin and I can here people in the hallways and the TV from the room next to me. The hotel's not very full, though, so it's not that loud. The bed is hard as a rock, but surprisingly comfortable. The sheets are little light and I woke up at night a little chilled. Next time I'll bring pajamas. The room has a bottled water dispenser, but I need to ask Alex if it's safe to drink. I've been strict about bottled water from a sealed bottle only. The room has a nice TV with 49 channels, but about 35 of them are various versions of CCTV - the Chinese government TV. There's only one English channel, also a CCTV channel, which is pretty boring. There aren't any American channels or movie channels, so TV's not really an option. Cnn.com will give me more info than CCTV. The internet connection is good, so I'll stay plugged in to The Olympian, etc. The hotel is big with 16 stories, a conference center, restaurant, meeting rooms, etc. The lobby staff were good to give me coins so I could take the bus.
Sunday morning I woke up at 6am and read. I ate some of the snacks Breda gave me for breakfast. I showered and shaved and got in my Sunday clothes. Oh by the way, I left two important items at home: my brown and black dress clothes belts! That's OK, I solved that problem yesterday for about $8. I dressed in my brown slacks, cream colored shirt, jeans belt, gray sweater, hounds-tooth sportjacket, new brown comfy shoes and my black overcoat liner. It was the perfect ensemble for the weather. Temperature outside was about 45-50, but blue skies. Those brown walking shoes were the best investment I made because I must have walked 5-6 miles yesterday. Sidebar: this is just my type of tourism - no rest at all - visit everything you can and fill your day. Time spent resting is wasted time.
I was going to attend the Shanghai congregation at 8am, but I underestimated the time to get places. John Hough had told me about the bus so I took the #85 bus on the road in front of the hotel which takes me to the nearest Metro station. The bus costs 2 yuan, about 30 cents. The only problem was I took it on the wrong side of the street so it took me farther away from town. I finally found the Metro, but stations aren't as frequent as say Paris where they're on every street corner. Shanghai: population 21 million, only 9 metro lines.
By the time I got on the Metro it was 8:30am so I had already missed the Shanghai congregation. The Pudong congregation meets in the same building at 11:30am so I decided to stroll around the city center -People's Park - which was on the way to the church any way. Very few crowds on Sunday morning, but a few people doing morning exercises. I found several museums that I will come back to when they are open.
In short, I strolled around town for about 2 hours and then took the Metro again toward the West end of downtown where the church building is located. Funny thing happened on the Metro. An older gentlemen signaled for me to take the empty seat next to him so I sat down. He then tried to tell me I had a bad haircut and there was a hole in my head on the backside. He made a circle with his thumb and forefinger to show me the size of the patch of hair that is missing. He was really trying to be helpful telling me that some barber had done me wrong. I tried to explain my radiation by showing him the "tan" lines on my face, but he didn't really get it. My Chinese isn't good enough to explain radiation. Luckily I was getting off the train at the next station.
The church is a 30-minute walk (1 1/2 miles) from the nearest Metro station. Next week I'll figure out the buss chedule and get there quicker. I had an English character address, but Alex wasn't able to pinpoint on a map where the building was so I decided not to pay a taxi. Besides, the best way to see things is to walk. The Chinese are very polite and I feel much safer here than in New York, Paris or Amsterdam. Knock on wood. I should add that in the real touristy area of The Bund, the old banking houses from the early 1900s, there are plenty of people who ask "Where you from?" (sic) and then want to sell you DVDs or Rolexes. They see a lone American guy wearning a suit and tie and assume I'm made of money. I just ignore them and they eventually go away.
In the tourist trap Nanjing Road area I found a 7-story bookshop. They only had a limited selection of English titles at costs comparable to the U.S. so I didn't buy anything and won't be going back.
I found out there's a better English bookstore on Fuzhou Road, near Nanjing Road. If I run out of reading material, I'll head there. I heard it has really good maps.
Church is located in a building of villas, large homes in a complex surrounded by barbed wire and guards. The barbed wire isn't military style, but it adds some security. As I approached the backside of the complex to ask if I was in the right place, two guys standing guard (but not in guard uniforms) saw me and the first guy said with a laugh: "Let me guess you're here for 1720 Mira Lane Villa". OK, I don't speak perfect Chinese, but I understood 1-7-2-0 and body language told me the rest. Is it that obvious I'm American?!
The villas are a very fancy gated community with no lawns. I suspect they cater to foreigners. The church has no parking lot, but it was announced in the meeting as a reminder that all drop offs and pick ups should be made either on the road outside the villa near the Starbucks Coffee or in the parking garage that is shared by the whole villa. He said "please repeat this to your drivers" which leads me to believe everyone has a chauffeur or takes a taxi.
The church is not labeled on the outside because of the government policy of no proselyting. I arrived at 11am just in time to see the Shanghai congregation leaving. At 11:30am the Pudong congregation started. Church services were crowded in the first floor of the 4-story building. Typical group of ex-pats, mostly American, but at least one South American family, and several Chinese from Taiwan. I'd say there were 75-100 people in attendance. A couple of large families and then a hodge podge of young couples, middle aged couples and student aged young adults.
After Church I wanted to see The Bund. I walked back to the Metro and on my way saw a wine shop "Trader Zhou's" - pronounced Trader Zoe's - I took a picture because Liz would get a kick out of it. I also just about texted my brother Vaughn right away when I saw a Giant Bicycles bike shop. That was on my list of places to see, but I had no idea how to find one. The shop was a little storefront similar to all shops on the street level. The shopkeeper and his assistant were smoking and working on some guy's motorized bike. They generally ignored me after saying "Ni hao". The shop didn't sell anything for more than $200. No racing bikes, mostly the small fold-up style and cruisers. I found out I can pick up a cruiser bike for $35 at Carrefour, the French-owned "Wal-Mart" of Shanghai. Alex promised to take me to Carrefour this week. I might buy a bike, but I'll have to find out the shipping costs first. The guy at the bike shop said he doesn't sell racing bikes (I used my handy Mandarin phrase book to converse,which amazingly has a whole page about bikes). "Tai gui le" (too expensive) is what he said. I pointed to a poster of a racing bike on the wall and he said it would cost at least $1,000. The same bike would cost about $5,000 in the U.S. so my interest was piqued in the cost of a bike that would sell in the U.S. for $1,500 - perhaps 1/5 the price?! The bike shop guy gave me an address of another shop that sells racing bikes. I'll have the lobby people show me where it's at on the map.
After the bike shop I took the metro to The Bund, which is along the Huangpu waterfront. I strolled around the downtown and found a belt - I also found some neck tie shops I might come back to. Ties are $1.65 - can you believe it. I'm looking for a little higher quality though. I might have to pay upwards of $3 for the ties. I wish Liz or one of the ladies at the office could help me choose scarves. I'm lost when it comes to scarves. Scarf shops in Shanghai are as ubiquitous as chocolate and lace shops in Belgium.
A couple of other observations:
1) the one-child policy is very evident. I see very few kids, but the ones I do see are doted on by their parents. The kids are dressed to the nines and parents treat the child like a fragile porcelain doll;
2) it isn't uncommon to see young girls and young women walking arm in arm around town. Boys and men don't hold arms, but girls do just as friends.
When it started to get dark I took the Metro back to Pudong, the east side of the river where my hotel and the University are located. I ate dinner in the hotel restaurant. They allow smoking in the restaurant, which drove me crazy. I'm not sure how often I'll eat there. There are no "non-smoking" rooms in this hotel.
When I came back to the hotel room, I found a gift of apples, plastic wrapped pastries, and breakfast meal tickets to the restaurant from Helen (who works for the University) with a note stating that if I need anything to contact her or Alex and that Madam Jia (she's sort of the head of the business professor exchange program) will invite me to dinner.
Last night I reviewed my lesson plans and PowerPoint slides so I felt very comfortable with the program.
This morning I had fruit and pastries for breakfast. Alex met me at the hotel and walked with me to the University. The campus is small like a high school because it the business school of a larger university located many kilometers away. The campus has an interior courtyard with trees and statues. Four-story buildings encircle a dusty courtyard, which only has one entrance to the main street and has an iron gate and guards. This isn't surprising since every business in China has an iron gate and guards. The buildings on campus are very nice inside with tiled floors, offices for staff and teachers, a break room for the foreign teachers, and bottled water dispensers.
The business school has about 900 students, with the larger campus housing 20,000. Nearly all the students live in dorms on campus. I was introduced to the Dean of the school and my two TAs. I taught four classes today from 8:20 to 4:45pm with two 15-minute breaks and a 1 1/2 hour break for lunch. The classes are taught in an auditorium and have about 200 students. I showed the class a PowerPoint with photos of me and the family. The class oohed and aahed when I showed a picture of Liz and me. Then the class burst out laughing when I showed them a picture of the whole family. For the Chinese, a family of six must be like seeing an alien. I used my laser pointer to tell the students each child's name and age. I started with Hannah - 10, Zach - 8, Claire - 6. The chitchat got louder as I said the names and ages. Then when it came to Rhett I asked the students to guess his age. Almost everyone said "4" and I said yes which started another round of laughter. I explained that I was a finance major in college and every thing I do is very calculated.
Teaching class is tough. The room has no heating and in the morning it was colder inside than out. I think it was about 45 degrees, not kidding, in the auditorium. I taught with my suit coat and overcoat on but my hands were very cold by the end of the first hour. The teaching is done from a podium with no way to walk around. The class warmed up by the afternoon and I was fine.
All classes went well, but it's hard to guage student learning. One TA told me 20% of the students will understand a lot of what I say and 80% will understand only a little. The students have one hour of lab time in Chinese with the TA for every 3 hours of lecture. The lab time is where they learn the majority of the course, but listening to an American professor gives them the feel for business vocabulary.
Lunch between classes was in the cantine, a student cafeteria. Lunch costs $1. The menu today was choice of four items plus soup and rice. The menu items were tomato/egg casserole, pork balls, chicken strips (at least I think it was chicken), boiled wax-gourd cooked with carrots and celery (maybe?), spicy kelp, and two other dishes that I couldn't figure out. The kelp tasted great and the wax-gourd tasted like potato-leak soup. The food was very delicious. Chinese etiquette is different than American. In China it's polite to become one with your soup bowl and plate. Slurping is acceptable and even encouraged. No water or other drink was served with the meal. If you want a beverage, you have to buy a liter of bottled water for 1 yuan ($0.15) or a soda at the student store.
One of the TAs is a big bike rider, and he has a Giant bicycle. He rode his bike 1,000 kms from his hometown in Central China to Shanghai as part of a group of riders. He offered to take me to the Giant bike shop where they sell racing bikes.
After class Alex took me to his apartment and let me borrow a few DVDs - I hope they have English subtitles. He also let me borrow his mountain bike. I wish I had a picture of me in my sport coat and laptop bag slung over my shoulder riding through crazy Shanghai traffic in the dark with no headlights.
Alex warned me to stay away from the barbershops which are a front for nefarious activities. The haircut I got before I left will be OK for three weeks.
Now back at the apartment I just killed my first cockroach. It was small. At first I thought it was a crane fly. I probably won't sleep so well tonight and I'm starting to itch already thinking about what lives under my bed.
All in all, this is a FANTASTIC experience. Trip of a lifetime.
Tom
Thursday, November 27, 2008
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