I’m beat. Life is flying by at a thousand miles per hour and I’ve made little downtime to stop and catch my breath. New country, new language, new home, new work, new friends — have left little opportunity for tranquility or balance.
Back in Shanghai, just as I begin to grow accustomed to the surprises that a foreigner encounters fresh off the boat, new waves of challenges exit the shadows. It starts with moving into a real Shanghai apartment. Where is the nearest dry cleaner? How does postal mail work and how do I pay bills in a country without personal checks? Where can I find a replacement for my Xbox 360 power adapter in a country where the Xbox isn’t sold? How about dishwasher detergent in a place where machines are so rare because humans washing dishes charge less than $1.50/hour?
As the range of interactions begins to expand, so do the language requirements. Cold and Hot and No Good no longer suffice when trying to explain to a plumber in broken Mandarin that the shower faucet is having problems mixing the two together to arrive at Warm. And so, in my third month, for the first time since arriving to China, I broke out the Lonely Planet phrase book, and soon after found a Chinese-English dictionary for my iPhone. I still draw giggles when ordering food on the street by pointing at various local variety of dumplings and blindly belting out "one of this one and one of this one and one of this one and one of this one ("yi ge zhe ge he yi ge zhe ge he yi ge zhe ge he yi ge zhe ge"), but slowly and surely I’m getting there. Learning Chinese at 26 has been markedly more difficult than Hebrew at 9 or Spanish at 13, but it’s a fantastic language and I’d highly recommend the challenge to anyone who has never dabbled in languages of the region.
In lieu of blogging when life gets busy, I’ve been feeding my photo and activity streams with trails of my adventures inside and outside of Shanghai. I spent a little time back in Los Angeles and Seattle, and took day trips to Tongli and Suzhou, beautiful places not far from Shanghai.
Last night, I arrived in Taipei, Taiwan, and wow has it been amazing. The city is packed with food streets selling endless varieties of treats that tantalize the tastebuds of passerby’s. The city landscapes are set against a backdrop of green mountains covered with trees of a variety that are so different than those I’m used to back in the US.
The attitude, and culture climate, feels different here too. While walking through Freedom Square, one encounters a playful atmosphere full of children, music, and an environment of expressive emotion. The people on the subway smile. The taxi drivers are happy and engage you in cheerful conversation. There’s a refreshing feeling of independent thought and awareness in the air that is difficult to explain but easy to sense.
The highlight of Taipei so far has been a visit to the National Palace Museum, housing exquisite Chinese art and cultural pieces from 8000 years of history. The collection is rare in that it escaped the destruction of the cultural revolution by being shipped to Taiwan during China’s Communist/Nationalist civil war. It is an incredible display of art and treasure and so very unique from those I’ve seen at museums in the West, and quickly elicits responsive, beautiful feelings of emotion.
I’m traveling in Taiwan with Chinese colleagues from the mainland, and I am continuing to learn so much about this part of the part of the world I’ve never before made the opportunity to explore.
And I know I’ve only just begun to skim the very surface of its culture and its history.
What a great feeling.
Hi! Welcome to my new blog and web site! I’m writing from a table at one of my new favorite local coffee shops, Figaro Coffee Company near Xintiandi. It came highly recommended by a colleague, and features a pretty decent American breakfast menu, great coffee, a reliable wireless Internet connection, and a comfortable environment for working, reading, or geeking out with your Lenovo Thinkpad.
There will be plenty of time to write about myself, my thoughts on technology, politics, religion, economics, and… exactly what brought be to China. But for now, let’s kick things off with a list of some of my most fun experiences from the past 30 days! Without further adieu…
Top 10 “Oh Fuck, I’m Actually Living in China!” moments (so far)
10. Walking into Pizza Hut at Xujiahui, only to discover that in China Pizza Hut is a 5 star restaurant with mahogany wood and gold decor. Instant flashbacks to Demolition Man: “All restaurants are Taco Bell!”. Fun fact: There seem to be more Pizza Huts, KFCs, and Haagen Dazs in Shanghai than I’ve ever encountered before.
9. Realizing rather quickly that one’s much better suited to sit inside, rather than outside, for a fresh of breath air at the local Starbucks.
8. Taking fighting over the bill to the next level. In China, splitting is faux paux, and everyone is eager to pay. Best ChinesePod lesson ever.
7. First, growing incredibly frustrated when a plethora of web sites fail to load. Next, beginning to slowly adjust to a censored Internet. Finally, sadly realizing that 9 times out of 10 I’m not willing to exert the effort to circumvent it, and that this is precisely why it’s so effective.
6. First, growing incredibly angry at the culture of rushing into subways and elevators before letting people exit (despite clearly drawn yellow/red signs). Next, starting to do the same in order to survive. Finally, finding myself shoving into a subway car so packed that even local Chinese wait for the next train, then riding like a sardine swaying back and forth with nothing to grab onto feeling every curve of the the body next to me pushing up against mine.
5. Opening accounts at a bank, and at China Mobile, on my second day in the country, without a word of Chinese, as every employee and intern gathered ’round to help by contributing their couple words of English and gawk over my recently unlocked “iPhone-eh!” Giggling slightly as the intern with long fingernails kept pressing the wrong numbers on the screen and handing it back to me to start over.
4. Making the mistake of ordering a large number of servers from a US retailer on my own, only to receive an email from UPS entirely in Chinese upon arrival at customs 3 days later. Watching in amazement for 3 weeks at the process involving a dozen people, fifty or so emails and phone calls, in-person visits to banks to transfer funds, arcane paper processes involving multiple “company chops”, and 20-30% customs duties plus daily holding fees to bail them out. Again, watching my mindset slowly transition from one of defiance to resigning to compliance.
3. Coming to terms with the strange fact that the largest denomination of currency in China is equivalent to $14 US, checks do not exist, and credit cards are still uncommon. To put things in concrete terms, to buy a Macbook Air at the local electronics market, you might carry over $3500 US, or 25,000 RMB, or 250 paper bills.
2. Getting my first ultrasound. Yes, you heard right. To work here, foreigners must undergo a full health inspection — a very strange process involving changing into a somewhat revealing robe and walking room-to-room in public with various doctors and technicians poking, prodding, taking blood, and yes, performing an ultrasound on both men and women. Just smile and nod!
1. My absolute favorite Oh Fuck, I’m Actually Living in China moment so far… just has to be sitting smack down on top of an old woman on the subway. While I’d heard how precious a commodity subway seats were, I never could’ve imagined that in the milliseconds between turning 180 degrees and sitting down, a little old woman could dart halfway across a subway car and place herself underneath me! I quickly turned to apologize, and there she was, sitting with a big grin on her face. People around me giggled at the slow, silly 老外 (lao-wai).
Finally, before leaving Figaro in search of a haircut, I’d like to leave you with my favorite piece of Chingrish so far, courtesy of the elevator in my temporary apartment:
Until next time… be well!
I’m beat. Life is flying by at a thousand miles per hour and I’ve made little downtime to stop and catch my breath. New country, new language, new home, new work, new friends — have left little opportunity for tranquility or balance.
As the range of interactions begins to expand, so do the language requirements. Cold and Hot and No Good no longer suffice when trying to explain to a plumber in broken Mandarin that the shower faucet is having problems mixing the two together to arrive at Warm. And so, in my third month, for the first time since arriving to China, I broke out the Lonely Planet phrase book, and soon after found a Chinese-English dictionary for my iPhone. I still draw giggles when ordering food on the street by pointing at various local variety of dumplings and blindly belting out "one of this one and one of this one and one of this one and one of this one ("yi ge zhe ge he yi ge zhe ge he yi ge zhe ge he yi ge zhe ge"), but slowly and surely I’m getting there. Learning Chinese at 26 has been markedly more difficult than Hebrew at 9 or Spanish at 13, but it’s a fantastic language and I’d highly recommend the challenge to anyone who has never dabbled in languages of the region.
Last night, I arrived in Taipei, Taiwan, and wow has it been amazing. The city is packed with food streets selling endless varieties of treats that tantalize the tastebuds of passerby’s. The city landscapes are set against a backdrop of green mountains covered with trees of a variety that are so different than those I’m used to back in the US.
The attitude, and culture climate, feels different here too. While walking through Freedom Square, one encounters a playful atmosphere full of children, music, and an environment of expressive emotion. The people on the subway smile. The taxi drivers are happy and engage you in cheerful conversation. There’s a refreshing feeling of independent thought and awareness in the air that is difficult to explain but easy to sense.
The highlight of Taipei so far has been a visit to the National Palace Museum, housing exquisite Chinese art and cultural pieces from 8000 years of history. The collection is rare in that it escaped the destruction of the cultural revolution by being shipped to Taiwan during China’s Communist/Nationalist civil war. It is an incredible display of art and treasure and so very unique from those I’ve seen at museums in the West, and quickly elicits responsive, beautiful feelings of emotion.
