Extra! Extra!
Well, I'm at another fun filled day at work. I must admit, I'm a little hungover today, so it makes work all that much harder, but I suppose I should recount the actions of the past few days before charging right into today! I last left you on September 22, which was last Thursday. Well, I spent Friday trying to find out how to get a student card (which was supposed to be done by our organizing group, but wasn't), after getting 3 photos (which I had taken at home) and filling out a few forms (one asking me for my religion & hobbies - I hope God understands when I put "none" only to avoid any funny business & what was I supposed to put for hobbies? Reading? Watching soap operas? I'm not sure what they expected) Anyways, after planning to leave for the "fake market" at 10, the student card business and other fun miscommunication - one of which was a girl falling back asleep - we finally left at about noon and arrived closer to one. We shopped for about 3 hours, oh my goodness, I've never seen so much Prada, Gucci and burberry!! Ridiculous! I bought myself a pair of earrings, a pair of Louis Vuitton Sandals and a couple of tank tops for about 30 bucks (altogether). It was wild, and I was exhausted! I had a pretty bland weekend, lots of essays and assignments this week, but last night (Sunday night) there was a Queen's Alumni event at a wine bar called Senses. We met John Dixon
the Associate Vice Principal (Academic) of Queen's University, a very nice man, who is here for the centenary celebrations being held by Fudan University (I saw a bunch of it televised - it was wonderful, except for the foreign student's bit - it was a little bit of a disaster). Anyways, besides the 14 or so of us, there were only 2 other alumni who came. Needless to say, there was lots of wine, some "finger food" (onion rings and chicken fingers), and overall a pretty fun night.
* Right about here is where my e-mail to myself ends (where I wrote the post at work this morning) and I started to write about teh rest of my day, but Blogger sucks my bum, and when I went to spell check it, asked me to log in again, and lost the entire post. So I'm a little peeved! *
This morning I was woken up by a knock at my door, turns out Sophie, my Fudan buddy, found out where I lived (in which room) and had to wake me up because I didn't set my alarm last night (no mom, I didn't have that much wine). Well, I may have looked like I just got up (which I did) but I was pretty good (and got a seat pretty early on the one hour ride to work in the mornings). I met with a few people at the paper and now I'm going to be writing about gender issues (their "feminist section - which is not really what it is, but it's what they call it). The first one is about how the university declared equality boundaries completely overcome (in enrollment) because over half of freshment are female. That's not to say that it isn't distributed equally, which is what I'd like to look at for this article. But if you'd like to read more, you'll have to tune in!
Later folks
Take that China!
I have finally found a way to get around the whole not being able to see people's blogs: Queen's Webproxy! Woo hoo, that pain-in-the-ass exambank thing actually comes in handy!! Well, I had a fun filled day of the Shanghai Star (where I spent the entire time doing absolutely nothing again - they want me to go to these story meetings that are ALL in Mandarin - so I get nothing out of them) then my first group language class, we did a kind of alphabet. I guess you have to speak Mandarin to know what I'm talking about. THEN, we had our first Fudan-Queen's class with our buddies on "Shanghai & Globalization" where the professor proceeded to talk about ethical relationships as they relate to the patriarchal system of China. Men control children, Husbands control wives ... needless to say I had a rough time. Three of the girls are in the women's studies department and we had a nice little de-stress together after class where we tried to figure out if our professor was a bit of a sexist jerk, he was being historical (which he wasn't) or whether he was just unable to communicate it in a way that was less awkward. Whatever the reason, it was wierd, and I don't know how I'm going to do in this class. I guess for the marks I'll just answer how I should answer, but there's going to be a lot of questioning. Yikes!
Oh, and I got lost with Melissa today on our bikes. We ended up in an under-pass, having to throw our bikes over a median so we didn't end up on the highway, couldn't get into the university campus, and finally found the main gate, where we found our padestrian friends (who had left us 15 minutes earlier because we thought we'd be "faster) who couldn't understand how they beat us to the main gate. I'm special.
Well, I'm going to cuddle up and watch some DVD's, I got season 1 of the L-word, we'll see how that goes. I have every episode of buffy - ever, and a few movies. I can't decide! AND, I'm going to the fake market tomorrow!! Woo hoo!! Burburry for everyone!
Goodnight!
Oh, love
this too! Ahh Queen's!
I'm a little Neon-ed out
After class yesterday (the one where I wrote the procrastinating post) I ended up in a small French bakery on campus with two classmates, Donald & Christine. Now, I know there are a lot of "foreign" eatery places, and from personal experience they're kind of crap (I guess you guys don't really have it in context, but by comparing Chinese food here to back home, home is not so much Chinese food as it is funny flavoured crap). This place, upon opening the door, smelled like heaven. There were pastries & croissants, cakes, rolls, sweets - I almost died on the spot. It was amazing, and well worth the 3 bucks for a cappuccino and swiss roll (chocolate-cake type dessert). We stayed for a while and then headed back to rez. Here's where what I can only describe as a miracle occured: Donald doesn't have a bike, and both Christine & I didn't really want to walk our bikes home, so I packed all of our stuff in my basket, Donald took Christine's bike, I hopped on mine, and Christine hopped on the back of mine. I had an entire other person sitting on this little ledge that is on all bikes out here (almost like it's meant only for other people to sit on), which other people do quite easily, but for a clunk like me, it was a feat of ungodly proportions. I wobbled a bit at first, but after we got the hang of it, it was smooth sailing (and I would NOT ride across the major intersection with her - unlike the crazier Chinese students who do it like it's nothing to them). But I survived, Christine is unscathed, and Donald realized that he can once again ride a bike. Woo hoo!
Christine & I later decided to go downtown shopping. We left at about 5 for People's Square (people here compare it to Time's Square, but it's not really - there are lots of lights and cars & people, but it's more just a major intersection, like Younge & Queen, or Younge & Bloor - it depends on where you go from here that really gets you to the cool places) and went to Raffle City, a pretty hip mall, and upon entering it I discovered that I could afford NOTHING! Well, I could afford it, but it's no cheaper than in Canada, and I'm just not cool enough (or crazy enough) to wear a lot of the clothes. I know there is a really interesting fashion sense among young women (and men, but to a lesser degree) here that only partially crosses over to many Asians living in Canada, who usually end up with a Canadian interpretation of these funky styles. It's absolutely wild! After wandering around a bit, gawking at prices (700 sounds like it's soooo much, and it is, but in context, it's only about a hundred Canadian dollars) and finally stopping for some Japanese eel and veggies at this busy little restaurant in the basement. It was quite good!
We then wandered outside and down Nanjing Lu as it turned into the padestrian mall, several blocks of neon lights and no cars (except for the tram-type thing that transports people from one end to the other). We wandered in & out of so many stores & shops (the one thing I'll give clothing stores here is that they're all completely different. You will never find the same thing in another store. It may be similar, but it's still unique) and wandered into a store called "supermart" that had a special of 2 shirts for 50 RMB, about 9 bucks. They were all kinda gross, but the price was right, so we kept on looking and I found 2 great skirts for 90 RMB (together). I couldn't believe that I found bottoms that fit me!! Woo hoo!!! They're knee length, one is black and one is kind of a brighter blue, and I kind of have to watch going down to the subway, because they totally blow up. I don't need to give anyone a show. They're pretty, not fancy or anything, just casual. I'm so happy!!!
After the exciting purchase, we continued down the street, and I had my first taste of green tea ice cream at a tea store (it was pretty good! I also smelled some of the most fantastic Jasmine tea I've ever smelled!) and Christine got a chocolate sundae at McDonald's (her first McDonald's experience here). We went right down to the water looking for for this sex shop that was supposed to be kinda fun, but it was closed, so we just grabbed a cab home, and went to bed (it was about 11:30pm).
The next day I woke up at the crack of 7 (hey, that's early for me!) and went to the Shanghai Museum with Donald. It took about an hour to get there, and we had some time to kill before it opened, so we grabbed a drink (and Donald an ice cream - breakfast of champions) and headed back over. At 9AM I was sweating like it was nobody's business. I felt like I was in a freaking sauna. Ah well, at least the museum was air conditioned (I almost went to the old city to walk around, but I fear I may have died of heat exhaustion - the museum was a good call). It's this really funny shaped building and it holds a lot more than you might think, yet it's still kind of tiny for a city of this size. Well, there was a big Louis XIV exhibit (probably on loan from the Louvre) so we went there first. It was like I wasn't in China, they had classical (or Baroque?) French music playing, it was still early so no one else was really around, it was really cool. Lots of portraits and pictures of Versailles (ver-sails - haha!) which was kind of neat because I can remember being there a while ago (grade 11? Holy crap).
We also saw the Jade exhibit (one of my favourites, the carving was beautiful and some of the artifacts were from the 31st century BC - do you know how long ago that was??), paintings, calligraphy (which I only half appreciate. The text is beautiful, but because I can't read the poetry or even the writing to get an idea of how it was used, I feel I may be missing something - but the writing is beautiful, lots of different styles of script), sculptures (I also really liked this, more for its beauty - lots of Buddhas) and seals (no, not the animal. Kind of hard to explain, Donald had to tell me more about them, but I forget a little. Maybe next class when I'm procrastinating again, I'll expand).
Donald and I were a little late getting back for class (only 30 minutes of a 2 hour class) and didn't miss much, but well worth the lateness. Turns out getting a train ticket is not as easy as you thing. The Enlish speaking counter is a bit of a misnomer at the railway station. I'm going to look into a travel agent, or worst case scenario, get a flight out for 900 Y and go through the hostel for tickets along the way
Then came the thunder storm as I was walking home (being late for class, I didn't ride my bike, just took the cab from the station straight to the class building - so no bike!) the biggest rainstorm came. Luckily I was only a short distance from home, but the last 30 meters drenched me completely! There were a couple of lighting strikes that I could see from my balcony that were sooo close! I thought it might hit the building.
I also recieved the best present ever, a tube of Canadian paraphenelia! I have a huge flag to hang on my wall (I was going to put it on my door, but my room is so dull, I'll put a little one on my door, so if someone steals it, I'll be less sad. I have tons of stickers and a couple of postcards. It's awesome!! (thanks mom!!) (and dad!!)
Well, it's 9:30, I'm going to go downstairs and get some rice-cream mmmmmm.
It feels a little like Kingston ...
I’m procrastinating in class while I write this today. It’s OK mom, we’re summarizing readings, and the girl who is going now is summarizing the first half of the book that I had to (and hance had to read all of to get the context of it all). Again, it’s been a dry couple of days, we finally finish up our daily classes on Thursday, have our first language class Thursday night, and a day off on Friday! (well, there’s another language class that afternoon, but it’s OK, if I leave early, I can go see something touristy, all of the sites keep banker’s hours, closing at 4:30 or 5pm at the latest. That kinda blows for me, as I don’t finish class until 3:30.
I’m sorry Mila & Mirek, I’m not heading to Canton. Not yet. I have 5 days at the end of December to travel a little more before I go, so I might see what I can do then. It’s also friggin hot here, and as I’m a sweaty girl, I’d rather go somewhere a little more temperate for my break. So, I am booking a train to Xi’an this afternoon (at the English counter in the railway station – and then wander myself downtown for a bit). Xi’an is the burial place of the first Emperor of Qin, the brutal tyrant who is credited with unifying the seven warring states of China, and creating a single unified language and cuurency system.. Violent guy, but really had a hand in shaping modern China. Anyways, in 1975 a farmer accidentally unearthed hundreds of terracotta warriors and horses (each one with a unique face, indicating that they were possible based on live models), and they realized that it was to protect the tome of Qin Shi Huang, the very first emperor of China around 200 BCE. Then I’m going to hook up with Hilary in Xi’an and head to Luoyang, another one of the seven ancient cities, and see the grottoes & temples (it has the first Buddhist temple in all of China). Should be pretty cool!!
I’m working on a photo webpage, so as soon as it’s up, I’ll post the addy for y’all!
Later
Happy Mid-Autumn festival! Moon cakes for everyone!
Yes, folks, I’ve been an incredible slacker. I must sadly admit I haven’t done anything too exciting since the four seasons. Mostly eating, reading, eating some more, and some napping. It’s sooo hot here, it’s almost unbearable to go outside, but I make the daily trudge to class (haven’t missed on yet! Then again, there are only 14 people in class, so it’s kind of hard to miss when we’re not there). I was hoping to go to the museum yesterday, but plans fell through (it was one girl’s birthday last week so we went out to a bar called
B:Lo – great breaks, but there was no one there! Oh well, we stayed for the ½ price drinks for ladies – there are lots of that around here –but the guys here aren’t really looking for girls like us, which is definitely NOT a bad thing). We followed a Frommer’s guide to a place called Shanghai Sally’s. Sadly, it didn’t exist, hence us ending up at this empty, yet very fun bar. The company (the girls I went with) were awesome, we had such a blast, and it was nice not to be harassed by drunk doods (yes, intentionally spelled that way), like at Stages. Oh, dirty little Kingston!! How I miss you!
Today is the
mid-autumn festival. I was woken up at 8:30 in the freakin’ morning by a marching band RIGHT outside the international rez. I wonder if they were out there to provide entertainment, it certainly isn’t the busiest intersection, or to wake up the large percentage of internationals who would have gone out on a Saturday night (not me!). The worst part was that they kept stopping for speeches that I couldn’t hear, so I kept thinking that the band was over, then lo & behold, it would start right back up again! It was an … interesting … wake-up.
People buy “moon cakes” and give them to their family & friends. You never buy them for yourself, but most people don’t like them because they’re too sweet. They’re this puck-shaped pastry (if you can call it that) that is filled with a number of different fillings, from mixed nuts, to egg yolk (like flan), and sweet bean paste. I had one in class that one of the municipal officials bought for us, and it was horrid. My buddy, Sophie, also got me one, and hers looked different. It was actually pretty good. It was a much flakier pastry with a sweet bean paste, sunflower seeds and a little bit of rose (at least that’s what she said). It was not heinous. Anyways, the moon festival is the third biggest national holiday (according to some internet thing) but most people here don’t consider it a holiday since it occurs on a Sunday, but everyone spends the day with family, or goes home for the weekend to celebrate with their families. Two of the girls, Melissa & Cassie both have family in China so they’re spending the day with them, the rest of us are S.O.L, and have to just think longingly of our own back home, since everyone at home is sleeping now.
Actually outside my window right now there are some fireworks, a small display but still beautiful. What a nice night for it!
Also, there are a few bats who like to hang outside of my window (well, this entire side of the building). It’s actually pretty cool, there are lots of insects, so I’m sure it’s a feast, but it’s neat to be so high up that they’re right at my level!
Well, I have some essaying to do, later folks, keep e-mailing, I love to hear from you!
Khanun, what have I ever done to you?
So Shanghai has issued a typhoon warning today for tonight & tomorrow (and I have to go to my first day of work tomorrow - that totally blows!). Yay! It's raining, but not torrential and it's really windy (but I'm also up on the 19th floor), so I guess you could infer that a "storm's a-brewin'".
What exactly is a
typhoon??
Here's a link to the projected path as of 8:00pm here, or 8:00am Toronto time. I'll keep looking to see what it does tomorrow morning. I hate being wet. I love rain, but hate wet.
Other than that, there isn't much to report. I've had a couple of relaxing days, I figure next weekend I'll do some touristy things. I'm also planning to go away for the national holiday the first week of October. I'm looking into Xian, where the terracotta warriors are, there is some beautiful scenery, parks etc. The only problem is that I'm sure a lot of people from my program will be there (Queen's people) and I'd really like to get away from them for a bit. But maybe not, we'll see, it's a decently sized city, I can avoid them if I want to, right? I just like the loner traveller thing so much. I speak so little to anyone that I relish the silence. It's wierd, I know.
Oh, and I've also realized that I'm too big & fat for this country.
They only make girls shoes up to about an 8 1/2. For my 9 1/2 to 10 sized feet, I'm stuck with boy shoes or no shoes at all. Silly diminuitive Asian genetics! And the fat part: I'm bigger than a size 2, so anything in the cool stores won't come close to fitting me. I may be able to find a couple of shirts, but even there my chest is a little bit too "busty" (which is a total LAUGH!) for the fitted shirts. I should have brought more clothes with me. Oh well, more room for purses & DVDs (yes, the whole series of Buffy I got for less than 20 Canadian dollars!! Woo hoo!!!!!).
Well, this big girl is going to go do her readings. Have a good night, and think of me if the typhoon ends up on the news! (which it probably won't. This part of the world racks up 1/3 of all tropical storms - and the Indian Ocean racks up another good sized chunk - so it's pretty standard, although they've evacuated 100 000 people from Shanghai - again, in a city of 17 million - 10 in the metropolitan area alone - it's peanuts!)
Not What Vivaldi Had In Mind!
So I spent last night at the 4 Seasons in Shanghai. Something every student can afford (yeah, right!). Seriously, though, it was Cassie's birthday last Wednesday and her dad is in town, and as a present, set her up in a room for the evening at one of the prettiest hotels I've ever seen. The huge gold ceilings, white people everywhere (trust me, it's rare enough to notice when there are several in a contained area), shiny floors, and a beautiful waterfountain. There were staff to stand by the door and greet you, open cab doors, open the hotel doors, take your luggage, watch your luggage, just say hello, check you in, check you out, attend to every little need the people staying at the hotel had. I swear, at some moments, it seemed like there were more staff than guests. Well, after looking like a complete idiot, staring with my jaw wide open, we dropped our stuff off in the room (2 single beds, I took the floor with Elena, Cass got her own bed and Kate & Hilary spooned in the second bed) we went out for dinner across the street. I don't even know the name of the place, it could probably hold 20 people max, but it was hugely popular with celebrities from China, Hong Kong, and the surrounding area (Jackie Chan and Zhong Yamou are big fans). We had so much food, a bottle of red wine from Tianjin (where Cassie's family is originally from) and indulged ourselves in one of the best meals I've had in the city. We ate everything from duck liver, to an entire fish, a wonderful tomato soup with thick, flat rice noodles. Yum!! And the food kept coming! We then wandered downtown for a few hours, ending up in an old restored part of town that now houses a number of different establishments all inspired by different internation cultures. There were wine & cigar bars, bistros, a Moulin-Rouge inspired restaurant with entertainment, coffee houses, tea houses, lounges, Zen bars, and we ended up at an Italian Gelato dessert place (of course, no one working there was Italian), that was fantastic. After a long night of eating, we headed back to the hotel, started up a movie (first Harry Potter, but the quality sucked, then Finding Neverland, but we fell asleep) and went to bed. Hilary and Elena had to get up early for their placement, so the rest of us stuck around, went for an amazing breakfast at the hotel (which normally costs 220 RMB, or almost 40Cdn - but it was included in the room), which had omlettes, cereal, french pastries (very well done!), Chinese dumplings, crispy bacon, wow, it was fantastic. We then went for a bit of a swim and indulged in the steam room & sauna after. I could have lived in the Women's changeroom, no problems! We checked out at 1pm, and Cass' dad came by and took Cass, Kate & I shopping (the only ones left) in an underground shopping plaza (that was so big, I got completely lost). There was nothing I really wanted (or could afford) down there, so I just looked around (don't worry mom, I haven't hit the knock-off market yet, so I'll get your stuff when I get there). After a long day, I headed home with Kate on the Metro, and sadly enough, encountered yet another physically deformed child begging for money. My dad told me that in Shenzhen, it wasn't unusual for parents to mutilate their children so that they would get more money from begging. I have a feeling that this isn't a novel experience, and that I will encounter it quite frequently.
Anyways, the point is: if you ever have more money than you know what to do with, the Four Seasons is a great way to spoil yourself, and apparently it's not the best hotel in the city. The 6 star hotel is a little cheaper because it's not in as nice a location (not a bad location, just further from downtown). Oh well, the price you pay...
Crazy/Beautiful
With so much less happening now, I feel I can create smaller posts, hopefully with some increasing frequency. I forget where I left off, but I'll cover some topics of interest:
Driving
Holy crap. I don't understand how people don't get killed on a daily basis EVERYWHERE. Bikes (of which there are hundreds - probably hundreds of thousands in this city - motorized or regular bikes) do not obey traffic signals. It's especially fun when your cabbie is making a left turn in a busy intersection and a bike comes barreling out down the street in front of you (where you can't see it behind a car). Cars obey lights, pedestrians, for the most part will obey lights, but bikes are some kind of omni-powerful force of transportation that transcends traditional road rules. I have to get me one of those! Oh, and no one wears a helmet. I mean NO ONE! I would feel safe helmet-less on campus, but on the streets? Hells no! I'm even freaked out when I'm in the cab (where you can buckle yourself in in the front, but not the back seats, but if you sit behind the driver, there's a clear plastic barrier that isolates him from the rest of the passengers - it's kinda weird). People go on the wrong side of the road to pass, honk ALL DAY, just to say "hi, I'm here", not for any real reason. It's bizarre. I've been some crazy places, but all of the internationals agree, this is by far the worst.
Cabs are cheap, though. An expensive ride is 50 Kuai (Chinese dollars) which ends up being less than 10 bucks, split 3 or 4 ways, it's nothing. We're talking 40 minute cab ride.
I've made a lot of "friends" on campus, Chinese students who approach white students and ask them to be their "friend" for speaking English. We had so many offers today, that we had to say no to everyone. It's so funny, and I hang out with 2 blonde girls, who just get stared at constantly. I find it quite entertaining.
Orientation for foreign students is going to be held tomorrow, so I'll meet a lot of people in the residence (finally - this place is freaking huge - 35 rooms per floor, about a quarter of them are doubles, maybe less than that - and there are 23 floors). The residence is actually completely surrounded by gates, and should it ever be necessary can be completely fenced in. I'm still discussing with my Canadian friends whether it is to keep us in, or keep bad things out ... I opt not to express an opinion at this time, should my posts be monitored (which is very likely). I've signed in after midnight yesterday, and apparently if you do that too many times, they "watch you more closely" whatever that means. I guess it's just not what I am used to, so I better learn.
Today I had a really alarming experience on the Bund today (the river area that runs through the city at the shopping district. More lights than Piccadilly x 1000. Ads & signs everywhere. The signage business must be booming. It's ridiculously beautiful, but there are little boys (and older boys) flicking cards at you for the bar they work for/underground market/strange facility. I don't stop to take the cards because if I do, I'm not sure if I'll be surrounded by the boys or whether I'll get a million cards. I've seen them open women's bags and throw a bunch in. I clutched mine the entire stretch home.
The most disturbing thing I've seen so far was this evening walking back from a beautiful bar where the class said goodbye to Emily Hill, a lovable, eccentric Chinese History professor from Queen's. She did the course for free, since she was in China anyways researching a book on the economic development of some province (I forget) in the 1920's. Quite specific. Well, we were walking home, I was ahead with 2 other girls, we stopped to ask where the subway stop was and had a phrase book that we showed a local traffic cop/director. While we were talking to him, a girl came running up (at top speed) to Kate (a B'n'I - just for you Lucas! She's a really pretty girl with bright blonde, curly hair - kinda sticks out) and shoved a hand in her face and screamed "money" a bunch of times. What was more startling than her approach was her appearance. She looked severely burned all over her face and none of her hands had any fingers on them, scars covering her up to where her t-shirt met her elbows. My first instinct was that it was frightening, and on some level I had to force myself to remember that it's a little girl in there. She still scared the crap out of us, and we hurried on our way. No one was prepared for that, or how to deal with it appropriately. I still don't know how to deal with it. It was upsetting to say the least, and I feel a little badly about it too. Who am I to feel like a victim in this kind of situation? At the same time, I do feel like a victim. Maybe not THE victim, but definitely negatively affected by this whole experience. I have a ton of questions on whether or not she had a family, was doing this for an orphanage, why she was doing it, or what happened to her. Along the same street we passed by, perhaps, 6 beggars, all of whom were missing limbs or had very noticeable deformities. It was unsettling to say the least, and I really would appreciate it if anyone had anything else to add. It was a completely foreign situation with completely foreign feelings for me. It was an experience, I can tell you that much.
I think I've worn myself out with this last topic, and I will have a restless sleep tonight while I wrestle with what happened. Maybe it's best to just forget about it? Maybe I should do more research and find out if this is something that occurs with a certain degree of frequency. Maybe I should see if there is something I can do?
I'll be working with the Shanghai Star, a weekly English language newspaper (my first day is Monday), so I'll see how it all shuffles in together, and I'll let you all know what's going on with that as soon as I do myself!
Jenn
PS - I cannot access my blog (although I can post to it) so if you have comments that you really want me to read now, e-mail me!! 9jaw7@qlink.queensu.ca Otherwise, I'll read them when I get home in December.
and you might like this from the
Globe & Mail. Just some current events that I like to stay on top of. The NGO thing is really interesting. It is now almost impossible for an NGO to get NGO status here in China. There are extremely tight controls. The Jane Goodall foundation, that some people have a placement with, is one of the few in the area. I have another article somewhere, I just need to find it, but if you google NGO and China, I'm sure you'll find it!
Shanghai (de)constructed
I'm a little P.O'd 'cause I wrote this wicked post and it totally got destroyed, so I'm trying again, and it's way less cool.
I arrived in Shanghai a few days ago, so I apologize for the delay. Classes started the day after I arrived and with all of the registration and everything that’s been going on (including reading an entire novel for tomorrow. That blows) I’ve been (understandably) a little busy. Let’s remember where I left off:
The train to shanghai.
The train was awesome. It was a 12 hour ride, of which I was conscious for about 3 of them (I slept most of the way). The train station is huge in Beijing (and Shanghai). There are a number of tracks, and my waiting area was up on the second level (with all of the other “rich” passengers who can afford to travel on the sleeper & soft cars). I was in the first car behind the engine (which meant 10 minutes to walk from the middle of the platform – the thing was HUGE!), I had a top bunk and met a girl from Shanghai who spoke some English, which was nice. It’s a tiny little room, smaller than my Wally dorm and slept 4 people. My suitcase was far too big to store up above, so I shoved it under our “table” where we were to have dinner. Yes, dinner was provided. An airline-type meal of pork, rice and veggies. It also came with two mini-plums, a dessert cookie thing and a bun. I saved everything for the morning except the hot part of the meal. The train itself was cool, kind of loud, so I slept with earplugs, but I got to sleep around 9pm (yes, very early I know, but I was tired!) and got up around 6, giving me about an hour before we arrived in Shanghai. As we were about 45 minutes from the city, I left my room and stood in the small hallway. There are fold out seats outside of the rooms (which are all on one side of the car) beside a window so that as you walk down the hallway, one side is rooms, the other is just windows. I saw lots of construction (like Beijing) and factory after factory, half of which appeared empty. I should look into the area and see what it was. It was on the western side of the train, so if anyone cares to Google it, let me know!
I arrived at the terminal at about 7:10 am, and after getting myself completely lost, unable to contact the person who was picking me up, I wandered over to a hotel, where I found a phone & some internet access. I checked my e-mail for the right phone number and gave Mary, our Fudan contact a call. She is the sweetest person I’ve ever met, so adorable and friendly, she’s great! She also described herself as tall (which after spending a few weeks here is kind of funny, but I guess tall is all relative – she’s shorter than I am) and wearing sandals, which was hilarious, because so was everyone else. It was like playing where’s Waldo at the Shanghai railway station, only I didn’t really know what Waldo looked like. (or Where’s Wilma – which was never as fun)
The city is completely different than Beijing. The businesses are huge, everyone lives in an apartment, and I have yet to see anything resembling the hutongs of Beijing. Maybe I’m just not looking in the right area, but I don’t think they exist here. It’s all highrises and small trendy clothing stores, with a Hello-Kitty type store thrown in for good measure. Modern is definitely a good word to describe it here. The people still share some of the same characteristics as the people of Beijing, playing communal card games & other activities outside at night, and bikes galore, but there are also a lot more white people (and pretty much every colour comination you can imagine) because of the proximity of the international residence and the university itself. I’m on the 19th floor, which is still not high enough to get away from the constant horn honking and general street noise. People honk their horns here for absolutely everything: to signal that they are coming up on a pedestrian or a bike-rider, out of anger, for fun, to pass, to communicate in general. If you can count to 3 without hearing a car horn, you’re lucky, because it doesn’t happen very often. The construction here is also pretty consuming. The university is getting ready for it’s centennial (which is this year 1905-2005) so there are buildings being erected all over campus, and the general expansion of the city to meet the growing population needs. I’ll take some pictures from my balcony (yes, ,balcony!) and post it soon.
(I’ve figured out how to post photos, but it will still take me a bit to get them all up - and when I do, I have to figure out the best way to share them)
Class has been good, we started on the 1st and have been going pretty much every day save Sunday (yes, that includes a Saturday class) because Emily Hill has to go back to Queen's to teach, so she's cramming in as much Chinese history as possible. Actually we're only reading about the Qin dynasty (the first one, especially looking at philosophical teachings from 400-200 BCE), and cool things like foot binding, concubines/courtesans, nationalizing the appearance of men and the average life of a local elite man named Shen-fu in a book called 6 records of a floating life. It's pretty neat, and the class itself is kind of useless, so it's an interesting conflict in my head. The subway system is waaaayyy more packed than Beijing (some describe it here as the Asian New York) and I have yet to use the bus to figure out where to go. I will post again shortly, although I'm doing much less now that school has started, I'm going to the Sex Museum on Saturday and hopefully some shopping!! Woo hoo!!
Miss everyone!
Last days in Beijing!
August 29th
It was a bit of a slower day today, I said goodbye to two of the people in my room, Torbin & Maria as they headed off to Korea and a little further north in Beijing respectively. Severine and I decided to check out the indoor market (my second time, but really I was just enjoying the air conditioning after a sweltering day). It was fascinating to watch her bargain. She got two pairs of puma shoes for 100 yuan (less than $20) and I bought a Chinese style shirt, just because it looked so good on me! The market was 3 floors (I didn’t even know there was a third floor the first time I went, and the basement is a food market, where people are butchering live snakes and seafood right infront of you. Ewww), and each floor more interesting than the next. The bottom was electronics, fabrics & lots of chopstick sets & trinkets. The second floor was clothing, shoes, purses and accessories. The top floor was jewelery and more collectivles, especially wood carvings and china tea and dish sets. Some of it was beautiful, some incredibly tacky.
After the market I decided to go home as Severine went to the Temple of Heaven. I actually ended up at the restaurant next door (where I often write my posts on my laptop before putting it on the internet) and watched Sin City with a couple of British guests staying in my room. It was a good relaxing day. Mark & Emma (the Brits) were off at about 8pm to head to their final destination, about 14 hours North by train (I’ll have to find the name of the area) where they’ll be working with Scott, the guy I met on my first day here, at a language school. I’ve been offered a place to stay should I choose to venture that far North on my holidays, who knows? I had dinner with Kevyn (the correct spelling of his name), Janna and Severine at the hostel restaurant and after saying goodbye to Severine (5 people in the room all left on the same day!) “les boys” and I went for a stroll on the Hou Hai to find a cheap-ish bar, although none were to be found (at least not cheap by Beijing standards. It was still fairly decent, less than $5 for a double cocktail.) nonetheless we sat by the water and enjoyed a drink, les boys got a phone number from a Chinese girl studying in Japan (those players) and wandered home, stopping for a 2 yuan beer each on the way (less than 50 cents for almost a litre of beer). We stayed outside and chatted of music and the general way of life in both of our home countries. I’ve learned almost as much about French culture as I have Chinese culture on this trip so far. Weird. My Franglais is improving dramatically. Mon dieu!
We said our goodbyes last night since they were leaving for the Great Wall the next morning at 6:40 am and I would be at the train station by the time that they got back. Au revoir mon amis!
August 30, 2005
Another slightly uneventful day. I packed my things up this morning (kind of half-assed if you ask me) and brought my luggage downstairs (noisily) to store while I wasted the day away waiting for the time to leave for the train. I planned on checking out a street called Niu Jie, an old Muslim area of Beijing, and took the bus out to the southwest of the city. I must not have walked far enough, or I just didn’t look hard enough because I just couldn’t find it or the mosque that was apparently a focal point on the street. It was beautiful still, not aesthetically beautiful, but just rich with different people doing everyday things. I wandered for a couple of hours, before becoming so overwhelmed by the heat and my own exhaustion that I tried to find my way back to the bus, or possibly a taxi. I eventually found myself back where I should catch the bus (I turned around a few times trying to find a way out of the area that I was in. It wasn’t as narrow as the hutong – alleyways – like where the hostel is located, but the streets were not major ones). After missing the first bus because I thought I was at the wrong stop (I started to walk down the street a bit, and the bus came – stupid bus!), I hopped on and had a sweaty hour-long trek back to the hostel, where I had some spinach & garlic filled dumplings, read for a bit and am now drafting this post. I still have a little more than an hour before I call a cab for the train station (and hopefully don’t get lost IN the train station), and I should probably get some food for the 12 hour journey, although I do hope to be asleep for a good chunk of it – thank you benadryl or gravol (I haven’t decided my drug of choice yet).
I’ve been able to watch a little bit of Chinese TV as I lunch or dinner in the local restaurant. There are a LOT of music programs, like American Idol or Top of the Pops, where there are lots of performances, and all of them display the lyrics underneath the picture so people at home can sing along, even in music videos. There are also a lot of Chinese soap operas. Some are very period-based with emperors and great wars, some are about beautiful models who fight over who gets to wear the pink shirt in the big runway show (I can’t understand a word of it, but the basics of the storyline transcend the language barrier). It’s actually quite interesting, and I always see vendors with the TV on in the afternoons following along with their own “stories” as some people in the west call it. The music, however, is pretty good. There is a large portion of the bubble-gum pop type music, but the rap is pretty neat to listen to and there are some fantastic singers. I have a few of the names written down (along with a German techno CD and some French Frank Sinatra-esque singers – this has definitely been a multicultural experience in Beijing) and hope to look for some CD’s or MP3’s when I get to Shanghai.
Random notes:
Dogs and pets are everywhere. Just little lap dogs, nothing bigger than a terrier or cockapoo so far, and no dog on the menu (at least not here. I’ve been told that they may eat dog further south, or further north, and my cultural guru here, Scott – only because he can speak English and explain to me the intricacies of this delecate culture – told me that he has tried it on several occasions, and each time was delicious. I’ll take his word on that, but I am NOT going near anything that could have at any point resembled my puppies B&K). They really spoil their dogs, putting them in the baskets of their bikes and letting them run leashless on the streets to play with other doors and neighbourhood children. In one front yard (in the neighbourhood in which I got lost this afternoon) I even saw – and frequently heard – a rooster. That would totally drive me crazy.
**Forgetting who I gave this address to, I’m putting a little warning on the next part: There is some discussion of sexual activities in the next paragraph. If your mom/dad/parental guardian won’t let you read this, well, skip it
AND, if you are old enough to handle mature adult conversations, which I’m afraid I might not even qualify for, it’s not that graphic or anything, I’m just not sure if there are younger people who may have this blog address.
Baber shops (and not massage parlours) are a notorious front for prostitution and other “sexual favours for money” activities. That’s not to say that in all barber shops you can get a “happy ending” but it’s common knowledge here that there are many who do offer these extra services. The foreigners here liked the term “rub ‘n tug” when I explained it to them. What would you call it at a barber shop? I won’t go there ….
I love all of your e-mails, so please keep sending them. I’m having problems accessing my blog from here (although I can post to it) so I can’t check your comments, but I do read my e-mail, it’s just that with the 30 minutes for 5 yuan, I try not to spend too much time online, as it probably won’t cost nearly so much when I get to Shanghai.
