The adventures of a self-declared permanent student

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!

posted by Jenn @ 11:42 a.m.