Day 13. Class Fun and finally starting to get settled in
So, yesterday I managed to get Skype working 100%. I can now call to the
US and Canada. It costs a bit, but not too much. The only difficulty is
the time difference. I'm thinking about getting a 303 number so you can all
call me and it will ring on my computer here. The difficulty being, again,
the time difference. I did have a chance to speak to my grandfather and
father yesterday though. Quite nice to hear a familiar voice. So, if you
get a weird call at a weird time. It might be me! ;)
After the "do as Romans do" comments, Kat, Zeina, and I went to Carrefour.
It is a grocery store in Hangzhou that carries western style food as well as
Chinese food. I proceeded to pick up some cheese and some western style
liquor for this weekend (I can't wait to drink a Newcastle). In addition,
I bought sheets for my bed (unusual here), some cockroach death, and a
shower curtain rod (I picked up a shower curtain the other day).
So, the little accomplishments the past two days:
1) Shower. OMG. This was the best shower ever. I can now take a
comfortable shower without water going everywhere.
2) I had cheese, crackers, and wine for dinner tonight. Wonderful.
3) Hopefully, our roommates will be gone soon.
4) Skype. What a wonderful thing. The delay is wickedly slow sometimes,
but overall -- just fine.
The next couple of days I will be out of town. Friday, I'm headed out to
Sushi with Katie and I'm also going to the Tea Museum. Saturday, I am headed
to Qian Dao (Lake of a Thousand Islands). It should be fun. We are
staying the night and heading to many islands around the lake. I'll be sure
to take pictures. =)
Not much else to report. Coming up: Tea Museum, Qian Dao, Hangzhou Beer
Festival, more school, World Cup. =)
Day 11 - Food adventures
Before I get to the meat of the post - the day went better at class. I was
less frustrated, but still a little perturbed. After the third time he
said "Do as the Romans do" in reference to a something that was said, I kind
of wanted to knock him around lightly. BTW, swimming is part of most
cultures, not just Chinese.
OK. Now to the fun part. Food. Food. Food!!!!!
I've started to venture out more than the cafeteria at school. Katie took
me to a Muslim restaurant last night. It was decent. She was extremely
disappointed based on past experiences there, but I was content. For the
first dish, we had lamb kabobs. These were spicy, spicy, and spicy. Good
stuffs. I was discouraged that they were kind of oily. The next dish was
some sort of sauce on eggplant, potatoes, and peppers. This was extremely
good I thought. It wasn't spicy, but had a super flavorful taste. We also
had some sort of fruit dish. This had a weird sauce: mayonnaise and
something else. It was good, but weird. The final dish was potato fries.
Good stuff. Lots of onions and garlic, but again SUPER oily.
ive been going to multiple bakery stops on the way to school and I've
discovered a wide variety of foodstuffs. I don't really know what they are.
I had something this morning that was fried bread, cut in half and egg
inserted inside. OMG. This, along with 2 sesame seed balls with sweet
bean inside were 3.6 Y (about 50 cents). OMG. So good.
The big thing I've discovered is that the food in Hangzhou is greasy, oily,
and fried. So, basically, the opportunity to lose weight is difficult. I
must admit, I enjoy my cardboard bowl of noodles every couple of nights (3 Y
for crappy noodles with flavored water).
I also went to the grocery store today. Interesting. I made off with
some "Beijing Duck Potato Chips" and "Lemon Potato Chips". I also picked
up some Pineapple beer. The potato chips are good. Real good in fact.
Haven't tried the pineapple beer yet. The tiramisu cakes are awesome as
well. =) Good stuff.
I was just watching Ghana vs. Brazil. Tired, so I left the bar.
Until next time
Days 8, 9, and 10 - General Madness
The past couple of days have been pretty straightforward. On Saturday, I
laid around much of the day and did work remotely. I made the excursion to
exchange some money at the Bank of China and then attempted to find some
groceries. It didn't work. I ended up back at my place sweaty and
frustrated. I took a nap and low and behold:
I have a roommate. His name is Michel and he's a 6'-5" guy from Finland.
Quite polite and friendly.
Saturday, I went out and met a friend of a friend, Katie. She's from
Minneapolis and has been here for a while. Had a great time hanging out and
learning many new things about Hangzhou - like where to buy cheese. Mmmm.
Cheese. Sunday, I laid around and did some remote work again. That
evening, Michel, Guy, and I went to Shamrock, "the only Irish bar in
Hangzhou". I know I've only been here a week, but American-style food was
sounding good. Ended up with some nachos and wings. The wings were poor,
but the nachos were decent. WAY overpriced though. Mei ban fa.
Monday, we had 2 new classmates: Michel and Ian. Ian is an older
gentleman from Australia. Quite nice. I became frustrated throughout
class though because he was paying attention and trying, but just wasn't
paying attention to the instructor who had to repeat things multiple times.
Maybe I was just tired, but whatever. Hopefully today is better.
Last night, Katie took me to some sort of Muslim restaurant. That's what
she called it. Great lamb sticks, decent food. We are supposed to go to
some sort of sushi on Wed. good times =)
Until next time
Day 7: Classes and Trips
One week ago, I arrived in Shanghai to explore this new world. The word of
the day is humble. I feel like an incompetent man wandering around a city
of approximately 6.42 Million people in the municipality of Hangzhou and about
3.93 Million people in city proper. As previously mentioned, there are
very few people that speak English here, which is good because that is why I
am here: to study Chinese. BUT - I need a helper. Hahaha I mean -- I
didn't feel this incompetent the first time I moved out on my own in Urbana,
IL. But, challenges are made to be overcome (I keep repeating this in my
mind).
Last night, Zeina, Guy, Kat, and I went out to shop, dinner, drinks, and
World Cup. Shopping was interesting. We ended up in a 5 story building in
the center of the city with little shops everywhere. Neat place. There
were many "knock offs", but nothing of the quality we normally expect. Guy
showed me his watch and the Roman numeral for 4 (IV) was put on the watch as
IIII. And "Puma" was misspelled as "Pmua" We also found a store called
"Cavern Kernel" that represents Calvin Klein. I *am* going to try and get a
Cavern Kernel shirt. Reminds me of the Massive Magazine t-shirts (I wish I
bought a few of those. The only one I had has been destroyed by overwear).
Dinner was at some cafeteria style place. Guy and I had the "huntun"
(sorry, no accents for you!) and a cardboard cup of beer. The huntun's
were 9Y/each (about $1.15) and the beer was 4Y (about $0.50). Not too
shabby. We ended up at some bar that was showing the World Cup and they
were showing the CzechV.Italy match. Whatever. We ordered some Carlsberg
(buy 6, get 6 free!) and started playing this dice game. After a while,
these two really drunk Chinese men come over wanting to "Cheers!" us.
(Ganbei! In Chinese, but they were proud of their English knowledge =)
They kept coming back and coming back and eventually invited us/forced us to
go to their table. They kept asking me, which was funny. We found out it
was because I am one of the biggest men they have ever seen (6 ft. 3 in. 260
lbs./ 190 cm 118 kg). Pretty funny. I'm not even that big (today someone
called me "massive") -- hahahaha Regardless, many many beers later, we
still had some left, we exited the scene. He gave me his phone number so I
could call him to drink. Mind you, the only english he speaks is
"Cheers!", "you", "me", "I", "byebye". =) It was fun. This morning I
woke up with a wicked stomachache (wo tou duzi!) All day has been horrible
- don't know if it was the food, the beer, or a mix. I usually don't get
this screwy by drinking beer.
Anyways - It was fun.
You all are probably wondering about my classes. The *real* reason I am
here. I go to school at the MANDA
Center. First, I have 6, 1 hour classes a day. I start at 9 AM and go
straight through until 1 PM. We have an hour lunch and then from 2-4PM.
The morning classes are primarily language training. Evil stuff really.
There are 3 students per class at pretty much the same level in the morning.
The instructors, Mike and Lucy, speak English pretty well. I'm focusing on
my speaking ability now because I lack proper tonal pronunciation. The
afternoon class is much different -- it is more of a "fun" class. We learn
about different items (such as the World Cup) and phrases surrounding it.
We also take trips to different places. Which brings me to:
June
20th trip to the tea house
and
June
23rd trip to the China National Silk Museum
Until next time.
P.s. Blog spot is blocked in China, so if the HTML doesn't link correctly,
please email me.
Day 6: Hangzhou goodness
Since the last post was kind of a "I miss home" post (and a bit of a downer
to write), this post is dedicated to all of things that make me happy here.
1) Food. Yes, I know I said I had problems with it. But, I love food.
And coming to China is an adventure. I am willing to try pretty much
anything, so the adventure aspect kicks in (think Indiana Jones and the
Temple of Doom - eating eyeball soup). *starts singing the Indiana Jones
theme song* The sauces are diverse, but the rest is pretty
straightforward. I've had many types of meat -- chicken (comes with bones
and skin automagically), beef, fish, etc. I don't know how a vegetarian
could survive.
2) the People. First - the produce shop has a wonderfully nice female
shopkeep. She is quite friendly and tries to help me out with my chinese
(she speaks no English). Second and most importantly - Chinese people are
friendly and curious about "white people". I use that term lightly to
describe anyone not Asian. I have been poked, touched, and stared at.
Little kids like the poking. I usually bend down and say "Ni hao" to them
-- they run away quickly. ;) I mean -- I'm 6 ft. 3 in. and about 260 lbs.
Enormous to them. Third -- I have received an enormous amount of
"hello", "thank you", "where is the bus station", and one "where is the
airport" when I am walking around. Randomly shouted from
cars/buses/people. I get confused when this happens, but I always respond
with a "ni hao" (hello)
3) money. It is very inexpensive here. Taxis are quite inexpensive. I
usually eat for $2/day. Eat well really. In fact I just bought some sweet
and sour stuff -- 15 Y = 1.875 dollars. Clothing is inexpensive. The
only things that are expensive are many electronics. Ipods and DVD players
are cheaper in the states. Weird, but even bargaining the electronics guy
down to roughly $35 for the cheapest dvd player doesn't beat the $28 Walmart
deal.
4) The city itself -- absolutely beautiful. Seriously fantastic. I'll be
taking more pictures soon I promise.
Until next time
Day 5 - LongJing Tea and much more
Oh the joys of a non-Western society. I am so entrenched in the American
way of doing things that I forget other cultures do things differently. So,
today, rather than write about my class, I present to you: The things I miss
(besides friends and family of course!)
Bathrooms. I have yet to use the "hole in the floor" bathroom. It
just...weirds me out. These are still used pretty much everywhere, but the
American style of toilet is in use much more now.
My bed. No. A bed with a mattress. At first, I thought a prank was being
pulled on me -- quite the contrary! - I don't sleep on the floor! My bed is
this wooden frame with -- strong matting in the middle. Covered nicely by a
comforter-looking garment (which is pretty by the way). On top of that
there is this bamboo-ish covering. I'm confused. I want my nice comfy
bed. There is no give to the bed sadly. Hmmm.
Air conditioning. I have it. It is a luxury here, yes. BUT - I have 3 of
them. One for each room. Maintaining a constant temperature is extremely
difficult. I'm usually up 3 times a night turning one or the other on and
off. We are so spoiled in America to have central AC.
Food. Buffalo wings and real beer, how do I miss thee? ;) The food is
pretty good really -- if I knew how to order the correct things. I've
eaten pretty much everything you could ever imagine -- dumplings - they may
seem fun in America, they are fun here -- but -- SURPRISE! You don't know
what meat you are getting! ;) I close my eyes, dip it in the vinegar and
soy sauce and down the hatch. I've given up the pretension about eating
something weird (even though I skipped the chicken feet). My mate, Guy,
said he received some glass chunks in his street vended food the other day.
As is life. It is an adventure, right?
Drinks. Beer. I miss Colorado and its 4000 beers. I've settled into a
life of Bud Ultra, Heineken, Tsing Tao, and Carlsburg. All very light,
very unflavorful beers (in my opinion). Ordering a mixed drink takes
patience - for some reason they think Americans are supermen(women) and we
have ended up with some amazingly strong drinks - scorches the mouth. Oh.
They don't have Diet Coke either (or any diet soda that I can find). Plus,
the bottled tea is hit or miss -- The Oolong cold tea - ICK. The green cold
tea - not so bad. This other one in a bluish bottle - Good!
Oh. And don't drink water from the tap. Bu hao!
A real shower. I won't go into this too much, but let's say - Figuring out
the hot water heater was funny. Now I have intensely hot water. =) But
still no shower curtain. I think I'm going to see if Guy and Zena will let
me shower at their place once. They have a glassed in shower.
Clothing. *shakes head* I brought 2 shirts with me, hoping to buy some
here. If you didn't know already, I'm a large man. (my fitted shirt size
is 17-17 1/2 and 37/38) Chinese people are small. OK. Really small.
Lily (the training center's webmaster) took me shopping and -- I wear at
least a 3X, if not 4X here (XL-XXl in America). They don't make 4X. =(
I must find more shopping.
All in all, I love it. Sure, these things could be "better", but it is
part of the cultural experience. =) Time to go see the very nice
produce lady and get some "yang mei" -- there are no American/English words
for it -- kind of like a Poplar Tree Berry. =) about $0.25 for 1/2
pound. =)
I have class in a bit, I'll post more later this evening.
Day 3 and start of Day 4 - Hangzhou
I've learned one thing - the World Cup starts too late here. The America
vs. Italy match lasted way too long and I stayed up way too late having a
few too many drinks with fellow Americans. The resulting tie (go America!)
and 6 AM bedtime did not work with a 8 AM train to Hangzhou. I missed the
first train, but jumped on the next train 40 minutes later.
The train was, to my surprise, quite nice. The gentlemen next to me and I
attempted to chat for a bit and I met a Singaporean man who was quite nice.
We spoke (mostly in English) about many things for the long ride. When I
got to Hangzhou, my ride was gone. Probably because I came late. =After taking a taxi to the headquarters of the language institute, I
couldn't find it. So, I ate at KFC. It was surprisingly easy and good.
The order taker didn't try to understand me - I was pretty irritated by that
-- how can someone get "er hao" (means "number 2") wrong? Oh well. I
pointed like a dumb Westerner and got my food.
Finally found the entrance to the building and met up with the staff. They
took me to my apartment and WOW. I mean this place is seriously beautiful.
3 bedroom apartment, wooden floors, washer/dryer, etc. I am here by myself
(at least this week). There are problems of course: how do I work the
washer/dryer (it is one unit)? How do I get hot water? (there is some sort
of hot water heater, but I am ignorant on how to use it) - The bed is weird.
(more on that in another post). The air conditioner works though.
Thankfully. It is HOT HOT HOT here. About 90 F? It is hard to tell since
I am in the artificial air all the time and then step into the heat.
I'll post more about class later -- It is 1 AM, just got done hanging out
with fellow students near West Lake watching football. The Swiss won and
Ukraine was on its way to winning.
Day 2 - Exploring Shanghai
I'm pretty adjusted to the time change already -- Yesterday I was tired, but
today I woke up at 6 AM - like I normally do. I messed around for a bit
and watched ESPN trying to catch up on my sporting news (world cup action!)
I decided to stroll around the city early in the morning, so I started out
with my backpack and hiked on.
Since I am near the Shanghai Railway Station, I tried to go buy a ticket for
my Hangzhou trip tomorrow. WOW. Insanely packed. Confusion reigned
supreme at the ticket booth. I couldn't read the signs and didn't know where
to go, but found the closed English speaking counter. I guess I'll wait
until tomorrow.
I wandered around for about 3 hours. I didn't take any photos as the whole
city was in this weird rainy smog grossness. I couldn't see to the end of
the block and it was drizzling, so I passed on the photos for today. After
awhile I wandered into a random storefront and all of the sudden it was an
open grocery market. Odd. A lot of interesting foods. I didn't buy
anything, but once I got outside I tried to purchase some bakery from one of
the vendors. I wanted 2 rolls, but she started to give me 8. I didn't want
them all! Come to find out: 8 rolls are 1 yuan! (1 yuan = roughly 1/8
dollar). =) After I enjoyed some rolls I hiked around for a while. I
ended up at some shopping district. Interesting place: 5 floors of small
shops. Chinese women, like their American counterparts - LOVE clothes. It
was packed. 3 taxi drivers and much confusion later - I ended up at my
hotel and took a nap.
Nate called around 6. Nate and I went to Univ. of Iowa together and he
ended up doing consulting here. He picked me up due to my lack of ability
to navigate the railway station. We headed to a high end dumpling place -
great great food. A bit expensive for Shanghai, but just nice by me.
Afterwards, many drinks and many bars later - we caught up on old times, new
adventures, and China. Since he had to work tomorrow, I headed back to my
hotel to catch the World Cup match at the hotel bar. It is pretty packed
for 2 AM. Fun though. =)
Tomorrow: Train rides and finding where I will be living.
Day 1 - Shanghai
So, I arrived. To great fanfare. OK. 14 hours after I left Chicago, I
was now a visitor to China. As Americans we are taught by our media that
China is an oppressive government that restricts everything -- well - they
let me in. My passport was stamped, declared nothing at customs and headed
through to catch my first taxi. I think I said 4 words to the airport
officials. Not that I was being unfriendly, they just had a big plastic
barrier between us.
The taxi ride was quite extended to the hotel (Holiday Inn downtown). In
America, it would have been about $100-125 - Shanghai: roughly $30. Got
checked in, showered, set up - headed out for a walk to maybe get some food.
Let me say: I am woefully unprepared for this. I speak Chinese poorly.
Even worse - I read even more poorly. Food was difficult, so I wimped out
and got hotel food for the first night. Too much stress.
Most people don't know this, but I am extremely fearful of new places and
doing new things. I know many of my friends reading this are not believing
this statement at all -- but I am. For example, it took me 2 weeks of
waking up early, getting ready -- to get up the nerve to go to the new
workout facility (Ritchie Center at DU). I know this is kind of weird, but
whatever - it is me! Anyways, I've taken great steps to overcome these
fears in the past - and this is another step in overcoming this fear.
Wow. This hurts. I'm thrown into a mix where basically NO ONE knows
English and I know very little Chinese. I've tried using my Chinese, but I
feel embarrassed by my lack of linguistic skill. I know. I know. Practice
makes perfect, but I feel so insecure with my language skills.
The only things I don't like so far are the 14 hour flight and the lack of
decent beer.
Until next time.
My first post - Leaving tomorrow morning!
This is my introductory blog about my trip to Hangzhou, China. Not much to say yet -- I'm in a hotel in Portage, Indiana waiting for tomorrow morning to come. My family is dropping me off at the 95th and Halsted el line on the southside of Chicago early in the morning. My flight leaves at 11 AM tomorrow morning for a non-stop flight to Shanghai. I will be in Shanghai for two nights before heading to Hangzhou. Hopefully this email post works -- I'm curious to see if the XML feed to LJ works too.
