(Friday, February 2, 2012)
For those of you wondering…yes, I’m still alive!
Unfortunately, the great firewall of China has been preventing me from
blogging. No surprise – It also blocks facebook, youtube, and most other
enjoyable websites. But curiously Bible Gateway and Wikipedia both work. Hmm. Now let me recap the last 3 days (sorry if
this ends up super long).
The plane ride over was interesting. Let’s just say I
experienced a little culture shock in row 38. The man next to me was a very
friendly (too friendly?) Chinese man from Shanghai, age 60. He spoke basically
no English, which gave me a chance to practice my Chinese right away. That was
the good part. Bad part was that he didn’t seem to have any interest at all in
sleeping. No sir, he was content sitting there and asking me random questions
which I either didn’t know how to answer in Chinese, or just plain didn’t know.
Our conversations included all sorts of fascinating topics. What do people on
the west coast do for a living? Where does the water go when plums are
dehydrated? He also continually told me not to drink ice in my water – “bad for
your health”. Yet it wasn’t the lost hours of sleep that bothered me, it was
our different understanding of personal space. I had read about this in books,
but experiencing it firsthand is a whole ‘nother game. I’m not the type of
person who freaks out when other people are too close, but I’m not sure if that
has ever applied to contact with strangers. I can’t accurately explain it
without a picture. Let’s just say leaning/reaching/laying over other people was
not something he gave a second thought about. But trust me, I handled it much
better than the American girl sitting on the other side of him. I told her she
should probably get used to it.
Anyways, after 12 minutes in a car, 2.25 hours on a bus,
14.75 on a plane, and finally a 1-hour van ride, I arrived safely at my hotel
in Shanghai! Driving from the airport was a strange mix of feelings. First of
all, there’s this sense that you can’t actually just be somewhere half way
around the world when yesterday you were at home. But clearly that isn’t the
case. There I was, being driven into a city of 17 million people, surrounded by
signs I couldn’t read and flocks of cranes – construction cranes, of course –
the national bird of China. The city seemed to expand endlessly in every
direction. In Shanghai, seeds grow into skyscrapers and spiders spin webs of
power lines. I wouldn’t be surprised if the population of Waukesha could fit in
the size of a football field here.
Breakfast the next morning was rather un-breakfasty. Fried
rice, dumplings, noodles, soup, etc. The exception was watermelon and kiwi
juice. I tried some porridge with preserved egg. Sketchy. Eggs are normally not
greenish black. I feel no need to try it again.
I got picked up for work in the company van. Drivers in
Shanghai = insane. I’ll rant about that later. I spent the day at the Taicang
office, where I met scads of people and got kidnapped for lunch by 4 people I
didn’t really know. It was fun – we went out to a local noodle place, and I
told them to order for me since I had no clue what to get. When I asked them
what I was eating, they told me “shan”. Okay. I later looked up shan and
discovered that it was eel. Sometimes it’s better not knowing until afterwards
^_^
In the evening, I went into the downtown financial district
with two other Americans from work who were visiting China. We took the subway,
which was super nice. Clean, cheap, and easy to use. Win.
Today was somewhat of a blur. I went to the other office (in
Minhang district), where I’ll be spending the rest of my time. All new people
to meet. I met the team that I’ll be working with, and got an overview of what
I’ll be doing. So exciting! Also a little overwhelming for now. Lunch at the office
cafeteria was rather good, and as usual I ate some strange things that I couldn’t
identify. Discovery of the day: badminton during lunch break. I’m so pumped.
Most of the employees play – a good teambuilding exercise, no doubt.
Fortunately there are two courts…I chose the beginner’s court. I was still only
better than the girls.
This evening a co-worker who lives nearby me showed me
around a bit, in particular where some good food can be found and where the
supermarket is (Carrefour – actually a French chain). It’s the weekend now, a
worthy cause for the fireworks that have been going off nightly outside my
window. Looking forward to exploring the city! Oh and relaxing.
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