Kindness of strangers

I fractured my ankle again a couple of weeks ago. At first is was really upsetting, as it is my third time since I have moved to Shanghai…. Three fractures in three countries over one year! It happened while I was playing touch rugby. I damaged my ligaments around my ankle and it is the first time in my life that I have had a cast. Thankfully I only have it on for 2 weeks (so I get it off on Wednesday).
Over the last couple of weeks with the cast I have been pleasantly surprised at how helpful the Chinese people in general have been. Doors are consistently opened for me, people get out of the way when I hobble by. I have had guards come up and put their arm around me to make sure I get up or down stairs safely. The guards at my building will get a chair for me as they hail me a cab and will get upset if I move closer to the curb instead of having the taxi pull in. Being a position where I have needed extra help, the Chinese have really stepped up. I guess when they see physical boundaries of cast and crutches I am not treated in the same way (lack of personal space) and people feel compelled to help me.

Expo round 2

Well I went to Expo over the weekend with Les & Chris. They came up from Hong Kong to see Expo and me : ) For a Saturday Expo was surprisingly really crowded. We went to the New Zealand Pavilion and Les and Chris knew people so we hung for a while.
As we walked around we would see people taking naps on benches, in the grass, in lines for Spain, Switzerland, and Saudi (I heard that the line was 8 hours alone!).
We had fun going between the pavilions and debating if we should get a drink or get in a massive line.
There was an expo parade with very non-PC participants, the USA float, at jazz instruments, cacti with big hats and people wearing head-dresses with cowboy shorts. It seems that they just mixed everything into two costumes to sum up a whole nation with a mix of cultural backgrounds.
I will be going back tomorrow to see DHS school band :)

A China Day

Thursday: I got to school and get a call from the school secretary that my flat is flooded, as of yesterday, and that my landlord needs to go in and fix things. This was rather perplexing since I was home that morning and did not notice any standing water, nor did I leave my place in a state that I wanted people go around in.
Shortly after that, the guards at our school and Ayis (cleaning ladies) came into my classroom half way through the day and started taking my tables. Of course we could not communicate and they did not understand that I needed them only that I was waving my arms around and pointing to the desks. Turns out that they needed tables and were just going to take all of mine, despite me having to teach. I got some back before my 6th graders came in….
But the real kicker of the day was after work when I got on a bus to down town, then a metro to the expo site to get tickets. Now a little background of the last month I have been trying to get tickets going to all the places that are supposed to have tickets. None of which have them, they seem to be “sold out” even though expo is not attracting the numbers in the first month that were projected. Also it is continual event and there are no passes that are different from day to do, besides 2 or 3 holidays. I went up to the desk, asked on the way in if I could be day tickets “yes you can”. Get up to the desk, “we only have tickets for the evening”, I question and say this is ridiculous. I only get an “I am sorry” and a few giggles. I ask to see a manager to see if I can get tickets, he has food in his hands and continues walking after saying no tickets. They refer me to all the places I have already frequented several times. I ask for a number to call, they give China Mobile’s number, who is the major seller of ticket “No we do not have any tickets”.
The next bright idea they have is for me to call the expo help line, which does not sell tickets and refers me to China mobile!!!!!!!!! There were vending machines for tickets but that area was closed. So for the major event in Shanghai there is no place to buy tickets in advance, organization at it’s finest. This is just the cherry on top of the miss information on the websites, and such. I will be going next weekend, but really question the slogan of “Better City Better Life” and some signs even include “Deeper friendship”. I walked back to the metro and went into a Lawsons that had an Expo ticket sign, but was not surprised with the lack of tickets.
At least there is still Expo Taxi.

And then there was Expo taxi

And then there was Expo-taxi.

Shanghai has a slogan around town “Better City, Better Life” in advertising for the world Expo that started last week (though only 80% of it all was finished). Since I arrived the city has been under a massive amount of construction for the roads, buildings and what seems like endless remodeling of stores. Things go up really fast here and it has been amazing to see. Out of all aspects of this facelift for Shanghai, my personal favorite by far is the Expo-taxi. Now it might seem normal to those in the West, but after months of smelly, run down, seatbelt-less taxis, the expo taxi is so refreshing and luxurious.
Here are the features of the Expo taxi:
1. Seat belts in the front and back
2. No white cloth on the seats (like all other taxi’s have here),
3. New car smell and not like cigarettes or weird foul smells,
4. Happy drivers (because they are driving Expo-taxi),
5. CLEAN
6. The doors are functional and one does not worry if you will break down.
The old taxis are still crawling the streets and you will see the expo-taxi sprinkled throughout all parts of town. When they first were sited about a month ago, I felt that every time I saw one empty I needed to hail it and just go for a ride down the block. Now when I need a cab, I will wait until a free expo-taxi appears. Today on my way home from the gym, I got a cab but before I opened the door, an unoccupied Expo-taxi came into my line of site and I ran for it.
I know I am not alone in this, as I was making my way home today in a fabulous Expo taxi, I saw a family about to get into a regular cab stop and stare with taxi envy as my Expo Taxi drove safely by. Yes “Better city. Better Life” Thank you Expo Taxi.

Changes in Shangahi with the coming Expo

1. I went to Hong Kong for break and flew out of Hongqiao airport terminal 2. It is completely new, completely clean. When I got a cab on the way home I got into a new Expo taxi. I was amazed that there were seat belts! Also the new car smell

2. My street actually looks like a street rather than a big ditch.

3. I went to go get a DVD, and the pirated DVD store (which are pretty much all the DVD stores here) only had legitimate DVD's. When I asked what happened the store employ just said "The police". I asked about a DVD that I wanted and her response was ..."Maybe tomorrow"

Funny quotes

Cash machines at Citi bank
"Please dip your card"
"Wait we are working on it"

Taxi
"Hello Passage, welcome to take my taxi"

How you say it

This past week started 3 weeks of the Shanghai International Literary Festival. The weather has been absolutely perfect for the event, pouring rain and cold. It is at M-on the Bund which looks over the river and the high rise towers across the water. So far I have seen Norwegian journalist Åsne Seierstad who has stories of war on Chechnya, Kabul, and Iraq. She spoke of her experience in Russia as a foreign student during University and one day was introduced as a reporter and that is what got her writing and researching stories of children of war. David Grossman started his lecture reading a passage in Hebrew from one of his books, and then later spoke of his own experiences politically, as a writer and as an Israeli trying to understand both sides of the conflict. On Wednesday evening myself and a colleague faced Shanghai traffic and made our way down to hear two Scandinavian poets read avant-garde poetry with the back drops of the skyscrapers with electronic adverts and pink rain and designs on them. It was an interesting juxtaposition to Sjon talking about fox hunters in Iceland writing the most Icelandic book for the 300 000 readers in Iceland. Also, for Lars Bukdahl to read about his different alphabets address concerns of what he says his only reader… himself. This afternoon I just got out of a session on Gandhi and the impact on the world and continued impact. Ramachandra Guha started quoting Einstein, on his 131st birthday that gave homage to Gandhi for his political stance and peaceful demonstrations. David Grossman’s structure of his sentences and phraseology put interesting twist and visuals to his stories and thoughts. My personal favorite was “that was too many quantities of time”.
All of the sessions I have enjoyed what the authors said and the comments brought new light to their work as well as issues around their writing as well as how they said it. I heard pieces of places I have been and people that have been important to me in the reflection of their mother tongues onto English. Åsne delivered some of Oslo to me, while Lars Bukdahl reminded me of Danish friends while reading his Jensen alphabet from his book on alphabets (it is funnier than you can imagine), and Ramachandra Guha’s head bob brought me flavors of India and dear friends that have come and gone from there.

Basement Speed dating

Between sessions at the literary festival I went to a café in the basement of M-on the Bund for a tea and get some work done. It looked as if there was an organized event but they let me sit down at an open table. I noticed that all the women were on side of long tables and men on the other. I ordered my tea and got to work.
The two men with microphones instructed the groups to get snacks. Then people started to be called to the front where three men sat in chairs with women volunteers behind them putting crackers on their foreheads that they had to get to their mouth without using their hands. In a way it reminded me of young life or camp and games we play with secondary students. I had no idea what was happening and tried to just continue working. Then someone sat down at my table quickly smiled looked at the men trying ever so hard to get the cracker to their mouth by contorting their faces, I asked what was going on …..speed dating!!!
As a single I have never been to speed dating and here I am stumbling upon it in Shanghai. I guess this is an alternative for these Chinese mid 20s early 30s, rather than having their parents sit in People’s square on a Sunday with their information written on papers hanging from clotheslines this group participated in speed dating to find a match. After the food on face event, the men got up and systematically changed tables. The fella that was at my table joined the others and no one replaced him at my table…. I never get mistaken for a local. I continued to watch the body language of the group: some people were not talking to the opposite sex or anyone for that matter, guys were talking to girls that were not their “designated” date, wing-men situations occurred to help out their neighbors; others went for more snacks possibly wishing they were not at the end of the table and could have more people to pull from.
I wonder if any of them will recount the story to their friends or kids of how they met at speed dating in a basement in Shanghai?
“When did you know you were for each other?”
“I knew by the expression that he was making that he was the one for me. I think he knew too, his eyes got teary and soft and it was not from the crumbs”.
I was writing this as I was sitting there and when I packed up my computer one of the male participants came up to me and started chatting. … haha

At close range

Tonight is the lantern festival, the 15th day of the New Lunar Year and the first full moon of the New Year. The Chinese gather with their families for a meal, to put out lanterns and set off an amazing amount of fireworks. We went down to Tai Kang Lu for a walk around, dinner and in hopes of seeing the fullest moon for the past 53 some years, by 10%. We were only able to catch glimpses of the moon during the taxi ride. Throughout dinner there was a constant stream of fireworks surrounding us. All seemingly rather low and close to buildings. On the way home on Yan’an elevated road we could see displays throughout of the city.
From inside my flat I would easily mistake the sounds as an air raid. In southern China unfortunately it was the case in a village where 21 people died from firework blasts at a family party. Many people were hospitalized after a group of people set off fireworks in the center.
It is still baffling to me to see adults about 5 meters away with their children setting off a box of fireworks under power lines. People consistently do this along each street, so much so that the silence can be more deafening than the booms. With the light up of the sky with fireworks the smoke has covered the brightness of the first full moon.

In Chinese

Last Saturday after rugby practice I took the metro home and then had to catch a cab home. It was raining which means it is very difficult to get a cab in Shanghai. I have waited up to an hour for a cab in the rain before...not fun. I got out onto the street and a motorbike taxi stops. I said no because I do not like taking them do to the craziness of driving around here. He had a helmet and a poncho and I did not see a free cab and the line up on the street was long. Plus I was rather cold from getting rained on during practice. I thought that we agreed on a price for the trip. I said "Ba" and did the hand signal for 8 and then we were off.
At first I was amazed that I took one, another day of firsts. The ride home I was thinking over all the things that I have grown accustomed to since living in Shanghai, what is normal and things that I feel comfortable doing: Eating street food, crossing the crazy streets, riding in cars that drive against traffic and not motorbike taxis.... The motorbike-taxi was a safe driver and sang along to the sound of the engine.
I was able to direct him to my building. I got off and was going to give him 8 RMB (about 1.20 USD) and he started asking for 30 RMB. That I knew was a ripe off, a taxi would have cost about 17rmb in traffic... so I said no and we started arguing. I spoke English, now and again throwing in a "Taiguole" meaning too expensive. He just went off in Chinese and I started walking away. I said I would give 13. One of the guards that I greet saw that I was in an argument and came over to help. I am not sure what was said. I ended up paying 15 rmb, which still upset me. As the guy drove away I said "boooo" to him. I figured he could understand that much. After the motorbike taxi was away, the guard proceeded to give me advice and a small lecture. It was all in Chinese, but I think he was telling me how easy it is for them to charge more and what I need to be aware of. I thanked him and gave a few "You are right" looks and nods.
Amazing how much you really can communicate without completely understanding. Tomorrow I have my Chinese lessons, I think I will start out with, "I will only pay_____".

Daily Chores

A commonality I see of countries are chores, no matter where in the world people keep their houses in some type of order, though the definition of order might be different depending on the person and culture. The ways about keeping the order, the chores are different. In Norway I cleaned the floors with a squidgy, in Ghana the dirt in front of the huts had to be sweep each morning with twigs, in Germany the hard wood floors had to be waxed on a regular basis and in China… I have an Aiyi, a house cleaner ☺. I feel spoiled knowing that twice a week someone will put my stuff away, fold my clothes and clean the flat. Though it is common to have a house cleaner there are still chores that have to be done.
Yesterday, as I was entering my building there was a resident lining up fireworks on the window seal of the entryway. There have been few days since I have been in Shanghai that I have not seen or heard fireworks in my neighborhood. Since gunpowder was invented in China and the first fireworks were done with bamboo the tradition has stuck. There are many occasions for fireworks, weddings, sporting events, celebrations and the coming Chinese New Year. This particular evening I greeted my neighbor and I commented on his fireworks. He responded in English, saying that he had to set them off, he was not sure why but his wife told him that he must set these fireworks off and that was his chore. I am not sure how that chore compares for taking out the trash, cleaning the bathroom or doing the laundry but it was his task for the evening. As I was putting away my shopping I could hear and see his obedience rather close to the building as usual.

Ni Hao

“Ni Hao, Ni Hao” a phrase that connects me to people. There is a small room/box where the guards for my complex sit. Each day I greet them with a perky “Ni Hao, Ni Hao” and sometimes a “zài jiàn” as I walk away. There are about 5 different guards, all of them will say hello to me, however, there is one smiley guard and if he sees me coming, he starts giggling anticipating my “Ni Hao”, and says it along with me matching my tone. I am taking Chinese lessons each week but still figure I communicate more and share more with the guards through my “Ni Hao” and their welcoming giggles.