Touch Rugby

Trying new things….. Well I started playing touch rugby in Seoul a couple of weekends ago. I went to get the feel for a tournament and ended up playing. It was great, we played 3 games then I fractured my ankle… but still wonderful weekend with a great group of people. It is the activity that helps me get through the week. Here are some pics of the team and me playing... and some of my "what the heck do I do now" face!

Surprise returns

Waking up at 0230 in Bonn, Germany is vastly different than waking up in Shanghai. The first night of my surprise mission I was woken by the fresh air Germany. The missing sounds of traffic, smells of stagnate water, and visions of yellow neon lights from the hotel across the road, made me question my location. I realized I was not in my new home but in my old one. So much of the environment was familiar that made it feel like the last 4 months of chaos of moving did not happen.

Moving more and more and developing friendships with people from a variety of places makes my “home” more of a relative place to the location of my family and friends. While I miss the fall colors, the river Rhine, the rocks in the bed of the Salt river, the fjords the Vikings sailed, the castles in the distance, the cylinder Kolsh filled glasses, monsoon season in summer, I miss the people that make those places special to me more.

It was incredibly refreshing to be outside of the busy city of Shanghai and relax in Bonn. I now need to go back to the city to rest and be refreshed from catching up with people and faced with the reality that I do not live there and will not have the same collective experiences with them, but hope to continue meaningful connections.

I guess the more I live away from those places and those people I realize the importance of the ties that have bound us. The experiences that we have shared in these places can be greater than the distance between us. China will provide me with fantastic opportunities but the countdowns to rendezvous with people will continue to be my benchmarks. Thanks to my friends in Bonn, for making my first benchmark so fabulous. Much love to you and hope to see you in Asia or somewhere else in the world.

Supplies

This is a quick and simple story that in some ways sums up much of the communication that occurs at work between the Chinese staff and the Western Staff, confusion, misunderstanding mixed with large jumps. This week one of the Chinese women that works in the office was asking my boss about supplies and ordering. Part of the conversation was the following:

Chinese woman: I wanted to check on the ordering, you do need any ass paper?
Boss: What?
Chinese woman: Do you need any ass paper, are you out? Do you need?
Boss: Ass paper? Do you mean A4 paper?
Chinese woman: Yes, ass paper

When I first heard this I thought she was asking him if he needed toilet paper, or that there was something going on that I was not picking up on. To be able to understand how in the world he figured out that she was asking if he need the A4 size of paper, you have to be a little familiar with Mandarin. The number 4 is just s, so she was reading the order in half English and half Chinese, which came out "ass". And who said that ordering stationary was an ordinary uneventful task?

Traffic

Getting to work consists of a bus that picks us up on the corner of our street and after various turns we stop to pick up others that work at the school. The trip takes about 40 minutes in total. Traffic in Shanghai is pretty much constant. I have gotten in traffic jams at 11pm on a Friday and some traffic last until 1 am. On the bus our driver maneuvers around bikes, massive tricycles with a bed that is filled with cardboard, plastic, fruit, wardrobes or a variety of anything you could imagine you would want or not want to haul on a bike. The freeway is normally packed and we are above the streets and level with people’s laundry hanging from their windows to get drip dried in the smog and smells of the day. Construction is another constant in Shanghai, after bussing to work for the last month and passing the same construction sites we have seen projects finish in the month. New freeways are being added and there is a crew of people that only work on scaffolding here. Each day we see men in workers’ clothes standing on polls 20 meters above the ground on steel piping they use to construct cubes patterned scaffolding. No hard hats, no safely lines. They never seem to be working but just hanging out on the piping waiting for more supplies or just for the traffic to die down.
Once we are off the freeway that is when more of the adventure happens. To quote myself “We are driving on the wrong side of the road again, he does that a lot”. Our driver (now mom don’t freak out there are actually not a lot of accidents here) plays chicken with the on coming traffic so that they will go into the shoulder lane. Once in a while he will get back into the proper land by cutting of someone else, but always giving the polite Shanghai honk that continually fills the air.

Suzhou

On Sunday myself and a colleague decided to brave the Chinese rail system and take a day trip to Suzhou about a 40 minute train ride. The train stations in China are massive and packed much like every where else. There are various waiting rooms for trains and line ups in the waiting rooms to go to the platform.
We got on the train and got off in Suzhou no problem. Once leaving the train station hall, a group of people come around me, since I stand out a bit, asking things in Chinese/English mostly involving taxis. We end up going to a stand that promises a day trip around the city to 2 gardens, a boat ride and ending in the historic downtown, and it is all in English. We sign up and get in an old van. The garden was pretty and had a good look out, then we went to the canals, the city is call the Venice of the East, due to all the canals through the city. It was a nice ride and there was a guide that told us all about the area, the history, the architecture, the people and the local economy.... well at least that is what I am guessing, because it was all in Chinese!
I normally would not be annoyed but that was the major selling point for us. So by this time we are wondering if we are still on the correct tour since we were switching buses so often. We went to a temple for some music, and then everyone got up and left, then went to a silk museum where someone spoke very softly to us in English, while another tour guide yelled into an micro phone. It was all too funny. I think it was a crash course in Suzhou as well as Chinese.
We made another stop and had to sit through what I think was an info-mercial on pearl powder, which is some form of lotion since she put it on all of us.
We managed to find a place to eat, though the meat choices were far from what we were used to (Chicken feet, Pigs feet, Claw, shark fin, fish heads... the list goes on). I went vegetarian for the evening. Overall it was a great day, a lot of laughs. I will post pictures of my favorite signs soon.

Down the street

The first week I arrived I discovered something very dangerous for me down the street, "Pearl City". It is a building with three floors, the first floor is filled with aggressive shop keepers and cheap knock-offs, the third floor with toys and tailors, however the second floor is jammed packed with jewelry! Pearls of every color and shape, gem stones of a large assortment and people that are willing to make whatever you wish. I have already been there a few times and have found a shopping buddy for the place. We go walk around and already know many of the shop keepers. I am going to have to find a way to limit myself to this fabulous and dangerous place.

Waving and Wondering

I had my internet set up at my flat. The company sent a technician who arrived on time. He did not speak English and my Mandarin is limited to “Right”, “left”, “please stop here”, “I do not know”. First we had to find the socket in the flat for the ethernet. We ended up moving all the furniture in the flat and then found it in the bedroom. After that task was complete he asked me something, which I asked him to repeat it (not really sure why but perhaps I could gain some clues from his gestures), I did not understand him the second time oddly enough. So he started to outline a rectangle box with his hands. I figured we were looking for a rectangle on the wall. Again, we moved all the furniture and searched the rooms, I was the winner and found the rectangle in the storage closest. We rejoiced by giving a little cheer and then he went about his work.

The technician then needed to see my computer, he was not familiar with Mac’s but tried anyway. He connected everything, however, we could not get my computer to accept the passwords. This is when the questions started. He would ask long questions while looking for things on the computer. I would stare at him trying to come up with context clues and give and answer to the question I thought he asked, which normally came in the form of a question. He would stare at me, then we would just laugh, harder and harder with each question and misunderstanding. I showed him what I thought he was asking for then would point at words on the screen hoping that he had some key words for his trade like I had for the taxi. No such luck. He started navigating and we ended up in iTunes. It was his turn to point at Chinese characters and then would slowly write them out for me to ease me into understanding. I tried but well designed boxes with lines do not translate into words for me yet. He did ask in English if I had a Chinese friend. So we called an HR person from the school. I did not get to talk to the HR person the first time, so that really did not help with translation.
Since we could not figure out the ethernet I decided to ask if he could set up my wireless. I said “wireless” while waving my arms in the air to signify the internet going through the air to my computer. He just stared. I tried again pointing to the cord out of the wall then following up with my internet gesture. Another stare, this time with a questioning expression topped off by saying something in Chinese. Then I brought out my router and modem to him. He helped with that, but I did not remember the passwords and I did not expect him to figure out what the German password to a router would be.
The whole experience ended in laughter and a phone call to the HR person and a visit to the iStore at the end of my block.