你好! Hello! Welcome to Shanghai, the world's most populous city with over 23 million people, filled with diverse culture, delicious food (more on the sweet side, thank god), and smog as far as the eye can...yeah. Anyway, so far, so good. Minus the job. I'm still working on that. More to come on that at a later date though.
Today marks my one week anniversary since having arrived in the People's Republic of China. I left Wichita, KS on Wednesday, October 3rd at approximately 6:30am with stops in Houston, TX and Los Angeles, CA, and arrived in Shanghai around 7:30pm Thursday, October 4th where I was greeted by my boyfriend with a bouquet of roses. We took a taxi to the apartment, thankfully avoiding the subway where I felt that two and a half suitcases, a purse, a carry-on, and now, a bouquet of roses would have been a little cumbersome to keep track of on little sleep. Speaking of, adequate sleep is a luxury after a 23 hour flight. I was not so lucky to have escaped the dreaded jet lag monster this time (having somehow evaded it with my first trip here back in 2011). It took me about 3 or 4 days to completely rid myself of the constant exhaustion, the annoyance at the sun for being up at the wrong time of day, and my wanting to wake up at 3 in the morning (That's 2pm CST. Nap time for you American folk).
Despite the longing to just stay in bed, Yang and I did a lot of walking around the city the first couple of days. You see, October 1 - 8 was the Chinese national holiday, equivalent to that of the American July 4th. Imagine lots of tourists and even more fireworks. Of course the Chinese will find any reason to celebrate and shoot off fireworks (I'm convinced it's a pastime of theirs). Anything from weddings to a family moving into a new apartment to buying a new bamboo plant for their yard is christened with a barrage of noisy firecrackers. Ok, I was kidding about the last one. No has a yard in China. Just about everyone in Shanghai rents a tiny apartment, with a small portion owning one. No chance of that little, white picket fence happening in this city. Oh, and "owning" in China actually means "borrowing for 70 years after which it is then given back to the government to sell to someone else." Any takers on enacting that policy in America?
This wasn't a holiday celebrated like Chinese New Year with all the costumes and festivities, however, so Yang and I just shopped for apartment necessities, I took some pictures, and I attempted to memorize buildings and roads without much success. Getting into town at the tail end of the holiday probably prevented me from seeing as much patriotism as well. On Saturday, some of Yang's family members residing in Shanghai invited us to eat with them at a restaurant in a district across the river. Many of China's more formal eating restaurants have private rooms for family, friends or coworkers to enjoy their meals in a more "togetherness" setting. As we filed into the room, looking around to decide which seats we should choose, Yang made the comment that the side of the table against the wall opposite the door was too “high” for him. That was chinglish (Chinese + English) for “that’s where the older members of the family sit.” The last time I visited China, I learned that like the rectangular tables in America, the high ends of the round tables were reserved for the head of the family. As for how exactly they determined which “sides” of the tables were the high ends, I’m still not sure. After we took our seats, Yang’s cousin asked me to choose some dishes that they should order, but I couldn’t decide since I didn’t know what most of it was. Later, after much food and white wine, one of Yang’s uncles lit a cigarette, offered one to everyone else, then promptly lit another one in the other hand apparently unaware of having just done this a minute ago. A moment later he realized his not-so-unfortunate conundrum and laughed.
That concludes the most exciting experiences of my stay so far aside from job hunting. This past week, looking for a job has seemed as endless as a round table. The never ending task of browsing through job listings is daunting as I constantly lack the teaching experience necessary for so many of them. Hopefully, though, I can eventually find the “high end” of the round table that is my job search. (Ok, you can stop laughing at the corniness of the metaphor, haha). On a final, more serious note, thoughts and prayers are appreciated. Thanks for reading! <3
Today marks my one week anniversary since having arrived in the People's Republic of China. I left Wichita, KS on Wednesday, October 3rd at approximately 6:30am with stops in Houston, TX and Los Angeles, CA, and arrived in Shanghai around 7:30pm Thursday, October 4th where I was greeted by my boyfriend with a bouquet of roses. We took a taxi to the apartment, thankfully avoiding the subway where I felt that two and a half suitcases, a purse, a carry-on, and now, a bouquet of roses would have been a little cumbersome to keep track of on little sleep. Speaking of, adequate sleep is a luxury after a 23 hour flight. I was not so lucky to have escaped the dreaded jet lag monster this time (having somehow evaded it with my first trip here back in 2011). It took me about 3 or 4 days to completely rid myself of the constant exhaustion, the annoyance at the sun for being up at the wrong time of day, and my wanting to wake up at 3 in the morning (That's 2pm CST. Nap time for you American folk).
Despite the longing to just stay in bed, Yang and I did a lot of walking around the city the first couple of days. You see, October 1 - 8 was the Chinese national holiday, equivalent to that of the American July 4th. Imagine lots of tourists and even more fireworks. Of course the Chinese will find any reason to celebrate and shoot off fireworks (I'm convinced it's a pastime of theirs). Anything from weddings to a family moving into a new apartment to buying a new bamboo plant for their yard is christened with a barrage of noisy firecrackers. Ok, I was kidding about the last one. No has a yard in China. Just about everyone in Shanghai rents a tiny apartment, with a small portion owning one. No chance of that little, white picket fence happening in this city. Oh, and "owning" in China actually means "borrowing for 70 years after which it is then given back to the government to sell to someone else." Any takers on enacting that policy in America?
This wasn't a holiday celebrated like Chinese New Year with all the costumes and festivities, however, so Yang and I just shopped for apartment necessities, I took some pictures, and I attempted to memorize buildings and roads without much success. Getting into town at the tail end of the holiday probably prevented me from seeing as much patriotism as well. On Saturday, some of Yang's family members residing in Shanghai invited us to eat with them at a restaurant in a district across the river. Many of China's more formal eating restaurants have private rooms for family, friends or coworkers to enjoy their meals in a more "togetherness" setting. As we filed into the room, looking around to decide which seats we should choose, Yang made the comment that the side of the table against the wall opposite the door was too “high” for him. That was chinglish (Chinese + English) for “that’s where the older members of the family sit.” The last time I visited China, I learned that like the rectangular tables in America, the high ends of the round tables were reserved for the head of the family. As for how exactly they determined which “sides” of the tables were the high ends, I’m still not sure. After we took our seats, Yang’s cousin asked me to choose some dishes that they should order, but I couldn’t decide since I didn’t know what most of it was. Later, after much food and white wine, one of Yang’s uncles lit a cigarette, offered one to everyone else, then promptly lit another one in the other hand apparently unaware of having just done this a minute ago. A moment later he realized his not-so-unfortunate conundrum and laughed.
That concludes the most exciting experiences of my stay so far aside from job hunting. This past week, looking for a job has seemed as endless as a round table. The never ending task of browsing through job listings is daunting as I constantly lack the teaching experience necessary for so many of them. Hopefully, though, I can eventually find the “high end” of the round table that is my job search. (Ok, you can stop laughing at the corniness of the metaphor, haha). On a final, more serious note, thoughts and prayers are appreciated. Thanks for reading! <3