chinashuebox

Back Again My Two Cents

175-7509_IMG, originally uploaded by shuebox.

When you settle into a place only long enough for the leather interior to stick to your thighs, then you have been in the car too long.  It is time to either crank up the A/C or pull over to get out.  So I thought I would get out to give my two-cent regurgitation on my last two years in China.

In true David Letterman style, I would like to propose The Top Eight List (couldn’t quite get up to 10).  In no particular order, (drum roll, please)

Top 10 reasons China is better than America:

1.) If it isn’t under construction, then it isn’t modern.  Of coarse construction means securely wire-twined bamboo towers, 16 stories high.

2.) Mobile phones.  I have been on the outer reaches of Kazakhstan, Myanmar and Tibetan Mountains with perfect reception.  ‘Can you hear me now?’

3.) Driving lanes are mere suggestions and pedestrians have no rights when crossing the street.  Yet I have never seen a single car accident.  Simply, amazing.

4.) Fruit is picked fresh, looks dehydrated and green, but tastes like it were meant for the gods.  Example: Here, the strawberries are small, white/pink color and dirty but are delicious.  Nothing like the genetically altered, picked green, ripened under portable heating lamps, displayed in a perfect pyramid for only $3.99/basket and somehow the natural sugar has been leeched out making them tasteless back home.

5.) DVD cost $1 each. Illegal. Enough said.

6.) Tailored clothes.  Why buy off the rack when you can replicate it?

7.) Labor is Cheap, so be messy.  You can litter.  You heard correctly, you can litter and someone will come sweep it up.  People need jobs.  The city would rather hire hundreds of street sweepers than put trash bins out, then couple that with a mild littering campaign to attempt changing behavior.  Just throw it on the ground, everyone’s doing it.

8.) Homemade dumplings from scratch, just like mom used to make (or wished she could make if she had the time) for only 75 cents/dozen.  Again, labor is cheap and Chinese food better be fresh or nobody will eat it.  This is China, dumplings and MSG aplenty.

Floating and Anchoring

Floating and Anchoring, originally uploaded by shuebox.

Hello from Shanghai Central,

There is something comfortably unsettling about life as normal.  Being back in Shanghai has been a continuation of things as they were and a completely overwhelming surprise that I am back at the grind.  My unsettling feelings come from the normalcy that I have slipped so easily into my Chinese life.  When I say Chinese life, I mean, the way in which I have build a circle of transient friends, using Chinese to do my daily chores and teaching the same English material I distantly remember from last year.

I have been back for 2 weeks and I can safely say, I would never travel through Asia during the summer.  It is so damn hot here you could fry an egg on the sidewalk, in the shade.  The humidity allows for Ink Blot T-Shirt sweat marks to define every crevasse of my body, while my beaded salty sweat mustache drips slowly into my mouth.  Shanghai people are sporting their pajamas and hailing all the taxis to stay cool.

Home sweet home.

Over Blue Yonder

Shanghai University Crest, originally uploaded by shuebox.

Hey-ya,

Well, this is the home stretch of my remaining days in the states.  As I am transitioning back to Shanghai, I am trying to get as much American fun and down home excitement as possible.  I am going to miss the clean streets, Southern California beaches, Mount Rainier backdrop and home cooking for the next year.

So, this is my short email to encourage you to write to me while I am abroad and to also inquire, if you want to be taken off my travel log for the coming year.  Until I get a website to post my travels and pictures (finally I have established www.shannonshue.com), I send out a travel update about once a month so you get a taste of my activities.

I have a personal letter writing policy that if you write to me (letters, packages, cards). I will promise to write you back.  So in order to expedite this exchange you got to put pen to paper.

Here is my address in China:

Shannon Shue
Shanghai University-ZhaBei
Le Hu Guesthouse
149 Yan Chang Road
Shanghai, China
200072

I love getting mail.

If you find yourself wanting to travel in Asia, drop me a line and we could meet up.

First Chapter Over

First Chapter Over, originally uploaded by shuebox.

24 May 2003

Well, my year teaching in China has started to winding to a close.  I have finished most of my teaching and now it is a matter of giving finals exams.  There are so many things that have kept me on my toes this year.  In times like these, it is customary to reflect and digest the events of the year, so I figured I would give a short recap.

Shanghai, China:

-SARSville is under control in Shanghai, but it is funny that the international media has instilled the fear of god into Americans, but let me assure you, it isn't that bad.  In fact, I am doing fine, healthy; just a hint of the runs lately from something I ate earlier this week.

-An entire war on Iraq was declared and finished in the span of my time here.  From here it was eye opening to hear the news through the Chinese government filter, instead of the US/international supporters media filters.  I felt safer in China than anywhere else.  And quite frankly, Freedom Fries and Freedom Toast, patriotism is great, but that is plain laughable.

-Teaching has been one of the most rewarding yet challenging aspects of my stay here.  In the last few weeks I have been completely unmotivated to work, largely because I was getting burnt out and the treadmill didn’t have the usual changing scenery.  My students, through thick and thin and with varying English levels, have been the best Chinese tutors, most insightful cultural learning tools and have been the biggest ego boosters.  The women students really look up to me because they have no strong women role models.  Women don't have short hair, muscular build, play every sport out there and have such a "strong voice" (which I interpreted as being outspoken).

-As for my language skills, they are barely passable.  I can hold simple conversations but hardly understand what is going on.  My spheres of skills are: taxis, restaurants and weather.  Everything else is Charlie Brown adult talk.  But I am proud I have come this far and I can recognize about 100 characters (maybe more, if I really try).  My Chinese teacher is wonderful.  I have promised to self-study while at home (hee hee, I am not sure this will happen).

-The Shanghai Ultimate Frisbee team saved me from 20 pounds of street food but instead awarded me with air pollution intake, after weekly doses of fine particle matter in each breadth.  I actively played Frisbee every week to stay in shape and to just have fun on the field with a bunch of crazy expats (expatriates), doing cartwheels and team cheers with beer.

With all those highlights, I am ready to go home and enjoy something more familiar.  I have signed another contract to return in August and it will be a continuation of surprises.  I have yet to see other parts of China and see more of South East Asia.  I love Asia.  Nothing short of great food, beautiful beaches, knee deep in crowds, squatty potties and a bargaining culture that puts any Christie's auction to shame.

PS: Now that the first chapter is over, I am skipping to the middle of the book.

SARS for Breakfast or Lunch

Mask Wearing at Mc Donald's, originally uploaded by shuebox.

Greetings, from the SARS capital of the world.

SARS is still going strong and moving at an epidemic pace of highly desired stocks hitting the market early Tuesday morning.  Nothing like a designer mask and hyper clean bleached elevators to paint the background of a highly paranoid country, gripped by fear coupled with difficulty breathing (for reasons related to the dirty, soot filled air, not SARS).

In a word, humor.

Christmas Without The Hype

What's in the Bag, Big Guy?, originally uploaded by shuebox.

Happy New Year!

Christmas is defiantly not overrated or over commercialized in Asia.  In fact, in future holiday hypes' I would recommend escaping to China for refuge from the shopping, sales, and Christmas songs you can't get out of your head.  Christmas creped up on me so quickly I didn't get in the spirit until the 25th and barely got around to shopping 4 days before.

My mom and brother are here celebrating the holidays with me and they were completely what the doctor ordered.  I was having a pretty challenging bought of homesick feelings earlier this month and I needed a pick me up from home.

You Are Not An American, HA!

You Are Not An American, HA!, originally uploaded by shuebox.

This is my worse day in China, but I am hopeful it doesn't get any worse than that. I would also like you opinion and thoughts about the story I am about to share with you.

Discrimination is nothing new in China and if you ask most Chinese people, they believe it doesn’t exists within the country.  China doesn’t have any specific non-discrimination policies, and if they did, there is a big enforcement problem.  So, it is no surprise that being Chinese-American in China is controversial, especially when I lean on my American political knowledge and expect the same fare treatment here.

Apple for the Teacher

Rip me off!, originally uploaded by shuebox.

I have had my first four days of teaching and I am completely bushed. My voice is horse, tired and turning into a hermit. I have 6 hours of teaching per day and it is exhausting. I have a wide variety of Beginner level students.

I am extremely frustrated with my Listening-Speaking level 2 (so second lowest English language class, the classes are streamed by level). I don’t want to let the low level sway my expectations of the class, but having students speak up in class is like pulling teeth. Even after I give the answer to my own question, I would ask the students to repeat and all they can say is, "I don't know." It is not just shyness; it is a bit of plain incomprehension. Today, the same class improved because two naughty students didn't come to class.

On of the students from my level 2 class, Elvia, grills me, both with concern and scorn at my lifestyle.  She is English leech, always looking for the opportunity to use English. She monopolizes my time during breaks and walks with me after class in order to continue chatting. Yesterday, she asks me how I buy things in the market without the language. I tell her I speak enough Chinese to buy things. Then she is concerned that I am getting ripped off. I tell her that I may be paying a bit more, but I aware of situations where I am paying too much.

She also asks about where I walk and if I walk with friends. I have no idea where her train of thought was going at first; but I soon realize she wants to escort me to the market to watch me speak. I let her escort me.

Crawling Hot

Home Sweet Home Shanghai, originally uploaded by shuebox.

31 August 2002

Well, I made it safely.  I am jet lagged, tired, hot and sweaty; but thankful to finally be here.  I have had an adventurous three days.  To start off, I moved.  Originally, I gave my address in a suburb of Shanghai called Jia Ding but that campus already had too many teachers, so I moved to the main campus, closer to the heart of downtown.  I will send out the new address as soon as I get it.