Thursday, August 28, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Hello from China
Hi gang,
We have now been here for 3 or 4 days, so time for a quick update. We are settled in our apartment, which is part of a complex of several buildings, between 8 and 16 stories tall. Our apartment building is #8 and we are on the 8th floor (elevator goes to 7). As you know from the Olympics, the Chinese believe 8 is a very lucky number (the Olympics started exactly at 8:00 on 8/8/08) so we're feeling lucky. We watched the closing ceremonies on our TV, in Chinese of course. No sign of NBC or Bob Costas, and we didn't see any shots of the American team--but it was spectacular. We have two tvs, but no English speaking channels and I can't get one of them to turn on, but the landlord has said he'll come soon and fix it.
Our apartment looks out over a lovely park (Zhabei park). We hear birds in the morning--early, it gets light about 5:30! We can look down and see lots of people walking, jogging, doing Tai chi and other exercises very early when we awake. Today Sharon and I went for a walk in the park, and saw lots of different activities going on, including couples doing ballroom dancing. Another group of women were doing a variety of moves with a sort of badminton/paddle racket and a ball where they would move their arms and bodies, twirl around and make various moves, but the ball would stay right on the racket, although it was not attached. Our first couple of days were pretty smoggy, but today the sky was clear and a beautiful blue color, probably because of a huge storm we had yesterday--lots of thunder and heavy rain. We could see the Pearl Tower very well from our balcony today--it was perfect weather.
When we walk out of our complex in another direction away from the park we go out on to a busy commercial street (Yanchang Road), and the University is just across the street. It is not a fancy street, just a series of small shops, stores, restaurants, people cooking things and selling stuff from their shops. There is an outdoor market and a few "convenience store" type places where you can buy basic supplies and one medium-size older grocery store down about two blocks. There is little or no English on the signs or from the people in the stores. We are really in a regular street in a normal part of Shanghai, not the ritzy upscale part where American businesspeople might go when they come here.
Today Sharon and I went to Beginning Chinese class in the morning. The teacher worked on teaching us sounds of various letters, combinations, and characters, and the tones that are so important for nearly 3 hours. The class was packed with students, mostly Americans, and we all had to speak up at various times--some of the Chinese sounds are difficult to say, very "foreign" to our American tongues.
Later the program director, You Sha (pronounced "yo sha") took Sharon and I to the local police station where we had to register and obtain a Temporary Residence Permit. It took nearly an hour to get there and fill out many papers, and finally get the important red stamp on our final papers, so I guess we can stay. I thought about making some jokes about my "checkered past" while we were standing for a long time at the window of the Shanghai police station, with this officer looking very seriously at the papers and passport information You Sha was giving them, but decided against it. Then we hailed a taxi in the middle of a very busy street, with cars, buses and motos and bikes going all around us--for the trip back to our neighborhood. Many people ride bikes and motos and there are regular width lanes on big streets just for them.
You Sha has been a great help on everything. She's sharp, fun, very organized and has lots of high energy. She arranged for a van to pick us up at the airport--way on the other side of Shanghai, met us at the apartment when we arrived and helped us get set up, took Sharon and I to lunch the next day at a very nice Sichuan restaurant, then led an orientation session for all (about 35) of the students and helped them deal with various issues, then took the whole group to another restaurant for a Chinese "banquet". She just stopped by the apartment to help us get our washer and DSL internet hookup going, and stayed to visit a bit. By the way, it has all been chopsticks when we go out--no sign of any knives or forks, so we've had to use the sticks! I seem to be getting most of the food to my mouth.
Sharon has cooked dinners here in the apartment the last couple of nights, so we decided to go out tonight. We went to a small "hole in the wall" place on our street that several people had told us had great dumplings. This small place had a few tables inside, and was maybe 10 ft. wide and 20 feet long--with the kitchen at the far end. We pushed our way in the door, got lucky when two guys got up and had great "window" seats. There were a few words of English on the back of the menu but none spoken. The dumplings were delicious and the whole experience was definitely "real." Cost of the dinner was about $2.00 total. There's more to tell, but it's late and I have my first 3 hour class tomorrow, so good night from Shanghai.
All best wishes,
Mike (with help from Sharon)
Michael B. Bixby
Professor, Legal Studies in Business
College of Business & Economics
Boise State University
Boise, ID 83725
(208) 426-3675
We have now been here for 3 or 4 days, so time for a quick update. We are settled in our apartment, which is part of a complex of several buildings, between 8 and 16 stories tall. Our apartment building is #8 and we are on the 8th floor (elevator goes to 7). As you know from the Olympics, the Chinese believe 8 is a very lucky number (the Olympics started exactly at 8:00 on 8/8/08) so we're feeling lucky. We watched the closing ceremonies on our TV, in Chinese of course. No sign of NBC or Bob Costas, and we didn't see any shots of the American team--but it was spectacular. We have two tvs, but no English speaking channels and I can't get one of them to turn on, but the landlord has said he'll come soon and fix it.
Our apartment looks out over a lovely park (Zhabei park). We hear birds in the morning--early, it gets light about 5:30! We can look down and see lots of people walking, jogging, doing Tai chi and other exercises very early when we awake. Today Sharon and I went for a walk in the park, and saw lots of different activities going on, including couples doing ballroom dancing. Another group of women were doing a variety of moves with a sort of badminton/paddle racket and a ball where they would move their arms and bodies, twirl around and make various moves, but the ball would stay right on the racket, although it was not attached. Our first couple of days were pretty smoggy, but today the sky was clear and a beautiful blue color, probably because of a huge storm we had yesterday--lots of thunder and heavy rain. We could see the Pearl Tower very well from our balcony today--it was perfect weather.
When we walk out of our complex in another direction away from the park we go out on to a busy commercial street (Yanchang Road), and the University is just across the street. It is not a fancy street, just a series of small shops, stores, restaurants, people cooking things and selling stuff from their shops. There is an outdoor market and a few "convenience store" type places where you can buy basic supplies and one medium-size older grocery store down about two blocks. There is little or no English on the signs or from the people in the stores. We are really in a regular street in a normal part of Shanghai, not the ritzy upscale part where American businesspeople might go when they come here.
Today Sharon and I went to Beginning Chinese class in the morning. The teacher worked on teaching us sounds of various letters, combinations, and characters, and the tones that are so important for nearly 3 hours. The class was packed with students, mostly Americans, and we all had to speak up at various times--some of the Chinese sounds are difficult to say, very "foreign" to our American tongues.
Later the program director, You Sha (pronounced "yo sha") took Sharon and I to the local police station where we had to register and obtain a Temporary Residence Permit. It took nearly an hour to get there and fill out many papers, and finally get the important red stamp on our final papers, so I guess we can stay. I thought about making some jokes about my "checkered past" while we were standing for a long time at the window of the Shanghai police station, with this officer looking very seriously at the papers and passport information You Sha was giving them, but decided against it. Then we hailed a taxi in the middle of a very busy street, with cars, buses and motos and bikes going all around us--for the trip back to our neighborhood. Many people ride bikes and motos and there are regular width lanes on big streets just for them.
You Sha has been a great help on everything. She's sharp, fun, very organized and has lots of high energy. She arranged for a van to pick us up at the airport--way on the other side of Shanghai, met us at the apartment when we arrived and helped us get set up, took Sharon and I to lunch the next day at a very nice Sichuan restaurant, then led an orientation session for all (about 35) of the students and helped them deal with various issues, then took the whole group to another restaurant for a Chinese "banquet". She just stopped by the apartment to help us get our washer and DSL internet hookup going, and stayed to visit a bit. By the way, it has all been chopsticks when we go out--no sign of any knives or forks, so we've had to use the sticks! I seem to be getting most of the food to my mouth.
Sharon has cooked dinners here in the apartment the last couple of nights, so we decided to go out tonight. We went to a small "hole in the wall" place on our street that several people had told us had great dumplings. This small place had a few tables inside, and was maybe 10 ft. wide and 20 feet long--with the kitchen at the far end. We pushed our way in the door, got lucky when two guys got up and had great "window" seats. There were a few words of English on the back of the menu but none spoken. The dumplings were delicious and the whole experience was definitely "real." Cost of the dinner was about $2.00 total. There's more to tell, but it's late and I have my first 3 hour class tomorrow, so good night from Shanghai.
All best wishes,
Mike (with help from Sharon)
Michael B. Bixby
Professor, Legal Studies in Business
College of Business & Economics
Boise State University
Boise, ID 83725
(208) 426-3675
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