Hello Friends and Family,
We have now been in Shanghai for 5 weeks, so time for another report—ready or not! Life has continued to be very busy for my wife and me since we last reported. Nearly every day brings new adventures and excitement, and new challenges, in language or culture or food.
About two weeks ago our whole group (program director You Sha, 35 students and Sharon and I) went on a tour of Wuzhen, a very old town built along a series of canals. The people are still living in old wooden houses along the canals as they have for centuries. We visited a museum, saw some beautiful blue and white cloth being made, and rode along the canal in old wooden boats propelled by a man manually using a paddle/rudder. Later that night, there was a program for international students at Shanghai University celebrating the Moon Festival (the day of the year when the full moon is the largest all year—a very important day in Asia). Several of our students performed musical and dance acts—a good time.
The next day Sharon and I went to see a large Buddhist temple in Shanghai, where people were praying and burning incense to celebrate their deceased ancestors, so I burned some sticks myself and thought about my dad, who would have loved to be here experiencing China—hopefully he’s watching. The next night we had a delightful dinner with Cao Guoli, a very sharp and nice Chinese man who works here representing the State of Idaho Department of Commerce. He helps Idaho companies do business in China. We had taken Guoli to dinner when he was in Boise in the spring and he returned the favor most generously, and we got to meet his friendly wife and four year old daughter as well—it was an enjoyable evening.
Then the very next night we went to the famous Puccini opera “Tosca” in the beautiful new Grand Theater in downtown Shanghai. One of the Chinese professors had some extra tickets so we attended, along with a few of our USAC students. Sharon knows opera and said the singers and orchestra were top notch—it was a great performance. The singing was in Italian (as is customary) and they flashed sub-titles up on the wall, as they do at operas in the USA, but of course the subtitles here were Chinese characters! Oh well, we were able to figure out most of the plot. The rest of the week I spent preparing for and teaching my two classes. It still takes me more than one whole day to get ready for each three-hour class, but that’s my job, and things seem to be going well. We have had some particularly good and lively discussions of case studies in the Cross Cultural Ethics class.
On the next weekend we visited another large famous Buddhist temple in Shanghai, where we viewed many large gold statues of Buddha and other idols. This temple is highlighted by a beautiful 6 ft. sitting jade Buddha carved from a single piece of solid white jade and brought here from Burma by a monk more than 100 years ago. At one point in our visit, about 60-70 monks came into the main hall and chanted together with a drum and bells for more than 40 minutes—a pretty neat sight. We also had a delicious lunch in the vegetarian restaurant inside the temple. The next day we took the subway (which we do nearly every day—there is a 9-line system which moves millions of people around Shanghai very quickly) across town to the Shanghai Aquarium. In addition to the many window displays of fish typical of good aquariums elsewhere, there are two long tunnels (200-300 feet long at least) where the glass goes all around you and over your head—sharks, manta rays and other huge fish swimming right over your head—amazing!
This past week we continued with our regular schedule—my classes, Sharon’s Chinese I and calligraphy classes, and exploring various little restaurants in our neighborhood where the menus often have no English—only Chinese characters and pictures. Interesting! We are learning enough Chinese to be able to say words like pork (zhu rou), or rice (fan) or noodles (mian) or mushrooms, and quite a few more, so we are getting along reasonably well, but we are often a bit surprised by some items that arrive on our plates or in our bowls, which we aren’t sure what they are. Sharon is trying to speak a little Chinese and learn basic characters. Also, we both go to a Tai Chi class on Thursday mornings. That is real good exercise—it is surprising to me that moving slowly but holding and changing positions can be so tough on the muscles!
This past week we also hosted a party—an “open house” for the students in my two classes and You Sha. We expected about 20 students and 22 showed up (a few extra students attended—they don’t want to miss out on a party). Sharon put out an assortment of snacks bought from street vendors (sesame cake) and fruit and we offered beer and soft drinks and juice. Our small apartment was filled, but many of the students brought some food (ba mi hua, we think, which is popcorn, also made by a street vendor) and we all had a nice time.
Our apartment looks out over a lovely park—Zhabei Park, and we often sit on our balcony and have a cup of coffee or tea in the morning. Yesterday we went down and walked in the park and came upon a group of women doing a movement/sport with a racket and a ball which Sharon had seen and was interested in learning to do. The idea is for each person to keep the ball on their racket while moving your arms and body around in big sweeping motions and turning the racquet, even upside down—something like Tai Chi—without dropping the ball (apparently it is called Tai Ji Bo). After we watched for a few minutes a couple of women came over and gestured for Sharon to join in—and she did! The women gave her a racket and ball and started teaching her (all in Chinese of course) how to hold the racket and move the arms back and forth without dropping the ball. Later they got me to join in, and while a crowd formed, we had a lot of fun trying out this new sport. One man nearby did some translating, and the women invited us to come back any morning and join them, and Sharon definitely plans to do so—she really enjoyed it.
Well, there’s always more to tell, but enough for now.
Best wishes, Michael
We have now been in Shanghai for 5 weeks, so time for another report—ready or not! Life has continued to be very busy for my wife and me since we last reported. Nearly every day brings new adventures and excitement, and new challenges, in language or culture or food.
About two weeks ago our whole group (program director You Sha, 35 students and Sharon and I) went on a tour of Wuzhen, a very old town built along a series of canals. The people are still living in old wooden houses along the canals as they have for centuries. We visited a museum, saw some beautiful blue and white cloth being made, and rode along the canal in old wooden boats propelled by a man manually using a paddle/rudder. Later that night, there was a program for international students at Shanghai University celebrating the Moon Festival (the day of the year when the full moon is the largest all year—a very important day in Asia). Several of our students performed musical and dance acts—a good time.
The next day Sharon and I went to see a large Buddhist temple in Shanghai, where people were praying and burning incense to celebrate their deceased ancestors, so I burned some sticks myself and thought about my dad, who would have loved to be here experiencing China—hopefully he’s watching. The next night we had a delightful dinner with Cao Guoli, a very sharp and nice Chinese man who works here representing the State of Idaho Department of Commerce. He helps Idaho companies do business in China. We had taken Guoli to dinner when he was in Boise in the spring and he returned the favor most generously, and we got to meet his friendly wife and four year old daughter as well—it was an enjoyable evening.
Then the very next night we went to the famous Puccini opera “Tosca” in the beautiful new Grand Theater in downtown Shanghai. One of the Chinese professors had some extra tickets so we attended, along with a few of our USAC students. Sharon knows opera and said the singers and orchestra were top notch—it was a great performance. The singing was in Italian (as is customary) and they flashed sub-titles up on the wall, as they do at operas in the USA, but of course the subtitles here were Chinese characters! Oh well, we were able to figure out most of the plot. The rest of the week I spent preparing for and teaching my two classes. It still takes me more than one whole day to get ready for each three-hour class, but that’s my job, and things seem to be going well. We have had some particularly good and lively discussions of case studies in the Cross Cultural Ethics class.
On the next weekend we visited another large famous Buddhist temple in Shanghai, where we viewed many large gold statues of Buddha and other idols. This temple is highlighted by a beautiful 6 ft. sitting jade Buddha carved from a single piece of solid white jade and brought here from Burma by a monk more than 100 years ago. At one point in our visit, about 60-70 monks came into the main hall and chanted together with a drum and bells for more than 40 minutes—a pretty neat sight. We also had a delicious lunch in the vegetarian restaurant inside the temple. The next day we took the subway (which we do nearly every day—there is a 9-line system which moves millions of people around Shanghai very quickly) across town to the Shanghai Aquarium. In addition to the many window displays of fish typical of good aquariums elsewhere, there are two long tunnels (200-300 feet long at least) where the glass goes all around you and over your head—sharks, manta rays and other huge fish swimming right over your head—amazing!
This past week we continued with our regular schedule—my classes, Sharon’s Chinese I and calligraphy classes, and exploring various little restaurants in our neighborhood where the menus often have no English—only Chinese characters and pictures. Interesting! We are learning enough Chinese to be able to say words like pork (zhu rou), or rice (fan) or noodles (mian) or mushrooms, and quite a few more, so we are getting along reasonably well, but we are often a bit surprised by some items that arrive on our plates or in our bowls, which we aren’t sure what they are. Sharon is trying to speak a little Chinese and learn basic characters. Also, we both go to a Tai Chi class on Thursday mornings. That is real good exercise—it is surprising to me that moving slowly but holding and changing positions can be so tough on the muscles!
This past week we also hosted a party—an “open house” for the students in my two classes and You Sha. We expected about 20 students and 22 showed up (a few extra students attended—they don’t want to miss out on a party). Sharon put out an assortment of snacks bought from street vendors (sesame cake) and fruit and we offered beer and soft drinks and juice. Our small apartment was filled, but many of the students brought some food (ba mi hua, we think, which is popcorn, also made by a street vendor) and we all had a nice time.
Our apartment looks out over a lovely park—Zhabei Park, and we often sit on our balcony and have a cup of coffee or tea in the morning. Yesterday we went down and walked in the park and came upon a group of women doing a movement/sport with a racket and a ball which Sharon had seen and was interested in learning to do. The idea is for each person to keep the ball on their racket while moving your arms and body around in big sweeping motions and turning the racquet, even upside down—something like Tai Chi—without dropping the ball (apparently it is called Tai Ji Bo). After we watched for a few minutes a couple of women came over and gestured for Sharon to join in—and she did! The women gave her a racket and ball and started teaching her (all in Chinese of course) how to hold the racket and move the arms back and forth without dropping the ball. Later they got me to join in, and while a crowd formed, we had a lot of fun trying out this new sport. One man nearby did some translating, and the women invited us to come back any morning and join them, and Sharon definitely plans to do so—she really enjoyed it.
Well, there’s always more to tell, but enough for now.
Best wishes, Michael
1 comment:
Hello Professor,
This is Wenyi. How are you doing lately? You look great on those pictures. Did you get my emails?
Have you contact my friend yet? She's really nice. My mom is in Japan now. She will go back to Shanghai soon. You should meet my mom as well, just because she's a good cook. LOL! Well, I will try
to contact you this week. Have fun!
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