To Hangzhou the hard way (pt. 1)

Last week (Oct 8th) was a national holiday commemorating the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC). While we were at the nearby Korean restaurant stuffing our faces with grilled meat, beer, and soju, a combination that I find greatly enhances one's ability to think clearly and make good decisions, we talked about planning a trip to a nearby province. Somehow during this conversation biking and Hangzhou came up, so we decided to put the two ideas together and had our preliminary plans for the upcoming holiday.

Sometime Mon or Tues it was decided to leave on Thursday morning (Oct11) and come back either Saturday or Sunday. Next steps were to buy our bikes, figure out how to get there, find a place to stay, and assign GI Joe call names. Step 1: We went to Carrefour (Big French department/grocery store) to pick out our 自行车. The bikes ranged from 200RMB to about 800RMB so as you can imagine the quality wasn't exactly all there. Which wasn't a problem since my budget was 300RMB, therefore quality wasn't exactly a high priority for me. After about 45min of kicking tires, I spotted my baby. She had everything I was looking for: big cushy seat - check, brushed dark purplish/blue steel finish - check, bell - check, I'll take it.

Step 2: Figuring out how to get there. I was a little nervous about this part, but after speaking with friends of friends of friends who have actually made this trip we were told the route to Hangzhou from Shanghai is relatively simple. So we headed to the local bookstore and picked up a 15RMB road atlas of Shanghai and its surrounding provinces. After consulting the map the trip would be about 220km (over 120miles), so if we were to average 20km/hr (15mph) throughout the trip we could get there in 11hrs + a few hours for breaks and food. We also plotted our route to Hangzhou, which was head SW from Shanghai and get onto road 320 and follow that for 180km.

Step 3: Lodging. Because it was a holiday week we knew it was going to be hard to find lodging especially this late in the game. Hangzhou is also a major tourist destination so that only complicated things. I figured we would just pay out of our noses for 1 or maybe 2 nights. But my friend Jae Hyun came up with a brilliant idea. Last week after a night of drinking he introduced us to this bath house in Shanghai were you can soak in hot tubs, get massages, and sleep overnight. He proposed finding a similar type place in Hangzhou rather than stay in a hotel. So he did the research and found the address to the place and made sure we would be able to stay the night.

Step 4: Pick appropriate GI Joe call names. Me - Beachhead, Doug - Snow Job, David - Hawk, Jae Hyun - Lifeline. Done. Everything came together relatively smoothly and I felt we were pretty well prepared despite the last minuteness of our planning. The next day, we planned to meet up at 6am in front of my dormitory, get breakfast and head out together.

Fall Semester

School started up again in the microcosm that we like to call Jiao Tong. With a semester of experience under my belt life in Shanghai has been noticeably smoother. This semester I tested into "beginner 4" and discovered that my spoken Chinese is better than a large majority of my classmates. Last semester, after 2 months of being in China studying Chinese I realized that I still couldn't say a complete sentence. The classes at Jiao Tong are really focused on reading Chinese rather than speaking and listening. Which is why I got a tutor and language partner this past Summer. You can study here for a year and finish "beginner 4", be able to read a 1000 characters, but not be able to understand nor be understood by the "real" Chinese. I didn't want to be that guy.

Over the Summer, while school was out, I spent an hour and half every day with my tutor (Jesse) practicing Chinese. Her going rate is 30 RMB/hr, which seems to be the market rate for Chinese tutors at Jiao Tong. So I was shelling out 225RMB/week for 7 1/2 hours of tutoring, which so far has been worth every mao.

My tutor Jesse is from Shangxi province, which I really know nothing about except that they have a lot of coal. Her dad is a government official so I get to hear cool stories about the inner workings of the Chinese Communist Party. She moved to Shanghai to improve her English for a possible move overseas. Recently she asked me to be her language partner and teach her English, so we still keep in touch a couple times a week.

I also currently have a language partner named Tina. During the Summer I responded to her note that she left at the dorm bulletin board. Normally the ads posted on the bulletin board are a source of entertainment for me while waiting for the elevator. However, Tina's note seemed somewhat normal. A majority of the ads seem more like personals than requests to find language partners. So far things have gone well and we've been meeting regularly for about 3 times a week for about 2 hrs (1hr English/1hr Chinese).

A little about Tina: She is a account manager working for Epicor, which is an American ERP company here in Shanghai. She seems to be making a lot more than the average Chinese white collar worker. She just bought a brand new Honda Civic and 2BR house out in the suburbs of Shanghai. She wants to improve her English skills because all the business in her office is done in English and to improve her chances for career advancement. Most of our conversations usually revolve around work, life in the US vs China, etc...

Over the Summer I was putting in an average of 10-11hrs a week of Chinese practice. However, now that classes have started I only spend about 4-5 hrs a week with my language partners. As a result I've been able to go to my bank and deposit USD and exchange for RMB, get totally lost on my bike and find my way asking directions, order 煎饼 (delicious pancake-burrito like food that I often eat for breakfast) and have basic conversation with the vendor across the street. I've found that using Chinese to accomplish these kinds of things has been worth all the effort and time I've put in.

Catching up

Much has happened since my last post, so I'll try to chronologically recap everything. I spent a weekend in Jeju (small South Korean island) playing in a nasty nines tournament. The Korean government along with various sponsors helped subsidize the tournament. One of the sponsors happened to be a Soju company so as you can imagine the soju was flowing freely Saturday and Sunday. Which was the main ingredient for a particular incident involving a former Michigan State ultimate player, a moving bus, projectile vomiting, screaming babies, and locked windows. We pwned everybody, won the tourney, and took the prize money (approx $1,100 USD).

The following Monday we fly back to Shanghai. I get a night of rest and have to get ready for the trip to Guilin (Guangxi Province) with 8 other Jiao Tong friends. This was was my second trip to Guilin and Yangshuo. It was just a beautiful as last time, but much more crowded because of the May holiday. My friend AH set the trip up with the help of his aunt who lives in Guangzhou, whom has some guanxi (connections). Which meant our group had our own personal bus driver to take us where ever we wanted and a tour guide. The trip was fun and I got to do a lot of things that I didn't do the last time (back in 2000). My highlights were the riverboat tour down to Yangshuo from Guilin, the hot springs in long sheng, the bike tour around the Yangshuo countryside (esp Uncle do a Dave Mira off the side of the road), and bonding with my friends.

When we got back I hit the books again and get my Chinese back on track. Resumed spartan training, which has now become: Track workout, 5 X 12 dips, 25 min of abs, 8 X 25 pushups, 100M walking lunges, 5 X 10 pullups. Been doing this workout about 2x a week and playing some pickup ultimate on Saturdays. Partied some more, introduced some beer pong to Asia, catching up on Naruto, 24, Sopranos, and Entourage.

怎么说 "Wingman"? part II

...I do a quick scan of the situation and room. The left most side sat three girls in isolation who were friends of another girl who was an acquaintance of my friend (probably also wondering wtf is going on). There were approx 1.5 hostess girls for every man in our group. Each of us had our own hilarious look of feeling slightly embarrassed and awkward written on our faces. My Korean friend beckoned me over to him and his woman and introduced me to a couple of girls sitting next to him. I was promptly introduced as "my friend from America" (“美国的朋有”). So I broke out the chinese I accumulated over the last 1 1/2 months, which meant I could hold a conversation for about 45 seconds. Everyone else in my group is already pretty fluent and seemed to be holding their own, which meant watching the girls play dice games and drinking our liquor. Fortunately this memorable experience lasted for only about 10min. After which all the girls left our room in the most efficient formation possible. I suspect for two reasons: (1) They had paying clients elsewhere in the club. (2) Someone in our group leaked that we were students and had no jobs (thus no $$$). I keep telling myself it was #1.

We were basically back to the same situation as before. The three other girls were hanging out by themselves, six of us drinking and wondering what the hell just happened, while my Korean friend is making out with his women. I initiate some conversation with the three girls whom I originally thought were all Korean. I found out two were actually Chinese after complimenting one of them on their speaking ability. Unfortunately one of the girls had her mind polluted with Western culture after spending 8 years in England studying. She didn't find my sexist jokes charming and was speaking out of turn. So I go back to my friends who are hitting on the serving girl (服务员）, who was actually much prettier than the hostess girls.

It was still early so I call around and make plans to meet up with some other friends at Attica. BTW while all of this is happening my Korean friend is making out with his woman. While coming up for air he would occasionally look over at us with a slightly guilty and embarrassed expression. Plans get squared away and we take off for Attica sans Korean friend and woman.

Updates since: Korean friend and his girlfriend of 10 days broke up. Korean friend lost a lot of face with us that night. If he would do the right thing and cut off his pinkie perhaps we could find it in our hearts to forgive him. We also still have two bottles of cognac reserved at that club, we are looking for the opportune moment to go back and pre-game there.

怎么说 "Wingman"? part I

Last Friday the boys and I headed out to the semi-new Korean club. Forgot the name and location of the club or at least it has been repressed by my subconscious. A week before, we had all promised our Korean friend that we would all go there this past Friday. Said friend had attended the club's opening night a couple weeks ago, where he met his current "girlfriend". I was told said girlfriend wanted to introduce us to her friends. Where do I sign up?

For some reason we plan to meet and leave the Tao at 8:30pm(太早了!). Didn't actually leave until 9:45pm, which is how things kind of work in China. While walking to pick up a cab my Korean friend and I talk a little more about the evening to come. Through this conversation I gleaned a few more kernels of information and put together a very different picture of what to expect that night. It turns out that the girlfriend also works at the bar along with her friends that we are supposed to meet. The ladies all work as "Hostess girls" at this Korean club. Hostess girls are employed by the club and are paid money by clients to pretend to like you and drink your overpriced alcohol. I think the rate for these particular ladies was 300RMB for the night. I've heard the going rate is between 200RMB - 700RMB. However, since my friend was dating one of these girls we were going to receive this special privilege for free.

So the crew hit the club around 10pm or so, K-lou and I got some quick pre-gaming with a semi-nasty 白酒and orange juice concoction. We walk in like movie stars and are immediately led to our private room on the 2nd floor. On the way to our room, I did a quick scan of the joint and noticed it was mostly empty with the exception of a few groups of ladies at various tables and older business men (turned out to be this way for the rest of the night). So the 7 of us + 1 girlfriend are hanging out in our room. We are given the soft sell on why we need to buy 3 bottles of cognac..done (1,700RMB). Actually not a bad price and we were told the bottles would be saved for us if we didn't finish them that night. We spend the next 30min or so sipping cognac and green tea. Our Korean friend and his woman were getting cozy in the corner while the rest of us were just chilling and pretending to not be uncomfortable.

Korean friend asks his woman about the rest of her friends, considering that was the only pretext for us being at this place. I get up to use the bathroom and come back to find all the seats in our room occupied by "the girls we were supposed to meet".......to be continued.

Shanghai Routine

Life here has been unexpectedly busy for me, but probably not enough to justify not having posted anything for the last couple weeks. Initially I wanted to blame the Chinese gov, but they only make blogging mildly inconvenient.

Nothing particularly interesting has happened over the last couple weeks. I've settled nicely into the routine of waking at 7:50am going to class till 12pm, getting lunch, taking a 1-2hr nap, watch a little *TV downloaded from the intertron, eat more food, then I usually hit the books from around 10pm-1am on the 1st floor of Tao Li Yuan. Interspersed in that schedule is the occasional 2 1/2 hour *workout session on Wed, Fri and Spring League on Mon.

*I just finished the 2nd season of 24. Have to say the show isn't bad. Keifer Sutherland has come a long way from being the weak link in Young Guns I to the badass now known as Jack Bauer. The one thing I can't stand is Kim Bauer, I'm hoping from season 3-6 they find a way to make his daughter just go away. BSG season finale was damn good, lots of wtf moments.

*the last few weeks I've been working out with a couple friends. There is a decent 400M track on campus. We've been doing light track workouts followed by dips, pushups, and pullups. Its not the same as the gym, but its enough to keep the gun show going.

Currently all foreign students have the entire week off from classes. Some students signed up for trips to either Xian, Beijing, or Tai Shan that had been organized by the school. I chose to spend the time off in Shanghai....umm catching up in my studies. Besides I just committed to flying to Jeju (Korea) to play in 9-man roster tournament the weekend before the May holidays. During the May holiday I'll be flying to Guilin with school friends for around 6 days. Last night I just received the initial costs of the trip and suddenly feel very poor.









Pre-game action before a night out in Shanghai

Lao Shi Hao!

Mandarin classes here at Jiao Tong have been going well and I've about adjusted to my schedule. Most of the students who have come here seem to have spent some time studying Mandarin either through their home universities or in another Chinese city (i.e. Beijing). The program here is divided into 3 levels (n00b, Intermediate, and Advanced). Within each level, students are further siphoned into 4 groups (i.e. n00b I, II, III, and IV). A majority of the foreign student population fall within n00b I - Intermediate I. I'm in n00b I.

I have classes 5 days a week for about 3 hours per day. I have morning classes M, W-F (8:30am - 11:50am) and afternoon class T (1:10pm - 4:30). Schedules vary for everyone and they give us a week to settle on which classes and schedules we want to attend. After the musical chair session that was the first week my class ended up with around 22 people. About 9 Europeans, 5 South Americans, 1 Filipino, 1 Thai, 2 Russians, 2 Canadians, 2 Americans. All the Koreans and Japanese hop classes until they found ones that were primarily made up of their countrymen. However there are always a few white guys in these classes who are looking to meet an Asian girl.

Every one in my class has the same schedule, which means we get to see each other 15 hours a week. Our n00b I class attends 4 intensive reading, 2 intensive listening, and 4 intensive speaking classes each week. The classes move pretty fast and every day we encounter a new set of vocabulary words that need to be processed and memorized. Westerners (including me) definitely have a harder time learning the language than those from other Asians countries. The Japanese use a lot of the same characters so reading and writing is pretty easy for them, but their pronunciation is crap. Koreans have a completely different spoken and written language, but they are used to writing characters and I hear the sentence structure of the two languages are similar.

Most of the people in my class are really nice and its been fun learning with such a diverse group of people. The only complaint I have against my classmates is when they open their mouths and try to speak what they think is Chinese. Granted the Asians in the class have spent more time around Chinese and are used to hearing the syllables. But when some of my classmates speak it sounds as if they are mentally-handicapped, deaf, and have a chunk of meat in their mouthes. Kudos to our instructors for being so patient and being able to comprehend the gibberish that comes out of their mouths. Some of the Latinos in my class are having a really hard time with the language. Due to the nature of the Spanish language they are just incapable of reproducing and differentiating the tones necessary for speaking Chinese (i.e. pwned).

Initially I found all facets of the language to be challenging, but over the last month I've gotten much better at writing characters and my listening skills are improving. I still find stringing together complex sentences to be my biggest challenge. I usually spend my weekday evenings downstairs in our building studying. I've been trying to spend about 2hrs/day studying. 2hrs/day is probably close to the minimum needed just to keep up with class. However living in a city like Shanghai has sometimes made it difficult to hit this quota.

Shanghai Frisbar Pickup

I didn't get home till around 5:30am Sat (3/17) morning and going to pickup wasn't exactly high on my list of priorities at the moment. However, it was nice out and I felt better after 4hrs of sleep. So like all good soldiers I decided to sack up and play.

Pick up in Shanghai is held every Saturday from 12 - 2ish pm (when its warm). The fields are located in Pudong (across from the Carrefour). The area we play at is close to residential housing for a lot of expat teachers (i.e. rich) and is located right next to a British school. AH tells me the teachers at US and British schools do really well here and get great perks like free trips back home. It took me about a 25-30 min cab ($55RMB) ride from where I live (Xu Jia Hui). I can also take the subway ($6RMB) and take a cab to the fields ($15RMB), I hear this route takes around 1 hr 15min. My friend AH (also my Spring league captain) and I shared a cab this past Saturday.

If you want to play you have to pay a membership fee ($1500 RMB/year?). Fortunately there is a student discount so I only had to pay $300RMB for a 1 year membership. We play on well maintained lush grass fields, which is a nice change from the hard field turf. The club is primarily used for rugby, but they seem to welcome/accept Frisbar as a legit sport.

Pickup started at 12pm ultimate time (12:30 or so). There were around 20 players who showed up. We kicked things off with your standard endzone drill (different continent, same drills) to warm up. Then moved on to your basic continuation drill. The group at pickup had a higher concentration of the stronger players in Shanghai. Currently as a co-ed team, I would say that we would have a difficult time making it Sunday at regionals in the Central Region. The group was mostly expats. The stronger players had played in college programs like Wesleyan and Carleton. There were also some decent players who learned how to play in Asia.

Overall I had a lot of fun. Although I do feel like I have a big target on my back. All the dudes wanted to take a crack at the new hotshot US import. It'll probably be like that at all the Asian tournaments too. For those who don't understand, its kind of like an Alpha male thing. I don't blame them though I'd do the same, but they need to take care and not wake the tiger.

There was this one particular player who was only in Shanghai for the weekend. His name was Chris and had just graduated from Amherst. He is about 5' 7", Asian, and around 22 or 23. Basically me about 4 years ago, except with a lot less awesome. I wish he was going to be in town longer. He was very unpolished, but was the type of player who with a little help could make an impact on a decent club team.

I have to give the kid credit though, he definitely came out to play. He had a motor that didn't quit and got not one but two layout blocks on me (although 1 was a poorly thrown dump pass). I was only able to respond by giving him a mushroom tattoo, while skying him for a D. He definitely got the better of me that day and there wasn't enough time at pickup for me to even the score. I feel like he was that guy who sits at your poker table wins a ton of chips early then leaves. I've permanently burned this transgression into my memory and will someday have my revenge.

Massage-y

Earlier this week Tuesday. I was up late studying downstairs in Tao Li Yuan with a couple Korean friends (1 female, 1 male). Around 11:45 ish they abruptly asked me if I was interested in getting a massage(y). A message this late immediately raised some flags and prompted some questioning. It turns one of my friends had been there a couple times already. The place was only about 5-10 minute walk from campus. The closer for me was the price. 2 hours for $58 RMB (= <$8 USD).

Keep in mind, at this price your not paying for ambiance. I've never spent money on a massage before, but I'm guessing that means no scented candles, relaxing background music, or whatever people get at the standard spa. We walked into the first room of the place, which looked like a normal living room. Three people people were there eating a late night meal and watching TV. My Korean friends did all of the talking and we were later led into another back room with three lazy-boy like massage chairs.

The masseuses came into the room (2 guys and a girl). I got the dude, which was sweet, he had strong hands. We started out with the standard back and shoulder massage, which felt pretty awesome. We soaked our feet in warm tea for about 10 minutes. The tea is later sold to Westerners for exorbitant prices. Our feet and calves were then massaged for the next 30 minutes or so. Throughout the 1st hour the masseuses were helping with our Chinese pronunciation.

We were later shuffled into another room with the standard massage tables where you lie face down. We spent the next hour getting massaged from head to toe again. Paying less than $8USD for a 2 hour no frills massage at 1am in China. On a scale of "Zero" - "Rad", I'd say the experience was pretty sweet.

The next day I told my friends (both White) about the place and couple of them went out that night to get their $58RMB massages. One of them somehow got the Chinese fire-cupping treatment. Which is damn hilarious, cuz he came back with ridiculously large red circles all over his back. We all get a good laugh reenacting the "wai guo ren" getting suckered into the most ridiculous treatment available in Chinese massages.

Shanghai Frisbar League

I recently reached out to the Shanghai Ultimate Players Association (SUPA)and signed up for their Spring League. The league is still pretty small and there isn't a whole lot of local participation. Low per capita income, travel restrictions, and lack of interest in all physical activities that aren't basketball or World of Warcraft (WOW), are all contributing factors to poor local participation. Conversely, my Shanghai contact tells me that the sport is seeing tremendous growth in Singapore and the Philippines, mostly through local participation. When/if ultimate becomes an Olympic sport, China will most certainly pour money into the sport for the opportunity to increase their medal count. However, the group in Shanghai and Beijing have been doing some work to help promote the sport throughout China.

The league in Shanghai has 4 teams. Their are a lot of new players, so the play is pretty low level and is primarily utilized as an environment to teach new players how to play. I would say the level of play is equivalent to playing in the Simpsons division of Chicago Spring League. The games are played in the evening at a lit Stadium near the Jing An temple metro stop (or $25RMB cab ride from Jiao Tong). The league cost $400 RMB (about $50 USD), I believe most of the money goes towards renting field space. The surface is field turf and pretty nice.

The teams were assembled using some sort of draft method. Upon registration I was asked about my level of experience (no rating system). These responses are kind of tricky for me, I didn't want people to think I was being a pompous ass (at least not yet). I mentioned something about 4 yrs college & 4 yrs club. On a side note, NS formerly of BAT and Magnum is in Shanghai. Apparently he stated "have played before" as his level of experience.

So far the people seem to be really nice. I try to do my part and help with instructing the new players. I've tried to be careful and not step on too many toes. There have been a couple awkward situations where I've told somebody something and 5 min later someone else will contradict what I just said. I'm still too new to the scene and plan to tread lightly until I can get my head around the politics and different cliques of SUPA.

We've had two games and are 1 - 1 right now. I've been playing around 60% and have been trying to preserve my body for future club seasons in the US. Although my first ever contact with a disc in Asia was a Callahan goal. I got caught playing lazy and managed to get hand blocked as a result (Kevin pwned - 1). "Quasi-Serious Cho" came out and consequently got a catch block against the guy and gave him a good look at my pretty ass while skying him for another D (noobz pwned - 2).

Night at the Bon Bon

Last Friday my friend DLH held a belated birthday celebration at Club BonBon. For most of us it also happened to be our first night in town. I wasn't sure what to expect partying with my new friends. The combination of an open bar, B-Day celebration, and light weights doesn't usually mix well. For the record I'm now throwing myself into the "light weight" category. For years I've been in denial, but my friends in Chicago opened my eyes at my surprise going away party. Where I proceed to go from "0" to "sloppy" in 0.74 hrs.

Basically, BonBon has a one time cover of $120RMB. Once you pay the cover you’re entitled to an open bar. However your pretty much paying for what you get, which was cheap liquor and Carlsberg beer. If you want water of any kind or anything non-alcoholic that’s gonna cost you. And no you can’t order vodka orange w/o the vodka. The club scene in Shanghai (at least in BonBon) was pretty typical. It was about 50% local Chinese, 45% other Asians, and 5% other (i.e. Asian night). Roughly translates to lots of doe-eyed Asian girls. Which most of you all know, happens to be my kryptonite and generally spells disaster for me.

The club had some really cool table areas and a bathroom with a view that at the moment is kind of indescribable. There were 2 dance floors, 1 floor had a DJ playing hip/hop, the other floor had a DJ playing House. There was definitely a lot more table space than in the clubs back home. For the most part clubbing for the Chinese involves playing drinking games with a pair of dice. Judging by the disinterested looks on people’s faces it didn’t really look all that fun and there wasn’t nearly enough drinking.

On a side note getting a table can be a frustrating experience. In Asia it is perfectly acceptable to save one's (or a party of 8) seat whether in a club or library for 1- 2 hours with say a book or empty glass. Kind of like calling “5’s” or “seat back”.

Our initial group consisted of about 8-9 people. That lasted for about 1 toast, 10 minutes, and 2 pictures. All throughout the night random groups of people dropped in on us. The evening (the way I remembered it) ended early for the B-day boy who was out of commission after about 2 hours. My roommate and GO were toast after a few drinks and left early. I was still going strong and was rejuvenated by an influx of new friends, classmates, and strange women. I got a text message from SS @ 3ish. He was hurting and my Jedi mind tricks weren’t enough to convince him that he was ok. So we headed back to the dorm (su she). The next morning I woke up reeking of alcohol, smoke, and Asian girls.

Sociology of Tao Li Yuan

Life in our dorm has been interesting. There are two residential buildings at Jiao Tong Da Xue dedicated to foreign students. The buildings are tucked away in a remote corner of campus, I suspect to minimize mingling with the local Chinese students. The demographic of the overseas students is about 70% Korean, 10% Japanese, 10% Overseas Chinese, 10% Other. The people I've met have been mostly around the ages of 22-29.

Most of the students pay more money and choose to live off campus to have a standard of living similar to their home countries. Cheap bastards like me are ok with slumming it out in the dorms (I'm paying about $4.5/day to live in my dorm). However, I've heard that our dorms are much nicer than that of the local Chinese students.

The Koreans tend to stick to their own little cliques. Their English isn't that good so they probably find it a lot easier to mingle amongst themselves. The Japanese seem more open to interacting with people from other nationalities. They also speak better English and seem to come from more traveled backgrounds. The Europeans and Whites tend to stick together. The overseas Chinese (me) are sort of webbed between all of the groups.

Surprisingly our floors are co-ed. This was kind of shocker considering how conservative China is about sex. I already had one funny incident involving a Korean girl living on our floor. Our floor has 2 public bathrooms one for women the other for dudes. I had just finished taking a shower and was on my way out of the bathroom. I noticed a Korean girl brushing her teeth at the sink. I made eye contact with her reflection and we both took a couple seconds to process the situation. For a moment I thought some glitch in the Matrix had moved me from one shower to another. I checked the symbol on the door and confirmed the code to the Matrix wasn't compromised. The Korean girl subsequently sprinted out of the bathroom and ran back into her room. I don't think she realized the gun show I was giving her was free. It turns out she lives across the hall from me. She always has gets embarrassed when I bump into her, but I'll always remember that special moment we had together.

Registration & Assimilation part II

Students staying in China longer than 180 days are required to have an X-Visa (student). However to obtain an X-Visa you need to have a doctor run some tests on you and fill out the "physical exam for foreigners". It turns out that most students here have J-Visas (tourist) and apply for their X-Visa during the registration process. The school also conveniently provides a mobile medical trailer to examine students for their physical exam. I had my exam done in the states so that I could get my X-Visa at the consulate in Chicago. It turned out that I had to pay and go through the entire physical exam again.

The exam consisted of a small blood sample for an HIV and syphilis test. I also had clamps and electrodes attached to my extremities (including nipples), which was part of an EKG. I also tested negative for babies in my Ultrasound results. My chest X-ray also didn't indicate any abnormalities (other than a larger than average circumference).

Later in the week I bumped into another Chinese-American (ABC) in the elevator. One glance, a nod, and a "wassup" was the extent of our conversation and enough for ABC confirmation. I later met up with SS and his roommate GO, who is Chinese-Filipino. Both of them are studying for only one semester. SS is from LA and graduated from UCLA where he will be working for PWC (IT consulting) when he gets back. SS is already fluent in Mandarin, but is here to learn to read and write. GO grew up in the Manila and I'm not really sure what he does. I think he plans to work for the family business when he's done in Shanghai. Like me, GO is a beginner at Mandarin, but he can read the traditional Chinese characters. I've mostly been hanging out with these two clowns the past couple of weeks.

SS has been a godsend in the area of helping us order food. He can't read the menu, but its a great deal better than pointing and saying "Zhe ge - this one". He later helped all of us obtain our transit cards at the subway station. Its exactly like the Chicago Card plus. It can be used at all the subway stations, buses, and even taxis. These cards can be recharged at any of the subway station either electronically or at an attended booth.

Registration & Assimilation

Monday 2/26
Registered for classes and pay for my tuition and door room for the semester. The process was pretty orderly and efficient. There were 3 ways to pay for everything cash (USD or RMB), debit, and credit. I originally was planning on using a credit card, but was told that their was a 1.5% service fee. I decided not to eat the 1.5% service and decided to go pick up some cash that had been left for me at my dad's friend's business.

I took a cab to the auction house which was located on E. Nanjing Rd (Lu) and walked into office. My dad's friend wasn't there but some of his employees were there working. I spent the next 45 minutes pantomiming who I was and why they should give me a large amount of cash. Once my identity was verified and story checked out, two of the employees helped me open up a bank account at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC).

Immediately after this I went to look for a SIM card (ka) for my phone, which can be purchased practically anywhere. After playing a little charades, I bought my SIM ka for around $100RMB, $50 of the $100 was loaded into my phone account. In China, mobile phone service is pay as you go. I'm not sure the exact rates but local calls in Shanghai run me about $0.13RMB/min. The rate information is completely in Chinese so I really don't know the exact fee structure. Just that its a little more expensive calling numbers outside the city (within China). Once the cash on the card runs out you can deposit more money at basically any street corner or convenience store in China. You can also check your balance by text messaging 10086 with the message "yecx". You will get an immediate text with your remaining balance.

After getting my phone and bank account set up I went back to campus to pay for my tuition using my new debit card. The rest of day was an epic 3 hour search for a supermarket so that I could by some soap, shampoo, water, and most importantly toilet paper.




(One of the most precious commodities in China)

moshi-moshi

I wanted to take the time to introduce my roommate:

Name: Shintaro (aka Taro)
Nationality: Saitama, Japan
Age: 24
Height: 170cm
Weight: 62kg
Favorite food in Shanghai: Big Mac










(Taro slaving away at his desk)

Shintaro will be studying Mandarin at Jiao Tong Da Xue for 1 year. After which he plans to enroll at a Chinese university for graduate school. He spent 2 years in high school in Geneva and he also spent a few months last summer at UCLA studying English. He is working for a small Japanese company in the area of "trading humans". Overall a cool and laid back guy, except he's all business when it comes to moving human cargo.

His interests are Karaoke(ing) until the break of dawn. Updating his blog/page on Mixi (Japanese version of MySpace). Eating ridiculous amounts of Sen Zhen Bao.








(Taro smuggling a little break from work)

Tao Li Yuan

The name of our dorm is Tao Li Yuan, its also the main administrative building for processing all the paperwork for foreigners (i.e. me). The rooms are pretty similar in size and quality to the room I had as a freshman at IU. The building is probably about 15 years old, but you have to factor in the China variable which works out to be around 25 years old.

(My bed, work space, and my roommate's Bed)

I'm living in a double room. My roommate hadn't arrived yet so I had first pick of bed and table (n00bz pwned - 1). The night I arrived I spent some time unpacking and discovered that someone at the airport stole my toiletry bag. Of which contained my beloved electronic toothbrush, deodorant (will haunt me later), facial wash, chapstick, and Colts key chain (given to me by my bro about 12 yrs ago for Christmas). Kevin pwned - 1. So when traveling through Asia or some sketchy region put locks on your luggage.

Our room doesn't have its own bathroom so I'm stuck using the same facilities as the rest of the plebes. Which is reasonable since I'm paying about $35RMB/day for the room. I'd give the bathroom a 3 out of 10. Our bathroom doesn't mess around with superfluous amenities such as air freshner, soap, toilet paper, paper towels, heat, sanitation, etc.... Its the kind of place that turns boys into men.

(typical Chinese squat toilet, we also have one western style toilet. BTW the wastebasket in the corner isn't for tissues. FYI - Koreans like to smoke and poop at the same time.)

I didn't have shower shoes so I was forced to make direct contact with the floor of the showers. I only had to suffer through this for a week, not to worry though I had my Hepatitis vaccination. However, I'd count myself lucky to only come out with a little ring worm. After a few showers I wisely spared no expense and bought some shower shoes for $60RMB. Problem solved.













(showers are in private stalls, H2O pressure - avg, hot water - good, floor - not so good)

Ni Hao Shanghai!

The flight from ORD to PVG (Shanghai) was about 14 hrs long. My anxiety about moving to Shanghai was making it hard for me to get any sleep. I did manage to squander 2 hrs of my life watching a crappy Russell Crowe flick (A Good Year). Other than that I spent the balance of the flight reviewing maps of Shanghai from my Lonely Planet travel guide. My next concern was being able to get from the airport to Jiao Tong Da Xue (University).

We landed around 3:30pm Shanghai time (my flight departed ORD @ 10 ish AM (Shanghai is 14hrs ahead of Chicago). I waited in line at customs for about 45minutes, which is always a fun people watching experience. Most foreigners coming through are other Asians (japanese, SE Asians, Koreans, etc...) then you get a variety of other people (non-asian). No matter what, there is always one loud obnoxious white guy (sadly he is usually American). You can't miss him, he is usually talking loudly on a phone or to a buddy about his China stories (which are most likely exaggerations of the truth).

Throughout the the flight, I had been debating whether or not to take a cab straight to the university for $200 RMB ($1 US = $7.7 RMB) or taking a bus for $19RMB then a cab for about $20RMB. I took a calculated risk and took the bus (#2) to downtown Shanghai. It was about an 1hr ride to downtown Shanghai from the airport. By this time it was about 6pm. I was getting nervous about finding a taxi during rush hour and wasn't sure if the dorm would still be open after hours. After showing a little ankle i was able to hail a cab and make it to the address I had written down. Great Success! I was able save $160RMB, which can either be 1 day or 1 week worth of food.

By the time I arrived on campus the sun was already down and it turns out the address was the address of the university not the dorm room. I spent the next 45 minutes lugging my luggage (about 90lbs) in absolute darkness. Finally I was able to find an old white couple, who then found an English speaking Chinese student who kind of knew where I needed to go. The name of my savior was Wang....Jack Wang. From our 10 min conversation, Jack is studying English at Jiao Tong, but already has his degree in Applied Finance (I majored in non-applicable Finance). He is from Sichuan province (the only thing I know is that they have hot food there) and was looking to work in Australia after improving his English.

I finally checked in with Jack translating for me. Jack and I went our separate ways and I promptly went to check out my living situation for at least the next 5 months.

Later Chicago

Due to technical difficulties, jet lag, and absolute laziness, I'm just now getting around to writing about life in Shanghai. I've been in Shanghai for about 5 days, but first want to recap the time leading up to the big move.

Real World Irving Park: Spent a majority of my free time trying to organize and pack my possessions. Conditions: pack for 1 year, 4 different seasons, include Frisbar equipment, 10lb weighted vest, total weight of large suitcase = < 50lbs, look sweet at least more than 4 days out of the week. Done. Special props to my sister for letting me store my junk at her place. I also spent some time indulging in luxuries that are non-existent in China. i.e. Long John Silvers, Fogo de Chao, going #2 on a western toilet, American TV shows, Free Speech, Long John Silvers.

Kraft: I spent a lot of my last day saying good bye to all my friends at work. Both of them seemed genuinely sad to see me leave..jk =). Transitioning was easy thanks to my backfill and the ops team didn't really seem to miss any beats. JK and I were members of the month down in the employee gym; thats how you go out on top of your game!

On Friday night the roommates (sans JF, but + TB) went to Smoque for a little goodbye dinner. After which I said goodbye to AY and JL, who left for Great Wolf (in WI). Their weekend probably consisted of 3ft kiddie pools, binge drinking, gourmet dining, and flirting with single moms. Its kind of like Valhalla, but in Wisconsin. While they were in Wisconsin, I left a single tear drop for both of them on each of their pillows. BK and I stayed in town and watched Heat. He also volunteered to see me off and drove me to the airport the next morning (thanks buddy!).

On Sunday morning, the scene at Sparta...i mean the airport was absolute madness. On Saturday Zeus, in his infinite wisdom, smote Chicago with a ridiculous Winter storm canceling about 70% of the flights leaving O'hare. Which directly resulted in a 70% increase in bitchy moms with crying babies. In addition to all this my luggage ended up being 7lbs overweight. I gave the woman at the counter my best puppy dog face, but that only bought me 3lbs. I ended up carrying on some shoes. Overall no big deal. Everything else leading up to boarding was pretty smooth. Side note: I did get some entertainment getting a front row view of a 5'1" woman jogging in 3" heels completely bite it face first. I know I'm a jerk, but I assure you while I was chuckling on the outside I was definitely concerned on the inside.