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.