Thursday, May 31, 2007

The ride of your life

Certainly my most exhilarating experience yet has been my afternoon bike ride through rush hour. A streaming flow of rickshaws, bicycles, motorbikes, Vespas, trucks, cars, buses and carts pours through the roads as all types of people pack up and head home for the day. This picture is meant to demonstrate the diversity, not the density, of Shanghai's traffic flow.

At first glance, this chaotic mass of traffic was the first cultural difference to strike me while we traveled from the airport to the University. Yet somehow, through this entropic nightmare, gilded with strategic honking, one feels remarkably secure, despite the fact that a single miscalculation would end my life. And you also get the feeling that nobody would slow down to remove your body from the road.

But yes, there is a majestic quality to the way people transport themselves. Because it is so amazingly chaotic and dangerous, everyone gives their full attention to the road, averting mishaps when the must be avoided, but otherwise charging straight ahead. Furthermore, people can't ride bikes and talk on cellphones at the same time, and of course most of the vehicles are much smaller.

So far, Shanghai's most interesting activity from my perspective is to sit for a few minutes at an intersection and watch the various kinds of people going by. Some antediluvian men haul large cartloads of trash and preppy business women in expensive clothes scooter by wearing masks and white gloves. And the most interesting part is that the natives don't think anything of it.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Tut-tut, it looks like sun!

It seems that college women will melt if their faces are exposed to the light of day, even with a dense layer of smog shutting the actual sun out of view. Actually, the issue here is the fear of sun tans. Apparently Chinese girls prefer the whitest skin possible so as to more closely resemble the Western girls in advertisements. The question remains, why are the girls in advertisements mostly white-skinned?

My roommate Ryan is studying this anthropological phenomenon. He is not actually enrolled in our language program, but he got a grant from UVA to study the desire to be white. I haven't seen any results yet, but he has said he will post comments to the blog.

Highlights of today include equipping myself with a badminton racquet for future athletic endeavors and taking a long nap.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

In the Shadow of Moose Dung himself


Here is some of our group eating dinner under the auspices of Chairman Mao. Apparently I made the error of sitting closest to the window, thus indicating that I was inviting everyone else out to dinner. Our conversation is typically limited because of our language pledge to speak only Chinese while here in Shanghai.

I began the day by finally exercising a little bit, and much to my pleasure I was able to power past the other early morning joggers. So far I've only seen one female jogger, and that was under the cover of darkness. I haven't figured out why women don't run in public, but I'll work on that. As for the men, they don't seem to exceed a slow jog. Please comment if you have any insights about this phenomenon.

Our accomodations are specifically for esteemed international students. The menagerie of foreign students here is considerable. We have one group from Kazakhstan, one from Saudi Arabia, one from New York, and many from other Asian countries. This evening the Muslim call to prayer graced the stairwell as I launched into a rousing version of "Onward Christian Soldiers", cut short by the objections of the more discrete Virginia students.

I'm hoping that as time goes by, some of you loyal readers will comment with suggestions for future outings or with cultural questions that I can investigate. Please feel free to start a dialogue.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Land of Ping Pong Athletes

It seems you're always guaranteed some intense ping pong television programming in this country.

The workload of memorizing 80 new characters a day sets in as I continue to blend in posing as a native Shanghai ren. Walking by a restaurant window this afternoon I saw Edward Bennett and another UVA student at a table contentedly surrounded by food. Because of the very favorable exchange rate, they spared no expense in assuring themselves at least one tasteful dish. Fortunately I was able to help them finish the multitude of tdishes they randomly ordered from a menu of Chinese characters. We passed on the raw, seemingly intact fish. I still haven't found coffee beans for my coffee maker. Someone could make a fortune by getting the Chinese to start drinking coffee.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Standard Items at the Grocery Store


We found these items at the meat counter of our local "Trust Mart". Other notables include chicken "paws" and the specific lack of ground coffee to use with my recently purchased drip coffee machine. It was here that I also purchased a cellphone. This event took about an hour as I had first to decide on the phone with the counter ladies, then I had to take a bill to the payment counter, then I had to return to the display counter, then I had to go downstairs to customer service for a special stamp, then I had to return to the display counter, and finally I could walk downstairs with my purchase where I then had to display everything to a doorman.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

48 hours after landing, I am already blending in as a native Han Chinese. Today we bused over to Lujiazui Road where we ascended the world's fourth-highest tower, the "Oriental Pearl TV Tower". If they had built it any higher, smog would have prevented seeing anything at all below. We then crossed the Huangpu River via tunnel and emerged in the 1920's architecture of "the Bund," Shanghai's former European financial district, looking across at the TV Tower and a dozen other skyscrapers. I engaged in my first haggling session with a man peddling roller wheels that can be strapped to sneakers. He started at 30 kuai (about $4) and I got him to 15. This served as an introduction to the feeling of heartless Western exploitation which marks every such transaction. In the end, I still got taken, as one girl got them for 10 kuai.

After lunching in the terribly tourist-ridden Yu Gardens of Old Town, we returned to the special foreign student accomodations at East China Normal University. Apparently we live quite well here, with fresh towels every day and a small air conditioning unit, although UVA's first-year dormitories are seeming luxuriously spacious. I then struck out successfully with a buddy on a bike-purchasing mission. For the mere price of $40 I now have the ability to be flattened by Shanghai's lawless "drivers" while I try merely to locate a cup of coffee in this land of tea drinkers.

One must always pay attention to what one is drinking over here. Last night, for example, my bubble tea turned out to be a snow cone covered with red beans and split peas. Delicious.

There is much to be shared, but I will keep things as brief as possible.

Two miles of visibility from China's highest tower

Friday, May 25, 2007

In the name of Thomas Jefferson, the First Virginia Expeditionary Force today claimed approximately 3.6 million square miles of new territory. The natives call it "China". Landing on the banks of the formidable Li Wa River, our party quickly subdued and befriended nearby inhabitants, namely a middle-aged man named "Old Wang" found lurking in the primeval flora. Our pith helmets made bearable the searing heat and fierce sun. We are proud to say the Old Dominion has gained approximately 1.3 billion loyal new subjects, whose population contains at least 56 recognized minority groups. Conveniently, they all belong to the same political party. Please keep us in your prayers, and stay tuned for daily updates.

Contact Has Been Made

Thursday, May 17, 2007



-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Imperialism

Greetings!

In the spirit of failed diplomatic missions, and in memory of Brigadier General Patrick J. Hurley, personal envoy of President Roosevelt to "General Shek" and Chairman "Moose Dung," the University of Virginia sends me to Shanghai's East China Normal University. From my outpost in Shanghai, the stranachudes of China, I largesse my thoughts to the civilized world I leave behind.