Daily Life
6 August 2005
We're settling into life here in Shanghai--just a little. Our weekdays start with class--2 hours of Mandarin and then 2 hours of China info and some stuff about teaching techniques for English. Next week we're doing a teaching practicum at a local middle school (grades 7-12). This is NOT like teaching science. It's more like being an activity leader--pretty refreshing. Our afternoons are spent exploring and learning how to function. And eating. We typically get out of class and head out to eat somewhere. There are little hole-in-the-wall restaurants everywhere and for us they all seem about the same, but it's hard to know. I do know now that the character for meat looks like a pictograph of a rib cage. And the character for noodles looks like a characature of a dynamite plunger. Chicken is ji and beef is niu. Noodles are mein (me-in). We did find a Muslim noodle place yesterday that was a little different.
After lunch we head out on missions to check out one thing or another. It's interesting just wandering the streets, though there are plenty of targets to shoot for. Taxis are cheap so it is no problem just to grab a cab and head somewhere. For a couple of bucks you can get just about anywhere. Even a long long trip in a taxi would cost less than $10 US. The metro (subway) is even cheaper, but of course you are limited to things close to metro stations.
This weekend we have plans to check out a number of things but a Typhoon is coming in. Typhoons are Asian hurricanes and this one came ashore this morning a little south of here as a Category 1 storm. It looks like it will be a blustery rainy weekend but not a full on hurricane since we didn't get the direct hit.
Here's our morning Mandarin class--it's intense. This guy fills the board with characters and pinyin (the alphabetic form of Chinese) and we fumble through little dialogs (Where is the nearest bathroom? It is to the right. How much does it cost? That is too expensive. What is your name? I don't know my name anymore.)
We had lunch yesterday at a Muslim Chinese noodle shop nearby. They make noodles by hand there--this guy rolls dough into a big log and then pulls it out, folds it in half, whacks it on the table (why??), stretches and folds until magically he is holding a bundle of perfect noodles that get boiled.
Bei loves to eat noodles. They're not Kraft mac and cheese but you have to take what you can get.
Ellen and Bei checking out an art/antique district in NE Shanghai. This area was blocked off to cars and was uncharacteristically peaceful.
One of the antique shops we checked out. It had lots of Mao paraphernalia (little red books, photos) and other interesting stuff from old Shanghai. It's hard to know what is real and what isn't though.
These guys are just relaxing in the shade on the street. Lots of life seems to take place out on the streets.
A checkers game--there are lots of these anywhere you go. Always men.
A bicycle cart locked to a fire hydrant. The locks are interesting to me and I want to buy some while I'm here.
We saw the results of a bike-taxi collision as we passed in another taxi. The woman was the bike rider and wasn't hurt but she was pissed. There was lots of measuring going on by the police--probably to be carefully entered onto report forms, stamped with official stamps and filed in official files never to be seen again. The street are busy with bicycles, scooters, cars and busses and it's fairly nerve-wracking to watch them interact with each other. Horns are a key tool but it's unclear if the bikers react to substantial hornage even when it is right behind them. Maybe this scene is not uncommon?
We're settling into life here in Shanghai--just a little. Our weekdays start with class--2 hours of Mandarin and then 2 hours of China info and some stuff about teaching techniques for English. Next week we're doing a teaching practicum at a local middle school (grades 7-12). This is NOT like teaching science. It's more like being an activity leader--pretty refreshing. Our afternoons are spent exploring and learning how to function. And eating. We typically get out of class and head out to eat somewhere. There are little hole-in-the-wall restaurants everywhere and for us they all seem about the same, but it's hard to know. I do know now that the character for meat looks like a pictograph of a rib cage. And the character for noodles looks like a characature of a dynamite plunger. Chicken is ji and beef is niu. Noodles are mein (me-in). We did find a Muslim noodle place yesterday that was a little different.
After lunch we head out on missions to check out one thing or another. It's interesting just wandering the streets, though there are plenty of targets to shoot for. Taxis are cheap so it is no problem just to grab a cab and head somewhere. For a couple of bucks you can get just about anywhere. Even a long long trip in a taxi would cost less than $10 US. The metro (subway) is even cheaper, but of course you are limited to things close to metro stations.
This weekend we have plans to check out a number of things but a Typhoon is coming in. Typhoons are Asian hurricanes and this one came ashore this morning a little south of here as a Category 1 storm. It looks like it will be a blustery rainy weekend but not a full on hurricane since we didn't get the direct hit.
Here's our morning Mandarin class--it's intense. This guy fills the board with characters and pinyin (the alphabetic form of Chinese) and we fumble through little dialogs (Where is the nearest bathroom? It is to the right. How much does it cost? That is too expensive. What is your name? I don't know my name anymore.)
We had lunch yesterday at a Muslim Chinese noodle shop nearby. They make noodles by hand there--this guy rolls dough into a big log and then pulls it out, folds it in half, whacks it on the table (why??), stretches and folds until magically he is holding a bundle of perfect noodles that get boiled.
Bei loves to eat noodles. They're not Kraft mac and cheese but you have to take what you can get.
Ellen and Bei checking out an art/antique district in NE Shanghai. This area was blocked off to cars and was uncharacteristically peaceful.
One of the antique shops we checked out. It had lots of Mao paraphernalia (little red books, photos) and other interesting stuff from old Shanghai. It's hard to know what is real and what isn't though.
These guys are just relaxing in the shade on the street. Lots of life seems to take place out on the streets.
A checkers game--there are lots of these anywhere you go. Always men.
A bicycle cart locked to a fire hydrant. The locks are interesting to me and I want to buy some while I'm here.
We saw the results of a bike-taxi collision as we passed in another taxi. The woman was the bike rider and wasn't hurt but she was pissed. There was lots of measuring going on by the police--probably to be carefully entered onto report forms, stamped with official stamps and filed in official files never to be seen again. The street are busy with bicycles, scooters, cars and busses and it's fairly nerve-wracking to watch them interact with each other. Horns are a key tool but it's unclear if the bikers react to substantial hornage even when it is right behind them. Maybe this scene is not uncommon?
posted by Ken, Ellen and Bei | 4:02 PM
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