Subway faux pas

Why did she have to bring her pizza on board?

I wish the Shanghai Metro Authority would make a commercial for this. I hate smelling people's food. It is bad enough I have to smell body odor during rush hour. This is bu hao...next time eat your pizza before you subject us to the smells of fake cheese.

There is always someone doing something that disregards the space of others. Bad odor, bags hitting you because they aren't paying attention, pushing, screaming on the telephone, or the worst of them all...a line has formed in order to be orderly, but there is that one ignoramus that must push past everyone getting off while the rest of us are waiting patiently. 

Zao shang hao Shanghai!!! (Good morning Shanghai)

My neighbor

 Every morning my neighbor is out there washing dishes in his under-roos! He is a nice man and now says "ni hao" to me. I am the honorary foreigner in my little corridor of lane houses.

How do you clean your windows?

Just tie a rope around your waist and then jump off the side!

I can't imagine what it would look like if that rope snapped

Working at Web International

I am amazed by the amount of people that are coming into the center to sign up for classes. I think from the American perspective many people would think it is a waste of money, but I think it is a good business. There are many people who are paying a lot of money to learn English with the hopes of bettering their careers. I think this could be a good business model for a similar operation in the US. The only problem is that the cost would be extremely high to bring native Chinese speakers to the US. This would include paying for visas, a wage that allows them to be able to afford rent and other living expenses, and transportation. I think Chinese is a very important language for the future since many companies are looking and will be looking to do business in China. There are 1.3 billion people consumers in China and the Chinese government plans to turn the country into a consumer nation much like the United States. This means that there are 1.3 billion people I can promote a product to. Sounds like there is a lot of potential for America to make money.

Not everything has to be doom and gloom. When China can consume like the United States there will be many opportunities for small and large businesses to make money. If the United States can continue to innovate as it traditionally has then there is room to make money. Ideas can be made in the United States and they can be sold in China. This can be simple as selling produce or meat to a patented piece of technology. There will come a time that China will not be able to produce enough food for its own people and this will provide an opportunity for countries with a surpluss of food to sell to this behouth of a country.

China still has a long way to go, but it has come a long way. There are many things that they have learned from us as a nation and there are many things that Americans can learn from China. I do believe the United States economy will shrink as a means to correct the overspending and over zealous life styles of most Americans. There is an opportunity for great change and I think more young people will make their voices heard and they will begin to be entrepreneurs rather than slaves to a system that is caught up in an old American system.

I'm ready to make money. Are YOU? I see China as an opporunity to utilize a seventh of the world's population to fill my pockets with some dinero!

I’m going, going…back, back…to Shanghai, hai.

 It is back to the Chinese grind. Nothing has changed in Shanghai except my one month absence. I was having emotional moments, dealing with reverse culture shock as I returned home. I would not say Shanghai has a faster pace than Southern California, but I would say that the average Chinese or those residing in Shanghai are much more aggressive. At times, the level of aggressiveness felt like barbarism. Then, I came home and there was an order that my life had lacked for ten months. No one is cutting in line, no one is pushing their way onto an elevator as others are exiting, taxis, scooters, and buses are not about to collide with pedestrians, and life overall is not as chaotic.

All of these cultural contrasts makes me wonder if China is truly barbaric and uneducated, or that we, Americans, have a system of civility that only hides our superficial, bigoted, and, many times, xenophobic ways. It is well known by Westerners and Chinese alike that presentation is everything in China. Presentation and quality are two independent factors and they seem to be mutually exclusive in China. While I can say and feel that Chinese are uncivil and lack manners, I must wonder if we Americans are not kidding ourselves. We are a multicultural and multiethnic society that is filled with a past and present history of racism and discrimination. Beyond that, much of our racism is systemic and many would like to believe that we have learned and evolved to not behave in such ways. However, this is what believed in the minds of many and practiced by the few. I think Americans are also concerned with image rather than fixing the core or root of where such problems stem (Ex. The debate of the debt ceiling, cutting budgets, and lowering the deficit).

So I wonder, are we any better? We might have a polite society on the surface, but are we truly polite people? I am beginning to look at Chinese as a diamond in the rough. It is a valuable gem that has yet to be polished and we can see this rough exterior by how people behave in public, but one-on-one these people are quite warm and truly are interested in learning from foreigners and care for their well-being (to an extent).

In other news

I am beginning to get settled in my new apartment and my new job. It is weird because I feel a little lonely being in Shanghai. Not many people are currently present in Shanghai, so it is just me! I went to an art showing last week with a couple of my old coworkers from Jin Cai. Nadine, the art teacher from Jin Cai, presented three of her works in the art showing. That was an interesting experience. I felt like I was the hybrid child of the avant-garde and poor college graduate. I will just continue to believe I am amongst the upper echelons of the vanguard making a way for the young intelligentsia.

Anyhow, back on topic, I am getting reacclimated to my Shanghainese expat life. I have made a few goals for this year and they are as follows:

1.       Continue to learn Chinese and be able to have basic conversations in everyday topics.

2.       Chinese and international networking. Develop and nurture these connections.

3.       Save at least $10,000.   

4.       Get back into shape.

Most of these goals are self-explanatory, but the “get back into shape” goal is not. Working out can feel like a chore from time to time, but I have learnt that it is a great way to deal with the emotions of being in a foreign country that is 180 degree different than everything I know.

I will post more about my work and my living condition soon.