Author: cinglish

Tests are graded and grades turned in.  This time I actually met the guidelines of the University.  I must assign a certain percentage of A’s, B’s, etc.  Last class had earned too many B’s and I had to arbitrarily take away points from their scores until they fell in the C range.  Once I met the correct percentage, the rest of the B’s could keep their grade. 

Bai Wei arranged for his brother-in-law to take us to dinner last Thursday.  He’s a physician here.  Val had been morbidly admiring the rooster claws for sale in stores and restaurants, and she finally got a chance to sample them.  The presentation was lovely:  a fish head surrounded by chicken feet.  Her assessment:  you can eat anything with the right sauce on it.  Another eating first for us was the spudburgers at McDonalds.  We’d been watching TV commercials that showed potatoes being mashed and placed on top of the meat in a certain burger they’ve been marketing.  So we tried one.  Sure enough, you get bacon, two patties, and seasoned mashed potatoes in a bun.  Even though we originated unhealthy fast-food, I don’t think it’ll catch on in the States.

We have great toenail art.  People here have the steadiest hands.  They can paint on anything, even grains of rice, so our toenails were no problem.

We took the bullet train to Nanjing yesterday.  It was cool there, both figuratively and literally.  We almost needed jackets.  The natives were wearing sweaters and coats but carrying their ubiquitious umbrellas.  These umbrellas are not waterproof–in fact, they’re very fancy and used only to protect from UV rays–and are made of lace, silk, embroidery, etc.  Even on the warm days here the women are wearing black tights.  The shoes continue to amaze us–many of them zip up the back.

Had a little excitement in the Metro stations on Saturday.  We were on our way to People’s Park to watch the weekend mating service.  Chinese parents advertise the assets of their unmarried children to other parents of unmarried children.  On the way there, a man came rushing through the crowd,  nearly knocking Val down.  He was followed and caught by another man who held him in front of us until five policemen showed up and hauled him off.  On the way home, two guys got into a fist fight, blood and all, and had to be separated by a cadre of transit police.  (Yup, they have guys now who stand in front of the train doors to remind people to let people off the trains before they swarm aboard.)

This blog was drafted days ago, but I was unable to post it before we left China.  I’m home now and will find more pictures to post.  The trip was a great success.

Today I review with class 2, and tomorrow they take the final exam.   As I am correcting their resumes, I thought I would share with Gage that one of the students listed her hobby as graffiti.  You would like her, her name’s Vanilla Chou.  I’m trying hard to persuade one of The guys to change his name to something other than Grubby–it doesn’t look good on his resume.  OH, and Gage, remember that I wondered why the Chinese were so fond of rabbits?  It’s the year of the Rabbit…..duh.

During the time I was unable to blog I notified the registration desk that I had a friend coming to stay with me in my room.  The clerk said, “OK, what’s the problem?”  I replied that I just wanted to make sure that it was OK.  The answer was, “Sure, just have him show us his passport when he gets here.  Should I have been flattered?

I had my blood pressure checked yesterday on the sidewalk on my way to tai chi class.  If I understood the numbers correctly, I’m in great shape.  I’m always so proud of myself when I can ask “how much” in Chinese, but then I never understand the answers.

I should carry my camera with me at all times.  On my way to the post office I passed, at our front door, a vendor selling the chef turtles for that night’s dinner.  It wasn’t the fact of the live turtles, but the fact that the vendor was a scruffy old man on a rusty bike with the turtles riding in the basket on the front.  I don’t think they have FDA here.

• Today is spa day.  Back to the singing hairdressers to have our eyebrows threaded and have a good pedicure.
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• If you can’t read the sign from the kitchen, it says in case of fire to throw the blanket on it.

Just returned from the watertown again.  But this bus driver dropped us off on a different side of the town.  We weren’t sure how far it was to the entrance, so we took a pedicab.   He took us on a long, roundabout way so he could drop us off at the shops of his friends and relatives.  He was acting as our tour guide, glibly speaking Chinese as though we understood it.  We had been feeling sorry that he’d had to pedal the two of us uphill–in fact, we were downright embarrassed that he’d had to get off the bike and pull us up a hill.  But when we couldn’t shake him later, we didn’t feel sorry for him anymore.  Found a great mousepad that I wanted to get for you, Adam, but I didn’t think you’d use it, so I took a picture instead.

 

Chinese people can sleep anywhere.

 

 

Went to Church today, then to the top of the highest building in Pudong to look out over the metropolis.  The pollution is so bad that you can’t see very far, so you didn’t miss much, Gage.  But we discovered the farthest extreme of toilets that we’ve ever seen.  They had control panels with temperature control for the seats, as well as a range of other services (think bidet).  An right across the river you can’t even find a seat….

 There’s a Metro stop at a shopping area called Xujaiohui (Shoo zow wei).  When Val first heard it announced, she brightened up and said, “Really, Shoes Our Way?” and was ready to hop right out.  The shoes here really are something–everything from 5-inch heels to funky hightops with turned-down cuffs.

(fishnet stockings)

It’s Friday night and we just returned from a night on the town.  We strolled the Bund.  The river cruise boats now are lit up like Las Vegas, competing with the beauty of the old Shanghai waterfront and even the modern appeal of the Pearl Tower and Pudong skyscrapers across the river.

We found a new district, sort of the Trolley Square of Shanghai, where they have renovated old Shikumen (tenement) houses of the early 1900’s into restaurants, bars, blues clubs, and boutiques.  We even toured a living museum (think Sorensen Home) of an early home.  We treated ourselves to a dinner of fish and chips with green salad, which I had earned after my Mediterranean lunch.  (If you’re reading this, Nancy and Omar, sorry, but it’s my least favorite food.  It was much better in New York.)

Couple of observations:  I don’t remember seeing people in wheelchairs before, and they seem to be plentiful now.  Most of them are a small, lightweight model.  I wonder if they’re being supplied by a charitable organization?  They also have accessible entrances to the subways, although I haven’t seen anyone navigate them in a wheelchair.  But I see quite a few older people being pushed along the streets at all times of the day and night.

There are still Christmas decorations up in the fancy office building where Church is held.  The elevator/lobby music is by Taylor Swift.

In addition to Tai Chi and line dancing, a favorite exercise seems to be walking backwards, which they do around the track.

It’s late.  If I can log on again tomorrow, I’ll post some pictures.

Miss you all.

Wow, I’m able to access this site for the first time in over a week.  Unfortunately, I only have 10 minutes before I have to be “on.”  And I mean that literally.  They’re video taping my lecture today.  I’ve planned it so that it’s an interactive day with the students doing some of the “performing,” but it’s still a pressure being “on” three hours  day.

To quickly update, Val is here and shopping the place empty.  We’ve ordered clothes at the cloth market, toured YuYuan Garden, had haircuts and massages at the salon of the dancing hairdressers (see earlier blog), and tomorrow we’ll go to the ancient water village.  Tonight after class we’ll see the Bund at night.

I just came from lunch with the Dean.  He took us to a Middle Eastern restaurant and we ate lamb and yogurt.  If you know how I feel about yogurt, you’ll know that eating that was much worse than eating the toads I ate last time I was here.  They noticed that I was drinking no black beer and eating mostly flatbread, so they gifted me with a whole round loaf to take home.

I’ve got lots to show and tell, but no time right now.  Don’t know when (if ever) I’ll connect again.  But we’re both healthy and having a great time. 

Zai jian

Yesterday I noticed a group of “soldiers” skulking around the trees and pond by the guesthouse.  They had on blue camoflouge clothes and helmets, and they carried replicas of machine guns, which they fired at one another.   They had matching duffel bags, and I wondered if they were the Chinese version of the ROTC?  My students at the other campus told me there was no such thing and that the students were just playing (Capture the Flag).  At least one of the soldiers was female.  Kinda weird.

I’ve run out of books on my Kindle and have been unable to download more, so I went to the foreign language bookstore to stock up.  Amazing assortment of novels in English, including Carolyn Jessop’s new book on survival after polygamy!  There were posters of a Green Bookmark Campaign 2011 with the slogan, “Reject Piracy.  Respect Honesty.”    I bought a complete set of Vivien Leigh movies–GONE WITH THE WIND, ANNA KARENINA, STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, etc.–so today I’ll buy a DVD player.  I have a lot of time on my hands, since I’ve taught this course before and have done all the tourist things in Shanghai, some more than once.

Observations on bathrooms.  The students’ dorms don’t have any.  People are seen walking through campus with a plastic carryall holding soap and shampoo, on their way to the showers.   Friday night seemed to be an especially big bath night.  Many students were returning to their dorms already dressed in their pajamas.

McDonalds has real toilets, but KFC, which is an even larger presence in China, has squatters.  So do all the college building restrooms.  It’s still BYOP (paper).  There are no hooks on stall doors, so any purses or books have to be set on the floor next to the receptacle…an incentive not to splash.  Is this more information than any of you wanted?

The latest on the teaching front is that the administration wanted me to delay the sophomores’ final exam for two weeks and let them take it at the same time as the juniors.  I said that would be disadvantageous to the sophomores to wait two weeks after reviewing the material.  So I now have to create a third exam.  I already have a final and a retest, but they admit that students freely “share” information, so the second class will need an entirely different exam.  This even though the two classes are on different campuses.  Last time I was here they had other teachers helping to monitor the exam, so they know the problem exists, but it hasn’t seemed to change the students’ behavior.  They should adopt the bookstore’s campaign…

I was on the Metro today when I saw a picture of Bin Laden.  Had to wait until I got home to get the news about his death.  Good on us.

Yes, the Metro cars have TV screens.  Actually, the buses do, too, and air conditioning.  The Metro stations are state-of-the-art and very clean.  They have baggage scanners at every entrance.  I can get almost anywhere in this enormous city on one of the ten lines.  And buses are still a bargain at .15 per ride.  The cars are packed, though.  There was even one train that Gage and I had to let go because we could not squeeze even his skinny body onto, and I’m used to squeezing in.  Jackie, you’d have to walk everywhere–this makes NYC ‘s system seem semi-empty.

Because today is a holiday and no classes were held, I went to the Cloth Market to order some new clothes.  Gage, you would have hated it.  Val, you should bring an extra empty suitcase.  You’re gonna love the flip-flops here–they have big bunches of fruit and stuff hanging all over them.

Wonderfully cool today.  Among my observations is that many people wear their backpacks in front, to thwart pickpockets, I suppose.

The card from my camera didn’t load my new pictures when I tried it last.  I’ll keep trying because I have some pretty good shots.

I’ve lost track of which day it is, and I’m nearly to the end of the numbers I know anyway, so no more numbering.

Yesterday we took a bus out to an ancient town on the water, billed as the Venice of China.  We rode in one of the boats, and the operators really are nearly as skilled as Italian gondoliers.  But the most amazing part of the day was something I never thought I’d see, especially not in an ancient Chinese village:  a white Poodle with 4 pink shoes on!  Seriously one of the 7 Peculiarities of the World, in my book.

We awoke early this morning to make the long journey to the airport.  As we crossed the nearly-deserted street in front of the campus, a scooter came by with a whole pig–skinned and sliced down the middle–riding behind the driver.  It gave me a whole new visual to the ditty, “This little piggy went to market…”

After checking Gage in for his flight home I tried, again unsuccessfully, to find Church services.  This time I went to the place where they were held two years ago when I was here.  There were services being held there, but in Chinese.  When I told someone I was looking for the Mormon Church, she said, “This isn’t the Mormon  Church, this is a Christian church.”  My two sources have been the ward locator on www.lds.org and Googling LDS Church in Shanghai.  I know a few of the members here, but there is no telephone directory because everyone has mobile phones.  If any computer jocks reading this have any other suggestions for me, I’d be happy to hear them.

Maybe you’ve noticed that I downloaded a picture onto yesterday’s blog.  I’m going to go back and load others, as well.  I just amaze myself!

We asked if Gage could borrow a basketball while he was here.  At the time it seemed to be a big problem, but when we returned from class there was a brand new basketball waiting for us at the reception desk.  So after dinner we cruised campus, Gage shooting hoops and me joining a Chinese line dancing group.    This morning he’s off to the courts again; he’s decided he likes BB better than Tai Chi.

Last night we decided to eat something different, so we had eel.  Gage liked it; he’s been quite appreciative of the food here.

There’s a new family who arrived yesterday from Weber State U:  Dad, Mom, and young girl.  They’ll be good company for me when Gage leaves.

New observations:  Scooters that have fur-lined mittens attached to the handlebars, a penchant for bright yellow shoes, staff of a hair-styling salon  being led in dance/exercise routine by the manager on the sidewalk in front of their shop.  Good advertising–I’m going there when I need a haircut.