Category: General

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

To all who read this blog and are worried about my dear little mother…
She’s fine, she just can’t access the blog anymore to post content.
Says she thinks the government is blocking it.

Hmmmm. Maybe those kids weren’t really just PLAYING army (see two posts ago).

Anyway, she’s fine – stop worrying. You can contact her at caroleinglish@yahoo.com.
(Mom, you’re welcome for the spam…)

Mothers’ Day messages from:

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.

Gage went to class with me last night to interview students for his journalism paper.  He ended up with email addresses of some of the girls.  It was a rainy night and he wore his ever-present beanie and pulled his hoodie on top of that.  The students couldn’t get over the fact that he was wearing two hats.  Girls are now starting to approach him to practice their English, and he’s quite charming and affable when engaged.

Today (Thursday) we went to the Shanghai Museum–a beautiful 4-story building containing bronzeware, pottery, textiles, coins, sculptures, paintings and calligraphy.  Gage has developed an interest in calligraphy and bought brushes and inkstone so he can try his hand at it.  We have a “word of the day” every day, and today’s word was duoshao, meaning “how much?”  He used it with the clerk at the museum and she understood him!

Weather today is absolutely perfect.  Yesterday was a downpour, and the day before that was unbearably hot.  Kinda like being at home.  We’re having a good time, but it’s exhausting putting in a full day of sightseeing before going to work in the evening.  Looking forward to the weekend…

Sounds fun.  It would be great to see some pictures posted.

Gage, it would be really great if you would set up a time to Skype with your mom and me.  Let’s make the $ we spent on that netbook worth it.  You can either go to www.yahoo.com; set up an email address; send it to Adam to have your email forwarded to that account; OR  check Grandma’s email for correspondence.

Be safe and keep working on your studies.

Dad