Monday, June 23, 2008

Shanghai number three!

hey it's us from Shanghai again. Michael's going to start off with our one point of interest from the office as of last week, and then I'll tell you guys about our weekend.

Josh and I were just returning from our daily after-lunch walk last Wednesday when we realized that the office looked particularly dark. We walked in to find that the power had went out and all of the computers were powerless. After waiting for about fifteen minutes, the lights turned on and power was restored. Peter, the guy who fixes all of the computers for the employees, told me to turn my computer on and see if it worked. So I did as he instructed. As soon as I hit the power button there was a popping sound and my computer monitor started smoking. I turned it off right away, but the screen continued to release smoke. Everyone in the office rushed over to see the spectical of smoke and mutter to each other in Chinese. They were actually surprisingly nice about the whole thing. One of their monitors had been fried and people were laughing about how much smoke there was. About two minutes later, another computer started smoking and everyone rushed over there. At this point, we realized that turning on more computers would be a bad idea. The problem was eventually fixed. I got a brand new monitor for my computer and the day went on. It was our first bit of action we've had the entire internship and everything turned out okay.

ok so it's josh again. here's the weekend story:

I had quite the weekend. I would definitely not call it fun, but it wasn't bad either, and it definitely taught me how to appreciate my life. we left friday a bit confused about our weekend plans. Michael and I had been told that we were going to a place called Hang Zhou, which I knew nothing of, except for that it was a huge tourist site in China and that it involved a lake. we had heard that the guy we were staying with (who we had only met that day for about two seconds) had a house near the lake, but we were skeptical because the lake didn't allow swimming, or motor boats, or anything that usually goes along with a lakehouse. it sounded more like the lake we visited in Ji Nan, government owned and run, more of a tourist attraction for people who have lived in gross, smoggy cities their entire lives and find lakes novel. It's supposedly hugely attractive to Chinese people, but having never heard of it myself, I doubted it registered up on the American tourists going to see the highlights of China list. not that that is neccesarily bad, just definitely not the sound of a place with lake houses. no one who we know knew what we were doing at the lake except for "walking around and visting." we were told multiple times that "there were many places at the lake to visit" sounding more and more like a government owned tourist attraction, no? well the meeting with the guy we were staying with (I still don't know his name. he said it to us but we didn't catch it, and Xintian said it to me tonight but it's clearly not that catchy because it didn't stick. Michael and I called him either Hang Zhou [behind his back clearly, since that's the city he lives in, not his name] or greeny [when he wore this brilliantly colored green polo, three out of the four days we saw him, friday, saturday, and monday] when we spoke to his face we just said hey! or something like that) the meeting wasn't to reassuring is the point. it lasted about twelve seconds, and his english was so bad he couldn't even get out his first scentence comfortably. I told him to use Chinese, so he started jabbering away and I just nodded and agreed. At the end I thought we were going for dinner at 4 and leaving at five (turned out we left at five, but whatever I heard about si dian zhong was something else. that's good though because 4 isn't when I usually dine my evening meal) so yeah... nothing really productive there. Well we departed at five and by a mix of subway bus train and taxi made it all the way to his "lake house." we arrived at around 9:30, 4 and a half hour trip. so yeah see those quotations around lake house? I did that for a reason. lake house = this is guy is really poor. now when I complain about the housing situation, realize I'm not complaining, or being stuck up in any way, I'm just describing this how it was. It's clearly not how either Michael or I live at home, and not how I have ever lived in my life. that's why it was a learning experience though, and one that made me super grateful! seriously I'm not trying to sound whiny, so you have to read this as me being the most understanding affluent american who's ever stayed with a poor chinese family. I'm pretty sure he was commuter worker, meaning that he probably grew up in Hang Zhou, went to school in Hang Zhou, and now that he has akid wants to move to a better city with better opporunities for his son. To do this, he got a job in Shang Hai and lives there during the week, so he can support his family at home and (he didn't tell em this part but I'm guessing) hoepfully move the family into Shang Hai eventually. his family lives in the top apartment of a building on the edge of the city. family being his wife and absolutely adorable two year old. I'll talk about the kid later because he deserves his own paragraph. anyway, the top apartment, as far as what michael and I have seen dictates, is usually the fanciest in the building. this wasn't exactly fancy though. when you walked in there was a hallway heading straight ahead, with one turn off to the right. The turn led to a kind of kitchen/sink area that didn't really have four walls, kind of like a small hallway with large, glassless windows. the main hallway continued into what I'm going to call the living room, where the kids toys and table took up about 75 percent of the room. then there were two bedrooms, one for the family and one for Michael and me. there was no furniture except for the beds, which had been covered by multiple threadbare blankets to try and make up for the lack of mattresses. But I always say I can sleep on anything. including wooden floors, which is what this felt like. the bathroom, which had enough room for two people to stand shoulder and shoulder in front of the bath, toilet and sink, could at least be defended by saying it had running water. it was only cold water, of course, and there was no shower head, so the one time I attempted to clean myself all weekend I did it kind of elephant in the jungle style: just poring water over my head. The water I used to bathe was heated over the stove in a large jug and then poured into a basin that sat in the tub. oh and did I mention that there was no soap in the entire house, excluding a tiny sample size bottle of Johnson and Johnson baby oil? they call it baby "oil" for a reason, that stuff makes your hands slimy! so yeah I wasn't exactly the cleanest boy ever this weekend.

luckily our room had an air conditioning unit, because the rest of the house was always slightly hotter than the outdoor temperature, which stayed at around 93 for the duration of our visit. I felt bad about using it though, because they clearly weren't the richest people I know. oh and our room was also equipped with a large blue net that surrounded the bed to try and keep the various bugs from infesting our skins while sleeping. I still managed to some away with two bug bights, one on each shoulder, that are kind of... huge? oh and did I mention that they match! exact same place on each side, I'm symmetrical!

so yeah, enough whining right? seriously i'm not trying to sound stuck up, I was just describing my weekend living situation. but I'm clearly going to appreciate my shower more when I get home. Anyway, the eating situation was ok. we had two home made meals, which were not exactly the best meals I've ever had, but filled my stomach. and then we also went to this restaurant that I'd rather call an eatery. it was like a giant food court type thing that we ate at for all three meals. I personally believe that they have a vendetta against vegetarians. I mean hiding tiny shrimp in the cabbage? what's up with that. the waitress tried to convince me that if it was just a little bit of meat it didn't count, but hey, my convictions are strong. so I ate rice, edamame, and bamboo shoots. and lost some weight. and then the kid!! he was sooooo cute!! his name was qian sun I think, but anyway they called him sun sun. michael and I called him kobe though. His chinese was better than mine, which is a bit sad, but hey, he was smart! he would always talk to me in Chinese and his dad would have to translate and then I'd say some stuff back. Michael and I taught him to high five, and he loved that. oh and he had these toy trucks that he could ride and they had honkable horns!! he loved to honk them and then crash them right through the door into our room. my mommy always said that it's a good thing that they make babies so cute or else we'd kill them. I liked him =D

the lake was what I thought it would be, just with a bit less government. It was like one big park, and we spent sunday afternoon walking around it. Michael and I talked a lot. sun sun ran into a lot of people and had the time of his life. other than that I'd say we were actually bored sometimes, because there wasn't much to do around the place. we visited another temple/garden like place, basically the same as all the others we saw except this one had some caves.

so not a bad weekend again, and definitely an eye opening one. I'm learning plenty in China, though I don't think anyone planned on teaching me this lesson.