Back in Shanghai

An interesting thing about being a white person is that Chinese companies want you for some reason. Apparently, if you have one or more white people (presumably Americans) working for you, your customers are more likely to want to do business with you. You see, I'm moving to China because Adam is. I had no plans to work once we got there. Just me and Smudgie, hangin' out, learning Chinese. But the plant that he's going to be working at, also has a design department. And since I have a design background and actually used to work for Guilford (Adam's company), they want me to join their team in China. I didn't have to interview, I didn't even have to give them my resume. They just gave me the job and all I had to do was say "Ok, I'll do it!" And they're ecstatic about it. I attended a customer meeting in Shanghai this Tuesday with the other members of the design team. Most of the meeting was in Chinese, but the customer's lead guy spoke really good English and occasionally he'd say things to me. Also, they had an American guy on their side who didn't speak any Chinese. So we were in the same boat. Well, that meeting got me all jazzed up and now I've got design ideas swirling around in my head. Also, I'll learn the language faster if I am surrounded by it at work.

The new hotel we're staying at is very fancy and the room has a spectacular view, which I tried to get a panoramic shot of, but I need to get home to my Photoshop before I can paste it together. Finally, I'd like to add a couple random observations about China:

1. There ARE fat Chinese people, it's just not the norm

2. Spitting in public is commonplace and very audible

3. The driving is crazy compared to America, but it just works for them. I feel like drivers are a lot more aware of what's going on around them, because they have to be. I haven't seen any accidents yet...
4. The sky is visible sometimes. I saw it twice. Here's a lovely picture of the Shanghai sky on a smog-free day:

Tomorrow we fly back to the U.S. for a few weeks. And we get to pick up Smudgie, who has been thoroughly enjoying his vacation at the pet sitter. Here's a picture of him with Ed. Big guy, small dog! Very cute.

A "tour" of Huainan

Today, we were taken out to breakfast by Mr. Li, his wife, and Really, Adam's temporary translator. It was the first time either of us had ever had soup for breakfast. But it was actually really good. And there were two different kinds of bread which were both super delicious. So that was fun. Then, they said they were going to take us to a park. And we thought it would be like a city park where we could take Smudgie to play, but as the drive went further and further away from town, we realized that was not so. Haha. We drove to the outskirts of Huainan where it's very poor. Dirt roads, chickens wandering about, and stray and pet dogs looking equally scruffy. We had to stop several times to ask the locals for directions. Finally we got there and it was not so much a park (with a playground) as a historical preservation site. First we saw a Buddhist temple with lot's of cool statues. Then we saw the palace of the king of Huainan from the Han Dynasty. That's like 2,000 years old. Also, there were giant millipedes everywhere. Not incredibly giant, but about as long as a middle finger.

After that, we went to see a famous lake. It had HUGE lilypads growing all over it and little kids were wearing them as hats and it was very cute. I used my second squat toilet, and this one was gross. Thank god there was a hook on the wall to hang my purse, because I would not have put my purse on the floor. That's all I'll say. We then had lunch at this restaurant on stilts hovering over the lake. Needless to say, their food is very fresh. The fish, turtles, eels, and probably the shrimp too were all caught from the lake. As we were picking out the fish that would be on our table, Mr. Li reached into a bucket and pulled out a turtle. The bucket was full of them, all in their own individual nets, still alive. And we said "Yeah, let's try it!" I poked its foot and felt bad for a few moments but I wondered what turtle tasted like. But as lunch came to a close, there was no turtle. We suspect it was probably really expensive and that's why he decided not to get it. But no matter, because we had beef, shrimp, tofu, mushrooms, and waterchestnuts! It was a really good lunch even turtleless. Below is a picture of a couple turtles they had on display, not for eating.

Then it was a long drive home. But Adam wanted to take me to this place he went to the last time he was here for a foot massage since massages are really cheap. So Really came with us and we were all in the same room. This foot massage is much more than you could ever imagine. First of all, it's actually a full body massage. They do a little on your arms and neck first, while your feet soak. Then they do the feet for..... EVER. The foot portion is really long and wonderful. Then they dry your feet off leave the room and you think they're done.... but then they come back and start doing your legs. Then they have you turn over and they do the back of your legs and your back. And it actually kinda hurts, they're not messin' around. This is all clothed, by the way. Then you turn back over and they do more on your legs. Then Really said, "Do you want... Ba Guan?" and she didn't know the English word for it but she stamped her right fist into the palm of her left hand. And I was like, "what?" but she went ahead and said yes for all of us. I had no idea what Ba Guan was but I looked it up later and it means "cupping" in Chinese. It's this crazy fricken thing where they heat up the inside of a glass ball and then stick it on your back and the hot air creates a vaccuum and it sucks your skin up into the ball and you leave it there for 10 minutes. And it's not just one, it's several. And as soon as they started doing it, I was like, "I'm going to have several giant hickeys on my back." And it felt really weird. It forces you to relax because if you tense up, it hurts. Here's a picture of Adam's back once we got home.

And about an hour later, the spots looked even more purple. But it's supposed to be really good for you somehow. That's probably our craziest Chinese adventure yet.

Going with the flow

This blog comes to you from Adam:

So, the company goes out and gets me lunch everyday and brings it back. The first day I told them McDonald's would be fine. The guy translating for me said "Double Cheeseburger?" The translators are OK at best, they don't have the full English language down yet so I typically take the path of least resistance. I said "Sure, I just need two, and some fries." So I get some soggy fries and two double cheeseburgers on Tuesday. When they asked me Wednesday I said "Same as yesterday". So I got more soggy fries and two more doubles. On Thursday I said "Same as yesterday" again. The lady looked at me and asked my assistant/translator "Is he tired of the same thing?" I said "No, no, it's ok. I don't mind." When my food came back I had soggy fries and two Big Macs. So now we have a fun little game going. What is Adam getting from McDonald's today? The lady has stopped coming in to ask what I want and just brings something now. Yesterday she brought me two cans of Coke with my lunch, which I quickly destroyed and asked for another one later in the day. My assistant came back and said she'd make sure to get a big one tomorrow. Tuesday and Wednesday they brought a 1.25 L of Coke with my lunch so I assumed that's what I'd get today. What did I get? Soggy fries, two grilled chicken sandwiches, and a giant 2.3L of Coke which is equivalent to 7 cans here. Needless to day, my lunch hour is pretty entertaining.

Bonus story:

Last night, Adam clogged the toilet and there's no plunger in our hotel room. Luckily, there are some cleaning ladies working on the room next door. Surely they have one, but what do I call it? So I go to Google Translate, which I know is just going to give me the literal translation of "plunger" and that's probably not the word I need to use, but it's all I've got. So we peek our heads around the corner and go "Zhu sai?" And the lady gives us the most awesome look of confusion mixed with "I'd better just follow them and see what they want". She was able to get a plunger from somewhere so all is well, but I truly wonder what we must have sounded like to her. "plunger?!"

Welcome Dinner

Yesterday was Adam's first day of work at the plant, so naturally, there was a big welcome dinner that evening and I was invited too. As I'm waiting in the hotel lobby for Adam to come pick me up, this large man wearing a Hawaiian shirt starts talking to me in Chinese and even though I told him (in Chinese) that I don't speak Chinese, he kept saying things! I just smile and watch as he "nonchalantly" takes a picture of me with this cell phone. Ah, to be the only white girl in town!

On our way to the restaurant, Adam's co-worker who was driving us there tells us that Chairman Mao (he actually called him Commodore Mao) was from the Hunan province and so traditional Hunan food is popular in China. The restaurant we were going to served Hunan style food and it is very spicy! Not my cup of tea, but I ate it. The dinner was served family style where all the food is put on a big round table with a lazy susan on it so the food keeps coming around and you can pick off of it as you choose. The only things that weren't spicy were the fried rice and these chunks of pork so those were my favorite. There was also fish, beef, various vegetables, more pork, pork on a stick, and these crunchy things that looked like meat but definitely weren't. Nobody could say what they were in English. Only a couple people could speak some English anyway, and it was kind of nice not to have to be a part of every conversation.

The welcome toasts were plentiful. I've never felt so welcomed in one night! They went easy on me because I'm a girl, but they made Adam fill his glass before every toast and drink it all. Haha. Towards the end of dinner, everyone designated English names for themselves. And because there was a guy who wanted to go by Sam, I said I would be Sami, which I like anyways. There's a possibility I might work there as a designer but we'll have to work that out later because Smudgie would need a babysitter until he's fully potty trained. Apparently having a maid is incredibly common and cheap so we might hire one to work half days.

Also, this might be too much information, but I used my first squat toilet at that dinner so it was definitely an authentic Chinese experience.

We found an apartment!

First I'm going to start with our journey to Huainan. We took a really nice high speed train from Shanghai to Bengbu. It was the nicest train I've ever been on and the bathroom was at least twice the size of an airplane bathroom. After seeing Huainan now I can definitely say that I can live here. But on our way from Bengbu (the city our train dropped us off at), I was a little worried. Bengbu is not the nicest place on earth. I'm not even sure why the high speed train even goes to Bengbu and not Huainan but it did. I didn't get any pictures of Bengbu because I was too concerned with trying not to die during the car ride. I wasn't really shocked at the driving in Shanghai but it appears to be worse in the smaller cities because there is less traffic so there's more space to "manuver". Anyways, Bengbu is pretty crappy. Everything is run down, people live/work on the side of the road selling whatever they can. Roosters walk around freely until someone catches them for butchering. Stuff like that! Huainan is much more civilized, but you can still get a rooster butchered on the side of the road if you please. :)

We went apartment hunting with Christine Wang, a representative from Santa Fe Relocation. She had very broken English, but she was sweet and we were able to communicate well enough. Smudgie is definitely allowed to live with us and I even saw a few pet dogs being walked by people on our various tours. At first I was kind of worried because the first apartment we went to see was in a pretty crappy neighborhood. Not scary, but just dirty. There was a fruit stand nearby and I was like "Oh cool, a fruit stand!" and then I looked to the right and there were pieces of smashed fruit and trash all over the ground and it smelled really bad. Inside the apartment community there were some walls with shards of glass stuck into the top of the cement to prevent people from jumping over them. I guess they had good security! Here's a couple pictures of the inside of the apartment:

We saw 7 different apartments and after that first one, the apartments got a lot nicer on the inside. (phew!) So our decision basically came down to a couple of things: location, how nice the buildings looked on the outside, and what floor the apartment was on. I'm not going to post all the pictures I took because there are too many but I'll post the pictures of the one we picked. It's a beauty!

It's on the first floor, which we were really happy about for Smudgie. And the community had a nice little wall around it and it's close to everything without being right in the middle of everything. Plus just look at how gorgeous it is! We're very excited.

Bonus Story:

We got back from our apartment hunt at about 12 noon. We just wanted to relax a little bit before eating lunch so we went up to the room until about 12:30 then went down to the hotel lobby for the buffet lunch. It was mobbed! There were so many people we decided to come back later since the sign said that lunch was open until 2:00. So we went back down at 1:00 and everyone was gone. The employees were cleaning up! That was dumb, so we thought we'd order room service since the little brochure in our room said room service was 24 hours. Adam called and apparently they only had dumplings. Maybe they have 24 hour room service but they have an extremely limited menu. So we decided to go on our first adventure. We walked down the street until we found a Chinese restaurant, knowing that nobody there would speak English and we'd probably have to just point at pictures on the menu. Now, I know how to say "Hello" and "Two, please" in Chinese, but I didn't want them to think I speak anymore than that so we walk in the door and I go "Hi!" and the waitress says "Hello!" and we all start laughing because we know this is going to be interesting. The waitress opens the menu and there are no pictures. Just Chinese characters. Luckily, the waitress does know a few English words so we were able to order coca-cola and then Adam said "rice?" and she shows us the section where the rice dishes are and we just point to one and hope that it's good. It turned out to be rice, with some tiny bits of pork and something else in there and it was good. So we had a successful outing. There was a group of women in the corner looking at us and texting on their phones and that was pretty funny. I wish I still had my Chinese phrasebook. That would have been so much easier. But it was fun anyways.

Shanghai!

Yay! After the most excrutiating plane flight of my life, we finally arrived in Shanghai. Just a note, if you make this flight, bring snacks, because they do not feed you enough. For a 14 hour flight we got lunch, then a few hours later we got a little thing of ice cream and some Asain noodle salad (yucky) and then 1 1/2 hours before the plane landed, we got another meal that tasted just like the lunch. So yeah. The Shanghai Pudong airport is nice. Not adequately air conditioned, but you don't have to stay there long because it's very efficient. They actually opened up more lines to get us through faster which is something you don't see in America usually. Anyways, then we took a cab to downtown Shanghai where our hotel is. By the way, it's freakin' hot and humid here. Summer is not a good time of year to visit, FYI. The taxi drivers don't speak English but luckily Adam had a card with the hotel's address in Chinese on it.

My first impression of China is that the sky is sad. :( You can't see it. I'm not even sure if these people have ever seen a sunrise or sunset in person. Below is a picture of a cool building with a smoggy haze around it:

But the air isn't noxious or anything. I haven't see anyone wearing masks yet. Our hotel is really nice and the bed (although very firm) is really comfortable. Adam and I split an Ambien to help us sleep through the night and man did it work! We have pretty much no jet lag so I recommend it very much because the last time Adam was here it took him three days to get over his jet lag. Here's another picture of a cool building, with not so much smog:

Also, the elevated highways have potted plants hanging from the edges, which I thought was a nice touch. I wonder who waters them...

So today we explored Shanghai and the first thing we went to was the Yu Garden. It's an elusive little garden (actually a very large garden), hidden amongst a bunch of shopping streets. The cab driver dropped us off a few blocks away from it, presumably because he didn't feel like driving through the madness so we couldn't find it until we followed a tourist group. The garden is surrounded on all sides by a big wall, so that they can charge you admission (only $5) but that's why we didn't see it. Here are some pictures from there:

Upon leaving the garden, we were funneled into a long corridor full of shops and at the end there was this giant building:

So we had lunch there! I stupidly left my Chinese phrasebook on the table so now I have to get another one. :(

Then we visited the Shanghai Museum, which is full of cool stuff and it's free! Outside the museum, there are several large statues of lions and one in particular, we thought looked like Smudgie scratching an itch on his neck. If you've met Smudgie, you can totally see the resemblance.

Here's another picture I thought was cool:

For dinner, Cynthia Wei, who works at Guilford Shanghai, picked us up and took us to The Bund, which is a really cool area of Shanghai on the river. Lot's of places to eat and just an awesome atmosphere. We ate at a German Restaurant and it was amazing. I got a picture of the Shanghai skyline at about 7pm but when we left dinner at about 9pm, the buildings were even more lit up. But my camera got all foggy and couldn't take a good picture. So here's the 7pm one:

That's all for now!! Tomorrow we are traveling to Huainan in the afternoon. But I'll have more to say after we see our housing options on Monday.