Thanksgiving and Shopping...

By now, all of you have done some sort of Thanksgiving celebration and are enjoying the leftovers in their many forms. People have kept asking me "How do you celebrate Thanksgiving in China?" The answer is this:

-Many American hotels and restaurats hold Thanksgiving dinners of varying styles and types. We chose a place that was recomended by Hagel's boss and we had also eaten there before. So Hagel, Jim and Barb Grimm (American professor and his wife) and I set out for a very nice dinner. We had salad, lobster bisque, turkey, dressing, ham, two kinds of potatos, veggies, and pumpkin pie with whipped cream and a berry glaze (don't knocke it because it was fabulous). The only thing missing was the lefse. No I did not miss the green bean caserole, because I am not a fan. Ranks right up there with chocolate covered cherries ;)

After we ate we went to Nanjing Road to show the Grimms. They had only been in Shanghai for less than a week and had not yet ventured down to see the street full of neon and strangeness. We had fun and Hagel bargained for some light up in-line skate wheels that you can strap to your shoes. I have not yet mastered them, but soon.

I woke up early on Friday morning and had a chance to talk to everyone at the Rosenkranz. Lots of great stories

A very imortant lesson has been learned this weekend. In my experience in China, the funnier and more entertaining a person is the more you get taken for a ride. Case in point:
1) Our taxi driver on the way home from Thanksgiving. He taught Hagel and I some fun new words and was very funny. But on the flip side he took the route that wasn't all that much faster and about twice as expensive as our normal route.
2) The guy we were bargaining with at Xiangyang Market (aka the fake market or knockoff market). He was very funny and animated when we were bargainnig, even refering to Hagel as his boss and putting an old Mongol hat on him. In the end I over paid for what I was getting (I paid 100 RMB when I should have gotten 60RMB). This is frustrating and I hate getting cheated like that.

But in the end I learned a valuable lesson. I get really mad when I get cheated. So on the next item I wanted to buy, the lady quoted me a price of 290 RMB. I had no interest in a long drawn out session, so I offered her 50RMB. She said "No No. Raise your price a little higher." I responded with 70RMB. When she said no again, I walked. This lady actually chased me down and said that my price was ok. In and out in about 2 minutes. So when some one tries to be all chummy and funny, walk away to avoide getting cheated and to get the price you want.

On another note, I have finally found a jacket. It was frustrating to try to find one that was already made, so I'm having one tailored and it will be ready next week. Charcole grey peacoat with electric blue lining. Should be pretty flashy. Now all of my aunts and my grandma can stop worring about me.

Well I've got to get back to grading my mid terms because I hope to have those done by Wendesday. Tomorrow is the final round of the Union Cup English Speaking Competiotion. Can't wait to see what they've got prepared for this round.

“I have no idea what language he was speaking”

Thank you for all of the questions for English Corner. They have not had it for about 2 weeks because of various events and are looking for somewhere to have it now that the weather is turning colder. Outside is not an option.

This past week I was invited by several students to judge the Union Cup English Speaking Competition. This means that I got two invitations from two different students to do the same thing; paper invitations and everything. I agreed thinking that this would be fun and also volunteered Hagel, because it seemed like a good idea at the time and having someone else who speaks English as a first language couldn’t hurt.

One of my students came to my office to take me because I had three different people tell me three different ways to get to the place. So just send someone to come and get me became my answer. We arrived shortly after 5:30p thinking that things would get going at 6p like we were told. At 6:30 the competition finally starts. We learn the rules as they are announced to the audience. There are 20 students. Each will give a 3 minute speech and then the judges will ask them one question. Hagel and I knew about the question portion before hand and we were also provided a sheet of sample questions. He and I had some problems with the questions: a) some were way too easy or irrelevant b) we could not understand them and classified them as Chinglish c) we were dead set on being those judges that ask the hard questions. So there were 4 judges total, two Chinese, Hagel, and I.

Some of the students were very good including one girl who was from the university next door who absolutely blew us away and could have passed for nearly an American her English was so good. There were a few that we could not understand but the one that stuck out in my mind was a boy who said a few sentences and then went into a rap. I leaned over to Hagel and said “Do you know what language he’s speaking? Because I don’t.” This boy received low marks and did not stay for the awards ceremony at the end. But no one was surprised by that.

While we were waiting for the tabulation of scores, the hosts played a round of name that tune with the audience using only English songs. I was sure that I would know every one right away. I was disappointed to realize that I knew less than half of the songs. They may have been in English, but they were not always by English songsters.

The field was narrowed and only 10 will move on to the finals that are held 28Nov I believe. I’ll be judging then too. We shall see if they pass muster in the end.

My first KTV

First off, thanks for all the comments. I can’t see them on the blog, but they are forwarded to my email. Lets me know that I do have an audience ;)

I’ve also been lax about birthdays so here goes:
-Cousin Scott (IL) and would have been my Grandpa Bill’s 80th Birthday-Aunt Anne (HI) is the last of my mom’s siblings to turn 40. I hear she had a good party and
Hawaii continues to keep her looking much younger than she is.
-Looking at my notes it’s my Aunt Karen’s 22nd birthday, or her birthday is on the 22nd. You make the call ;)

Now for all the news that isn’t…

So you always hear how into karaoke that Asian people seem to be. Well this theory was put to the test on Saturday. Hagel and Bryan (intern for ATO Shanghai) arranged for us to rent a room at a Karaoke or KTV place. We showed up at 11:30pm and we had a pretty diverse crowd. There were several Americans interning in the ATO and the US Commercial service, then students from my university, Chinese friends of the Americans, and American friends of the Americans. Confused yet? Well try remembering all their names.

We arrive and are taken up to the VIP room. KTV works like this: in the US we drink a lot and before getting up in front of a bar full of strangers to try our best not to slaughter a song. KTV feels more like a house party. There was a leather couch in a large U and then to the side another sitting area with a TV and some gaming system on it. We never did end up using it, but it was nice to have the extra sitting room as there was a steady stream of people. It was a diverse crowd and you could easily see some cultural differences. We Americans like to be up in front of the group dancing and singing. The Chinese preferred to sit and sing from wherever they were. The song that defined this the most was Lynard Skynard’s Sweet Home Alabama. This was a usually raucous version, I expected it but I don’t think our Chinese friends did. One of the Americans made the comment that we had just illustrated the difference between the US and China.-This continued with the Americans (drinking) and the Chinese (only drinking tea or soda) until 3:30am. I had no idea what time it was and was not even tired. It felt more like a house party with a great electronic set up. We paid our tab and headed out. About 4 of us, including myself, were not yet ready to go home so we hit another club called Babyface. It’s a huge place and as we arrived there was a guy selling meat on a stick that smelled delicious and we walked past two girls that evidently had too much to drink and also some sort of argument. I dare not call it a fight because neither of them could really stand. The music was pretty loud so we only stayed for a short while before we called it quits.

As a first experience goes, that was a pretty interesting one. Diverse crowd, actually sang a Chinese song (Dui mian de nu hai kan guo lai), and didn’t make it home until nearly 5:30am. I would do it again, but not on a week night like my students. They will go from midnight until 6am and then make it to my 8am class. I usually assume that if a student is sleeping in my class that he/she went to KTV the previous night and it’s a safe bet.

Bright lights, linebackers, I Love Rock and Roll…

So this week is fashion week in Shanghai. I haven’t given it much thought or even remembered because I’ve been sick with what I don’t know. Right around Wednesday I would have killed for a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of tomato soup.

As part of this whole soiree into fashion, Hagel was invited to a fur fashion show and asked me if I would like to go. I agreed. I had no idea what to expect and that was the way to go into it. We met at the Ag Trade Office and left to go to a club near Fuxing Park, where I lived last summer. It was nice and everywhere I looked the club was emblazoned with the Chinese characters for American Legend, the name of the fur company. There were two jumbo screens that were showing famous models who has worked with American Ledged such as Cindy Crawford, Elle MacPherson, and Giselle. There were interviews playing as part of this, but with no sound so that was really pointless.

I wandered around a bit and talked with Hagel’s boss Ross who is the Director of the ATO. We talked traveling and he told me about his trip with his wife around the world. “I spent a month in Kenya, two months in Nepal…” and so on. I just hope that I can do that one day because it sounded amazing.

Around 7:30 the music started and while it was good, this will make me sound old, it was way too loud. Shanghai’s answer to some sort of lounge jazz act, I enjoyed it but would have enjoyed it more if they would have turned it down from 11 to maybe 8. The treble was way too much. This accompanied the snacks. It made me smile that no matter how classy you get in this town, meat on a stick is still good. There was a wide variety of small treats but I stuck with things on sticks including quail eggs, beef, and fruit. Thankfully the music ended and it was time for the fur.

The house lights dimmed, the spotlights came up to blind the Assistant Director of the ATO who was lucky enough to be sitting right by the runway, and the models began their parade. Some of the pieces that they were wearing were beautiful and the thought crossed my mind “That came of an animal? I usually don’t see those colors.” The models themselves were a sight. If the first thing you noticed wasn’t the bouffant hair style then it would be their eyes. It was the most severe stage makeup since my days at the Avalon. They all had huge fake black eyelashes and on the bottom a stripe of white eye liner with the bottom fake lashes under it. This brought a striking image of football players black swatches under their eyes. But one of the kitschiest things that stuck out to me was, of course, the music. One of the last songs was a version of I Love Rock and Roll. To be expected that some sort of cover would make the mix but it was sped up so much that the vocals sounded like The Chipmunks. That was good for a laugh, but they repeated the song three times and I was ready for something new. The show ended, we stayed for lucky draw, and after that Hagel heard the call of nature and left to heed it. When he got back, he told me “That was the weirdest experience I’ve ever had in the bathroom. I was at the urinal doing my thing when all of a sudden someone grabbed me around the shoulders. Even though it was just getting a massage, it was still a sensitive position to be in while you are doing your business.” He said he quickly tipped the man and left.

Thanks for everyone who’s told me they have received my postcards. I might just have good luck with foreign postal services yet. I’m sending out the second wave and gearing up for the third.

Perhaps some of the biggest news is that my mom is coming to visit me and bring me home at the end of my trip. I’m very excited for her to come and I will serve as tour guide/interpreter, a task I look forward to.

Maybe it would have helped if I was a girl scout…

November is full of birthdays. Today we have: Hayley turns 21!!! Congrats to the founder of the Shanghai Shorts, member of Team EXTREME, and stories such as "China is good." I only wish I could be a fly on the wall of that party. Now for today's story...

I’ve reached a point where I don’t question things that seem completely outrageous. Kids with slits in the backs of their pants and no diapers, no problem. Cab drivers who will drive on the other side of the road to get you to where you are going but not drive the extra 150 feet because it’s tough to park. And my favorite from Thursday that has slapped me in the face and reminded me not to leave anywhere unprepared.

There is an international conference on printing and publishing that was being held at another USST campus. I knew vague details about it when Hagel said that he had to do some activity associated with the conference. That was fine with me; I planned on working in the evening. We decided to go for supper when he got a phone call from one of the grad students and said that he had to leave for the activity now instead of in two hours. He asked if I wanted to come and I said sure, thinking it was going to be something small.

We met Lissa, Hagel’s Chinese teacher who was helping coordinate the conference. She said that we would be going to an art reception and then had the option of going to a party for the volunteers of the conference afterwards. This was very interesting but I had just left my room thinking that I was going out to eat and then coming back to my room to work. This meant that I was drastically underdressed for where I was going. We were initially uncomfortable at this prospect, but then said that this is China and really par for the course. Strange situations pop up all the time. We arrived at the VIP room for the conference and I got to watch CNN for the first time it was marvelous!

When we were informed that it was time to go, I still was pretty clueless on what we were doing. But as the guest assembled in the lobby, I again felt woefully underdressed. The grad student that was with us also had no idea what we were supposed to be doing. We arrived at the other campus and went into the reception hall. This went well and we milled around with the other guests looking at the art work. This was printing and publishing, so there were many books, CD art, and plans for making t-shirts. If they were for art sake or for commercial purposes still remains unclear to me. The plus side to being one of the few Western people was that the other student volunteers (different ones than I was supposed to meet later) thought I was a guest and treated me as such. I had a glass of Chinese wine (not too bad) and some strange cake that I believe was akin to strawberry but cannot be sure. We listened to the dean of the college give a short speech and then milled around for a bit longer.

My highlight of the reception was a true demonstration that the smile and nod was universal. I was looking at a display and this Chinese man in a suit comes up and talks to me, only in Chinese. I understood the first few sentences, we did a toast, and then I couldn’t understand anything. I told him the students work was beautiful and he thanked me for coming. I couldn’t believe that it worked.

Shortly after that, the student who brought us said we could leave and go to the volunteers’ party. This was a mighty relieve to both of us. The exhibition was nice and the people were fine, but I haven’t been a fish out of water like that in a while. The party was at a Brazilian BBQ place, which Hagel has dubbed “the lazy man’s buffet” as they bring the meat right to your table. The food was good but the company was better. It was a bunch of the volunteers from the foreign language college that had served as translators. They were already in full swing when we arrived. We talked in a mix of Chinese and English and capped of the night with several entertaining acts. Everyone did something from singing a medley of songs, telling jokes, reading poetry, to making letters 1-10 and letters A-Z with our bodies.

It was a fun night and just another chance to say “Such is life in China.” I’m getting close to halfway here, but on the bright side I actually have my glasses and they don’t look half bad.

On another note, I get asked many questions about American at English Corner. The only problem is that I am the one talking for two hours. So I need your help to come up with questions for the Chinese students about them, their lives, all things Chinese. You can either post them to the Blog or email me at shanna_gratton@hotmail.com Thanks for the help, I’m going to return the questions and make them talk for the whole time.

The wonders of language…

Want to start this entry with a few shout outs:

Happy Birthday to my cousin Chad. Hope you had a great day. I’ll always look up to you, and not just because you’re taller than me. I must defer to the original celebrity.

Daylight savings time. This is funny. Now everyone in the central time zone is 14 hours behind me. A point to note, China is on the same time zone and it’s approximately the same size as the US.

Corn. I hope that corn harvest finishes up soon. I hear corn is a lot of work. Funny fact is that my family has raised corn since 1999 and I have never helped with harvest. I have no idea how this has worked out, but I chalk it up to the fact that I must be magic.

On to today’s soiree: Sometimes I find it hard to practice my Chinese. Many natives I meet want to practice their English, and being the polite minority that I am, I generally oblige. Who then, you ask, is polite enough to help me practice my Chinese? One of my favorite segments of the population, restaurant personnel and food stand workers.

Now here’s a typical exchange between me and the Food Stand Lady or FSL.
(translated to English)

FSL: (sees me, smiles happily) Hello.
Me: Hello. One meat one vegetable bun.
FSL: That will be 20 cents (US).
I take out my money and give it to her.
FSL: You speak very well. Do you teach at USST?
Me: What?
FSL: (repeated at a slower speed) You speak very well. Do you teach at USST?
Me: Yes I’m a teacher. Thank you. Good Bye.

Now keep in mind I said one complete sentence, a fragment, and two basic phrases. Put this into context. If some one who spoke very little English and ordered a meal at Burger Time will one full and successful sentence. The service worker would not fall all over complimenting the foreigner on their grasp of the English language. I guess China believes its language to be much harder than we regard our own.

My second case is that I am currently trying to buy a new pair of glasses. This seemed that it would go easily. I tried on several pairs, pick out frames, had them copy my prescription from my current glasses, and agree on a day to come back and pick them up. When I come back I pick them up but don’t realize until later that the frames are purple not blue like I ordered. I make it back to the store a few days later to try to get the right color. Encountering another clerk I eventually get my problem across. No problem she says, we’ll call you in a few days when the blue frames are in. Ok, I can handle a Chinese language phone call. The call comes, I make an appointment to go back to the store (again) and get my glasses. When I show up I am greeted warmly and hand her my receipt. Well the good news is they have frames that work but in another color. She explains many things to me and I only understand 50% of what is said. She not only speaks fast but also in Shanghainese which is a different dialect than what I speak (Mandarin) and sounds noticeable different. Eventually one of my students happened upon me and clarified the other 50% of the situation and my status is currently waiting for another phone call that is supposed to come tomorrow. And now they have assured me several times that there is no blue (but the example frames I tried on were blue) and they can get me silver. I’ll believe it when I see it. The nice clerk lady complimented me several times on how well I spoke Chinese.

This is been surreal stuff. I’ve only been studying Chinese for two and a half years and can sporadically navigate a foreign country. My adventures have brought me many things to think about and see what I am doing. They raise many questions and I have not yet found the answers.