Dumplings and Birthdays

            Hello again from the smoggy city of Tianjin! On a side note before I get into the meat of the blog, thank you everyone for the wonderful birthday wishes.  It was so nice to hear from my family and friends back home! I miss you all dearly and love you all very much! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

            Ok so things have been pretty busy around here the last few weeks. Work is going great and I even found a language exchange buddy whom I meet with on Thursdays.  I help her with English for an hour which is fun because I know NOTHING about grammar and when she asks why the word would and wood are spelled different but pronounced the same, I get to smile and say say, “I dunno…it just is.” Yeah, I bet that really clears things up for her…. In return I get an hour Chinese lesson, which is mostly me asking how to say sentences vital to my existence, such as, “Please don’t talk about me in Chinese while I’s standing next to you, because I understand and it’s awkward.” “Where can I buy a screwdriver?” “Why are you so surprised I can feed myself with chopsticks? I’m not impressed you can use a spoon…” “Do you have these pants in a bigger size my? My American tushy doesn’t fit in a size 0!” and most importantly “Please don’t smoke in the elevator right next to the clearly marked NO SMOKING sign. It forces me to suffocate for a 31 floor ride down to ground level and therefor lowers my overall happy meter for the day.” Yey!

I am still on the lookout for actual Chinese classes, but as it turns out there aren’t too many foreigners here so it’s proving a bit more difficult than I imagined. I’ve also gotten the chance to explore outside my neighborhood more, and am getting better oriented in this decent sized city.  The other day I took a walk down to the river at night when it was all lit up and there were people dancing and selling things and even a few older men fishing!! It was pretty neat to see.  It kind of made me wish people did stuff like that back home, or maybe they do just not in Idaho haha.  Next time I won’t bring a purse that I have to worry about so I can join in the fun!! Sorry the video is sideways…I can’t for the life of me figure out how to rotate it, ugh technology.  The weather is getting pretty hot but we have the occasional rainstorm blow through just long enough to clear the air and flood the streets for a day. It’s a real treat.

Also one of the girls at work asked me over for lunch to her house the other day where her parents showed me how to make dumplings and let me pick cucumbers in the garden!! Her Mom is a pro and makes like two dumplings per second (exaggeration…sort of) and her Dad showed me how to make picked cucumbers.  Not like we think of pickles, but still very delicious! It was a real hoot, although turns out I have a lot of practicing to do before I can make pretty dumplings…mine were more like dough blobs really.  After lunch we just chatted and watched Chinese Idol (Yes, it’s a real thing AND it is EXACTLY like American Idol…but I don’t recognize the judges…dear God, what is this world coming to?!), and they even sent some leftover dumplings home with me! What a treat!!

            To add to the fun, last week was my birthday and I had a great time!! I was given this tiny cake and some other adorable gifts, including a doll, a mug with a Chihuahua on it, and a monkey purse.  I felt so loved! On the Sunday after my birthday all the girls and I went out for a big hot pot dinner (boiling pots of broth in which you cook meat and noodles and veggies…so simple and so so good) at the mall to celebrate and I felt really lucky to have such great co-workers and friends in my new city!!!

            Although I did not really celebrate Fourth of July this year (I know…shame on me!) I received this picture of how Charlie spent his holiday.  Such a great picture right!! Thanks a million for getting this to me Angela, you’re the best doggie-sitter ever and I miss you both!

Last but certainly not least, just in case anyone is dying to be my pen pal, this is my mailing address here in Tianjin (Yes it ALL has to go on the envelope and it’s probably just easier to print it off and glue it on):

Madison MacNichol

天津市南开区

北城街245号

吉的堡少儿英语

300000, 天津

中国

Tianjin Nankai qu

Beichengjie #245

Jidebao shaor Yingyu

300000, Tianjin

China

Also please don’t send much more than letters and absolutely nothing of value.  Mail customs has a dirty little habit of opening foreign incoming packages, taking all the goodies and forwarding the empty box to the recipient.  True story.

Well I think that’s about all to report for now! I miss you all! Please let me know how things are going in your neck of the woods (Al Roker moment sorry ;). xoxoxo

Tianjin

So it appears my drifting day are over for the time being. I am officially settled in Tianjin for the next 11 months. Yahoo! No more suitcase livin’ for me! For the first time ever, I am the owner of an apartment lease for which I pay rent monthly and an am required to maintain. I feel so…grown up! My apartment is a little studio on the 31st floor of a newer building in an older part of town, which is great because I can take advantage of the more traditional Chinese lifestyle and air conditioning simultaneously.  My neighbors are a lovely couple who have a small daughter who plays the recorder…every morning…at 6am. I’m not complaining really. She’s pretty good and it’s a much better sound to wake up to than an alarm clock. Yes, I am very pleased at my new spoiled position.

As for the city itself, I am happy/relieved to report Tianjin is right up my ally as far as cities goes. Despite its 11 million inhabitants, Tianjin somehow maintains the local charm that I was craving in Shanghai and unable to find. The city was divvied up into countless foreign concessions back in the day, so each little sector is really a city of it’s own with it’s own personality and architecture.

There are only three subway lines (opposed to Shanghai’s miserable sixteen) which I rarely use as my work is a 20min walk from my building. I also found myself a swell little gym down the street complete with spin bikes, treadmills and a pool! Surely you can imagine my excitement. And to top it off, right across the street is a wonderful open-air produce market where I can buy pretty much anything that grows in the ground. To be honest, I doubt I’ll ever buy veggies in a supermarket again! Although the fact of the matter is I rarely need to buy groceries because my neighborhood has a plethora of delicious hole-in-the-wall restaurants of which I have become a regular. At 7-12 Yuan/meal ($1-$1.50), most days it’s just more economical to eat out! Plus, if I ever get a hankering for western food, there is also a mall about two blocks away that has a Tex-Mex restaurant, a Cold Stone Creamery, a Subway, and a foreign grocery store where I can buy cheese and skim milk. What else could a girl want really! (The photo is of the other Kid Castle foreign teachers and I out for Tex-Mex. My tacos were satisfactory ;)

As for the city itself, it has a good vibe. A river runs through the middle (a not disgustingly polluted river might I add) where people take ferryboat cruises at night when the city is all lit up. The river also has a great promenade on both sides making for a lovely evening stroll (minus the mosquitos). Sadly the proximity to Beijing makes for less than desirable air quality. Some days I think I would be better off smoking cigarettes rather than breathing the air. At least cigarettes have filters, but I suppose I can’t have my cake and eat it too. I figure I’ll take the hit for bad air to live in a cool place…for now.

The local food is delicious and nearly every restaurant has vinegar and chili sauce on the tables, which is always a good sign in my book. Tianjin is mostly famous for it’s variety of yummy street snacks. They mostly seem to be some variety of fried dough and meat, so I usually stick to noodles or rice instead. Steamed buns and dumplings are also everywhere and I must say, Silk Soy Milk ‘aint got nothing on the soy milk here which they make fresh on the streets in huge bubbling pots for about $0.20 a cup. Needless to say, I’m not starving by any means. J

Work is also going really great! Kid Castle only has three branches in Tianjin (Shanghai had a night-mareish thirty seven to make a comparison) and I am the only foreign teacher at my school. It is a hoot because all the Chinese teachers are women and we just have a ball together and I feel extremely lucky to have such a friendly work environment. My classes great with the exception of one very naught bunch on Friday evenings, but I’ll whip ‘em into shape soon enough…maybe… The younger ones are sickeningly adorable and last week I was given a drawing of Hello Kitty by a 4 year old. My heart melted.

Also I recently made a trip to IKEA to get a few things for my new place with my co-worker Rena. We had a blast goofing around in the display rooms and I bought a few houseplants with the hope that they would clean the air in my room. We’ll see. Meanwhile this is what I’m missing out on in Idaho…awww, what a cutie! Well I think that’s all to report for now! I miss you all tons and hope everything is a wonderful as you want it to be! xoxoxoxo

Adios Shanghai!!!

            I am going to start this post off on a negative note. Sorry. But bear with me because I promise rainbows and sunshine are soon to come. 

I have had it with Shanghai. I apologize to all my new expat friends who have made their home here and love it, but I am not cut out for big city living.  Honestly, it crushes my soul. I know it sounds extreme, but I can’t think of a more accurate term. Shanghai has a little over 23 million inhabitants.  That’s nearly tree times the population of New York City, twice the population of the entire state of Florida and 15 times the population of Idaho.  It is stifling really. 

Sadly, there is no way around it; huge modern cities and me do not mix well.  Most days I feel like I live on the subway, and it takes forever to do even the simplest things because everywhere you have to wait for something; wait in line, wait for the buss, wait for the subway, wait for an empty chair, wait for a table, and the tiring list goes on.  China’s enormous population is never more apparent than on a weekday morning in the subway.  There are actually employed personnel whose sole purpose is pushing the people into the cars so that the doors can properly close.  I am not a claustrophobic, but pressing my face up against the chest of a man I don’t know is really just no fun. 

Also as far as I can tell, Shanghai has been mostly devoured by western tendencies and cultural norms such as manic consumerism and the obsession with a fast paced life style.  Burger Kings, Dairy Queens, KFC’s, and McDonalds are found nearly every block, and a mega-mall rests every three.  High fashion seems paramount as well as having the latest electronic gadgets and most people walk the streets and ride the subways with their ear-buds in and gaze fixed on their phones. They don’t chat or look at one another and more often than not, if I catch a glimpse at their phone screen, are playing some variation of Farmville or Angry Birds. It makes me sad.

            Culture shock aside, I do not feel alive here. Like the huge super-highways surrounding the city, my mind feels entirely paved over.  I have no imagination or inspirational pushes, and mostly my thoughts are consumed with getting home so I can lie down, close my eyes and pretend I am somewhere else. This city exhausts me in every possible way, mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually; you name it, it’s spent.  It is not a beautiful or lush or cultural or even historic city, it simply is. Even its most prized landmarks are a varied shade of gray, rivers and buildings included.

            Ok now that I have expressed my distain for China’s largest city, I should also put a disclaimer on my opinion by saying, I have only been here a short time; four weeks to be exact. Hardly long enough to form a solid educated opinion. Maybe it is one of those places that has to “grow on you” over time, either way I’m glad I don’t have to stick around to find out.  I will be moving to Tianjin in two days to try my luck there instead, thank goodness.

            It’s not to say Shanghai has no good points at all.  It’s clean and the people are generally friendly. Also, if you want to shop, then Shanghai is your spot for sure. If you want to spend exorbitant amounts of money on countless things you would never possibly need then by god, get your ass over here because you’re missing out.  Not only that, but the metric system makes me feel like a sexy beast.  Honestly, I’m never weighing myself in lbs again, kilograms is the way to go.  Also saying, “Oh I ran 5 kilometers” is way more impressive than, “a little more than 3 miles”.  When I measure myself and come out at 155 centimeters, I feel a hell of a lot better than oh say 5’ 2”!!! It’s a hoot really.

            I have been doing a pretty good job of keeping busy between work, the gym and the long subway rides.  Margret and I went to the Yu Gardens, which were lovely where we had ourselves a dandy touristy day and ate lunch at my first ever sushi buffet! At $1/plate I went a little overboard…What can I say, I LOVE sushi!! We then went for an afternoon of rock climbing with her doll of a boy friend Connor, and a friend of his. It reminded me of college and even though my arms were burnings for days, I definitely intend to find a similar place in Tianjin. Thank you Margret and Conner for having me along for the day, it was a blast!!

            I managed to swing by the Shanghai Museum in People’s Square to check out their amazing calligraphy collection, and ended up staying all afternoon. It was quite a neat museum, which included and extensive currency collection, beautiful traditional garments from all the Chinese minority groups, and a fabulous ceramics display.  Afterwards, as every dutiful tourist must, I went for a stroll down the Bund to see the pearl tower.  It was mostly gray and everyone says I should have gone at night because the lights are beautiful, so for now I’ll just picture that in my head and pretend that’s what I saw.

            Last week was Dragon Boat Festival which is a national holiday so I got a nice three day weekend during which I ate much zongzi (what people eat during the festival) and my room mates and I made the biggest batch of pork dumpling you ever did see.  They were amazingly delicious and surprisingly easy to make.  I intend to repeat the process often.

            Although I will not be sad to leave Shanghai, I will miss my new friends and especially my amazing Chinese tutor, Li.  By this time next week I should be settled in an apartment in Tianjin and on the hunt for a new tutor so wish me luck!! There see, I told you I would end on a positive stroke. It's not all bad you see, just maybe not my speed.

            Meanwhile back in Idaho….. This is the picture Mom sent me of Charlie and John at the backcountry ranch…something about a ground squirrel extermination team, I don’t even know.  I would say he looks like he’s doing just fine. I miss you all and I hope all is well!! Please email me any time!!! xoxo

New City and New Job=Shanghai

            Shanghai is so clean.  Maybe not the air, but the rest is. I know as a traveler it is paramount that as little comparison between places be made as possible.  However, I feel it is also human to do so. We think fondly of where we have been consider memories of past places so sweet regardless of how we felt at the time of their passing. I on my first day in Shanghai too fell victim to nostalgia.  Shanghai is a city. A big one.  It is a place to be lost and forgotten, and to be anonymous. It’s a city where one could disappear entirely and perhaps no one would know.  Is this a good thing? I haven’t decided yet.  What I have decided, is that I miss Phnom Penh; deeply. There is no trash on the streets here, there are more cars than motos, no tuk tuks, people wear suits and there is no constant cloud of dust from poor infrastructure.  In Shanghai there are sidewalks, real ones…that you can walk on (what a concept), and people are entirely uninterested in what you are doing.  Based on this description one might think I am making a case for Shanghai, but I am not.  In truth I miss riding around on a moto and I miss boring Khmer food and the Marady hotel. Why? Because it was familiar and here almost nothing is. I don’t miss inhaling copious amounts of dust on my way to lunch everyday; but more so, I miss knowing that I inevitably will as soon as I step outside. In new places, the comfort of knowing is absent. I believe that is why it is our nature to fondly reflect on the past. But of course, over time every place becomes familiar, and as we move through our lives we accumulate more and more comforting memories; and that I think, is one of the best things: a repertoire of happiness.

            Luckily I have good friends and family who will lend me their friends and family when needed. Turns out a friend of mine from Cambodia had a friend in Shanghai who offered to show me around my first night in this big, shiny, anonymous city. We had dinner at an adorable little expat spot called Sprouts, where I had kale and couscous for the first time in nearly 6 weeks (so amazing). Davlin gave me the run down on the city and mini tour on his scooter and I already feel better about the transition. Thank you Davlin, you don’t know it, but you’re a real lifesaver!

            The next few weeks were filled with training and getting acquainted with my new life. Four other new teachers including an American, a Canadian, and the sweetest Irish girl you ever did see named Margret joined me for orientation.  All but one of us are first time teachers and nervous as hell to get started.  Our new company is called Kid Castle (that is Margret and I at headquarters) and after hearing loads of horror stories about teaching in China, I am so impressed by how well the company is run.  It is very professional and all of our higher-ups are extremely helpful and informative.  

Kid Castle has nearly 30 schools here in Shanghai and for the next couple of weeks until I move to Tianjin, I will be a substitute wherever they need me. This is the school I was trained at and some of the kiddos I worked with. I am really enjoying teaching so far and am really learning a lot! 

In our spare time Margret and I found our way to Fuxin Park in the French Concession and had tea, battled the subway system (with a very high success rate thanks to her smart phone), and watched part of a Gallic football match at a nearby stadium.  What a hoot!! 

            After a week of living in a hotel, I was moved into a dorm with five of the Chinese teachers I work with. I was so happy because it’s a cute (and crammed) little apartment and I can practice a bit more of my atrocious Mandarin.  It also cuts my commute to work in half and gives me a kitchen with a fridge and a stove (which drastically improves my mood of course). The girls are lovely and we have a swell time together. They have been trying to teach me how to cook some yummy dishes and the other night we made (of course when I say we I mean Rebecca, the girl in the photo) hong xiao rou, which is meat cooked in beer and soy sauce and peppers. It was soooo delicious!

Also I found myself a lovely Chinese tutor! His name is Li, and he helps me navigate this crazy language twice a week for two hours at a nearby Starbucks. I then get to test out my new vocab on my Chinese coworkers who usually just laugh and correct my bad pronunciation.  It’s all part of the process…

I think that is all to report for now! I of course keep you as updated as possible (I know you stay awake at night just wondering what I’m doing haha jk ;) I love and miss you all and hope all is well!!! I almost forgot!!! Charlie update: He is a happy camper at home with Mom doing some RVing from what I hear and will be moving in with my friend Carly very soon. Thanks Mom!! Thanks Carly!! God knows what I’d do without you…xoxoxo