This may be just a quick recap of what's happened so far. Our flight was delayed arriving into Chicago from Nashville so we were forced to frantically run around the airport trying to find another flight going to either Toronto or Shanghai. Everyone we talked to shared two things in common: (1) agreement on the fact that we had no time to waste and (2) the inexplicable desire to make time-wasting small talk with us. Finally, we managed to find the last flight out to Shanghai from Chicago which left in 40 minutes. We stood in the back of a huge line to show our passports and then just hoped our baggage would meet us in Shanghai. But we had seats and we didn't have to spend the night in Chicago so it worked out.
We landed in Shanghai around 2:00pm. For weeks we have been told horror stories about people being checked and quarantined due to swine flu. But the truth is that you hardly even notice them checking and it's a simple process that really didn't delay us at all. What did cause us trouble was the amount of baggage we brought. Everywhere you go in this country you can expect to push and jostle your way towards where you're going. Now imagine pushing when you have a backpack, a rolling bag, and a duffle bag (or in Kirby's case, two rolling bags which made her three times wider than anyone else). We took the Maglev train; it's the world's fastest commercial train...and seemingly the most unnecessary. It travels 430km/hr but the track is only 30 km long. After that, we packed onto the subway and pushed and shoved our way all the way to Luban Rd and miraculously into the hostel.
The humidity and heat here are unbelievable. It's like a hair dryer blowing in your face instantly and all the time. Sweat is a fact of life. Not just a little either; sweat like you just walked out of a rainstorm. That's how it was all the way up until today. Suddenly the weather dropped from high 90's (sometimes over 100) with 80% humidity to a cool, fresh 60 degrees. Amazing.
So Shanghai was an interesting city to start the trip. It's definitely a metropolis with somewhere around 20 million people packing its streets. There seems to be no build up either; all of a sudden at 6am, there will be hundreds of people on every street. The traffic here is crazy too. Lots of cars, sure, but we have that in America. It's the pure disregard for traffic laws. Red lights? Don't care. Turn signals
? Don't care. Lanes? Who needs them? It seems to be the only law is once you start moving, don't stop. Everyone seems to be operating on a single track mindset of "getting there." Crosswalks are an extreme sport. Even with all of the people here though, we didn't get the feeling that we were in that big of a city until we went up to Jin Mao Tower. 420 meters straight up sits the 88th story of Jin Mao Tower. To look out over the city, you can see where it continues to extend well beyond the horizon on all sides. It is a huge and sprawling city. We met some really great people at the hostel in Shanghai so it was sad to leave. But we did have an entourage around us as we hailed the cab for the train station.The train ride was 14 hour marathon to Changsha. Again, it wouldn't have been too bad had we not had way too much luggage
. So much in fact that we had to use one of our three beds solely for our bags. We rode what is called a "hard sleeper." It's basically two sets of three bunk beds in a single, open compartment. Not bad, the beds were hard but apparently all beds are hard in China. Across from us was a young Chinese couple with a cute baby so that passed the time. We arrived in Changsha about 7:30am and met our contact Ms. Li outside the gates. From there, they took us to a restaurant for lunch. It was noisy and crowded so Ms. Li suggested we go somewhere else. A loud, obnoxious hostess yelled at us for trying to leave saying they had already killed the fish we had ordered. So after a lot of pointing and yelling, we bought the fish, took it to another restaurant, and asked them to cook it. It was a great lunch. Afterwards, our separate schools picked us up and we went to Loudi.As soon as Kirby and I arrived in Loudi, we threw our stuff down into the apartment and headed back out the door to go to a dinner with the heads of the school. We were dirty, smelly, and sweaty...the best way to meet your employers. The dinner was great again but this time was complete with Mao Tai...and incredibly strong Chinese liquor. They called it "wine" but I kind of doubt that. The first drink we all had a toast together. After that it was like a group of old friends playing together. Every time one of them took a shot, they would choose some one else to toast. People were constantly reaching across the table. Near the end, Kirby and I decided to toast the whole table with the small amount of Chinese we'd picked up. Everyone cheered but maybe that was because they wanted to drink. At one point, the Dean (who was sitting to my right) asked how many drinks of Mao Tai it would take to get me drunk. What is the right answer there? Drinking must be one of those cultural differences since I was asked at least three times if I could drink. Not if I "do" drink but if I can, like if I'm allowed to. They said many people cannot, especially girls.
After the dinner, we went back to the apartment. It is definitely modest. Both of ours have the same set up: a bedroom, a bedroom/office, a living room, a tiny kitchen, and a bathroom/shower. Most of it is decent, I'll put up pictures later. But the kitchen isn't too much more than a cupboard, a sink, and a stove top connected a propane tank...nice. The bathroom door forms the right wall of the kitchen. The shower is directly above the toilet....again, nice. The piping is like a putt-putt golf course. Water flows down the drain in my kitchen sink, through a loosely connected hose (which sometimes spills over), and into a large, open tile basin that sits to the right of my kitchen counter. There, it swirls around until it reaches another "drain" which is really just a long pipe that reaches outside of my kitchen window and pours water out into a concrete drainage ditch. Once more...classy. The bathroom is about the same. There is a lot about the apartment that is nice but the bad stuff is funnier to talk about. Surprisingly though, the computer they gave me is really nice. Unfortunately I don't need it since I have my laptop. They tried hard though to make it comfortable and did a pretty good job. I can't complain much though since I live in the middle of about 7 other apartment buildings and I get the feeling that I have it the best.
We don't start teaching until September 7th so I'm going to spend the time working on lesson plans. Should be fun considering the only Chinese I'm good at saying is "I don't speak Chinese." Also, we're going to visit Emily in Hengyang this weekend so we can see how the other half lives.
