T-Rex takes Shanghai

Well, my dears, I am alive and well in the People's Republic of China once again. This time I am living in China's largest, most populated city, the Pearl of the Orient, Paris of the East, Shanghai. Things here are a tad different than Beijing, but it's chabuduo yi yang (just about the same). On this jaunt I am living in a dormitory on the campus of East China Normal University (Hua Dong Shifan Daxue or Hua Shi Da). The dorms here are considerably nicer than the one I lived in for a semester at Bei Shi Da, but I am sharing a room with another guy on my university's trip.

Since I've been here, I've been in classes half days except for twice a week when we have supplementary culture classes. I'm learning calligraphy (shu fa) and taiqi (taiji quan). I am certainly enjoying my classes here, they are a lot better at getting me to think in Chinese than stateside classes ever could be, but they are less pressure than I had at Bei Shi Da. This is probably because ECNU doesn't have the enormous reputation to uphold that Bei Shi Da has. Also, my class this time isn't composed entirely of Indonesian and Korean students whose livelihood depends on learning the language. My classmates are from Turkey, Russia, France, Japan, Vietnam and Kazahkstan (I think, I haven't talked to him one on one, and his Chinese kind of sucks). I feel like the class is a bit too easy for me, but I'd rather have it a bit easy than as ridiculously hard as it was up north. I am not learning much as far as structure goes, but I am getting some new vocabulary, so I feel like it's an accomplishment.

Outside of classes, I've become kind of a China-sherpa for my schoolmates. I speak fairly fluently and understand what is going on most of the time, so I can show them things and teach them lessons they would otherwise miss. Often they tell me they wish they had my skills in the language or customs. I remind them very bluntly that I'm not magic and I came by them the hard way. All that being said, we're having a good time, and I'm enjoying standing back and watching these kids be amazed by a country and people I love. I am watching them discover for the first time what I might now take for granted, and seeing through their eyes has endeared the people to me more. There are definite aspects of this trip that are different from the last one that are liberating. The demands on my time are less, and the objectives are fewer. I don't begrudge the last trip these things, but those constraints lifted make just going to university almost like vacation. I know what is expected and I deliver it with minimal stress.

Today I took everyone out for our first real encounter with street foods. I got my jianbing (the burrito that I've been longing for), and some southern-style steamed jiaozi (dumplings) that were decent. Not as good as Beijing's, but they are a Beijing local specialty. Noodle carts are a lot more common here in the south, and I have yet to learn how to really order noodles. Soon, my precious(es), soon. Also, very high on my priorities list is yang rou chuanr (charcoal roasted lamb on a stick). I located a chuanr guy last night right across the street from the university's main gate, and he and I will likely become good friends. I'm also learning to order bubble tea with tapioca "pearls"in it. I discovered a toffee/white chocolate drink at one of the bubble tea stands that I really like.

As for nuts and bolts of living, I've been well. I have had very little jetlag other than being kind of tired mid-morning while sitting in class. I did stay up all night before I left and then I slept probably 8-9 hours on the plane. I think that helped. Thank you Final Ho-Down and sleeping pills. Other than that, I'm staying hydrated and getting enough sleep. Chinese food makes me happy, and my stomach has yet to complain. I ate some stinky tofu on a stick the other day, and my tastebuds complained (violently), but my stomach didn't seem to care.

Finally, project T-Race and the T-Rex is underway. I gave out plastic dinosaurs (the word for which I learned today, it's Kong Long) to friends going all over the place this summer, and they have instructions to take pictures of the dinos doing fun stuff characteristic of the places they go. They are going to France, India, Slovakia, China, El Salvador, Guatemala, and maybe Ukraine if I can talk Bethany into joining up. Eventually the pictures will tell the story of a summer, of my friends, and of the crazy way our world keeps turning. I've already got my dino eating Mao's face, fighting a fried prawn, standing in a boat, standing in a pagoda, and terrorizing a police car. I think he ate some tofu last night, too.

That's enough for this one, right? Ask me your questions if you have them.

Love

T