It's the little things

I've been back in Shanghai now for 2 weeks after 3 1/2 glorious weeks in California over the Christmas break. I came back with a renewed and refreshed sentiment for China and committed myself to an attitude of optimism and warmth for all things Chinese. Even the spit, rammed metros and 'scents' were not going to break this spirit.

And I was doing so well about 3 hours into my return. I walked to my gym ready for a good workout after 25 days straight of face-stuffing, wine-consuming, California gluttony. I arrived without incident only to find out that my membership had been revoked! Apparently the 24hour fitness reciprocity agreement only lasts 90 days. Never mind that I had been using it for 9months without anyone telling me this! With the close of my studies just one week away I planned on filling all my spare time (after looking for a job of course) with 4 hour long gym sessions. After talking to two different managers I got to one who said she will just have to look at my agreement and will be re-instated after if I qualify. I will spare you all the details (and ranting about the conflicting management at 24hour fitness) but this is turning out to be no easy task. Silver lining?? I now force myself to walk to more places to get exercise. While my lungs may be suffering from increased air exposure I have seen more of the city than before and come across more friendly faces. Just last week, a migrant worker on a bike stopped in front of me while I waited to dodge traffic and get to the other side. He smiled a wide toothless smile and asked if I was cold because I didn't have a scarf on. In America this would be creepy. In China it's cute and made me want to just hug him (that may have to do with him being a pint size little man but still). We exchanged a few words, crossed the street together and said our goodbyes- him putting a smile on my face and me hopefully doing the same teeth or not. It's the little things.

My second test of renewed China-vigor began last week when I left my US bank ATM card...um...somewhere. It had been a few days since its last use until I realized it was gone. Some would think this a cause for panic. The first time it happened to me (in April) it was! The second time (in June), I knew exactly where to return to get it. Now being the third time (oops!)- it's like second nature. Only this time I couldn't remember where I had left it which sent me on a city-wide cardhunt for my little-plastic-that-could. It took me three different banks and 5 days to get it back. In the end I was more proud of my ability to effectively communicate how I "left my international, gold colored bank card in the ATM machine at ShuiOn Plaza because I forgot to take it back out after getting my money." ATM machine, gold colored, and careless (mamahuhu) are all well etched into my Chinese vocabulary, along with a heightened confidence in my Mandarin (and maybe a more conscientious effort to hold onto my ATM card). It's the little things.

I now spend my days mostly in cafes calling on job prospects and studying Chinese. My timing for a job search was just perrrrrrfect given the trainwreck of an economy but I know this down time will not last forever. I am enjoying the free time I have to focus energy on things I enjoy and are important to me. This is a lifestyle that may soon be over and I will never get to live again. When the big picture may be a little cloudy, it's the little things I'll use to weather this storm that is China.

The Marathon!

Yes I am still alive here...barely :) Much has been going on in good old Shanghai lately but before I get to that we must discuss the marathon that consumed a good part of my life for the past 4 months.

I fully completed the Hangzhou International Marathon with Special Friend (SF) on November 9th. Times are not important, what matters is that we finished :) I'll just say it wasn't a PB time (personal best). But it was SF's first ever endurance run and I must give him much respect to have stayed motivated through pretty torturous training conditions and complete the 'thon in a very respectable time. We dealt with 100 degree heat + major humidity, running in one of the most smog infested cities on the planet and just plain a disgusting place to run. But when all was said and done we really enjoyed the actual run and are already talking about the next one. Maybe in more of a smog free city...so LA is out of the picture. The run itself in Hangzhou was really pleasant except for when we were running with traffic which was 70% of the time. For about 6 miles though we were off the main road and running up through tea fields which was one of the most serene trails I've ever run on. But then it was back to the main road with the buses and cars and major exhaust inhalation. Yuck!

What was quite inspiring though were the amount of septuagenarians running AND BEATING us along the way. There was one group of men, about 5 of them, who were all between 70 and 78 (they told us as they passed us... :[ ) Running together in a tight herd. The age of the men isn't so unusual, I saw much of this in the states, but more so their gear- the shoes looked as though they could have been homemade from cardboard and cloth. But damn those guys had endurance! One of them would occasionally pull off for a bathroom break and the rest would go on and that was when I thought we had them broken down but I'll be damned they would always come right back up behind us in a little trot say a friendly "Ni hao" and keep right on going. And here we are in our latest "high-tech, turbo-mode, dri-fit" Nike gear and Chocolate Outrage Gu super energy gels strapped all around my waist for "ultimate endurance!!" And I'm pretty confident they had never heard of a little chafe-saver called Body Glide in which we were sufficiently lubed up in. Of course in the end they kicked our buts and finished probably 10minutes ahead of us. I couldn't tell you b/c I couldn't see them ahead of us after mile 20. Siiigh. I don't know if this was worse or the time I got beat in my second marathon by a speed walker.....

It was a great weekend shared with many friends including my cousin Megan who has been in Shanghai for the past few months. She is the Director of the East Asian program at Union College in NY and brought a class out here to study at Fudan University. She brought a flag for us and was my number one fan out on the route. This is marathon number 2 for which she has been my support staff and I'm thinking of hiring her out for all future marathons :) New York next....



So there was the good

the bad(ass)

and the just plain ugly
Fun China!!

You Know You're Living in the Internet Age (and China) When...

Here's a riddle:

Q: American girl meets cute Australian boy while living in China. Girl and boy fall in love in China. Girl is very happy and wants boy to meet American parents. American parents are traveling in Germany. How does girl introduce boy to parents?

A: Via the Internet of course!

After nearly five months of dating the time had finally come for Special Friend to meet the parents. Ideally, we would go to their house, sit down to a lovely dinner and hope for no talk of milking cats or wayward grace saying ala Ben Stiller in the 'Meet the Parents' movie. But I live in China which doesn't afford such luxuries. And, like I've said many times before, when living in China one must get a little creative. Call it my mantra. SO, the ominous task was reduced to a Skype video call. Now most of you probably know that I talk to my parents nearly every day via video skype [My mom doesn't know how to delete emails but tell the woman that if she learns how to use skype she will be able to see me over the internet and she suddenly becomes a Google programmer].

Naturally, there have been many a skype calls when Special Friend has been over but it just seemed too ridiculous to introduce my new boyfriend over the Internet. Well try getting that logic past Dave and Andrea! With Dave being the self-appointed Skype spokesman (it is a rare occasion when the wonders of Skype don't somehow work its way into one of his conversations ;) and Andrea holding the patent on the Skype hug n' kiss there was no way of getting out of the Skype meet n greet.

So the time had finally come. No dates or times were set as with a normal parent intro, it just happened that SF came over and I was online with my Dad. There he sat with airplane-pilot headphones on and 8am bedhead and SF looking quite dapper in his shirt and tie coming from work. It was a beautiful site. But what is the first thing my Dad says?? "Hi [special friend]. Nice to FINALLY meet you. I was starting to wonder who wears the pants in that relationship!" Nice Dad. Of course it was a joke and Special Friend responded well and the conversation (mostly about sports) went on for about 10 glorious Skype minutes with nothing traditional about it.

Funnily enough, this article from the International Herald Tribune (NYT) was sent to me by a friend earlier this week:

Surveillance of Skype messages found in China

Ahh China. I hope my Dad provided a little entertainment to what must be the most mundane job on the planet.

Boustier or Bust

(Pun intended)
Warning: This post contains adult content and may not be suitable for young children.

I will be attending the Australian Chamber of Commerce Ball this Saturday with Special Friend and about 1000 other Australians residing in Shanghai. These balls are thrown annually by every Country's chamber of commerce here as a charity event. Well leave it to the Aussies to throw a Rocky Horror Picture Show themed event to mark their 13th ball. I'm not sure if this is the case with other Chambers of commerce but the Australians give the option to their attendees to either dress in black tie or fancy dress (costumes) to match the theme. Guess which option is more popular...fancy dress of course...Yay. And we're talking all out costumes here. Last year was an 80's theme and legend has it a friend of ours went dressed as Cher from the "Turn Back Time" video (on the navy boat w/ very skimpy black one piece bathing suit)...this friend is a guy.

Since I've never seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show I was a bit "horrified" to find out it is basically on big drag show. Luckily the organizers of Austcham were a bit horrified of what would come as well so they changed the theme to include all types of horror costumes. So Special Friend and I settled on being vampires. Special Friend was deprived of Halloween dress ups while

growing up in Melbourne so watching his giddyness as he rifled through three huge rooms of Halloween costumes and accessories was like watching a 3 yr old girl get her first My Little Pony: Pure and unadulterated joy. The place we went to was an obscure storefront that I would have passed right by had I not been led there. When I walked in all I could muster beneath my surprise was, "Huh, so this is where it all comes from." Everything you could imagine for Halloween was in this shop. Banners, skeletons, candy buckets, lawn decorations, costumes, makeup, wigs, fake teeth. You name it it was there. The thing is, China doesn't celebrate Halloween!!!!!! So what was all this for? Americans? Come October and you're putting up your fake cobwebs and witches, think of me as I paid homage where it originated :)

We got most of the costume taken care of at the store but I needed something "signature" to make it stand out a bit. Since I won't really get a Halloween this year, which is now known as a free pass for usually conservative young women to dress a little more...um...un-conservative, I am using this event as my Halloween. My idea was to wear a boustier. I figured I'd be pretty covered by my cape and hell, if a guy can go as Cher in her miniscule bathing suit to this thing I can wear a boustier! Now where does one find a corset boustier in China?!?!? Let me remind you that this is the land of Hello Kitty and it was recently announced that a flagship Barbie megastore catering to twentysomethings with couture clothing and multiple cafes and restaurants will soon be opened right here in Shanghai (another story, another day). I scoured for specialty shops and found one that was by appointment only (translation- waaaayyy too expensive for what will probably end up soaked in wine and champagne by the end of the night). On a whim I wandered into a local mall which happened to have a lingerie section. And wouldn't you know it? Right there was exactly what I pictured in my head. The sales girl was more than happy to assist me leading me to believe she doesn't get many customers. What I didn't know is how eager she was to go that extra mile for the sale. Here's what transpired: First I asked for the biggest size (No. I haven't made a visit to the Chinese plastic surgeon for a bargain breast enhancement since I've been here. Chinese girls are small!). She handed me the boustier and showed me to the fitting room/cubby hole (read- very tiny). I turned to shut the door and discovered she had followed me in. O....K..... then ordered me to strip down and thrust the boustier on me. Just then it went from a slightly odd situation to downright ridiculous. Without warning she reaches into the boustier and grabs all that she can of both my babyfeeders and pushes them straight up into the boustier cups. It took about 5 seconds to get over the shock of what she had just done and look over to see her with the wide-tooth smile like that of a proud parent. In some countries that would have been grounds for a marriage. I have to say though, it was pretty magical, her work, but when I looked at the price tag my jubilation sank as I couldn't justify paying $150 when I've yet to secure employment. I had to break it to my sales girl easy that I wouldn't be buying her boustier. And so went my first breakup in China.

I wandered a bit more around the floor hoping for a miracle and to my amazement found, sitting on a sale table, the perfect boustier! I asked the sales lady (slightly older and a bit weathered hence sale table duty) for the biggest size again and was prepared this time for what was to come. When all of a sudden she turned me around right there and thrust the thing on over my clothes in front of everyone! There I was in the middle of this department store in jeans, a tanktop and black boustier! I ran around desperately looking for a mirror so I could ok it and take it off. It wasn't enough that I was getting stares as the white girl at the lingerie sale table but now I warranted them! The boustier was perfect though so I paid (a very reasonable $10) and ran. And so went my first undergarment buying experience in China. Austcham isn't going to know what hit 'em!

Marathon Training: The Dream Lives On

Yep, still taking the crazy pills and training for a marathon in China. Since we're entering September with a little over 2 months to go until the big day we're bumping up the long training runs each week. This coming week we should be at 11 miles (or 18k as I've come to measure my distances. It's a metric system world out here and it amazes me how America is the only country on the planet to use miles/yards/feet/pounds/etc. I'm not going to lie, I'm into the metric system ....weighing 58kilos sounds a whole lot better than 130pounds. And now I can actually comprehend what a big coup it is when authorities confiscate such and such kilos of heroin/cocaine/weed from drug smugglers. It was all at a loss on me before....off topic, I know.)

Back to marathon training. I mentioned in my other post about training that we'd have to be creative with our runs here. Well creative I was and creative I will not be again. Maybe creative wasn't the right word...more like adventurous. I so desperately miss the San Francisco convenience of outside-your-front-door-runs that I tried to make it happen here in Shanghai. A friend of mine had mapped out a run on google maps that goes along Suzhou creek; a small river near my apt that runs through Shanghai and eventually meets the Huangpu River which eventually meets the um....???? South China Sea??? It looked pretty decent on Google but I'm kicking myself now for not using the satellite function that shows the REAL picture. WELL...I don't know about you but when I think of a creek I think of little Timmy in a quaint New England town running down to the water with his fishing pole made of a stick and string to catch tadpoles. Thank you Suzhou Creek for obliterating that image. I don't think you'd want little Timmy w/in 200ft of this creek for fear of him growing a third arm out of his forehead. Nonetheless the gov't in Shanghai is trying to beautify it by putting in creekside areas for strolling, sitting and running; complete with a rubber running track. What they've built thus far is actually really nice but like most everything here they've ALMOST got it but not quite. The track is laid only in sections so we can run for about 400 meters then have to switch to running in the streets for about 2 miles then get excited to see the track is back only to discover another 400 meters later it is unfinished again. Running in the street is where it gets adventurous. Dodging cars, bikes, dogs and their poo, people, trash, makes you really feel like you earned your run here. However, I draw the line at enjoying "adventurous" when a four legged and long tailed critter scurries across my path. Yeah. It happened. And I had a major freakout in the middle of Shanghai locals. I can just imagine the chit chat about the crazy white girl flailing and screaming about at the creek. I'm sure it's stuff legends are made of.

So Special Friend and I suffered through about 9 miles of interesting smells wafting in and out of our noses and dashing in and out of traffic just to make it back to his apt in one piece and fulfilled of our training for the day. In the end though I got to see sights of Shanghai I know I never would have come across and got a better sense of the community that makes this crazy place function.We will probably stick to our runs out in the Shanghai 'burbs from now on though even if it is a taxi+metro+15minwalk away. The novelty of "stepping outside my door" for a run is by now lost for me. Add it to my ability to adapt skill. By the time this is all said and done this will be the most rewarding marathon purely b/c the road to the finish line has never been so hard fought.

Beijing Extras

Here are a few gems from excitement surrounding the games.

The beloved Fuwas, the mascots of the Beijing games, provided much needed entertainment for various events. Below was the ridiculous halftime show during a Handball game my BF Rohan attended. We can thank him for this very special video :) Only in China. Watch and enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxW6tRvNbrw



Now, I know shooting is an Olympic sport but does anyone else think there is something is wrong with this picture??? I call this "Disgruntled Fuwa"

Beijing 2008...oh my!

Well this may have been the most anticipated event of my short 26 years. Not necessarily because I am an Olympic zealot per say but mostly because since my arrival in China in February I could not look within a 2 ft radius without seeing a Beijing 2008 symbol, or listen to the radio for more than 2 seconds with out hearing Beijing Aoyunhui er ling ling ba nian (Beijing Olympics 2008). Not to mention the fiasco that was the torch relay. I should be thankful though since the Olympics have finally given me a new topic of conversation with cab drivers besides the weather. There are only so many times you can really say "The weather looks bad today, do you think it might rain?" and being met with a grunt as if to say "This is Shanghai idiot. Of course it's going to rain!" before turning yourself into a mute in taxis.

I really don't think I can put into words how much, at least in my observations, the Olympics have affected the Chinese people's lives. In both good and bad ways. Besides the obvious tremendous sense of pride that has been re-instilled in this nation after decades of trying to claw its way out of a cultural malaise they have also been met with the challenges and triumphs of being a global force. This is a country extremely proud of its people and they want the rest of the world to share in their celebration. At times it was invigorating to hear and see such genuine honor for ones country.
DISCLAIMER: big tangent ahead.
(Sadly I can't say that I've seen that in my own country for quite a while. It seems as though the US has battered through one disaster after another since 2001 and each time its built up a new wall between neighbors. Why was it that when I was forced (yes forced) to use my American Flag credit card in Germany I was embarrassed? I can easily say a Chinese person would hand it over with beaming confidence in any country in the world. I like to think that deep down at the core, honoring of one's nation are what the Olympics are all about. My American pride was immediately restored when I saw my team, 500+ strong, walk through the Birds Nest with a Sudanese refugee as the flag bearer. It's been a while since I've sung 'God Bless America' but my pipes were working overtime during the opening ceremony with my few fellow countrymen in a heavily packed Aussie crowd...the few vodka-sodas didn't hurt either)

Anyway, the Chinese' pride was altogether genuine but borderline hubris. Especially now since they've won 33 gold medals and counting. Just yesterday I watched their beloved Prince of sport Liu Xiang (he won their first track & field gold medal in Athens and has since become the Michael Jordan of China) have to bow out of the Olympics because of an injury. The reaction?? While disappointed, one person said, "Its ok. We already have so many gold medals." There. Done. Like yesterday's news.

Other effects I've seen? Well besides the auto response for whenever something doesn't get done being, "Oh because of the Olympics", there have been businesses just shut down cold out of national security. Not just a couple here and there, whole blocks of businesses. The metro station I get off at every weekend for my runs has a whole underground strip mall with hundreds of stores. Just yesterday I arrived and every single one of them was closed. Special friend told me that they had been closed by the government b/c they were places where people could gather and potentially cause harm to others or create an uprising. Can you believe that?!?! These stores are people's livelihoods and they are just shutdown for 2+ weeks w/o compensation!

Anyway...enough about that. Let's get to the fun part. My Olympic experience. We kicked off the Games with a robust gathering at a local (and only) sports bar in Shanghai. This was organized by an Australian friend of mine so naturally the crowd was awash in Green and Gold. But like I said earlier, my few compatriots and I managed to get in quite a show of American Pride when the US team walked out. Although I must confess that I did partake in a few Aussie-Aussie-Aussie-Oy-Oy-Oys (the Australian National Chant). I feel I'm allowed a sense of Australian pride after living there and Special Friend happens to be from there :) The real fun came though when the Chinese team marched out. The entire bar gave way to the guilty pleasure of chanting "Zhongguo Jiayou, Zhongguo Jiayou!" (Go China! Go China!) China's national chant. Myself included. The excitement in the air was electric! Let the Games begin!!

A friend from UCLA and San Francisco, Courtney, had contacted me a few months earlier to say she would be coming to China b/c her brother had qualified for the Olympics in 4-man Skulls Rowing. She and her boyfriend Mark stayed with me for a few days in Shanghai then headed up to Beijing for the games. They offered me a place to crash in Beijing if I wanted to head up there and I of course could not turn down the offer :)

I overnight-trained it up to Beijing which was quite convenient but probably won't be happening again. My friend Ying and I got the top bunks of a 4 bunk compartment. We shared it with sweet Mr and Mrs Wang who weren't so sweet after they were slurping their instant noodle bowls and snoring the night away starting at 8:30pm. But alas we made it to Beijing, only to be greeted by a most ominous sky. The heavens opened up around 4:10, 30 minutes before Courtney's brother was about to row. The event would be canceled for the day. Not, however, without an apology to the Rowers from the Chinese government for the rain. I kid you not.

But one day's miserable weather leads to another day's glory. The next day was probably the most beautiful day I've ever seen in China. Blue skies, white fluffy clouds and dry heat. A perfect day for some friendly competition! And what competition would be friendlier than USA v Cuba BASEBALL!?!? That's right. Two conflicting nations converging via their national pastime. Another friend in Shanghai mentioned a few weeks earlier that he had extra tix so I jumped all over them. The game itself was so-so but basking in the beautiful sun just behind thirdbase with an $0.80 beer couldn't have made me any happier. Well not entirely true. Throw in a Dodger dog and who knows what I would have done with myself! Speaking of concessions, China really blew it on this one. Every venue had the same menu of crap ('scuse my language). The food available really was deplorable. All that was offered were spam sandwiches, chips, popcorn and some really pathetic and inedible looking sausages in cellophane wrap. Here was a perfect opportunity to share chinese snacks (dumplings, pork buns, fried noodles) with the world and they blew it on processed, pre-packaged junk. It really was sad and was the same situation I found at every venue leading to my liquid diet for the day :) But back to baseball. It really was a beautiful day and although the US lost to Cuba 8-7 in extra innings it was fun just to be there. The Cuban's had quite a lively contingency RIGHT behind us but they were friendly towards us Americans. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess they maaaaaayyyyyyy have been from the states and maaaayyyyy have had family who immigrated from Cuba at some point. I don't know. Just an educated guess since the last I read it was hard for Cuban's to afford bananas let alone a plane ticket across the world to China. Regardless, it was a friendly game that I am thankful to have witnessed. Off to Rowing!

The baseball park could not have been farther away from the Rowing park. And traveling across Beijing might as well be like traveling over state lines due to the massive expanse of the city. Basically it's huge and traveling from point A to point B for me was like trying to get from Pasadena to Long beach in LA without a car. Nightmare??? Yes! Especially after my liquid diet at the baseball game. My head was a bit foggy and navigating the Beijing metro system to get to the Olympic green to catch the shuttle buses to Shunyi Rowing park was..um..a tad tedious. It was tedious just writing that all out!! But I made it and got a beautiful sightseeing trip along the way. The gov't built new highways to get to the park through lush greenery which really showed a side of Beijing I had never seen. And mountains in the background. Who knew!

Finally I made it after almost 2 hrs of travel, some of which was hindered by mis-communication between the "English-Speaking" volunteers and myself. I learned fast that my Chinese is not yet up to par. The rowing park was gorgeous though and the races were very exciting. The most exciting being Courtney's brother's race of course. He did so well, finishing second in his heat which qualified him for the gold medal race. Although he and his team would eventually not medal, what an amazing feat to make it to the finals. They are a really young team too, so you can count on seeing them at the London Games in 2012.














I thought my Olympic experience would end with this event until we got a call at 8:15am the next morning from another friend of Courtney's saying he had 4 extra tickets to that day's swim events!!!!!! That meant a trip to the beautiful Watercube and a Michael Phelps race!!!!! We booked it to the 'cube and unfortunately b/c of the rammed security line, barely missed Phelpsie's race and SEVENTH gold medal performance :( We did get to see the phenom's victory ceremony though and about 7 other races. Just being in the cube alone was enough for me. It truly is a beautiful and serene building and seeing MP's ceremony and the raising of the American Flag while the Star Spangled Banner played throughout the arena again brought back that flood of USA pride that I had been longing for.


That would end my Beijing 2008 Olympic experience. Beijing itself was not a fun place to be. It is too big of a city and there wasn't much of an Olympic spirit beyond the walls of the venues but these games have changed the face of this nation and ultimately the world. The excitement will all come to an end in about a week but my true anticipation is for the way this country reacts when these games are all over. Stay tuned for post-Beijing 2008!

For all of my pictures of the Olympics click here!