Shanghaied 2008

Here they are:

Here they are:

Incredible! I’ve never seen anything like it. Like a war zone for several hours. We were on the 30th floor of the Hilton Hotel and it was a clear night. Every building top has fire works shooting from it’s roof. The Chinese set off fireworks in order to scare off evil spirits and ward off bad luck for the new year. We will be hearing fireworks all week with another big evening on the 5th day. By the way, Luisa, Diego and I were all born in the Year of the Ox, the second year of the 12 year cycle. Nick was born in the Year of the Dog.

We loved the Philippines! It felt a lot like being in Mexico. Luisa was frequently confused for a local by the locals (until they began to speak Tagalo). The people are so warm as are the beaches. The break from the now chilly Shanghai temperatures was a welcome break. More later…

Click here to see our Philippine photos

Well, this is not my first time blogging but definitely the first time  posting on this special one.  Today is the end of my first month in Shanghai, China.  Up until last week I thought I lived in Zhudi Town, just to find out that I really live in HuaCao Town!  no wonder why the taxi drivers look puzzled everytime I want to come back to my apartment after a day of groceries shopping, and I thought it was because I do not speak Mandarin Well, actually, we really live outside of downtown Shanghai in an area that was a farming town up until early 2000 (??? I have to do the research).  This is a booming town in the sense that half of the streets have shops and apartment compounds, and the other half seems to be under construction.

I spent my first two weeks trying to figure out how to go back and forth from the grocery store, which is about 45 min. ride in the free shuttle service from the apartment.  Not having a car or knowledge of where i am  makes it more challenging, especially when I am at the store trying to ask where the milk and bread are and I don’t speak the language.  This has been my major challenge.  Not knowing how to communicate with people once I pass my comfort zone of the  gated area.  By the way, this is the first time I live in an apartment located in a truly gated area.  I’ve seen several living compounds like this in different parts of the city so far.

Nevertheless, I spent good three weeks trying to make a phone call to Mexico City.   I bought an international phone card just to find out that it only worked for phone calls to the U.S., but not for Mexico.    It was frustrating seeing Rick and the kids calling family and friends in the States during the first week while I was trying to figure out how to call my parents and siblings in Mexico.

Everything is relative depending on how you look at it.  When my husband finally figured out how I could call to Mexico using skype, I finally called my Mama and Papa and  got in touch with my brother.  I told my brother that i lived about 45 min. from downtown Shanghai, which seemed a bit far for me, and he said: “that’s not bad at all”.  Of course, Mexico city is somehow like Shanghai; distances vary according to traffic, and 45 min. is nothing.

We’ve been here for 3 weeks now and have started to figure out how to live in our community and Shanghai at large. A few realities make the transition harder for me than I remember moving to Mexico. The first has to do with the language. I like to talk to people. I especially enjoy hearing strangers stories. I want to know what Chinese people think about their country and the world and the US. I’m muzzled by my inability to speak the language. Not a great feeling. I’m begin to piece together some rudimentary vocabulary, but talking to me in Mandarin is like talking with a 4 year old with five o’clock shadow. I went through this in Mexico, although, in general, the Mexicans I met had a better grasp of English than the Chinese I meet.

Apart from my inability to chat with people there is also the practical issue of getting around. I can’t read the signs and worse yet, I can’t write down directions because I don’t understand nor do I know how to draw Chinese characters. This is compounded by the fact that the area we are living has been developed fairly recently. It is just outside of Shanghai City maps. Even though there are major roads running around this area there are no maps. I can’t get oriented. I finally bought a compass today (yes, Artie, a compass). Even if there was a map, I don’t think the cabbies would know what to do with it based on the few times I’ve pulled one out of downtown to point something out.

So this is what the expats like me do. You get these business cards that have English on the front and Chinese characters on the back. I have one from our apartment complex that has the address and a rudimentary map. I have one for the mall where we go shopping. I have one for the restaurant we like to go to. Say we are coming home from the shopping mall (I’ll talk about the malls later, but I have to say the Chinese are learning how to shop). We hail a cab and shove the card at the cabbie. Many times his eyes aren’t so good so he has to squint to try to read the card. Then he’ll give some response which doesn’t sound too confident. Understand that where we live is a bit off the beaten track, not a place that everyone would necessarily know their way around. We start down the road. After a ways he pulls over to the side, obviously lost. He says something to us. I just shrug my shoulders and say “Wo bu mein bai” (I don’t understand). I can’t pull out the map, because there isn’t one. We finally get to some place we start to recognize. I have learned “turn right” and “turn left” so I can give rudimentary directions. I need to get a bike.