We spent most of September 16 traveling from Tokyo to our hotel in Siem Reap, Cambodia (BB Angkor Residence). We flew China Eastern Airlines with a short layover in Shanghai Pu Dong airport.
This was Dale's first time back in Shanghai since we moved from Shanghai to Minnesota late in 2013. Being back in China was a sort of homecoming: everything felt very familiar! While living in China from 2011 to 2013, Dale learned to focus on the positive aspects of the culture (food, people) and ignore the negatives (pollution, people spitting). As a result, when he reminisces about his time in China, he has almost exclusively happy memories. However, while sitting in the Tokyo Narita airport with mostly Chinese nationals, his rose-colored glasses started slipping. The first person he saw waiting at the gate was openly, casually and methodically mining what must have been a massive booger out of his right nostril. Dale had forgotten that picking your nose in China isn't the social taboo it is in the US.
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We lived in Shanghai, China from 2011 to 2013. We did not write a blog then, but occasionally sent emails to friends about our experiences. Here are the emails we could find. 2/15/2012 Flags of China When we lived in Shanghai, few people had clothes dryers and instead hung their laundry outside to dry. Clothes were strung between buildings, over streets, and on balconies. With clothes flying everywhere, these are known as the flags of China. 2/25/2012 "Firsts" in Shanghai We've experienced a few "firsts" in Shanghai recently. Dale found a Shanghai "meet up" group who we joined for dinner and karaoke, both of which were fun. Here, karaoke bars are private rooms rented by the hour. (Get your minds out of the gutter!) The video and audio set-up is slick and modern: there's a huge, flat screen tv that shows the video and lyrics, a computerized list of the songs, 2 microphones and options to adjust background vocals, volume, and other effects. With fearless local hosts and free-flowing booze, we had lots of fun. Although I recognized plenty of Western pop songs, I wasn't familiar enough to sing the lyrics or tunes accurately until a remake of Billy Joel's Uptown Girl was chosen. Yes, I said remake. When they remix songs from your high school days, you are officially old. On Friday, Dale and I hosted our first dinner party of Dale's Mandarin school classmates, most of whom are French. We're not sure we actually invited them. Once Dale revealed that our kitchen came equipped with an oven, they asked to come over and cook. How could we say "non"? Few Chinese kitchens have ovens, and ours is literally the size of an Easy Bake Oven. In our true, classy style, Dale and I also ordered Papa Johns pizzas for everyone. It was really fun and eye-opening to hear that even more worldly Europeans have "bad China days" like us. For example, on Thursday, I broke our apartment complex's entire fitness center. As I was walking across the gym floor to use the free weights, one of the floor plates that covers some power outlets popped up under my foot. Since it was a trip hazard, I tried to press the cover plate back down, but it wouldn't move. Then I spied the latch that you needed to slide to put the plate in place, so I slid the latch forward and the cover started lowering. All of the sudden, I heard a pop and sparks started shooting out of that outlet. I made eye contact with the personal trainer who said something to me in Mandarin that I chose to interpret as "Don't worry about it; this is China." I headed towards the free weights and noticed that every person in the gym had stopped what they were doing to stare at me. I was confused since the noise and sparks weren't that loud, then noticed that every piece of equipment was off. Yes, I had caused the entire gym to short. The overhead lights were unaffected, but all equipment was off. The personal trainer found a maintenance guy who was still working on the outage 10 minutes later when I had finished weightlifting and slunk out of the gym. Another example: even though I'm hiding in China, my US taxes are still due in April. Luckily, Valspar asked an accounting firm do my taxes for me but I am still responsible for uploading all tax forms to their website. With the terrible internet connection here, it took me 5 hours yesterday to upload only a handful of forms. Needless to say, I threw a temper tantrum. Dale empathized, and offered leftover booze from the dinner party. All in all, we continue to enjoy our time here. We're making friends with people from all over the world and trying new activities often. Dale's Mandarin has progressed rapidly and let's just say that I miss Spanish. I hope everything is going well for all of you and keep in touch! 3/3/2012 I Miss Cheese Yesterday Dale and I went to City Shop, a western grocery store where desperate expats buy Western food at ridiculous prices. We had just purchased The Artist DVD and wanted to get popcorn for the night. A 3-pack of ACTII microwave popcorn costs $4. By contrast, the DVD was $2. We’re not sure about the authenticity of either. Back in City Shop, we walked through the cheese section and decided to have wine, cheese and crackers instead of popcorn. We both craved cheese, which is very rare in China. Chinese people find it disgusting to eat rotting milk products. OK, point taken. Yet they also consider “stinky tofu” a delicacy! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stinky_tofu In any case, the brie and cheddar were delectable. The movie was disappointing. Since it won the Oscar, we had high hopes. When 15 minutes went by with no sound, Dale assumed there was something wrong with the DVD (not uncommon when you buy pirated movies). There was nothing wrong with the disc. The movie was arty but not really compelling enough to hold our attention. Shockingly, I fell asleep after 2 glasses of wine. Dale took advantage of the situation to watch The Other Guys, the Mark Wahlberg/Will Farrell movie that was robbed of an Oscar during its release. For lunch today we’re trying a noodle shop that got good reviews in City Weekend magazine. They write, “Everything sits in a chili-charged broth that glows an oily, angry fiery orange, and its spice has a weird way of pulling you in for a second slurp even as you’re finishing your first.” Yum! Other than eating, nothing too exciting this weekend. Talk to you all later! 3/8/2012 National Women's Day Hello everyone: First, I have to share the postscript to my last email. Dale and I went to the noodle shop described in our expat magazine and were shocked to learn there was no English menu and no picture menu--just Chinese characters and pricing above the counter. The line at the counter was long and the restaurant was crowded, so we didn't have enough time to use Dale's phone to translate characters into English. The annoyed counter clerk skipped over us for the next customer in line--hello, Soup Nazi--so we ordered with the following logic: the mid-price range was 18RMB and several of those dishes had 3 stars by them. We assumed this meant either "spicy" or "chef's specialty" so we ordered 2 random, 18RMB dishes. We squeezed into a table already occupied by locals (a common seating issue here). We were served 2 big bowls of noodles--one yellow, one orange. I chose the yellow bowl and asked Dale if he thought the brown, slimy shapes floating on top were mushrooms. "Sure," he said. The first bite identified them as organ meat of some sort; the second and final bite confirmed that it was intestine. Dale later translated the name of my dish which had the words "colon" and "cabbage" in it. Dale's dish was fine until he reached the bottom, when he said it tasted like butt, quoting a disgusting line from The Other Guys. Later, we high-tailed it to the nearest C-store for mints and soda, laughing and cursing along the way. This is part of the adventure of living in China! Yesterday was National Women's Day, so I took my staff to lunch at a very nice restaurant known for its seafood. They ordered fish lip soup. Yes, I ate it. This soup has a thick broth, with a pleasant roasted flavor reminiscent of peanuts. I stirred the broth but didn't see "fish lips," picturing the gaping mouths of pond koi. I asked if there were actual fish lips in the soup, and they said yes. Damn. I fished out (no pun intended) an opaque, fettuccine-shaped object from my soup and they said, that's it! It wasn't bad--its flavor was mild and the texture was gummy yet firm. I asked what kind of fish it was, and they said whale. Inside my head I was screaming "A whale is not a fish!" and wondering if Greenpeace was going to track me down. One of my employees said it was "whalefish," not whale. Whalefish are not pretty, I learned after looking it up on Wikipedia. Did I mention that I don't like Wikipedia? In any case, all women in China except me get a half-day off on National Women's Day. My team asked if we celebrate Women's Day in the US and I said no, we have Mother's Day but not really Women's Day. They said China celebrates Mother's Day too. I said that if the US had a National Women's holiday, then the men would protest and demand their own holiday, then the transgender population would protest, etc, etc. But at the end of the day, I had my celebration. I was delighted to come home to a bouquet of flowers and gourmet desserts from Dale. And he did laundry! So I had the best National Women's Day a girl could ask for. Talk to you anon! 3/9/2012 St Patrick's Day in China Hello everyone: First, thank you for the condolences on Duke's Round 1 loss in the NCAA tournament. I did not get to see the game but based on my dad's recap, understand that missing the game is another benefit of being in China. Sigh. Go Wisconsin! Saturday, Dale and I celebrated St. Patrick's Day at an English pub where a Japanese cover band played Beatles songs. So cliche! Actually, it was a blast! We suspect that the lyrics were the only English words the band knew. I've attached a crappy Blackberry photo of the band. And yes, the cute one is "Paul". Sunday we went on a walking tour of old Shanghai. Basically the oldest section of the original, walled city of Shanghai, it now houses immigrants and the streets are bustling with photo opportunities. It was both interesting and sad to see how the government removed all ornate aspects of architecture during the "cultural revolution". Now the city is letting the buildings fall apart so they can tear them down and build modern developments. Our experiences with locals have been interesting. The younger Chinese are helpful and many speak enough English to help us understand what-the-hell we've just eaten or exactly how far we've strayed from the metro stop. Older Chinese stare at us but don't really interact. It's hard to know how foreigners are viewed, but for the most part we feel welcome. Then I read articles in the local paper like the one below, and don't know what to think! Local: Police Arrest Three for Extorting Money During Intentional Traffic Accidents Shanghai police said they had detained three suspects for extorting drivers by intentionally throwing themselves against cars while riding bicycles, then demanding compensation. Although the suspects confessed, it was unclear how many drivers were ripped off in the past months. Police said the suspects regularly extorted drivers and charged RMB 50 to RMB 300 per "accident." –Shanghai Daily (March 10) This weekend we'll go on another walking tour. I think Dale will post pictures on Facebook or Flicker, so I'll forward the address once they're up. Take care! 3/31/2012 Chinese Names Hi everyone: Tomorrow is April 1 meaning we've been here for 9 months already! According to my expat friends, my employees are delinquent in assigning me a Chinese name. This name should be a phonetic approximation of my English name that a) can be translated and b) can be translated into something positive. The closest sound to Darcie is “da xi,” (dah-she) or “big happiness”. “Xi” also means “west,” “to wash,” “to practice” and is part of the compound words for “relationship” (guan xi) and “to like” (xi haun). I choose happiness! Dale’s name translates to “da le” (dah-luh), which coincidentally also means “big happiness.” It can also mean “big thunder” which I feel is more appropriate, especially in the morning. On the flip side, younger Chinese often adopt Western first names, which are actually their last names. (No xi-t, this is a complicated language.) Some of the choices seem normal. On my staff, I have Adam, Leon, Sophia, Yvonne, etc. But we also have Kinky, Enigma, Stone and Rock, Sky, Windy and Echo, Farmer and Hippie, Dragon, Fairy, Autumn (a boy!) and September (a girl!). It's amusing. Dale and I went on another walking tour of Shanghai last weekend, this time to see Art Deco buildings. I didn’t know anything about Art Deco before the tour. Now I know that I don’t like it and am not sure “Art” belongs in the title. To be honest, I think we saw the damned ugliest buildings in Shanghai—concrete and cement with metal reinforcement, “accented” by long lines and upside-down triangles. Yeech. The tour guide was a woman whose voice did not carry. The group would stop in front of her as she talked about each building, but she would turn and face the building when talking, and there is always heavy traffic, so no one could hear her. At one point, an exasperated Dale asked her to face us when she talked. The result reminded me of watching the Dog Whisperer. You know how Caesar Milan will correct a dog's behavior, the dog pays rapt attention for, oh, 20 seconds, and then reverts back to their original behavior? That was our experience. A look of shock, a moment of focus, and then she turned to face the building once again. The most interesting part of her walk was her explanation for some of the antisocial behavior that we witness as Westerners. Relationships (guan xi, remember?) are very important in this society. Getting back to architecture, our guide told us that Chinese love to have common courtyards in their neighborhoods and anyone in their compound is part of their social network. Everyone else doesn’t exist. The result is that locals do not help or interact with people outside of their social circle. There is no "good samaritan" concept, no concept of personal space or politeness. For example, on the crowded sidewalks, people do not move over, do not walk around you or provide space. When you’re jostled on the sidewalk or pushed out of a queue, it’s hard not to take it personally, but it isn’t. This was an interesting “ah ha” moment that will stick with Dale and me. We have another public walk later in April so hope to learn and see more about the city. The weather is finally nice – 20-degrees C and sunny through the haze. Talk to everyone later and I wish you big happiness! 4/3/2012 Gastronomical Adventures More gastronomical adventures from China. Two menu items that amused us so much, Dale and I had to take pictures. Menu Item 1, for The Walking Dead fans (yes, Jonie, we thought of you!) Menu Item 2, I have no comment. None whatsoever... 4/3/2012 Match.mom Happy Easter everyone! The weather has been beautiful in Shanghai - in the 20's (Celsius) and sunny. Last weekend Dale and I walked to People's Park, a famous park about 15 minutes from our apartment. There we stumbled across an event we had assumed was urban legend: the marriage market. See attached pic. Parents from all over the city converge on this park and 'advertise' their unmarried offspring. They post data sheets with their kids' height, weight, income and other pertinent data (by parental standards), then list the requirements for the match. With over 23 million people in this city, we estimate there are millions of embarrassed kids hiding out in clubs and karaoke bars. Not much Easter celebration occurs in Shanghai, other than Western hotels hosting brunches for foreigners. I actually cooked beans today. (Don't ask.) Purchased locally, the cooking instructions, in English, read as follows, "Wash it cleanly, you add water to boils up with the fire, then puts the flame slowly to boil, also may with the red jujube, the lily, the lotus plumule, the tremela, the crystal sugar equate boils, after cooling, edible is better." Huh? It's like cooking with Yoda! Now Dale is off to get a haircut. His first local haircut cost him 30RMB ($5.00) which included 2 washes and a scalp massage in addition to the haircut! However, he is upgrading to a new barber shop because the first did not meet Dale's hygiene standards. Plus there were no female barbers. I am waiting until my return to the US in May so my hair's "handler" can resolve the crisis atop my head. So, you will see no pictures of me until mid-May. Hope you all have eggcellent Easters! 6/8/2012 Sign in a Shanghai Park Sign from a public park in Shanghai. And no, dogs can't read in Shanghai; the sign is for people (read #2). 6/23/2012 Plum Rains, Dragonboats and Sandalwood Hi everyone: We’re now in Shanghai’s “Plum Rain” period, where we experience continuous rain and hot temperatures. (Come visit!!!) Umbrella vendors flourish as much as the ripening plums, for which this holiday was named. This weekend was also the Dragonboat Festival holiday. From what we can tell, people celebrate by eating rice dumplings, drinking, and racing boats—an excellent combination. Dale and I celebrated the Chinese holiday by getting a couple’s Swedish massage in the former French Concession neighborhood, eating burgers at a western pub, and attending La Fete de la Musique, an annual French music festival. Such is the international flavor of Shanghai! The massage experience was wonderful! Dale and I had gotten a couple’s massage once before so the routine was familiar. Take your shoes off, choose your massage oil scent, follow your masseuse into a cavernous maze of rooms. Last time, Dale chose Sandalwood for his oil. Also last time, I sniffed the vials of oil and independently chose one that smelled (to me) like bubble gum. “Oh,” said the receptionist, “You chose the same as your husband.” During this weekend’s spa trip, Dale asked for Sandalwood right away. Determined to find my own scent, I sniffed the unlabeled vials again. None smelled like bubblegum, but I did choose one that smelled fresh—-not too flowery, not too eucalyptusy. “Oh,” the receptionist said, “you chose the same scent as your husband.” Damn. The whole spa experience was a reflection of our personality differences. As we walked into the massage room, I was horrified at the idea of having to fit into gauze underpants that were designed for the typical, petite Chinese figure. Dale was upset about having to wear underpants in the first place, and created an impromptu fly where none had existed before. Enter our two masseuses. I like a quiet atmosphere, listening to the calming music and getting lost in my thoughts. Dale immediately starts interrogating our masseuses: “What’s your name? My name is Li Da Le. My American Name is Dale Lotts. This is Da Xi. How long have you worked here? How old are you? Really? My daughter is your age.” Once he had exhausted his Chinese, I relaxed in the silence of the room, until I caught Dale mumbling to himself. “Are you practicing more Chinese phrases?” I asked. “Yes,” he said, and proceeded to ask whether our masseuses had boyfriend, kids, their ages, etc. They giggled throughout the service but we can’t tell if it was our mangled Chinese, the ill-fitting underwear, or Dale telling his masseuse “wo ai ni” (I love you) for 2 straight hours. By the way, I am in love with my masseuse too. The service was devine: a 30-minute body scrub, followed by showers, then a 60-minute full body massage, a hot towel sponge bath, and cranial massage. Total cost? 538 RMB for both of us, or about $85. The next day, we went to La Fete de la Musique, a 2-day music festival hosted by the French Consulate. Apparently France has been holding this music festival annually for decades and the Shanghai version is 3 years old. The music was free and surprisingly good. We heard 3 groups: a funky techno-pop duo, an excellent hard rock band, and a rap group. Watching 3 skinny Chinese guys in backwards baseball caps wrap in Chinglish is fun. The lead rapper wore a t-shirt that said “Stay Cold, Motherf@ckers” Their mascot was a dancing chimpanzee. This is communist China. Now we’re packing for our move to a different apartment this coming weekend. It’s smaller, but allegedly has functioning internet, a gym that doesn’t short-circuit, and best of all, a washing machine and separate dryer (each a tiny version of the US machines). We’ll send out the new address soon so you can visit! Hope all is well for everyone and Happy Dragon Boat Festival Holiday! 1/19/2013 Oscar Night at the D&D Home Today, Dale and I bought the following DVDs: Skyfall, Zero Dark Thirty, This is 40, Amour, The Impossible, Les Miserables, Django Unchained, and Lincoln. Total cost: 72 RMB, or $12. Those of you who have received DVDs from us know that the summary on the jacket of a pirated DVD is often more entertaining than the movie. Here is the verbatim write-up for This is 40: "Knocked Up" in the Peter and Derby the couple in a marriage gradually encountered various rocks, first of all is their capital chain problems, followed by their parents age grow big, no longer so reassuring, at last they went into the tomb of love, passion and the joy of living has also gradually no longer. Tomb of Love? Sounds kinky... We are convinced that some blurbs are written by bored interns. Here are the opening lines on the back of the Lincoln DVD jacket: "Lincoln is a film underscoring some of the poignant and glorious events of President Lincoln's legacy. Obviously, this film interested me because I frequently heard about the significance of Lincoln's legacy all throughout my middle school and high school years. Additionally, I had the chance to previously garner more information about Lincoln from the following circumstances: a Gettysburg Museum visit while I was still in the military, fascinating details included about him from the book "One Nation Under Sex" (by David Eisenbach PhD and Larry Flint), and further details from both a paper that I wrote and a class that I took less than 11 months ago..." Yes, that personal summary is printed on DVDs being sold throughout China. The Flynt/Eisenbach book is real and has hilariously-titled Amazon customer reviews like, "What They Didn't Teach You in High School," and "Arousing Interest in American History." To my Book Club friends: do we have a book for February yet? What better way to honor Presidents' Day? And finally, the politically charged Zero Dark Thirty is described thusly: The film revolves around the seal team for "Al Qaeda" leader Ben Laden "last straw" action, ultimately to successful shot Laden ended in. But in the movie script the preparatory process, Bigelow and Bauer received a The Pentagon on them to steal the Laden action confidential, and opposition on the incumbent president Obama's re-election political tools and other charges, but the piece side Sony didn't quit, while at the same time in order to avert suspicion they will film from the original October postponed to December 19th--this year the United States presidential election after two months. Hopefully the plot will be less complicated than the blurb. 3/10/2013 Five Dollar Foot-Longs Today, Dale and I ate lunch at Subway in Shanghai and this is the scene outside of the restaurant window. Sword fight!!!! Although they don't advertise $5 footlongs (because neither dollars nor "foot" makes any sense here) the "big" sandwich of the day costs 30RMB, so it's about the same. Every once in a while, when you've had too many intestines, stomach or chicken feet, Subway hits the spot. Hope all is well with everyone! 1/19/2013 Shanghai is for the Birds! Da jia hao, sports fans. After rejoicing that the air quality in Shanghai was merely "unhealthy" today, Dale and I ventured out in search of a coffee grinder. In hindsight, we should have realized that a nation of tea drinkers might not use coffee grinders, but I am an addict and Starbucks is too expensive here. On the way to the electronics store, we walked by the bird market. Similar to the marriage market I wrote about last year, there is a section of town where bird owners, breeders and sellers meet. The pictures show some of the offerings. Note the bird on this guy's lap: 9/8/2012 Update from Shanghai
da jia hao! ("hello everyone!") Not to be confused with "jia da hao," which means "plus size") I thought I would clog your inboxes with pictures from China. Steelers: First and most exciting, I got to watch the Steelers - Jets game from the comfort of my own living room! Although it aired a day late and I knew the outcome, it was completely commercial-free. Ergo, four, 15-minute quarters of football = 1 hour, not 3. What a concept! Which reminds me of a very funny t-shirt I saw recently: Dear Math, I'm not a therapist. Solve your own problems. But I digress... Some of the other pictures had been taken earlier this year but I never got around to sharing them. Do I matter? In the Chinglish category, note the sign behind Dale's head. It's quite existential but in the end we were allowed admission. Real Estate: An actual real estate agency's name. That one's for you, Dev. Safety: Finally, I watched these repairmen fix some overhead wire this weekend. Note that the ladder is made of bamboo and is unsecured. The workers are in the middle of an intersection with no one guiding traffic and the repairman is touching wire with his bare hands as the ladder rests on the wire. In any case, everything is going well in China (if you don't repair wires for a living). Dale is back in the US trying to renew his China tourist visa for another year. Plus he can buy some essentials at Target and sneak them *back* into China so we have deodorant and fluoride toothpaste for a few more months. For the National October holiday, we are going to Chiang Mai, Thailand (thank you Rebekah for the tip). Hope everyone is doing well and apologies for the large files. Miss you! |
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