So it’s a new month, a new Chinese year, a new country, and a new job; if I’m gonna start something new, now seem to be the time to do it.
NGG and I are having a great time discovering Shanghai. Just today we went to our first local noodle place where they served us fresh made noodles with the tiniest side of beef. Using Google translate there isn’t much of a language barrier, especially because everyone seems very willing to let me speak broken Chinese with the help of my phone. In fact, most of them speak rapid fire Chinese back at me after I make one grammatically correct sentence.
As far as adjusting goes, there’s no longer any jet-lag and I’m not feeling any culture shock nor do I think NGG is either. Although, her 中国人 (zhōng guó rén) appearance may be causing some interesting misunderstandings. We have found all the necessary products for eating, and we have plans to try lots of new food. Nearby our house is a great food market with fresh vegetables and meat. On the way to the local superstore we found a community dance center (local dances, no salsa), and just today we found an interesting mah-jongg hall with electronic tables that sort the tiles like a coin operated a billiard table!
Every day we learn a lot of new things about Shanghai and China in general. There are lots of new and interesting superstitions like avoiding the number 4 or not giving pears as gifts. There’s also a very good mutual understanding on the roads about how everybody gets across intersections. If there’s no police, everybody just goes if there’s space.
I’ve been biking the past several days to all my meetings and I’ve had no incidents except for a flat tire due to a small piece of glass. I’m now looking into getting a mountain bike because the road cleanliness here leaveS something to be desired.
Tomorrow is my first lesson so I’m off to bed early, wish me luck!
