Archive for the 'Life in China' Category

My First Hash

Published
by
AnDeLu
on July 21, 2007
in Hashing and Life in China
. 4 Comments

No this is not a Clintonesq type of story about not inhaling or getting the munchies, rather it is about another sort of hash. I had never heard of a hash, hashers or the Hash House Harriers until I moved to Shenzhen. Even then during my first four years here, I didn’t really know what it/they were until I joined a local expat club/bar called The Snake Pit. Eventually, I came to find out that a hash was a run; hashers were the runners; and the hash house harriers was the generic name for the local unit.

Those that know me probably don’t think of me and running in the same sentence or better yet the same paragraph. I certainly didn’t, until I read this quote by Hasher Stray Dog, “Hashing is a state of mind- a friendship of kindred spirits joined together for the sole purpose of reliving their childhood or fraternity days, releasing the tensions of everyday life, and generally, acting a fool amongst others who will not judge you or measure you by anything more than your sense of humor.” I figured what better reason is there to run?? Being that is was the hottest day of the year, we left the running to 40 or so other fools and my first hash was actually a walk with 7 others. It wasn’t the most scenic walk I have been on, but I no longer wonder where those picking through trash cans do their sorting. I walked right through the middle of one soul’s collection of plastic bottles, bags, cardboard and who knows what else. The runners and walkers all wind up at the same meeting place and have what is called a down down. The smells and heat were soon forgotten while new friends were made amongst the foolishness and laughs.

For those that are curious about the history of hashing… Back in the 1930’s a group of British expats in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia started a hare & hounds running group. They named the group after their meeting place, the Selangor Club, aka the “Hash House.” Hashing is basically about meeting people, drinking lots of beer and staying fit while doing the other two and now there are 1834 clubs located in 178 different countries throughout the world. To find a club near you and experience your first hash click here.

It will be a few months before I am joining the runners but when I do you better watch out! Until then I will be training with the walkers and enjoying the only reason I get to drink beer!

Bus BO

Published
by
AnDeLu
on July 8, 2007
in Life in China and Transportation
. 1 Comment

During my first few years living in Shenzhen,  I rarely took public transportation unless I was with some Chinese friends who wanted to take the bus. At the time, the main reason (excuse) for not utilizing the buses was my inability to speak or read Chinese. After living here for a few years I began to note the bus numbers and the routes they took and while still not being able to read Chinese would on occasion take the bus somewhere. Usually paying more in fare then I probably needed, because if I didn’t know the name of place I wanted to go I would say a location of somewhere past it. A few years ago, after I moved from the center of town to further out where many more foreigners live, I started taking the buses more often when I wanted to go downtown and had time to spare.  There was a significant cost savings - the bus cost 8 versus 60 or more for a taxi. An added benefit and also major reason I didn’t mind taking the bus on that route was since it was the beginning of the route one was pretty much guaranteed a seat. Over the last couple of years I have moved an equal number of times, all in the same area. Now, taking the bus to Wal-Mart has became a regular routine as has taking the bus to/from the subway station.

The are only two benefits that I see of taking the bus, cost savings and doing my part to be “green” and contribute to reducing pollution. Must admit the money saved was my primary motivator.

On the other hand, there are many more negatives to taking the bus. It almost always takes longer to get somewhere when taking the bus because they obviously have to take a set route, which usually is on the main and busiest streets.  People talking to one another, half the bus yelling on their mobile phones, the automated attendant announcing the next stop and the guy next to you using his mobile phone as a boombox provide a quaint quiet atmosphere where you can reflect on your day and contemplate how the 3 dollar savings will help you reach your savings goal and that trip to restore your sanity. The actual ride could be viewed as a positive by some, perhaps in their desire for a simulation of a F1 race or off-road Baja. Yes, off road Baja on the city streets is possible. I, however, have experienced an off road race and have no desire to share my F1 experience with 100 other people. You ain’t seen crowded until your standing on an already full bus and 10 more people crowd into every nook and cranny. And that happens, again and again, at the next five stations before some people start to get off. With that many people crammed into a confined space you get odors, lots of odors and not all of them of the flowery or the sprayed on kind.

It couldn’t have been the first time, or maybe it was, but last week I was lucky to board a bus through the middle door and was able to squeeze into a stance in the crowded aisle. Just as the door was closing this very tall Chinese guy squeezed in and took up a position next to me. He was dressed nice and looked like any other typical white collar worker. As the Jeff Gordon wannabe bus driver slammed on the gas, this tall guy grabbed the rail above me, which put his exposed underarm right at my nose level. I am at a loss of words on how to describe the stench other then to say it was eye watering and breathtaking, almost to the point of causing sickness. The next stop couldn’t come fast enough, when it did I pushed my way off and gulped fresh air for several minutes until hailing a taxi home.

Web Woes

Published
by
AnDeLu
on July 2, 2007
in Communication, Life in China and Rants
. 0 Comments

When I found Wordpress I was excited about its ability to be customized fairly easy and have more of that “website” look and not all the ads and stuff of other blogs. Unfortunately, when I came across Wordpress and subsquently blogged I was either logged into the internet through my work VPN at home or blogged during lunch from the office. This kept me from realizing that while the Wordpress home page can be viewed and accessed within China it’s blogs cannot. The Mozilla Firefox has a add-in that allows a bypass around the Great China Firewall, unfortunately it doesn’t always work and keeps people from being able to comment.

So in my infinite wisdom, I thought I would acquire another domain and convert my blog to the same hosting service in the US that we are using for our website . Great idea but horrible execution. I switched packages which allows a second domain and hosting for all of an additional $12 dollars a year but I chose the wrong package and lost our website while it “converts” to a Microsoft hosting package that doesn’t support the Wordpress format. Fortunately, I had just backed up our website to our computer and portable storage device. Unfortunately, the switch can’t be changed for 30 days unless I cancel our original plan and start all over. Apparently they are willing to refund our first package under their 90 day no hassle guarantee even though it says if you upgrade packages the guarantee is void - because they must think you are happy…But because I was so nice, calm and sweet talking on the phone they said no problem.

Maybe, just maybe our website will be back in a few days along with the new home (and I promise final move) for my blog… Worst case scenerio is our website will be offline for 29 1/2 more days while I wait out their you can only switch packages every 30 days policy. Lesson learned? The machine is smarter then man!

Taxi Rage

Published
by
AnDeLu
on June 29, 2007
in Life in China and Transportation
. 2 Comments

Somethings are just idiotic. A prime example is 10,000 of the 10,001 taxis in Shenzhen having their shift change at exactly the same time, 7am and 7pm every day. If you aren’t going in the direction the taxi driver wants to go, so that they can switch drivers, they will flat out refuse to take you as a fare starting around 6pm.

Forget about a little quiet now that the taxi companies are rapidly installing little TVs on the back side of the front seat headrests. Loaded with ads, bootleg copies of Mr. Bean, ABC’s Funniest Home Videos and the Tom and Jerry cartoons these user friendly TVs at least can generate a laugh. Highly doubt they are paying in royalties on these noisemakers though. At least the TV’s can be “muted” which lasts all of 30 seconds if you hit the “Mute” button, but if you hit the rewind or fast forward button they are quiet for about 2 minutes while it figures out which way to go. No quality checks peformed before they were installed and I might even guess they were painted with Lead based paint.

Even louder and an instant headache maker for me are the walky talky type radios the drivers love to talk on. A common occurence is to get into a taxi, either one that has been parked waiting for a fare or one that I flagged as they drive around looking for a victim, and as soon as you shut the door and they pull away they call their fellow driver buddy on their walky talky. These things have this ear screeching 3 beep every time they send or receive. And they are talking about nothing…At least if it was the traffic report or conditions to where we were headed I could tolerate it for a minute or two. But they just yap, yap, yap.

Then the driver’s buddy tells him to listen to the radio so they can talk about the last call, radio gets turned on which only seems to come through the speaker right behind my seat. Since I am sitting in the back, and the driver is in the front, he has to turn up the radio so he can hear it over the beeping and yapping of his friend through the walky talky. At least I can understand a little of the radio talk since it is Mandarin versus the Cantonese conversation of the drivers.

I notice the driver is going a little fast and in the wrong lane to make my street so I tell him to turn at the next intersection. Doesn’t even hear me. I try again, not quite yelling “turn at the next street”. He is too engrossed in debating with his buddy over the walky talky about the radio show to hear me so I yell this time “TURN HERE”. He turns around and says “what”? I practically scream “TURN”. He turns down the radios a little and says the name of my garden with what sounds like a question and I just reply softly “yes”.

As I get out of the taxi, he turns off the radio show and signs off with his buddy on the walky talky. Guess he figures he deserves a little quiet since he had to drive out of his way…

Tomorrow I am going to work until 6 and walk home.

Coming soon: Bus BO and Corolla Cash

Why I live in China

Published
by
AnDeLu
on June 27, 2007
in Life in China
. 0 Comments

I never tire of the various questions that people ask when they find out I live in China. Questions such as: why do you live in China? What is it like? What are the people like? Will you ever move back to the States? What do you miss?  Maybe secretly and deep down I like the attention from doing something different and that most people can’t imagine - living in a foreign country.

 Most people who have traveled in China seem to believe that my daily life must just consist of the things they experienced during their trip.  Experiences that are centered around: horrible traffic where everyone goes and no one stops; shopping for fake anything - Rolex watches, purses, DVD’s, Polo’s; cheap massages; beggars; exotic and elaborate feasts at meal time; and visiting places like The Great Wall or the Terra Cotta Warriors.

Sure, each and every one of those experiences exists in my life but they do not make up my life. Those things have become background noise while I go about working and living. At one time I never imagined or thought I would want to drive in China now it is no big deal and much preferred over taking anything other then a private taxi. In my opinion, fakes are a waste of money. The old adage, “you get what you pay for” shouldn’t be thrown out the window because something is cheap compared to list prices back home.

Bootleg DVD’s aren’t fake, they are a staple of life in China. As long as I can buy DVD’s of the newest movies and hit TV shows from the US in front of Wal-Mart and next to a police post, why shouldn’t I? There is no other way to purchase them in China, only a couple of dozen censored foreign films ever make it to the theatre and I gladly pay for a movie ticket when they do - like seeing Superman 3 in a theatre almost to ourselves on a Friday night. A bulldozer rolling over and destroying a million DVDs is a photo and publicity stunt for the western press and nothing more.

 I have had my share of foot and body massages, tried acupuncture and cupping and don’t much care for any of them. Would much prefer to save those dollars, no matter how few, for my quest to visit all the China provinces and 100 countries.

The simple fact is my life is made up of the same things as my friends and family, just some place different. That place is exotic to some, but to me China has become home. On my “About Me” page I talk about my comfort zone being expanded and learning something new everyday, which is true. Lifelong learning and expanding comfort zones can and do happen to people everywhere without their having to move half way around the world from what they know and their hometown. For me those two things didn’t seem to happen the first couple of years, at least consciously, while living in Shenzhen but now they are addictive! So the reason I love living in China so much really is because each day is a challenge; my comfort zone is stretched and expanded; my cultural knowledge is broadened and best of all I grow each and every day. Not a day goes by where I don’t learn something about myself and others.