Thanksgiving 2008 - What I am Thankful For

We discussed Thanksgiving in my English classes this week. I listed my 5 things that I was thankful, which were very predicable: Family, Friends, Health, Being in China and My Pension.

I required the students to do the same thing. List 5 things – The approximately 200 students lists I received started out very predictably with FAMILY (but generally their grandparents were listed before their parents – remember child care is usually the job of the grandparents) and FRIENDS. After the first two the list really diverge from what we might predict that an American college student would list.

Third most often listed blessing was: TEACHERS – many specific middle school and high school teachers were mentioned having the a large impact on their lives
4th blessing – were BOOKS or a variation of acquiring knowledge
5th – Being able to ATTEND COLLEGE
6th - CHINA, which included a few mentions of hometowns, the Chinese government and even a thanks for their President Hu JinTao
7th – variations of COMPUTER, INTERNET AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES (yes even some computer games were mentioned such as War Craft)
8th –DELICIOUS FOOD (as how it was stated most often) – rice, bread, all the fruits and just one that even was thankful for KFC, McDonalds, Pizza Hut. There were a couple that mentioned a good harvest and one that said “all the animals who are eaten by me”
9th – most often listed “blessing?” was one that really surprised me – HARDSHIPS – here are a couple of ways this blessing was listed by my Chinese students. Sometimes I have to remind myself often that English is NOT their first language because their answers can be so poetic.
“The natural disasters because they let me know we should cherish our lives better”
“Difficulties that give me perseverance”
“The bad/terrible period of my life which makes me feel content with what I have.”

Some of the REST….
God
Cell Phones
Sports
CCTV (the different TV channels that are put out by the Chinese Government)
Pretty clothes
Shoes
Good weather
A smart and sensible mother
Policemen
Workers that make a contribution to the country
Rivalry opponents
Enough money
Environment such as the library, trees, water, and food
Being a gal
Being 172 cm tall
Blues and Jazz music

I have come to the conclusion that one of the biggest differences between China’s youth and America’s youth is that China’s youth EXPECT their life and future to be hard and have many difficulties whereas a large majority of America’s youth EXPECT life to be easy. Sort of makes you wonder what type of adult & work ethic develops from their different expectations.

Andrea and Beth in Shanghai

See – Andrea’s scowl was only a temporary thing, especially after the margaritas at Peter’s Tex-Mex. I was speaking in monosyllables after only one and Andrea and Beth had very few cares.

Side note: We found a real honest-to-goodness Dunkin Donuts in Shanghai. We decided to get up early Sunday morning so we could partake in a little American grease before our train trip home, but alas …..it didn’t open until 9. WHO EVER HEARD OF A DUNKIN DONUTS NOT OPENING AT 5 AM…but we are in China. It was probably good that we couldn’t stop there because we ended up catching the metro going in the wrong direction so it took us longer than expected to get back to the train station.

New Big Boy In Town

There are lots of tall buildings in Shanghai just a year ago the winner was the 88 floor (8 is a lucky number) Jin Mao building, now it’s the 101 floor World Financial Center. My favorite one is still the Tomorrow Square Building. Sort of neat to be able to see Shanghai’s two tallest buildings in the smoggy background of the YuYuan Garden’s ancient buildings

Here is a link to the tall buildings in Shanghai - remember most of these were built after 2000 - China is just growing so fast
http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/ci/bu/sk/li/?id=100213&bt=2&ht=2&sro=0

Crowds Can Get To You

On the way to Shanghai, Andrea and I both had an “incident” in a very, very crowded bus with a short laborer standing behind us. The poor little guy, somewhere in his 20’s, had probably never seen such large white women before and decided to see how we smelled and felt. The part that had me in tears was that he had to stand on his tippy-toes. He “got” me first, then after I maneuvered the object of his infatuation out of the way he went to Andrea for seconds. Beth was lucky and had a seat so she was just a voyeur. With the crowd it was very hard to move away and I was laughing so hard I didn’t think about stepping back and crushing his toes until I had gotten off the bus.

It takes a while to get used to the crowds here and sometimes it can just get you down. So on top of the bus incident, the crowds at YuYuan Garden (which really were not too bad by Chinese standards) really got to Andrea that day….which explains the photo.

Shanghai With The Girls

Before I left for the US, I wanted to make sure that I showed Andrea and Beth all the important places in Shanghai before I left: Where and how to get the train tickets, how to get to Peter’s Tex-Mex restaurant, how to use the metro, where to find the knock off market and where Lisa Pearl’s was located. We accomplished all of the above and actually squeezed in some touristy things such as YuYuan Garden, the Bund, and Nanjing St. Except for the crowds, Shanghai is a really nice place and getting around it is very easy.

Side Note: the full moon was out on the Bund and it was a remarkably smog free night. It is hard for me to believe that my little, throw in the pocketbook, Canon SD1000 PowerShot took that photo. We were blessed with the perfect night.

Street Food

At night 10-20 tricycle based food stands suddenly appear and line the sidewalks outside the dormitory gates. For less than half a dollar you can get a serving of either fried joazi, fried noodles, grilled vegetables and meat, squid on a stick, popcorn, sticky rice, stinky tofu, an egg concoction that sort of resemble a really thin omelet and other things that I cannot recognize and/or describe.

When Paula and I were tourists in ’04 we were warned about eating street food and I have generally heeded that warning but the smells and the low, low prices were just too good too pass up anymore. We had to walk by the various tricycle restaurants a couple of times to figure out which ones we would be brave enough to try. I have fallen in love with a pita type sandwich with grilled chicken, garlic shoots, romaine lettuce and a great brown paste slathered onto the bread. Other than the live snail that Andrea found in her lettuce – we haven’t seen anything else or experienced any ill-effects that would encourage us to curtail our street food love affair.

Side Note: Major depression – Government Officials have been hanging out at the West Gate for the last 4 nights so the Street Food Vendors have been hiding out at another college. I am missing my Chicken thingy. Students have told me the govn. officials will go away at some point in time and the tricycles will return, but I am not the most patient person in the world when it comes to food.

Just For Jim and Kris

We named our favorite restaurant “The Shortcut Restaurant” because someone would always uproot a tree so we could take a shorter route to the restaurants located under the stadium. Remember there are lots of gates, fences, guards and physical barriers to “encourage” you to walk where they want you to walk but there are also lots of people. Jim and Kris got to be friends with the owner who was just about ready to become a father. Well he is now a proud papa had here is the proof – I had promised to take a picture for Jim and Kris.

Chinese Birthdays and Birthday Cakes

Birthdays are celebrated here but differently. The birthday person buys their own cake and if there is a dinner gathering they pay for that too. I definitely favor our method where the birthday person is the one spoiled. Cakes are different too. They look really good with lots of beautiful fruity designs but they definitely lack something in the taste. Sort of reminds me of bread with unsweetened whipped cream on top. Definitely not worth the calories…and I haven’t seen a chocolate cake yet. Chinese Birthday candles are a lot more fun – they bloom, or shoot off fireworks and even play the tune “Happy Birthday” as it burns. Unfortunately it continues playing the song till you can’t stand it anymore and you have to crush it (water doesn’t even stop it).