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Shanghai, China
31° 6' N 121° 22' E
May 11, 2006 06:25
Distance 886km

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Other entries in Shanghai

ni hao zhong guo

Text written in: English

it's 1:25 pm, beijing time. this is my second day in china, although, to be honest, it feels like ages. i am, of course, drunk. i have been drunk, pretty much, since i arrived. it's the chinese way. you can prove yourself, earn respect, and make friends, by bottoming up your cup endlessly. i was picked up at the airport by 4 men, mr. feiteng (zhu laoshi's relative, who i met last year. he is like my uncle), mr. ding (david, who i corresponded with over email before my arrival), jason, my collegue at the school, and a man who's name i never knew, but who tends to drive the car a lot. they drove me 3 hours south of shanghai airport to anji city and took me to my apartment. that first night was a blur. i think i fell asleep a lot in the car. i remember stopping at a rest area and using the loo. that's about it. they were all very excited to see me.

now, it is ... hmm, what day is it? friday, yes i think. friday. so, yesterday would be thursday. yesterday, i had a tour of the school and a meeting about my teaching contract. the preliminary contracts were signed. then, we all had a large banquet lunch with, of course, some party leaders. i don't know which ones. they were from the city, i'm sure. everyone toasted everything. this is when they all began to see that i can drink. i was double fisting pi jiu (beer) and hong jiu (red wine). impressive, yes. i drank and drank and toasted and toasted. in china, you must toast everyone at the table at some time or another. this is a sign of friendship and respect. the headmaster of the school was there, so i needed to make sure he understood my respect and happiness to be here. the banquet was gorgeous... the local specialty is bamboo, in every sense of the word. this means the whole room was decorated in bamboo... furniture, wall decorations, table, fans, everything. it was gorgeous. also, half the food we ate was bamboo in one sort or another. i've discovered i adore bamboo, in all its forms, including food. YUM. i drank and drank and i think they loved me.

then, in the evening, mr. jason, my colleague... his wife came with headmaster yong to my house. they escorted me to a "mall" where i could buy a few things. i refrained from buying a lot, but i needed hangers and a small trashcan, along with some fruit for breakfast. oh, and toilet paper. you can't live without that. so, altogether, i spent about $7 (american) on everything. then, they decided we should eat. i didn't know what, but they asked me if i wanted KFC or mcdonalds. i declined and said i wanted chinese food. so, we went to a restaurant nearby. jen (jason's wife whose english is quite good) informed me this was a xinjiang restaurant, xinjiang being a province in northwest china that i visited last year. again, party officials and various men showed up, enough to fill a large round table (of course). there was toasting and toasting and toasting. lots of drinking. i drank and drank and drank. the trouble with china is that they give you a very small glass and open about 3,000 bottles of beer. so, you have no idea how much you've really had. the good part is that the beer is about 2.5% alcohol volume, which is my secret to being the ultimate chinese drinker. i will never divulge. i drank so much that it was like being waterlogged, but barely having a buzz. GAH. we had, again, excellent food, and i tried my best to impress them with my gan bei'ing (bottom's up) ability. they were.

today, being friday, i slept in. my bed is hard. i'll get used to it. usually, i like a hard bed. i haven't put any clothes in the closet yet because they painted the inside with something that reeks. it needs about a week more airing out before i will actually utilize it for clothing, lest my stuff become tainted with the smell. so, my clothes are all in a pile on a random desk in my bedroom. today, some people from the school showed up with workmen to fix some things in my apartment. luckily, i was up and showered pretty early. they were fixing some screens on the windows and some burnt out lightbulbs. also, the school is installing a new solar powered water heating system for me. this is less dangerous than the gas heating system currently here. i used the gas this morning, much to my own "kepa" (fear). there is a large flame that ignites, and the unit is installed inside a wooden cabinet, which i was warned to keep open at all times during use otherwise a fire could erupt. i do NOT want a fire. but i showered, having, though, no shower curtain to curtail the ensuing flood. very typical of chinese bathrooms... flooding, i mean.

jason, arrived around 10 to escort me to the school. we signed the final contract this morning with mr. yong (the headmaster). then, they showed me around the school (again), including this room containing a huge (HUGE) model of the anji area. it is like a model train only the size of two american classrooms. it's crazy huge. afterwards, jason and another english teacher (mrs. chen) and i went to lunch. apparently, there were more "important visitors" which amounted to 3 tables full of people i didn't know, mostly party people, i think. lots and lots and lots of drinking, but i only ended up having 4 beers. they love that i will "gan bei" (bottoms up) all the time without difficulty. they also love that i will try my hand at any chinese, as well as teach them colloquial english, such as the phrase "bottoms up" which i had to repeat about 10 times during lunch. it was great fun. now, it's is nearly 2:00 pm, and i have had enough to drink. unfortunately, however, headmaster yong has invited me to his home tonight (very very very important invitation) for dinner, which will, i'm sure, amount to thousands upon thousands of gan bei's, meanwhile i am still buzzed from lunch. all of this amounts to... the chinese are INSANE.

they are treating me very very well... i got a mobile phone and am soon having a home phone/internet line installed. (when this is posted, i will obviously have the internet line hehe). they are also buying me a new bike, and supplementing me for lunch pay and overtime pay. i'm overwhelmed, excited, sad, scared, and generally freaked out to be here.

anji is a VERY clean, nice city. to be truthful, it may be the cleanest city i've seen in china. the streets are wide avenues and there is little trash about. the canals are not filled with rubbish, but the water is clear and running. the air smells fresh, although there is still the inevitable smog of eastern china about. hints of blue sky peek through, though. my apartment is 3 rooms plus a bathroom (including bathtub sans shower curtain). it's roomy. they are getting me a dvd player.

the weather is actually quiet cool, much to my surprise. today is has been very rainy, with temperatures probably in the 60s (F). i dunno when summer will set in. i'm so excited to be here. today, i went into one classroom and said hello to some english majors. they were 18-20 years old and they understood a lot of what i said. i think the school's quality is quite good.

i've rambled enough, now. probably because i had too much gan bei'ing during lunch. more very soon. thank you all for reading this far.