She arrived on Wednesday, May 26th, at Pudong International Airport after a 14 hour direct flight from Newark.  I had rearranged my schedule to teach my Wednesday class earlier in the week so I could meet her at the airport.  Her plane arrived at 1:45pm so I left school about 10:00am, taking the bus to Shanghai and then the MagLev… one of the world’s fastest trains with a top speed of nearly 300 mph… to the airport. The flight was on-time and it was wonderful to see her again.  Knowing she would be extremely tired (since neither of us can sleep on airplanes), I had arranged for us to stay in an airport hotel on Wednesday evening.  As soon as she arrived we caught the shuttle bus to the hotel, checked into a nice room, had a little to eat, and turned in early.

Thursday, May 27th: Grace Visits my School

We rose early, ate a western style breakfast at the hotel restaurant, and headed to ChangXing Island. We both enjoyed the ride on the Maglev which is shown in the video below. You’ll notice there were many empty seats on the Maglev: recently, the Metro (subway) has been extended to the airport and it seems that most people opted for it’s cheaper fare: about $1 compared to $17 for the Maglev.

Video: A Ride on the Maglev

Grace with kids (click to enlarge)

At the end of the Maglev line, we transferred to the Metro for another short ride to the Science & Technology Museum station, where we caught the bus to ChangXing Island. About an hour later, we disembarked at the island’s bus station and hired a taxi to take us the remaining two miles to the school. After taking her suitcase to my 4th-floor room, we walked over to the main school building where I introduced her to Guoming and a few other teachers. We had arrived in time to have lunch in the faculty lunchroom. Returning from lunch, I started noticing that the students were quite interested in the new foreign lady with the blond hair! The photo at right was taken near the playground on the way back from the lunchroom and shows Grace with some of her new admirers. That afternoon, I taught one 2nd-grade class and one 1st-grade class and Grace sat in as a visitor. As you’ll see in the video below, the kids were excited about her presence and surrounded her as soon as she took a seat in the back of the classroom.

Video: Grace’s Classroom Visit

That evening, we were invited by the headmaster to a local restaurant for a banquet in honor of Children’s Day. This annual holiday is described as follows in Wikipedia: “When the People’s Republic of China was first established in 1949, the State Council (Cabinet) designated a half-day holiday for all primary schools on June 1… Schools usually hold activities such as camping trips or free movies on Children’s Day to allow students to have fun, and children of civil servants might also receive small gifts from the government…” By this time I had grown to really dislike banquets, for reasons I’ve discussed before having to do with the way men are expected to imbibe alcohol, but it would have been impolite to turn down the invitation. Likewise, it was an opportunity for Grace to see one of these social events for herself. We sat at a table with several teachers, including my good friends Guoming and Karen and several others I didn’t know well. Grace found the event fascinating, sampling the “bai jiu” (vodka-like drink so popular in China) and participating in the toasts made by the leaders, who came to each table to say a few words followed by the obligatory drink. I noticed that several teachers at my table didn’t seem excited about being there and I got the impression they didn’t really want to drink any alcohol. As I’ve said before, at these events women often do not drink any alcohol but the men are strongly encouraged to join in, especially when the headmaster and his cohorts show up at your table, carrying bottles of wine and beer, ensuring everyone’s glass is topped up before the toast. For this banquet, the school had invited local island dignitaries (government officials, business leaders, etc.) and my understanding was that these dignitaries had made significant donations to the school budget. Indeed, this event was aimed honoring their support: a large table in the corner held many large gift bags which were distributed as thank-you tokens at the end of the evening.

Friday, May 28th – Last Day on ChangXing Island

Attending the Children’s Day Performance

On Friday morning, we were invited to the special Children’s Day performance, the one at which our 1st and 2nd grade girls would perform the dance number they had been rehearsing for a month. Upon entering the school, I saw that students were in their classrooms but there didn’t seem to be any lessons in progress. In the hallway, I asked one of the 4th-grade girls what was happening and she said there were no classes today but that everyone had to be in school in the morning. She said she wasn’t too happy about it because she wasn’t really interested in the movies and cartoons being shown in the classrooms. Guoming drove Grace and me to the theater where, to our surprise, we were greeted as honored guests, escorted down the aisle and seated in the second row, in front of all the kids already sitting in the theater seats. The theater was not large enough to hold all of the students from the island’s primary schools, so only the performers and those who had achieved high status in their schoolwork were invited to attend.

Video: Children’s Day Performance

The concert was definitely fun although Grace and I felt a little odd being seated with the dignitaries. Like all of them, we were met at the door by students, escorted to our special seats, adorned with a red neck scarf and saluted. The three front rows of the theater had been reserved for special guests but only a handful of the seats were filled. At various points during the show, one of the dignitaries was introduced, came onstage, and made a speech. Of course, I cannot tell you what was said but I’m sure it was in the vein of encouraging the students to do their best, etc. By western standards there was way too much of this, but I have come to understand that long-winded speeches by authorities are the norm in China. I was a little dismayed to see some of the dignitaries working on their laptops and making phone calls during the student’s performances. But, perhaps if I were a dignitary and these kinds of events were a frequent obligation, I might also become tempted to get a little work done during the show. Although we were happy that no special attention was paid to us – the only foreigners present – and very happy we didn’t have to make a speech – I think we would have felt a little more comfortable if someone other than the students who seated us had made an attempt to welcome us.

We returned to the school about 11:30am and had our lunch in the staff cafeteria. Only then did I learn that the school day ended right after lunch. Learning of schedule changes at the last minute was a common occurrence so I wasn’t too surprised but, this time, I was disappointed because it meant I wouldn’t get a chance to say goodbye to many of the teachers. I left small goodbye gifts on desks I knew belonged to some of them and gave the rest to Guoming who said he would distribute them on the following Monday.

Afternoon: Tour of ChongMing Island

After lunch, Guoming’s wife Zhou Hai Qin brought her car from the medical clinic where she works on the island to meet us at the school. The school is pretty close to their apartment but the medical clinic is not, so she routinely takes the car in the morning and Guoming and Yao Yun ride to school on his motorbike. They arranged for Hai Qin to bring the car so that Guoming and Yao Yun could give Grace and me a tour of the area. After dropping Hai Qin back at her clinic we headed first for the eastern edge of ChangXing Island where a narrow strait separated us from a smaller island known as HengSha Island. From there we headed back west on the island to where we crossed over the beautiful new bridge to ChongMing Island. Along with the new tunnel from ChangXing to Shanghai, this bridge provides a major new artery between Shanghai and northern China. On ChongMing Island, our driver, Guoming, and our navigator, Yao Yun, gave us a lovely tour of this green, rural island.

Video: Visiting ChongMing Island with Guoming and Yao Yun

Saying Goodbye to ChangXing Island

That day was our last on ChangXing Island. We would leave the island that evening and check into a nice Shanghai hotel,

Dinner with Our Special Friends (click to enlarge)

where we would spend the rest of Grace’s stay in China. Guoming arranged for us to start the evening by gathering with his family and Karen’s to enjoy a wonderful dinner at a nice restaurant near the school. The food was delicious and we savored these last moments of all being together on the island, sharing laughs, hugs and wonderful gifts. One of the highlights was Yao Yun singing a sweet song for us, as shown in the video below.

Video: Yao Yun Sings a Sweet Song

After dinner, we said sad goodbyes to Karen, Gu Chao and Yao Yun and loaded our bags into Guoming’s car. Guoming and Hai Qin drove us to our Shanghai hotel which was a wonderful help because schlepping our large suitcases on buses and trains would have been difficult, especially after a long day and with Grace still trying to adjust to the 12 hour time difference. Guoming had arranged the evening’s events so that we would leave the island after dinner, because Shanghai city doesn’t allow out-of-city vehicles until later in the evening (after rush hour.) We made the hour-long trip without a problem using Guoming’s GPS, and he dropped us right in front of the hotel. We thanked them and were happy to know that we could say good night instead of goodbye because we would be meeting them the next day at EXPO, the World’s Fair running in Shanghai all summer.

Our Hotel: Shanghai Radisson at People’s Square

To try to help Grace better enjoy her 10-day whirlwind trip to China, I had booked a room at the Shanghai Radisson, a large, modern hotel overlooking People’s Square, the large park in the center of town. Although quite expensive (especially compared to what we would have paid at a standard Chinese hotel that didn’t cater to westerners) we were glad we did it because our room was large (separate living area, 2 bathrooms, and bedroom), quiet and extremely well appointed (king-size bed, large-screen TVs in living area and bedroom, etc.). The view of People’s Square was quite beautiful – at both day and night – as the video below shows.

Video: Our Hotel in Shanghai

Saturday, May 29: Visiting Shanghai’s Worlds’ Fair – EXPO

Long before I had arrived in China, Guoming had bought tickets to take Grace and me with his family to EXPO, the World’s Fair which ran from May through September of 2010. Our luxurious, quiet room gave us a good night’s sleep and the next morning we enjoyed a fantastic breakfast buffet at the hotel (although we never did this again because it had the outrageous price of about $35 each!). After breakfast, we took the Metro from the station right across the street in People’s Square to the EXPO park entrance. Guoming’s family had arrived at EXPO at opening time (about 8:00am) Guoming but we had agreed we wouldn’t join them until about noon. We had a great time together that day, exploring the massive EXPO site, watching the people (mostly Chinese), and visiting a few of the pavilions sponsored by different countries. We were a bit disappointed in some of the pavilions – Grace and I waited about 45 minutes to get in the Portugal pavilion and discovered it to be several large rooms with out-of-focus videos being projected on their walls. Apparently, some of the pavilions were very nice (e.g. China, Korea, Germany, etc.) but the wait for those was over 4 hours and we didn’t try to see them. On an earlier visit, I had enjoyed the Spain pavilion and on this day, my favorite was the Taiwan pavilion, which could be enjoyed from the outside, without waiting in a long line. For dinner, we took Guoming’s family to an Italian style restaurant, where we had items like spaghetti. It wasn’t very authentic Italian cuisine but it was OK. Guoming enjoyed it but I think Hai Qin wasn’t too impressed with it. Overall, it was a wonderful day, and we greatly appreciated our dear friends taking us to this important, national event. The video below gives you some idea of what the day was like.

Video: EXPO (Shanghai World’s Fair, 2010)

Monday, May 31: Lunch with my Friend MaryAnn

If you have followed this blog in the past, you’ll remember I have an American friend – MaryAnn – whose family moved from New Jersey to Shanghai about 3 years ago. Her husband Peter works for Dow and will work there for at least one more year before being transferred back to the US. In 2005, on my first trip to China, MaryAnn and her family welcomed me warmly to their home, took me to the top of the recently-opened World Financial Center, and treated me to a wonderful meal at a very popular dumpling restaurant in Old Town called Din Tai Fung. On this trip, just after I arrived in early March, I had visited MaryAnn’s beautiful new 10th-floor apartment overlooking Century Park. The view is stunning and the apartment is ultra-modern, a much different life-style than the one I knew as a volunteer teacher . When Grace came, I wanted to take MaryAnn and her family out to lunch or dinner so I could repay her kindness and Grace could meet the family. It turned out that it was possible to get together with MaryAnn only and we had lunch at Din Tai Fung’s other Shanghai location, in Xin Tian Di, an upscale area not far from our hotel. We had a most delicious meal, with MaryAnn knowing what to order to make it special. The dumplings there really are delicious. MaryAnn insisted on picking up the lunch tab, which I didn’t like but am becoming accustomed to with Chinese friends . Later in 2010, when she visited the US, we had her to our house for a cookout, so that made me feel a bit better.

Slideshow: Lunch at Xin Tian Di with MaryAnn

Dinner with Our Friend Lisa at Her Parents’ Home

That evening, our friend Lisa, whom I met in Shanghai in 2005 and who joined us here at home for Christmas in 2009, invited us to dinner at her parent’s home in Shanghai. Her mother and father had spoken to us briefly over Skype in 2009 to thank us for taking such good care of Lisa during the holidays. I spoke a little Mandarin to them but most of that conversation required Lisa’s (most-able) translating. Lisa met us at the Metro station nearest their home and then hailed a taxi to take us the final few miles. I still remember how Lisa’s Mom was waving at us from the window of their third-floor apartment as we approached the modern building where they live. They welcomed us warmly to their home and we had a nice visit before enjoying a most delicious meal, consisting of at least ten separate dishes! We felt so welcome despite our limited inability to directly communicate with Lisa’s parents. They are wonderful people – which didn’t really surprise us because we know what a wonderful daughter they raised – and we really enjoyed our evening. Grace and Lisa’s Mom found a way to communicate with body language – in the video below, they share their ideas about the kinds of things that are “good for you.”

Video: Grace and Lisa’s Mom Have a Conversation

Tuesday, June 1: Trip to Suzhou with Lisa and Mandy

The next day, Lisa and her friend Mandy, who is attending college in Columbus, Ohio and who also joined us at our home for Christmas 2009, treated us to a wonderful day-trip to Suzhou. This ancient city is known for it’s silk and it’s beautiful gardens and is only about an hour away from Shanghai by train. Mandy and Lisa met us at the Shanghai train station and shepherded us throughout a day we will always remember fondly. They insisted on treating us, providing train tickets, a delicious lunch, a lovely cruise on an ancient Suzhou canal, and several tasty treats throughout the day. We especially enjoyed the “bubble tea” – cold, flavored tea with tapioca pearls. I hope the video below gives you some idea of how nice the day was but, of course, nothing can compete with being there .
Video: Visit to Suzhou

Shanghai Sightseeing and Visiting Jessie at the Xu Bo Office

Grace returned home on June 3rd, while I stayed on in Shanghai until the June 8th. Before she left we found time to do sightseeing in Old Town, to visit the famous Shanghai Museum near our hotel and the Oriental Pearl Tower in the modern Pudong area, and to visit my friend Jessie and her staff at the Xu Bo office. The video below captures some of these events.
Video: Shanghai Sightseeing

Teaching a second-grade class

After Norwegian volunteer Silje left the school on May 5th, and before my wife Grace arrived in Shanghai on May 26th, I taught the oral English lessons for all the children in grades 1 through 4.  During these three weeks I was very busy preparing and delivering lessons and things went fairly smoothly except for one difficult third-grade class. In this post, I’ll share some of the highlights of this period, including some things that happened outside the classroom.

First Weekend

Although only an hour away from Shanghai’s center, ChangXing Island has retained a very rural character.  Accessible only by slow-moving ferries until the recent opening of the tunnel, the island has developed much slower than Shanghai.  The river crossing has kept the culture somewhat insulated from western influences, providing a place where one might experience traditional Chinese life styles, customs, and ways of thinking.  But the island offers very little for an outsider to do for entertainment… no movie theaters, no sightseeing destinations, and only a few nice restaurants.  For this reason, most island volunteers head back to the Shanghai volunteers’ flat every Friday afternoon where they can enjoy the weekend offerings of Shanghai in the company of other volunteers.

But, since I had already seen most of the sights of Shanghai and because I have good friends on the island, I decided to spend my first weekend at the school.  Guoming and I had discovered we both enjoy fishing and he planned to take me fishing in a fresh-water lake on the island on Saturday.  Unfortunately, it rained heavily all weekend so we didn’t go fishing. I spent most of the time in my dorm room working on my blog, developing English lessons, and catching up on emails.  The school is very quiet on weekends.  Even though approximately 10 or 15 other teachers live in dorm rooms there, they are a quiet bunch and I rarely even ran into them.  At lunchtime, I donned my poncho and waterproof hiking boots and headed out for a long walk, thinking I might go as far as the tunnel entrance.  The rain was heavy and it was windy and I never made it to the tunnel – the tunnel road is basically a highway with no walking path and it was just too dangerous.  Despite my rain gear I felt pretty uncomfortable after my pants became rain-soaked below the knee-length poncho and I was happy to get back to my room.

After drying off and changing clothes I decided to pay a visit to a friend I had made in 2008.  Her name is Ms. Du and she owns and runs a small cigarette/convenience store just around the corner from the school. She had been very nice to me and my fellow volunteers in 2008, offering us free drinks and ice creams whenever we stopped in.  She even prepared a delicious meal of crabs for me on my birthday in 2008.  Her main business is selling cigarettes – a winning business plan in China – but she also sells lots of snacks, drinks, and convenience items.  She’s about 40 years old, is married and has a son a little younger than mine. Her husband and son apparently live and work in a different province and I get the feeling she doesn’t see them very often. In 2008, I visited her frequently on weekday evenings after dinner and we became friends.

With Ms. Du in her store

I had anticipated seeing her again and brought her a small gift from home – a cotton top with “New York City” emblazoned on the front. As I approached her little store, she surprised me by coming out of an adjacent clothing store where she had been visiting a fellow shop owner. She was SO surprised and excited to see me it was really fun and she quickly ushered me into her store, pulled out a chair and used one of the few English phrases she knew… “Please, sit down!” We picked up our conversation right where we had left it in December of 2008, meaning she would say something and I would reply “Sorry, I don’t understand.” Then, she would write it in Mandarin on the back of an empty cigarette carton and I would say, “Sorry, I cannot read.”

Over the coming weeks, she introduced me to her younger brother, who would come by on his motorcycle to join us in our efforts to understand each others’ languages. Using my pocket dictionary and the occasional help of a customer who spoke a little English, we slowly improved our ability to communicate and I enjoyed many pleasant evenings at the store.

Ms. Du and her brother look up a word in my dictionary

Ms. Du’s little store is a great place to meet a lot of different island people. Customers range from the elderly to toddlers, from professionals to laborers.  As I was usually sitting in a chair in the very small floor space between the counter and shelves, I became an item of interest for customers entering the store.  Some would ask about me while they were paying for their purchases, sometimes in Mandarin but more often in the Shanghai dialect, and

Outside store

Ms. Du would tell them I was her American friend who taught at the primary school just around the corner. Some people seemed very interested in meeting me and conversing a little in Mandarin while a few seemed a bit uncomfortable with my presence. I often felt a little weird being on display in the center of the store, especially when I could tell people were talking about me but I couldn’t understand what was being said. But, it’s interesting how much you can get out of non-verbal cues and I could tell that most people were inclined to be friendly and welcoming toward me. For me, the store was a great place to practice my Mandarin in an environment which didn’t give me the option to switch to English – as was always the case at the school. However, trying to understand and communicate was hard work so I usually only stayed an hour or so.

Teaching

I took over from Silje teaching oral English to all kids in grades 1 through 4. It had been 18 months since I left the school in December 2008 and all the kids had advanced one academic year. I had taught grades 2 and 4 in 2008 so the only kids I was teaching again were the third-graders. The fifth-graders, with whom I had developed a special bond in 2008 when they were my fourth-graders, were still attending this school but housed in a separate building. They didn’t receive any lessons from the foreign teacher and they had their own lunchroom so I rarely ran into them unless I made a point to walk over to their building. At one point, I stuck my head into several of their classrooms to say hello – they all seemed happy to see me but a little restrained given our emotional goodbyes in 2008. I did have a nice reunion with my young friend Ni Renjie that was captured in the (very) brief video below. Renjie is the boy who’s mother gave me the free haircut in 2008 and whose snow-globe gift I was sad to lose at the O’Hare airport security check on the way home.

Video: Reunion with Ni Renjie

I found teaching the primary school kids to be harder than I had remembered. No doubt this was partly because I taught twice as many classes/students this time. But another cause is that, compared to middle school kids, it’s just more difficult to develop and deliver good English lessons for primary school kids. When students have a limited vocabulary and ability to express themselves, lessons must be carefully constructed and the teacher has to carry most of the conversational load during class. I did have a major advantage in that I had Powerpoint lessons I had previously developed for grades 2 and 4 in 2008. I tried to get by using a grade 2 lesson for both grades 1 and 2 and a grade 4 lesson for grades 3 and 4. But this didn’t think work very well so I gradually modified them to create separate lessons for each grade level.

Like Silje before me, I found keeping the attention of some of the younger classes difficult. Surprisingly, it was one of the third grade classes that created the biggest problem. During my first lesson in that class, the regular teacher didn’t show up. For about 30 minutes, I struggled to keep their attention. I made one boy, who couldn’t seem to stay in his seat, stand facing the corner in the front of the room. When he continued to distract the class, I moved him out into the hallway. This quieted the class for about 3 minutes but then it was back to chaos. Near the end of the lesson I just gave up and let them talk. When class ended, I went next door to the teachers’ office and told them I would not be teaching that class again. One teacher seemed a bit alarmed by my announcement but another seemed to be a little amused and said that would be fine. I learned later that this class is known to be particularly “naughty.” Guoming taught them computers and said he found the only way to quiet them was to promise 5 minutes free time on the computer at the end of class – if they were good.

Morning Flag-Raising Ceremony

One of my favorite things at the school is the morning flag-raising ceremony.
Every morning at 8AM, weather permitting, all students proceed to the playground just behind the school. By this time, the kids have been in their homerooms for about an hour studying under the guidance of one of their student leaders. Getting all 500 kids from their classrooms to the ceremony and back is a carefully choreographed process and quite impressive to witness. The video below shows the kids moving to the playground, singing the national anthem, receiving announcements and then performing their fairly complicated exercise routine. You’ll notice that kids come out of the building from three different doors – the younger kids (green uniforms) are queuing at the far end of the field. Homeroom teachers stay with their class during the entire process and they attend the ceremony every day. Other teachers attend only on Monday mornings and you’ll notice them on the side of the playground in two lines – women in front, and men behind them.
Video: Morning Flag-Raising Ceremony

Sharing an Office With Guoming

One of the main reasons I went back to this school was to spend some time with my friend Guoming. I was assigned a desk in the teachers’ office on the first floor but I didn’t use it much. Guoming is the IT administrator for the school and has his own little office in the corner of the 3rd floor auditorium so I spent most of my time there. Teachers’ offices have one or two shared computers but no connectivity for laptops and Guoming provided an internet connection for my Netbook. When neither of us were teaching we enjoyed each others’ company and continued our English-Mandarin lessons. The video below shows us ensconced in our corner office and captures a little of our ongoing Mandarin-English language lessons.
Video: Officing with Guoming

Eating on ChangXing Island

On weekdays, I enjoyed the delicious lunches provided by the school cafeteria (this 2008 video shows the lunchtime routine).  Guoming and I usually had lunch together and we often took a walk around the school’s playground area afterward.

Bilingual restaurant tab

Weekday breakfasts and dinners were provided by a restaurant near Ms. Du’s store: all we volunteers had to do was to sign our name because the school picked up the tab. The ledger the restaurant used to track our expenses so they could be compensated by the school is shown at right (for a closeup, click on the photo.) The cashiers seemed to find our western signatures as interesting as we found the Mandarin characters.

Chinese breakfast foods are quite different than western breakfasts but I grew to really like them.  They are also very inexpensive and many people eat out for breakfast, either grabbing something from a street vendor or visiting one of the small restaurants found in every neighborhood. My little restaurant was always full of people from all walks of life – many with their children on their way to school – and I enjoyed sitting at the same table with these folks. Most seemed a little shy about striking up a conversation with me (or perhaps it was just that no one was really awake yet!)

You Tiao (fried bread)

One very popular Chinese breakfast item is a fried bread stick called “you tiao” (you rhymes with dough, tiao pronounced tee-ow as one syllable.) Literally, you tiao means “oil stick” and that gives you an idea of how healthy it is (not.) It’s slightly sweet but nothing like our doughnuts and I rarely had one.

Xia Long Bao Dumplings and Hot Soy Milk

A more popular breakfast choice is dumplings – fried or steamed and filled with meat or vegetables. The adjacent photo shows the breakfast I had most mornings while at school. The basket is filled with steamed dumplings known as “Xia Long Bao” – a Shanghai specialty. The bowl is filled with hot soy milk which the waitress ladled from a giant pot in the corner of the room. Usually, I added a little sugar to the soy milk.

At dinner time, I often asked the restaurant owner to choose something for me and I was usually not disappointed. Occasionally, I opted for one of my favorite meals in China: “la mian” or hand-made noodles. For this, I had to go to a different restaurant and pay for it myself, but it only cost about 5RMB (80c). La Mian restaurants are easy to spot: just look for the little store with a large stainless steel pot billowing steam out front. The pot is usually tended by a young Chinese man wearing a Islamic prayer hat. I saw these restaurants everywhere I went in China and there were several on ChangXing Island. They are owned and run by people from Western China of the Islamic faith (men wear prayer caps and ladies wear head-scarves) and it’s usually a family affair – fathers make the noodles, mothers serve and cashier, and kids play with their toys inside or out front. The noodles are made right in front of you and you end up with a delicious, large bowl of noodles served in a tasty broth with some sliced beef added. The ChangXing Island La Mian restaurant near the school was tiny, with room for only about 6 people to eat at one time. The nice young man who ran it allowed me to make this video while he prepared my meal. He asked me to film only the noodles and not his face – not sure why but I tried to honor his wish.
Video: Making La Mian Noodles

Invitation to a Dance Rehearsal

Although I spent very little time at my assigned desk in the first-floor teachers’ office, one of the people I met there was a first-year music teacher. Miss Liu, who goes by the English name Honey, looked a bit familiar to me from a video of the 2009 Xu Bo Christmas party held at the volunteer’s flat in Shanghai. Sure enough, she had attended the party as a guest of a volunteer who was volunteering at ChangXing Primary at that time. Honey speaks only a little English but we were able to communicate using a combination of simple Mandarin and simple English. I learned she was busy directing some first and second grade girls in a dance number that would be performed at the upcoming Children’s Day celebration. I thought it might be fun to see a rehearsal so I asked Honey if I could come to watch them after school the next day. She said I was quite welcome and invited me to the music room at 4:00 for the daily one-hour rehearsal.

When I arrived I was a bit shocked to walk in on 10 little girls changing from their school uniforms into their dance costumes. Many were wearing only underpants and I quickly left the room, asking Honey to call me when they were dressed. When I returned to the room, all the girls except one were wearing their new dresses. This was the first time they had worn them and they were quite excited about them. However, one little girl remained on the floor in her school uniform, her head down and crying inconsolably. I asked Honey what was wrong and she said the girl didn’t like her costume. As you’ll see in the video below, besides being just incredibly cute, the girls are quite talented and performed a fairly elaborate choreography to the song “Nobody” – a pop hit from the South Korean group “Wonder Girls.”
Video: Dance Rehearsal

Other Weekend Events

On the other weekends during this period I returned to Shanghai. One Saturday I spent checking out the World’s Fair known as EXPO. Guoming and his family had tickets to take Grace and me on the first Saturday after she arrived. Guoming and I had been exploring the maps and could tell there was no way we were going to be able to see much in one day. So we worked together to develop a “plan of attack” to make the most of our day together. Toward this goal, I spent one full Saturday at EXPO by myself, trying to learn as much useful information as I could. I didn’t carry my camera on that day and I’ll save my discussion about EXPO for a later post. All I’ll say for now is I think I was on my feet for about 12 hours and was quite exhausted when I got back to the volunteer’s flat!

Lunch with with Vera and Simon

I got to know some nice new volunteers on these weekends. In the photo at right, I’m enjoying lunch with Vera from Switzerland and Simon from Holland.

Simon and Ronald at Xintiandi

At left, Simon and another Dutch volunteer named Ronald pose for a photo in Shanghai’s XinTianDi district, a trendy area with many western restaurants and bars. It’s very popular with the young Chinese and with westerners who want a taste of home, as long as you don’t mind paying exorbitant prices.

Not far from XinTianDi is FuXing Park, a beautiful, well-groomed public park where people can enjoy a respite from Shanghai’s loud urban environment. One of the popular activities here is ballroom dancing, which is in full swing on weekends.
Video: Ballroom Dancing in the Park

Enjoying a pizza with Mieke

On one other Sunday, I was happy to catch up with an old friend. Mieke, a 2008 teaching volunteer
from Holland, was back in China, this time as a tourist traveling alone. She came to Shanghai for a few days and we arranged to get together on the Sunday she arrived in Shanghai. After meeting her at the airport we spent the afternoon together and enjoyed a pizza at a XinTianDi restaurant – very tasty but expensive!

Gu Yi Lin (Katherine)

On my second day back at the school, I was invited by Karen and Gu Chao to the family celebration marking the one-month birthday of their daughter Gu Yi Lin (also-known-as my Chinese granddaughter Katherine ). This was a very large dinner party held at a new restaurant near the new bus station and there must have been over 200 guests. In addition to family members and close friends, many work colleagues joined in the celebration: Karen’s colleagues from the school and Gu Chao’s colleagues from the ChongMing county government offices. At about 5PM, there were many cars in front of the school picking up teachers and administrative staff for the five minute drive to the restaurant. Karen was thoughtful enough to invite Silje too, even though she hadn’t really even met her: she knew that she would be alone at the school if not invited. I rode in Guoming’s car with his wife and daughter and two other teachers.

We were greeted at the door of the restaurant by Gu Chao and Karen’s mother. They warmly welcomed us and asked us to be seated at any of the approximately 20, large, round tables in the very large main dining room. The tables were brightly decorated, making the large room very festive and welcoming. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any photos or videos of the event: I felt a little conspicuous as one of only two foreigners among so many people I hadn’t met. Guoming wanted to sit with some of his work buddies and I wanted to sit with him so we sat at a different table than his wife and daughter. Our table turned out to be mostly men and their table was all ladies with Guoming’s daughter Yao Yun. I knew only a few of the teachers at my table and none of them spoke much English so Guoming was stuck translating for me most of the evening. Although my ability to understand Chinese was much improved compared to the start of my trip, I still have trouble understanding when it’s spoken at normal speed. Also, outside the classroom, most people speak the Shanghai-ese dialect which I cannot understand at all. Our gracious hosts had made sure there was plenty of “jiu” (alcohol) at every table in the form of “pi jiu” (beer), “bai jiu” (Chinese white wine that tastes more like vodka than wine) and “putao jiu” (red grape wine.) Offering toasts to one’s friends and colleagues is an important part of Chinese food culture and the people at our table began clinking their glasses as soon as we were seated.

Typical banquet layout

The food was plentiful and delicious. Chinese banquet meals always start with cold dishes and these include various meats, tofus, and vegetables. Dishes are brought out one at a time at intervals and everyone helps themselves from the large lazy susan in the middle of the table. Individual chopsticks are used both for retrieving the food from its serving dish and for eating it. (The only exception to this that I can remember are crayfish, which are eaten by hand wearing plastic gloves and soup which is eaten using porcelain spoons.) Everyone has a small food plate in front of them where your food can be placed temporarily before eating. These plates are small and etiquette dictates that you use them only to hold a bite or two: filling your plate with food as we do in the west would be considered quite rude. After several cold dishes have been presented, the hot dishes begin arriving. Hot dishes are also made from a variety of meats, tofus and vegetables: on ChangXing Island seafood is very popular but pork and chicken are also common. My impression is pork is the most popular meat in China while beef is not so common, except in the Muslim-owned “stretchy noodle” restaurants which can be found everywhere. I almost alway enjoy the food in China but this meal was especially delicious. There were at least seven or eight hot dishes served. As new dishes were added to the center of the table, the waitresses demonstrated their skill in stacking dishes in a way that left every dish accessible.

People at home always ask me if the food in China is different from the Chinese food we get here. I haven’t been to all the different areas of China and I know there are vast differences between them: for example the food in Sichuan tends to be spicy-hot while that in Shanghai is a bit sweet. Overall, my impression is that food from a good American-Chinese restaurant is similar to the food in China. However, on average, in my opinion, the food in China is more delicious than in America. My guess is that part of the reason for this is that so many dishes are made from locally grown vegetables and livestock. Although more flavorful, it tends to be less salty (and less sweet) than American food. For example, I always thought the pizza served by their Pizza Hut franchises was a bit bland until I added salt. And I often found myself desiring a salty treat (e.g. potato chips!) in the evenings. A major difference between Chinese and western food is that bones and shells are not removed from the food served in China. Indeed, meat is often cut in such a way that almost every piece has some bone. Chinese people are skilled at extracting the meat from the bone: either using chopsticks or by discreetly spitting out inedible bites. Although I can use chopsticks fairly well to pick up food, removing meat from bones or shells is beyond my skill level. Shrimp and crabs are very popular in the Shanghai area and are always served in their shells. My attempts to de-shell a shrimp in my mouth invariably led to a shrimp shell puree that could either be swallowed or spit it out on my plate: neither a very desirable option. During my three months in China I actually lost a few pounds even though I ate as much as I wanted and did no formal daily exercise like I do at home. I think the weight loss was due to all the walking and stair-climbing combined with the Chinese diet. Spending so much time in China made me acutely aware of the American epidemic of obesity and led me to ponder the reason(s) we are so much fatter than people in China. It seems to me that, in addition to the problem of large portions, we eat much more sugar and salt that they do.  We also eat too many dairy products in the form of cheese and milk. It is rare to get cheese in China but hard to avoid it in fast-food restaurants here. Ice cream is becoming more popular in China, especially among children (perhaps contributing to the growing number of overweight Chinese children) and I must admit I enjoyed many ice cream bars purchased at local convenience stores: a taste of home!

As the party went on, we did our best to eat all of the delicious food: an impossible task because there is always too much food – another Chinese cultural standard. Everyone was having a great time, especially all the men who were enjoying the “jiu”. As the alcohol flowed, toasts to friends and colleagues gradually got louder and more impassioned. Once again, as an alcoholic, I felt a little uncomfortable being around so much drinking but the people at my table were kind and never pushed me to join in. Indeed, a couple of them seemed similarly inclined to avoid alcohol. Although I was never really tempted to break my 27-year old vow of sobriety (as I had done one time in Sichuan province), I did feel a little envious of those who were having such a good time. I remembered how alcohol had always helped me have a wonderful time at parties: it relaxed me and lowered my inhibitions, enabling me to say things to friends that I couldn’t say sober – mostly positive, loving things – for whatever reason, I was never a “mean drunk” . Of course, the problem was that I could not stop drinking and there were many times when I could not remember what I had said or done the next morning, never a very satisfying feeling.

At these parties, it is standard practice for the leaders to work their way around the room proposing toasts to the people at each table. Leaders from the school (the principal and vice principals) and leaders from the local government (Gu Chao’s superiors) all took their turns coming to our table, bearing bottles of wine (or beer) to ensure that everyone’s glass was topped-up to join in the toast. In this scenario, even the men at my table who had previously avoided alcohol joined in: the social pressure to drink alcohol, apparently as a way to show respect to one’s superiors, seems especially strong in this situation.   Some of the leaders were clearly disappointed that I returned their toast with a glass of coconut milk.  But, since I was an outsider, they were probably more willing to overlook this social blunder. Interestingly, it is only the men who are pressured to drink in this way – it seems OK for a woman to use a non-alcoholic beverage for toasting. There were times when I wished I could sit at a “women’s table” where much less alcohol was being consumed. But, of course, I liked being with my dear friend Guoming and I know he did his best to explain to people that I meant no offense by not drinking alcohol.

The highlight of the party was when the hosts came around to each table to thank us for coming. Gu Chao offered a very warm handshake and made a valiant attempt at expressing his appreciation to me in English. Later, Karen brought the guest of honor – little Gu Yi Lin – around to each table but, unfortunately, I was in the rest room and missed this opportunity.

Karen, Yi-Lin and Family Members

I found it very interesting that Karen and Gu Chao’s families all dined together in a back room, separated from the guests in the large banquet room, but partly visible through an open door. Karen explained to me that this is primarily for the health of the baby – to shield her from all the noise and smoke of the party. The only photo I have from the event was taken in this back room and provided by Karen. In the photo, Karen is sitting in the middle – on her left is her mother-in-law who is holding Yi Lin. Other people in the photo are one of Karen’s former college professors and Gu Chao’s sister and brother-in-law.

As the party wound down and guests started leaving, the hosts’ family members passed out bags of “red eggs” to everyone. These eggs symbolize the family’s wish for happiness and good fortune for all. They are hard-boiled eggs and, over the next week or so, I enjoyed one each morning in my dorm room. Guoming’s wife Zhou Hai Qin drove us home as Guoming was in no condition to do so. He had a great time at the party and reminded me of myself some 30 years earlier . It was a wonderful time and I was so happy that I happened to be onhand for the party marking this auspicious occasion.

If you want to learn more about Chinese child birth customs I found a couple of interesting articles online (article 1) (article 2.)  But, when you read them, please be aware that not all of these customs/traditions are practiced by all Chinese people. Customs vary regionally and changing customs are another way China is rapidly changing. I can tell you that the practice of the mother “sitting the baby’s first month” is something that Karen’s family follows.  I can also tell you that they did receive some “red envelopes” (containing money) from guests at the party but that she returned most of them.  Happily, the panda hand-puppet I brought from Chengdu, Sichuan seemed to be liked by Karen and the family.