Adam’s Not Here

Over the last few weeks it has gotten pretty cold. It has gotten down around 10-12 degrees. I know there is (or was) snow on the ground back home, but let me say 10-12 degrees in Shanghai feels A LOT colder than it does in Toronto. I have heard one reason is that since we are near the ocean there is a lot of moisture in the air, which makes it damp and thus feel colder. Maybe that’s so, but it doesn’t feel that damp. I think the main thing is that there is no heating, anywhere! The buildings don’t have insulation and many of them aren’t even sealed around windows and doors, so they are drafty as all get out. So maybe it’s not quite as cold as back home, but it’s cold everywhere, all the time. Apparently, Shanghai is one of the northern most places in China that doesn’t have heat. If I was in Beijing I would be living it up with indoor heating.

The other thing I have noticed a lot more in recent weeks is the air pollution. I actually didn’t think it was that bad when I got here. I was wondering what all the fuss was about, people making China sound like an industrial cesspool. Now I still think some of the stuff you read is a little over dramatic but the sky has been hazy here for about 3 weeks straight. You don’t really notice it walking around at ground level, but the skyline is pretty bad. A lot of the time it looks like there is a fog that makes visibility pretty bad when looking more than a kilometre or so ahead.

Those minor annoyances aside, things are good. The longer I am here, the more I realize how awesome my neighbourhood is. Everything is really close by and the street I am on has a nice bustling atmosphere. I have made friends with some of my neighbours and some people in local shops. Generally I hang out more with Chinese people instead of foreigners. Most of the other teachers seem to only hang out with other foreigners. It’s interesting see how many people come here and just sort of remain in the expat bubble. It’s pretty easy to do, but it just seems like such a waste. I guess in a city of 13+ million people it is easy for every group to have their niche, but I think some people let themselves be confined by it. It’s a shame because even though there are some things that really annoy me about China, the more I experience it, the more I enjoy it.

It’s almost a month after the fact, but here is my impression of Beijing from my brief time there. The city is smaller population wise, but feels larger than Shanghai, because it is so sprawling. The roads and sidewalks are much wider and everything is a lot more spread out. The city also has a much more Chinese feel to it than Shanghai. It’s hard to put my finger on exatly the reason why. There are a lot more cultural attractions, like the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Lama Temple, etc. The people also seem to be a fair bit less westernized than over here. My favourite part of the visit was my first day when I rented a bicycle and toured around the city for about 8 hours. I also made it out to one of the less touristy sections of the Great Wall, and did a 10 km hike (so the tour operator said, although it seemed a bit shorter) along it. The hike was actually very strenuous as this part of the wall was in disrepair and rather treacherous. There was also the fact that the wall, being meant for defense, was on top of a mountain. So there was steep incline after steep decline, again and again and again.

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Date: 10/02/2005Views: 490

A couple weekends ago I ran the Terry Fox run here. Never did it in Canada, but now that I am in Shanghai, it’s the thing to do! After not having done much exercise (other than lots of walking) for about 4 months, I was kind of worried about just getting up and running 8.8 km out of the blue. And let me tell you, I was right to be worried, I almost died. I am pretty sure the course was longer than 8.8km and after about the first third of it I was already thinking, I am not going to make it. I made it my goal to finish the race without slowing down to a walk. I did it, even got a second wind near the end. However my legs were so sore and it hurt to walk for about 3 days afterwards. As soon as my legs felt better, I finally got the chance to play some basketball with my Shanghainese neighbour. After a good 3 hour session my legs were sore for another couple days. Hopefully if I keep this up I can get rid of my old man body soon and be back in shape.

This past week I felt like I really hit my stride with the teaching. It all started on Halloween Monday when I really got into teaching the kids about Halloween. I found a really scary Halloween mask and started each class by showing up about 1 minute late. With all the children at their desks, starting to wonder, “where’s teacher?” I would run in to the class screaming with the mask on. It was awesome, the kids were hiding under desks, screaming or running away to the opposite side of the classroom. By my last class of the day I had 3 or 4 of the Chinese staff standing outside the classroom to watch the “show” of me scaring the living daylights out of the children. I then taught the kids about ghosts, witches and zombies. It was pretty hilarious having a class of 30-odd 8 year olds cackling like witches or shuffling around like zombies. I capped the class off by getting all the students to trick or treat at the classroom door. People over here seem to get scared a lot more easily. They don’t know much about Halloween, a lot of adults even found the mask pretty scary. So classes are going well, I have gotten better at being strict with the kids. I was being too much of a nice guy with them, but some times you really have to show them who is boss. I have also gotten used to the schedule, so I am not feeling so tired all the time. So basically, things are pretty good.

The site and my email was down for a while, so I feel like I have sort of been out of touch with many of you. Drop me a line when you get the chance, talk to you soon!