For My First Post Upon Return to the United States of America...

I would just like to say:

FREE TIBET.

TIANANMEN SQUARE TOTALLY HAPPENED AND THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT SLAUGHTERED HUNDREDS OF UNARMED COLLEGE STUDENTS WHO WANTED DEMOCRACY

TAIWAN IS ITS OWN NATION.

INTERNET PORN.

My Last Blog from the People's Republic of China

My room is all packed up. I'm about to take my last shower before the 14 hour flight and possible delays at the airport. It's surreal. Last night, I couldn't sleep because I lay awake thinking of all the memories I've made here in Shanghai. It has been wonderful. I still remember the wide eyed wonder with which I looked at the city on my first taxi ride from the airport to Fudan. I remember being unable to fathom that I was all the way on the other side of the world. It's gone by so fast. But in some senses it feels like so long ago when I first came here. I feel like I've grown up a lot. Whether or not I have, I don't know.

And I'm a little bit scared. I'm scared to go home. I know I've changed. How will I react to my friends, and their change. Or perhaps their lack of. I'm scared of the same 'ol same 'ol. And Southwestern. I've always sort of felt it to be confining, but what about now? After I've lived in one of the biggest, most wonderful, heartbreakingly dirty-beautiful cosmopolitan cities of the world. A place of blinding light and excitement and craziness.

Perhaps I'll be motivated to move. Not to be still. I have 4 day weekends this semester. I need to use my passes while I can. Chicago, San Fransisco, Boston, these are all places I have never been but can get to easily. With hostels. And interesting people. And adventure.

I'll never forget one evening, when I was little, at the dinner table at our house on Bear Lake Drive. I was complaining that I always had to bring my lunch to school, instead of eating "hot lunch" (the fast food that was delivered to my private school). And I'll never forget when my Dad told me that the reason we were able to go to Disneyland, and cool vacations was because I didn't get hot lunch. That seeing the world and experiences and memories are of far more worth than creature comforts. And this has stuck with me. And for my family, who has given me this gift and has made my adventure in China this much greater, I am eternally grateful.

In anticipation of my return home, and the almost certain reverse-culture shock which will ensue, I would like to go ahead and request to not have to hear any of the following upon my return by those who read my blog:

Please,

-no "ching chang chong" jokes
-no "so solly! me so solly", etc.


If those could be avoided, that would be super.

I'm packing right now, and it's weird. I remember unpacking.

Things I Will Miss About China

-8 kuai dried fried beef dish from Uncle Asian
-Xiao Long Bao (15 Kuai with veggies)
-Public transportation
-Magnum Ice Cream Bars
-Seeing the Pudong skyline at night
-Complaining that a 50 Kuai or above meal is "too expensive"
-Getting tailor made clothes at the fabric market
-Speaking Chinese
-Element Fresh
-General ridiculocities (buildings lit up like rainbows, Club Banana, etc.)
-Club Banana
-Chinglish (Welcome to Shanghai next time!)
-Being able to say "ni ge" all the time (pronounced "nigga")
-The general awesomeness of Shanghai night life
-Slim Japanese cigarettes
-My new friends
-the 5 kuai scary-as-hell motorcycle ride from Jiangwan Zhen station to the apartments
-Chinese food
-Fun, crazy traffic
-Chinese people
-General adventure

Things I will not Miss:

-air pollution
-not being able to dry my clothes (my socks and underpants are especially uncomfortable when they're all stiff)
-honking
-the smell of street vendor Cho dofu (stinky tofu)
-Germans (f***ing germans, nothing changes)
-Asshole white people who tend to congregate in the Shanghai night life (mainly German)
-A serious lack of Mexican food and good cheese
-wishing my friends and family were here
-Getting up at 8:00 am for 3 straight hours of chinese
-2 bikes stolen (of everyone who bought bikes in our program, only one person did not get their stolen)
-beggars who use their children
-serious media restriction

2 days left. Let's make 'em count

12 More Days

This semester has flown by. It feels like just yesterday I was moving into my room, still amazed that I was in China. It's a crazy feeling too. I know I'm going to miss China. A lot. And I'm going to miss Shanghai, and big city life. And excitement. And my friends. I've made some wonderful friends here. But all is well. Right now, I'm hoping to return to Shanghai for Spring Break on a pass. My ultimate goal is to go for less than 100 USD, which would be cool. And also, a lot of my friends are from Minneapolis, so I will probably go visit this summer. But still, I will miss China. It will be strange to have to drive everywhere. And to not walk. And probably the first time I am in a public space by myself, I will be creeped out. And everything is going to be so expensive. "That meal was 150 Kuai! For a burger from Chili's!"

But it will be good to see my family. And my new nephew. And it will be good to have Christmas breakfast, with little smokies and angel biscuits. And then to see my friends. And to have a burrito. From Chipotle. And to have clothes that smell good when they come from the dryer.

But I will return, someday. At least that's my new dream. I haven't had a life goal since high school, which was "Go to college". Now it is "Go to China."

I am the Wu Tang Clan

Tonight I walked alone in the cold Shanghai night. It is strange to see the city asleep, huddled under the blanket of cold. I stood in an intersection and saw no cars coming towards or away from me. And I walked, in the cold, a cold of which I am unaccustomed to. A cold which requires a hat, and scarf, and gloves, and actual coat in order to venture out in on a daily basis. This is something I am unaccustomed to. One of the many fabulous and wonderful new things of which I have been made to grow accustomed to in this bright blinding city on the other side of the world. A place which is so far from home, and yet is so close to home. A city of bone, concrete, in which it is hard, white and cold, and yet which is pulsing with blood and life and soul. And in the cold I think of the closing weeks. And how I am trying to breathe in these experiences while I can. And I walk to a place of solitude, a place where I have been before. On top of a building. A majestic mountain overlook of a sprawling and pounding, beating urban jungle. And I go here because it is crazy. Because I must. Because the man who tightrope walks does it because he is crazy. And because he must feel life and death. And in it something beautiful is created. And I think of the man who walks the tightrope, perched between the two tallest towers in the world, and who in the middle of his crossing looks straight down below him to see something that he will never again see in his life. And I think that I am crazy to walk in this lonesome cold. But I think of how I am invincible. And how all of my new learning is true in this moment. Because I am a white man, and no one will touch me. Because whoever fucks with the white man has a mess on his hands, a mess which his government will swiftly and economically wipe clean. And I think about being in a place in which such a reality is still so utterly and apparently real. We have come along way. And we haven't really come any way at all. And I am the Wu Tang Clan. And I feel guilty. But then I remember that I was born into this. And this reality extends beyond me. And I will do my best not to propogate it. But I will be damned if I let it’s opportunities slip through my fingers. And then I see another man. And I am no longer invincible. But an animal again. A life. Which ends. And my senses stand on end. And I find myself feeling where he walks, though I do not turn to look. And in this moment I am in rare form. And something which I am usually not. And this is fortunate. But I cannot help but feel exhilarated. He passes, and I breathe a quiet sigh of relief. And I walk up the stairs. And I look out on the city whose lights are turned off, because no one is there to look at them. And in this moment I am a rich man. Because I am the king of this mountain. And young. And things which are beyond my control have made me rich. My one for their seven. The lady today told me that they don’t have yuan on a tie, because only the dollar is good. And I can buy anything I want in this country. But I think to myself that myself and everyone I know can buy anything they want, if they really want it. And I wonder whether or not the ability to buy something is what makes one wealthy? And looking out, I know the answer to this question before I even finish asking it.

Zhu ni gan en jie kuai le! (happy thanksgiving)

This Thanksgiving was the first one I've spent out of the country. This is not suprising considering I have never lived outside the country before, but you know. Anyways, our program decided to throw us a pot luck style Thanksgiving dinner. My class made mashed potatoes, and they were awesome. All in all the menu included spaghetti, a fruit platter, pumpkin pie, our mashed potatoes, salad, chocolate chip cookies, turkey, apple pie, and a punch made of straight liquor and fruit. Needless to say, a good time was had by all. Even though none of the food came out, and our Chinese teachers started eating dessert along with the food (and also, straight from the buffet table). But it was great fun. Not the same as a home grown Thanksgiving, but still pretty special. Sadly, we neglected to dress up like pilgrims and indians, as had been the plan. That evening we tried to find and watch Jurassic Park, but were unable to, and settled for Indiana Jones instead.

The next morning we left for our program's weekend long trip to Shaoxing. We loaded up bright and early and drove about 4 hours southwest to Shaoxing, which is the "textile capital of China", and the home of Lu Xun, a famous revolutionary writer. When we got there, we checked into our hotel, and then we toured a textile factory. It was really moving experience. The factory was basically a giant a room where hundreds of people sat at sewing machines and made shirts, or pants, or whatever it was they were assigned to make. I suppose I am just supremely ignorant, but prior to this I thought all clothes were completely machine made, that they had robots that sewed shirts and pants and what not. But no, these clothes are sewn by people. People who spend all day, every day sewing the same collars and pockets onto shirts, over and over again, thousands of times. I watched a woman sew the ruffle part of a tuxedo shirt, a process which was intricate and tedious. Really it was very sad. Most of the people only had 2 days off for the entire month. Most were migrant workers who had come from rural areas and were saving up money or sending it back home to their families. Almost certainly they were not fairly compensated for their efforts. It put a human face behind clothing. I will probably never be able to buy clothes again without seeing the hundreds of faces, working their fingers to the bone to help their families, and grateful for the oppurtunity. I couldn't imagine this kind of work. I wish that every person in America (and the west, really) could be made to walk through this factory, or perhaps spend a day doing one of these jobs, and that way they might consider what goes into things that we so easily take for granted. Of course this all seems preachy. And I don't really know what the answer is. All I know is that the whole thing didn't feel right. And I guess it made me think that there is a price to pay for everything that goes beyond dollars and cents. And also, I think I'll make my own clothes from now on.

After that we went to dinner. Prior to dinner we had about 30 minutes to go explore, and I ended up going by myself, and wandering in the alleyways and down the street. Shaoxing is very much more like a traditional Chinese town than Shanghai, and it was really, really cool. I was standing in the park below a pagoda perched atop the hill, watching a man do tai-chi with a fake sword and was once again amazed to find myself in China. The evening was great, Shaoxing is much cheaper than Shanghai. We took pedicabs from our hotel to the bar, and on the way there I realized that we had not negotiated a price. I automatically assumed the drivers would work in cohesion in an attempt to rip off the big group of white people (something that is likely to happen in Shanghai). They were suprised when we offered them 10 kuai per person, and eagerly accepted the proposition (I was expecting to start at 10 kuai as the beginning of my bargaining, and if I was lucky would only be paying 15 kuai). Apparently we could have paid a lot less. But they worked hard. And when we got to the bar, it was only 15 kuai for Tiger beer (which is my favorite beer in China, it's imported from Singapore and oh-so-delicious). In Shanghai at the seedy dive bar we go to on Tuesday nights (the Hard Rock), it's 20 kuai for Tsingtao (the run-of-the-mill Chinese brand). So it was super cheap. We enjoyed some beers and then hung out in the massive public square in the middle of the city (where the security guard was walking around with a giant patio furniture sized umbrella).

The next morning we woke up and took a boat ride. It was awesome. Me and two of my buddies piled into a "Water taxi", which is a traditional covered Chinese boat, and we were rowed down a canal. It was amazing. Again, I felt like I was really in China. The weather was absolutely perfect, sunny and a little bit chilly. Old women and children were washing clothes and dishes in the river. Old men sat in chairs smoking cigarettes. They say life is made up of moments. This was definitely one of them. It was beautiful.

We departed from the canal and waited for everyone to arrive before going to the house of Lu Xun. While waiting, we saw a man who was selling a snake in a bag. Upon trying to ask him how much it was, he showed us that two of his fingers were missing. I couldn't reallyy understand what he was saying, but he kept pointing to the snake and pointing to his butt, back and missing fingers. I'm guessing he was a snake hunter. Either way, it was nuts. The house of Lu Xun was pretty cool. It was a very traditional, old style Chinese gentry house, and I enjoyed being there more for that than knowing that it once belonged to Lu Xun. After this, we toured a buddhist temple and enjoyed a delicious vegetarian meal. So far, the food had not been excellent on the trip, so I was prepared for the worst. But it was one of the best meals I've had in China. After the meal, we hiked to the top of Screaming Mountain, which is more of a hill. At the top, there was very cool buddhist temple, and it was all very serene. Strangely, on the hike up, we realized that all of the natural rock formations had been covered in concrete. Perhaps this was to prevent erosion, but either way it was dissapointing. Upon the completion of the hike (and a short nap in the hotel room), we had another exciting night on the town. This time we went to the bar and to an arcade afterwards. It was amazing. I got like 40 tokens for 10 kuai. Plus they had a Mario Kart arcade game! Picture a game as ballin' and as fun as Mario Kart, and then picture in big arcade form with a steering wheel and pedals and such. It was awesome. I also spent like 2 hours trying to beat my buddy Joe at shooting hoops. My arms were sore the next day. It was quite sad.

The next morning we awoke and traveled to a replicated "1000 year old riverside street", which was also very cool. My buddy Ryan found a vendor who was selling these absolutely ridiculous Chinese Pop Star posters. They were only 1 kuai each, so I bought like 6 of them. They are ridiculous. Like, you look at them and then wonder who would actually post them on their wall. Also they had posters of babies, with unicorns in the background. It was wierd. Plus, they had fireworks. Naturally, I bought some, and Joe promptly attempted to set them off. We realized that the fuse was way too short, as the bottle rocket pretty much went off immediately after having been lit. This was all very amusing to the Chinese lookers on.

After a delicious lunch, where I tried snail for the first time in my life, we boarded the bus and went home. All in all the trip was super....what's the word I'm looking for?...duper!