The typhoon that was headed to Shanghai, and that caused me to sacrifice going to a US Women's Soccer team World Cup match, made landfall south of Shanghai and then managed to go west around Shanghai before curving back out east to the city north of Shanghai before it petered out. For all of you wondering how we survived our first typhoon, the answer is thankfully "very well".
We got lots of rain and wind, but nothing like predicted. Unfortunately for the city south of Shanghai they had to evacuate 2 million people as they got the worst of it.
This weekend has been a series of bizarre musical encounters. On Friday I went to the assembly at Olivia's school, which is for the lower school/grade school. At these assemblies one grade hosts and one grade does some kind of performance and they give out awards. The music teacher announced that the 4th grade class would do a song for us, and they had printed on signs the refrain that they wanted us to sing along with them. The refrain was "Take me home country roads, to the place I belong. West Virgina, Mountain Mama take me home, country roads." I couldn't believe the class was singing this John Denver song about West Virginia, to an audience of 70-80% Europeans! Then I'm listening to the words and there is a line that goes something like "...life is old here, older than the trees" and I could not help but bursting out in laughter. Here are these 4th graders from all over the world singing about how old the trees are in West Virginia, while they stand in a country that has documented history of THOUSANDS of years. It was too much for me.
Saturday night Joe and I went out with friends for drinks and some clubbing. We were in the French Concession, an old part of Shanghai developed by the French and we started at the Paulner, a German restaurant. We go in and there is a Phillapino band playing. Not unusual in Shanghai, they are great singers. But we all looked at each other and cracked up when they played "La Bamba" and sang in Spanish. A very international experience this is turning out to be! But the night got more interesting. We left the Paulner to go to a bar called "Malone's" which our friends claimed had a great band. We got there and to our friends' horror the regular band was not there and in their place was a Phillapino band dressed in 50s attire (flipped bouffant hairdos, poodleskirts and all) and singing oldies tunes from the 50s and 60s. OK, well this wasn't as odd because it was an American bar, but still classic.
So we hit the next bar. The singers were decent, and we were having a good time dancing. But the most obvious form of entertainment was watching the "working girls" arrive. Now, we all know that I'm not exactly a clubbing kind of girl most of the time, but I've been out and about in Portland and I swear it is not as easy to pick out the working girls in Portland as it is here. It's shocking, really, they seem to arrive in groups of 5-6 and they literally make a bee-line for the white guys. But everybody's dancing and having a good time. Until a scantily clad woman hopped up on the bar and that's when Joe and I notice the poles up and down the bar. Hmmm. When I expressed shock that there would be pole dancing at what seems like a typical bar, our friends said "welcome to Asia, this is totally normal." Hmmm. I'm getting all sorts of different educations in Shanghai!
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Typhoon? Hmm, that wasn't part of the criteria
Tonight I am feeling like a total schmuck. The adventurous spirit that made me jump at the opportunity to move halfway across the world has deserted me in the face of a typhoon.
The first I heard that a typhoon was heading to Shanghai, was an email yesterday that Joe forwarded me from Intel's International SOS travel alert system. I honestly didn't think much of it because the travel alert said not to cancel travel plans to China. Today it's been pouring down rain and while I was out shopping my friend Jessica called and asked if I knew that school was canceled tomorrow. In fact all the international schools are closing tomorrow. That gave me pause, made me think that maybe this was pretty serious. I called another friend for some recommendations about moon cakes (more about that later) and she asked me if I had candles, flashlights, water, etc. She also told me to bring all our patio furniture in, and pull our blinds closed in case a window shatters. OK - that made me freak out a little bit so I got up on the web and looked at the English newspaper website because that's pretty much the only source of info we can get. (Nothing on TV that's in English is local, and nothing on the radio is in English.) It said that typhoon Mipha had been upgraded to a super typhoon, that it was supposed to make landfall at midnight tonight, and that 200,000 people had been evacuated from low-lying parts of Shanghai. Oh, and this could potentially be the worst typhoon to make landfall in Shanghai in the last 10 years.
You know, normally this is a total no-brainer. There's a weather warning in effect and you stay in and have a movie marathon or whatever.
But Joe and I had tickets to see the US Women's soccer team play a World Cup match against Nigeria in Shanghai tonight at 8:00. We had both been looking forward to this since we got the tickets a week after we arrived. And now I'm looking at this severe weather warning that the typhoon will make landfall at midnight tonight, and
two tickets to see the US Women's soccer team.
After a brief discussion with Joe I decided I didn't want to take the chance of being away from the kids if the typhoon struck. What if the weather was really bad and we had trouble getting home? I also didn't think it was a good idea to be out in an open-air stadium in the rain and wind. But these are all big "ifs" because how accurate are these weather predications. Is it like home where there is a "storm watch" for days and then nothing actually happens? Joe said the typhoon wasn't supposed to hit until late night or tomorrow and that he was really looking forward to the game. As is usual in these situations, I take a very conservative approach and Joe takes a much less conservative approach. So off he went to the game and I stayed home with the kids. At the time of kick-off (8:00) I looked outside and it was raining, but nothing else. I was so disappointed with myself, and a little embarrassed. Where is my sense of adventure, why am I sitting at home blogging when I could be watching a World Cup soccer match??? Ah, you win some and you lose some I guess.
The first I heard that a typhoon was heading to Shanghai, was an email yesterday that Joe forwarded me from Intel's International SOS travel alert system. I honestly didn't think much of it because the travel alert said not to cancel travel plans to China. Today it's been pouring down rain and while I was out shopping my friend Jessica called and asked if I knew that school was canceled tomorrow. In fact all the international schools are closing tomorrow. That gave me pause, made me think that maybe this was pretty serious. I called another friend for some recommendations about moon cakes (more about that later) and she asked me if I had candles, flashlights, water, etc. She also told me to bring all our patio furniture in, and pull our blinds closed in case a window shatters. OK - that made me freak out a little bit so I got up on the web and looked at the English newspaper website because that's pretty much the only source of info we can get. (Nothing on TV that's in English is local, and nothing on the radio is in English.) It said that typhoon Mipha had been upgraded to a super typhoon, that it was supposed to make landfall at midnight tonight, and that 200,000 people had been evacuated from low-lying parts of Shanghai. Oh, and this could potentially be the worst typhoon to make landfall in Shanghai in the last 10 years.
You know, normally this is a total no-brainer. There's a weather warning in effect and you stay in and have a movie marathon or whatever.
But Joe and I had tickets to see the US Women's soccer team play a World Cup match against Nigeria in Shanghai tonight at 8:00. We had both been looking forward to this since we got the tickets a week after we arrived. And now I'm looking at this severe weather warning that the typhoon will make landfall at midnight tonight, and
two tickets to see the US Women's soccer team.
After a brief discussion with Joe I decided I didn't want to take the chance of being away from the kids if the typhoon struck. What if the weather was really bad and we had trouble getting home? I also didn't think it was a good idea to be out in an open-air stadium in the rain and wind. But these are all big "ifs" because how accurate are these weather predications. Is it like home where there is a "storm watch" for days and then nothing actually happens? Joe said the typhoon wasn't supposed to hit until late night or tomorrow and that he was really looking forward to the game. As is usual in these situations, I take a very conservative approach and Joe takes a much less conservative approach. So off he went to the game and I stayed home with the kids. At the time of kick-off (8:00) I looked outside and it was raining, but nothing else. I was so disappointed with myself, and a little embarrassed. Where is my sense of adventure, why am I sitting at home blogging when I could be watching a World Cup soccer match??? Ah, you win some and you lose some I guess.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Wow, this week flew by, and it was eventful! First and foremost, on Wednesday our shipment of stuff finally arrived from the US!!! It was pretty much like Christmas because I couldn't remember what the heck I packed in these boxes 2 months ago. Although, it turns out that we packed about 40 boxes full of stuff for our kids and about 3 boxes of stuff for us. :( One of the things that we have been looking forward to was getting our DVD player from the US so we could watch some TV series and movies that we brought from the US. (The movies we buy in the US don't work in the local Chinese DVD players, only US DVD players.) We plugged our DVD player into a transformer and then got it hooked up to the TV and working. We put a movie in for the girls, but a few minutes later we paused it to eat lunch. When we finished lunch (maybe 15 minutes) I returned to the DVD player to un-pause it and smelled something burning. The transformer melted and stopped working and the 240 volts went straight into the DVD player and fried it!
This leads me to a quick conversation about the quality control on goods in China - it is NOT good. I think everything they reject to export due to quality reasons stays here in China. The first iron I bought had about 4 features and only one worked (the heat!). The Q-tips I bought have very little cotton on the tips of them (ouch!) and the first time I used one the cotton came off in my ear! I had to use tweezers to get it out. The light bulbs burn out fast. The computer monitor Joe bought had a VGA cable that didn't work and the first set of computer speakers we bought had such a loud "bass enhancement" that we couldn't actually hear the words in the song. In the US, not only is the quality control better, but it's a normal thing to take goods back if they don't work like you expected. Here, it is incredibly difficult to take something back. Not only do I have a language barrier, but I would have also had to have the foresight to get a special fa pio (government receipt) when I bought the item. This requires a whole different counter and different line. If I don't have this special receipt, I cannot attempt to return something. So needless to say, we have learned to ask around about local brands before we buy and NEVER buy what is on "promotion".
On Wednesday night the family went for an evening bike ride. We went in a new direction and discovered an entire streets of shops that we hadn't seen before. So on Thursday morning after I dropped Gigi off at preschool on my bike I decided to find this street. I was fairly certain how to get there, but somewhere I either missed a turn or took a wrong turn and ended up hopelessly lost. And here's what I learned about being lost on a bicycle: unlike being lost in a car, you get thirsty and very tired while you're trying to find your way out! I had to stop and get a bottle of water at one point. I got so turned around that I finally had to backtrack my entire route to the school and go home from there. A trip that usually takes me 20 minutes took me 1 hour and 20 minutes. I need to keep a map of Pudong in my purse!
By Thursday afternoon we had unpacked most of our stuff and I said to Joe that in a weird way I already missed the kind of minimalist life we had been living. We don't "need" all the junk we packed, we only need about 1/3 of it to live comfortably. (that 1/3 being the kitchen stuff and the books and games for the kids.) I am realizing how much we have bought into the "accumulation of stuff" in the US. Of course, if everyone in the US didn't buy all this stuff, 80% of China would probably be unemployed. It really is a small world these days.
Saturday night Joe and I had our first night out on the town without the kids, a real date night. We decided to go to a classic mediterranean restaurant on the Bund. The Bund is the street along the waterfront of the Huang Pu river. The river divides the Puxi and Pudong sides of the city, Pudong being the newly developed part of the city in the last 10 years. On the Bund are many beautiful old buildings constructed around 1900 by many countries of the world (Russia, Englad, France, Germany, etc.) They light these buildings up at night and it's a beautiful site. I commented to Joe that it's amazing that 100 years ago all these countries and companies were saying "we've got to be in China" the same way countries and companies are doing that today. Joe pointed out the difference being that 100 years ago everyone was trying to get goods and resources OUT of China, and today everyone is trying to get goods INTO China to be sold to the Chinese people. Anyway, the Bund is a tourist area, but nice none-the-less. So we went to dinner at a restaurant with a great view of the river and the Bund, and great food. Then we went for Chinese foot massages and finally ended up at a bar with a terrace overlooking the river and the Pudong side. It was a great night and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. At last we feel we are starting to be able to get out and see the city a little bit.
The first week of October is a national holiday here, so everyone is off work. We didn't plan far enough ahead to be going anywhere, so we'll be staying here in Shanghai with the 18 million Chinese people also on holiday. We are planning outings for each day so that we take advantage of the city, but we keep hearing from friends that we'll lucky to see or do anything because it'll be so packed. Oh well, I figure that's the authentic experience then, is it not? Hopefully this will be the only holiday we actually spend in Shanghai, I am eager to get out into other parts of China to see some of its beauty, and non-city living. Particularly Beijing since I am in the middle of a fascinating book that is the true story of 3 generations of a family in the last 100 years in China. I have learned more from this book than any Chinese history course I could have taken, it's absolutely captivating.
This leads me to a quick conversation about the quality control on goods in China - it is NOT good. I think everything they reject to export due to quality reasons stays here in China. The first iron I bought had about 4 features and only one worked (the heat!). The Q-tips I bought have very little cotton on the tips of them (ouch!) and the first time I used one the cotton came off in my ear! I had to use tweezers to get it out. The light bulbs burn out fast. The computer monitor Joe bought had a VGA cable that didn't work and the first set of computer speakers we bought had such a loud "bass enhancement" that we couldn't actually hear the words in the song. In the US, not only is the quality control better, but it's a normal thing to take goods back if they don't work like you expected. Here, it is incredibly difficult to take something back. Not only do I have a language barrier, but I would have also had to have the foresight to get a special fa pio (government receipt) when I bought the item. This requires a whole different counter and different line. If I don't have this special receipt, I cannot attempt to return something. So needless to say, we have learned to ask around about local brands before we buy and NEVER buy what is on "promotion".
On Wednesday night the family went for an evening bike ride. We went in a new direction and discovered an entire streets of shops that we hadn't seen before. So on Thursday morning after I dropped Gigi off at preschool on my bike I decided to find this street. I was fairly certain how to get there, but somewhere I either missed a turn or took a wrong turn and ended up hopelessly lost. And here's what I learned about being lost on a bicycle: unlike being lost in a car, you get thirsty and very tired while you're trying to find your way out! I had to stop and get a bottle of water at one point. I got so turned around that I finally had to backtrack my entire route to the school and go home from there. A trip that usually takes me 20 minutes took me 1 hour and 20 minutes. I need to keep a map of Pudong in my purse!
By Thursday afternoon we had unpacked most of our stuff and I said to Joe that in a weird way I already missed the kind of minimalist life we had been living. We don't "need" all the junk we packed, we only need about 1/3 of it to live comfortably. (that 1/3 being the kitchen stuff and the books and games for the kids.) I am realizing how much we have bought into the "accumulation of stuff" in the US. Of course, if everyone in the US didn't buy all this stuff, 80% of China would probably be unemployed. It really is a small world these days.
Saturday night Joe and I had our first night out on the town without the kids, a real date night. We decided to go to a classic mediterranean restaurant on the Bund. The Bund is the street along the waterfront of the Huang Pu river. The river divides the Puxi and Pudong sides of the city, Pudong being the newly developed part of the city in the last 10 years. On the Bund are many beautiful old buildings constructed around 1900 by many countries of the world (Russia, Englad, France, Germany, etc.) They light these buildings up at night and it's a beautiful site. I commented to Joe that it's amazing that 100 years ago all these countries and companies were saying "we've got to be in China" the same way countries and companies are doing that today. Joe pointed out the difference being that 100 years ago everyone was trying to get goods and resources OUT of China, and today everyone is trying to get goods INTO China to be sold to the Chinese people. Anyway, the Bund is a tourist area, but nice none-the-less. So we went to dinner at a restaurant with a great view of the river and the Bund, and great food. Then we went for Chinese foot massages and finally ended up at a bar with a terrace overlooking the river and the Pudong side. It was a great night and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. At last we feel we are starting to be able to get out and see the city a little bit.
The first week of October is a national holiday here, so everyone is off work. We didn't plan far enough ahead to be going anywhere, so we'll be staying here in Shanghai with the 18 million Chinese people also on holiday. We are planning outings for each day so that we take advantage of the city, but we keep hearing from friends that we'll lucky to see or do anything because it'll be so packed. Oh well, I figure that's the authentic experience then, is it not? Hopefully this will be the only holiday we actually spend in Shanghai, I am eager to get out into other parts of China to see some of its beauty, and non-city living. Particularly Beijing since I am in the middle of a fascinating book that is the true story of 3 generations of a family in the last 100 years in China. I have learned more from this book than any Chinese history course I could have taken, it's absolutely captivating.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Chinese food
So we made it to a "real" Chinese restaurant on Saturday night. And we think it's actually a pretty decent one because it came recommended by a few Chinese people and we were the only white people in the restaurant (except for the business men having dinners) and there was a wedding banquet going on. Not bad, we decided, clearly not an expat place. And lucky for us there were pictures on the menu!
So here are the two differences between American Chinese food and real Chinese food. The first is that in America we disguise our food so you can't really tell where it came from. It's just in perfect little squares. Here, there is no disguising it. If it is chicken, it still looks like chicken when it comes to the table (i.e. bones and wings, and not just the big bones, all the little bones that are in the wing). If it is fish, the whole thing is there on the plate, head, tail, fins, bones. There is no doubt about what animal you are eating.
The second thing is that my mouth and hands are not talented enough to eat real Chinese food! Large pieces of chicken or fish come on the plate and they can't be cut up with chopsticks. And they are not supposed to be cut up. You're supposed to put the whole piece in your mouth, get the meat off the bones, and then spit the bones out when you're done. Do you have any idea how hard that is for an untrained mouth? Chinese people put entire chicken wings in their mouth and chew and magically spit out the bones! It's a sight to behold. And it's also a skill I just do not have. I am going to have to practice this a lot to be able to eat real Chinese food.
And the last big difference is that rice and noodle come as the last dish of the dinner here. Rice and noodles are considered the "filler". They are what you eat if you are still hungry after everything else is eaten. So for my kids, who are kind of waiting for the noodles & rice during the entire meal, this is a bit challenging. I'm going to have to learn to ask for rice at the beginning of the meal, which will be difficult because it's considered fairly rude to ask for it then. Luckily there are some vegetables they can eat with soup spoons before the rice and noodles finally arrive.
All in all it was a tasty, if not frustrating, meal. And I can finally say "yes, we have eaten real Chinese food." :)
So here are the two differences between American Chinese food and real Chinese food. The first is that in America we disguise our food so you can't really tell where it came from. It's just in perfect little squares. Here, there is no disguising it. If it is chicken, it still looks like chicken when it comes to the table (i.e. bones and wings, and not just the big bones, all the little bones that are in the wing). If it is fish, the whole thing is there on the plate, head, tail, fins, bones. There is no doubt about what animal you are eating.
The second thing is that my mouth and hands are not talented enough to eat real Chinese food! Large pieces of chicken or fish come on the plate and they can't be cut up with chopsticks. And they are not supposed to be cut up. You're supposed to put the whole piece in your mouth, get the meat off the bones, and then spit the bones out when you're done. Do you have any idea how hard that is for an untrained mouth? Chinese people put entire chicken wings in their mouth and chew and magically spit out the bones! It's a sight to behold. And it's also a skill I just do not have. I am going to have to practice this a lot to be able to eat real Chinese food.
And the last big difference is that rice and noodle come as the last dish of the dinner here. Rice and noodles are considered the "filler". They are what you eat if you are still hungry after everything else is eaten. So for my kids, who are kind of waiting for the noodles & rice during the entire meal, this is a bit challenging. I'm going to have to learn to ask for rice at the beginning of the meal, which will be difficult because it's considered fairly rude to ask for it then. Luckily there are some vegetables they can eat with soup spoons before the rice and noodles finally arrive.
All in all it was a tasty, if not frustrating, meal. And I can finally say "yes, we have eaten real Chinese food." :)
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Shrimp flakes anyone?
Wow, it’s amazing how a week can go by and in that time I’ve managed to do nothing and everything. That’s the best possible description of what it’s like for us in China right now!
Gigi started at the Chinese preschool. When we got in the car to go, she was so excited she said to Daniel (driver) “I go to preschool today!” She ran into her classroom without a backward glance. That is a child that clearly needs friends her own age and more toys/activities than we have in our house right now! But after 2 hours, she had a meltdown and no matter what I did I could not console her, so we called it a day. My guess is that the unknown friends, teachers & ayi, the different language and the different food all finally got to her. (And potentially she finally realized how ugly her uniform is.) She’s just young enough that she can scream and cry when she gets overwhelmed, whereas the rest of us have to just buck up and retreat into our house with a DVD from the corner “store”. ☺
Yesterday I was feeling quite good about myself because I managed to do the weekly grocery shopping in a fairly efficient way. I had to go to two different stores, but I actually got everything on my list. This is a major breakthrough, because up to this point I’ve been going to the grocery about every other day because either I’ve forgotten something, couldn’t find it or they are out of what I need. I learned quickly that if you find what you need, buy at least two of them because stores do not stay stocked of anything except rice and instant noodles.
But my good feelings evaporated today when I decided to try a new recipe and went to the store for a simple jar of honey. I know that there is an entire section of some aisle with honey, I’ve seen it! After 30 minutes of trudging up and down every aisle, I found myself standing in the chips and cookie aisle, trying to figure out who to call to ask where the hell the honey is in Carrefour. And that’s the most frustrating part of being here right now…I do not yet have the language skills to ask the simple question “where is the honey?” So that means I have to figure it out on my own by looking, observing, and playing charades. Thus my comment that I spend the day doing everything and nothing! (By the way, Chinese lessons are actually going fairly well, but my mouth still does not form these sounds accurately! And I haven’t learned any useful phrases yet, basically I can say: hello, my name is, I am American, how much is it, I want, I no want! All things that start a conversation, but then immediately stop when I cannot understand the response!!!)
Anyway, I’m standing in the chips and cookies aisle and my gaze falls on a bag of Shrimp Flakes. Seriously? Yep, Shrimp Flakes. Unless you’ve been here, it’s hard to imagine how many things they flavor with shrimp. Chips, noodles, candies, baked goods!
I wonder what flavor it is that Chinese people who come to the US think is gross? Not that I think shrimp flavor is gross, just that I think it belongs to shrimp, not chips!
So I have two confessions to make. The first is that we are clearly not as tough as the Chinese people. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but the Chinese like HARD beds. We have a king size bed which is literally a wood frame with a wood slab on top, covered in cotton. It was a problem for Joe from day one. We got a foam pad to put on top which worked for me, but Joe wasn’t sleeping at all. And then I finally realized that maybe the reason I kept waking up in the middle of the night with one of my arms or hands asleep was because of the wood bed! So we gave in and tracked down a Serta mattress factory and paid a ridiculous amount of money for a “western style” mattress. Our driver, who helped us with the transaction, sat on our bed at the factory and grimaced. For the 20th time we heard “Chinese people like hard beds”. What can I say, we like our creature comforts! Now we have to figure out what the heck to do with an extra king size mattress. We wonder, what is the Chinese equivalent to Goodwill?
My second confession is that we have officially been here for a month and have not eaten out at a “real” Chinese restaurant. Can you believe it? It sounds so pitiful when I write it down! We ate out constantly the first two weeks we were here, but we focused on western style restaurants that had kids menus and baby seats to ease the transition. When we finally got settled into the apartment, we were sick of going to restaurants and have been eating at home ever since, especially since we have ayi to cook for us 3 nights/week. Geez, it seriously sounds like I’m making excuses for this doesn’t it? That doesn’t make it any less pitiful! I am making it my mission for our family to go out for real Chinese food this weekend. Despite the fact that we can’t read anything on the menus, and that if we ask for an English menu it will probably have different prices on it. It will be an adventure. Stay tuned.
By the way, a sincere thanks for all the people who have sent emails and encouragement after reading my blog. We have good days and bad days in China as we continue to settle in, but hearing from friends and family back home really makes my day! And it inspires me to make time to write my blog!
Cheers!
Gigi started at the Chinese preschool. When we got in the car to go, she was so excited she said to Daniel (driver) “I go to preschool today!” She ran into her classroom without a backward glance. That is a child that clearly needs friends her own age and more toys/activities than we have in our house right now! But after 2 hours, she had a meltdown and no matter what I did I could not console her, so we called it a day. My guess is that the unknown friends, teachers & ayi, the different language and the different food all finally got to her. (And potentially she finally realized how ugly her uniform is.) She’s just young enough that she can scream and cry when she gets overwhelmed, whereas the rest of us have to just buck up and retreat into our house with a DVD from the corner “store”. ☺
Yesterday I was feeling quite good about myself because I managed to do the weekly grocery shopping in a fairly efficient way. I had to go to two different stores, but I actually got everything on my list. This is a major breakthrough, because up to this point I’ve been going to the grocery about every other day because either I’ve forgotten something, couldn’t find it or they are out of what I need. I learned quickly that if you find what you need, buy at least two of them because stores do not stay stocked of anything except rice and instant noodles.
But my good feelings evaporated today when I decided to try a new recipe and went to the store for a simple jar of honey. I know that there is an entire section of some aisle with honey, I’ve seen it! After 30 minutes of trudging up and down every aisle, I found myself standing in the chips and cookie aisle, trying to figure out who to call to ask where the hell the honey is in Carrefour. And that’s the most frustrating part of being here right now…I do not yet have the language skills to ask the simple question “where is the honey?” So that means I have to figure it out on my own by looking, observing, and playing charades. Thus my comment that I spend the day doing everything and nothing! (By the way, Chinese lessons are actually going fairly well, but my mouth still does not form these sounds accurately! And I haven’t learned any useful phrases yet, basically I can say: hello, my name is, I am American, how much is it, I want, I no want! All things that start a conversation, but then immediately stop when I cannot understand the response!!!)
Anyway, I’m standing in the chips and cookies aisle and my gaze falls on a bag of Shrimp Flakes. Seriously? Yep, Shrimp Flakes. Unless you’ve been here, it’s hard to imagine how many things they flavor with shrimp. Chips, noodles, candies, baked goods!
I wonder what flavor it is that Chinese people who come to the US think is gross? Not that I think shrimp flavor is gross, just that I think it belongs to shrimp, not chips!
So I have two confessions to make. The first is that we are clearly not as tough as the Chinese people. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but the Chinese like HARD beds. We have a king size bed which is literally a wood frame with a wood slab on top, covered in cotton. It was a problem for Joe from day one. We got a foam pad to put on top which worked for me, but Joe wasn’t sleeping at all. And then I finally realized that maybe the reason I kept waking up in the middle of the night with one of my arms or hands asleep was because of the wood bed! So we gave in and tracked down a Serta mattress factory and paid a ridiculous amount of money for a “western style” mattress. Our driver, who helped us with the transaction, sat on our bed at the factory and grimaced. For the 20th time we heard “Chinese people like hard beds”. What can I say, we like our creature comforts! Now we have to figure out what the heck to do with an extra king size mattress. We wonder, what is the Chinese equivalent to Goodwill?
My second confession is that we have officially been here for a month and have not eaten out at a “real” Chinese restaurant. Can you believe it? It sounds so pitiful when I write it down! We ate out constantly the first two weeks we were here, but we focused on western style restaurants that had kids menus and baby seats to ease the transition. When we finally got settled into the apartment, we were sick of going to restaurants and have been eating at home ever since, especially since we have ayi to cook for us 3 nights/week. Geez, it seriously sounds like I’m making excuses for this doesn’t it? That doesn’t make it any less pitiful! I am making it my mission for our family to go out for real Chinese food this weekend. Despite the fact that we can’t read anything on the menus, and that if we ask for an English menu it will probably have different prices on it. It will be an adventure. Stay tuned.
By the way, a sincere thanks for all the people who have sent emails and encouragement after reading my blog. We have good days and bad days in China as we continue to settle in, but hearing from friends and family back home really makes my day! And it inspires me to make time to write my blog!
Cheers!
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Volunteering at Livi's school & first Ayi babysitting
After the high of finding Gigi a preschool, I had a rude awakening at the first “class moms” meeting I had at Olivia’s school. A note came home asking for parents who wanted to be involved in the Pre-K class. So I had two new experiences at once. The first was leaving Gigi with Ayi for the first time. Whenever I am around she refuses to let Ayi hold her or even come near her, so I didn’t imagine this was going to go well. When I told Gigi I was going to a meeting at Olivia’s school during her naptime and Ayi would stay with her, she objected, loudly, but it had to happen sometime. She went down for her nap and I took a taxi to the school, which is about 25 minutes away, or 45 minutes if it’s pouring rain like it is today. Anyway, a ~30 minute taxi ride for $6 USD. Not bad!
The second experience was the "class moms" meeting. There were 6 moms meeting with Ms. Katie, Olivia’s pre-K 4 teacher.
Ms. Katie printed up a little agenda to talk about what kind of help she wanted/needed in the classroom, which as a recovering Intel person, I totally appreciated. But then 3 of the moms just launched into what they had done in previous years and started talking about all this stuff that was totally foreign to me. For instance, what exactly is a “room mom” and what are the responsibilities? After 5 minutes of discussing if the room mom should be one person or several people, I had to give up and say “what IS a room mom?” Wow, did that get the looks from the other moms. So much so that I felt compelled to say “Well, I’ve only been here 3 weeks and this is our first year at this school, so I need a little information.” At this point the ladies attempted to explain what a room mom was, but digressed back into how fun the cultural parties were last year. Luckily Ms. Katie stepped in and explained it so I was less lost.
As the conversation progressed, two things became clear: 1) These 3 women have older kids in the school and have had Ms. Katie as their children’s teacher before, and 2) they are not the kind of ex-pats I’ve run into so far who go out of their way to explain how things work. Luckily, Jessica (aka Robert’s mom) arrived late and came in and asked a few questions, making it obvious that this was her family’s first year at the school as well. I felt instant kinship for her and think we may have inadvertently just formed our own clique. And, you might be wondering, what about the 6th mom? Well, she was also first time student at the school, and is from America but does not speak very good English. I had a really hard time understanding her, but I did finally get that her name is Tiger. She was silent during the entire meeting, so we’ll have to see where she ends up on the mom spectrum. Hmmm.
So the amount of time that the parents are expected to be in the classroom is pretty amazing. There is reading time, scribing time (for journals and artwork), cultural learning lessons, arts & crafts, and holiday parties. It seemed clear that the expectation was 3-4 hours in the classroom each week for each mom. I was blown away, but then again, I’ve never done this before! The 3 moms from the clique all live in the housing compound that the school is within, so they can obviously pop over to the school anytime. Jessica and I both live ~30 minutes away so we’ll have to strategize on when and how to get to school for all this volunteering.
One of the things that I was most looking forward to about coming to China and not working was the chance to get involved in the schools. Now I find that I am totally intimidated by these moms! Although I do have one thing going for me, and that’s how I took notes during this meeting (once a program manager, always a program manager!) Ms. Katie looked at my notes at the end of the meeting and took them off and made copies for all the other moms. Guess I did something right!
Anyway, Jessica and I volunteered for the project to have 16 pillows made for all the students for rest-time. This means we’re headed to the fabric market! I will be absolutely no help in this endeavor since I have a total of 10 Chinese words, but Jessica says she has been to the fabric market a lot and I’ve been wanting to go there, so I basically jumped on her wagon (or minivan as the case may be).
Everyone says the fabric market is quite extraordinary, and is also the place where you can get any type of clothing made. Shanghai is known for its excellent tailors. I doubt the really good ones hang out at the fabric market, but I think if I can just find some pretty good ones, that will do for the kind of clothes I want to have made at first.
It seems that I might want to have a couple dresses or skirts made. Jessica warned me that if I plan to get involved with the American Women’s Club Shanghai, I should be ready to wear my high heels and dress clothes, and be sure to wear my best jewelry. Her assessment was that it was a bunch of women socializing and comparing the kind of ex-pat deal they got and establishing how well-off they were. I am really hoping that Jessica’s assessment is a off because it looks from their website like the AWCS has a ton of activities (tours, lectures, classes, etc) that I would like to take advantage of. And I really really don’t want to get caught up in some kind of materialistic show & tell with a bunch of other women. What I want is a network of people who are like-minded and interested in learning and seeing Shanghai and China. We’ll see I guess.
When I got home, Gigi and Ayi were in the Clubhouse playroom having a great time. Clearly she is happy with Ayi when I’m not around. So my afternoon was a mixed bag, good that Gigi can happily stay with Ayi, and bad that I’m intimidated by a bunch of moms I’ve never met before today.
Oh my goodness, I almost forgot to tell you how incredible it is to have a fulltime ayi who is also a good cook!!! Xiao Chen starting working on Monday and has cooked for us the last two nights, and it’s positively yummy. Her stir fry is very good, and she can just seemingly throw stuff together from my refrigerator and have it come out tasting great. I actually enjoy vegetables when cooked this way!!! And another great thing is that she cooks normal-people portions, not the American super-size portions. If we’re still hungry at the end of the meal, we could always fill up on rice, which is typically what Chinese do. Actually, portion size is great everywhere here. There are smaller Snickers bars, and miniature bags of Skittles. It’s a blessing to buy something and not think “OK, half of this would be normal, so I’ll buy it and put half away for another time.” Because I never do that, my will-power is non-existent. I like having smaller portion sizes imposed on me! But having someone to cook for you is everything it’s cracked up to be. If I ever win the lottery in the US, I’m hiring a cook. Although, I guess I could argue that we did win the lottery when we took this deal to live in China.
One last quick story before I go tonight: Many of you know my “man-size plate” dilemma. We have plates in the US that we got at Pottery Barn, and these plates are huge (basically the size of chargers). At our first apartment they didn’t fit in the dishwasher, at our first house they didn’t fit in the cupboards, and at our second house they made it into the dishwasher but still not into the cupboards. When packing for China, I refused to bring these huge plates, reasoning that if they didn’t fit in a cupboard in the States, they certainly weren’t going to fit into a cupboard in China! So we get here and I make a trip to Ikea to buy a set of dishes. I am very excited about my new dishes and I bring them home and wouldn’t you know it, the dinner plates don’t fit in the dishwasher! I clearly pissed off the plate gods at some point and am being punished for it. Either that or there is some plate size conspiracy that I didn’t get the memo on.
The second experience was the "class moms" meeting. There were 6 moms meeting with Ms. Katie, Olivia’s pre-K 4 teacher.
Ms. Katie printed up a little agenda to talk about what kind of help she wanted/needed in the classroom, which as a recovering Intel person, I totally appreciated. But then 3 of the moms just launched into what they had done in previous years and started talking about all this stuff that was totally foreign to me. For instance, what exactly is a “room mom” and what are the responsibilities? After 5 minutes of discussing if the room mom should be one person or several people, I had to give up and say “what IS a room mom?” Wow, did that get the looks from the other moms. So much so that I felt compelled to say “Well, I’ve only been here 3 weeks and this is our first year at this school, so I need a little information.” At this point the ladies attempted to explain what a room mom was, but digressed back into how fun the cultural parties were last year. Luckily Ms. Katie stepped in and explained it so I was less lost.
As the conversation progressed, two things became clear: 1) These 3 women have older kids in the school and have had Ms. Katie as their children’s teacher before, and 2) they are not the kind of ex-pats I’ve run into so far who go out of their way to explain how things work. Luckily, Jessica (aka Robert’s mom) arrived late and came in and asked a few questions, making it obvious that this was her family’s first year at the school as well. I felt instant kinship for her and think we may have inadvertently just formed our own clique. And, you might be wondering, what about the 6th mom? Well, she was also first time student at the school, and is from America but does not speak very good English. I had a really hard time understanding her, but I did finally get that her name is Tiger. She was silent during the entire meeting, so we’ll have to see where she ends up on the mom spectrum. Hmmm.
So the amount of time that the parents are expected to be in the classroom is pretty amazing. There is reading time, scribing time (for journals and artwork), cultural learning lessons, arts & crafts, and holiday parties. It seemed clear that the expectation was 3-4 hours in the classroom each week for each mom. I was blown away, but then again, I’ve never done this before! The 3 moms from the clique all live in the housing compound that the school is within, so they can obviously pop over to the school anytime. Jessica and I both live ~30 minutes away so we’ll have to strategize on when and how to get to school for all this volunteering.
One of the things that I was most looking forward to about coming to China and not working was the chance to get involved in the schools. Now I find that I am totally intimidated by these moms! Although I do have one thing going for me, and that’s how I took notes during this meeting (once a program manager, always a program manager!) Ms. Katie looked at my notes at the end of the meeting and took them off and made copies for all the other moms. Guess I did something right!
Anyway, Jessica and I volunteered for the project to have 16 pillows made for all the students for rest-time. This means we’re headed to the fabric market! I will be absolutely no help in this endeavor since I have a total of 10 Chinese words, but Jessica says she has been to the fabric market a lot and I’ve been wanting to go there, so I basically jumped on her wagon (or minivan as the case may be).
Everyone says the fabric market is quite extraordinary, and is also the place where you can get any type of clothing made. Shanghai is known for its excellent tailors. I doubt the really good ones hang out at the fabric market, but I think if I can just find some pretty good ones, that will do for the kind of clothes I want to have made at first.
It seems that I might want to have a couple dresses or skirts made. Jessica warned me that if I plan to get involved with the American Women’s Club Shanghai, I should be ready to wear my high heels and dress clothes, and be sure to wear my best jewelry. Her assessment was that it was a bunch of women socializing and comparing the kind of ex-pat deal they got and establishing how well-off they were. I am really hoping that Jessica’s assessment is a off because it looks from their website like the AWCS has a ton of activities (tours, lectures, classes, etc) that I would like to take advantage of. And I really really don’t want to get caught up in some kind of materialistic show & tell with a bunch of other women. What I want is a network of people who are like-minded and interested in learning and seeing Shanghai and China. We’ll see I guess.
When I got home, Gigi and Ayi were in the Clubhouse playroom having a great time. Clearly she is happy with Ayi when I’m not around. So my afternoon was a mixed bag, good that Gigi can happily stay with Ayi, and bad that I’m intimidated by a bunch of moms I’ve never met before today.
Oh my goodness, I almost forgot to tell you how incredible it is to have a fulltime ayi who is also a good cook!!! Xiao Chen starting working on Monday and has cooked for us the last two nights, and it’s positively yummy. Her stir fry is very good, and she can just seemingly throw stuff together from my refrigerator and have it come out tasting great. I actually enjoy vegetables when cooked this way!!! And another great thing is that she cooks normal-people portions, not the American super-size portions. If we’re still hungry at the end of the meal, we could always fill up on rice, which is typically what Chinese do. Actually, portion size is great everywhere here. There are smaller Snickers bars, and miniature bags of Skittles. It’s a blessing to buy something and not think “OK, half of this would be normal, so I’ll buy it and put half away for another time.” Because I never do that, my will-power is non-existent. I like having smaller portion sizes imposed on me! But having someone to cook for you is everything it’s cracked up to be. If I ever win the lottery in the US, I’m hiring a cook. Although, I guess I could argue that we did win the lottery when we took this deal to live in China.
One last quick story before I go tonight: Many of you know my “man-size plate” dilemma. We have plates in the US that we got at Pottery Barn, and these plates are huge (basically the size of chargers). At our first apartment they didn’t fit in the dishwasher, at our first house they didn’t fit in the cupboards, and at our second house they made it into the dishwasher but still not into the cupboards. When packing for China, I refused to bring these huge plates, reasoning that if they didn’t fit in a cupboard in the States, they certainly weren’t going to fit into a cupboard in China! So we get here and I make a trip to Ikea to buy a set of dishes. I am very excited about my new dishes and I bring them home and wouldn’t you know it, the dinner plates don’t fit in the dishwasher! I clearly pissed off the plate gods at some point and am being punished for it. Either that or there is some plate size conspiracy that I didn’t get the memo on.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Chinese pre-school & Mandarin
I did it! I found Gigi a Chinese pre-school that she can attend for a very reasonable price. I heard from Melissa, that wonderful woman who gave us her ayi, that there was a Chinese pre-school a few blocks away. I got our driver to take us to the pre-school, and it was definitely more than a 'few blocks' but I went in to visit anyway. I was very impressed with the spaciousness, the cleanliness, and the number of the students vs. number of teachers. And the most amazing of all (for me), the admissions officer I talked to spoke English!!! I was not expecting that at all and was geared up for a really complex game of charades and had my English/Mandarin dictionary with me. But she spoke beautiful English and we are going to put Gigi into the preschool 3 days/week for 3 hours. It should be just the right amount of socialization and language exposure for her. And the right amount of exercise for me! I will have to take her to school on my bike, which I estimate will take me about 30 minutes to get there and 30 minutes back. It'll be fine until it starts raining and gets cold. We'll see how many taxis I end up taking then! Gigi is so excited to start school that she asks me every time we get in the car if we are going to her school. :) This is definitely a good move for us.
So two really exciting things for me in the last few days. I'm biking every day. When Olivia started school last Wednesday I decided that after getting her on the bus, Gigi and I would go for a bike ride for some exercise. The first day I headed out (memorizing every street name as I went by because I'm still totally disoriented here) and got on a very quiet road for about 20 minutes. Then it dead-ended into another road, so I took a right (again memorizing the street name!). Oh My Goodness! This road was a very busy road and I suddenly realized that I was riding on it at rush-hour. Rush-hour applies to cars and bikes alike. All roads in Pudong have a bike lane that is the same width as a regular lane of traffic, and it is totally packed with bikes at that time of the morning. I'm getting better on the bike, but I'm still a bit wobbly if there's anything tricky to navigate. And being in a pack of people and trying not to hit anyone makes me really wobbly! Add to the pack of bikers the electric bikes and the mopeds beep-beeping their way through the pack and you had me totally nervous. (And did I forget to mention that Gigi likes to randomly pull my shirt up from the back?) But I got the hang of it after a few blocks and started to kind of enjoy riding along with the masses. When I realized I needed to turn around, I actually successfully crossed the street at an intersection. But when I got back to the road that I originally turned from, I needed to cross the street twice to get to the opposite corner. Well....in China, there is no sense in going across the street one way, waiting for the light to change and then crossing the other street to get to the opposite corner. Nope! The efficient thing to do is to ride across the intersection at a diagonal, with traffic from two streets having a turn signal at the same time. Riding a bike in China might be one of the few places I would say "just do what everyone else does" is the right thing to do. And my philosophy for getting across this huge intersection diagonally was to get in the middle of the pack and stay with everybody. If you are out in front or lagging behind, you have to fight one-on-one with the cars who are trying to turn. And you do NOT have the right of way as a biker. The only people with less of a right-of-way are pedestrians! I made it across the intersection in the pack without falling down or crying and got back on my quiet street to head home. That was my first day, and every day Gigi and I have taken a ride in a different direction. I'm getting much more savvy at it, but I still look all around me all the time, which shows what a novice I am because you never catch a Chinese person craning their neck around to see if they are about to get hit from behind by someone turning into them!
Here's an odd thing about cars in Shanghai. You never see old clunkers, it seems that all the cars are fairly new (oldest is maybe 8-10 years old). People getting cars in China is really on the rise. We saw a guy pulling out of a station and the seats still had the wrap on them and our driver just shook his head. When I said "new car?", he said "many new drivers in Shanghai now" and gave this big gusty sigh. He has been a driver for 5 years, so I imagine he's seen the good, bad & ugly.
Speaking of our driver, I had my very first real conversation with Daniel. It's a very odd thing sitting in a back seat and having someone drive you around. What kind of relationship are you supposed to have with a driver? Should we try to get to know him or should we keep our distance? We have a mini-van and the kids are in the very back seat, so I sit directly in front of them, which leaves Daniel in front by himself. And his English is pretty limited to things having to do with driving (where we're going, time, fast, slow, etc.) And I don't know how much he really understands, because I think often people can understand more than they can speak. Yet it seems a shame not to try to get to know someone who we end up spending a fair amount of time with. Anyway, I found myself in the car with Daniel without the kids a few days ago. I hopped into the front seat for a change and as we're riding along he asks me where we are from in US. I say "Portland, Oregon" but then have to explain how it's just north of California, which quickly establishes where we are from. California does have its uses for us Oregonians. :) But after that, Daniel and I were able to have a real conversation about various things, even though there were long long pauses and lots of hand gesturing to complete the conversation. I felt somehow that it was a break-through. Maybe we could end up being friends with our driver, maybe he could grow to enjoy our family? Who knows, but I'm hopeful.
As you know, I have been very frustrated with my inability to speak Mandarin and therefore communicate with people around me. Smiling and gesturing only gets you so far. Well, today begins the remedy for this, I hope! I had my very first Mandarin lesson. Sheesh. I can't remember when my brain and mouth worked so hard, and not in the way you think! Seriously, when's the last time I had to really concentrate and try to learn something new? It's been a while. (Not as long as riding a bike, but still a while!). And the sounds that I am expected to make with my mouth are just not possible in some cases! I have no idea how my tutor, Jessie, could sit through this lesson without cracking up. She would pronounce a letter for me, I would hear her, and then I would imitate it. HA! The crazy sounds that came out of my mouth while I tried to imitate!!! Even I was surprised by what came out. I just could not make my mouth make the same sounds that hers did. She went over and over it with me and I eventually started to get some of them. But there are 57 different sounds that I have to figure out. About 75% of them are sounds that we have in English, but the sound does not correlate with the letter like we would think. For example: i in Mandarin sounds like ee in English, and u sounds like oo, and ai sounds like "I" in English. It's maddening to try to remember what the English letters sound like in Mandarin! And that doesn't even touch the other 25% that are sounds that we English speakers can't pronounce. BUT! I learned some new useful phrases and my tutor called me "clever". :) I am totally intimidated about trying to learn this language, but on the other hand, this is pretty much the hobby I've been looking for! I have to stop shopping at some point. :)
Cheers!
So two really exciting things for me in the last few days. I'm biking every day. When Olivia started school last Wednesday I decided that after getting her on the bus, Gigi and I would go for a bike ride for some exercise. The first day I headed out (memorizing every street name as I went by because I'm still totally disoriented here) and got on a very quiet road for about 20 minutes. Then it dead-ended into another road, so I took a right (again memorizing the street name!). Oh My Goodness! This road was a very busy road and I suddenly realized that I was riding on it at rush-hour. Rush-hour applies to cars and bikes alike. All roads in Pudong have a bike lane that is the same width as a regular lane of traffic, and it is totally packed with bikes at that time of the morning. I'm getting better on the bike, but I'm still a bit wobbly if there's anything tricky to navigate. And being in a pack of people and trying not to hit anyone makes me really wobbly! Add to the pack of bikers the electric bikes and the mopeds beep-beeping their way through the pack and you had me totally nervous. (And did I forget to mention that Gigi likes to randomly pull my shirt up from the back?) But I got the hang of it after a few blocks and started to kind of enjoy riding along with the masses. When I realized I needed to turn around, I actually successfully crossed the street at an intersection. But when I got back to the road that I originally turned from, I needed to cross the street twice to get to the opposite corner. Well....in China, there is no sense in going across the street one way, waiting for the light to change and then crossing the other street to get to the opposite corner. Nope! The efficient thing to do is to ride across the intersection at a diagonal, with traffic from two streets having a turn signal at the same time. Riding a bike in China might be one of the few places I would say "just do what everyone else does" is the right thing to do. And my philosophy for getting across this huge intersection diagonally was to get in the middle of the pack and stay with everybody. If you are out in front or lagging behind, you have to fight one-on-one with the cars who are trying to turn. And you do NOT have the right of way as a biker. The only people with less of a right-of-way are pedestrians! I made it across the intersection in the pack without falling down or crying and got back on my quiet street to head home. That was my first day, and every day Gigi and I have taken a ride in a different direction. I'm getting much more savvy at it, but I still look all around me all the time, which shows what a novice I am because you never catch a Chinese person craning their neck around to see if they are about to get hit from behind by someone turning into them!
Here's an odd thing about cars in Shanghai. You never see old clunkers, it seems that all the cars are fairly new (oldest is maybe 8-10 years old). People getting cars in China is really on the rise. We saw a guy pulling out of a station and the seats still had the wrap on them and our driver just shook his head. When I said "new car?", he said "many new drivers in Shanghai now" and gave this big gusty sigh. He has been a driver for 5 years, so I imagine he's seen the good, bad & ugly.
Speaking of our driver, I had my very first real conversation with Daniel. It's a very odd thing sitting in a back seat and having someone drive you around. What kind of relationship are you supposed to have with a driver? Should we try to get to know him or should we keep our distance? We have a mini-van and the kids are in the very back seat, so I sit directly in front of them, which leaves Daniel in front by himself. And his English is pretty limited to things having to do with driving (where we're going, time, fast, slow, etc.) And I don't know how much he really understands, because I think often people can understand more than they can speak. Yet it seems a shame not to try to get to know someone who we end up spending a fair amount of time with. Anyway, I found myself in the car with Daniel without the kids a few days ago. I hopped into the front seat for a change and as we're riding along he asks me where we are from in US. I say "Portland, Oregon" but then have to explain how it's just north of California, which quickly establishes where we are from. California does have its uses for us Oregonians. :) But after that, Daniel and I were able to have a real conversation about various things, even though there were long long pauses and lots of hand gesturing to complete the conversation. I felt somehow that it was a break-through. Maybe we could end up being friends with our driver, maybe he could grow to enjoy our family? Who knows, but I'm hopeful.
As you know, I have been very frustrated with my inability to speak Mandarin and therefore communicate with people around me. Smiling and gesturing only gets you so far. Well, today begins the remedy for this, I hope! I had my very first Mandarin lesson. Sheesh. I can't remember when my brain and mouth worked so hard, and not in the way you think! Seriously, when's the last time I had to really concentrate and try to learn something new? It's been a while. (Not as long as riding a bike, but still a while!). And the sounds that I am expected to make with my mouth are just not possible in some cases! I have no idea how my tutor, Jessie, could sit through this lesson without cracking up. She would pronounce a letter for me, I would hear her, and then I would imitate it. HA! The crazy sounds that came out of my mouth while I tried to imitate!!! Even I was surprised by what came out. I just could not make my mouth make the same sounds that hers did. She went over and over it with me and I eventually started to get some of them. But there are 57 different sounds that I have to figure out. About 75% of them are sounds that we have in English, but the sound does not correlate with the letter like we would think. For example: i in Mandarin sounds like ee in English, and u sounds like oo, and ai sounds like "I" in English. It's maddening to try to remember what the English letters sound like in Mandarin! And that doesn't even touch the other 25% that are sounds that we English speakers can't pronounce. BUT! I learned some new useful phrases and my tutor called me "clever". :) I am totally intimidated about trying to learn this language, but on the other hand, this is pretty much the hobby I've been looking for! I have to stop shopping at some point. :)
Cheers!
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