Beep, beep, beep, beep, beeeeeeep

is the sound that the occurs in the Shanghai subway just before the doors close.

I ride the subway almost every day here. I work in Pudong which is about 5 miles away from our apartment and on the days I'm not working I'm going other places. A ride on the subway costs 3RMB one way (45 cents), with a volume discount each month if you use your transit card for more than 70 RMB in charges. Normally I travel during off peak hours due to my nights and weekends work schedule, but today I got to experience the joy of riding during rush hour.

The Chinese government mandated that, since New Year's Day is on a Tuesday, if employees wanted Monday off, everyone had to work on Saturday. Saturday, therefore, turned into a normal work day. Because everyone had to work, I was not supposed to teach (all my students would be at work), so my manager told me I didn't need to arrive until 9am for a training class. This put me smack dab into the middle of rush hour as I tried to get on the train at 8:30. After watching two trains pass, too full for even Chinese people to get on, I summoned my courage and pushed my way onto the third train.

Elbows, knees, backs, bags - I was completely smashed between a pole and three people. At the next stop, even more people got on. My Chinese teacher used the following example in one class, "America has a lot of trees, China has a lot of people." I agree and I think 50% of them were on the subway with me this morning.

Q - What has been your worst experience with public transit? Today was far from the worst I've had, once in Chicago my bus driver got lost and when I was in Europe we had some fun adventures with buses too. Share your stories.

Thank you for all the Christmas wishes and a very Happy New Year. Cheers!

A Christmas massage

More than I expected, Shanghai loves Christmas decorations. Everything from the bag at the bakery across the street to the displays in shopping malls seems to show Santa Claus (complete with reindeer) and Christmas Greetings. In almost every shop, employees wear Santa hats - from McDonalds to Carrefour. There are Christmas lights, Christmas music (with Chinese lyrics) and I had the day off work today.

That said, this is a secular event and it is not a holiday for 99% of Chinese people. There are no nativity scenes or messages of charity and goodwill. China has imported the "stuff" but not the real meaning. In the absence of the religious message, I have been pondering what makes Christmas truly special and is it possible to have an enjoyable Christmas on the other side of the world. After today, my answer is a resounding, "YES!"

Our holiday started last Friday when we went to dinner with one of Chris's colleagues my friend, Jonathan. Then on Saturday we met up with two other friends for Japanese curry and ice cream and Sunday was the KaiEn Christmas party. On Christmas Eve we went to a party thrown by one of our Chinese classmates, Natalie, and really enjoyed ourselves - rolling in about 1am, tired and happy.

For Christmas day we cooked a big American breakfast - eggs, pancakes and bacon and invited our upstairs neighbor Liz to share in the festivities. She provided two additional chairs and plates and forks. We have an entire set of chopsticks but never did get around to buying forks. Eating pancakes with chopsticks is almost impossible, as we found out. After she left we concentrated on relaxing - and I got a foot massage. One hour of bliss, including a short shoulder massage and scalp massage (for 75 RMB approx. $10). I drifted in and out as Masseuse #3 worked on my feet and thought of my friends and family who have supported me through this great adventure.

Christmas is about people. It is possible to celebrate anywhere because it is not the candy canes or the Santa hats that make it special, but the memories and stories that grow. The slideshow that I link to below shows some of the new friends I have made here who are helping me experience this wonderful city. I hope you enjoy it.

Christmas 2007

Merry Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad to you all.

Cheers!

你们好!

你们好! 我们学习中文。每天我们去学校由脚。我们的类总共有5 个人。

Nĭmen hăo! Wŏmen xuéxí Hànyŭ. Mĕitiān wŏmen qù xuéxiào zòu lu. Wŏmen de kè yígòng yŏu wŭ ge rén.

Chris and I have been studying Chinese for just over two weeks now. It is amazing the number of words and phrases that I can now say and remember. On the street I can pick out bits of conversation instead of everything being "blahblahblahblahblah... blah blah." It is amazing.

Our school is called Miracle Mandarin and initially we signed up for a four week intensive "survival Chinese" class. Class is every weekday morning from 9-12 and the school is very close to our house. We have three classmates, Marko and Marina are from Germany and Natalie from France. Our teacher, Chén Zhóu is from Beijing and she is an excellent teacher. Taking classes has made me realize two things: 1) Now that I am teaching as well, I have a greater appreciation for teachers and she is one of the best - enthusiastic, helpful - leading the lesson so easily that we don't realize how much we are learning. 2) My English students are amazing! Taking any class for three hours is difficult, but I can't imagine doing this at the very end of my workday instead of the beginning.

Mastering another language is one of the best feelings in the world. I knew that I had mastered Spanish when I began dreaming in Spanish when I lived in Spain. It's funny - now that I'm learning Chinese, random Spanish words and sentences keep popping into my head. For example "I" is "wŏ" in Chinese and "yo" in Spanish. Today I was saying something and "yo" found it's way into the middle of my sentence. It is the same part of the brain, I'm sure. I'm not sure I'll be here long enough to master Chinese, but it is a good goal.

We have been concentrating on spoken Chinese and the pinyin. Simplified Chinese characters are the first entry at the beginning of the blog, pinyin is the roman alphabet translation that you see below. Today we started to learn basic strokes for characters. I'm excited to learn, but it is overwhelming as it is so different from English. Thus far we have had elementary lessons on our family, buying things, bargaining, going to different places, etc. All of us in the class have decided that we will enroll for a second month at the school. After that, Natalie is going back to France and Marina and Marko want to enroll in a university program, so I'm unsure what will happen. I know I want to continue to study, but the time and place are TBD.

I feel very lucky to have such a good group of classmates. Natalie is throwing a Christmas Eve party at her place next Monday night. Chris and I both have to work, but we're going to come for the end of the party and eat dessert and celebrate the holiday with our new friends. I'll make sure to take some pictures.

Q - Have you studied another language or do you speak another language? Any funny stories? How did you know when you finally understood what was going on?

I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday and hope to hear from you soon and in the new year.
圣诞快乐! Shèng dàn kuàilè!
Merry Christmas!

G

The characters and pinyin at the beginning of this entry read: "Hello! We are studying Chinese. Every day we go to school by foot. Our class in total has 5 people."

After Six and a Half Years...

I just received the news that my PD plan has been accepted. I have completed all of the requirements to become an FSA (Fellow in the Society of Actuaries) save the FAC (Fellowship Admissions Course). Right now I am planning on taking the FAC after I return from Asia, but will have to contact the Society to establish the particulars.

Thank you to all of you who have supported me during this process, especially my parents, Derek Guyton - my PD reviewer and exam mentor for many sittings, Lisa Black - for making sure I had my priorities straight when I started work, Tony Mateja for rearranging my schedule so I didn't go crazy, Valerie Nelson and Ben York - for giving me study materials and lots of great practical advice.

Wow.

G

Five pairs of shoes

I got back from the gym on Wednesday to find five pairs of shoes outside my door. One pair was Chris's, but I didn't recognize the rest of them. I added my pair to the pile and opened the door slowly to reveal Chris, both of our landlords, an older lady wearing a red coat and a younger guy behind the TV.

After a round of "Ni hao, Nimen hao. [hello, hello]" I looked at Chris. He shrugged. I shrugged back.

Earlier in the week we had told our landlords we didn't understand how to work the DVD player and we thought it was broken. This was their solution. Chris had told me earlier while I was at the gym the landlords had appeared bringing their friend in the red coat. The three of them had brought a manual for the DVD player and were reading it, trying to get it to work. They had then disappeared, telling Chris that they would come back later. About ten minutes before I arrived home, they had come back with the younger man who was now behind the television trying to get the DVD player to work. As I was watching this spectacle, another person knocked on the door - another younger man who talked to man #1 behind the television. The two of them proceeded to starting switching the cables around for the next 15 minutes or so.

At this point, we had five Chinese people in our apartment and me and Chris - that's 7 pairs of shoes outside the door. The two younger man managed to get the sound to work, but still no picture. I was starting to get antsy because I needed to take a shower before I went to work and there was no way that was going to happen with so many people in the apartment. Eventually the picture popped in the screen, complete with Chinese subtitles. I have never been so happy to see "Family Guy" before. It was great.

Within five minutes of the DVD player working, all 5 of our visitors were gone. The two younger men disappeared very quickly, but I managed to convince our landlords and their friend in the red coat to pose for a picture with me before they left.






Q - What has been your greatest technological victory? A new cell phone? Wireless internet? An automatic garage door opener? How did you conquer it?

Thanks for all your comments and emails, I've been battling a cold the last week and hearing from friends and family makes all the difference. Cheers!

The point method fails

I have been ordering most of my food by pointing since I've been in Shanghai - hence the meat on a stick and the fish soup, and most of the other dishes that I've eaten on my own when there has not been a Chinese speaker with me. However, I have been learning food words with my language exchange partner, and have learned the words for pork, chicken, beef, rice, noodles and a few others. This weekend, I attempted to order beef soup with noodles.

I was at work and so during the morning break one of the assistants at work ordered for me. I told her I wanted niu mien (beef noodles), which implies soup. She looked at me a little strangely, but then I pointed to the soup, at which point she started nodding her head vigorously. I paid her my money (8 RMB, about $1.10) and went back to class.

During lunchtime, there was a large container of soup sitting at my desk. I opened it up and looked inside, noting that it appeared to be beef. When I stirred it with my chopsticks I noticed the beef looked a little strange - kind of furry. At first, I didn't think much of it, but when I tried to eat a piece it was incredibly chewy, kind of like eating pure muscle. I started to avoid it, but continued to eat the noodles and vegetables and peanuts out of the soup. One of the other teachers stopped over and commented that my soup looked good, so I showed him the meat. He started smiling and said, "I think I know what that is."

I had been eating tripe soup.

Tripe is beef stomach. I had never eaten tripe before and had never really intended to eat it here. I attempted to eat one more piece after we labeled it as tripe, but it just didn't go down. I finished the rest of my soup and continued with my day.

Q - What is the strangest thing you've eaten? Did you know what it was before you ate it? Was it good?

A side note- I can't believe it's already December. The weather here is in the 50s, down to the 40s at night with cloudy skies most days. People keep saying that it gets colder, so I'm a little nervous and am thinking about buying a space heater. In our apartment the heating comes from the air conditioning units which are all positioned high on the wall. Great for air conditioning, but since heat rises, not so good for heating. Hopefully it doesn't get too much colder here. Hope (most of) you are enjoying the weather in the Midwest!