When In China

Since Sunday, June 26, I have been on the other side of the world in the ridiculously hot and humid, massively overpopulated country of China.

After the 14-hour flight, during which I hardly slept because China Southern's seats are so uncomfortable, I was surprisingly not tired, but full of energy. However, the wave of humidity and heat that attacked me right when I stepped into the Guang Zhou International Airport was just not a good first impression, especially at 4:46 a.m. It was also pouring outside. Never before had I experienced such a strange weather condition. Immediately, my skin started feeling sticky and I started sweating. It was nasty.

My mom, sister and I were supposed to check into a hostel quite far away from the airport, so we needed a taxi. But China has all of these people who station themselves at airports and pretend to be taxi drivers and lure you to their cars so they can drive you to your destination to earn money. I suppose that could be a respectably legitimate way to earn a living even without the proper license/ permit, but NOT IF THEY ARE LIKE THE DRIVER WE HAD. As we were exiting the airport, two ladies approached and hounded us to buy their SIM cards and to take their "taxi." We should have suspected something when they demanded 380 yuan before their so-called taxi even showed up. Their justification for such an expensive demand was that we had so much luggage (five suitcases and a duffel bag) which required a van. So we paid and waited for the driver to arrive, and he was so rude. We proceeded to give him the address of the place, and long story short, he basically pretended to not know how to get there even though he had a GPS and pretended that the person he was talking to on the phone said the hostel didn't exist. So he took us all the way back to a hotel close to the airport and told us it was decent. And he followed us all the way up to our room, which, in any other case, I would take as friendliness, but too much had gone on in the past hour for me to trust him. As it turned out, his "company" gets paid to bring in customers to that particular hotel, which was a complete rip-off. It was old and it smelled of cigarettes. We stayed in what we realized later was the very old side of Guang Zhou for two nights and experienced some INSANE traffic. Evidently, drivers here set out to kill. They clearly do not have the slightest intent to look out for, let alone give priority to, pedestrians. Crazy drivers, I tell you. Just plain crazy.

While in that part of the city, though, my mom's friends kindly drove us around to the nicer areas, where we did a lot of window shopping in addition to night-scenery strolling. These short trips made me realize yet again that there are different sides to everything, including cities. Although we lived in a rather unpleasant part of Guang Zhou, we still got to see some of what I imagine are the nicest parts of the city, for which I am very grateful.

On Tuesday, we trekked (via car by yet another one of my mother's good friends) to En Ping, my dad's hometown. We checked into a very nice hotel and immediately felt comfortable in a newly renovated room on the 16th floor. It was such a breath of fresh air compared to the one in Guang Zhou. After we checked in and put all of our luggage away, we headed toward my dad's relatives' home some ten minutes away. It was the first time I had gone to a relative's home in China since I was three years old. Although it was still rainy (it just kept raining everywhere we went that week!), going there was enjoyable. All of the adults were very nice, and we had dinner together, which was very fun. We stayed in En Ping for two nights and three days and had a feast with my dad's village neighbors and relatives. I got to see how he grew up and the people he grew up with, and it was very meaningful despite the many mosquitoes and the incomprehensible En Ping dialect all the elders kept speaking to me in.

On Thursday, we finally went to my mom's hometown in Tai Shan (spelling?), and the hotel was once again very nice. When we arrived at my mom's village, I was startled by the familiarity that struck me as I got off the car. I actually thoroughly enjoyed staying at my mom's home that day, doing laundry and playing with my baby cousin while waiting for a delicious dinner that my uncle and his wife in addition to neighbors diligently cooked for us. I really wished that we could have stayed longer. Tai Shan is so beautiful.

On Friday, we went back down to Fo Shan (spelling?) and had a delicious dinner with another group of my mom's friends (She's a popular lady, apparently!), then stayed at a BEAUTIFUL five-star hotel. The next morning, we woke up at 6 to go to yet again the Guang Zhou Airport to catch our flight to Shanghai, which we nearly missed because we took too long in the restroom...

It took two hours to get to Shanghai's Hong Qiao Airport, from which we were picked up by the friend of a friend, who took us to Shanghai Jiao Tong University. During the horrendous afternoon traffic (which is considerably worse than that of the U.S. considering the ridiculous ways the people here drive), I noticed quickly how nice Shanghai is. Soon, I came to understand that it is a tourist city, so everything that's nice is also expensive. In other words, Shanghai is just plain expensive! Except for food, which is cheap and good, like it is everywhere else in China.

Shanghai Jiao Tong University is a very nice campus. Of course, it isn't as nice and brick-y as UCLA is, but as one of the oldest (if not the oldest) universities in Shanghai, it's quite a sight despite the plethora of construction zones. The grass is green, the classrooms are clean (no rhyme intended) and the people aren't as rude as all the other Shanghainese people I have encountered outside of campus in the past week. Seriously, though, I have never met ruder people! Customer service workers obviously don't enjoy their jobs and instead of being nice to customers, they glare at them when they ask questions and ask, "What do you want?" instead of "How may I help you?" Restaurant waiters as well as managers just don't know how to do stuff. They ignore customers' requests and pleads for attention, and they don't know anything about the menu, constantly getting orders wrong and misinforming customers, subsequently getting into arguments with them. These arguments often also involve the manager or boss, who yell at the waiter right in front of everybody. This stems from my experiences from two or three different restaurants. And although it's few, still, WTF?

In any case, on Monday (the first day of class), I fell asleep in the second lecture, during both the movie and the lecture. I felt so bad... But then I did the same thing on Wednesday... But I stayed awake today! Although, I still didn't understand the movie. What is wrong with me?!

This entire week after class, though, I have hardly been in my dorm room (which is more like a hotel room), which is good, but that also means that I have been spending a lot of money (in RMB, anyway).

After class on Monday, M, J and I went to the mall to look for specific items they needed, after which I joined my mother and sister for dinner at the restaurant with stupid service. (I really wish China were on Yelp. I could write such helpful--or hateful--reviews of the restaurants and places here.)

Tuesday, a group of us went to the Shanghai Zoo via subway after class. It's such a big zoo! It was kind of sad, though, because everybody kept not even feeding, but throwing random items, at the animals, hoping to attract their attention, probably not knowing that what they're supposedly feeding them might harm them. And parents there were SO MEAN to their kids. One lady was trying to pose for a picture with her daughter, and the little girl kept moving around, and after a few seconds, she just got angry and yelled at her for being useless and put her on the ground so she could fix her own hair. Because of course your hair is more important than your child's desires... Of course. Another lady kept yelling at her daughter for playing with her inflatable toy giraffe. I had heard her yell at one point. And later, I saw her again, and the little girl had probably accidentally deflated the toy a bit, and the mother kept yelling at her to just stop trying to fix it, and then she angrily grabbed it away from her and used it to hit her, in the meantime hitting another stranger but not apologizing. The little girl proceeded to grab the leg of an elderly lady, whom I assumed was her grandmother, who didn't say anything. These parents would probably get reported in the States. It's horrible. On a brighter note, we all enjoyed the zoo despite the extremely hot weather.

After, MMR and I went to a lamb dinner with the two UCLA professors here. It was delicious. Never before had I eaten so much lamb in one meal! After the delicious dinner, we walked around Xin Tian Di, which is absolutely gorgeous at night with all of its colorful lighting and tall buildings, and looked for a place to get dessert. We ended up at Afternoon Tea, a pleasantly quaint place that serves desserts and tea/ beverages at night, had our sweets, and then went back to the hotel to do homework (but not really).

The next day after class, MMR and I went to dinner with M's cousin around Nan Jing East Road, another gorgeous tourist area with brilliant lighting (and many people!). We ate at a shady noodle place, where the soup base was so salty that the entire bowl of noodles just tasted like salt instead of anything we put into it. When we left, we noticed that a man was packing our leftovers into one take-out bowl similar to those of the restaurant next door. It was very strange... After a while of window shopping (and an actual 20 yuan purchase of two fruits...), we saw a man that we suspected was the same one packing our food from earlier and another man closeby eating a take-out bowl of noodles... Shady? Yes, indeed!

Yesterday, a different group of us went to Yu Yuan (a garden) and walked around and took in all the beautiful greenery. Although I didn't see a flower garden like I had very much wanted to, I was still satisfied because the trees and ponds were beautiful enough to suffice. We stayed for only a short while until we left to go to Tian Tong Lu, where all the bargaining shops are. It's analogous to Chinatown, but it's much bigger and more crowded. It was interesting, and most items can be very cheap if you can bargain and haggle like a Chinese person. Otherwise, you'd just get ripped off too easily. I didn't get anything, but I do plan on returning to get a few items (e.g. a belt!). Afterward, we went to the market nearby campus and bought a bunch of snacks and drinks to fill our refrigerators with. It was quite cheap shopping! Then we got Pizza Hut for dinner... The Pizza Hut's here are WEIRDLY NICE. Each one I have seen looks like a CPK. I guess Pizza Hut here is supposed to be a nice Western restaurant...

Today, I stayed in. Tomorrow will be a day-long field trip to various museums and attractions. More to come (with pictures) soon!