Craig Does China (Hangzhou)

So, I'm in China. I've been in China for a couple of days now, and already there is way too much experience and information to sort through to effectively put down on paper.

All I can say is that it is weird because on one hand I am in a completely different world, but on the other my existence is the same as it ever was. I could sit in my room and be comfortable, just as if I were sitting in my room in San Luis Obispo; or I could step outside onto the street where there are few traffic rules (similar to Mexico), all the people are Chinese (similar to Chinatown), and no one speaks any english...that is that part that is the crazy thing. That, and I dont have any backup. For the first 2 days I didnt have a friend to fall back on in any manner. There are some people whom I have come across who have the potential of being friends, but they hardly speak english, so all the things that you have come to base friendships on are not there. There are no jokes, there are no random deeper conversations, and you have to work to accomplish anything.

I am on my own, and I have never felt more alone in my life, but that is only partially true. I have found that people are very friendly and are usually willing to help. Meet Jonze:

He was my neighbor on the train from Shanghai to Hangzhou.

I had originally intended to put a caption under this picture noting that the Chinese are genetically prone to falling asleep with their chins in their chests in any situation, but once Jonze woke up, I found there was much more to him than serving as a stereotypical example of a Chinese guy on a train. He proved to be super friendly and let me share the taxi to the other side of town with him. He even insisted on buying me a map (in chinese) of Hangzhou, dispite the fact that I had money...then he tried to give me more money for no apparent reason other than his kindness. He works in Shanghai with robitics/automation and seeks to work for an american company because they pay higher salaries. (He currently gets ~4500 RMB/month, divided by 8.1 = roughly 550 USD. I will definately call him when I get back to Shanghai, just as sure as I will call Alice, the girl who traveled an hour by taxi to pick me up at the Pudong airport and bring me to my hotel in Shanghai.

Ok, so enough rambling. Let me show you my apartment in Hangzhou:

Looks pretty nice from this shot, but its pretty dirty, and the stairwell, as I mentioned in my email leads down to one of the spookier basements I have ever seen. I went down really quickly, poked my head around the corner, then scurried back up the ramp. Maybe if I am feeling saucy later I will take a picture of the infinite dark maze that is around the corner.








So yeah, then there is my living room, bedroom and bathroom
















Ok, so my roommate Mike from Denver, CO. just woke up and told me among other things, that I will get sick, and we recently had cockroaches..."not the little kind either" and he gestured to something along the lines of 4 x 2 inches. They arent afraid of people, and will stare you down if you come across one. If I come across one I will have no choice but to put my arms up and try to look like the bigger animal. Oh yeah, and he says that you dont step on them because then you will track eggs into your room...then you will have problems. Regardless, Mike says the experience is great (he's been here for 2 months) and the school is good.

Regarding the bathroom, I have found that the toilet doesnt flush all that well, so you have to be stratigic about it, but Mike adamently says that we live in the nice neighborhood, and I guess I believe him.

I just walked down to the grocery store with Mike (who I would now, to your relief, consider a friend) and I do believe that we live in a good neighborhood. I bought some breakfast which was some bread with onions, and some bread with mystery meat in it. I find that hanging out with Mike, in itself, opens my mind. He says "Eh, it aint going to kill you, try it if you want." I think that being pier pressured is one thing, but having a pier with indifference will break down even more barriers. I'm like: "Uh, oh yeah? Well, maybe I DO want to try it"

Also I learned something else while walking with Mike: You will see alot of ladies walking around with umbrellas, riding scooters and bikes wearing jackets backwards to cover their arms, and walking around with tinted face shields on. Apparently, the people in Hangzhou look down upon dark chinese people (like me) as field workers, so they will go through great measures to keep themselves from getting tanned. I just now had the thought to put a picture of one on this blog, stood up, looked out my window, and took this picture. Almost every girl walking around here is weary of the sun.

So I hope this is a good starter for you all. Things are very inexpensive, I just bought what I would estimate to be 40 USD worth of groceries for 139 RMB, which is the rough equivalent to 17 dollars. My train ticket yesterday cost the equivalent of 5 USD. It is HOT here, like the kind of hot where you dont care about anything else. One day I will take a picture of Mike walking around town. He gets pretty sweaty, like boxing gym sweaty, and the picture will be a good representation of the weather. I'm actually beading up alittle myself.

I'm doing well, much better now that Mike is here, and I suspect things will get even better when I meet the other people at school tomorrow. I am alittle more comfortable now, but I still have to wonder if any of the meat I am seeing/eating here is Kudra.


Take care. 8/12/06