I have never experienced so many ups and downs in such a short period of time. Maybe this is part of being 22 years old (as Taylor Swift has so aptly put it, “We’re happy, free, confused, and lonely at the same time/ It’s miserable and magical, oh yeah”).
Moving to Shanghai has been a roller coaster. I’ve been excited, nervous, frustrated, amazed, angry… the list goes on! I find the city really incredible. It’s huge, and I am now one of about 1 million foreigners here and one of about 23 million people… talk about massive!
As hard as the apartment hunt has been, I have enjoyed getting to see parts of the city. I jump on the subway and head to random stops and just start looking around. Everything is big, busy, and filled with people. One such occasion actually led to a very interesting experience. A day or two ago I headed to People’s Square in order to meet a realtor to look at an apartment. Deciding I had a little extra time, I left my hotel early and went to see what People’s Square was all about before I met her. Getting off the subway I chose a random exit and walked out. As I was looking around, trying to figure out where I was and where to make my next move, a middle-aged man walked over to me and asked me to take a picture of him and his friends.
I was somewhat surprised by this considering he was Chinese and asked in near perfect English, I readily agreed. I snapped a picture of them and after confirming that the picture was good, he asked me where I was from. I answered that I was from the U.S. and was an English teacher here. We spoke a bit more, talking about my Chinese (which I had attempted using during all of this) and how I was looking to keep practicing. After a few minutes of small talk he and his companions invited me to have tea with them. Deciding that I was not about to miss out on an opportunity to talk with people in Chinese and have an experience, I agreed.
We walked a few minutes more to a traditional tea place speaking in “Chinglish.” Inside the tea place we all sat down in a small room with a man dressed in traditional garb who served us the tea. He spoke about the history of tea and its health benefits. I couldn’t tell you what kind of tea we drank because between trying to speak to my new found companions and trying to understand the tea history, that fact was lost on me. What I did learn was how to properly drink the tea (we drank out of tiny, one gulp-sized cups) and how to hold the cup. We learned that first you should smell it, then you should drink it in three sips, and that it had great health benefits for your lungs and kidneys.
After a couple of these rounds of “sips,” I told my companions that I had to leave to meet a realtor. They immediately said no problem and we all prepared to leave (I hadn’t meant for them to leave too, but it seems that they were ready to move on as well). We paid, received very pretty Chinese knots for good luck and headed out. After walking to about where I was supposed to meet the realtor, I said goodbye. I thanked them for their company and told them I was very happy to meet them and we headed our separate ways.
This exchange was random but demonstrative of the type of interactions possible when you just let yourself be open to new things. My time in Shanghai so far has not been easy, but it’s an experience like this that makes me appreciate how lucky I am to be in China and to remember to keep an open mind.
我从来没有在这么短的一段时间内经历过这么多的跌宕起伏。
搬到上海即是一个巨大的转变。我一直在兴奋、紧张、沮丧、惊讶、
寻找住处很艰难，但同时我也乐忠于看到这个城市的各个地方。
考虑到他是中国人并且操着一口近乎完美的英语，我感到些许惊讶，
我们走了几分钟来到了一个用“中式英语”称呼的传统茶馆。
在几轮这样的“小酌”后，
这种交流是随机的，但却是一种典型的交互类型，