China: day 2-4ish
Here are some interesting tidbits from my last few days in China...
Yesterday I went with my mom and a few relatives to visit my grandpa's gravesite. This is apparently a big deal in my family because they only go once a year and waited for me so that I could go with them. My mom and I left the house at around 7am to pick up my aunt because we had no idea where we were going. We got to the my aunt's place via a taxi and decided that since we were running late to take the taxi to the nearest subway station. It turns out the subway statation was on the other side my parent's house so we literally drove around in circles and wasted 25minutes. We took the subway to downtown Shanghai, which was supposedly by the bus stop that we needed to be at. It took us 15minutes to walk from the subway station to the bus stop. At the bus stop we waited for about 30-35minutes in the rain because buses in China runs late on rainy days. Then it took us another hour and 15minutes to get to the actual gravesite. That's 3 hours total. We were the last to get there and so we went to the gravesite, said some few things to a cement marker in the ground, put some flowers in a plant by the grave, and bowed our heads 3 times (didn't really understand this part, but I guess its what Chinese people do). We were at the gravesite for at MOST 20 minutes. We then waited 10minutes to get dropped off at the bus station and took an hour bus ride to one of my other aunt's places to have lunch. And then afterwards my mom and I walked 20minutes to catch a bus and road for another hour on a bus, then took a taxi to get home. In all I spent over 5 hours on the road and 20minutes at a gravesite. I did, however, manage to sit next to a smelly man on the bus and also caught a cold. Woohoo.
So the lesson from yesterday is this: transportation in China stinks! Walking, taxi, busing, it doesn't matter...it all takes forever.
Other actual highlights so far include seeing my little cousin (who thinks I'm like the best cousin the world), my senile grandmother (who at first didn't recognize me but then when she did hugged me and wouldn't let me go), being taller than most women and men, and spending time with the fam. I've also had my eyes reopened to the meaning of poverty but I will wait until after I get back from central China to talk about that.
Crappy highlights include having a "2nd hand smoker throat" (the pollution here is so bad that I have developed a continual scratch in my throat), having people stare at me all the time (apparently I look different), having a sore back from sleeping on a mattress that has the firmness of a wooden plank, not understanding what people say, not being able to read and therefore look stupid when I ask (which could explain why people keep looking at me funny), and catching a cold the 2nd day I was here.
I have however watched X-Men I and II, and bought Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (which I'm hoping will be able to be played in English), and will try to find and watch a pirated copy of the Da Vinci Code before I leave.
Finally, I have also learned that propriety does not exist in China. Don't ask me how I know, but trust me, I know.
Yesterday I went with my mom and a few relatives to visit my grandpa's gravesite. This is apparently a big deal in my family because they only go once a year and waited for me so that I could go with them. My mom and I left the house at around 7am to pick up my aunt because we had no idea where we were going. We got to the my aunt's place via a taxi and decided that since we were running late to take the taxi to the nearest subway station. It turns out the subway statation was on the other side my parent's house so we literally drove around in circles and wasted 25minutes. We took the subway to downtown Shanghai, which was supposedly by the bus stop that we needed to be at. It took us 15minutes to walk from the subway station to the bus stop. At the bus stop we waited for about 30-35minutes in the rain because buses in China runs late on rainy days. Then it took us another hour and 15minutes to get to the actual gravesite. That's 3 hours total. We were the last to get there and so we went to the gravesite, said some few things to a cement marker in the ground, put some flowers in a plant by the grave, and bowed our heads 3 times (didn't really understand this part, but I guess its what Chinese people do). We were at the gravesite for at MOST 20 minutes. We then waited 10minutes to get dropped off at the bus station and took an hour bus ride to one of my other aunt's places to have lunch. And then afterwards my mom and I walked 20minutes to catch a bus and road for another hour on a bus, then took a taxi to get home. In all I spent over 5 hours on the road and 20minutes at a gravesite. I did, however, manage to sit next to a smelly man on the bus and also caught a cold. Woohoo.
So the lesson from yesterday is this: transportation in China stinks! Walking, taxi, busing, it doesn't matter...it all takes forever.
Other actual highlights so far include seeing my little cousin (who thinks I'm like the best cousin the world), my senile grandmother (who at first didn't recognize me but then when she did hugged me and wouldn't let me go), being taller than most women and men, and spending time with the fam. I've also had my eyes reopened to the meaning of poverty but I will wait until after I get back from central China to talk about that.
Crappy highlights include having a "2nd hand smoker throat" (the pollution here is so bad that I have developed a continual scratch in my throat), having people stare at me all the time (apparently I look different), having a sore back from sleeping on a mattress that has the firmness of a wooden plank, not understanding what people say, not being able to read and therefore look stupid when I ask (which could explain why people keep looking at me funny), and catching a cold the 2nd day I was here.
I have however watched X-Men I and II, and bought Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (which I'm hoping will be able to be played in English), and will try to find and watch a pirated copy of the Da Vinci Code before I leave.
Finally, I have also learned that propriety does not exist in China. Don't ask me how I know, but trust me, I know.
posted by chen at 2:00 AM
1 Comments:
"having people stare at me all the time (apparently I look different)"
Chen, they're staring at you because you're hot.
" I have also learned that propriety does not exist in China. Don't ask me how I know, but trust me, I know."
Do they have different ideas about propriety based on their different culture? Or, are they just all jerks?
Another question: (and this may be ingnorant, I don't know) Could you have rented a car to drive yourselves around in for the day instead of trying the mass transportation? Don't your parents have a car there? (Again, this could be my oil-based economy talking... but I have heard that China's using up all the oil these days..)
Also, why is China so pulluted? What do they do to cause so much pollution, if so many people ride mass transit?
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