3 Pools Mirroring the Moon

I know I have been bad about posting blogs, but I promise from here on out that you will hear from me at least once-a-week. I know I’m mad late but I heard Memorial Day everywhere back home was off the chain from NYC to LR to LA. . .I take solace in the fact that America is where I will be going after here. . . . but Shanghai still remains fit for a King:-).

My Labor Law Service Center project experience is nothing like a corporate experience that one might expect in the U.S., or even here in China. Since my mastery of the Chinese language is non-existing, my “on-the-job experience” is a limited one. My main contacts speak English; however, they write it much better than they speak it. Communications in meetings tend to be nothing more than scribbles on a piece of paper—mines and theirs. It takes longer to get something done, but progress is being made nonetheless. We are braced to start applying for grants and the first organization on the list is the Dutch Embassy!! Everyone at the office can speak English; but most are either too embarrassed to try or feel as though since I am in China, I should be speaking Chinese. They got a point. I know most of you say that about folks back in the U.S. . . as long as you people are here, you should speak English!!

The Center’s hours are from 9am-5pm—just the same as governmental and non-governmental organization (NGO) back in the States. Of course, I do not get paid but after a conversation with a cab driver the other day, I’m starting to think that maybe I should be getting a slice of this Asian pie.

En route to club Sin, a cab driver who spoke good English just flat out asked me how much money I was making here in China. When I told him that I was not making anything he laughed at me and said that I should be getting at least ¥20,000 (Yaun) per month as a lao wai (which literally means foreign devil, the term most Chinese use for outsiders). He elaborated further. . .”anything less they cheat you!” He basically told me to get paid—or at least if he were me, that is what he would be doing. 20,000 Yuan per month averages out to roughly $3,333.00 USD (United States Dollars) which is a little under $40,000 per year which isn’t bad by our standards and in China that is plenty. I can eat each day for under $3 if I wanted to—and that is if I ate out every day! Of course it would be street food, but after 2 weeks your stomach gets used to it and you can hold it down for the most part. But just like the cab driver said and from what I have seen thus far, opportunities are everywhere here in Shanghai, especially for foreigners. They show face on every corner, in every shop, alley, and subway station. Fact: I have turned down two job offers already!! I’m here for an IPSP and I have to go back to Arkansas to finish up my last year of school. I’m wondering. . . what is your excuse? If it were not for the aforementioned, I would be getting it ya’ll. But enough $$ talk, let me tell you about where I live.

Directly above me on the 23rd floor there is this cute elementary age Chinese girl who can play the piano like it is no one’s business. Real talk, I just sit in my living room listening, relaxing and writing/working. She gets it in almost every night sounding like Fredic Chopin or Ludwig van Beethovan. I swear it puts me on a different mental wave-length. She makes me believe I can solve anything. . .I’m getting to maybe slowly but surely.

Both my mother and father have always told me to be careful of what and who I bring into my home. I was warned that every person I meet in this life is not meant to step foot in my house and that I should be careful of the items (including gifts, thrift shop purchases, etc) that I choose to bring into my home. There is energy in us and in things. . .and just as the earth has negative and positive poles, so goes the disposition and orientation of any and everything that exists upon it. I was taught that as a young boy by my parents.

My crib in Shanghai is littered with statutes of Terracotta warriors—actually they are replicas of Terracotta officers-high ranking officers-that served the very first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. More than 200 years before Christ these brave men served Emperor Qin Shi Huang and he buried over 20,000 of these soldiers including calvery and weaponry in his tomb to protect him in the afterlife. What is crazy is that not 1 of the 20,000 soldiers have the same faces! This dude was dead serious and obviously knew something about this transition we call death that most do not.
This makes me think hard though, because the ancient civilization of Kemet, or Egypt as it was later called, practiced this long before Qin Shi Huang built his elaborate grave. This tells me that there had to be some contact between the two: not only contact, but influence. This makes me smile because I know I have friends in the statues that are living with me. There is great peace in my place and I hate leaving the crib. Truthfully, I couldn’t ask for any greater protection—I’m safe in Shanghai friends and fortune is one my side.

2 classmates and I met up and took a high speed train to Hangzhou, China—a sub-provincial city located in the Yangtze River Delta about 120 miles southwest of Shanghai. Hangzhou is known for its wealth (for like the last 1,000 years or so) and the picturesque scenery of the great West Lake among other things. The scenery was beautiful and aesthetically pleasing. It was a great break from Shanghai. There are nothing but buildings for miles and miles in each direction you look and travel. I am not exaggerating. NYC has nothing on Shanghai in terms of what a concrete jungle looks like.

Back to Hangzhou . . . We had two locals, Roger and C, that Becca had met on her plane ride over show us around Hangzhou. I ate chicken feet (which Trinidadians eat too but its prepared different) and river snails. . .lol. I had a bowl of river snails on my plate ya’ll. I actually had to take the snail out of the shell and bit the head off and throw out the tail! I just had to try some traditional Chinese food while I was there!! It tasted like liver to me, but trust that would be the last time I eat anybody’s snail. I took pictures with random folks as they stopped me wanting me take a photo with their kids, children, and spouses. It was kind of strange but in a good way. I posted a link for you guys to view some flicks . . . please check it out. And as I promised in the beginning—I will be posting blogs at least once a week. I hope you miss me as much as I have missed you all. Ima holla. . .1.

***Getting to Maybe is a book introduced to students at UACS written by Frances Westley, Zimmerman, and Patton. I highly recommend this book. It will change your mind, perspective, and goals—assuming you have all, or at least one of the three.