I cannot stress enough how different this place is from anywhere I've been to before. The language, the food, the culture, and overall, how the Chinese go about doing things. I know this sounds vague, I'll explain later. The city I'm living in ( Hangzhou) is quite big, like most Chinese cities. It has a downtown area, the rich areas, the poor areas, etc. The city itself isn't anything that different from maybe an industrial American city or a polluted Latin American one. It's not like I live near rice paddies or anything. There is also this beautiful lake that sits in the middle of the city called West Lake. There are some really nice cafés nestled around the lake, and at night its beautiful. We spend so much time studying during the week (and traveling on the weekends) that I don't think I've spent more than 20 min there total. One of my goals is definitely to go back and just sit and take some pictures (which I am notoriously bad at doing, I promise I will work on that and post them online….) Whenever I do venture out into the city, its with a purpose, and only from the window of my cab do I see Hangzhouren (the citizens) floating by. I don't really feel like I live here because I haven't yet had time to just explore.
I mentioned earlier about "how the Chinese go about doing things." I apologize for my language being sub-par, but you must remember that I haven't written an English essay in about 9 months. Two funny things that stick out:
1. KTV night- One night, I tagged along as some Americans and some Chinese kids went to a KTV bar. The last time I sang karaoke was in Germany in a loud, boisterous, beer-splattering atmosphere. I figured it would be more or less the same thing, with no one really knowing who was singing and who was just slurring. Wrong wrong wrong. We walked into the KTV place, which was a MASSIVE hotel like building with a front lobby. Like a hotel, you had to reserve a room. At this point, I realized that my hopes of a returning octoberfest were dashed. Our party was led into a private, very modern room. We had a long, black, wrap around sofa, a karoke machine, and a plasma TV. Did I mention that I can't sing (too embarrassed to do it in the shower), quickly read Chinese characters on a screen, and o, wait, speak enough Chinese? Yes. One by one, my "friends" (I use the term loosely) picked up the microphone and started belting away at the newest Chinese hits. I did't know any of them. I had no idea how many Chinese pop sensations there were. I had no idea how much people LIKED this crap. Finally, there was a knock at the door and the waitress came in to get our drink order. Whew! Now was the time to really get going. I ordered a beer, and expected everyone to follow suit. I AMERICA and GERMANY people are a few beers in before they even step up to the stage. Wrong, again. Everyone else ordered hot tea. HOT TEA???? Hot tea really gets them going on a Saturday night. Woooohooo. So much fun. Lets sip some hot green tea and sing along. Everyone, please join in. Anyone bring mahjong? Needless to say, I was relieved when the night ended. Chinese college students, unlike American students, don't really go out much. Going to bars is seen as a trashy, lower class thing to do. Especially the girls, like my roommate for example. On a Friday night, it would never cross their minds to get dressed up and go to a bar. Nope. KTV and hot tea all the way. When we (the Americans) go out as a group, we try to drag the Chinese guys along. For the most part, their first drinking experience has been with us. There you go: building international bridges between once tense countries. Good old fashioned ambassadors.
The second slightly amusing you-had-to-be-there situation was when I went to the doctor's for a mild cold. Let me just add that the facilities were really great because I went into the foreigners VIP section. They are really into the whole foreigner thing. I also mentioned that I am lactose intolerant and whenever I eat dairy, I feel really sick. There is no dairy in Chinese cooking, so I had to explain that I only eat dairy when I eat western food, and I eat as much of it as possible because I really don't like Chinese food (I kinda rushed through that part). I showed him my pack of Lactaid-pills (which I don't find work) and he just laughed.
He: when do you take this?
Me: before I eat pizza, for example.
He but if your stomach doesn't hurt yet, why do you take it?
Me: it's a preventative
He: why are you taking extra medicines
Me: to prevent. In America, its over the counter
He: if you cant tolerate it even when you take the medicine, why eat the pizza?
I was stumped.
He prescribed me some western and Chinese medicine for my cold.
I also realized how ridiculous the pack of lactaid pills looked in the room. It's big and blue and has big red letters "Lactaid" splayed across the front and a picture of a huge ice cream cone and some weird psychedelic pattern in the background. I don't know why, but all of a sudden, I realized how much time and money is spent on designing medicine boxes to make them more attractive, where in the rest of the world, its just a small white box with the general and scientific name and ya esta. In India, there wasn't even a box. Just some pills in the shrink wrap thingy in a make-shift stapled-together magazine envelope. The box was as loud and obnoxious as me saying: I want to eat pizza because I hate the food here, can you please give me some pills?
Then, I went to Carrefour (the French chain supermarket) and stood in the imported foods aisle for a bit. That was fun. There are so many people pushing and shoving that I normally just put in my ipod headphones and shop away. I like the juxtaposition of laid-back Spanish music while the following scene takes place: eight people all grabbing at the same box of knock-off brand Tide detergent. When I went to go buy a mattress pad (because in the dorms, I might as well be sleeping on a wooden plank), I had to ask the assisting lady some questions in Chinese. She rattled on about size, shape, depth, etc of the mattress pad. Another worker overheard and came to help (this is very typical, you can't just browse alone) and they started talking to me as if I understood. I meekly smiled as I placed the mattress pad into my cart. As I walked away I heard "For a foreigner, she understands very well." I wanted to turn around and yell "No I don't. I have no idea what youre saying. I have no idea how to say featherweight, down, quilted or twin size." They speak too fast for me! And from some people (like in the hospital) I still get this jaw-dropping look. What is this white girl doing here? Although we are only about 3 hours from Shanghai by train, there aren't many expats in Hangzhou. Around the university though, we (more or less) fit in a bit more. What makes it more obvious is that it is perfectly acceptable to stare and comment when we walk by. A few weeks ago, for instance, I was at a fruit stand, about to pay, when the cashier and her friend started to loudly discuss the length of my foreign eyelashes. A second later, a male friend of theirs stuck his face about 1 cm from mine to get a closer look. Perfectly acceptable.
Okay, I think that is where I will leave things for now. This weekend, my class is taking a trip to the beach and then some mountains for some swimming in the creeks. I'm really excited. I'm also excited to get out of the heat of Hangzhou and of the overly-helpful Carrefour ladies.
Until next time,
Love
Liwei
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