Shanghai, 8 September. Lindsay G.'s birthday. Lunchtime.
I am sitting on the bed in the dorm, determined to make some progress on all the work that is piling up! But I have decided my first priority is getting in touch with you all again. You'll notice I've put a place in to finish off Japan , but if I do that now, the freshness of our transition to Shanghai will be lost. So here's what we're up to:
One group of students is off to celebrate Lindsay G.'s birthday with some of the other St. Olaf students participating in the Term in China program, and several other groups are off to find lunch in a variety of venues. On Tuesday (first China class focusing on food) we'll start compiling a list, but I have heard about hot pot, western style spaghetti, a “tastes like chicken; no tastes like fish – you guys, it's bullfrog!” experience initiated by a woman who has been to ECNU before, the intricacies of buying lunch tickets at one of the student cafeterias on campus (on the first floor you buy coupons and go pick out your food and hand over the appropriate amount; on the second floor, you explore the food selections, decide on what you want, try and determine the price, and then go buy a coupon for the exact amount), a few places with English language menus but still a bit challenging to order in, and a few laughs over the still-rather-opaque-to-us nature of food ordering in China. There's also a “Trust-Mart” grocery cum K-Mart type inventory store outside the main gate, but given our lack of kitchen facilities, I think it will be restaurant eating for most of our time in Shanghai . The live turtles and frogs, piles of freshly cut chicken, pork and beef being picked over by people with their bare hands, and various dishes which should be re-warmed for safety don't seem to mesh with on-campus living. Since the on-campus cafeterias charge around 3-5 quai for a meal (7.55 quai to the dollar) and a restaurant meal is about 20-25, so about 3 or 4 dollars, people are doing quite well on their per diems. Tomorrow we go to the Shanghai Museum for the afternoon so there will be two opportunities for eating downtown as well… not that some of them haven't already eaten downtown. They're energetic and if not knowledgeable, more than willing to travel with St. Olaf friends who have a week's worth of experience and some basic Chinese language.
Students are taking two classes right now – the Environmental Issues of China course and the Food, Farming and Families course which will continue throughout the program. We've had two lectures in the environmental course, both very sobering. If you want to read along with us, so far we've read the first three chapters of Elizabeth Economy's The River Runs Black . We've explored an historical perspective and the environmental costs of China 's economic growth. The students turned in their Japan journals for my course and I am looking forward to reading them later this afternoon and evening. They'll start reading selections from the course packet of articles about Chinese food culture and some material about cross-cultural interactions for Tuesday and chapter 2 of Feeding China's Little Emperors and another article from the course packet for Wednesday. It's always delicate to balance the experiential with the scholarly context, but I am working hard to help them see more deeply when they're out and about exploring.
I just got up to grab some chocolate from my desk and looked out the window. To the left of our dorm there is a building being refurbished. There are 5 men sitting in harnesses on individual bamboo slings with two 5 gallon paint buckets attached, painting the side of the building – 6 stories high. They must have locking descenders since they are lowering themselves. It may be safer than scaffolding but it makes the Wolf Ridge rock wall seem very, very tame. The campus is a beehive of construction activity and noise. They are building a new campus some distance away and refurbishing this one. It's hard to tell from the classroom whether there are thunderstorms about or buildings being tackled in some way or another.
Time to move on to other things... I need to buy water for drinking and brushing my teeth and scotch tape at the Trust Mart this afternoon, and then plunge into journals. Hope all is well with you.
Kris