Welcome to China

Unit 2: China

Lesson 1: Culture shock is a myth

If you are an American and you are going to a non-tourist infused part of China, you will not experience culture shock.  You will experience culture electrification.   I consider myself fairly well traveled, and I have a laid back character that typically allows me to adapt well to most situations.  But when I entered the land of the Dragon, I had the sinking feeling that I was going to get eaten alive.  Below is an account of my initial experience:

I departed in a whirlwind.  In the month leading up to my trip, I had more Drs. appointments than I had in the last two years combined.  For my visa requirements I had more shots and needles than I care to mention, a chest X-ray and EKG amongst other things.  Additionally, I had to visit various foot specialists because Murphy decided to throw down the law and have me severely sprain the ligaments in my left foot at the one time when I really needed both feet to work.  This meant that I had to help with the company Office Move, move out of my apartment, and run all of my errands while hobbling around on a fashionable clunky gray walking boot.  All of this chaos left very little time for me to devote any thought to what the upcoming months would bring.  I managed pack the next year of my life into my luggage the night before my flight to San Francisco, where I applied for and mercifully got my Visa a mere two days before leaving the country for Cambodia.  I left the boot and my sanity behind.  

While in Cambodia, my thoughts were generally occupied with TESOL class related material, and with the notion that, “Holy shit, I’m actually in Cambodia!”  The month with my new friends in Phnom Penh was like a chaotic dream sequence of seeing the sights, living the life and experiencing general jubilation. It was with a jolt we all woke up one day and realized we had a plane to catch to China. 

The day I got to China quickly turned into the day I wanted to leave.  My first thought upon stepping of the plane was, “Holy shit, I’m actually in China!”  My second thought was, “Why did I leave Cambodia again?  And when is the next flight back?”  I hadn’t planned on loving Cambodia so much, and I certainly hadn’t anticipated how much I would miss it and the people I had met there.  Be that as it might, I was in Hefei now, the place that would be my home for the next six months.

Hefei (Pronounced Huh – fay, and is particularly fun to say with a Borat accent) is a small Chinese city of about 3 – 5 million people.  While gazing through the windows of the roller-coaster cab ride from the airport to my apartment, I made several observations.  One: drivers are crazy in China.  Two: there is nothing charming about the Hefei skyline, partly because it’s hard to see through all the smog, and partly because all of the buildings give the same dripping gray oppressed look as though they are suffering as much from the heat and sooty humidity as the people are.  Three: there is a surprising amount of nicely landscaped, brand new shrubbery about.  Four: The people do not look happy. 

Three Chinese teachers had picked me up from the airport at 3:30; we waited about 45minutes for a cab, then finally got to the apartment at about 5pm, put my luggage in my room and promptly got back into a cab and were off to the Aston School.  They gave me a tour of the building and facilities, then we all scampered off to a restaurant for some authentic Chinese food.  We stayed there until about 8pm and finally, FINALLY I was taken back to the apartment.  I was exhausted and was really looking forward to some much needed sleep.  I figured I would spend the next day unpacking and unwinding before training and then teaching in the following days.  As I was getting out of the cab, the manager said to me, "Ok, we will pick you up at 8:00am tomorrow morning.  There are many things we need to do.  Bye bye!”

The next few days were a similar blur of frenzied activity, some of it necessary, much of it pointless.  There was never actually a day for me or my roommates to get settled in, and anytime I had a minute to pause, the only thing that kept running through my head was that I had made a huge mistake.

[To get a glimpse of my life in Hefei, please visit here: http://picasaweb.google.com/109552124545770534057/LifeInHefei?authkey=Gv1sRgCJPPrqmfqs-fzgE]