China - Day 88 - China Retrospective

Wow, I made it. There were times that I seriously doubted whether I would last here, but I did. I don't know how I could write something cohesive about my experiences in China, so I'm going to resort to bullet points:

Things I'm going to miss:

• Being able to find milk tea everywhere
• Food being inexpensive and tasty
• The very impressive workshop at Allied
• Being good at basketball
• Exploring the city with my friends as an isolated group in a huge city
• The Shanghai Metro System and high-speed rail to Hangzhou
• Baozi and jiaozi. It's going to be hard to go back to eating Ling Ling
• Very kind and generous personal interactions

Things I'm not going to miss:

• Being stared at all the time everywhere I go
• Having to debone meat as I eat it
• Everyone smoking everywhere all the time
• Littering, spitting, people urinating everywhere
• The lack of personal space
• Monsoon weather
• Only having instant or overpriced coffee to drink
• Chinese "Beer" - an insult to beer
• Being functionally illiterate
• Not being able to drink tap water
• Everyone's lack of concern for safety
• Everyone's general disdain for strangers
• Getting the run around from my company when it's time to get paid
• Not being able to get a straight answer out of anyone
• Feeling like I'm risking my life every time I cross the street

Things I might miss or might not:

• People pushing/cutting in line - It's incredibly rude, but I'm good at it
• Never having to pay for a meal - Never being allowed to pay for yourself does get a bit insulting after a while
• Grocery Stores - They have some delicious surprises and some of the most foul "food" I've ever seen
• People watching - People act very differently in public than they do back home
• Chinese fashion - everyone tries to stand out and ends up looking silly
• Chinese ambition - People seem much more ambitious, but less creative here
• Strangers telling me I'm handsome - On one hand, it's very flattering. On the other, it's a very creepy way to start a conversation on the bus (which happened to me twice).

China - Day 87 - Going going back back to Cali Cali

Of course, the travel gods of China would make it difficult for me to leave. After Dr. Sun generously offered one of the company cars to drive me to my hotel in Shanghai, it was an hour and a half late. Why, you may ask? Because the street outside my apartment had flooded. After we finally hit the road, about an hour into the drive, we hear some knocking and have to pull off the road to check it out. I was worried that I wasn't going to make it to Shanghai, but the problem turned out to just be the under-engine plate guard, not a major problem. We fixed it with some rope and continued on to the hotel.

The flooding in front of my apartment building. I wasn't kidding.	While we were getting the car checked out I played with the mechanic's dog. Playing with dogs is the same in any language

The hotel turned out to be in the boonies, nothing like the area around airports in the states. I think it qualified as the Chinese suburbs. Either way, I was kinda disappointed. I checked into the hotel and I actually had a pretty nice room (free internet even). However, I didn't see any other guests there, which was a bit disconcerting (I later heard them having an argument later that night). I wandered around the area looking for dinner (eschewing hotel restaurants, which was a good idea in hindsight), but the pickings were slim. I grabbed some modest street food and retired to my room to watch far much more TV than is probably healthy for me.

My glorious 11 kuai (about $1.50) dinner.

China - Day 85 - Goodbye Xiasha

I wish I could say it was a tearful goodbye, but frankly, I'm glad to get out of here. My last day at work was a pretty good encapsulation of my summer and my experience in China. I spent most of the morning watching the Canadian contractors working on a test workpiece and chatting with them as the machines worked. When it came time to change fixtures we learned that the pallet changing vehicle had been fooled with, rendering it inoperable, so the rest of the day was shot. Later, I went to collect my final salary and was met with a number that was significantly lower than what I expected to be paid. The company had included a number of charges on my salary that shouldn't have been based on my contract, but it took a call to Denise, the program coordinator, to get them removed. I had accepted the fact that I wouldn't be making much money this summer, but to be nickeled and dimed like that really left a bad taste in my mouth. In an about face, I had dinner with the president of the company where I had a surprisingly nice steak and a nice conversation. These conflicting treatments by the company are a perfect example of the duality of my experience in China. And the cherry on top of the sundae of today: the power was out in my apartment when I got home (It was turned back on 15 minutes later after an annoyed phone call).

China - Day 83 - When it Rains, it Pours

Miraculously, I'm not talking about the weather, but rather basketball. After waiting 11 weeks for my company to finally play a basketball game, I get two in four days. We finally played the police and they were far and away the best team we played all summer. They were much more physical and organized than anyone else we played (this seemed painfully obvious in hindsight). For once we were actually the smaller team, and we got positively worked. It seemed like I was the only one of our players who could actually hold his own in the key, but I was pretty useless there when 3 guys would collapse on me (due to their very effective 2-3 zone). It did frustrate me that they played dirty (ironic), but I got over it (my bruises are still holding a grudge). We ended up losing, but the loss didn't sting, strangely. Probably due to my surreal "last week in China" feelings.

Work is... strange right now. I've been trying to self-teach about CNC milling in practice and helping to finish the set-up of the 1816 line. I come and go as I please; the autonomy feels strange in this type of internship, but I'm just trying to learn as much useful information as I can while not getting in the way. Actually, not getting in the way is kind of a problem because there are about 10 guys from Allied who watch the Canadian contractors setting up and running the machining, so it gets pretty crowded. Oh well, they'll be here after I'm gone, so I shouldn't feel too bad.

China - Day 80 - Once more around the lake

September 3
Friday, we finally had the company basketball game that I've been looking forward to all summer. The game went pretty well for my team (we won by about 30) and I had a good game; I think I ended up with more steals than points, which was strange, although not that surprising given my ballhawking and the lack of hustle by most of the players. It was a lot of fun to get out there and play for a team again. I think we might have another game on Tuesday, but that's still up in the air.

After the game, as per usual, we went out to dinner as a team. The meal was rather uneventful, but it seemed to drag on for hours as the guys kept drinking and smoking and talking. I could tell that they were occasionally talking about me because they kept using a few of the words I can pick-up in spoken Chinese: "Tang Mu" (my name), "laowai" (foreigner), "meiguo" (American), "ta" (him, accompanied by a nod or a point). After about an hour and half (and two beers, which was enough for me) I told Michael to stop ordering me beer because I was full, which is a sign that he usually understand means I'm ready to go. The drinking and the smoking continued and my mood deteriorated. I didn't want to be rude and cause a scene, so I went along with it, accepting a third (and fourth) beer and going along with all of the toasts and trying to follow the conversation that completely eluded me. I gave every non-verbal signal I could signifying that I was ready to call it a night: bored expression, staring into the distance, pretending to sleep, but nothing worked. I had to repeatedly shoot down offers of a "massage" (offered with a wink and pronounced "mah-sah-gee," which confused me for about a minute). It felt like I was being held hostage. After another hour (2.5 hours into dinner at this point, after all the other customers had left the restaurant and the management had turned off the lights), I firmly told Michael that I wanted to go home. Thirty minutes after that, we finally left. I was angry (in addition to being sore from the basketball game), so I wasn't very talkative. Michael seemed surprised that I was unhappy and was cautiously trying to make me feel better to no avail because the time for that was hours ago.

September 4
I went to work today, but I'm not sure why. When I try to find something to do, I'm told we have to keep waiting for a part to come in or there is nothing to do. Even my desire to teach myself CAD skills has deteriorated due to the amount of self-teaching I've done this summer. It's going to be an (un)interesting last week.

September 5
First things first, Stanford football. Other than my family (and one particularly resilient Volvo), nothing has been in my life longer, which made it especially painful that I was missing my first home game in 5 years. But, thanks to the aforementioned smallness of the planet, I was able to listen to the game on the KZSU website. We won big over Sacramento State, but I still wish I was there. Hearing the train whistle in the background didn't make me any less homesick.

China - Day 77 - Begin the Countdown

Wow, I'm leaving China in 10 days. It's hard to believe I've been here for almost three months, I'm actually starting to get used to it, but at the same time I'm anxious to return home to the life I led for 21 years before these last 3 months. It's going to be nice to go back to a place that I speak the language, but I'm not quite there yet.

Things have been excruciatingly slow at work this week. There are delays on the machining line set-up as we have to keep waiting for control parts. It's frustrating because I understand the problem, but not enough to help fix it, so I'm just waiting for parts to come in.

The good news is that our company basketball game looks like it's actually going to happen. We're scheduled to play tomorrow at 5, so hopefully nothing else goes wrong and I can actually play in the game I've been looking forward to all summer. We apparently have another game scheduled for Tuesday, so I might get two games in. I'm excited

The less good news is that the weather has been absolutely miserable for the last week and there are no indications of it letting up any time soon. There are currently 3 typhoons in the South China Sea that are dumping rain on Eastern China. Apparently they closed middle schools in Shanghai, it's that bad. Even though we're about 100 miles inland, we're still getting rained on. Woo.