Comments from Sichuan...

Notes on Food: One of my classmates with considerably more China experience than me loves to shock people with the following observation: "Dog doesn't taste bad, in fact I would eat it again. But donkey meat is horrible." While I have yet to knowingly encounter a dish featuring man's best friend, in my humble opinion, it's pretty easy to adapt to some foods that visitors to China consider to be less orthodox. Pig stomach? Delicious. Duck throat? Wanted to try it, but I wasn't fast enough-- it was all gone before I got my piece. Chicken feet? A bit too crunchy for my tastes, but if you like the wings I don't understand what's stopping you.   Adventures in Chinese Plumbing: I have the tendency to botch perfectly good jokes, but bear with me on this. There's this one about how bad the world would be if the Germans ran all the police, the French the hotels, the English the kitchens, etc. I think you can probably add to that the Chinese as the world's plumbers. I mean it's really a tragedy sometimes what passes for drainage here. Do not get me wrong: I am not skilled in the ways of the toilet, of wastewater, or of sink repair and maintainence. But it certainly seems as though no one else here is either.   Anti-Marketing Campaign: I'm not going to go into too much detail about the way business is done in China, because half of it is cliche and the other half is not worth explaining. Suffice it to note that at times, because of seniority, tenure, being well-connected, or maybe just pity, sometimes a person ends up in a position where they really don't belong -- this of course happens in America and Germany as well. My class happened to encounter a particularly well-entrenched "marketing professor" here. After much deliberation, we voted as a class to ask the administration to provide us with a different lecturer, one who actually knows something about marketing, lets the students ask questions and whose mobile phone doesn't interrupt class every 15 minutes or so. And to our general surprise, we were successful in our request... except for the fact that they didn't tell the about-to-be-releived professor she was getting the sack until after the whole class already knew it. In order to save her face, we were asked to keep the fact to oursevles until this particular educator could be let down softly by the dean. So the whole last session felt like a three hour long breakup with a girlfriend/boyfriend who hasn't yet caught on. Why is only half the class here today? Why did only three of you do the homework? Don't you like me?

Update and Mobile phone pictures from Chengdu

We've been pretty busy getting settled in and exploring our new neighborhood and environs, so there hasn't been much chance for blogging and the like. But here are a couple of mobile phone uploads and a brief message from me (Nate). All is well and we're having a pretty good time. The weather is often raining but sometimes suprisingly beautiful... a couple of days ago we had blue skies and sunshine.   Will blog again soon with more and better pictures.

These are Conny's thoughts about our arrival in Chengdu (from Aug 17). Ja, wir haben es geschafft: mit Sack und Pack, und weder eine Tasche oder ein Kind verloren zu haben, sind wir genau nach Zeitplan in Chengdu (China, Provinz Sichuan) angekommen! Und uns gefällt es - allen eigenen und uneigenen Unkenrufen zum Trotz - bisher sehr gut. Der Flug verlief erstaunlich gut - Sophia und Emmi haben gut geschlafen und wir eigentlich auch. Für Sophia war das Tollste, dass sie an ihrem Sitz ihren eigenen Fernseher hatte, auf dem sie Sesamstraße und Miffi ansehen konnte. Und natürlich der Flughafen in Amsterdam mit geschenkten Luftballons und Laufbändern (wie heißen die eigentlich... Nate nennt sie "people movers") soweit das Auge reicht. Unser Freund Tang hat uns dann hier am Flughafen begrüßt und uns geholfen unser Gepäck (8 Koffer/ Taschen/ Rucksäcke) und uns in zwei Taxis zu buggsieren (wobei der Fahrer lässig im Auto sitzen blieb... die können sich das hier leisten). Dass wir dabei den Kinderwagen nicht verloren haben (ja, wir haben ihn doch mitgenommen...), ist ein kleines Wunder, denn der hing während der ganzen Fahrt (bei bis zu 100 km/h) halb aus dem Kofferraum, weil er zu sperrig ist. Achja, und natürlich hatte das Taxi Schonbezüge, aber keine Klicker für die Gurte (die waren ja darunter versteckt). Ihr könnt euch denken, wie ich mich mit Emmi auf dem Arm und Sophia neben mir gefühlt habe! Aber wir sind gut angekommen und müssen uns für zukünftige Taxifahren eine Strategie überlegen... Das Wetter hier ist wie angekündigt: schwülwarm und immer bedeckt. Uns erinnert es an das Klima in Housten, und es riecht auch so ähnlich hier (obwohl die Luft doch nicht so schlecht ist, wie ich befürchtet hatte - wir wurden bisher von Hustenanfällen u. ä. verschont). Sophia gab heute allerdings bekannt, dass sie "den Regen so mag" und "spazieren gehen" möchte... In der Nähe gibt es auch tatsächlich einen Park, den "Volkspark", der allerdings ziemlich unter der Verschmutzung und den vielen Spaziergängern zu leiden hat. An jeder Ecke gibt es etwas zu kaufen (Essen, Bücher, Spielzeug) und man findet Tai Chi, Meditation und - nicht immer zur Erholung geeignet - Karaoke, wobei hier besonders weibliche Talente auf eine Entdeckung hoffen, indem sie - mehr oder weniger gekonnt -  besonders hohe Töne anschlagen. Bei einem Spaziergang durch den Park werden wir schon eher verwundert oder neugierig angesehen, auch um Fotos gebeten (ein Angebot, das Sophia jedesmal ausschlägt...), aber im Großen und Ganzen auf sehr freundliche Art und Weise. Allerdings: am Flughafen in Amsterdam wurde Emmi von einer Frau Nates Armen entnommen und erst einmal eine Runde getragen, geknuddelt und geküsst (was sie eher mit Erstaunen hinnahm), und selbst meine Bitte, das Kind zurück zu geben wurde ignoriert. Erst als ich offensiv mein Baby der Frau wegnahm, waren wir wieder beruhigt, doch hätte ich sie vielleicht doch selbst halten sollen, denn schon 5 Minuten später wiederholte sich die Szene ;) Das war nicht schlimm, aber seither sind Nate und ich besser auf solche Situationen vorbereitet... Unser Treffen mit der "Grandma" im Hotel verlief auch ohne Probleme (sie war schon einen halben Tag länger da und konnte die Nachtzeit dort ausgiebig zum Schlafen nutzen), und sie und Sophia haben sich sofort (wieder) gut verstanden. Neue Spielsachen helfen bei sowas natürlich. Das ist sehr praktisch, denn die beiden teilen sich ein Zimmer. Das Hotel ist gut klimatisiert (hätte nicht gedacht, dass ich sowas mal schreibe...), was die Luft auch trocken hält. Anderfalls wäre es wirklich ziemlich ungemütlich hier. Wir wohnen ziemlich weit im Zentrum, und eine große Straße führt vor dem Hotel vorbei. Und als wäre nicht genug Platz, fahren auf dem Fußweg außer Fahrrädern auch gleich noch Mopeds. (Inzwischen ist die Mitte des Fußwegs also ein Rad-/ Mopedweg geworden.) Ein Foto davon habe ich leider noch nicht. Gestern waren Sophia und ich auch mal "einkaufen". Obwohl der Laden sehr klein war, gab es eine Unmenge an Knabbersachen und Getränken. Am Ende hatten wir eine lustige Sammlung davon, wobei Sophia die Reis-Puffs (wie heißt das auf Deutsch? wird "Puffreis" wirklich noch verwendet???) mit Weinbeergeschmack am liebsten mochte. Überhaupt ist sie sehr fröhlich und möchte alles ausprobieren: das Telefon natürlich, Essstäbchen, die grüne Seife, Parkbänke, Seifenblasenpuster, alle möglichen Knöpfe, den Wasserautomaten im Hotelzimmer ("Mama, möchtest du Wasser?" fragt sie mich sonst nie...) Thema Essen: Wir sind derzeit noch etwas konservativ, was unsere kulinarischen Abenteuer angeht. Reis und Nudeln, möglichst "bu la" (nicht scharf), sowie Hefeknödel ("bao zi") und Obst. Aber es ist ja erst unser 3. Tag... Wohnungssuche: Nate hat gestern den ganzen Tag damit zugebracht, zusammen mit Tang Wohnungen zu besichtigen (mit einer (chin.) Maklerin von "Century 21", einer amerikanischen Immobilienmakler-Kette), und wir sind jetzt schon ganz zufrieden mit der Auswahl. Heute schaut er sich noch eine Maisonettenwohnung an, was für die Zweiteilung zwischen Saunders-Familie und Grandma ganz praktisch. Aber es scheint so, dass wir wahrscheinlich sogar eine Wohnung mit Zentralheizung haben werden, was mich sehr erleichtert, weil der Winter hier so nasskalt sein soll. Ich hoffe, nun endlich alle eure ersten (ungestellten) Fragen beantwortet zu haben, und damit das "Schreib mal, wenn ihr da seid." erstmal getan zu haben.

Leaving for China tomorrow

So, after lengthy anticipation, we're leaving for Chengdu tomorrow. One of us will occasionally try to post updates here.

Since from China we can only add content to the blog but not so easily edit it, we apologize in advance for errors, bad spelling, etc.

a weekend in Shanghai

Nathan and Shanghai skyline

Nathan went to Shanghai over the weekend to visit a friend of ours that we met right around the time when Sophia was born. Since then, he got his PhD here at the TU Berlin, and then he returned to China. He was apparently the perfect host, showing Nathan around and refusing any kind of present or well-meant gesture. ;) At any rate, our friend and his wife will have a child soon... and Nathan suggested that'll be our time to reciprocate. Here is his account of the weekend:

Last night I went to dinner with Jianpei... it turned out that his wife had another engagement, so I didn't get to meet her, unfortunately. I guess he also isn't feeling all that well. I was totally surprised, because he sent me a text message just before we were supposed to meet saying that he was at the hospital getting "tropfen(be)handlung" and that he would meet me a little while later. (He of course showed up almost exactly on time.) Of course in Germany of the US, you only get an IV if you have a serious illness or something, but here it is far more commonplace. I guess he had a bad headache and decided to take himself to the clinic. I felt kind of bad, but he insisted there was no problem.

Before I met him I had bought a nice box of oranges to give him and his wife (here they take fruit and wrap it really nicely for giving as gifts) and he refused to take it. He also insisted on paying for just about everything we did together yesterday. He was too generous -- while I enjoyed the visit, he made it difficult to be on an equal level. For the last period of time I kept trying to find ways to get him to take the oranges, but he just wouldn't go for it. The guy is clever. Anyway, if he and/or his family ever visit Berlin again we need to reciprocate. When the baby is born we need to send something. By the way, the local tradition is eggs if it's a boy, chocolate if it's a girl. But I don't think that'll work via the mail...

flowers on a pond in Shanghai

rain without end

Yeah, so it's still raining like crazy here... I feel like Forrest Gump a little bit when he's in Vietnam and it starts to rain and it just never stops. Really it's been like that here... I think it's almost stopped at a couple of points but never completely. At least now I can say I've experienced the rainy season here.

I don't have any new pictures for you because it's raining all the time and it's no fun to take the camera out in that. Maybe this weekend though I will go out with my camera just before I have a shower... the problem is that if I get wet, there's no good chance to get warm and dry quickly here. None of the buildings have central heating, not that dormitory, not the classrooms, not the cafeteria. Part of what was so nice about the restaurant I went to last night was that it was a pleasant warm temperature. :)

picture factory visit

frame production

printing of the posters

American sports motives

These are pictures from the factory we visited on Wednesday. It was pretty interesting... essentially they make the pictures that you buy at Ikea or Walmart or Target or Costco that are framed prints, like roses or a bridge or whatever. They have high quality printing machines, make the frames themselves, put them together and then shrink wrap and label them. All the big box stores do is put it on the shelf. And we wonder where all the jobs go. Essentially, these guys make about $1 on every picture they sell. I asked the guy how many pictures he shipped in 2009... he said 10 million or something... pretty amazing stuff.

Hangzhou photos

Here are some pictures from Hangshou, where Zhejiang University is located:

the airport (looks quite new and not often used)

the dormitories on campus: about an hour from downtown - not so conveniently located, but clean

my dorm room

the cafeteria with lots of yummy food to try!

intercultural exchange

So on Saturday night they picked us up at the airport. I managed to get into a rather lively discussion somehow with this guy (they sent over a bunch of German and English students to be our "tutors") who had very strong opinions that "Growing Pains" was a far better television series than "Friends." While I partially agreed with him, it's pretty amazing to see the degree to which students in China use the American tv shows they can find on the internet or on dvd to learn English, and how much they actually end up thinking about it. I mean for us it's just sheer entertainment, but for him, he was adamant that America should take better care of the type of programming they decide to share with the world. I decided not to go into a detailed discussion with him about what Mike's friend "Boner" actually means in everyday slang...

Last day in Beijing

Beijing main train station

So today I was pretty much on my own the whole time... I didn't have anything specific planned. So this morning I just took one of the buses to the end of the line to see if I could get lost and still bring myself back to the center of town. I was successful in both attempts.

Along the way I wandered into this shop that was probably about the size of a media markt, but it was only for cell phones and for cell phone accessories. I think it was like the supply area for all the cell phone vendors or something. There was so much action going on in that place; I have never seen anything like that before. Just thousands and thousands of cell phones, cell phone batteries, headsets, cards, all that stuff. It was pretty unreal. And all the people shouting and unpackaging phones, repacking phones; it was amazing.

I ate some really interesting meat at lunch time. Not sure what it was; looked kind of like chicken, kind of like pork, kind of like duck. Had the texture of menudo. I also ate some jiaozi... 21 kuai for the whole meal. Tummy still okay.

In the afternoon, I went to a Buddhist temple on the north side of town where they have an 18-meter high sandlewood buddha statue. Also pretty amazing. Unfortunately not easy to photograph though due to poor lighting conditions.

I like the part of town that we're staying in, but I feel like we get ripped off here a little bit. The prices at the restaurants are not that much lower than those in Europe... for dinner tonight we paid 151 kuai for 4 bottle of beer, two bowls of rice, a pork dish, a tofu dish and a chicken dish. That's about 17-18 Euros for a decent sized but not huge meal. I guess it would have been more like 35 euros in Germany, but the quality of the restaurant might have been better too.

hm... yummy :)

Or would you rather have Kentucky Fried Chicken? :)