So today, on my way home from the video shop downtown, I had an interesting experience. After getting on and struggling to maintain balance as the bus cut 3 lanes of traffic to make a hairpin turn through a red light, a Chinese guy in the seat behind me tugged my sleeve and motioned to an empty seat next to him, across the aisle. I thanked him and sat down, and he started talking to me in English.
This isn’t a particularly amazing thing in China. A decent number of locals actually have a pretty good grasp of English, and even though most aren’t fluent, they’re understandable, and it’s possible to have a basic conversation with them. But what made this a little different is that his accent wasn’t right. I know what a Chinese accent sounds like. They stick vowels in weird places and have trouble with “V”s. But his accent didn’t match. It was foreign in a different way. And it was obvious he’d been speaking English most of his life, though he hadn’t learned it in the States.
So I asked. It turns out he was from Kazakhstan! He’d only been in China for five years, and as soon as he explained this it made a lot of sense to me. The accent, his attire, hairdo, and even the cologne he wore (Chinese guys don’t wear cologne). And although we didn’t talk much, since he got off at the next stop, I imagined that his life here isn’t easy. Back in the States I had talked to a Chinese friend who’d grown up in the US and lived in Beijing for a month. She said it was a difficult transition. Although she could speak the language, she thought and acted like an American, and the Chinese couldn’t understand her for it.
And as I was thinking about all of this and wondering what additional challenges a Middle-Eastern-raised Chinese would face here, I really began to appreciate at least one aspect of American life – the cultural diversity. Although China continues to globalize and become familiar with other cultures, foreigners in most cities still stand out as an oddity. A taxi driver just this week almost crashed into a pedestrian because he was distracted by my black roommate. It can be frustrating and cumbersome, but that’s just the nature of a place like this. In many aspects, China is still very much a developing country.
I can’t tell you how many Chinese people have told me:
你穿的太少了！, or “Ni chuande tai shaole!” which roughly translates to, “Why aren’t you wearing more clothes, you crazy American?”
Usually I just wear a single pair of jeans when I go out, but as I’ve been reminded of on numerous occasions, that’s daft. So I finally broke down and went the Chinese way – a thick spandexy layer beneath my jeans to keep out the piercing cold. I decided to film this adventure, and was able to get some other cool footage of a typical day bargain shopping here in China.
This is the first of what I hope will be many LITM episodes about my culinary experiences here in China. In this one, I go to a local malachuar restraunt for some boiled goodies. Yum!
Should be interesting. I feel like the stuff I cook/bake here either turns out exceptionally better than in the states, or disappointingly worse. There’s a lot of factors that could be contributing to this. One is our oven, which is actually a toaster oven that doesn’t seem to reach the high temperatures of a standard oven. Plus, due to its small size, things like cookies are a hassle and a nightmare. Ingredients are a bit different here too, I’ve noticed. Sugar tastes a lot better, but baking powder behaves differently. It takes a lot of getting used to. Stir fried things are easy though, and great. Plus the ingredients are stupid cheap. You can buy a huge bag’s worth of assorted fruits and veggies for about $5 US. There’s no reason not to eat healthy.
Anyway, I’m baking a peach cobbler tonight and I’m stoked. I even bought 3 tubs of vanilla ice cream (the large size is our small!) and a big bottle of Baileys Irish cream. It’s gonna be a good night. On top of that, I’m having some local friends over to teach them some drawing basics: shading, perspective, proportion, etc. Looking forward to it a lot.
Later this afternoon I’m heading out to meet a friend (and now, employee/secretary) for dinner. We’ll be going over some of the things she’ll need to handle on her first week on the job. The list of tasks I’m giving her continues to grow. When I first realized I’d need an employee to run errands and pick things up from the printer, I thought that’d be the extent of it. But as I think it over, I realize how useful it’ll be to have someone translate all my order forms for the coats into Chinese, fill out slips for the post office, find new products to outsource, and even help with filming new episodes of Life in the Middle. The list is endless, and I’m glad to have the help. I don’t like working too much. I’m here for the experience, not the cash.
I’m having a ton of fun with these coat orders coming in. Yes, it’s a lot of emails and back-and-forth emailing, but the ideas that my customers are coming up with are just fantastic. I was especially impressed by this order that came in last night from Danny. Great job on the design and specs, man!
The first batch of orders were turned in two days ago and should be ready this weekend. I’ll post pics as soon as I pick them up. So excited!
More butchering of the Chinese language, look out! In the second episode of “Life in the Middle” I visit the downtown printing and computer district to ask some questions about the business cards I’ve started outsourcing.
These technical terms are proving to be a challenge for me. Because I don’t use them every day they’re easy to forget or mix up. I think this episode is a very accurate representation of the kinds of communication hiccups I experience each day.
Here are a couple of pics of the first batch of outsourced cards I did (the ones I pick up in the video).
Emails have been coming in like crazy about these custom coats, and in an effort to get it all organized I went back to my seamstress contact and got a few things ironed out. The system for ordering these things is completely set up and I encourage everyone to have a look at the Custom Coat Order Form before emailing with specific questions, since it should answer most of these. This video also mentions a few other things regarding ordering. Let’s make some cool coats for the winter!
