My assimilation into Chinese culture.

Though we did not celebrate Memorial Day weekend here in China, we had a very busy weekend in Tianjin. On Saturday afternoon, the three of us along with some of our colleagues from the HIV department were going to go to a bar to do some HIV education and testing. (I think our concepts of what constitutes a bar are different, but that’s beside the point.) But it turned out that was not a bar, but more of a private party type thing. In a nutshell, our preceptors did not think it would be a good idea for us to attend this private party. I’m not sure what was going to happen at this private party, but I didn’t really want to find out. Probably a good idea. Sometimes it is awkward enough to be those Americans in the corner observing all the action and activities. So reducing the awkward is always a good thing, in my opinion. :) And since I have been so poor at blogging, I am making up for it by posting an extra long one. Happy reading. :)

So instead of going to the private party, Keith, Jeff (the other UM SPH students who are in China with me) and I went to the downtown area to wander around and explore. We went to several malls and, of course, attracted attention wherever we went. The first mall we went to was about 4 levels. Tons of stuff, one entire floor was dedicated to shoes. There were many Western brands that we recognized and some that we did not. We didn’t buy anything, just looked. That is sometimes just as fun. Plus, I think it will be difficult to buy clothes and such here. I can’t really understand the labels or sizes, not to mention that I am taller and bigger than the average Chinese woman. I mean it’s depressing enough to shop in the states, but here I feel like a giant.

Next we decided to walk down a couple more blocks, always taking extra precaution to note our location and landmarks to ensure we would not get lost. Buildings and stores start to all look the same sometimes. Similar colors and signs that we can’t read. To my untrained eye, many Chinese characters look the same. I can recognize three, maybe four. I know the characters for water, China and Tianjin. That’s progress I guess. We always point out the signs that are in English. I hope that this is a habit I will leave in China. I’m afraid I’ll randomly yell out the names of stores when driving back in the states. I can already tell that my oral English is slipping. It would really funny if it weren’t the truth. :) That’s a topic for another day... Next thing we know we stumbled upon a very high-end mall, Hisense. We weren’t really dressed appropriately to go in. Jeans and t-shirts, not exactly the type of clothes that people who can afford to buy stuff at this place would wear, but we go in anyway. We walk in and the first thing we see is a Land Rover display next to the Coach store and the many other high-end stores of fashion designers with names that I can’t confidently pronounce. I was too afraid to even go into most of those stores. Talk about window shopping. I wanted to go into the Fendi store, but thought better of it. I did make the mistake of pointing at some Burberry perfume and the saleswoman came over to give me some sample cards. A word of caution, do not point at stuff. It draws attention and makes the salespeople think you want it. This is especially true at markets. The difference is that at the markets they try to impress you with their English skills. A couple days ago while at a market, it was a bit humorous to hear a man yell the word ‘watches’ at me as I walked by. At first, I couldn’t tell what he said, then I looked at his displays and figured it out. The word didn’t sound too much like ‘watches’ to me, but he tried. And as I have learned from trying to learn Chinese, an A for effort sometimes just has to be good enough. :)

Anyway, back to high-end fashion, this mall was unreal. As you can see from the pictures, it was very impressive. I have never been anywhere like it. It was very beautiful. We sat on some couches had some fancy coffee drinks and took in our surroundings. We tried to look like we fit in, but I think it was pretty obvious that we didn’t really belong there when I tripped on the step-up to get to the couches and then Keith tripped down it. Awe yes. We are so sophisticated. Nonetheless, it was really cool to see all the designer stores. But I couldn’t help but ask myself, who are the intended customers for this place? It was not full nor crowded by any stretch of the imagination. I heard that some people here indulge and really like to go shopping due to past deprivation periods and limitations on purchasing. But I’m not too sure. It was an interesting cultural experience that’s for sure and I know it would be whether I entered a place like that here in China or back in the states.

The main area with all the stores on the perimeter.

Waiting for our coffee drinks. Just kidding. This was totally posed, we're trying to look sophisticated.

On Sunday, Jeff and I played badminton with a couple people from work (TJCDC). Keith was on his way to Beijing for a week long conference, so he couldn’t come. He missed out on some fun. Now this was a real initiation into Chinese culture. Badminton and ping pong are very popular here. Ping pong is the national sport. The place where we played was not too far from our CDC, but there wasn’t an easy way for us to get there. We were going to take a bus, but it was extremely crowded. So our friend arranged a moped taxi thing for us. It was a kind of carriage I guess, that’s what it reminded me of. This was our first Chinese experience of the day. It was a bumpy ride, and like all other vehicles, no seat belts. So I clung to Jeff whenever we hit some bumps or saw a car coming in our direction at a speed that made me flinch. The large badminton/ping pong facility was inside what our friend called ‘a garden.’ There were carnival rides along with other recreation and play type activities. It was a large park area. We had to pay to get inside, which he kindly paid for us. The entrance fee was about 30 cents and I think we had to pay to reserve one of the badminton courts as well.

In the moped taxi thing on the way to play badminton.

Badminton doesn’t look like it is a serious sport, but trust me it is. There is definitely skill involved and these are not skills which I possess. After playing for a little while, I certainly got better and could hit the birdie more often; it did go downhill toward the end though. But I was not nearly as good as the older gentlemen (50+) playing nor the 8 year little girls playing with their parents. Jeff and I tried to proudly represent America, but we did a rather poor job. We started to just give each high-fives for just hitting the birdie. We whiffed it quite a bit. I was even a bit sore on Monday from it; my right forearm throbbing while I type and tense shoulders, not to mention my legs. You have to be pretty scrappy and light on your feet to be good at badminton. I’m not really either of those, especially since I don’t regularly play sports like this. Not since high school anyway. That’s why I run, not a lot of quick, coordinated movements. The skills needed to run are much different. Just one foot in front of the other. Usually, I'm pretty good at that. So I'll stick with running.

Some serious badminton playing...we were a force to be reckoned with on the court. Well, maybe not.

Jeff and I playing a game against two of our CDC co-workers. They were pros, not really but they were good and we sucked. A lot of fun though.

Two great action shots. Check out that form. :) Kind of ridiculous, but pretty funny.

Oh, another interesting thing occurred while we were playing badminton. I inadvertently taught our Chinese counterparts some slang words used to take your frustration during sports. To my defense, the words weren’t too bad. When I would miss the birdie and completely whiff, I would say ‘crap’ or ‘dang it.’ There are certainly worse things to say, but there are also nicer words to say. Or just don’t say anything. I said it a couple times and then one of the guys turns to me and says, ‘Crap. What does this word mean?’ Well… as you can imagine some other four letter words came to my mind when I realized that I was basically teaching them swear words. Mind you, these are grown men (older than me). But I didn’t really want to explain the whole thing. Though I don’t have kids, I imagine it is like an 8 year old hearing you say the word around the house or something, then repeating it without knowing what it means. I mumbled something about it being a word that you say when something bad happens and that it is not a very nice word to say. It was a low moment for me. But it was even worse when he actually said it a couple times! After that, I just said ‘oops’ instead of saying anything else. Jeff and I also had to keep the trash talk to a minimum as well. There are some things that just don’t translate well and are extremely difficult to explain. This was certainly one of those things.

Our next adventure presented itself on our trip back home from the garden. Most people in Tianjin (I’m not sure what it’s like in other parts of China) don’t drive. But trust me, there are plenty of cars still. I guess that happens in a city of 11 million people. First most people don’t have cars. Second, most people don’t know how to drive. You have to be 20 years old in order to get a driver’s license here. So most people walk, take the bus or, the most popular, ride bikes. Our badminton friends all rode their bikes to the garden. So instead of taking a taxi or a moped taxi, we rode on the back of their bikes. You see this all the time here; everyone from young children to full-grown adults ride on the little back ‘seats’ of bikes. So the best way to describe the seat is a luggage rack over the back tire. So it is barely a seat. Since I am a lady, I had the good fortune to ride on the back of the moped-type bike complete with a somewhat cushioned seat. Jeff, on the other hand, did not have such luck. He sat on metal bars for the entire ride home. The ride was quite the experience. I held on to whatever I got, which was not much, the waist of my drive and underneath the seat, being careful to not get my fingers caught in the tire. We had to cross some train tracks, which in itself is less than pleasant, but on a bike in the middle of on-coming traffic. We were literally stopped in the middle of all the cars trying to cross the tracks and then make a left turn. As you will see from the pictures, I was a bit nervous. But we made it to our CDC safely and with a great story to tell.

Jeff took this picture from his seat on the back of a bike. That's me in the blue shirt holding on and trying to be calm.

To add to our Chinese adventures for the day, Jeff and I made our routine trip to Walmart. We had decided to do some laundry that evening and we needed some new laundry soap and clothes drying mechanisms. Clothes dryers are not common here. They sell them; but since people try to conserve energy as much as possible, not many people have them. We bought a couple clothes hanging baskets that a resemble fruit hanging basket that my grandma used to have and another contraption with clothes pins attached to it. After eating our frozen Chinese dinners, which were very tasty, we did a load of laundry, rigged them up on our drying contraptions, and hung them up on our 21st floor balcony to dry. Not a bad way to end and a very exciting and very Chinese day. Oh and we had a treat after all of our adventures...our favorite ice cream bars, Magnums.

Our laundry hanging on our balcony...quite the view in the background.