(no subject)
11/23/05
First thing of note is the country itself. China in general is very different from the US. In MN we get used to, well, things like front yards. Everything here is much closer together. We're living in an apartment complex mostly for foreigners, but even one block away you can see people living in much poorer conditions. The rift between the first generation of Chinese who have money, and the millions who do not is immediately apparent. How should I follow up that sentence?
Our appartment is a little small, but nice. The best part about it is the fact that it is connected to a 5-star hotel, so we get to use most of the facilities. Having a swimming pool, gym, and squash courts just downstairs is pretty cool.
Shanghai is simply huge. We've been around it a fair bit, but I think that even scratching the surface in 6 months is impossible. Population here is something like 15 million (with a couple million illegal migrant workers), which means that activities such as crossing the street and getting a taxi are much harder. For all but the last 2 weeks, things have been very hot with little rain, but recently it has been cooler.
So far, I've been to Shanghai, Northwestern China, Northeastern China, and today I leave for Hong Kong. Arriving at a 'small' city of 4 million is somewhat humbling.
Jack and I go to Shanghai American School, which would be 30 minutes away if not for the terrible traffic here (it usually takes us an hour). 2 hours of bus every day means a lot of (in my case) time to read, but I also have to wake up at 6:30. The school has block(ish) scheduling, so we have a schedule that alternates between day 1 (classes ABCD in changing orders) and day 2 (EFGH (or FGHE or GHEF or HEFG)) Each class is 80 minutes long which is a pretty good amount of time. The schedule allows me to take Health and have a study hall in addition to the 6 normal classes.
None of my classes are bad, but some are less good. My favorite is APUSH, even though we have so much work. AP calc is all right, but it seems easier than I would have thought. In English, we have read The Crucible and To Kill a Mockingbird. Science here is based on a rotating schedule, so 9th, 10th, and 11th graders take 1 trimester each of Bio, Chem, and Physics. Because incoming students like me don't fit with this system, I took Chem 9 for the first trimester, and am now taking Chem 10. Neither of these are very hard. Chinese is probably the most disappointing class. Even with only 9 students, we haven't actually learned very much. I'm trying to learn more Chinese with this computer program, but I wish the class was better. Health is surprisingly fun, and I'm glad I'm taking it here rather than at South. Study hall is in a computer lab, which is good, and the last class is Orchestra (2), which deserves a paragraph of its own.
It would be tempting to say that the orchestra is bad, but that's not quite true. We have the standard mix of good and bad players, (no one of the 'Ian calibre') the school basses are better than average, we can afford music... but there are problems all the same. Of the 2 other basses, neither of them can actually play all that well. I think they were both coerced into starting bass last year because the orchestra had none, and promised some sort of guaranteed 'A' grade in the class if they stuck with it. I'm trying to help them, but they 1. do not seem to care, and 2. lack basic things like bowing and plucking correctly. The conducter is alternately laid back and angry with us, and we are struggling to play such musical classics (you may remember these from Field) as "Plink Plank Plunk" and "Molly on the Shore". His system of grading makes no sense either (it probably involves 20-sided dice). Fortunately (unfortunately) my hand problems kicked in again, so I'm not playing. If I had been really smart, I would have just taken drama, or photography or something and let my hands recover instead of sitting in the back of class for 80 minutes. But Such Is Life.
I'm also on the Cross Country team, the Forensics team (debate and more!) and the IMPROV team. The IMPROV team is 11 people (I suspect that 10 of them have some form of ADHD). We were student run, until the theatre teacher stepped in and imposed some sort of order. We had our first preformance yesterday, once for students, then once for some teacher banquet. Memorable scenes included a Thanksgiving dinner between 2 rival mafia families (and ensuing slow motion food fight), Shakespeare making an appearance on Survivor, and Colin Powell in the ladies room. The students thought we were funny, but the teachers somewhat less so. All told, it could have been much worse. Forensics just started, but I think I'm going to be doing the event where you are given a word or phrase, then have 1 minute to plan before giving a 5 minute speech. It's really fun, because you'll get a word like 'virus', then start talking about computer viruses, then the spanish Influenza, and then describing how religon is like a virus. I liked cross country, but... I broke my toe playing soccer in my apartment. Until now, injuries were just things that happen to other people. It's been 3 weeks today since I broke it (the smallest toe on my left foot), and I've been hobbling around school, unable to run or play on my intramural soccer team (I was playing goalie). Hopefully in another few weeks it will be better, but I will Never take things like running for granted. I've been playing ping pong in my spare time (not recently, though), and I've gotten pretty good. I can now slam the ball forehand which is SO MUCH FUN, It's almost addictive.
By the way, I apoligize for my slowness in responding. I actually started this email a few weeks ago, but it's been busy. I appreciate you taking the time to send me something. In soccer, Barcelona beat Madrid 3-0 (Yay!) and Spain is qualified for the World Cup. I just needed to tell that to someone.
I really have much more to say, but now I must go pack for Hong Kong. I have a blog that I should really update more (right now it only goes up to arrival in China, but still interesting) it can be found at www.livejournal.com/~henryinchina
First thing of note is the country itself. China in general is very different from the US. In MN we get used to, well, things like front yards. Everything here is much closer together. We're living in an apartment complex mostly for foreigners, but even one block away you can see people living in much poorer conditions. The rift between the first generation of Chinese who have money, and the millions who do not is immediately apparent. How should I follow up that sentence?
Our appartment is a little small, but nice. The best part about it is the fact that it is connected to a 5-star hotel, so we get to use most of the facilities. Having a swimming pool, gym, and squash courts just downstairs is pretty cool.
Shanghai is simply huge. We've been around it a fair bit, but I think that even scratching the surface in 6 months is impossible. Population here is something like 15 million (with a couple million illegal migrant workers), which means that activities such as crossing the street and getting a taxi are much harder. For all but the last 2 weeks, things have been very hot with little rain, but recently it has been cooler.
So far, I've been to Shanghai, Northwestern China, Northeastern China, and today I leave for Hong Kong. Arriving at a 'small' city of 4 million is somewhat humbling.
Jack and I go to Shanghai American School, which would be 30 minutes away if not for the terrible traffic here (it usually takes us an hour). 2 hours of bus every day means a lot of (in my case) time to read, but I also have to wake up at 6:30. The school has block(ish) scheduling, so we have a schedule that alternates between day 1 (classes ABCD in changing orders) and day 2 (EFGH (or FGHE or GHEF or HEFG)) Each class is 80 minutes long which is a pretty good amount of time. The schedule allows me to take Health and have a study hall in addition to the 6 normal classes.
None of my classes are bad, but some are less good. My favorite is APUSH, even though we have so much work. AP calc is all right, but it seems easier than I would have thought. In English, we have read The Crucible and To Kill a Mockingbird. Science here is based on a rotating schedule, so 9th, 10th, and 11th graders take 1 trimester each of Bio, Chem, and Physics. Because incoming students like me don't fit with this system, I took Chem 9 for the first trimester, and am now taking Chem 10. Neither of these are very hard. Chinese is probably the most disappointing class. Even with only 9 students, we haven't actually learned very much. I'm trying to learn more Chinese with this computer program, but I wish the class was better. Health is surprisingly fun, and I'm glad I'm taking it here rather than at South. Study hall is in a computer lab, which is good, and the last class is Orchestra (2), which deserves a paragraph of its own.
It would be tempting to say that the orchestra is bad, but that's not quite true. We have the standard mix of good and bad players, (no one of the 'Ian calibre') the school basses are better than average, we can afford music... but there are problems all the same. Of the 2 other basses, neither of them can actually play all that well. I think they were both coerced into starting bass last year because the orchestra had none, and promised some sort of guaranteed 'A' grade in the class if they stuck with it. I'm trying to help them, but they 1. do not seem to care, and 2. lack basic things like bowing and plucking correctly. The conducter is alternately laid back and angry with us, and we are struggling to play such musical classics (you may remember these from Field) as "Plink Plank Plunk" and "Molly on the Shore". His system of grading makes no sense either (it probably involves 20-sided dice). Fortunately (unfortunately) my hand problems kicked in again, so I'm not playing. If I had been really smart, I would have just taken drama, or photography or something and let my hands recover instead of sitting in the back of class for 80 minutes. But Such Is Life.
I'm also on the Cross Country team, the Forensics team (debate and more!) and the IMPROV team. The IMPROV team is 11 people (I suspect that 10 of them have some form of ADHD). We were student run, until the theatre teacher stepped in and imposed some sort of order. We had our first preformance yesterday, once for students, then once for some teacher banquet. Memorable scenes included a Thanksgiving dinner between 2 rival mafia families (and ensuing slow motion food fight), Shakespeare making an appearance on Survivor, and Colin Powell in the ladies room. The students thought we were funny, but the teachers somewhat less so. All told, it could have been much worse. Forensics just started, but I think I'm going to be doing the event where you are given a word or phrase, then have 1 minute to plan before giving a 5 minute speech. It's really fun, because you'll get a word like 'virus', then start talking about computer viruses, then the spanish Influenza, and then describing how religon is like a virus. I liked cross country, but... I broke my toe playing soccer in my apartment. Until now, injuries were just things that happen to other people. It's been 3 weeks today since I broke it (the smallest toe on my left foot), and I've been hobbling around school, unable to run or play on my intramural soccer team (I was playing goalie). Hopefully in another few weeks it will be better, but I will Never take things like running for granted. I've been playing ping pong in my spare time (not recently, though), and I've gotten pretty good. I can now slam the ball forehand which is SO MUCH FUN, It's almost addictive.
By the way, I apoligize for my slowness in responding. I actually started this email a few weeks ago, but it's been busy. I appreciate you taking the time to send me something. In soccer, Barcelona beat Madrid 3-0 (Yay!) and Spain is qualified for the World Cup. I just needed to tell that to someone.
I really have much more to say, but now I must go pack for Hong Kong. I have a blog that I should really update more (right now it only goes up to arrival in China, but still interesting) it can be found at www.livejournal.com/~henryinchina