The only way that I have been able to survive these past two days in Shanghai is through the kindness of strangers.
On my flight to Shanghai, I sat next to an older Asian woman who spoke English extremely well. I helped her with her bags and proceeded to ask her where she was from. Diana, name of the woman sitting next to me, answered she was from Los Angeles and we began connecting over the city once I told her I had been interning there for the past two months. The rest of the flight was spent learning about her career as a furniture sales woman, the life of her kids and of course China. I genuinely found her life’s story fascinating and after exchanging contact information, I left the plane feeling extremely confident that my Shanghai adventure was off to a great start.
Upon passing through customs, a driver was waiting for me with sign in hand. The driver was sent by a family friend who lived in Shanghai and had heard that I was coming to Fudan from one of my aunts. The driver handed me an envelope with a letter from the family friend’s secretary and a phone card. I was instructed to call the family friend so that he could tell the driver where to take me because the driver only spoke mandarin. This is where I ran into my first language problem. I called the family friend’s number only to have it say that the number I had dialed had been disconnected. The driver tried calling the friend with his own phone but to no avail. Attempting to communicate with me, the driver asked in mandarin if I could understand him. I nodded yes because from my Cantonese I was able to make out what he had said, however, his following sentence made absolutely zero sense to me. Any belief that my Cantonese could get me by in Shanghai evaporated in that moment. Undaunted, I handed the driver a card with the address of the dorm. He nodded and we were off!
I must give thanks for the driver, because he went out of his way to find Tohee, the private dorm I am staying at. He stopped multiple times and got out of the car asking for directions. When we arrived at Tohee, he made every effort to make sure I was able to check in before leaving. His help was extremely appreciated.
At the front desk was where I met Jeanni, a Korea University MBA student who was studying at Fudan for the semester. I was having trouble communicating with the man at the check in because he spoke no English and I had in my typical fashion neglected to read the instructions given to me by my program. So here I was trying to get the man at the front desk to understand that my name was on some list for a room and up walks Jeanni with a question about the cost of the dryer. She notices the communication problem I was having and told me that the man was asking if I had paid my deposit. At that point in time, I had no idea that Jeanni actually spoke no mandarin and that she had simply guessed about what the man had said, in hindsight her attempt in helping me actually made things worse, but at the time I was extremely appreciative of her help. Eventually, I pull out my netbook and point to the room number I was assigned and my name was found on that list I knew existed and I was shown my room.
As I unpacked, I realized that not knowing the language was going to be a much bigger problem than I had initially thought and more importantly I had no idea how and where to get dinner. My thoughts quickly turned to Jeanni and I was wishing I would run into her again so that I could get something to eat. Thankfully, I did manage to run into her again as she was still having problems with the dryer an hour later. After I told her rather meekly that I had no idea where to eat, she offered to take me to dinner. At the end of the night, I just felt incredibly lucky to have met another person who was willing to help me.
The next day, the same desperation for food occurred again and as hard as I wished, there was just no running into Jeanni this time to bail me out. Instead, I just wandered the nearby streets in search of food. There were a lot of food stalls around but time and time again I simply did not have the nerve to approach the vendors and try to gesture out what I wanted. Dejected, I walked into a bookstore hoping to find a map of Shanghai and China, so as to get my mind off food. That is when I ran into Hugo, a Frenchman who had just completed his two semesters at Fudan, doing the same two UC EAP programs as me. Hugo was buying maps and he was doing it in mandarin. I was extremely impressed and I approached him for help in buying a map, which was later followed by “can you help me find a place to eat?” He offered to eat with me and I was relieved that I did not have to figure out how to order. At lunch, Hugo told me all about his experiences in China, answered all my questions and gave me a lot of advice about how to survive. He told sympathized with my plight because he was in the same position when he landed in Shanghai, though he had the company of three other Frenchman. Out of thankfulness, I paid for Hugo’s meal and for the second time in two days, I was saved by the graces of a stranger. In fact, later that day I locked myself out of my apartment and had to call Hugo to ask how to get the front desk to open the door for me. Hugo went so far as to come down from his apartment and accompany me to the front desk to help me. I was very grateful.
If I continue to meet such kind strangers, I believe that I will be able to get by in Shanghai just fine.
-muffinman
