My good deed for the week

Last night, Crystal and I decided to go out just because we were getting bored of staying in our apartment. Crystal suggested we go to Xintiandi, a fancy expat area to grab some drinks and I agreed. In true traveler’s spirit, we discovered that the excitement was in the journey, not the destination.

While transferring subways at the Shanghai Railway station, Crystal and I encounter a woman struggling to get down the stairs with a large suitcase. I stopped to watch the woman and wondered for second if I should help her. Turning to Crystal, I see that she is also watching the woman. Crystal looks back at me shrugs and holds out her hand for my camera bag so that I could help the woman. Realizing the right thing to do, I hand over my camera bag and approach the woman. That is when I notice that she was wearing extremely dark sun glasses, which suddenly made me realize that the woman was blind. After this realization, I reevaluated my approach towards helping her. If I just went up to this woman and grabbed her suitcase without stating my intentions, in a manner that she could understand, she would most definitely panic and think that I was stealing her suitcase.

A more obvious approach was needed, so I asked Crystal to tell her that we were going to help her. With my intentions clearly stated, I helped the woman carry her suitcase. I could sense that she was very concerned about being taken advantage of due to the way that she insisted on holding onto her suitcase at all times, while I carried it. When we got to the bottom of the stairs, Crystal repeatedly asked the woman where she wanted to go. Quite defensively, the woman kept replying that she just needed to get to an exit, without specifying which of the many exits that she needed to be at. We pointed the woman towards the nearest exit and watched her walk towards another set of stairs, with no cane or aid in hand. As we watched the woman struggle down the path, I turn to Crystal and tell her that we cannot just leave the woman alone. Crystal nodded in agreement and once again we approached the woman and offered to help.

Crystal and I help the woman out of the subway station and communicate her location to the person who was supposed to be picking her up. I made the decision to stay with her until she was picked up, and the waiting began. Curious to know more about this blind stranger, I urged Crystal to ask the woman where she was from. With a bit of prodding and convincing that such a question was not weird, I finally got Crystal to ask the question. The woman replied, quite defensively, that she was from Jiangxi province. After the reply, Crystal was in no mood to ask more questions, citing the fact that the woman was uncomfortable with talking to strangers. That’s when I suggested Crystal tell the woman what she had told me earlier, that she thought the woman was very brave for traveling alone. Crystal refused, once again citing concerns that it was too weird and also that the woman would just laugh. I respond that laughter is good and would ease the tension. Crystal says that she will only tell the woman that if she can say that the comment came from me. Seeing no problem with that compromise, I agree.

As Crystal predicted, the woman laughed and as I predicted, the mood lightened instantly. The woman responds by saying that she has been traveling for a long time and that this was the first time that someone has helped her and that she felt very lucky to have met us. As Crystal and I continue waiting with the woman, I begin to ask more questions. The woman told us that she was a masseuse that traveled all over China. She even offered to give us massages, saying that students have very stiff shoulders from studying all the time. Crystal and I politely refuse. When I asked her if she liked what she did, the woman responded that she did it only for the money. I wanted to ask her what the woman would rather be doing, but Crystal once again refused to translate, this time because she thought it would make the woman depressed. Before I could convince Crystal t just ask the question, the woman’s contact arrived. After, many thank you’s and you are welcome’s were exchanged, we left the woman and continued on our way, leaving me wondering about the woman’s life.

As we reached the bottom of the stairs at the subway station, Crystal says out loud “we are good people” and then a few second later, she qualifies herself and says “well you are a good person.” Curious as to why she said that, I ask her to explain herself. Crystal tells me that she would have just left the woman as soon as we exited the subway station and that she would not have waited around had it not been for me. I explained to Crystal that waiting with the woman was just something I felt like I needed to do, and besides, I had all the time in the world.

Not to mention, helping that woman makes a great story.

-muffinman

First Surprise Birthday Ever

Last week Jeanni planned a wonderful surprise party complete with cake, hats, poppers, masks and lots of alcohol. Only after the party ended and had some time to reflect on it did I realize that this party in Shanghai was actually the first surprise party I ever had.

The day before my birthday, I knew that there was a party planned because it was Varun’s birthday and the MBA students had talked about throwing a joint party. What puzzled me was that as the hours dragged on that day, I still had not heard from anybody about a party or a time to meet up. At around 9pm, Jeanni texted me asking me if I could check out the powerpoint that she and the Indians were making to present their club at 10pm. I agreed and when 10pm rolled around I proceeded to make my way to Sandeep’s place. Now Jeanni had been acting suspicious earlier in the day, so I had suspicions while walking over that this might be the surprise party. When I called her earlier in the day, she told me she was at Wujiaochang, the local shopping plaza, which was not out of the ordinary. However, when I asked her what she was doing there, Jeanni replied with an “I don’t know,” this was really suspicious to me because how can you not know what you are doing at a shopping plaza? Expecting a surprise party I approached Sandeep’s door with extreme caution.

Except when Akhil opened the door, nothing happened. There Jeanni was with Sandeep and Varun working on their powerpoint just like she said she was. Feeling a bit dejected, I looked over their powerpoint, made a few suggestions and resigned myself to spending another birthday in obscurity. Around an hour later, Jeanni announced that we were going back to my apartment because there was a kick back scheduled or something. Strangely enough, this act did not arouse any suspicion in me, probably because I was feeling too dejected at that point.

As we all walked back to the apartment, I noticed that Jeanni had been texting furiously all night. I wondered in my mind who she could be texting since the large majority of her texts go to me. Once again thinking nothing much of this out of the ordinary behavior, I made my way to the apartment. At my apartment door, I stumbled upon a pair of woman’s shoes, neatly placed right outside the door. Thinking that maybe the other Jonathan had finally managed to bring a girl over, I was cautious in opening the door. Interestingly, Varun pointed out that the shoes were an Indian brand, which just made the whole situation even stranger.

When Varun opened the door, we were both greeted with “Happy Birthday” and two cakes with lighted candles. In my moment of shock, everything fell into place in my mind. I quickly turned around and gave Jeanni a big hug, because I just knew that she had planned it all. After all, who else would have the heart?


The cake says 24.5 because it is the average of Varun and my age, except that Varun was turning 28 not 29 that day.

A whole lot of MBA students had come, as well as a few people who roommates of MBA students. “Happy Birthday” was sung and then I got caked for the first time. At midnight, I was expecting to get kicked in the butt by the Indians, something which they had been talking about all week, twenty times for my age and because it was some Indian tradition (still not sure if this is true). As Varun was lining up to kick, I braced myself because he was really winding up, but he just laughed and gave me a light kick and told me the Indians were just messing with me. Relieved, I laughed too, but felt a little dumb for believing them in the first place.


Varun and I celebrating our birthdays


Getting caked for the first time

Throughout the night, there were many cheers and toasts done by Duke who brought baijiu, Chinese rice wine, a drink which nobody enjoyed besides me and Duke. In my own toast, I thanked everybody for coming and for being my “family away from family,” something which I had come to realize a couple of days before while reflecting on my experience in Shanghai. After the bai jiu was finished, I pulled out the bottle of Black Label, which brought back memories of the army for Duke. Jeanni was adamant that I should have no more alcohol, but I had other ideas and thankfully so did Duke because he just kept refilling my cup every time I asked.


Duke (orange shirt) calling another toast


There was a lot of this going on, that is actually Jeanni's hand in the picture

When everything was done, I said my goodbyes to everybody and hugged the ones that I was closest too. Duke reaffirmed me to be his nephew and told me for the billionth time that night that I had now become a man. After everyone had left, Varun and I surveyed the damage. Our living room was entirely trashed, there were a billion beer bottles on the table, wrappers on the floor and even cake on the floor. However, none of this mattered to me at that moment because I was just so happy to have discovered people who cared about me in Shanghai.

That night was definitely the most memorable night to date in Shanghai and one to be remembered for the rest of my life.


Thanks for everything Jeanni (left)

-muffinman

Surprise Birthday Part Pictures

Hacky Sack Dipolomacy

A little while ago, I decided to start carrying my hacky sack around with me in my camera bag. I was inspired to do this after playing hacky sack for a good hour with Nick, a fellow EAP student, and rediscovered just how much fun it is. Little did I know that playing hacky sack would lead me to meet my first undergraduate Fudan student.

After Chinese class, I pulled out my hacky sack and started playing with Nick in the lobby of the Fudan twin towers. Just like in high school, people started joining in and soon enough the whole UC group started playing. Things started getting interesting when a passing Fudan student suddenly joined our game. Not only did he join, but he was actually fairly good, probably the best one out of the whole UC group except me. I suspected that he played jianzi, a Chinese hacky sack like game that I had played when I was young.

Surprisingly, the Fudan student stuck around till we got kicked out of the building by a security guard. We invited him out to dinner and learned that his name was Qi Li. In a stroke of luck, Qi Li turned out to be Cantonese which meant that I had a way to communicate with him because his English was functional at best.

That night Qi Li and I exchanged numbers and to be honest I did not think I was going to see him again. However, two days later I get a text in Chinese from him while in Chinese class asking how I have been. I get the teacher to translate the text for me and I do my best to respond. Next thing I know I am getting another text and having to find my mandarin speaking friends to translate and text back. I learned that he has been practicing dancing and that there was an upcoming performance, which I was invited to.

Over the next couple of weeks, Qi Li just kept meeting us after class to play hacky sack and talk with me and the other UC people. He even brought his friend, Winter, who invited me to join him and his friends for lunch during the moon festival. On an interesting night, Qi Li and Winter were invited to a party where I watched them play their first beer pong game. It was obvious from the way that they drank the 2.4% beer that they were in no way drinkers. I smile at the thought of what I imagine to be these two Fudan students’ first experience with American culture.

The most important thing from this whole experience, however, is the realization that Mrs. Brasher was wrong in threatening to cut me because I was ditching class speech class to play hacky sack! Clearly this experience has taught me that hacky sack is much more beneficial in life than speaking skill (Not a true statement).


Qi Li is second from the left in the back row

-muffinman

Shanghai: The setting

This post has long been over due and is sorely needed. Every story needs a setting and for the past couple of posts there has been little to no locating data about me, which makes it hard to see things through my eyes. Not to mention, this post allows me the opportunity to show you all the beautiful pictures that I have been taking.

I live in Tonghe, a private dorm that resides just across the street from Fudan University. Coming in to Tonghe, I had extremely low expectations but as soon as I stepped through my apartment door, I was immediately blown away by the enormous size of everything. For about four hundred USD a month I get my own humongous room and bathroom. I share the apartment with a fellow EAP student from UC Davis coincidentally also named Jonathan and an Asia MBA student named Varun.


My massive and messy room
More Pictures of Tonghe

The area surrounding Tonghe is far from a happening place, but it does provide plenty of options for food and groceries. There are a variety of hole in the wall restaurants just a stone’s throw away that are relatively cheap compared to the US but I heard from other students that compared to other places in Shanghai are somewhat expensive. The quality of these restaurants varies greatly from place to place, however, one constant is that the staff is nice and more than used to dealing with foreigners who speak little to no mandarin. Just a two to three minute walk from my apartment is one of my favorite places to go nearby is the street market that opens at 8pm near the entrance to the Fudan dorms. Open till midnight and with meals costing at most 4.5 RMB (about .75 USD) the street market is one of my most frequented places. An added plus is that I do not really need to speak mandarin to order at the market, because each vendor serves only one dish and I can simply point at the ingredients I want.


The street market

What I have discovered in my limited forays into the city of Shanghai has not been as exciting or impressive as I imagined prior to coming here. On my first tour of the city with Jeanni and Pratik, I discovered just how extremely commercialized Shanghai was. This commercialization was further reinforced last Tuesday, when the EAP program hosted a tour of the city. During the tour, a lot of time was spent in museums which did not interest me much, in fact I spent the entirety of my time in the Shanghai museum discussing photography with another student instead of checking out the exhibits. When we arrived at the “old” city, the evidence of the commercialization was overwhelming. The ancient Chinese architecture that housed a shiny new Starbucks, epitomized what “selling out” meant to me.


Selling out
More Pictures from my city tour with Jeanni and Pratik

The best thing to happen from my two city excursions has to be the amazing pictures that I have been able to take. Shanghai despite its commercialization is a very photogenic city.


The Shanghai nightline
More pictures from EAP Shanghai City Tour

The touristy feel of most of Shanghai troubles me and has instilled in me a hunger to try to find something genuine. My next stop is 50 Moganshan lu, a street of warehouses that has been converted to art studios and galleries. If there were ever a group of people to resist commercialization and “keep it real,” my money would be on the artists.

-muffinman

First interview in Shanghai

Last Friday was my first interview ever in Shanghai and surprisingly, it went very well, despite my predicament in getting there and zero preparation.

To keep from being late, I left the apartment at 11am which would give me three hours to get to the meeting place, and I was told by an old intern that it was just a 45 minute commute to get there. I figured this would be more than enough time even for a directionally incompetent person like me. And I was right, but just by 30 minutes. It turned out that the place where I thought the Starbucks was, was actually nowhere near where I should have been. As I stood in front of the massage parlor that should have been the office of the company I was interviewing for, it became increasingly apparent that I was in the wrong place.

Pacing back and forth in the street on my cell phone trying to explain where I was to my contact person in the company in the face of my nearing interview time and dying cell phone battery, I must have been a curious sight to the woman watching me behind her store door. When the person on the phone told me to go ask a local to explain to her where I was, I noticed the woman watching me in the store. Smilingly, I approached her and tried my best with English and hand gestures to get her to take my phone. However, she kept refusing and repeatedly told me that she did not speak English and that it was not her phone. Exasperated, I asked the woman on the phone how to ask for help in Putonghua and repeated it to the store woman. The store woman relented and took the phone, things were finally starting to go right. Once the phone was in the hands of the local, my location problem was solved. I was instructed to take a cab to the Starbucks, because I was just too far away. When I hailed a cab, the store woman noticed I was having trouble with the taxi driver and came out of her store to help without me asking. For the third time in a week, I was being saved by a complete stranger.

The interview itself went very well, I do not think I have ever sounded so qualified for a job that I had applied for. Ironically, I had not prepared at all for the interview because I did not think it was an interview at all. From the email, I had just thought this was a casual meet up so I did not prepare anything at all. Luckily, previously in Los Angeles, I had sketched out some marketing plans for the company while stuck in traffic, just to pass the time, so when the owner of the company asked me what ideas I had for the company I not only had something, but very detailed plans as well. What was even more extraordinary was that many of the ideas I had suggested, the company had just started implementing just two weeks ago. More amazingly, the detail in which my plans matched with what they were doing came down to things as small as using specifically Yelp to do market research. Yes, what I had thought about in my car months ago was actually coming to fruition half a world away three months later. Needless to say, I was very impressed with myself.

The owner of the company must have been impressed with me too, because she was very enthusiastic about me joining the company. She told me not to worry about hours because she was very flexible and that I could work at home but that she preferred me to be at the office. Then she took me the office and introduced me to everybody on the team, even going so far as to show me detailed reports about their social media marketing efforts and then asking me for suggestions based off the information. I think I burst her bubble, when I told her that I was not sure whether I was going to take the internship and that I would make up my mind by Friday.

Currently, I am still on the fence about it, but leaning towards not taking internship. Part of the reason is because the internship will have me doing the same social media work that I have been doing for the past year, and will teach me nothing about the Chinese market. The focus on the American market makes this internship comparable to something I could get in the states. Another and bigger reason for me not taking the internship is because I am simply having too much fun! Shanghai is the first time I have been able to enjoy my time off. The people and places that I have been encountering have made the last week one of the most memorable of my life, and I feel that working might get in the way of experiencing China to the fullest.

Of course, there are reasons to take the internship, such as the fact that it will still be a learning experience. The Christmas shopping season is coming up, meaning that there will be a lot of activity at the company. The founders of the company are still young and seem to be pretty connected which makes this internship an above average networking opportunity. Also, the company itself is just four years old and it has been growing a lot each year, to be part of this continuing growth would look good on my resume.

If only they offered to pay me, then this decision would not be so difficult.

-muffinman

Shanghai, a truly international city

Excuse me if this entry has more grammatical mistakes than others because I am still a little tipsy from my night out with the MBA students. This entry simply cannot wait till morning because tonight was an extraordinary experience perhaps even life changing, but only time will tell.


My roommate Varun on the left.

Last night, Varun, one of my roommates and an MBA student of the National University of Singapore, told me that there was going to be a meeting of all of the Asia MBA students that night, however, at the last minute the Koreans cancelled because many of them were ill and the meeting was pushed off till tomorrow. Varun not only invited me to go to this meeting but insisted that I go, telling me that I had no choice and that it had already been decided. I shrugged and said “sure,” because I had wanted to know more of these MBA students which because of Jeanni and Varun, I had grown quite fond of. Also, Jeanni had told me that the Korean students despite never having really talked to me actually liked me, so I figured I would find out for myself if this was true. After “accepting” the invitation, however, I began to think about exactly what I had gotten myself into. I wondered out loud to myself in my room “What the hell am I going to talk about with people at least seven years older than me?!”

Well, it turned out I really had nothing to worry about because everyone in the MBA program welcomed me with open arms and for all intents and purposes for that night I became an honorary Asia MBA student. Upon arrival at the Tohee lobby, where everybody was meeting, I presented a box of Suzhou style moon cakes to the Korean students who were present because offering food is a cross cultural gesture of good will. From the amount that some of them ate, I think most of them enjoyed the moon cakes. For almost all of them, these were the first moon cakes that they had ever tasted, though I hope some time soon, they get a chance to taste the Cantonese style Wing Wah brand moon cakes that I grew up on. The moon cakes were a hit with the Indians as well, with Sandeep, Varun’s friend and another MBA student, eating many of them. I think that I had to take the box from Sandeep just to make sure there were enough for everybody.

At dinner, I was able to generate some good conversation from everybody by asking general questions about what people liked or disliked about Shanghai. I learned a lot about everybody at the table and experienced a significant amount of cultural exchange. When I revealed my age to everybody, they were very surprised because many of them thought I was three to four years older, partly because I had been introduced by Varun as a new MBA student, but no one seemed to mind. On a humorous note, I really felt my young age, when I told Jeanni that Varun had worked at the same company as my dad just a few years ago. When the check came, Jeanni told me not to worry about paying and that it was already taken care of. Taking none of it, I attempted to pay for my meal but Jeanni was stubborn about it. The battle was lost and there was no way I was going to be allowed to pay. Not sure who exactly paid for my meal, I thanked the eldest member of the Korean group, though I suspected everybody chipped in.


Not the best picture, but the best I had. Duke is the man in the middle.

Little did I know that dinner was going to be tame compared to the after dinner drinking that occurred. This is where Duke, the eldest and de facto leader of the Korean group, stole the show and made my night. Not sure how Duke came upon his English name, but his boldness and care free spirit instantly reminded me of the “Dukes of Hazard.” Duke was without a doubt the life of the party as he taught everybody about Korean drinking etiquette. He taught us how to pour drinks to your elder with two hands along with various variations of two handed pouring, to turn away to drink at least the first drink out of sight of your elders and never to pour your own drink because it would be bad luck for the person sitting across from you. Duke called cheers, a couple of which were bottoms up thanks to Sandeep, for various ridiculous things such as Thailand and Singapore. As ridiculous as the cheers were, I had to admit it was a lot of fun, though Jeanni threw me many concerned glances as my cup was repeatedly filled because I was drinking with a cold and sore throat. In addition to the cultural exchange and party spirit, Duke offered up some hilarious life advice that I have taken to heart. At the end of the night Duke picked up the tab for everybody which included food and over twelve bottles of beer; and when he finished paying, everybody lined up, bowed and loudly yelled “kamsahamnida” (thank you in Korean).

While walking back to my apartment, Sandeep’s words echoed in my mind “Why do you need to study international relations, when you can get all your cultural exchange here with us!” And that is when I fully began to realize how incredible that act of “kamsahamnida” had been. A row of Chinese, Korean, Singaporean, Thai and Indian students had just lined up to say thanks in Korean on a street in Shanghai after experiencing a whole night of cultural exchange while dining at an Italian restaurant and ending the night drinking Japanese beer. I do not know if you need to be an anthropologist to appreciate this intersection culture, but I certainly found the whole experience amazing and heartwarming.

I must say, Shanghai is some international city and I definitely live for moments like this.

-muffinman