Environment

In some ways, China is actually ahead of us environmentally. They passed a law this June that stores must charge for plastic bags, and as a result each market dutifully sells large canvas bags with slogans like "For a better world." There are trash cans on the street, and outside of a few cigarette butts, the streets are pretty clean. Everything gets recycled, since there are poor people who make their living going through the trash and salvaging everything they possibly can. I don't know what pollution controls are in place for vehicles, but I haven't seen black exhaust coming out of any busses, cars or trucks, which I did notice, surprisingly, in Bellingham this summer. And check out those bike lanes! There are trees lining all of the streets around here and quite a few parks, so it helps to cool off this already hot "footprint." 30 years ago, this area was a sleepy fishing village, and today the entire Shenzhen region is home to 11 million people.

The first time I walked into the Park & Shop, the grocery store attached to the school, I thought that something was rotten. Didn't take too long to figure out it was the infamous durian fruit! It's a bit larger than a cantaloupe and covered in sharp spikes, but I haven't had the stomach to buy one and experiment, so I can't tell you if it's as delicious as some people say. I also loved the looks of the dragon fruit, though I haven't been brave enough to try that either. Right now, I'm playing it pretty conventionally in my diet, too, and willing to pay more to buy familiar foods like bread, cheese, peanut butter, yoghurt, spaghetti, and familiar vegetables, but I do have an "ayee" ( housecleaner) who comes in once a week, and she cooks some tofu and noodle dishes to last me a few days.

My first week of school was chaotic, but I think I'll save that for another post. The important thing is that by Friday afternoon I was able to start breathing a little easier, and a foot massage and beer with other teachers after work definitely helped put things into perspective!

As the Typhoon Turns

24 hours ago, both apprehensive and excited, I was wondering what my first typhoon experience would be, but since it wasn't supposed to hit full force until late afternoon and school was canceled, there was a giddy feeling among the teachers who had gathered at S'bucks. After lunching on an authentic Subway tuna sandwich, I went to visit Carla and Randal next door to wait it out, and eventually the group swelled to include 3 other teacher couples with young children from their building and one other single woman. As happens, the men somehow ended up escaping from the noise to drink beer in someone's apartment upstairs, until the moms decided to stage a coup and call them back. By this time it was 4 in the afternoon, and though it was dark, windy, and blowing rain, it was still safe enough for the girls to walk down the street for massages. We split into 2 groups; the ones who wanted the more social-talk-and-drink-beer experience went for foot massages, while 3 of us opted for "hair wash."

I know that China will bring many unique and unexpected experiences; this is certainly the first, which I expect to revisit many times. For about $5 each, we stretched out on our backs on red plastic couches in a row. Our heads rested on small platforms suspended over wash basins and for the next half hour we drifted off into private reveries while we had shampoos and massages on our heads, neck, face and shoulders. After wrapping towels around our heads, covers were placed over the basins and the massage proceeded on arms and legs. We turned over and had our backs worked over, too. The final stage was in front of the stylists' mirrors, where they dried and styled our hair.

Back on the street, now dark at 6 :30, but still with no serious signs of the typhoon, I was ready to say goodnight to my new friends and go home, even though the group plans were continuing with dinner at someone's apartment. I went home for awhile and wrestled with my natural inclination to limit social interaction. I'm always reluctant to divide the world into "There are 2 kinds of people..." but in this case I think it's valid, so bear with me when I say there are those who will understand my hesitation and those who won't. You know who you are, and it may be an impossible task to explain to those in the opposite camp. This time I decided to push myself, so I walked down the street to buy a bottle of chardonnay from Chile and a big Cadbury's chocolate bar as my contribution to the group dinner.

Since I was the last one to leave at nearly midnight, it was clearly the right decision to make. I'm from a different generation than these women, and I've never had kids, yet our conversations were meaningful and connecting, and I'm very glad of the friendship. I'm reading a book called "The Art of Travel" by Alain de Botton, and he emphasizes the value of travel for taking oneself outside the realm of the ordinary and everyday. All of the teachers here know this intrinsically, and it gives us a shared foundation from which to begin, even if it's never talked about directly.

The typhoon veered and didn't hit Shekou, but it nonetheless shook up my usual perspective and blew in some fresh opportunities.

No school

This was supposed to have been the first full day of school, but they made the decision to cancel it today because typhoon Nuri is headed directly for us. At 10:30 in the morning, there are about a dozen teachers in S'bucks, and it is windy and cloudy outside, but nothing serious; the typhoon isn't supposed to be here until late this afternoon and for now it feels like a holiday.

My class, in the half day that I got to spend with them, looks lively but mostly well-behaved. I have sweet Korean girls with English names like Helen and Phoebe and Charlene, and 3 Korean boys with difficult names like Dong Hyun, Jun Ho, and Yoong Jun (as near as I can recall). Things were chaotic and somewhat frustrating yesterday because of the lack of supplies, but I'm hoping that it will all get sorted out soon.

As I sit here looking out at the square, I wonder how bad the winds will get, and how much of what I see will still be intact after the storm. Palm tree fronds can turn into flying daggers in the wind, and all those potted plants could become rolling cannonballs, but I will be safely home by then. I will post the aftermath when I'm back here again (I can't get DSL at home right now because I should've applied before I turned my passport in for the work visa, so now it may be another few weeks.) As they say here, TIC (This is China...)

Day 6

Impressions along my daily walk to S'bucks for coffee & internet connection...it is assaultingly hot here in the tropics, and it will take me some time to get used to alternating between bathed in sweat and chilled in air conditioned buildings. On the 7 minute walk here, there are shade trees lining most of the way, reliably 5 beggars seated on the sidewalks with deformed limbs who call out cheerfully and hopefully as people pass by, hardly any garbage, men and women carrying umbrellas against the heat, and a mix of apartment buildings, banks, shops, parks, and restaurants. My building is 8 floors tall; those nearby are similarly scaled, but a few more blocks in any direction reveal much taller office and apartment towers. We are both an expat center and a small red-light district, with pocket-sized bars scattered around with names like Lovers, FUBAR, and Cherry Foam. The action seems to take place mostly within these discreet little spots, though I have seen small groups of women sitting out on the sidewalk in the early evening hours playing cards to pass the time.

This has been such a lazy Sunday, arising late and watching a program about China's first emperor on the Discovery channel. I think I'm still tired from sunburning yesterday on a staff trip to a beach about an hour from Shekou. The water was warm, no waves, with unidentifiable bits of stuff floating in the water and a net stretched across the shallow bay to keep out sharks. I swam for a little while but mostly sat under an umbrella, feeling mindless.

Next week we have 3 days of meetings and preparation, then a half day of school on Thursday and a full day on Friday. This school is huge, with over 750 students, 100 teachers and support personnel, and 3 different buildings. It is amazing to watch all the pieces starting to more or less fall together, and a little overwhelming at moments to feel like one of those little pieces.

Coffee at Starbucks

As I was leaving Bellingham, the wild blackberries in the fields near my home were barely starting to ripen, and the part of me that wanted to stay in the cool, green Northwest ached for a few more days just to taste them at their sweetest. I left Bellingham after midnight on Saturday, with boxes and brooms and unpacked clothes that my dear brother will have to pack away for me still littering the floor. I drove my car to Seattle, no time left to sleep, and called a taxi to take me to the airport. Both flights were uneventful, which is the best anyone can say of air travel, and when I landed at Hong Kong airport Monday night, there was a van driver to whisk me to Shekou, and Britt, the school director, to meet me at my new apartment.
This is Wednesday morning, so I've been here only one full day and there's already much to write about, but I just wanted to get this brief note out to say that I've arrived. The people are friendly, and everyone at the school has been very helpful. I'm just 5 minutes' walk to school down a shaded street; the S'bucks is another 5 minutes more. I went to Ikea yesterday with my friends from Baku, Carla and Randal, and fitted out my apartment for now. The view of the harbor and Hong Kong beyond from my 8th floor window is fantastic! I'm out of batteries for my camera but will send a shot very soon, I promise.

Walking down the street yesterday, I stopped at a fruit cart where a man offered me a small round brown fruit that may have been a lychee. He peeled back the skin to reveal translucent flesh and I bit in, but I didn't like the strange bitter taste, so I bought bananas instead. It is hot and humid here but very lush and green, and for now, new flavors will have to take the place of beloved blackberries.