(Western) Life’s Little Conveniences

I started this post with the intention of talking about differences in Chinese life and Canadian life. More of a complaint about why Canadian life is so much more convenient than Chinese life. But as I was typing it, I realized how silly it was and how silly I was. Of course, it’s nice to have things at my fingertips but I have been spoon-fed everything. I can have out-of-season fruit sent from half-way around the world, all for the low cost of unnecessary carbon emissions. I can drive to the corner store or to work in the heart of downtown every day at the low, low cost of a tank of fossil fuels. I can wear winter clothes indoors during the peak of summer for the cost of oh-so-familiar smog-warning days. I can go watch the basketball game and have friends eat the wings of 40 chickens in the span of two hours. We don’t stop to think about these things because Toronto life is so busy and these are things we just do. At least that’s what it felt to me.

Living in China for two years has been the best thing I could have done. My eyes have been opened and my life has changed in so many ways. Even before I came to China, I was already trying to do the gung-ho save-the-world by being the change you want to see in the world deal. Then I came to realize that they still do that in the rest of the world. My grocery store here doesn’t get out-of-season fruits and vegetables. If the farmers here grow them, they sell them. It’s as simple as that. They don’t import from half-way around the world. They sell local, at least more local than, say, Loblaws (aka Canadian Safeway). I love mandarin orange season. It’s probably the sole reason why I don’t get sick here. If my 中百 (Zhōngbǎi) supermarket doesn’t have mangoes, I don’t eat mangoes. What my 中百 has, I buy. But they did bring in a box of Sunkist oranges at one point but I refused to buy them and bought the local ones.

Depending on who you talk to, the population of Wuhan is eight to 12 million people. That’s a lot of people. There’s a lot of cars in Wuhan but you also haven’t seen how many buses we have here. They’re finally starting construction on the subway system, too. I’ve always heard how our subway system is crappy and small, I even thought Montreal had it better than us. But Shanghai’s subway system is huge and they stop at major tourist locations. Hong Kong’s subway system is pretty awesome, too. But Hong Kong, in general, is teeny tiny in comparison to Wuhan. I remember walking on the streets two Octobers ago with a girl friend and walking way too far because we kept looking at the map thinking it was bigger than it actually was. We missed our turn to the jazz club where we met some interesting German characters staying at the Shangri-La.

China isn’t all for saving the environment either, though. When I arrived in Shanghai, my impression was how much waste was being produced by everyone. Take-out containers from street-food vendors. Individual plastic bags, not 4-cup cardboard cup holders, for your drinks from McDonald’s. We have so far to go as a global community to stop our destructive behaviours.

I’m tired. Time for bed.

How to Cross a Street in Wuhan

I was surfing and found this excellent post about how to cross the street in Wuhan. It really does hit the nail on the head. I haven’t been conditioned to cross the street like a local still and I’m in my second year. I live right across the street from my school so I cross the street every morning. A vehicle could be 150m down the road going about 50 km/h, I’ll stop  even though I know I can make it across in time if I walked briskly. I think I just hate hearing the horn go off.

Speaking of horns, I hate walking down Liufang, it’s “the village” just up the street from us. I hate it when I’m walking down the narrow streets and hear a van come down it while s/he’s blaring the horn to let you know that they’re there. It’s LOUD! Try standing at the bus stop and have a bus honk their horn 20m away. That’s even louder!

If there are others with me while crossing the street, I let them take the lead. I still hesitate when they decide to cross but I do my little freak-out skip across the street instead of the calm and collected prance of my neighbour.

I don’t think it’s a China-only thing. When I cross at a crosswalk in Toronto, I still don’t cross if there’s a car that looks like they’re still going 30 km/h and barely slowing down. I wait for them to come to a near stop before I walk out. I’d rather be safe than sorry. I can’t assume that they noticed the blinking crosswalk lights with all the distractions in cars.

Karen Realty’s grand opening

I’m bored and without sound on my laptop. The sound card appears to have come loose or just went plop and died. No sound from the speakers, no sound from the headphones but I can use the microphone. Any guesses? Listening to your iPod over and over again just isn’t the same as having 680 News running in the background. I can’t watch my TV shows either and we’re at the end of the season. *violin plays in the background*

This week, I’m working on a project for my students. Little paper craft houses for our little town. I’m glad I have a small class just finishing up the last few and then I’m off to bed. Anyone want to purchase property in our little town of 12? Contact Karen Realty, you know where to find me.

Skype Message of the Day

My Privacy settings were changed to block all messages that don’t come from people on my contact list but this was a request to be added me to their list. Here is today’s Skype message of the day.

[10:17:09 AM] Delko: hi am a foreign englsih teacher.i offer private tutoring in oral english in wuchang if you are interested.Thanks have a good day

For a foreign English teacher… they sure know how to compose a message in English.

A dark ascent

I live on the fifth floor and I walk the stairs when I do not have a 20-pound backpack and five-pounds of groceries to carry. I left the school last night and had dinner with some of the other teachers. By the time I went home it was dark already. It is really hard to push myself to walk the stairs when the lights in the stairwell do not work. The lights on the first to fourth floor are all burnt out or the motion/noise detector is defective. I do get light when I pass by the third floor though because the detector in the third-floor hallway works like a charm.

I suppose I would not think twice about it if I were walking in a well-constructed stairwell but it is not. Let me start with the hand rail.The underside and sometimes the side of the handrail has this rough texture to it. It feels as though the wood was not sanded properly or something went wrong with the paint and it now has a texture similar to stucco applied in that prickly fashion. Then there are the actual steps. It starts out okay,
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No school for a week?

Here’s the talk around the office. The government instructs that any classes with more than 30 percent of their students exhibiting flu-like symptoms should have their classes suspended for a week. The kindergarten has already suspended classes for one of their classrooms. Today, 16 percent of the elementary school is absent because of flu-like symptoms. What will happen? The teachers are having a meeting while the English teachers are in class in a few minutes, so we’ll find out what was decided after we get out of class.

Seat belt dilemma

I’m Canadian. I am taught that you should always put on your seat belt when you enter a vehicle. No one does that here but me. I get into the front seat of a taxi, I put on my seat belt. I’ve assimilated somewhat. I get into the back seat of a taxi, I don’t put on my seat belt. I don’t think I do that in a Canadian taxi either. It is very rare to find me in a taxi in Canada so I don’t recall if I do put on my seat belt.

Today, I went to extend my resident permit. I was going with someone from HR and two other people that needed to renew their permits, too. I felt like I was doing something wrong by putting on my seat belt when I sat down in the van but I can’t help from doing it. I’ve been in a few accidents, one of them in China, so I understand how precious the seat belt really is. I feel like I should stop wearing it so I don’t offend the drivers but Wuhan driving is kind of crazy sometimes.

We have school buses that drive students home after school. The buses are supervised by two teachers. I had to take over someone on Friday. I love the driver, he’s an awesome guy, but I get scared when I’m in the bus sometimes. I don’t know exactly how fast he was going but it felt like 80 kph because it sounded like the bus was working pretty hard but maybe it was only 60 kph. We’d hit bumps on the road and I’d fly half a feet into the air. I would flinch whenever he braked hard to avoid the vehicle in front of him or the person that was jaywalking across the street.

As I am tired, I am going to stop right here and go to bed. Good night. :p