Shanghai

SHANGHAI:

I snapped this one from the window of my hotel. It looked cooler in real life. The buildings are like looming over you and disappear in the sky. It was pretty cool.

I was really happy to be back in Shanghai. Unfortunately, it was foggy all night and the next day up until I left, but still it all seemed familiar again. I was actually really surprised at how familiar it was to me. I remember when I first went to Shanghai in the summer of 2010, and it was a completely different feeling. I was scared and excited, but mostly scared because my Chinese at the time was…um…not good. You know how when you’re studying a language, even if you’ve studied it for years, you still have to get past a specific stage in which you find the confidence to actually use the language?  It’s a necessary stage that can only be passed through immersion…actually USING the language in conversation. Well, I hadn’t gotten past that stage yet, so I wasn’t able to speak. But ANYWAY…being in Shanghai at the time helped me get past that stage and speaking is no problem for me anymore. The problem I generally have now is what to say and how to say it (new vocabulary and grammar).

So knowing that I was pretty comfortable with my Chinese enough to get around Shanghai, I wasn’t really that scared anymore. In addition, during that summer in Shanghai, I went with friends to so many different places, inside Shanghai and right outside the city, had so many experiences, tried so many things, and so I was pretty aware of the general structure of the city and the culture. SHANGHAI = CONQUERED. J

(In fact, it’s one of the reasons why I chose Kunming…for me, Shanghai I believe would have been too easy. It’s too easy to be a foreigner in Shanghai than in Kunming…you can use English and pretty much be totally fine. I believe the same would go for a big city like Beijing as well. I want to feel the same way I did when I first went to Shanghai…scared, challenged, completely out of my element, because it will be that much more awesome when I do get over my fears and conquer the challenges.)

That night we got off the plane, we met up with two of my dad’s co-workers who lived in China (they were Chinese, of course). I had met each of them once before with their families, and I just loved being around them because they’re about the sweetest people you’ll ever meet. So happy and so hospitable! But then again, most of the people I’ve met that are Chinese natives (or Chinese Americans in touch with their heritage) have always been very hospitable, because it is important to their culture. It always encourages me to be more hospitable myself. But most of all, I love the sense of mutual respect that is between them and my dad. It reminds me that even though people come from different cultures, they can always get along if there is a mutual respect and appreciation for each other’s culture. In this case, it would be the co-workers’ Chinese culture and my dad’s Jamaican culture.

So anyway, they took us out to dinner at a really nice Chinese restaurant, and they ordered many traditional dishes. I LOVE IT when people do that because when I go to another country or place with a different culture, I want to get the experience of what it is like to live as a person from that country or culture. In my mind, the experience wouldn’t be real if I simply did the things I was used to in such a situation. One time, my senior year in high school, I went with my science class on a spring break trip to the Peruvian Amazon to study the plants and animals. The first thing I did when I got off the plane was try to find Peruvian food. The first thing that a few of my classmates did was find the nearby McDonalds. Um…I mean, I know Peru is different from America, but I’m thinking at least get in touch with SOME of the culture before you go to a McDonalds (of all places, it doesn’t get much more American than that). Buy a souvenir, talk in Spanish, eat Peruvian ice cream, something! Hahaha…but to each his/her own. It really depends on what type of experience you would like to have, and some people don’t really want the full experience. No problem.

Now what I’m going to say right now is mainly for the people who ever plan on studying abroad in the future. It’s the best advice I can give. YOU’RE EXPERIENCE WILL ALWAYS BE WHAT YOU MAKE IT. Only you can decide what you want to gain from studying abroad…or traveling in general. When I was in Shanghai, the vast majority of my classmates tried their best to gain the best Shanghai experience they could…they were an AMAZING group of people…but there were definitely people at both ends of the scale: there were some that literally threw themselves into trying to learn Chinese, searching for Chinese friends and constantly trying to practice what they learned with everyone they met. Some of them were at a lower class level than me at the start, but I think I could say they were much better in their communication than me in the end. (I promise I was practicing A LOT, it’s just that they did even MORE and I have a lot of respect for them because of it.) But ON THE OTHER HAND, there were some that did virtually nothing to improve their Chinese or gain a Shanghai experience. Often, they remained in their rooms and didn’t see things or meet people. It was because they were scared and in a situation they weren’t used to, and it seemed very much like they were counting down the days until they could get back to America. Unfortunately for them, their Chinese did not improve much at all. I can say this very same story for pretty much every travel experience with a group I’ve ever had, spring break in Peru, 3 weeks in the sheer wilderness in a program called Outward Bound, and I’m sure there will be international students in Kunming who cover both sides of the spectrum as well. But for me, that’s the motto I’m bringing with me to Kunming. I know it can be scary and uncomfortable, but in the long run (unless you really don’t care about learning about other people’s cultures, which is something you’re completely entitled to feeling) I’m sure you won’t regret taking the risk and daring to do what you’re not used to.

I rant A LOT. You’ll be seeing lots of rants in my posts…just as a warning, haha. But anyway, back to the main point: Shanghai. Because of the experiences I had the last time in Shanghai, good and bad, when I returned this time I was not afraid in the least. Win.

For your entertainment, here’s a picture of me in front of Costa Coffee (before boarding the plane to Kunming)…it’s not EXACTLY my last name, but it’s good enough. (It’s also a really good thing you can’t see my eyes too well, because they’re a bit sore from traveling on the plane and therefore not looking too good.)