The Road to Shanghai

It’s probably because my students think I’m completely crazy, and, therefore, they find me entertaining. Chinese people are quite reserved with body language and gestures, so they think exuberant Americans are fascinating lunatics. Whatever the reason, I’ve been invited to participate in a whole bunch of activities. So far, I’ve given a speech to the Student English Union, and I’ve been interviewed on the student radio station (with my voice broadcast over loudspeakers all over campus!). The English Union event was great fun. Norty went with me for moral support and occasional translation services. I spoke for about a half an hour, and then the students bombarded us with questions for the next hour and a half. You would really find that amazing if you knew how reluctant the students usually are to speak English in front of a group.

The radio interview had a couple of moments of high hilarity. The interviewer insisted that I select 3 songs to be played before and after the show and during the break in the middle. I picked the only 3 songs I could find with English names. One of them was “Sound of Silence.” But when the song started, what I heard was not Simon and Garfunkle. What I heard was a version rendered in wildly mispronounced English by a group who had obviously learned the song phonetically. Then, there was the interviewer’s valiant, but ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to pronounce “Prairie Village.” I was giggling so much after the ersatz Simon and Garfunkle song that I wasn’t able to get myself completely under control before we went live again, so the whole campus got to hear me basically laughing like a loon. You can’t imagine how weird that sounds over loudspeakers!

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon with a group of teachers who came from my school and several of the other colleges in Nantong. They are starting an English club of their own. I went with Antonia Caster, an English teacher at NTIT who is from the UK. (Whatever stereotype I might have cherished about reserved English people has been completely destroyed by Antonia and the two other Brits I’ve met here. They make me look reserved!) Anyway, we just sat around and chatted in an informal way with the Chinese teachers and had a really nice time. The group is planning to go on some kind of day trip for the next meeting – perhaps to the beach, which is about a 2-hour bus ride from here. They promised to teach me how to do “beach disco.” That is apparently a dance that people do on the beach to make the crabs come up out of the sand so they can be caught and turned into soup. It does sound like fun, but I confess to some reservations about helping to lure the poor crabs to their doom.

Tomorrow, I’m giving another talk to a group of students from the Textile Design department. One of my classes is entirely composed of students from that department. Oddly enough, even though they struggle harder than my other classes, they are the most fun. And I think they must enjoy my lessons. That class is the only one I have with a perfect attendance record!

A few other odds and ends: Passover was a little strange. For the first seder, it was just Norty and me. He asked the Four Questions and I answered! Then Norty had to take an emergency trip out of town, so for the second seder, it was just me! It seemed too weird to ask myself questions, so I had a rather nice time looking things up in the Tanakh. BTW: If you’ve never read the Book of Joel, give it a try. Most interesting.

Our home-cooking standards have been given a boost by the discovery of the City Market Delivery Service. The City Market is a store in Shanghai that specializes in Western grocery items. They also make deliveries to Nantong twice a month at no charge! Their food is expensive, but it’s really nice to be able to get what I need to make spaghetti, chili, hummus, etc.

Another addition on the creature-comforts front is my weekly massage. 60RMB (about $7.50) for an hour of pure bliss! Chinese massages are different than massages in the US. For one thing, you remain fully clothed. Then the masseur or masseuse places a sheet over you and you get massaged through that. I thought it was kind of odd at first, but it really feels wonderful. They concentrate on all the knots and tight places, and they go at it pretty hard. Just about the time you start to think, “By golly, that hurts”, the weirdest thing happens, and the tight spot just kind of melts away in a wave of heat. Amazing!

Spring is definitely here. Maybe even summer – yesterday it was in the 80s. Norty celebrated by buying two used bicycles for us. They’re a bit ratty looking, but they work just fine, and they won’t attract the attention of thieves the way new bikes would. I hope we’ll get a chance to try them out this weekend, but, as I may have mentioned, the traffic here is completely insane, so I’m a little nervous.

The last new thing is that we have started taking Chinese lessons. The teacher is a college professor who comes to our apartment once a week. Naturally, he and Norty are working at a pretty high level, while I am still struggling to learn how to pronounce the letters and to get the tones right. I now have a lot more sympathy for Chinese people trying to pronounce “Prairie Village”!

That’s it for now. Bye.
Terry