Would you Breastfeed While Riding a Moped? All things Astonishing in Shanghai, China

In the four months I have been here, I have seen some hilarious things. I have seen a mom breastfeed while riding on the back of a moped. I've seen a mom breastfeed on the subway. I've seen hundreds of kids wearing their pants with the open crotch because that's what they do here (the picture does it better justice than any words I have to describe it).

I've seen workers sleeping at every job-even at my job! No, it wasn't me (I'm working on it though . . ). I went to get one of the IT guys to help fix a computer. I opened the office door and yup, they were asleep. They had that look like "what the heck do you think you are doing? I already did my 15 minutes of work for the day."

I've seen many a man and boy peeing in the open street, the subway, and out the window of their house (oh, its pretty funny, until you catch a whiff. Yuck!). I've seen men spit on carpet and old women do some fat spitters on the street. I've seen a crew of 25 construction men moving straw, washing windows, and sitting around while one or two women get on with the heavy labor, breaking up the asphalt with pick axes and sledge hammers.



I've seen a falcon living in the 20th floor of an apartment building (My apartment building actually). I've seen an old Chinese man take his instrument and wash it in the pond that the men and boys just finished peeing in before putting it back to his lips and playing again--okay, that one had me laughing after I stopped convulsing.

And today, I saw a fancy wedding party go into Papa John's for the wedding meal and then come out to take wedding photos on the street (see video below). Ahhhhh. East Asia. Ahhhh Shanghai.

But, my personal favorite? That would be the first week I was here in Shanghai. A man in his late 40's was wearing a shirt that said, and I quote, "I LOVE TO FART".


The red picture above was for Budweiser. Budweiser had a display of musicians made of beer cans for a few weeks--kind of cool. Then, this next picture asks the visitors to not touch the water. Too bad the sign was in the middle of a large field of grass. What? Did they mean "don't touch the acid rain water on the grass or your hand will get burned?" In that case, we needs signs on all the water faucets that say "drink if you want to die. Let the taste of this awful water be your guide." I have drank the water twice by accident, and yes, the taste definitely lets you know that you will have a rough future (if any) if you drink more.


Here is our resident falcon man and his bird, who scares an elevator full of people daily when that thing starts flapping its wings (that bird is fierce-ask the mouse he just ate). I hope to be there with my camera the next time it happens.

Are you brave enough to bike around Shanghai, China?

From Left to Right: Lorie, Aiduku, and Marla

Before I moved to Shanghai, everyone said there were too many bicyclers and people on mopeds and it was pretty dangerous to ride around on a bike. After being here for close to 4 months, I disagree. Walking is definitely more dangerous. At least on a bike I can choose to hit other pedestrians and mopeders, livening up the accident instead of just getting run over myself--that's no fun.

I have been hit by bicyclers riding on the sidewalk a couple times. What they do is peddle really slow and then run over your heel. Its like getting hit by a shopping cart at the grocery store except you are out walking on the sidewalk. It really takes talent on a bike.

I decided to rent a bike to see how bad it really was. I've been thinking about buying one because they have special bike lanes on all the roads and you can ride places quicker than taking a taxi when traffic is bad. Brent and I joined a group of three for some dangerous play last Saturday, the 14th of November.


I called a local bike shop (just googled "rent bikes Shanghai") and was able to rent 5 bikes and have them delivered for about $12 a person for the day. You can rent trucks here just like taxis. The bike company had a truck deliver our bikes to Century park for just a few dollars. We didn't find out until we got to the park with our bikes that you have to pay to visit the park and you can't ride bikes there! Looks like Century park is an adventure for another day . . . .

As for the bike ride, mine fell over twice (mostly from trying to film while riding-not recommended). Lorie (the blondie) also had a crash. Hers was from trying to crack nuts for a snack to eat while riding at the same time.Wow. I'm seeing a pattern here. hmmmm....

We biked on the new side of Shanghai called Pudong. It's much quieter than where Brent and I live in Puxi-the original Shanghai. We live in a very buy commercial area that is more the combat biking scene.

Our bike ride was great. Quiet and peaceful. I raced a few delivery drivers from Sherpas on there little electric bikes (they weren't as into as I was).

I apologize now for the movies. Biking and filming is a bad combo (for you and for me). The weather was a little cold, about 45 Fahrenheit with a little wind. The temperature in November was hot for the first week and now we are into winter weather. Usually around 35 - 45 and with rains every other day or so. Not bad when your coming from Alaska.

We put our new Chinese law-aversion skills into practice. We are getting accustomed to Chinese ways quickly. They post many signs for rules like "don't bike here," but we know better. We followed the other bikes across all the areas with "no biking" signs. We even rode and waved to the cops and security guards as we went by. Its a bit like Singapore here when it comes to crime, homeless people, and disturbances. They happen. All the time. The government just hushes them up or covers them up. (I also cannot read the newspaper so I hear about these things even less).

I just found info online that says Shanghai is starting a bike sharing program where you can rent a bike for $1 yuan an hour through a company called forever bicycles. I also found a cool website that lists bike sharing across the globe for all you travelers. Check it out here. Sounds good to me!

How much would you pay to look like you've been mugged?

After another day of adventure in Shanghai, China, I love that I have a picture like this to show off. Your probably wondering how I survived the brutal beating that left these marks on my back, but there is a good back story to war wounds.

Any good Chinese doctor can do this for you (or to you) . . . . read on for the story.

The pollution in Shanghai worked its magic on me and I've had a sinus infection here for quite a while. I was feeling pretty run down two weeks ago, so I went with a few Asian expat teachers to try out some of the traditional Chinese medicine (tmc) that they swore gets your body working properly again.

I went to a spa/tmc provider located in a gorgeous apartment area near People's Square. I went in with my friends (who could translate Chinese for me whew) and put on the little Chinese pajama-type clothes they give to customers who get Chinese massages. The tmc practitioner came out and held my wrist to feel what was wrong in my body. She asked me some questions about how long I had been sick, my sleeping, coughing, and other personal tibits. I'm sure plenty of what I said was lost in translation--I find that happens often. I say, "I've been coughing and feeling sick because the air is polluted" and they get "she's been staying up late and drinking. Those foreigners." Well, many foreigners do like to party here, but I've been sticking to a normal granny bedtime of 9:30 pm so I figured she was a little off base when she asked me if I like to stay up late. Like to and get to are two different things right?

Then the doc talked to a few of her helpers and told them to give me a massage, to use a special heat treatment to suck the cold out of me and get my qi (or engergy) balanced, and to perform Gua Sha. Now when someone translates this to you they say, "hey, if you want to feel better, you need to do Gua Sha," and you think, "okay. I want to feel better. Let's try it." Like signing up for a job in another country, you never know what you are signing up for until you get here.

What the heck is Gua Sha?

Well, Gua Sha means to scrape the fever or sickness from the body. What they did for me was to put oil on my back and take a rounded wooded object (almost like a shoe horn) and begin to put pressure on my back with the object and stroke my back with the that thing repeatedly. This combing left quite the marks on me as you can see from the picture. Did it hurt. Okay, yes it did.

Surprisingly, the marks faded in about 4 days and were gone in a week. Sure it was painful, but I survived. I think that its one of those things that if you did it a lot, it wouldn't feel so bad. For anyone that remembers having to run the timed mile in elementary, before we knew that people actually practice running to get better at it, getting the Gua Sha treatment is a lot easier (not quicker though).

Did it work. Hmmm. Hard to say. It did make me feel incredibly tired, like I had to listen to an audio tape on rock morphology while digging post holes. My brain was mush and my body was about there too. I was so tired after the combing or back beating as I like to call it that I probably got the best sleep I've had since I moved to China. I was too tired to think, dream, or worry. My cough and sickness went down considerably over the next few days. I couldn't tell if it was from the treatment or not. It made me wonder about the old doctor's advice: "Take this and you will be better in a week. If not, you will have to wait 7 days."

Either way, I got an hour massage, a meal, some interesting heat treatments to suck the cold out of my body (kinda like putting a warm stick on pressure points on your body), and a nice Gua Shan beating all for about $50 bucks. I think tomorrow I'll just go for the massage. That sets me back about $7 an hour. I'll let you know how it goes . . . I don't expect to look like I got hit by a moped after this one though.

Are you feeling lonely? Need to feel surrounded? Check out Shanghai, China

With 18 million + people moving around Shanghai, I would say walking and using public transportation is the easiest way to get squished, run over by a bicycle, moped, car, truck . . . Yesterday, a boxing coach from the gym I work out at told me how he got run over by a truck last week.

All the work vehicles are old school diesel stick shifts. He just happened to be walking on the sidewalk (yes, the sidewalk) and a truck was loaded with construction junk blocking his path. My friend Paul decided to step off the sidewalk right when the driver decided to do a panic backup over Paul. Paul got lucky. He got pinned between a post and the truck until the driver calmed down enough to move the truck forward. Paul got out with his knee banged up a bit, but is walking okay. Don't let this scare you. It could happen to anyone, but probably not for a while . . . read on for the real day to day stuff.

Just to give you a little idea of the traffic here . . .

When the crosswalk turns green we all wait at least 5 seconds for the cars that will run the red light before we begin combat crossing (playing chicken with the cars, mopeds, and bikes).

Red lights are optional. If the driver looks both ways before running the red light, its all good. (refer to the above line about waiting when the light turns green for pedestrian safety)

Law enforcement is also optional. I once saw a truck get a ticket for not having the right license, and a bus get a ticket for driving on a road it wasn't supposed to be driving on (I think it was a big show for us whities-I mean they don't really have set traffic laws!). I also saw a policeman whistle at a moped to stop and the moped almost ran him over before breezing on past him.

Good thing there is lower dangerous crime here because no one pulls over for a cop with flashing lights. I think the ice cream truck gets more respect.

The metro/subway between the hours of 4:30 and 7 is for the brave, the stupid, and the poor. And of course those in a rush and those who get sick in taxis (see the uploaded video for a full understanding of the metro. Note: this video is about half the capacity of a full subway. I have been in on those full subways, where you just pick a strangers lap and sit in it or back up into it because that's the only place there is room).

The law of size really applies in traffic: Mopeds and Bicyclers will stop for cars. People will stop for everyone, and buses stop for NO one. When the bus moves towards me, I get out of the way!

When things get rough, I like to use the skills I learned in basketball. I walk with my elbows out in busy pedestrian areas to discourage people from pushing me.

How the Heck Did I Get to China in the First Place? The Interview

The Interview for SSIS was weird to say the least, but everyone was incredibly friendly and helpful. I don't think I talked more than two minutes the whole time. They asked me a few questions about salary requirements, what Brent would be doing in Shanghai, and then mostly talked about living in Shanghai. The recruiters talked about shopping, the weather, and what there was to do in Shanghai.

I only asked a few questions. I was being interviewed as a teacher counselor so I asked what that meant. The recruiter told me I would teach 10 hours a week and that I would never work more than 20 hours at the job. Holy cow, I thought. Sign me up! I never liked teaching large groups though, so I had one really important question: how many kids would I be teaching when I wasn't counseling? Drum Roll please . . . . . The answer is 7! Yes, I was told that the student to teacher ratio was 7. Geez, this was like a dream scenario. I love working in small groups.

Well as part of being recruited to work internationally, I was offered a housing package, a tax free salary, and a plane ticket. Now the salary was a bit lower than other International schools, and Brent wasn't getting his ticket or any health insurance. I didn't know any of this at the time though, so it didn't matter as much. I signed up to move to Shanghai, China in the fall and tried not to think about drastic changes while I was enjoying the last few months in the states. . .

Here is a pretty normal package for teachers coming to China:

Housing allowance: 5,000 rmb (low end) - 12,000 rmb (high end)

Health Insurance: It is pretty normal for the whole family to be covered, SSIS is on the low end for teacher benefits

Salary: 28,000 USD tax free (low end) - 70,000 USD + 15% taxes (high end) depending on experience

Travel Allowance: most schools offer you and your spouse a free trip to and from China and anywhere from $500 - $2000 USD in moving costs, $500 being the extreme low-end.

Leave: Leave is harder to come by at International Schools, being that substitutes are even harder to come by here, so most places will give you a couple personal days and 5 - 10 sick days.

Now keep in mind that International packages are highly personalized and negotiable. Ask for what you want, because you never know what you are signing up for until you are there. You want to know for certain you are signing up for the right thing.

How the Heck Did I Get to China in the First Place? Part 2

Once I signed up with the Philadelphia fair for International School Services (ISS), Brent and I looked up some International Schools Online to see what they were like. We didn't get much information.

Before I knew it, we were in Philadelphia at the first day of the fair. I was thinking of the fair as more of a vacation. I wasn't really planning on signing up with any schools. I just wanted to see what it was like and what type of package they were offering (hmmm, in hindsight a lot of my first ideas are usually good ones)!

The first day of the fair was all formalities, like talking about how to interview ect. I didn't find it helped the school search at all, but we both went. We met a few people at the fair who said they had no trouble getting jobs abroad. They had posted their information last minute and were hired in July just before the August school year, so Brent and I were getting excited.

The next day was the main part of the fair. All the schools were doing booths to represent their school/country and then a mini presentation you could sign up for. Well Brent and I showed up for the last half hour of the 2 hour booth session and everyone had already left! I couldn't believe it. We laughed about it for a while, then went to the individual school sessions.

I had this little mailbox where school recruiters could drop me letters and I found that Shanghai Singapore International School was interested in an interview.

When I read that, I laughed. China? No way! For all I had heard, China was still in the dark ages. . . . . who in there right mind would go work abroad in China? I didn't think they could pay me enough to do that.

Long story short, the recruiter really sold us in the presentation. He talked about what a great place China was to work. Massages were $10 for an hour, the city was Westernized and the job was very relaxing. Who could say no to that?

I still had my doubts going into the interview, but now I was a little more open to China. Mandarin is an incredibly hard, but important language to learn because such a large percentage of the world speaks it. I kept thinking to myself . . .. China? What is that like?

How the Heck Did I Get to China in the First Place?

While I was walking around downtown Shanghai this morning, now that the new cold weather is jarring my memory, I realized I hadn't posted much about how you can get paid to move abroad.

I've been skipping around a little and haven't told everyone how I got to China in the first place. Well here is the first part of the story:

I had been thinking of going to a Spanish speaking country for a while to learn a second language. Brent already knows quite a bit of Spanish, and was excited for a move too. I have been dreaming of learning new languages for the past few years. I didn't know what I would do for work, and wasn't super excited about spending my savings (I'm sure everyone can relate)! So I took my skills to the internet.

I first started my internet escapades looking at language programs and travel abroad opportunities. Most of them consisted of you paying someone a ton of money to work for them for free-blech, and get some language training on the side. So I kept looking . . .

Through no shortage of hours spent on the internet, I found out about some recruiting fairs that hired educators, administrators, coaches, and other personnel to work at schools abroad.

Here are the top places to go when looking for educator or school personnel jobs abroad:

International School Services

http://www.iss.edu/index.asp

Counsil of International Schools

http://www.cois.org/

Search Associates

http://www.searchassociates.com/main.html

University of Northern Iowa

http://www.uni.edu/placement/overseas/

Department of Defense Abroad (DOD)

http://www.eu.dodea.edu/hr/

I chose to sign up with International School Services (ISS). I paid a sign up fee to put my information in with ISS so I could be considered by International Schools for recruitment. Then, I paid another $400 to sign up for a recruitment fair in Philadelphia in February (I posted a picture of Brent in downtown Philadelphia from our trip. It looks cold, but it was a huge break from the freezing Alaska weather at that time. We had a blast. Thank you Priceline for the crazy good deal on the Marriot).

To sign up with ISS, I needed to show two years of experience and proof of my school certificate, which for me is a Type C special services. After arriving in Shanghai, I see that many teachers work with just a TEOFL or TESOL certificate. One of these can be obtained in a matter of weeks and the teachers with these certificates are paid similarly to me. Hey, its my first time getting hired abroad. I didn't know how much $ to ask for then, but now I do!

Tourists for the day

After a couple weeks in Shanghai, living at the Resort owned by the school, we (Brent, me, and all the foreign staff) went on a day tour of Shanghai. We took a bus to the pearl market, the French Concession (where the former communist party was founded), and Pudong--home of the Jin Mao tower--4th tallest building in the world. Now when I say we went on a day tour, that means we spent about 4 hours in traffic and then 2 - 3 hours checking out Shanghai. We also went to the famous Yu gardens (tourist mecca for bargaining and buying everything you could ever imagine you don't need).

As you can see from the pictures, I was the happy, unwitting foreigner, 1 week from the start of International school (more to come on this subject ahaha). My favorite is the picture of me and Brent sitting at the traditional tea drinking table chatty it up with the tour guide. He was hilarious! He told us that the average Chinese person with a college degree made aroun 1000 rmb a month. That's like $150 dollars. Whew!

Finding an Apartment in Shanghai

August went by fast here in Shanghai. The whole month was unbelievably hot! I went apartment hunting with Brent and some friends from the school. I found out really quick that anyone that can get money off of you will. That's been the theme since I have been in Shanghai, China. I can't speak for everyone, there are always straight shooters out there, but for the most part, if you look like you have any money then someone will try to get it from you. It's the idea that, well, your a foreigner, you should expect to just get ripped off.

The school (SSIS) said they would help me and other teachers get some agents to find houses. The problem was, the agents would only show me the same two apartment complexes, and Brent and I didn't want to live there. The school, as I found out later, gets a kick back from their agents, and that's why they didn't want me going to other agents or place. hmmmm

Well, what to do? I put a posting on Craigslist, met an agent that spoke just enough English and we found an apartment in downtown Shanghai near the major shopping areas in one day. Up to that point, we had been searching with the school's agents for 3 weeks. It's better to just take matters in your own hands here. Just remember in China (or Shanghai at least) , if someone helps you for no reason its usually because there is a reason.

To get an apartment in Shanghai, you need to pay two month's rent and one month's deposit (normally). The agent who helps you find a place also get 30% of one month's rent from you and another 30% from the owner of the apartment for his services. If you pay enough per month for an apartment (8000 + rmb, about 1200 USD) then the fee is waived on your end, but I don't know all the details. That can be a lot of money for some people here. My apartment is about 80 sq meters, on the 17th floor, 5 minutes from the subway/metro station. The closer the apartment is to the metro and a nice area, the more expensive it is, but it is worth it! The metro here is fabulous and you can get everywhere quickly. Brent and I pay 3800 rmb per month or about $560 USD a month to rent. Our internet was 2000 rmb for the year. Our electric and water bills add up to about 500rmb a month, and our phone bill is about 50 rmb a month. So total, including internet, we pay about $665 USD a month. We also pay a maid (Ayi) $80 a month to clean and cook 9 hours a week. We pay her 50% more than the average Ayi. She makes $2 + dollars an hour instead of just over $1 an hour.

Finding an amazing apartment for rent at a cheap place in Shanghai is pretty easy. You just have to be willing to keep searching. There is no rhyme or reason for the prices charged on apartments in Shanghai. A fabulous apartment may cost $300 USD a month and a real crapper may cost $800 USD a month. Just know how big you want your apartment to be, how new, how close to a major area of town or a metro, and start looking. Don't say yes until you find exactly what you want. There are millions of apartments here. The one you want at the price you want is out there!

New City Old Ideas . . .

Check out the latest in Chinese thought. . . I wanted the chair in the middle. Yes, one small, Chinese man of about 90 lbs. was wheeling this cart around the huge neighborhood I live in of Xujiahui (shoe-jaw-weigh) in Shanghai, China. My favorite is the garbage truck. I mean, garbage cart. It is a cart like this one, but one small person (always small-the fat, tall, capable ones don't ride bikes or do labor) is pulling this huge cart overflowing with garbage. Don't ask me where they dump it! I don't want to know! They will do #1 and #2 in the street, so I don't want to know where the garbage has been going. Probably the water system (Ps. You might want to avoid the water system here forever).

China has to be the only place where you can still buy puff pants, new versions of all 1980s clothes, and pay more for your internet than a full time maid (called an Ayi). You can also pay more in China for the Chinese made products you buy in the states. Hmmmmm . . .

Arriving in Shanghai

Wow, I arrived at the Pudong airport in Shanghai, China on August 4th, 2009. The weather was hot and heavy, I would say suffocatingly heavy at 100% humid and about 95 degrees humidity. You can see the wetness of the air in Brent's picture out by our cottage at Sun Island. The airport was amazingly clean, but that was all that was clean as we drove and hour and 1/2 to Sun Island Resort in the Min Hang District of Shanghai. I had no concept of where we were, and the language sounded crazy. My first day in China consisted of opening the door to my little studio cottage at the resort (more like upscale cabins at a retreat), checking the place thoroughly for roaches, spiders, and any other creepy crawlys, turning on the air con, and sleeping for the next 15 hours.