Even though there is still finals week and one more day of classes to go the GCP program (my program at ECNU) had their closing lunch at ECNU's Silver Spring Western style restaurant. We heard some short speeches from representatives of the international students, International Student Office, and the professors. The lunch wasn't bad and I would say that the food was 50/50 Western/Chinese. It was short and sweet so I guess that is nice. It is kind of weird how soon I will be leaving China though.
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With the year coming to a close it is a good time to revisit my favorite places in Shanghai before I go, check out the stuff I haven't been to yet, and buy souvenirs for my friends and family. Today, a friend of mine and I decided to do all three. Besides being the former home of Mao Zeidong and Shanghai's most famous Buddhist Temple the Jing'an Temple District (named obviously for the temple) is now one of Shanghai's nicest. We actually couldn't get into the temple because it closes at 5:00 and we got there at around 4:50, but we got to go to Dunkin' Doughnuts Shanghai! The doughnuts were actually very different from the doughnuts served in the US, they even just introduced the "new" dunkin' doughnut with the handle (you know, their first product ever). The coffee is on point just like it is in the US. Hopefully Dunken' will expand in Shanghai since I like Dunken' Doughnuts coffee more than Starbucks. We walked around for a bit before deciding to go to Yu Gardens since it is the more interesting neighborhood. I actually wanted to buy a few things for friends and a Mao bust for my room next year at Juniata. Mao stuff is actually kind of hard to find in Shanghai since Mao's Red Cult isn't dominant in modern Shanghai. Most Shanghaiese are big fans of Comrade Deng Xiaoping; it is not like they don't dislike Mao they just like Deng more. The other issue I have is that it is actually kind of heavy; I might just mail it back to the US if only so I can confuse the poor customs agent who opens my package for inspection. I also got to check out a new cafeteria style restaurant in Yuyuan Gardens. It was basically the same as my old stand by Yuyuan restaurant except it has way more of that golden plastic materiel and seems has a giant plastic soup dumpling in the dining area. I am continuing to knock stuff off my final Shanghai to-do list and I even got some time to study for my Philosophy final.
Code-switching is a linguistic term for when speakers of two languages (like say Chinese and English) who can each speak both languages mix words and phrases from the languages together. While code-switching is a still controversial area for linguists most agree that code-switching is a thing. For example, one of my classmates commented "the 天气 today is 不好" or in English English "the weather today isn't good" or my friends will say "yesterday the 阿姨 was 很麻烦" or "the maid was being troublesome." These sentences aren't really English but they also aren't really Chinese ether, they is a mix of both languages. I myself will great people, even my English speaking foreign friends, with a 你好, say goodbye with a 再见, and say "thanks" with a 谢谢. Sometimes people will also throw in whole Chinese sentences in an English conversation. So for instance today when I had to answer a question for a classmate I commented to my friends who I was talking to "他是我的同学" or "he is my classmate." In general, I have noticed the more confidence someone has in their Chinese the more code-switching happens. My friends who just started studying the language use Chinese words far less than my friends who have studied Chinese for some time. I even noticed I have been code-switching more in my second semester at ECNU than my first. Apparently this is just a normal part of speaking multiple languages with others who speak the same multiple languages. It is apparently super noticeable in Hong Kong where most of the population speaks Cantonese and English so they will often use English words or phrases embedded in otherwise Cantonese sentences. I have also noticed I will embed more Yiddish in my English the longer I spend at Chabad, at home, or talking with other Jews in general. At Chabad, a comment like "oy vai ist mir, he's a schmuch" or "ugh, he is an idiot" is not uncommon. I am glad most of the people at Chabad don't have the best Chinese, I don't even wan't to know what my English would be like then. I think some people back at Juniata will lose me when I mention "chhhh! Our 服务员 is a putz" or "ugh, our waiter/waitress is an idiot."
So I got back from Hangzhou (杭州), or well somewhere close enough, since we were a little a bit outside of Hangzhou where there was no cell reception, no internet, and only sometimes spotty internet. It felt more rural than ether Fenghuang or Zhangjiajie, but we could still see the flights from Hangzhou Airport on their first assent. Still, it was nice to be somewhere where the air was nice (for China), I could see the sky, and I heard rumor that you can actually drink some of the water! Some of my friends, my professor, my professor's new cat, and myself all piled into my professor's small Volkswagen "We!". We had some lunch at a street dude who served the local rice noodle dish and some Chinese fruit I had once before but who's name I forgot. We then split up to get some food for dinner at the local Chinese BBQ place. Apparently Chinese BBQ restaurants will sell you ingredients for a barbecue if you run pick up some local vegetable dealer to vouch for you for 关系. We got the meat though than, after a hike around some of the lovley rivers, we made our way to our professor's house, or our professor's brother's house since our professor's brother actually lived there. Dinner was good, it was Chinese BBQ (if you couldn't tell that) and setting one of those up is a bit of a process. It the grill basically a metal box with some air holes that you pile as much charcoal as you can in and start cooking. Food was good, mostly well cooked, and came with the local brew and some Chinese moonshine. Finally we had some tea and went to bed. The morning was actually really impressive, the mountains actually had this silver shine that didn't capture well on camera that was super impressive. We than made our way back to Shanghai, but not before a stop for wantons. At our bathroom stop just outside of Shanghai city limits we got some zongzi (粽子). A zongzi is a type of rise pyramid stuffed with some type of meat, it isn't my favorite snacky Chinese dish but it isn't bad. I had a similar thing in Bangkok, Thailand but I liked the zongzi more. Overall it was a fun and somewhat tiring weekend, I am glad I went to one more Chinese city before I leave.
Even American companies, like PepsiCo, American subsidiaries, like Frito-Lay, will make products or change the names of products for the Chinese market. While Lay's wouldn't sell a product called "American Classic Flavor" in the US it is likely that it is just whatever general potato chip flavor Lay's chips normally are. Other flavors, like "Mexican Tomato Chicken Flavor" might actually sell well in the US if it is sold there. I can't see Americans lining up to buy "Yogurt Flavor" or "Grilled Squid Flavor" potato chips as anything other than as a gag gift. Still, with a market of a billion plus people that is enough to make custom flavors. Some of these flavors, like "Grilled Squid Flavor" might sell well in other Asian nations like Thailand or Japan. I didn't actually try any of them though so I have no idea if any of these flavors of Lay's are good.
I wasn't planning on taking another trip this semester but my Neo-Confucian Philsophy professor set up a rather neat sounding trip to Hangzhou for this weekend. It will be a short trip, two days one night, and a very cheap trip, but it should be cool. Hangzhou is a city in Zhejiang Provence noted for its famous West Lake (西湖), Neo-Confucian philosophers, and increasing importance as a center of eCommerce. Wikipedia also says an extension of the Kaifeng Jews formally lived in Hangzhou but now there is no remains of the Hangzhou Jewish community.
Why is there KTV outside the dorms on a random Thursday night in May? I guess it might be because today was actually really hot. Perhaps it is because the Chinese really like KTV. It seemed like a somewhat organized thing though so there is someone, somewhere who knows why. I guess everyone was good, there was a German girl who did a whole song in Chinese so that was cool.
I made another attempt to use the massive box of bamboo I was mailed, this time some of my friends and I decided to do a Phat Thai type of dish with quail eggs and the bamboo. I would say it worked out better than my first attempt but the street guys in Thailand are still the kinds of Phat Thai. My two biggest problems this time around were that I cut some of the bamboo pieces a bit too large resulting in some that didn't cook right and the noodles were overcooked. I should have paid more attention to the noodles when I bought them because they cook in literally 3 minutes. It feels like by the time I dump them in the hot water they are ready to eat. They are faster than even the pot noodle type things. I did get use to the strange internal film of the quail eggs so using them was much easier this time around. I would say this attempt was more successful than my last attempt, even if it doesn't look pretty.
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AuthorI am a junior at Juniata College spending a year studying abroad at East China Normal University. Please feel free to join my on my journey to China and beyond. Archives
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