Bike Number Two... MIA
I left this morning to go on a trip away from Shanghai and was looking for my bike to go to the ATM with no luck. Thankfully it was the 130 RMB/$15 bike that I just bought last week to replace my first stolen bike. I haven't had a chance to go through the 500+ bikes at my building to make sure no one just moved it.
I'll post more on the trip tomorrow. We got back late and it's been a long day.
It's almost Thursday???
I have never been so confused in my life about what day it is. I came home and looked at two calendars just to make sure that I just made it through Wednesday. I think I lived the entire day thinking it was Tuesday.
I had great conversations last night with Cindy and Wiseman. I really just needed to talk to someone and they both made it so much easier to sleep. I have incredible people in my life!
I was also told today I was not a very good Chinese student. A little frustrating, but expected.
I'm going to start posting some of my spending habits... just so you can get a good idea about the buying power of the U.S. dollar in China. I'm starting with my meals for the day. Today was a fairly average day for cost, but I usually eat a little more...
| Item | Cost in RMB | Cost in US $ |
| -- BREAKFAST -- |
| Apple | 1 RMB | $0.12 |
| Sprite | 3 RMB | $0.37 |
|
| -- LUNCH -- |
| Noodles | 2.5 RMB | $0.31 |
| Muffin | 1 RMB | $0.12 |
|
| -- DINNER -- |
| Noodles (again) | 2.5 RMB | 0.31 |
| Small pack of Oreos | 5 RMB | $0.62 |
| Pinapple Juice | 3.3 RMB | $0.40 |
| Total | 18.3 RMB | $2.25 |
I didn't buy anything else, so today I spent $2.25. No money spent on gas, because I use my two legs and a bike to go places; no 12 cent newspapers; no 75 cent choclate bar... just food today.
Now $2.25 sounds like nothing, and it isn't, but do remember I still have to pay for health insurance and make credit card payments at U.S. prices, and I get nothing out of either one of them here. I've also had to pay for two bikes now, since my first one was stolen, as well as pay for an entire business dress wardrobe that I didn't bring with me. Everything that I could not fit into a suitcase, I've bought. Everything is incredibly cheap here, but moving here with one suitcase is not cheap by anyone's standards.
Soilder Deaths Since 2003
I found an incredibly heart wrenching graphic on
NYTimes.com about the U.S. casualties in Iraq since the beginning of the war in March 2003. You can find the graphic
here.
It has the picture of every soilder killed from March 2003 till January 2005. You can see their age, where they were from and their branch of service.
I'm not going to put my political spin on this here, but it's the first real graphic of the war that has really brought it home for me. (I'll leave you to develop your own opinion on it all) Seeing people my age and younger that are no longer walking among us because of this conflict. I'm so thankful for their service to the United States.
And I was doing so well...
Today was a reletively good day to start with. I spent most of the morning replying to e-mails that I had put off from last week. A quick lunch with Jütta on campus. Spent the afternoon writing a recomendation for a CRK staffer for a sholarship to App, notes to the people I met with last week and sorting through pictures from the Holland Fellows program & the UNC Office opening last May. Five o'clock came relatively quickly for only a Tuesday.
I came home, changed clothes and headed out for dinner. On the way out of the building I stopped by my mail box and I got three letters! I recognized right away who the first two were from, but the last was from Mountaineer Apartments... and I don't really know anyone that lives there...
Then I realized who the letter was from. Today, I got a letter from
Julie... 20 days after she sent it from Boone.
I thought I was doing so well with this. All the letter talked about was when the next time we would see each other and how unfair it was that we didn't get to spend time together before I left. I know it's pointless to say now, but I'll always regret that.
She sent two pictures with it: one of Julie and her cousins at her sister's farm; Another of Julie and Hayley before a game at App.
I've just sat here for about an hour listening to
Picture of Jesus by Ben Harper over and over. No clue why that song, but it started playing when I opened the letter and it was really appropriate.
It hangs above my altar
Like they hung him from a cross
I keep one in my wallet
For the times I feel lost, I feel lost
In a wooden frame with splinters
Where my family kneels to pray
And if you listen close
You'll hear the words he used to say
I've got a picture of Jesus
In his arms so many prayers rest
We've got a picture of Jesus
And with him we shall be forever blessed
Forever blessed, Forever blessed
Now it has been spoken
He would come again
But would we recognize
This king among men
There was a man in our time
His words shine bright like the sun
He tried to lift the masses
And was crucified by gun
He was a picture of Jesus
With him so many prayers rest
He is a picture of Jesus
In his arms so many prayers
So many prayers, So many prayers rest
With him we shall be forever blessed
Forever blessed, Forever blessed
Some days have no beginning
And some days have no end
Some roads are straight and narrow
And some roads only bend
So let us say a prayer
For every living thing
Walking towards a light
From the cross of a king
We long to be a picture of Jesus, Of Jesus
In his arms, In his arms so many prayers rest
I long to be a picture of Jesus
With him we shall be forever blessed
I was happy when I was with you too kiddo and I'm so glad you sent a letter.
I also bought a new pair of shoes... They were super cheap (150 RMB/$18.50) so I just had to buy them. I know... I know... I'm breaking the bank, This is by far one of my most expensive purchases. I bought eight Burberry ties this weekend for 80 RMB or about $1.20 a tie along with two books, The Chronicles of Narnia and The Da Vinci Code, both of which were the exact same prices as they would be in the US. The selection and high cost of English books is pretty disappointing.
I was in the grocery store today and saw a pen I had to buy... They stole the Camel logo from RJReynolds Tobacco and changed it to a pen brand.
just a recent picture...
NY Times... Boone, NC
I'm checking my e-mail and reading the New York Times headlines online, and what do I see in the travel section... Boone, NC and Appalachian State University. Not kidding.
Just Checkout the
NY Times article.
Makes me miss the place even more!
Kunshan Tour 2005!!! & a Winston-Salem Visitor
Dr. Fox and I served as "international representatives" to the Kunshan Autumn Investment Promotion Fair in Kunshan, about an hour and a half from Shanghai. We were carried around all day from one event to the other to give everything an international flare. To make this place look attractive to international investors, they bring in quite a few international folks, just to make it look like a really important international event. The day yeilded a free lunch, a one and a half hour tour of Kunshan by bus (there are only so many factories under construction you can look at), a visit to the nearby hostorical water town and a free dinner. I can't complain too much because it's near the end of the month and I can use all of the free meals I can get until payday. Jerry shopped for baskets and a quilt in the watertown for Jody. Jody's off on a mountain biking trip out west towards Tibet for two weeks. For those of you who know Jody, this is not a big suprise.
Busy week this week. It's really helping me keep focus with so much going on in my life elsewhere right now.
Katrena Henderson, an Appalachian alumni, visited Fudan today. She's the International Students and Scholars Advisor at Winston-Salem State University. It was great to talk with someone about my experiences so far and see a familiar face from home. I met Katrena last May in Boone at a conference, so it was fun to see her again on this side of the world. We had dinner tonight with Li Hong, also an Appalachian grad who works at the Foreign Affairs Office with me, and her husband who is a professor at Fudan.
More soon...
MattDull.com
If you haven't looked at my website in a while, go to
www.MattDull.com and look under pictures. I've put up several pages of pictures from home, from Raven Knob and from Boone. Oh.. and there are a few pictures from Shanghai too.
The website will not let you save any of the pictures, so if you want a copy of any of them, just drop me a line at
dullmc@appstate.edu and I'll send some your way.
Julie Katherine Nagel
At the Kenny Chesney concert at Ziggy's next to his bus
Hey friends--
On Saturday morning, I woke up to an e-mail from a friend about a car accident on 421. At first I didn't want to believe that this was happening. I spent the day upset at myself for not being able to be in North Carolina with everyone else during this time. As many of you have already found out from friends, Julie Nagel, a good friend of mine and of many of you, was injured in the accident on Friday afternoon going home to Maryland for fall break and left us last Saturday morning.
It's hard to believe it was over a year ago when l met her for the first time in Room 143 of Dougherty Hall. Julie was someone that many of you remembered from the first time you met her. She was certainly a friend to so many people at Appalachian and I hope that many of you have at least one fond memory of a time you shared with her. Maybe it was just her presence in the room or her laughter and smile. Whatever it may be, I hope your memories of her will give you comfort in this time of reflection.
I remained close friends with Julie since last December when class ended and watched her struggle and watched her grow so much as a person in just one year. I will miss her one of a kind personality. There have been few people in this world that broke the mold quite like Julie Nagel. I miss my friend that filled one place that no one else will quite fill again.
The coming weeks will be the hardest for those of you who saw Julie day to day. I might seem a world away, but please send an e-mail or an IM if you need to talk. I ask that you all keep Julie's family in your thoughts and prayers in the weeks and months ahead.
You may wonder what kind of articles show up in the
Shanghai Daily the all English newspaper in Shanghai. Here's a good example of stories that show up everyday...
Even a chimp can quit smoking
2005-10-04 Beijing Time
A CHIMPANZEE in a northwest China zoo has quit smoking, a habit that has troubled her for 16 years.
Ai Ai, a 27-year-old mother chimp at Qinling Safari Park in Shaanxi Province, spent four weeks abstaining from smoking, by cutting her daily cigarette consumption step by step until ridding the habit entirely, a zoo keeper said. He said the zoo management decided to help the chimp quit smoking because it had been harming her health.
"She's served fried dishes and dumplings at every meal, alongside her usual diet of milk, banana and rice," he said.
"I also put earphones on her so that she could enjoy some pop music from my walkman."
The zoo keepers tried every way to divert the chimp's attention from cigarettes: a walk after breakfast, a music session after lunch and gym after dinner.
"In the first few days, she squealed for cigarettes every now and then, but as her life became more colorful, she gradually forgot about them altogether," said the zoo worker.
Ai Ai became a smoker in 1989, soon after her spouse died.
A picture from last week in a Mongolian Hotpot restaurant with Ralph and Anna. (I'm recovering from an aweful cold at this point... and I look like it)
How I celebrated the National Day Holiday...
On October 1, 2005, China celebrated it's 56th birthday since it's establishment as the People's Republic of China, the China we know today. All of the professional level people of China get an entire week off, beginning on October 1 and ending on October 7, which means that all of the students and faculty at Fudan have the week off, myself included.
On Saturday, I slept in till around noon, something I haven't had the chance to do in quite a while. I went to lunch at the Crazy Tomato, a Korean-owned restaurant that serves all western food. I rushed back to change into a suit for my first Chinese wedding.
The wedding was quite the experience. Since most Chinese do not have any religious affiliations, the traditional wedding ceremony with shared vows, exchanging the rings (and maybe a kiss) all happen at the reception. It took me a few minutes to realize what was going on when we got to the reception, but the wedding ceremony was happening there on stage in front of me... I almost missed it. I almost felt like I was at a game show.. they had a live band that played electronic variations of Somewhere Over the Rainbow and Unchained Melody with an MC rather than a minister. The MC in this flashy outfit came out first, quite enthusiastic about the couple getting married. He calls them up on stage... everyone claps... he calls the parents on stage... everyone claps. At this point, I'm looking for Door #1 to see what kind of prizes they're playing for. They do the traditional vows and also the exchange of the rings, but again, it's very much like a game show rather than a serious ceremony. There was so much excitement and energy and happiness in one place, so that really made the experience.
Now this was no small reception... There are two receptions. A lunch reception for the bride's family and friends and then the dinner reception that we went to for the groom's family and friends. Each reception had around 700 people attend for a full sit down banquet. I mean a ten course meal for 700. Don't forget... there are two receptions with 700 people attending each one. Can you imagine planning and paying for a wedding for 1,400 guests???
There were 70 tables in the banquet hall and the bride and groom visit with each table, gives a toast and lights everyone's wedding celebratory cigarette. Needless to say, North Carolina should not worry about their tobacco business in China... people smoke everywhere here and RJR's Camel cigarettes are seen as the greatest cigarettes in the world. Of course I don't smoke, so it's a little annoying that people can smoke everywhere here...
Moving on from the tangent, it was a great experience and an eye opener to the difference in the religious significance of weddings in the western and eastern world.
After the wedding, we took the bus back to Fudan and I met up with Jutta, an Austrian girl who I work with at the FAO. We went to an apartment near campus to visit some of her friends from Poland. In one apartment there were three people from Poland, two Germans, two Austrians, a Japanese and a Korean, one guy from Mexico, three Russians and another American, Chris, an '03 Harvard grad from Boston. Chris is the fourth Harvard graduate I've met here.
The people that are studying Chinese at Fudan are incredible. For most of them, Chinese is a third or forth language and they're all here working on their Master's or just studying here after graduating. I met this Russian girl there who just finished her Bachelor's and her Chinese was good enough for her to take 18 hours of Master's level Economics classes. (And she's doing this for fun) I'm wondering now how I ended up here...
Lot's of exposure to new and different things today. Let's hope the rest of my week off is just as eventful.
Chengwei, who I work with at the Foreign Affairs Ofice and his bride
Bride and Groom, "Walking down the aisle"
The UNC Delegation on the day they left Shanghai in the Yu Yuan Gardens
