Life with Potato Tiger

(Ryan)

It has only been a over a week since I switched host families and so much has happened so far.  My new family lives 25 minutes away from school by bike ride.  Their apartment complex is one of the coolest things I have ever seen.  Through the gigantic entrance way is a beautiful park full of large trees, flowers, jungle gyms, workout equipment, and a pool.  The apartment itself is really modern looking.  There are crisp edges and bold, popping colors everywhere.

I am sleeping in my host brother's room while he sleeps in the guest room (why it's not the other way around I don't know).  I feel right at home with anime memorabilia all over the shelves (^_^).  In the bathroom down the hallway is a toilet with more buttons then a spaceship.  Right down the street from the apartment complex is the MIXC Mall, the same mall where we went ice skating.  It turns out that my host brother, Jim, is the infamous Potato Tiger from one of Chris's classes (small world).  He also has a friend who's name is Tomato Tiger and another who's name is Biscuit Prince.  Both of my host parents are doctors.  My host father is a Chinese medicine doctor.  During the week he teaches at a university.  During the weekends he works at the Chinese medicine hospital in the market near west lake that we went to a few weeks ago.

Over one of the weekends, my host brother, mother, and I visited my host father at the Chinese medicine hospital.  His friend toured us around the hospital and I got to see what Chinese medicine was like (from acupuncture to prescriptions of bones and “magic fungus”).  Later in the day, we toured a museum associated with the hospital.  There I learned about the origin of Chinese medicine, how it was prepared, and who were the major contributers to the field. 

Last summer I did a program at UPenn through the Summer Academy in Applied Science and Technology.  While waiting for others to arrive at the airport, I began a conversation with the SAAST student in charge of us.  I found out that she would be living in China for 9 months teaching English.  When I asked her where, she said “You probably haven't heard of it before.  It's called Hangzhou.”  Early last week I sent her a message asking if she was still in Hangzhou.  To my surprise, she still was.  On Thursday, we got together at the MIXC mall for Indian food.  This was my first time trying Indian food, and I am glad that I did.  Curry is now one of my new favorite foods.  It was great connecting with a friend and catching up so far away from home.  It was interesting to hear that the first time she experienced snow was this winter in Hangzhou.

Shanghai was a very interesting city to experience.  The ride over via high speed rail was really fun.  The ride was so smooth, I could hardly tell that I was going 350 kilometers per hour.  Shanghai is a very modern, and very western city.  The area where our hotel was located was called the Bund.  The buildings on the Bund are all old European-style architecture.  Across the water from the Bund is the new city.  In the new city, modern skyscrapers tower above and gardens and trees flourish below.  Not to mention the large commercial areas complete with 10 story shopping malls.  It was interesting traversing Shanghai's subway system.  You select where you want to go, get a card to tap in, get to your destination, and then insert your card into the gate to exit.  The subways themselves are gigantic.  Even though they are several cars in length each, they are packed with standing room only. 

The destinations we had in Shanghai were all interesting and fun to explore.  The Shanghai museum was a cultural experience full of interesting factoids.  We found one intricately designed bronze artifact that was from the 15^th century BC, and there were still ones older than that.  There were also beautiful pottery pieces, ancient furniture, paintings, calligraphy, coins, stamps, statues, and more.  While examining some Buddhist artifacts in one of the exhibits, we struck up a conversation with a group of friendly Americans.  They were on a cruise around the world and were stopping for a few days in Shanghai.  They were telling us about how they left Japan only 24 hours before the earthquake hit.  At night we went to a cafe on the Bund on top of a lighthouse.  All the old buildings were lit up and the new city across the water was a dazzling neon display.  The boats glistened with neon lines as they drifted down the waterway.  One of my favorite places in Shanghai was an area with old Chinese architecture, but modern shops on the inside.  I liked seeing the merging of old and new culture.  One of the afternoons, we went to a lounge called Cloud Nine.  The lounge was literally in the clouds.  We were on the 87^th floor of the Hyatt and we could see nothing but fog out the window.  It was still cool to be so high up in such a fancy place.  One of the last nights, we went to the House of Jazz and Blues and listened to a live jazz show.  It was a fantastic atmosphere with great music and a fun crowd (even a few swing dancers).

Food in Shanghai varied wildly while staying away from traditional Chinese food.  Our first meal in Shanghai was at “Tasty Steak.”  At first it seemed like a fast food restaurant.  But the ridiculously high backed chairs and multiple forks proved otherwise.  In the mornings we grabbed food from the local coffee shops (one morning I craved western food and got a sandwich at Subway).  We also enjoyed eating lunch at an Italian Restaurant (where they broke Colin's pizza and had to make a new one).  One of the nights, I decided to see what made Pizza Hut different in China than in America.  For starters, there was no pepperoni pizza.  Instead there was shrimp pizza with crab, green pepper, and pineapple.  Also the interior of the Pizza hut was on the level of California Pizza Kitchen.  Our last meal in Shanghai was at a French restaurant.  It was refreshing to get some tasty western food in Shanghai.

Today we ventured to a nearby town that has one of the largest markets in the world.  If one were to visit each shop for a minute each, they would be there for around two years!  Needless to say, the place was huge.  There were 5 districts, each with their own sub sections spread out across the four floors of each building.  The districts, although connected, have their own bus system because they are so far apart from end to end.  They sold luggage, jewelry, furniture, sporting goods, toys, decorations, electronics, and much MUCH more.  Unfortunately, most of the items could only be bought in bulk.  There was a really interesting globe that floated in a magnetic field that I wanted to get.  When I asked how much, the saleswoman said I needed to buy 16 of them at once, each for 100 yuan.  But we were still able to get a lot of what we wanted where they were selling in non-bulk.

I can't believe that there is only a week left here in China.  I am certainly going to miss the adventures!