Xia-wha?!

Since this is my first post about China, I feel like I need to preface it by saying that these are my first, fresh-off-the-boat impressions of Xiamen. They are largely impressions and not facts and will undoubtedly change over the course of my time here.

I like to do these "first impressions" entries because in ten or twelve months its always amazing to look back to where I started and where I ended up. Living abroad changes you in so many ways and sometimes, unless we document those changes, we miss them altogether.

So. Xiamen...

The very first thing that popped into my head as myself, Sunny (a fellow English teacher), and our polite but tight-lipped driver made our way from the airport was that Xiamen reminded me an awful lot of LA. The heat, the sunshine, the palm trees, the beaches, the ever-present sheen of smog on the horizon. I had to continually check the Mandarin-emblazoned billboards on the side of the highway to be sure I was in fact in China and not southern California.

Xiamen does, however, seem to have a lot more construction going on than LA. Everywhere you look there are towering, half-finished skyscrapers, high-rise condos with cranes resting lazily atop, and construction sites walled off with colorful illustrations of what's to come. At first glance, it would seem that Xiamen is a city on the rise. And perhaps it is. But from what I've heard a lot of the construction is subsidized by the government and a lot of these new condos and apartments that are being built can only be afforded by a small minority.

Of all that I've experienced so far, the biggest adjustment for me has been the weather. It is just SO. HOT. Like step-outside-and-simply-breathe-and-you'll-be-drenched-in-sweat hot. Between the blazing sunshine, the humidity, and lack of air conditioning in most places, I feel like I'm trapped in a ginormous sauna from about 8am until 6pm when the temperatures finally start to drop. I'm sure between the heat and the multiple climbs to the sixth floor of my dorm building (yes, there is no elevator), it's doing wonders for my figure. But I really can't wait for mid-September when the summer is over and the temperatures are closer to the 70s than the 90s.

The other huge adjustment, coming in at a very close second, is the language barrier. This is my first time in a foreign country where I literally cannot communicate at all. I spent brief weekends in France and Belgium, but they were weekends and I was always with a tour group. I'm in China for a year and it's clear that I'm going to need at least a functional level of Mandarin to do the basic things: grocery shopping, navigating around the city, exchanging pleasantries with my non-English speaking co-workers, etc. Right now I'm relying heavily on Loren, one of the other foreign teachers, to be my translator and tutor of sorts. He's been fantastic about teaching me a lot about the language and culture. I'm hoping that between him, David, and whatever self-studying I do, I should be able to handle myself within the next few months. Or here's hoping anyway!

Another thing that's really stood out to me is the amount of attention I receive as a foreigner here. I don't think I've ever been stared at so much in my life. And it's not like the sly, out of the corner of your eye staring. It's like the "let me gawk at you as we walk towards each other on the sidewalk and then stop and turn around and continue to stare at you as you pass me by". I mean, I guess it's flattering? Or unnerving. Regardless, it's going to take some time to adjust to.

I'm really happy with the food so far. I'm still dying to get my hands on a giant bowl of noodles, but the meals in the cafeteria have been more than sufficient. And they're free, so who's complaining? There's always rice (of course) and the meats and veggies (half of which I have no idea what they are) are always amazingly seasoned and relatively easy to eat with chopsticks. I don't know that I'm going to miss American food that much while I'm here, but it is strange to know that it isn't readily available if and when I want it. There is a massive store near downtown Xiamen called Metro that specializes in imported items, like peanut butter and cheese (which apparently you can't find anywhere). So I guess I can always soothe my cravings there if it gets to be too much.

A typical lunch in the school's cafeteria

The rest of my experiences so far are little things and more of an "oh, well this is different" and not an "oh man, how am I gonna live like this?!" Things like my weird bathroom, encountering squat toilets for the first time (that was an experience), discovering that small children do not wear diapers and simply wear crotch-less pants so that they can pee anywhere (and I do mean anywhere), realizing that it will be a long time before I see forks and knives again, and so on and so forth.

These little "encounters" will be the basis of some fantastic stories I'm sure, so that'll be something to look out for in future blog posts. :)

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I've had a ton of requests for pictures and I promise I'm on it. If you're on FB you'll see that I've posted a few pics already. I'll do my best to have an album to post on here shortly.

Also, for those of you who are new to this blog, there's a place on the top right hand side of this page where you can enter your email address and be notified each time I put up a new entry. That way you won't need to bother with checking back here or my FB page for updates.

Pics and more info about the school coming soon!