breakthesky.net » Travel

The Tip of the Reverse Culture Shock Iceberg

Manda — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 18:28:21 +0000

I never noticed how dependent the US is on the concept of customer service until I came back from China.

Take my first two days back in the US, for example. My first night, my friend and I went out to dinner at a place that served all-American food. (The sandwiches were delicious. I think part of the reason why I loved mine so much was because there was so much cheese on it!) While we were there, neither of us had to shout “服务员！” to get our waitress’ attention. All we had to do was make eye contact and… bam! She would appear at our table. Hell, sometimes she would come over and ask us how we were doing without being prompted to come over. It was like magic. Not to mention totally unheard of in China.

My second day in the US, my friend and I went to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. The portion sizes! I’ve always thought the Cheesecake Factory served massive portions, but after a year of eating smaller portion sizes I was completely wowed by the hugeness of my chicken piccata. (I was very hungry though, so I managed to eat a lot more of my food than I thought I would. That’s something, I guess.) This waitress, like the one from the night before, kept coming to our table and asking us how we were, how the food was, etc. At one point I was getting rather annoyed with her attentiveness; I just wanted to be left with my friend and my food in peace! I’ve grown so unaccustomed to any form of attention or care from wait staff while dining out that it was alien to have this helicopter waitress hovering over me. I was also quite sad to part with the money required for a 20% tip when it came time to pay the bill; I’d forgotten about tipping.

Another weird thing is toilets. For one, squatters are pretty much non-existent in the US. I’m neither here nor there on this, as I can take or leave a squat toilet. But what I can’t get over is how there are toilet paper dispensers in each stall! Not only that, BUT THERE IS ACTUALLY TOILET PAPER IN THE DISPENSER! Most toilets in China don’t even have a dispenser for toilet paper. That might seem strange, but when there’s never going to be toilet paper in said toilet dispenser, it seems a bit useless to have the dispenser.

…never in my life would I have imagined I’d devote an entire paragraph to the topic of toilet paper in a blog entry.

Travel Recap: Central and Southern China

Manda — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 06:51:39 +0000

The cities I visited in central and southern China were arranged as part of my study abroad program. We visited Luoyang, Xi’an, Chengdu, Longsheng, Guilin, and Yangshuo. Most of what we saw were historical landmarks (such as the Shaolin Temple and the terracotta warriors) and everything we saw was beautiful (such as the scenery in Guilin and Yangshuo).

Highlights include:

Exploring ruins at the Shaolin Temple.
Tandem biking along the city wall of Xi’an.
Visiting the Panda Research Center in Chengdu. Panda cubs are so cute!
Eating spicy hotpot in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan. Sichuan, for those who don’t know, is basically a world capital for spicy, spicy food.
River rafting in Yangshuo.
Eating absolutely delicious Guilin noodles in, well, Guilin.

Photos behind the cut.

That Crazy White Girl

Manda — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 03:13:55 +0000

“Manda, by the time you leave Beijing you’re going to be known as that crazy white girl.”

So said my brother, and I’m afraid to say he’s probably correct. In the last few days I’ve been in Beijing I’ve gotten into more arguments than I care to remember with locals. Most of them have to do with them trying to rip me off and me not putting up with it – I am practically a local, after all, and I know how much prices should be! One taxi driver tried to charge me 200RMB for what would be a 30RMB cab ride! When I called him out on his bogus “deal” he had the audacity to be offended by the fact that I called his offer ridiculous (and that I flat-out called him a cheat).

Of course, not all has been crazy; I’ve had some lovely encounters with locals that remind me of the Beijing I’ve fallen in love with over the last year. I had one taxi driver who sang along to Beijing opera-style music in his car (I normally hate Beijing opera, but he sang along so happily that I couldn’t help but warm to that particular song). I had a few friends who befriended my brother and I when we went out to snack on 羊肉串 (chunks of lamb roasted on a stick with spices) for a midnight snack. But still, no matter how many wonderful people I meet, every time I call out someone attempting to cheat me I inevitably end up looking and sounding like the crazy one – I am the white girl shouting in Mandarin Chinese and giving locals a run for their money in bargaining, after all!

Ode to China

Manda — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 06:02:30 +0000

My year abroad has almost come to a close; come July 11 I’ll be on a plane to Chicago. Right now, I look and feel as though I don’t have a care in the world – I’ve got my headphones on, typing away at my laptop, sipping a green tea frappe. But inside, I’m terrified. I’m terrified of what things will be like when I go home, I’m terrified of finding how I’ve changed as a person (what was that quote about finding out how you’ve changed when you return to a place that hasn’t changed at all?), I’m terrified of the reverse culture shock… well, I’m terrified of everything.

So I decided to write an ode to China as a way of trying to tie together all of my experiences. I wrote it as best I could, but I still don’t think this ode does my year abroad justice. It’s a start, though.

ODE TO CHINA

To Shanghai, where my adventure began with a crash course into how people don’t stand in line in China while queuing up at the Pearl Tower, and where we went country-hopping at the World Expo.

To Hangzhou, where I discovered my talent for dropping dumplings into plates of vinegar, creating a mess every time, and where we never did find that damn tea house.

To Hefei, where I visited my first Walmart, and went through every Chinese traveler’s initiation of sitting a too long of a train ride in a rigid hard seat.

To Huangshan, where I climbed my first mountain, saw my first sunrise, and slept in the hallway of a hotel for the first time.

To Luoyang, where my two guy friends let Chinese men take photos with me for 5kuai a snapshot and forgot to collect the money.

To Xi’an, where I cemented my friendships from fall semester and went tandem biking along the city wall.

To Chengdu, where I saw pandas and discovered Soho.

To Guilin, where true friends stuck by me and we went to get massages at 2a.m.

To Yangshuo, where I cruised along the river with the beautiful karst mountains surrounding me, and where I developed a soft spot for hotel rooftops.

To Nanning, where we caused a black cab driver to lose face by calling her insane after she tried to rip us off.

To Detian, where we saw a gorgeous waterfall and tiptoed along the Vietnam border.

To Haikou, where I bought the cheapest bathing suit of my life at 30kuai.

To Sanya, where we went white water rafting, lay on the beach, drunkenly serenaded our hotel staff, frequented Club 88, and where I got over my fear of the water.

To Shenzhen, where I followed the numerous arrows pointing to Hong Kong.

To Hong Kong, where I got to show my favorite city in the world to one of my favorite people in the world.

To Macau, where we tried our luck at gambling… and lost.

To Guangzhou, where we bought a mahjong set off a mahjong parlor in a back alley.

To Nanjing, where 串儿-ing and 干杯-ing became verbs, and I went to my first hot springs.

To Tianjin, where we gorged ourselves silly on our lunch at Little Italy, and where I had real mochi for the first time.

To Taishan, where we bonded over the tiny space heater in our freezing room.

To Jiaxing, where I got my first taste of a business-type dinner in China.

To Zhengzhou, where we 入乡随俗-ed and hung out at the 网吧.

To Lijiang, where I saw the most beautiful sights in China, rode a horse up the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, conquered the Tiger Leaping Gorge, and made awesome Chinese friends.

To Shangri-la, where I experienced my first bout of altitude sickness and saw a Tibetan monastery.

To Kunming, where we celebrated a 21st in style.

To Jinghong, where we saw people plunge their cars in the Mekong in the name of car washing.

And to Beijing, which deserves an ode all of its own…

Cavemen and Fire

Manda — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 02:44:24 +0000

“Our family is like cavemen and the camera is fire.”

So said my wise brother during a two-day family excursion to Guangzhou. The amount of time spent in front of minor sights with various combinations of people and different cameras used (since, in today’s digital age, it made more sense to use every camera in possession to take photos, rather than stick to one camera and share the photos with everyone at the end of the trip) was headache-inducing. There is a reason for the Asian tourist stereotype of taking photos for every little damn thing encountered.

I’m seriously thinking of investing in a green screen and presenting it to my family. It’s not like they are concerned about the sights; the photos are all about the people and have little to no focus on the background. A green screen would take care of everything.

How Everything But Travel Fell Through For My Summer

Manda — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 02:39:00 +0000

This summer, apart from traveling, I was going to intern in Beijing and teach English in Shanghai. Initially, I struggled between which employment option to choose: interning, or teaching. Then, I found some magical way to incorporate both into my summer by interning the first half and teaching the second half. And then… complications arose and the whole plan fell apart. Except for the travel component, thank GOD, or else I would have had nothing to show for my summer besides lazing about and not using my hard-earned Mandarin skills.

Interning fell through not because I wasn’t a viable candidate or anything like that. In fact, I had pretty much secured the position, which was no small feat seeing as it was at a world-class PR company’s office in Beijing. However, the issues that arose were not to do with me, but with my Chinese visa and housing. I had contacted the company expressing my interest in interning through my study abroad program in Beijing, who conveniently forgot to mention that 1) I would require a student visa to intern, 2) They would not be providing me papers to renew my student visa, and 3) They also would not offer me any housing. So, thanks to no student visa and no housing, I had to decline the internship opportunity. Frustrated doesn’t even begin to cover how I felt when things came crashing down.

Teaching fell through for a myriad of little reasons, unlike interning. The school was incredibly vague on how much I would get paid, and how much of my working hours would be paid (last official thing I heard was that I would be paid three hours per day, but expected to be at the school and work for a minimum of six). They also wouldn’t cover any visa or visa travel-related expenses (a Chinese visa costs around $140USD for an American citizen, and to “renew” a double-entry or multiple-entry visa one must leave the country). Getting in touch with the school officials to confirm anything about the job was like pulling teeth – at times, it was altogether impossible. Not exactly the most promising work environment. Also, since the teaching gig was at the very tailend of my summer in China, I would have to piece together alternative living arrangements for the rest of the summer since the internship fell through.

In the end, I’m simply going to be traveling with family in China until mid-July. Then, I return home to Chicago for two weeks to pack up my things and move out permanently to my apartment in Washington, DC. After I celebrate my 21st (August 23rd!), I kick off my final year of my undergraduate degree. Needless to say, there are a lot of major changes coming up in my life…

Officially Going Home

Manda — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 02:44:39 +0000

July 11.

Peking Capital Airport to Chicago O’Hare.

It’s so strange to think that in a month, I’ll be home. I don’t know how I feel about this. A part of me never wants to leave Beijing…

(Obviously, this means I’m not interning or teaching in China this summer. But an explanation about how both plans fell through for unrelated reasons tomorrow – still in shock about this ticket home.)

My Backpacking Travels Are Over

Manda — Mon, 30 May 2011 00:57:03 +0000

Well, I arrived in Hong Kong last night and will be spending the next two weeks or so with family before heading back to mainland China to wrap up the last part of my summer. As much as I love Hong Kong, I am a little sad to be here. It’s hard to imagine that my backpacking trip is over. Six weeks of swapping hotels for hostels, buses and trains for flights, hauling around a backpack that was getting progressively more and more full with dirty laundry… it was, to be sure, a once in a lifetime experience. And if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a single thing.

These are the places I went to, as I feel like I never clarified where, exactly, I was at:

Yunnan (province in southwestern China): Kunming, Lijiang, Shangri-la, Jinghong
Laos: Luang Namtha, Luang Prabang, Phonsavanh
Vietnam: Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hue, Hoi An, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)
Cambodia: Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Angkor
Thailand: Bangkok, Phuket

I miss my friends that I was traveling with, I miss the spontaneity of our traveling lifestyle, and I miss the independence that comes with traveling. It’s typical post-travel nostalgia, I guess. But I’ll get over it. After all, I am in Hong Kong, the greatest city in the world. And I get to see my mom and brother in a week! I haven’t seen them since I left the US last August, so I’m really excited!

(I will be posting a much more in depth travel recap for each country with photos, but that won’t be till… well, probably at some point in the very distant future. My track record with these travel recaps leaves a lot to be desired with the rate at which I post them!)

This Means I’m Next

Manda — Sat, 14 May 2011 01:11:03 +0000

The two friends I am backpacking around southeast Asia with have succumbed to a most awful virus. High fever (104F/40C), body aches, nausea… they’ve got the whole shebang going on. Luckily the tests for malaria and dengue fever came out negative, but whatever they’ve got still seems pretty miserable.

At least they got sick in Saigon, where we planned to spend the most time in any one city and where there are good (albeit pricey) English speaking hospitals and clinics. Better to get sick in Saigon than somewhere in Cambodia, which is next on our itinerary!

As one friend got sick right after the other, I fear that I’m next…

A Change in Travel Plans

Manda — Thu, 05 May 2011 00:37:57 +0000

I’m not going to Malaysia anymore. Or Singapore. Or Taiwan.

Instead, I’m going to Hong Kong.

Why? To see family.

When I was in Hong Kong over winter break, I saw all of my extended family, but not my immediate family. That was because my mom and brother are going to visit Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing in June. The original plan was that I would go to those cities with them, enabling us to spend one last summer together as a family. My brother starts college in the fall; I graduate next May – the time has come where it’s going to get harder and harder for all of us to get together, considering that we will be in three very different places in the US (DC, Chicago, and Hawaii). However, that plan fell through because of my own plans for the summer, which involved working and not much time to do the whole touristy thing.

I did some thinking and I realized that I could always go back to southeast Asia in the future and travel. But spending time with family right now, this summer? That I can’t always go back to. I haven’t seen my mom or brother since last August; if I didn’t choose to spend some time with them in Hong Kong instead of travel, I wouldn’t be able to spend quality time with them this summer, period. I’ll be alternating between tutoring and teaching English in Beijing and Shanghai; I would only have time to show my family around the two cities during week nights and weekends. That’s a far cry from being able to spend a solid week or two of quality family time in Hong Kong.

The thing is, I want to spend time with my family in Hong Kong more than any other city. To take my brother out to Lan Kwai Fong (蘭桂坊), to go shopping at Ladies’ Market (女人街) with my mother, to have all three of us sit down at a cha chaan teng (茶餐廳) or dim sum (點心) and enjoy delicious Hong Kong food together… These are memories we can’t create anywhere else in the world. Besides, I haven’t seen my family in almost a year. What better place to reunite than the one city we all call home?

There will be plenty of opportunities in the future to travel to explore various nooks and crannies of the world. But this time, I’m choosing family over travel. And I can’t wait.