Acclimating

I made it to Shantou, China and I’m still alive (in case you were wondering).  Shantou is on the Southeastern coast of China.  Even though it has about 5 million people, this is a small town compared to Beijing or Shanghai’s 22 million.  It is a developed city with paved roads, tall buildings, restaurants, shopping centers, movie theaters.  I found the McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Walmart.  The people here speak mandarin, which is the official language of China.  The local dialect is Chiu Chow, but you can get around with mandarin.  

I have been in Asia for about two weeks now and am still settling in.  One of my biggest concerns in coming to Asia was the weather, coming from Huntington Beach, where it’s always a moderate 75 degrees.  The day we arrived it was 88 F and I felt it, sticky that is.  But it has cooled off since then.  Today it is 81 F, with 89% humidity.  I’m sitting in my room, without the AC on, and it feels like being wrapped in a warm blanket.  I don’t mind because I get cold easily.

It is actually raining outside - a typhoon.  I didn’t have to go to school today, making it my first typhoon day.  Growing up in HB, I never got weather breaks like this.  I took advantage of today to get more settled in.  I just moved to my new apartment yesterday and had no food, so I needed to go to the market.  I asked my roommate if it was cold outside - I associate overcast skies and rain with cold.  She looked at me like I was crazy, of course it’s not cold outside.  I put on my tennis shoes and a rain jacket, however my roommate had on a dress and heels, for her 10-minute walk to work.  I am such a newbie when it comes to rain.  To me, rain is a problem, that you have to prepare yourself for.  To the people here, it’s no big deal.  My roommate must think that I was born yesterday. 

Getting to the market was quite an adventure because the roads here are crazy.  Literally insane. People don’t always drive in the lanes.  There are trucks, cars, scooters, bicycles, rickshaws, pedestrians all competing for the road.  People go the wrong way on the roads.  People run red lights.  People drive in the opposite lane of traffic to get around other cars. People make u-turns anywhere they want, even if there is a sign prohibiting it.  The traffic laws here are more like “guidelines” or “recommendations” and the police do not enforce them.  I would never ever drive in China.  The company has drivers that have chauffeured us around and they are so nonchalant about the whole thing.  I just buckle my seatbelt and trust their skill.  And I must say, that I haven’t seen many accidents, as crazy as the driving is.  People say that uncertainty makes people more cautious.  Anyway, to get to the market I had to cross a 8 lanes of this traffic to go around a traffic circle.  But I made it there and back, and as I said at the beginning of this post, I’m still alive, in case you’re wondering.  I will tell you more about the school and daily life in a later post.  

View of the traffic, while riding a bus. 

High rises

Old Shantou, built in the 1870s.

New Shantou

More old Shantou.  You can see European elements of design.

Mall with the Walmart, McDonalds, and KFC

It's not really like the Walmart in the US.