First Impressions of Our New Home

As I sit here writing this, I have been in China almost 2 weeks. In that time we have really begun to settle into our new home and a routine in Foshan, China. It is hard to sit down and write about the whirlwind that has been our life these past weeks as Nik and I
have had many new experiences and seen many new things as we explored this new place.

Rather then babble about moving in and all of our day-to-day issues I am going to list all the firsts that I have experienced…

I have never…

…Been stared at so
much. First of all, I stand a good 6-inches over the height of the average woman and 3-inches over the average man here. Yet my blue eyes and blonde hair seem to be what really catch their eyes. I have had several people look like they were going to crash their bikes or mopeds as they careen their necks trying to get a closer look at “the foreigner”.

…Been poked and prodded somuch in a foot massage. Our friend Lucien, who has been here fora year already, invited us to join him at the HUGE massage place in ourapartment complex. It was a very fancy (and legitimate) place where you get rooms with 4 or 5 reclining chairs, a nice flat screen TV and food and drink to go with your massage. As the masseuse came in who was going to attempt to soften and relax my gnarled runners feet, I realized that she was fascinated by Nikolai and my features. Luckily Lucien and our other friend James both can
speak a little Mandarin and were able to help translate her furry of questions
and comments.

“Why is your hair Blonde? You have big feet. Why are you to tall? What is this
feather in your hair? How do you get your eyes to be blue? Do you put mascara
on? Why is your husband so hairy? Would your legs be as hairy as his if you let
your hair grow?”

It was a hilarious exchange of cultures as we tried to give our answers through our
“translators”. Most of the masseuses, waiters and cab drivers we come into
contact with are from parts of rural china, you know places with small towns
over only 1 or 2 million, and have never seen a real person with blonde hair
and blue eyes.

…Had so much good food. I know my first vocabulary words and phrases will revolve around how to order the great food that you can get here everyday. My favorite thus far is Cha Siu Bao
which are these sweet buns with a small amount of pork in a sweet sauce on the inside. They are everywhere! I can even get them at the seven-eleven in our complex. I know I will have many posts later about food. So I will keep this one short.

…Been thanked so much by my students. We have only had 4 official days of class with students, but already I am amazed at their excitement to learn. It is a residential school
where many of the students live there during the week and then go home on the weekends. Because of this, many students moved in a day or two before classes started and were in the classrooms catching up on their lessons with their peers. Once classes started I realized how grateful these students are to learn. “Thank you for the lessons you have taught me today, Mrs. Johansen.” Says a student each day as he leaves my class. “You are so very welcome.” I
reply knowing very well that they will be teaching me just as much in the upcoming
years.

…Been asked to be an economics teacher. I found out the day before classes started that I would be needed to fill in for the economics teacher for the first few weeks due increased demand for the class and a need to hire a new teacher to fill this spot. “Welcome to teaching I China” I heard a few teachers tell me as they offered their help and told me of their own similar experiences at some point in time. As I began to dive into the curriculum I viewed it through my
scientists lenses. Simple. I thought all economics is is ecology with money!

…Lived in a luxury high-rise apartment complex. We were lucky enough to find a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment in Lucien’s complex the day we arrived in China. The complex consists of about 2 dozen buildings, each 30 stories high with 4 to 6 apartments on each floor.
You can do the math…there are a lot of apartments. However, in these new complexes only about half of the apartments are full as the Chinese are experiencing the biggest urban migration of their history and perhaps of human history.

Living in a suburb of 6-million people I was ecstatic to be living in a complex where there are
beautiful gardens, a lake, ponds and walking/running paths everywhere. I have posted pictures here as well of our complex.

…done a yoga class in Chinese. Nikolai and I joined a gym that has a VERY western feel to it. There are aerobics, spinning and yoga classes. When I went to my first yoga class I was about the 3^rd student in the room. Before class started I went through my typical warm-up that I would do in my vinyasa classes at home. The other Chinese women who were in class were also warming up in a similar fashion.

When the teacher came in, she greeted the class and then turned to me and said in broken English, “do you just speak English?” I said “Yes, but I am also a very good observer”, pointing
to my eyes. She nodded and began.

The yoga started out more like Tai Chi with its methodical movements and hand gestures. Yet, as the class went on there were more poses that I recognized. Despite my recognition of the poses, my head felt like it was on a swivel as I tried to move with the class rather then a step behind because I did not know the words. During the class I was deeply impressed with the instructor as her hand on adjustments and guidance. They were just what I need as I struggled with understanding what she was saying.

…been to McDonald’s, Starbucks and Walmart in one day until moving to Foshan. Anyone who knows me well know that getting me into one of these places is quite the feat. Enough said.

…been the minority. Living in the US we forget that when a person walks down the street it can be difficult to know weather they are from the US or not until they speak to you or tell you. Here, however, people walking on the other side of the street a mile away know Nikolai and I are not from here. Sometimes the obviousness of our foreignness can be nice as people are VERY willing to try to speak English to us right from the start. Usually this eagerness to speak English with us is accompanied by an apology of “I sorry, I poor English.” I usually reply back.
“Do not worry, my Mandarin is MUCH worse.” This response usually gets a smile.

I know over the course of the next few months and years, being the one that stands out will get old and frustrating. Having only traveled abroad to European or Spanish Speaking countries, I have gone with the ability to communicate my wants, needs and ideas in some verbal way. However, here I have found myself resorting to hand gestures, facial expressions and my VERY limited Mandarin to order food, ask where the bathroom is and make polite conversation in an elevator.

Just the few experiences I have had in the limited time I have been here have made me think about the immigrants that I have meet back home in the US. We often times equate verbal skills with intelligence and I can only imagine the frustration of an intelligent person who has recently immigrated to the US who has not mastered the language yet. With that being said, many of the Chinese I have meet must think I am an idiot.

If you
have made it through this far of the post…I want to say thank you! I will try
to keep posting on here weekly or as my spare time allows.

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