We arrived in Chengdu around 11:00 p.m., and as we exited
the terminal, we saw a huge swarm of teenage girls packed into the waiting
area. One person said “hi” I said,
“Hello!” then the crowd erupted in greetings, claps, and general hub bub. I was lucky to catch sight of daughter #1
(D1), and when we were able to navigate through the immense crowd she explained
the crowd was waiting for the arrival of a Korean rock star and would have
erupted at anything, so we were as good a reason as any. At any rate, we felt adequately welcomed to
China.
The next day we went to get groceries and did a general walk
around, and first impressions were quite good.
There are very wide sidewalks, a huge difference from India, along with
the lines of orderly, quiet traffic that stop at stop lights and negotiate the
well-maintained, garbage-free streets quite peacefully.
We went to a Japanese grocer and I was
reminded there is a culture that adores order and symmetry as much as I do.
Chengdu has lots of green trees and blooming
shrubs, in spite of housing needs for its 20 odd million people.
This is the home of the panda, and we hope to
get a glimpse up close and personal quite soon. I was able to use my limited
Chinese to transact a sale all by myself today in a lawn-garden supply store,
and that was fun.
I hope to study more
Mandarin and pick up lots along the way, but we went to a great dumpling place
in the mall (picture below of the condiments table one visits before the order
arrives so you can make your custom dipping sauce) and there was only a menu in
Chinese, so I was reminded this will be a bigger barrier than India, where you
could mostly find someone who spoke some English, and English was common on
signage, at least in the north.
As long
as we are with fluent D1, we are fine, but she reassures us that Suzhou, our
new home, will have even more English influence, so not to worry.
great asthetic while they are at it.
I’ll be working at SSIS, Suzhou Singapore International
School, as ESL coordinator and teacher. Suzhou is 30 minutes by bullet train to
Shanghai on the eastern seaboard. It’s
famous as a city of ancient gardens so that will be fun to explore, along with
many trips to see all there is to see and eat all there is to eat in Shanghai.
I’m looking forward to the return to elementary school life, and this school,
from all appearances on their website and in conversation with their
administration, has many things figured out for the best and they run a tidy,
progressive school. Here’s the website in case you want to take a look: http://www.ssis-suzhou.net/index.aspx
BTW, the name of the blog, Iowa Laoshi in the Middle Kingdom.
Laoshi means teacher in Mandarin, and the Middle Kingdom is a reference
to the country of China. At first
glance, it sounds like perhaps China considers itself an intermediate level
country, thus in the middle, but in fact, the middle refers to its place on
Earth, squarely in the center (middle) of everything. The Chinese character for China is a good
visual explanation: it is a box with a
line drawn squarely down the middle. I
like a country with good self-esteem, and we look forward to calling it home
for the next 2 years. We’re here in
China until the 15th, then it’s back to the US to obtain my work
visa, then back to Suzhou for an orientation that begins on August 1. We will be doing some sightseeing here in
Chengdu, so stay tuned for pictures of Tibetan monasteries, Pandas, and lots of
great food!
Chengdu is the capital of the state of Sichuan, and as such
has the official “Giant Panda Breeding Research Centre” or something like
that. It’s a beautiful reserve/park/zoo
that showcases the 2 kinds of pandas that are indigenous to the area, the giant
panda (black and white variety) and the small lesser panda, (red and white with
raccoon mask and tail). We had a grand
time viewing these gorgeous creatures in a beautiful setting, even though there
were probably 8-9 thousand others viewing as well. If you watch the video clip you’ll hear just
how crowded it was wherever there was a panda in shooting (cameras only)
range. Enjoy the pics, which also
include some food pictures from a Shanghai dumpling restaurant and a bar that
A. and S. frequent. There is something for everyone in beautiful Chengdu!
