Con in the Middle Kingdom

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 15^th, 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!