Getting Settled

If you saw a heat wave, would you wave back?– Steven Wright

It’s been a week since our plane, the famed Dreamliner, landed in Shanghai. Looking back on the months of preparation and the frustrations and fears that were part of that, the move probably warrants a book of its own. The planning and preparation to move a family of 4 with stuff from 15 years of marriage across the planet was an astounding feat. But as I say, that’s another story.

As for Shanghai, the four of us, and our seventeen bags, arrived safe and sound. Passing through customs was a breeze. The longest line we stood it was one to have our passports checked. For that short wait, we were all captivated by the large video displays detailing the hard work and tireless service the Chinese version of the TSA do across this vast nation. After picking up our bags and simply walking out of the airport, we were met by a friendly British SMIC welcoming volunteer, who helped load up our luggage into a comfortably air-conditioned mini bus that looked like ‘70’s era beach camper. The short drive of about 30 minutes was welcome especially as it revived us a bit for the sweaty haul up many flights of stairs to our 5th floor apartment in the SMIC Living Quarters Compound. (Read, 5th Floor Walk Up. No Elevator.)

The SMIC Living Quarters is a large apartment complex that houses workers for the Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation or SMIC. SMIC is one of the leading semiconductor foundries in the world and the largest and most advanced foundry in mainland China. The SMIC Private School was created 15 years ago as a school for company workers and staff, but has grown into a prestigious private school of its own attracting local and international students from across Shanghai. There are walking paths, canals, and parks that intersect and make up this compound. Each set of apartments were built in phases, ours being the first phase and therefore closest to the school. Other apartments (with elevators) extend across the compound which covers what seems to me to be about 2 city blocks.

After assigning rooms and unpacking the essentials we were taken to our first local Chinese dinner at a nearby restaurant where we sampled dish after dish served Chinese family style for us all to share. The evenings are warm, humid, and the noise of cicadas fills the air. They are quite loud and in the thick humid evening air they bring a sense of place to Shanghai.

The days following were spent participating in the on-boarding and welcoming committee activities that help new teachers acclimate. Essential activities like, lease signing, registering with the police, purchasing China Mobile cell phone service, getting a Chinese government physical for longer term residency, and finding and shopping for essential daily items were covered. Grocery shopping was on the list too – several times to several stores. This is a topic worthy of its own post later. Just remember dried squid, warm eggs, and chicken Cheetos for now. While checking in to sign our lease, we met a couple from Boulder and befriended them quickly. Nothing like the pull of your home town to bond one another in a new environment.

There is a frenzy of focus when one moves into a new place. This is different than when you travel and go from hotel or rented house to another. In those places, you are freer to look beyond where you stay to the outside and surrounding area. As 18 Qintong Road is someplace we’ll be for some time, most of our focus this week has been on what we need in our apartment. Getting acclimated to time wasn’t such a big deal. The heat yes. Oh, the heat. It’s exceedingly hot and humid. I’ve decided the best analogy for the weather right now is that we are like little dumplings, hot and sticky in bamboo steamers just like the kind found in abundance at the street side stalls and markets.

Air conditioning is essential and though ours have broken several times since our arrival the apartment repair service is quick to come and repair as everyone knows how essential this is to survival here. Just today I was walking to the store to get milk with Janna and Marco and we all remarked how pleasant and relatively cool it was compared to other days. It was 92 degrees.

The language barrier is real. From the months of reading I did about Shanghai prior to arrival, I understood that there are many English speakers in Shanghai, especially in areas of tourists or where Americans live. As I’ve been to both in this city already, I can attest that the language barrier is real. Even at East Nanjing Road where we went shopping briefly yesterday, finding English speakers was limited to those who wanted to sell you knock off handbags in corner alleys. Not many people speak English at all and though occasionally we’ll find a kind stranger who speaks English and is willing to help translate, most often we are pantomiming words and playing translated phrases back and for the to each other via Google or Baidu translate on our smartphones – which every person in China seems to have out and in use. As we’d like to see some of the country and venture away from the city, Chinese language lessons are a must.