Chinese Authorities = Corrupt

China is a country that is known for severe penalties of those who break the law. But is China a country of those who are good at enforcing the law? Nope. Is a China a country of those who will abuse their power as a law enforcement officer? Definitely. Is China a country of those who will use police brutality to take down criminals and no one else would care? Yep.

If there are a few things that I have to praise the United States for in retrospect with other nations; that is the police force and the legal system. China has one of the highest death penalty rates in the world. Last I checked, it was second behind Iran. You can get the death penalty in China for crimes small as simple possession of marijuana. That is what Singapore is well known for as well. Don't get caught with drugs in China. But is that really the worse thing? It depends on who is your police officer. I've heard that you can pay off police officers if you get caught. In India, I have read articles that people have gotten caught with murder and actually had bribed the police officer with millions of rupees to not arrest them and to make a false police report. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if this happened in China. Actually, I've heard of foreigners that have gotten caught with weed in clubs and paid off the police officers.

China's police force confuses me sometimes. I have heard that a few months ago, a few police officers in Beijing that have come around to the people who have been evading their taxes and started beating them with a nightstick. Some of them they beat so much, it killed them. And Beijing's police officers have walked away even without a slap on the wrist. Recently in Hangzhou (a city two hours by train from Shanghai); some young rich kids were street racing at night. One hit a pedestrian and killed him. His rich parents just paid the Hangzhou police with a lot of money and the kid just walks away with a fine on his record. What does the kid learn from this? He just learns that in China, as long as you have money, you can get away with anything, even murder.

Though that this not about the Chinese police; I was recently at a nightclub where I had friends who had gotten thrown out for bringing in beer into the club. My friends were yanked out of the club, with force I may add. I tried to stop the bouncers. That was not smart, but I thought they would just treat me as they do in the US-they would just kindly tell me to step to the side. No, this was not what happened. I was slapped in the face and then shoved to the ground. I just couldn't believe that they would actually slap and shove a girl like this. Even though, I wasn't really thrown out, I still followed my friends out. As I ran up to them, I saw one of the bouncers squeezing my friend's neck and cursing at her in Chinese. Squeezing a girl's neck? This is absolutely NOT ok, I don't care what fucking country this is and what is allowed and what isn't allowed. It is just wrong to treat a girl like that. This is clearly the case of a bouncer who just abused his position and thinks he can be a violent asshole to people because he simply thinks his job allows it.

This is a case of a bouncer who would not think twice about beating someone. Can you imagine Chinese police if you pissed off the wrong officer? He probably would actually kill you. A police officer has more authority than a bouncer. Since that this is China, no one gives a shit on how the police acts (or the bouncers for that matter). If you tried to complain of police brutality or bouncer brutality; you would probably get a response something like "Well, you brought this on yourself and they were just doing their job." But at the same time, in their violent minds, you can just pay them off with enough money. Or they might beat you for bribery.

Chinese police--not there for keeping the country safe. Just there on a power trip trying to get richer and be violent dicks to people just for the hell of it.

I'm practically Chinese! (but not really)

Though I may have things to complain about China, as most recently, the online censorship; I have been realizing in the past month or so that I am completely comfortable in living in China. I have gotten to the point in where everything a foreign country have now come all together. I remember that at first, I felt like that I could never eat the Chinese food here; from what it looked like to me, it was just rice and food in a pool of oil. That doesn't sound delicious right. But now I crave Chinese food all the time. It's almost all I ever eat now. I cannot get enough steamed dumplings. My favorite Chinese place is a chain called Yang's Fry Dumplings. Every Chinese person and foreigner in China knows what I'm talking about. This place makes the best dumplings EVER in the world! My mouth is just salivating with the thought of those dumplings.

Another thing is that I am totally comfortable with using chopsticks. Now it feels weird for me to use a fork, knife and spoon. I thought that would never happen; I've spent my entire life using cutlery. But more so in the past two to three months, I've pretty much only used chopsticks. I never think to use a fork because everything I eat is Chinese.

Now I am pretty skilled in using survival Mandarin. You know that when you learn a new language, you think and try to form a sentence in your head before you speak? Well, now I just speak without thinking. It's feels good to be at this point in a new language, even thought is just survival level of Mandarin. I have no problems with speaking Chinese in cabs, restaurants (most items anyway) and shops. I have been able to write and understand more Chinese characters lately. Though I haven't been going to Chinese class lately; but now I am more motivated than ever to learn more Chinese. After all, if I'm going to live in China for almost two years (I think), I should be almost fluent in Mandarin after that long. PS-It's something that looks good on my resume and can get me a lot of jobs in international affairs field.

Now I can really understand on how people say they experience reverse culture shock when they get home. I cannot imagine being home now. America just isn't cutting it for me anymore. Everything here in China has now finally come together. I'm practically Chinese, well besides the fact that ethically, I'm white. I just want to be in Asia forever. I want to go to every country in Asia. I don't really care about Europe that much anymore actually. I used to think that Europe was an exciting place where sex and drugs and hot guys are found everywhere. But now, I'll just go to Bangkok. As for the hot guys, there are plenty of foreigners here (the hottest ones from France). Hard to find that many hot Chinese guys, but it doesn't mean that they aren't out there.

In response to the grass mud horse

Since I had no idea what the grass mud horse meant and why it pissed off Chinese censorship officials so much. I have never done any research because I just assumed that being in China, websites that can tell me what it means will also be blocked. My roommate, Sarah, just told me to try anyway. So, with the magic of Wikipedia, I realized what it meant. The grass mud horse, in Chinese: 草泥马, Pinyin: Cao Ni Ma, literally translated means "Fuck your mother." The grass mud horse is depicted as a white alpaca and is the symbol of the resistance to Chinese online censorship. The grass mud horse is one of the ten mythical creatures that was created by Baidu, China's online search engine. Basically Baidu is a Chinese version of Google. Anyway, the grass mud horse got millions of hits on YouTube and elsewhere on the internet in China. The grass mud horse was made in a documentary about the species of white alpacas in China's Gobi Desert. Since that some brave Chinese documentary makers had depicted the grass mud horse-Cao Ni Ma-fuck your mother as a stand to China's increasing online censorship. This was one of the events that led to China blocking YouTube; the final event before the censorship of YouTube was the use of videos to show Tibet's uprising against the harsh rule and human rights violations of the Chinese government.

Online censorship is definitely something new to me. Of course, I knew about the censorship being used in China, being a Communist country. I am living in Shanghai, the most liberal city in all of China, it is ALMOST like home; well, without all of the Chinese-the language, people and culture. I have always overlooked the censorship in China, mainly because the websites I have used were gmail, facebook, wikipedia, google, nytimes and YouTube. I always had access to them. The fact that China does block websites just didn't really hit me until they blocked YouTube and the explosion of controversy of the grass mud horse.

As I said before, the grass mud horse is one of the ten mythical creatures. I find this really interesting since that it gives me the pleasure of mind that there are still some radical people in China and those that are brave enough to stand against the Chinese government, even if they are the ones that have to pay for the consequences. Naturally, I have learned about all of the other nine. The source I got all of this information from is Wikipedia, as you all know is the world's most reliable source, haha.

1) The Grass Mud Horse- Cao Ni Ma- 草泥马 the one you all already know about and is the most famous one.

2) French-Croatian Squid- Fe Ka You- 法克鱿 "The name is derived from the direct Chinese transliteration of "fuck you" in English, was supposedly a species of squid discovered simultaneously by France (法国) and Croatia (克罗地亚). The Baidu Baike article claims that "Fa Ke You" is a species of invertebrate, an aggressive squid found in Europe. When agitated, it is said that they release a form of "white-coloured liquid". These squids are said to cause great harm to humans when attacked. When some of these squids reached East Asia, it is said that they became hunted, and eaten with corn. Such a dish is known as 玉米法克鱿 (yù mǐ fǎ kè yóu, "Corn French-Croatian Squid", resembles "you, me, fuck you"), being one of the world's top five greatest delicacies.

3) Small Elegant Butterfly-Ya Mie Die-雅蠛蝶. It literally means "stop", a reference to rape and common conceptions and stereotypes that the Chinese display towards the Japanese in regards to pornography and erotomania, was supposedly a type of butterfly discovered on 1 January 2009 at Tibetan Plateau, and that legends state that there was once a Japanese girl who turned into these butterflies after harsh pressures during a romantic relationship. These butterflies are able to change colour, and are luminescent, naturally emitting light from its wings. This is due to the cold temperatures and low oxygen environment these butterflies live in. There is an estimated 14,000 butterflies living throughout the world, and thus are considered to be precious and highly uncommon.

4) Chrysantemum Silkworms-Ju Hua Can-菊花蚕 It refers to intestinal worms, where the term "Chrysanthemums" (júhuā) is vulgar slang which refers to the anus. This referred to Chrysanthemum Terrace, a song by Jay Chou (a famous Chinese pop singer), where the lyrics 菊花残，满地伤 (Chrysanthemums scattered, fill the floor with wounds) are re-rendered with homophones and similar sounds as 菊花残，满腚伤 ("Chrysanthemum" worms, fill the buttocks). Ju Hua Can can also be interpreted as a pun on another homophone, 菊花残, meaning "broken chrysanthemum", which would be slang for a "broken anus", referring to (possibly painful) anal sex, as 残 is a homophone meaning "broken". Such a phrase implies hopelessness, as once a person is given a "broken anus", they would find difficulty in sitting down, and so "broken Chrysanthemum" is a common (vulgar) Chinese idiom. These silkworms are said to feed on chrysanthemum flowers rather than mulberry leaves. The article also states that the usage of Chrysanthemum Silkworms dates back to 3000 years ago in Ancient China, and that they were the first cultivation method of silk obtained by early scientists.

5) Quail Pigeon-Chun Ge-鹑鸽 The term Chun Ge has been used to refer to the female singer Li Yuchun due to her apparent masculine appearance. Pinyin: chūn gē chún yé men meaning "Brother Chun is all man." The 春 Chun can also refer to "fa chun" 发春, which is slang for sexual arousal - literally "Spring has come".

6) Lucky Journey Cat-Ji Ba Mao-吉跋猫 This is a homophone referring to pubic hair, as the homophone 鸡巴 (jiba) translates to "penis", while the definiton of 毛 máo is "hair" or "fur."The original article states that this cat lives in dark, damp environments and competes for food with the White Tiger (white tiger is a slang term for a woman's shaved pubic area). Additionally, the Ji Ba Mao flourished during the reign of the Zhengde Emperor.

7) Superior Tail Whale-Wei Shen Jing-尾申鲸 This is a homophone referring to menstrual pads. From the Baidu Baike article, it was discovered by Zheng He during his maritime adventures, this creature was hunted for clothing material to manufacture women's lingerie.

8) Singing Field Goose-Yin Dao Yan-吟稻雁 This is a homophone meaning a Vaginitis infection. From the article on Yin Dao Yan, in the Kangxi era, a large goose dove into a certain field, damaging it and causing the local farmers to come down with a strange sickness.

9) Intelligent Fragrant Chicken-Da Fei Ji- 达菲鸡 This is a homophone that means slang for masturbation while literally meaning "shooting the aeroplane." According to the original article, Da Fei Ji is a species of bird that likes exercise, and the males use neck spasms and spitting out a white secretion to impress females during mating seasons.

10) Mysterious Fiery Crab-Qian Lie Xie-潜烈蟹 This closely resembles 前列腺 (qián liè xiàn), which translates to prostate glands, A legendary crab that once stopped up the Grand Canal, referring to the urinary tract."

This now ends the very, very long quote from Wikipedia.

Well, what do you think? I am not sure what I think about all of this. Obviously I like reading about this because it shows radicalism in China. Also, I think it takes a very clever person to do the English transliteration and how similar it sounds in English. I think that this was also targeted for Westerners to read this. And possibly corrupting the younger generation of China as they are the ones who are learning English in today's modern China society. China is changing, getting richer and becoming more powerful; so why wouldn't the radicals not want to change the face of China's conservative culture? China wants to have the power like the rich countries, but not act exactly like them. After all, the rich countries of the world are the most liberal ones and doesn't condone censorship.

Ps: I have been hearing rumors that China may block this site. Grrrr, I don't want find a new blog site.

Communism much?

Sometimes I hate the power monopoly of the Communist Party in China. China has blocked YouTube. The Dalai Lama has said that "China has made Tibet a hell on earth." Recently, there was a lot of controversy and speculation about a video about the grass-mud horse, which Chinese officials describe as crude, sexual and vile. To us Westerners, we see as funny and appreciated as humor.

Here's the NY Times article about the grass-mud horse controversy:

"A Dirty Pun Tweaks China’s Online Censors"
By MICHAEL WINES
Published: March 11, 2009

"BEIJING — Since its first unheralded appearance in January on a Chinese Web page, the grass-mud horse has become nothing less than a phenomenon.
Songs about a mythical alpaca-like creature have taken hold online in China.
The popularity of the grass-mud horse has raised questions about China’s ability to stanch the flow of information.
A YouTube children’s song about the beast has drawn nearly 1.4 million viewers. A grass-mud horse cartoon has logged a quarter million more views. A nature documentary on its habits attracted 180,000 more. Stores are selling grass-mud horse dolls. Chinese intellectuals are writing treatises on the grass-mud horse’s social importance. The story of the grass-mud horse’s struggle against the evil river crab has spread far and wide across the Chinese online community.
Not bad for a mythical creature whose name, in Chinese, sounds very much like an especially vile obscenity. Which is precisely the point.
The grass-mud horse is an example of something that, in China’s authoritarian system, passes as subversive behavior. Conceived as an impish protest against censorship, the foul-named little horse has not merely made government censors look ridiculous, although it has surely done that.
It has also raised real questions about China’s ability to stanch the flow of information over the Internet — a project on which the Chinese government already has expended untold riches, and written countless software algorithms to weed deviant thought from the world’s largest cyber-community.
Government computers scan Chinese cyberspace constantly, hunting for words and phrases that censors have dubbed inflammatory or seditious. When they find one, the offending blog or chat can be blocked within minutes.
Xiao Qiang, an adjunct professor of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, who oversees a project that monitors Chinese Web sites, said in an e-mail message that the grass-mud horse “has become an icon of resistance to censorship.”
“The expression and cartoon videos may seem like a juvenile response to an unreasonable rule,” he wrote. “But the fact that the vast online population has joined the chorus, from serious scholars to usually politically apathetic urban white-collar workers, shows how strongly this expression resonates.”
Wang Xiaofeng, a journalist and blogger based in Beijing, said in an interview that the little animal neatly illustrates the futility of censorship. “When people have emotions or feelings they want to express, they need a space or channel,” he said. “It is like a water flow — if you block one direction, it flows to other directions, or overflows. There’s got to be an outlet.”
China’s online population has always endured censorship, but the oversight increased markedly in December, after a pro-democracy movement led by highly regarded intellectuals, Charter 08, released an online petition calling for an end to the Communist Party’s monopoly on power.
Shortly afterward, government censors began a campaign, ostensibly against Internet pornography and other forms of deviance. By mid-February, the government effort had shut down more than 1,900 Web sites and 250 blogs — not only overtly pornographic sites, but also online discussion forums, instant-message groups and even cellphone text messages in which political and other sensitive issues were broached.
Among the most prominent Web sites that were closed down was bullog.com, a widely read forum whose liberal-minded bloggers had written in detail about Charter 08. China Digital Times, Mr. Xiao’s monitoring project at the University of California, called it “the most vicious crackdown in years.”
It was against this background that the grass-mud horse and several mythical companions appeared in early January on the Chinese Internet portal Baidu. The creatures’ names, as written in Chinese, were innocent enough. But much as “bear” and “bare” have different meanings in English, their spoken names were double entendres with inarguably dirty second meanings.
So while “grass-mud horse” sounds like a nasty curse in Chinese, its written Chinese characters are completely different, and its meaning —taken literally — is benign. Thus the beast not only has dodged censors’ computers, but has also eluded the government’s own ban on so-called offensive behavior.
As depicted online, the grass-mud horse seems innocent enough at the start.
An alpaca-like animal — in fact, the videos show alpacas — it lives in a desert whose name resembles yet another foul word. The horses are “courageous, tenacious and overcome the difficult environment,” a YouTube song about them says.
But they face a problem: invading “river crabs” that are devouring their grassland. In spoken Chinese, “river crab” sounds very much like “harmony,” which in China’s cyberspace has become a synonym for censorship. Censored bloggers often say their posts have been “harmonized” — a term directly derived from President Hu Jintao’s regular exhortations for Chinese citizens to create a harmonious society.
In the end, one song says, the horses are victorious: “They defeated the river crabs in order to protect their grassland; river crabs forever disappeared from the Ma Le Ge Bi,” the desert.
The online videos’ scenes of alpacas happily romping to the Disney-style sounds of a children’s chorus quickly turn shocking — then, to many Chinese, hilarious — as it becomes clear that the songs fairly burst with disgusting language.
To Chinese intellectuals, the songs’ message is clearly subversive, a lesson that citizens can flout authority even as they appear to follow the rules. “Its underlying tone is: I know you do not allow me to say certain things. See, I am completely cooperative, right?” the Beijing Film Academy professor and social critic Cui Weiping wrote in her own blog. “I am singing a cute children’s song — I am a grass-mud horse! Even though it is heard by the entire world, you can’t say I’ve broken the law.”
In an essay titled “I am a grass-mud horse,” Ms. Cui compared the anti-smut campaign to China’s 1983 “anti-spiritual pollution campaign,” another crusade against pornography whose broader aim was to crush Western-influenced critics of the ruling party.
Another noted blogger, the Tsinghua University sociologist Guo Yuhua, called the grass-mud horse allusions “weapons of the weak” — the title of a book by the Yale political scientist James Scott describing how powerless peasants resisted dictatorial regimes.
Of course, the government could decide to delete all Internet references to the phrase “grass-mud horse,” an easy task for its censorship software. But while China’s cybercitizens may be weak, they are also ingenious.
The Shanghai blogger Uln already has an idea. Blogging tongue in cheek — or perhaps not — he recently suggested that online democracy advocates stop referring to Charter 08 by its name, and instead choose a different moniker. “Wang,” perhaps. Wang is a ubiquitous surname, and weeding out the subversive Wangs from the harmless ones might melt circuits in even the censors’ most powerful computer."

Zhang Jing contributed research.

Who misses freedom?

I do.



China has blocked YouTube. WHAT THE FUCK?????!!!!!

It was due to the protests in Lhasa, Tibet due to all of the human rights violations done by the Chinese government in the past 5o years. Finally that Tibet has done something and stood up for themselves, but came with the price. Chinese government, bitter and abusing power much? At least, tourists are allowed back in Tibet, but need a special pass to go there.

New York Times article about the situation with Tibet and YouTube:

"Because of Tibet, China Blocks YouTube"
By Mike Nizza
Dated March 17, 2009

"China’s efforts to tame protests in Tibet and possibly others in its own provinces has spread to the Web, following a familiar pattern that has once again raised a question posed by Seth Mydans of The New York Times during the crackdown in Myanmar:
[Can] the much-vaunted role of the Internet in undermining repression can stand up to a determined and ruthless government?
In both cases and others, an uprising began largely out of sight before spilling onto the Web in videos and images. Officials in Myanmar and China bother claimed that they were showing restraint while unconfirmed reports hinted at grim tolls.
In Myanmar’s case, a fleeing general’s claim of thousands of dead was never proven. The junta’s toll in October was 10, though no one’s been allowed to confirm that either.
Beijing said today that 16 have died in the protests so far, but a figure cited by exiles is five times that, according to the Times.
For those outside “Great Firewall of China” (who were unaffected by the blockade, unlike Pakistan’s recent gaffe that affected Web users worldwide), the Committee to Protect Bloggers has gathered many first-person videos from Tibet in a playlist on YouTube."

a little bit discontent in my life

I have been in Shanghai for 6 months, teaching for 5 months now. Right now, I am getting to the point in my life where I want to do more. Teaching is a great experience and I am more than grateful for this opportunity; but it is not what I want to do. Now, I am searching again for what I want to do. I thought about what I studied in college and I actually miss learning and enthralling myself in that subject matter. I realized that I studied foreign affairs for a reason. It was interesting to me and I love it. I just want to make a return back to that. Working for an international education organization did help me open more doors and gain working experience; but now, I'm just getting restless. Should I finish the year out teaching or look for another job in Shanghai?

Earlier today, I have been applying for several jobs in the international business field and hoping to stay in Shanghai longer. Yes, I actually want to stay in Shanghai longer; I have no desire to go back to the United States anytime soon. Today, I actually talked to this one guy who owns a consulting firm back in the US. His firm aims for international businesses who are trying to fit in with the rapidly changing world in the era of globalization and older business models are going out of date. This actually seems very interesting and I get to talk to businesses around the world and work part-time out of Shanghai. This way, I still get to keep my teaching job and also do something that I am actually interested in. This indeed will help me open more doors for working and learning opportunities in the foreign affairs/international business arena. With this position, I can create my own hours (I think).

Just now, I was reading an article in the New York Times about the G20 meeting about the financial crisis and how they are planning to inject $1.1 trillion dollars into the world economy. I realized that I was a lot more interested in reading it and giving a report on it and on the financial crisis in general than making lesson plans. I'm not saying that I want to quit my job; but I am really just getting restless. It has gotten to the point where teaching is just not that great anymore. God, I hope anyone from work doesn't read this.

But at the same time, I can't help but think that whenever a child learns something and knows something, he/she is excited and invests in a lot more confidence in him/herself. That puts a smile on my face. When I was in college, I always wanted to change the world for the better and put my impression in it. I thought teaching was the way to go. It still is one of the ways you can make your impression in the world; as well as other volunteer work, such as the Peace Corps. Maybe, I should have joined the Peace Corps. But it probably will get me to feeling like I am now. I really want to stick it out and teach for the entire year, but would the restlessness ever go away? I should take on this part time job in the international business consulting and maybe I will feel more content with my life.

I work with some great people at the school and it pains me to think about leaving them. Some are leaving really soon; one of the local teachers is moving back to Canada and one of the foreign teachers is leaving for a different job within EF. There are more leaving later in the spring as well. Maybe change within the office is contributing to my discontent as well. These are really great people that are leaving and the office will be less fun. Ok, it doesn't really mean the office will be less fun; the new teachers that are replacing them may not be all that bad.

That's the discontent with my job and life in general. I also have discontent with the financial crisis. Just like everyone else. I will be basically saying what everyone has been saying; but I want to write this down anyway. I have rooted for Obama to win the presidency; but lately with all of the bailouts that he has approved, I'm rather disappointed. And now, he is planning to contribute $100 billion to the $1.1 trillion that the G20 is putting into the global economy. This is clearly just a global bailout that the US is playing a part of. I feel like that these bailouts are throwing money to CEOs that let their companies fall. I was worried about the corruption of these business executives that would just take the money and keep it for themselves. As it turns out, I was right. AIG executives kept the money for themselves. Now Obama wants to give money to the global economy. However, I must say that this is a different situation. There are no CEOs to give money to; it goes to the IMF. From my learning experience, the IMF is not a corrupt organization; but it still worries me. Will it help the global economy? Or it will be $1.1 trillion lost in a hopeless depression? I am not an economist by any means, but I just wish that there are different ways in aiding the economy.

I should feel lucky that I am living in China. The financial crisis is hitting the US and Europe harder than in any of the developing countries such as China and India. Papers say that China and India may come out of the recession with flying colors. Gives me a better outlook on the job hunt here in Shanghai. Everyone keeps asking me when I will be coming home. Why would I come home if unemployment in the US is at an all time high since the Great Depression? There are a lot more jobs there than anywhere in the US and Europe. There is one teacher that I know of is going back to England and I wish her the best of luck in finding a job.

I think that's enough for this post: Restlessness in my life and the financial crisis. A bit heavy on the depressing news today.

some English, some Chinese and even a little bit of French

At this point, I have no new things to say. My life is pretty routine: sleep, eat, work, party. However, I did get two new roommates. Davide, the Italian one had moved out about a month ago (way to update on my life) and Olivier from France and Lu from China moved in. They are both really cool. I see Olivier at home a lot, but not Lu as much. She works a lot at some bank... Wow, I'm very in touch with all of my roommates. Both of them have fit in right away with the rest of the roommates. Especially Lu with Chris, haha. They'll probably kick my ass after they read this, if they do read it...

The only big new thing with my life is that I am currently reading a book in French. It is a book written my Muhammed Yunus who is the founder of the Grameen Bank. This organization finances microcredit to the poorest of the poor in Bangledesh and tries to get everyone above the poverty level. I can understand some French words and get the general idea of the book; but I had to look up the Grameen Bank in English. I'm surprised that I didn't hear of the Grameen Bank before reading this book due to the fact I had studied foreign affairs in college. Though, I have heard of microcredit. Anyway, I am really excited about reading this book, even though it is not light reading, even in English.

Since that I live with two French roommates and Lu can also speak French (she lived in Paris for three years), I hear French almost all of the time now. The vocabulary doesn't seem that difficult for me; but I am clueless about French grammar. I was looking up classes that you can take in Shanghai and learn some French. Ok, that is a little weird, I come to China to learn French. Whatever, Shanghai has a large French population, might be useful to know some. French people always speak French to each other even they know English and are with a lot of English-speaking people. Even Lu said that you can't have a social life in France unless you know French.

Also, sometimes I wonder if France is the European country with the largest ties to China. I used to think it was Britain, mainly because of Hong Kong and the Opium wars. But the French have a lot of connections with Shanghai. Even Olivier himself is half Chinese on his mother's side. Shanghai does have the neighborhood called the Former French Concession--where the French used to have control over Shanghai. I meet more French people than any other nationality here in Shanghai. Even back home, the French-Chinese connection is evident. I know quite a few people back home that are half French and half Chinese (more so in Canada though). There are getting to be more and more Chinese people that know French. The ones that also English--their French is always much better than their English.

Thanks to the handful of French people, I actually changed my mind about them. Back in high school, I had this Latin teacher who was from southern France and she was a bitch. She had always glorified France and how it was the best country in the world. She proved the stereotype that all French people are arrogant and rude. So, that was what I had always thought of French people. This also proves it even further when I studied deGaulle and how he led France, especially in the beginning of what is now called the European Union. He used to say that "France will be France!" Franckie, Olivier and Flo (another French guy that I have come to be friends with) all are very nice people. They all completely changed my perception of the French.

I don't mean to sound very stereotypical in this entry, but I hear American stereotypes flying at me every day from the Europeans. So, I'll be stereotypical back to them. Wow, I'm glad I am living with one other American, Sarah; so we can make fun of the Europeans together. LOL, we all don't care what we say to each other and we all get along great! I have never lived with so many people and never have gotten along so well with others. This is truly a dream living situation for me. 7 people in the apartment and NEVER any drama. Plus I am getting the full international experience by living with four Europeans and one Chinese girl! I really am learning new things everyday and loving other cultures than my own!

Do I really want to go back home ever? Well, obviously I have to go back to the US at some point....