Indigo Shideler (A Home Away from Home in Shanghai)

Program: CIEE Accelerated Chinese Language in Shanghai, Summer

In Shanghai, everything seems nearly the same, and then nearly entirely different. They love their salty, oily, sugary foods and many varieties of sugary beverages, just like America. Everyone carries umbrellas to block out the worst of the broiling sun. There are ads in every crevice and corner, just like America. Sometimes the bathrooms are a hole in the ground (they’re built in and flushable, but like, I can’t squat the same as people here, please have mercy on the uninitiated inflexible weaklings of the world. My ankles can’t do that).

I’ve hardly been surprised by what I see, but I am sometimes surprised by how quickly I can adapt to the differences. For example, I too have been carrying an umbrella absolutely everywhere. Sometimes even when it’s overcast, which is a deliberate attempt at a placebo effect to pretend that I have any real power to mitigate the full force of the sun. Naturally, our real enemy is the humidity, but even an electric hand fan can’t hope to make a wadeable soup into a cool breeze. I’m also always trying new foods (a necessary consequence of being unable to read half the menu), walking around some mall or other, and otherwise trying to ignore small children crying out “外国人” (foreigner) at me.

Honestly, I think what I will miss most immediately after leaving Shanghai is the transportation. I’m always taking the subway, calling a taxi, or even just walking to get everywhere. My classmates love the rentable bikes as well, but I’m actually a little terrified of the roads here, so I hold back from riding them. That’s one thing I was told about and couldn’t fully conceptualize before coming; the insane driving from any and all bikes, cars, and especially mopeds. Policemen are trying to salvage some semblance of road safety on every other corner, and their whistles can’t stop a middle-aged woman from crossing the street at a red light, let alone the five deliverymen trying to subtly weave their way into an illegal left. I would say “avoiding imminent injury by moped” is a new ‘every day’. Not sure how to feel on that one.

But besides the transit, I will miss my host family. It’s only a husband and wife, a little small compared to some of my classmates, but I always feel a little regret when I can’t come home for dinner! The uncle loves to cook, and I usually come home to five or six dishes I couldn’t name if I tried. They’re both originally from Shanghai and speak the Shanghainese dialect, and they’re convinced they can teach me some to impress the locals (if I could even identify who the locals were). They speak very little English, and what they do know is pretty random and scattered. Last night, my host aunt told me “You rock!” It took me a second to realize she’d used it entirely correctly!

I’ll miss my room, with the posters of boybands and soccer players from her daughter, the personal AC unit that I have to turn on when I’m home, the bed hard as a rock, and my several empty water bottles that I forget to throw out. No, but actually, I will miss it here. I have the right amount of space, personal privacy, and I even have my own bathroom, plus I’m eating breakfast and dinner for free with a kind family that has welcomed a foreigner to live in their home and learn their language! Most everyone I meet is very kind to me, and every day my Chinese is improving. I wouldn’t say the speed of this program is technically the ideal way to learn Chinese, but I’m having a lot of fun and I’m constantly learning, constantly reinforcing my knowledge. I’m worried that I’m already forgetting a few dozen useful words. There always seem to be several vocab words rattling around when I try to speak, and I must be lucky, because sometimes they even deign to form coherent, intelligible sentences.

Overall, I’m going to miss daily life here. I’m going to miss my new friends, my new family, my new favorite foods, and my favorite convenient and pocketable tube of Skittles that I can’t buy in the US. I’m going to miss living and learning here. I’m sure I’ll find a way to be back soon!