back to china, back to school, back to sleep
i’m 80 hours into my second stint in shanghai … and finally coherent enough to sit in front of my iBook without my head bobbing up and down as if sleep was controlling it with a string. i thought i had the jet lag cured when i went to bed at 8:30 monday night and didn’t wake up until 6 o’clock tuesday morning (i have been told that i spoke on the telephone for approximately 25 minutes at some point during the night — the details of the conversation remain a mystery to me), but i was wrong. after only a few hours of shuteye, i woke up at 5 a.m. today, and couldn’t get back to sleep. it’s hard to snooze when your body thinks it’s time for the evening news … and i don’t even watch the evening news. strange.
it was pretty damn cold inside my plane when it left new york city at 2:30 p.m. last friday. it was pretty damn hot — 86 degrees — outside the plane when it landed in shanghai … at 8:30 p.m. … on saturday.
first, i heard the mobile phones power up. one by one, and then all at once. it was like being inside a pinball machine. and then i was the pinball: pushed forward, bounced back, hit in the head with someone’s carry-on luggage. no “sorry.” no “excuse me.” no orderly line to the exit. “ah yes,” i thought. “i must be back in shanghai.” i laughed to myself. it felt good to be home.
and it was. and, yes, i said “home.” being back in the states was perhaps too much of a comfort zone. it was almost too easy to settle into the american way. and besides, i was kind of starting to feel like a loser. i mean, all i really did was travel. (and a human being can only watch so much reality television.)
i must admit, though, to a slight hesitation about returning to china. i can’t explain it. i never understood it. just a faint voice in the back of my head whispering, “what are you doing?” and then i got here, and i remembered, and that faint voice in the back of my head said, “oh, yeah. that’s what you’re doing.” (mental note: see doctor about faint voice in back of head.)
i moved back into my old room, visited with old friends and returned to the classroom. it felt like i had never left. and i was reminded why i never wanted to leave in the first place last june.
it’s good to be back.
(but really, could someone please do something about the heat? it’s just ridiculous.)
p.s. oh yeah, the movies on the airplane did suck. down wth love, what a girl wants, the core, bringing down the house, national security. quick: name five bigger pieces of shit. didn’t think so.
notes: today is the first day of my five-day weekend. yes, i have that dreaded monday-tuesday work week. … but i am teaching 16 hours this semester, not the 12 i worked last year. periods 1-8, two days in row, with no break for lunch. and no air conditioning in the classrooms. who needs the atkins diet? … i have more than 320 students this semester, more than 40 in each class. more non-english majors are taking the class as an elective. some who couldn’t get in the class are attending it anyway. maybe i’m doing something right. no. i think word has gotten out that i’m an easy A. … questions asked by some of my freshmen: “what is your dream?” “are you fulfilled?” “do you want to be a DJ? i think you look like a DJ.” … sophomores get more direct: “can you tell me where i can buy the latest season of sex and the city on DVD?” … a student quote that may explain why shanghai university hired the likes of dan washburn: “i didn’t do well on my entrance exams, so i came here.” … signage on building spotted on wenshui lu during van ride to work: shanghai dangerous chemicals trading mart. no joke. … first night back, saw guys who work in the hair salon across the street in front of their shop in their underwear, taking turns bathing in a big red bucket.
worth reading: china decides to forget to remember again and america blames china for its unemployment problems
09.03.2003, 1:07 PM · Observations, School