Shenzhen part 2 of 4

I had no idea where we were going. Tim knew exactly where we were going. He’s done this before. Lots of times. Our primary goal was to buy lots of inexpensive games for the kids in the orphanage. We -off course- couldn’t buy games where the rest of Shenzhen would buy games and –heaven’s forbid- pay retail. Nope, we had to work our way to a mall/warehouse deep in the urban maze where Tim has a connection. Tim, of course, has a connection for everything.

The building looked old, but isn’t really. It only looked old. Everything in Shenzhen is new, it all just looks really tired. Thirty years ago, Shenzhen was a tiny fishing village just over the border from Hong Kong. But then, in the late 1970s, China declared Shenzhen and the surrounding area a Special Economic Zone. In other words, the loosened the strictures of a planned economy and unleashed unfettered, free-wheeling capitalism. And you can guess what happened. Fortunes –both large and small- were made and Shenzhen grew like crazy. It quickly swelled to eight million people. Shenzhen is China’s second fastest growing city. There hasn’t been much time to worry about aesthetics or planning in general.

On one hand, Shenzhen is an ugly, concrete, 800-square mile megalopolis; but on the other hand, Shenzhen stands as a beautiful testament to what happens when you allow people to do good for themselves.

Shenzhen part 1 of 4

Along with two other families, we have plans to visit an orphanage over spring break. One of the other dad’s is our elementary school principal Tim Wong a.k.a. Mr. Hong Kong. Tim was born and raised in Toronto but has since immigrated back to Hong Kong where he learned to speak fluent Cantonese. To say that Tim can wheel and deal with the locals is an understatement.

Tim has always got something cooking –he was the one who suggested and then put together the orphanage visit. I have learned that when Tim invites you along on whatever he’s got going, you don't take a pass. You say yes, lace up your sneakers, and then make sure you’re in the car park on time ready to go.

So in the middle of last week, when Tim said that he was running up to Shenzhen in China after Saturday’s Academic Fair in order to buy games for the orphanage, you can imagine how quickly I said yes. Annika and I each have one entry visa remaining on our passports leftover from our trip to Yangshou in November. So Saturday after the Academic Fair, Tim, his wife, Annika, myself and four others got on the local train and headed north toward the boarder.

Even though I have been through this drill before, it was just as exciting as the first time–all those uniformed guards everywhere and those immigration officers looking so serious. It gives me a little tingle in my spine. (Note: If I come back from my two years in China and haven’t spent several hours being detained by The Regime, I will have considered my time is Asia an abject failure. Just kidding. Well, mostly kidding.)

Once we had crossed over the border and were in the huge train/bus/taxi depot on the other side, Tim started haggling with a van driver over price. Tim of course got the price reduced. Turns out that wasn’t the driver; that was a broker who hustles business and then walks the customers over to the waiting van and driver.

We were on our way to some serious shopping Shenzhen-style.

Man Under a Bridge

Hot Pot

This past summer and fall it was hot. All the time. And humid. While I was melting and the local people around me seemed to be doing just fine, this West Michigan-born-and-breed boy consoled himself by thinking “Oh yeah, well, just wait till it get’s cold around here. Then we’ll see who is equipped to survive.”

And sure enough, as soon as the weather was less-than-tropical, out came the boots, parkas, and hats. Sixty-five degrees and these people were wearing mufflers. Ah, not so tough now are we?

But I now know that the fifteen-degree drop in temperature was simply an excuse to break out a new season’s wardrobe. Instead of wearing those Ug boots with shorty-McShort shorts and a t-shirt, they could now start wearing those Ug boots with the crop pants and that new orange puffy vest they had been dying to debut.
Turns out the people of Hong Kong are champs at not only surviving the hot weather, but the cold(-ish) weather as well.

It’s pretty standard for many of the restaurants throughout Hong Kong to spill over onto the sidewalks. This summer, I assumed that those tables would all disappear as the weather cooled. Not so. Even as temperatures dropped into the forties, it’s been a regular sight to see groups of Hong Kongers gathered around sidewalk tables.

The favorite dish by far is Chinese hot pot. As the name suggests, it’s a pot (or two) of spicy chicken broth in the center of the table. You order whichever ingredients the people at the table agree upon and then -fondu-style- you dump everything in. At this point it’s every man, woman, and child for him or herself. Using chopsticks, you fish out whatever meat or vegetables or mushrooms you want.

The fact that the pots are heated by little Bunsen burners that throw off a little heat helps to endure the cold.

After being here in Hong Kong for almost eight months, Julie, the girls and I finally got around to having some hot pot. My principal, his family, a second family, and we went to “the restaurant with no name” where Bobby works. Bobby speaks English and will hook you up. Which is exactly what he did last week Tuesday night.

It was a great evening of fun, food, and fellowship.

And this boy from the Windy City only shivered a little bit.

-Jack

March Madness Comes to ICS Hong Kong

Academic Fair 2010

Goodbye Julius

Julius is a sweet boy. Truly, he is one of the nicest kids I have ever taught. Sadly, Julius left ICS to pursue other educational opportunities. An email from Julius:

Dear Mr. VanNoord, In this few months, I have learned a lot from you. Thank you for give us lot of chance to write in class. Because of your hard work, I felt like that I had improved a lot on writing and grammar. I will remember what you have taught me. I also enjoyed history class every time I walked in to your classroom. I love American history. I wish I could stay longer and learn about WWII. But I am out of ICS and starting a new life in ICHK. Nice to meet you.

From Julius Wu

Thank you Julius. You are too kind. Please know that you will be sorely missed.

Academic Fair

This past Saturday, we had our school’s annual Academic Fair. The kids (and parents) have been working for weeks to get their projects and displays ready. Elise and all the fourth graders were assigned science projects. Elise and her partner Kay won the first place blue ribbon for her classroom for their comparison between cookies made with butter versus margarine. (Butter won in both categories: taste and texture.)

When Elise and her partner were each awarded a blue ribbon it was a beautiful moment marred only by the spectacle of Julie rushing the stage and trying to wrestle one of the blue ribbons away from the girls shouting that this stinking blue ribbon belonged to her, dog-gone-it. She earned it! She shouted something incoherent about having invested more time in this stickin’ project than both of those girls combined. The whole tussle lasted less than a minute and security quickly had the situation under control.

The sixth-graders in my middle school were also assigned science projects. My eighth-graders including Annika all did math projects and displays. Annika and her partner Flo took sixth place overall for the eighth grade.

One of the highlights of the half-day Academic Fair was the seventh grade class who not only had to do history projects, but had to dress up as their famous person from history. Can you identify these individuals? Answers are below. A perfect scores earns you free lodging in Hong Kong for a week.

-Jack

Can your Guess these Famous People?

Answers to the History Fair Quiz

Mother Teresa
Pocahontas
General Douglas MacArthur
Isaac Newton
Mohandas Gandhi
Albert Einstein
Florence Nightingale

Are you loving that cut-off nylon on the head or what?

You Oughta be in Pictures

When you buy a movie ticket in Hong Kong, you buy a ticket for a specific seat as if you were going to a concert or the opera. 14b or 27f or 8d.

While you can buy them at the ticket window, you can also buy them online. This allows you to check availability and pick your movie seat from the comfort of your living room. If you are going to a weekend showing, it is advisable to buy your tickets online two or three days in advance.

We are new to all of this. We thought we understood how the system worked. One weekend we attempted to take the girls to a movie. We never made it. The piece of paper with all the Chinese writing on it that we had printed on our home computer wasn’t so much a receipt as it was a note telling us we had inadvertently been logged off the system.

We’re going to try again next weekend.

-Jack

P.S. Note: I did eventually make it to the movies (Avatar and Wolfman) but that was only because my friend ordered the tickets. Annika and Elise are still waiting to go to the show.

I Got It, I Got it

It’s not technically true to say that I have learned no Cantonese in my eight months here.

I have learned one word: hai-ya. It means “Yeah, I got what you are saying, I understand.” It’s kind of like saying “okay, okay, okay.” It seems that most people use it when the person with whom they’re talking is going on and on in more detail than is necessary.

It’s not pronounced hi-YA like a karate chop. It’s closer to the first two syllables of “How ya doing?”

“So when you get to the corner, there’s going to be 7-Eleven on your left. . . “

“Hai-ya, Hai-ya”

“On your right will be a bank . . . “

“Hai-ya, Hai-ya.”

Since it is the one Cantonese word that I know, naturally I am inclined to overuse it. It drives Elise absolutely bonkers when I use “hai-ya” in public. “Dad, you’re not Chinese!”

I’m not sure which she loathes more, me using my one Cantonese word at every possible opportunity or me taking pictures of people on the streets of Hong Kong.

-Jack

It cracks me up when I toss in the occasional “Hai-ya” when I am talking with people. Once in a while I’ll have a Chinese person light up and say excitedly and with all sincerity, “Ah, you speak Chinese!” At least I think it’s with all sincerity. Either that or the Chinese have a really subtle sense of sarcastic humor.