11/31: So, what do you do here? Part 3
This weekend I was asked more questions about my life in China, these are not common questions, but valid and interesting at the same time.
What do I miss the most? I know, this is an easy one for Mexicans. Food? Not really, I mean I do miss the food, but I would not say is the thing that I miss the most. As I said before, I’m still in my honey moon period, it’s hard to find something that I miss from home. I would say there’s nothing I really miss other than family and friends, but that would be an easy answer, so other than that, there are things that I miss some days, but not all the time. For example, I miss knowing my way through things. Nine months is nothing living in one of the biggest and busiest cities of the world, it’s not enough time to know the shortcuts to go somewhere, the best restaurants, the best bars, to know where to go to find something, sometimes I miss the ability of just going to certain area to get what I’m looking for without asking everyone I know or searching on different websites, but it’s part of the adventure of living here, so it doesn’t happen all the time. Some days I miss driving my car, I have my scooter and the public transportation is amazing, so I don’t really need to, but I miss that moment when you are in your car, listening to your music, driving somewhere, watching the streets, all inside your own space, but then I remember that it’s not completely necessary. I miss being part of the crowd, in China it’s not easy to pass as a local, people would stare at you, point you, take pictures with you, while you can have a normal life it’s still hard to not be able to just be part of the crowd walking on the streets.
What has been the hardest thing? Language for sure has been one of the hardest things, but after a couple of months you are able to survive with basic words (more here). The weather has been one of the hardest things, humid summer and winter are completely different from what I’m used to, I’m from Chihuahua and while usually the thermometer goes to higher and lower levels than Shanghai, it’s different to live in a dry weather than in a warm one. Culturally speaking, the segregation you feel sometimes for being foreigner, not all the time, but there are some people who would treat you different (in a bad way) or offer you higher prices just because you look different, there’s nothing you can do about it, sometimes you would be offered less things, bad service or high prices compared to what the locals are used to.
What has been the easiest thing? Meeting people, sadly I haven’t met too many locals, but I have a good and big group of friends who have become my second family. I live every day with them and it’s super easy to meet new foreigners in China. There’s also some kind of empathy inside the foreigner people, that empathy of living in such a different culture, far from home, dealing with maybe the same cultural shocks, but still enjoying the life here. That’s why making friends and acquaintances here has been easier than expected.
What is better than home? Cashless payments (see here) is way better than home, WeChat Wallet and Alipay are amazing for paying and sharing the bills with your friends. Buying online from Taobao (I would talk about this in future stories) and getting things in less than three days, I quickly learnt how to use it and now almost everything I use or want to get comes from this mobile app, I’m not the only one, millions of people buy things on Taobao every day so China has developed an amazing infrastructure based on this online shopping, that’s why in less than three days you can get what you bought if you live in one of the big cities.
What do you like the most from Chinese people? This is complicated, Chinese people is, like every country in the world, different and you can’t generalize in their behavior or what they do. But I’ve found that most of the time they would try to help you, they would laugh with you if you try to say something in Chinese, if you smile to them they would smile back some times, if you find a happy person they would spread their happiness with you. Also I like that, at least in Shanghai, they don’t care about what other people think of them (this also depends from social levels and regions), if they want to dress with shiny colors they would do it, if they want to use a halloween costume for work, they would do it, if they want to spit in the street in front of you, they would do it; they live their lives without caring too much about other people and this includes what they think.
Have you eat dog? No, not yet.
This story is part of my 31/31 challenge. Following a friend’s idea I will publish at least one story every day for the next month.
If you see any error please let me know, the idea is to stop over-reviewing my stories before publishing them.
If you liked it be sure to show me your love clicking the ❤️ below. And you can also subscribe to my new publications Shanghai Living and Lost Facts.
You can connect with me via Twitter following me at @fernandlicon.
