mf.rox

I’ve come to the conclusion that I hate living here. I feel like there’s not a lot of fun stuff to do here — just some high-class shopping for rich people. Well, there are good museums, but just see if you can get to one without being run over by a car. The horrible traffic has been the defining characteristic of Shanghai for me — I can’t go anywhere without crossing a terrifying street and narrowly avoiding death. I got bumped by a bicycle today, and I’ve had a couple near misses with city buses. Four people have gotten killed right outside of the school gate so far this year, with two being quashed by city buses which may well have run the red light. There’s not the fun and weirdness right outside the door that I associate with Shenzhen. I never see anything wacky and fun here — just a lot of traffic, and pissed off, unfriendly people hurrying to get somewhere. I guess it’s also not fun because I’m alone. I tried to make friends with the other teachers, but that was not very successful. I’m shy, too, so that makes everything related to meeting people more painful. Plus, the weather’s lousy. It’s rained nearly every day for two months. I’m even starting to miss the Shenzhen weather, which I always hated.

I’m not sure what to do. Even though I’ve been idealizing SZ, the problem is there aren’t many higher education work opportunities there. I don’t think I want to return to the US, but maybe I’d like to leave China? I wish I’d gotten to go to Taiwan this Spring Festival holiday. Maybe I’d like that more.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 24th, 2005 at 8:51 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.