The Stromboli

Last year, when I realized I was going to be spending two years in Shanghai, I didn't forsee the extent I would miss my American lifestyle. I knew I would miss my family, but I never imagined how much I would miss the little things.

Needless to say, after spending August through December 19th in Shanghai, when I got a chance to come home for a few weeks during break, I was estatic. Not just happy estatic, but like a 7 year old the night before Christmas estatic.

After a grueling 16 hour flight, where I was stuck in the middle seat between a girl going home to Georgia and a man heading home to Louisville, the plane finally landed in Atlanta where I had a 3 hour layover. I staggered off the plane toward the terminal, each step bringing me closer to American soil, and I got more and more excited. As I entered the airport, I took a moment to look around. First of all, in the sea of faces at the Atlanta airport, I finally saw diversity after months of only seeing Chinese faces. All kinds of hair and skin colors, and all kinds of shapes. It struck me how much larger, in the two directions that count, the people in the Atlanta airport were. After months of being able to see over a crowd of people in China, I was now eye level or lower with most of the crowd at the airport. During my first 5 months in China, I don't recall seeing a single clearly obese Chinese person. As I waited in line at customs, I saw quite a few. And knowing what I do about China, I am sure they would be stared at walking down a Shanghai street.

Most of all, it felt good to be able to comprehend all that was going on around me. I knew what all the signs meant, I could understand the announcements over the loud speakers, and a casual conversation could be had with the person in front of me without involving a one man pantomime show, which I often use to get my point across in China. I am sure I had a smile on my face as wide as the wings of the plane that brought me to America.
As I made it through customs at Atlanta International, and was walking towards baggage claim, a familiar smell began to wash over me - the tantalizing, delectible smell that is American food. Even though it was airport food, I really felt like the luckiest man at the airport. After months of eating a few limited items in China that I knew and trusted, the entire smorgasboard that is an American food court was open to me. Do I stop over the McDonalds and try a juicy American hamburger and wash it down with a soda? Do I head over to Subway and get a turkey breast sub after 5 months without turkey? As I turned I even saw a Chinese restaurant - eek! Finally, my eyes settled on the chosen spot. Directly in front of me, like an oasis in a barren desert, was a Sbarros. One of my all time favorite foods is a stromboli, and I could almost taste it. My feet barely touched the floor as I sped towards the slice of heaven known as Sbarros, thoughts of Italian food filling my head. My mouth was watering enough to put Pavlov's dogs to shame as I ordered the stromboli. My hand trembled as I exchanged the money for the food, easily the best money I've ever spent. I finally found a seat in the crowded airport, but my focus was only on the stromboli. All other external stimuli faded away as my world consisted of me and that delicious concoction of pepperoni, ham and bread. As my mouth bit down, and the flavors washed over my taste buds for the first time in almost half a year, I realized what I had given up to go to China. I devoured the stromboli in record time, but instead of sating my appetite, it only made me long for the other foods I have been missing. Ben and Jerry's, chocolate chip cookies, eggnog, the list goes on and on. My three weeks in America will be spent seeing family and spending time with my amazing girlfriend, but truthfully, all of that is a front. My true passion over these three weeks will be to eat as much American food as I can, waistline be damned!

Christmas...I think

So the Chinese do celebrate Christmas...sort of. In fact, my local shopping mall looks very much like its American counterpart might look this time of year. There are Christmas decorations, a Santa Claus standing at the entrance, and even the employees wear red Christmas hats. They even have Christmas carols translated into Chinese playing over the loudspeaker...if you listen carefully you can hear one in the background.

Sunday Morning Ritual

The Chinese love basketball. Absolutely love it - more, I think, than most Americans. When I was in Beijing for the Olympics, all I saw around me were advertisements for Nike and Reebok, larger than life NBA players hanging from billboards and walls, enticing thousands of Chinese into impulsive shoe purchases daily. While the Chinese love Yao Ming, for some unknown reason, Kobe Bryant is a God here. He has an ad on TV, his face is recognized by almost all Chinese, and he was undoubtedly the most famous Olympian at the Games, bigger than even the Chinese stars, Yao Ming and Liu Xiang, the Chinese hurdler.

I guess then, that it is not surprising that one of the ways Americans and Chinese relate to each other is through the game of basketball. Lanqiu, as its called in Chinese, gives both countries a common language. The camaraderie that is built on the court transcends the game itself, and has led me to count among my friends quite a few of the Chinese guys I play against and with on a weekly basis. These friendships have at the center the game of basketball. We play every Sunday morning, and it is, quite honestly, one of the highlights of my week.

Liquid Nitrogen

A few weeks ago I had a chance to do some really cool science with my students. By cool, I mean cold, about -200 degrees Celcius cold! I brought liquid nitrogen into the classroom and got a chance to talk about properties of gasses while seeing some pretty unique physical phenomena. One of the best parts of my day was getting to share the nitrogen demos with students in the lower school, grades K-4. I almost always work with high school students, and while I enjoy working with them, there was something refreshing about the innocent excitement that filled the young students eyes. They could not contain the sheer amazement they had while watching the "magical" demos. From shrinking balloons, to eating frozen marshmallows, it was a special day. And its cute to hear the young students explanations for different things. When the nitrogen cools the air in a balloon, causing it to shrivel up into nothing, one little girl raised her hand and asked, with a grave seriousness, "Did you just kill the air?" 

I've included a few pictures and a video of one of my favorite demonstrations. This was done in my senior physics class, and we managed to fit 14 balloons into the bowl of liquid nitrogen. Check it out - and don't ever let me hear you say science isn't "cool"!

An Unusual Taxi Ride

Sorry for my long hiatus...my girlfriend was here for about two weeks and the semester is winding down at school. Two poor excuses...I know. :) I do have a lot of pictures to put up, and tales to tell, which I will get to, but for a now a quick story that actually just happened a few hours ago.
I was at my local department store tonight shopping for some presents and food items. I had about six large bags worth of stuff to carry, so since I couldn't ride my bike home(my usual method of transportation), I decided to take a taxi. In front of the department store they have a taxi line, and I moved into line and waited for a cab. I finally got to the front of the line and was waiting for a taxi to pull up. A small, green car pulls up in front of me, cutting off a driver that was about to pick me up. With an angry taxi cab driver behind him, the navigator of the small green car motions for me to get in. Another family had started to get in the cab that was behind the green car, and with my options dwinding and my fingers tingling(it is very cold tonight) I took the man up on his offer and put my stuff in his car and jumped in. I took note of his waving golden cat(they are very popular here) attached to his dashboard and wondered what just happened. We arrived at my destination and he stops the car, quickly turning around with his hand extended. He wants money. I only have a few coins, and then several large bills. I show him and explain my situation, that I am not giving him the big bills, and he doesn't have change, so he huffs and takes the few small coins and drives off - to his home, maybe his wife and child I presume. I am left in the cold with my things - but also left wondering how often this type of thing happens. Can you imagine driving home from work, pulling into a taxi line and picking someone up, and then demanding they pay you? It really is every man and women for themselves here in China - they are all looking to make a quick RMB - no matter what they have to do.