Now having lived in Shanghai for a full 6 months, I'm starting to reach a point where I feel confident to say that I possess an understanding of the city, even if very basic. One of my impressions can be summed in by a question/answer asked by a friend whose parents are coming to visit him, "How many days do you need in Shanghai? Is five too much?". Five days in Shanghai is not very long, but at the same time it's sorta long. My point is that while this has turned out to be a fantastic city, there just isn't so much to do here besides "fun" things. Do not misunderstand, this is not a complaint. The food is great, the bars are fun, there is brunch culture, and even a pool scene that goes on during the summertime. But if you are visiting here from out of town, or even living here looking for a way to encounter the local side of Shanghai, you have to go out and find it, which is a large difference between this city and Beijing. So in my six months here I've learned that Shanghai is fun, but now I am reaching a point where I want to round out the scope of my social activities.
I live in an old Shanghai home, 老公房 (Old Work Home), where most of the residents used to be employed by a power-plant somewhere - not too many power-plants where I live in the center of town..It's quite a "cozy" atmosphere, for lack of a better work. There is a wooden walk-up staircase that is four floors tall, and on each level there are three or four apartments that are occupied by families who may have multiple rooms. What is important to know about this set-up is that occupants sort of just spill out the rooms and occupy the public area in the middle. It was something I didn't grasp at the time I signed this lease and have had to adjust to over time. Most people are awed/fascinated by the style their first time over, indeed it does take some getting used to. This ends up resulting in quite a fair amount of encounters with my neighbors while they are doing things like say brushing their teeth in their underpants or having one of those bad hair moments where your comb over is not combed over.
The residents on my floor are quite nice and talkative, perhaps in the open space too much for my liking, but they do nice things like whenever I have mail or bills come place them in a small bag and hang it on my door handle. Over the past few weeks there have been a number of times I've come home drunk to find my neighbor still up having just gotten finished gambling and we chat for a few moments before I abruptly decide its time to go. There will be more time to chat again tomorrow..One thing about Shanghai people is that a lot of them have undergone some basic study of English or foreign language/culture even if very minute. So Mr. Gan, my neighbor, likes to impress me with Gutentag or "please don't forget to copy the water meter" or things of this nature. He probably knows six words in 4 different languages and doesn't mind showing off his stuff. Either way, it's pretty impressive and is a good display of the cultural sophistication that exists in Shanghai compared to the rest of China. It's also pretty impressive that probably 40 years later he remembers this stuff - and he's not the first guy I'm met like this.
One day, not sure how this came about, I had a crazy idea. I went to the 居委会 - rough equivalent of a community committee office - for my compound and decided I was gonna do something good. So I went up to the office and volunteered to hold English class for one-hour a week..free..for everyone. It's difficult to accurate describe the level of suspicion that my offer was initially greeted with, so I left them a card and told them I'll contact them in a few days. Yesterday I went back to the office to follow up, and the ladies could not have been more excited. They loved the idea of practicing the daily conversational basics of English with the kids of the compound - a little off from my original idea of helping adults maintain their foreign language skills but it's a foot in the door. So now it appears that Teacher Mu 木老师 will actually be happening. This is going to be an interesting experience to say the least and will try to keep everyone in touch!
