Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, etc. etc.

It's gotten cold here in Shanghai, although not terrible considering what I grew up with. That all changes in the next few days though, where it's going to drop to below freezing for New Years. We're supposed to even get a little bit of snow, which will make me a little happy, and I'm sure my kids will go nuts. Something about the cold I've had to get used to, living in Asia, is that insulation in buildings is just not really a thing. I suppose it's a cost concern, why put in the money to insulate a building if you really only need it for a month or two out of the year? Or it could simply the construction companies saying "not my problem". I still have to think it would pay off in the long run. But it's something I have to live with regardless, which does not sound so appealing. I think I'll go straight from work to bed for the next few days.

"Reusing" paper for our 3R Unit

From a personal standpoint, things are pretty normal. Weekends are still spent hanging out with friends, including some very lovely Thanksgiving, Christmas, and birthdays. I mean, one in particular had a robot deliver the birthday cake, which, holy cow - best moment of 2020. I also made a Thanksgiving turkey in our toaster oven, which I was amazed it came out as well as it did. It fit with not even an inch to spare. Also, unrelated to Thanksgiving, but apparently Ella can roller skate like a champ - who knew?

Speaking of Ella, she recently got offered a new position that she is starting in February - and she is beyond excited about it. I'm also pretty happy, because we were seriously considering another offer which would require us to move and have a bit of a commute. Her new position is pretty close to us now, which means next semester we're good to go. Beyond that, I'm not sure about me. I interviewed at the same school, so it would be nice if we worked together. But I won't know until early January. If not, I honestly don't mind. Truthfully I'd be fine to stay with my current school. Part of the reason I love the job I am in, is that compared to job hunting in the US, you are in very high demand. I'm headhunted pretty regularly, so I never have to look far to find a position. And if I were to get let go tomorrow, I could pretty much walk into any language center and get a job immediately. Not that I'd love the night and weekend hours, but the pay is good and certainly enough for both of us to live on. The struggle is a bit more difficult for Ella, but I feel miles better than job hunting in the US, in comparison. Reading all this while writing it out just re-affirms that I made the right decision to leave.

But from the ol' travel side of things, a few days off for Christmas has let us poke our noses around the city a bit. Shanghai recently opened some more metro stations (and is now the longest in the world by route length), so they've been advertising all the neat things you can do on the metro. One that caught our eye was a model train miniature town, thing, at a mall sort of near downtown. I wasn't too excited initially, as it was about $12 a person to see. To me, that's a bit much to see some trains, but Ella was quite keen to check it out, and we had nothing else going on. I still think it's a bit overpriced for what it is, but it is quite impressive. It's probably about the size of 3 apartments, and has lots of little buttons you can push to make things happen - like to turn on the lights, or have the tiny chickens move around. Since me talking about something that is meant to be looked at is a bit silly, I'll just throw up some pictures and you can judge for yourself.

After I heard the LEGO store at Nanjing Road was worth seeing. Despite me walking past it a dozen times and never bothering to look inside, it is definitely worth seeing if you're nearby. I'd imagine other LEGO stores do things just as well, but it's still pretty cool. They had a tower with a dragon wrapped around it, which reminds me a lot of Wat Samphran in Thailand. And no, unfortunately we never made it there: because it's far away, there's no good way to go without a car, and not much else to do out there. But maybe one day. Anyway, at the LEGO store we made little Mike and Ella figures, which made it worth it. That was about the only affordable thing in that place. Holy cow, every time I see LEGOs they increase at like 5x the cost of inflation. Like, a Harry Potter set was $500. Are you kidding me? You can get a knockoff online for $20 - which honestly, as the owner of a few knockoffs, the quality is pretty much the same. I love LEGOs, but I really wish they'd make them more accessible.

But the main reason to write today is to talk about a trip we took to Zhujiajiao, a town on the outskirts of Shanghai. It's still in the district, and you can actually take a rather long metro trip all the way out there. From the station, it's about a 15 minute walk into the actual tourist area. It's notable for being a water town, where people still get around with boats through canals. Of course, nowadays it's mostly tourists that do that, but it's still a pretty place that attracts a lot of day trippers from the city. I had heard that it's beautiful at night, so instead of cramming it into a day, we decided to book a room and go in the afternoon.

I guess deserving of its day trip status, there is about a half days worth of stuff to do there. A lot of small museums, like an old post office or a Tibetan Culture Center. Nothing that blows your socks off, but nice, and definitely worth a look. And of course, lots of things to buy like souvenirs, snacks, etc.. I think the main draw is just to walk around the town, because it is just a bunch of narrow alleys stuffed with tea houses and and cafes that you can enjoy while sitting on the balcony above the canal. It really is quite picturesque, and is basically Instagram City.

 

During the evening, all the buildings lit up with colored lights, giving it a very Christmasy feeling. Although I do think that's about all the town has going for it at night. I guess because so many people just go back to the city, the place pretty much shuts down. It was even a bit creepy, how few people there were out on the street in comparison to earlier. Although I get it's not tourist season, and especially because of, well, (gestures vaguely at all of 2020), it still surprised me at how empty it was. So I'd say, unless you want pictures a quiet, lit up water town, stick to the day trip. Or just go back late, because the last train leaves at 10 or so. Ella and I found a Tibetan bar and restaurant that was open (apparently Zhuzhajiao is a Tibetan hangout), and, ya know, always nice to try new things. This was my 2nd time to try yak, and this one was better, but eh... I prefer other meat. It was also my 2nd time to try Tibetian beer, and oh man, they are 0 for 2 on that one. Lhasa Beer was a huge disappointment last time, and this one who's name I don't recall - also pretty bad. Sorry Tibet.

 

I don't want to leave the impression that I'm sour on Zhujiajiao, because honestly I do really like it. It's very pretty, and has lots of interesting stuff to see. It just doesn't have much to see. It's the perfect Shanghai getaway, and I'd go so far as to even recommend it over Suzhou for the "Chinese Venice" feeling. Instead of opting to walk back to the metro, we paid a few bucks to take a boat. It was neat to see the town from that perspective. and be in many many peoples' photos - especially as I was pretty much the only foreigner there. We had a chat with the boat driver for the 15 minute or so ride. When he learned I was American, he asked me, "What the heck is going on over there?"

(gestures vaguely at all of 2020)

Here we go again.

It's definitely an exciting day. Truth be told, I have always liked Biden quite a bit. He was my favorite way back when he ran against Obama in 2008. And Kamala being the first woman as VP, I think overall this is a move in the right direction.

The last few days have been a bit anxious to say the least. And not just for me, I was surprised how many of my colleagues and friends, many of whom are not American, were also glued to the results wondering who the next US President would be. This always puzzled me a bit, because they seem so invested in it - more than I would be for say, the election of South Africa's new President. A friend showed me the map on the left (US military bases around the world) to explain why he cares, which I guess makes sense. The US is a global superpower. But I also feel that as an American, I kind of wish that we weren't. For one, it's a lot of responsibility and pressure that I don't welcome. But also, I have to think some other country would handle things better. Like, I dunno, New Zealand? They seem pretty good at managing things.

But I'm quite happy about the outcome of the election, while trying to humbly keep in mind that many, many people are quite disappointed - and that sucks. So it doesn't really feel like a "It's over, let's celebrate" kind of mood. It feels like now we've stopped the bleeding, but we're still in intensive care. I wrote last month about how I feel partisanship has really divided the US, and is a big problem that we need to solve. And I was really happy to see Biden specifically address that in his victory speech, about "coming together" and "healing" the nation. And that all sounds well and good, but I still don't know what we're going to do to make that happen. Practically, how are we going to fix this?

So I asked friends, Facebook, and searched Reddit on how we fix this.

Reddit was... not helpful. Perhaps because of the anonymity of Reddit, or the high after winning the election, it was pretty much "There is no coming together, Republicans must be politically defeated." Disappointed, I turned to Facebook. Perhaps because it is more personal, there were some good suggestions. But whenever I feel like I ask this question, people don't really answer it. Instead they talk about WHY there is a divide. And I'm not saying that isn't important, but it's like "Okay, yes yes... it's there. But what do we DO?" And they don't really have an answer. Or maybe they don't want to answer, because complaining is easy and doing things is hard. Speaking honestly, a few people on Facebook disappointed me with the hostility displayed to the idea of coming together. "How can I possibly reach out to a nazi sympathizer / white supremacist / murderer / etc.." But after a lot of reflection, I think I have a possible answer.

To start, I think we need to define what "coming together" means, at least to me. First, it does not mean tolerating intolerance, rather society using carrots to make being tolerant the better option. It also does not necessarily mean compromise. Sorry to paint in broad strokes here, but a white supremacist and a black person should absolutely not settle on a middle ground that, I dunno, they only lose some rights? That is ridiculous, and I think some incorrectly thought I was advocating for that. To me, coming together means assuming good faith. As impossible as it seems, maybe the white supremacist's real concern is about, I dunno, criminal justice. And they have incorrectly turned that concern into vitriol for a minority group. But that's the "in" point - all sides can agree that there can be improvements made to the criminal justice system. But if you don't talk to people, you're never going to get to that point. And then over time they can realize their hatred was misplaced.

And that's my answer, as simple as it is - talking. Befriending. Being a cool person. I gave an example that say, Trump supporters don't care about LGBQT rights. They're not against them, but since they have no one in their life like that, it's a non-issue. If a party is anti-LGBQT but supports everything else they like, voting is an easy choice. But say they have a friend who is gay. Now their vote hurts someone they care about, and they'll think twice about it. Get enough instances like this, and they may not vote for that party, or push them to moderate their stance. So what do we do? In practical, bullet point form:

• When online, remember the person on the other side of they keyboard is human.
  
• Don't unfriend/mute friends on Facebook that have a different opinion than you.
• Add news sources, social media, etc. to your routine that people on the "other side" favor, so you can learn about things that are important to them.
• When talking about political/social issues, don't think about how to "win" the argument, and don't talk about why your ideas are better. Listen and ask questions to get to the heart of what they're concerned about, and find common ground. Then work on addressing their concerns.
• Be willing to compromise. If you can't compromise within the issue, look to another one. (I'll give you X if you give me Y.)
  
• When you come across a fundamental issue neither of you can compromise on, rationally explain why. Move on with an attitude of, "I may not agree, but I get where you're coming from."
• Be a good person so you set a good example of people that support X.

Putting this in practice may not be easy, because it requires patience and maybe changing your way of approaching debates. I will certainly mess up, but I'm going to try.