Hi Shanghai

I'm going on a trip to Shanghai...a field trip to be precise. The World Expo is being hosted there this year and I'm chaperoning our students as we go to check it out. It promises to be pretty awesome. We leave for 5 days on May 7th.

Shanghai does not have nearly the cultural weight of Beijing but it is, from what I've heard, more developed and, dare I say it, "cosmopolitan". I look forward to seeing the Chinese at their best. I'm also very excited to see the Canadian exhibit at the Expo (see link below). My national pride has soared to ridiculous heights in the past 8 months.

My Chinese Massage

Yesterday I went to a Chinese sauna. Quite an experience. The whole ordeal was hilarious but too lengthy to explain so let me stick to the massage. I am no massage expert...I've had maybe 3 or 4 professional massages in my life. But I know what pain feels like. And I know weird when I meet it. The guy giving me the massage was pretty random. To begin with he tried to rub my back off. I seriously think that was his goal. If I'd had one of those big back tattoos it would almost certainly be gone now. His method was, well, violent. And I'm not sure that's a word that's supposed to be associated with massages. I spent this portion of the massage gasping for air and marvelling that I had paid for this treatment. Later, as I was lying on my front, he lifted my foot and started punching the bottom of it. Literally punching it...what was he going for? And why didn't he punch my other foot? Other techniques he employed were "cup his hands and slap my back" and "grind his elbow into my shoulder blades". These techniques, though lacking in relaxative effect or enjoyment, are certainly high in pain. I came out of the massage feeling like I'd just had the living shit beat out of me (please forgive my crudeness). Combined with the full body exfoliation I had endured an hour earlier and I was left pretty exhausted. That's right. Full body exfoliation. But that's a story for another day...

My Chinese Name

So it's been a long time coming but I've finally given my self a Chinese name. Chinese people often give themselves an English name that they use around English speakers. This is partly because some Chinese names are very difficult for us English speakers to pronounce/remember (ex -Liu Yicun...trust me, you're pronouncing it incorrectly) or they cause English people to giggle uncontrollably which must be very irritating (ex. Long Wang...sigh, I still can't stop giggling...when will I grow up?). In this light I've decided it would be fun to give myself a Chinese name and I've decided on Deng Xu Hu (pronounced dung shoe who). Deng is the Chinese equivalent of the Dun part of Duncan and it is also the family name of the Chinese leader that came after Mao Ze Dong (Deng Xiao Ping). I've been reading about him lately and quite admire his accomplishments. Xu Hu translates into, lol, "morning tiger", which I think is awesome/hilarious. I can't quite separate the mental image of Hobbes (of Calvin and Hobbes) and real tigers. This leads to images of me yawning and stretching as I awake and then roaring as I pounce out of bed into a position ready to attack. It's probably a good thing that nobody actually has access to my brain except for me...it would be a bit confusing :)