Category politics

Samarkand

Having completed all the necessary paperwork, acquired mini photos of myself and located my passport I set off to the Uzbek consulate in Shanghai.

No one seemed to know where Huangpu Road was. After several attempts I finally located number 99 and went to the 15th floor, which is where the Embassy site said the consulate offices were. I found a glass door with neon green construction paper glued to the door and a tiny white sign in Chinese with a phone number. I called the number and asked where the consulate was. He replied with a question, “rent or buy?”

I went to a nearby office and asked how long the room with the green door had been empty. “Almost two years,” came the cringe-worthy reply. I called Mike, who looked online and located another phone number. No answer and then a dial tone. Bummer.

After returning from the boondocks to my Shanghai apartment I confirmed online that I had gone to the right address. I called the Uzbek Embassy in Beijing. No one spoke English and the Chinese intern who answered the phone hung up when I asked if it was the Uzbek Embassy. Frustrated, I asked a friend who is fluent if she could follow up and find any information. Meanwhile a friend of Mike’s who speaks Russian is looking online for more information.

Meanwhile, if I can’t find information on the consulate I’ll have to take the overnight train to Beijing to find the Uzbek Embassy and try to deal with acquiring the visa in person in Beijing.

Through the whole semi-frustrating ordeal I was reminded that this is simply how things are in Asia- impermanent. It is a great start to the trip!

-Posted by Lauren.

Its official. I was laid of on the 31st of December while on vacation in Beijing. I found out via an emailed letter from an employee I’d never met in London in the HR department. No explanation was given except for the “unfavorable economic situation.” Several others in our office (7 in total…. so far) have been laid off. Two additional staff were let go today…. literally three days before the biggest holiday and family celebration in China- the New Year. I will, I swear, never work for a bank again. They do not treat people like humans, and have no rhyme or reason for their crude and inhuman behavior. Its unforgivable how they have treated people, and it is a product of the industry as a whole. Shame on you, banking community, for being such *&#*&@_$s.

On the inverse, I’ve spent the entire month painting, reading and generally enjoying Shanghai’s city-scene. Its been liberating painting again, something I’d taken a break from for over a year for lack of time. Its a shame to let one’s hobbies go by the wayside. I’ve started a massive “History of Civilizations” book that is fascinating.

working

We are also busy apartment hunting. We found one we really loved, but as we were just settling our final negotations the realitor called to say that someone else had swept in with more money and taken it. It was a devistating moment, as now we are back to square one on the apartment hunt. Meanwhile, of of possibly bigger importance, the job hunt is stalling as no one will hire prior to the Chinese New Year.

Last night we all stayed up late to watch Obama get sword into office. It was a good moment in American history, and I am glad that the country is willing to work to reestablish our reputation as a moral country with humble power. I hope this president will roll up his sleeves and solve a few problems. I’m holding out for the best — we’ll see!

-posted by lauren.

In Shanghai, at 7:30am on the 5th of November (8pm on Tuesday on the east coast of the USA), over a hundred tired but eager Americans sauntered into Malone’s Bar, an American establishment, to watch the CNN election results. We had taken the day off work to gather together as strangers to witness what many of us knew would be a historic occasion. As the bar slowly began to fill with diverse faces in an array of colors and ages, I began to shake with anticipation (perhaps from the coffee, but also from the idea that this day could change American history forever). By 8am CNN was gearing up for the close of the first east coast polls, and the first projections came in amid cheers.

A young black lady in an Obama T-shirt handed out posters of the candidate while circling the bar, patting recipients on the back with a friendly, ‘good for you’ whenever someone raised their hand for a poster. In China, where racism is strong, her very existence in the city was encouraging.

A full breakfast platter was 88Rmb, an auspicious and lucky number in China, and a sign for the candidate’s performance later that day. We ate heartedly, drank tea and American coffee and watched as the results rolled in amid holograms and virtual capital pop-ups.

In my life there have been two political experiences that have made me shake with emotion and a precise fear of the unknown. The first was in 2001, when I stood outside an empty classroom wondering where the other students were before a tired and red-eyed boy filled me in on the morning’s details. The second was sitting in an over-crowded American bar on the 5th of November, 2008 when Obama was announced the victor and a stranger nearly knocked me to the floor while hugging me, his whole body shaking, tears running down his face. Men and women cried, screamed and then—there was a silence like I had never known as two years of emotion and waiting after 8 years of being embarrassed to be called an overseas American, flooded into the room and silenced us all.

After the silence returned to cheers, and then silence again, we filtered into the sunshine (by then it was nearly 1pm) and wandered around the city, bold and unafraid to be called Americans.

Obama takes Ohio!

That night at a celebration party on the Bund we were served Obamatinis and The Change has Come Cocktails with CNN in the background and a mood that was somewhat more serious than the morning, but still a tinge of excitement and unity. Even those who voted for McCain were out chatting happily about change. The change did not imply from a republican to a democrat, but from a failing sense of what it means to be American, to a reminder of what we as a country stand for.

The thing most impressed on me was the willingness, vocalized loudly and clearly, of Americans back home and abroad to work together to rebuild America. It is not, as some suspect, the worship or idolization of one man, but instead a return to the ideas that America was founded upon. I am happy that America now has an African-American president, but for me the real triumph is not that aspect, but the fact that he is a symbol for the reinvigoration of a faith most of us had lost in our country. I felt pride not in Obama, but in Americans. The person who hugged me at Malone’s that morning was a gay man whose faith is indeed in change as an American concept, not in Obama himself. That is what is unique and beautiful, and why I feel like last Wednesday is a day I will never forget, much in the same way I am unlikely to forget 9/11.

Since that emotion-charged day, I have watched as headlines across China have praised the choice of our next leader. What the Chinese admired about Americans is now returning: an unwavering faith in humanity based on principles of freedom, equality and the pursuit of happiness. Across the world we are seeing headlines of the same nature, the world is ready to be wowed once again by American idealism and American dreaming. The world wants us to exist, to live and enjoy freedoms and happiness to prove that a sort of utopia can exist on earth. Though a bit hyped up, I do believe that this I what people are looking for in our country across the pond, and what I hope we can prove by banning together and imagining ourselves responsible enough to create the future we design.

…and he wins!

Today I’m proud to say I’m an American. Something I have not said in a long, long time.

-posted by Lauren.