How I met my wife - Episode 2

Admin Building - Shanghai Normal University 

Residence - Shanghai Normal University - On our first morning after our arrival, I was awoken at five in the morning by muzak blaring from loud speaker outside.  I got up to check it out and there, on the lawn, just under my second-floor window, was this old, spindly looking guy engaged in what I could only interpret as slow-motion fight with an invisible opponent.  I would later learn this was Tai Chi.  

Just having arrived from a time-zone on the other side of the world, I was now wide awake so, I wandered outside to investigate.  To my surprise, other members of the group were also outside as well as dozens of elderly Tai Chi practitioners.  I was impressed by spaciousness of the grounds at Shanghai Normal University compared with the very high population density that existed just outside the gates.

The University of Victoria had offered two courses in Shanghai that year.  The first in the spring on the Mandarin language followed by “Education in China” which we were about to begin.  On my walk that morning I met April Katherine who had taken the Mandarin course and could now direct us to the cafeteria where we would be served breakfast.  Katherine was an attractive thirty something who always wore bright red lipstick which, according to Nicola, branded her as a bitter female.  April was an aggressive, white haired, 65 year-old.  

Large windows provided lots of light in the cafeteria where we sat at large round tables picking away at tasteless rice gruel.  I quickly learned to forgo this Chinese staple preferring instead, the more western taste of their sweet buns.  Strong black tea offered a good substitute for my morning coffee.  For breakfast and dinner, beer would be my preferred beverage.  At 25 cents for a half-litre, it was also one of the cheapest. 

Nicola facing camera, Marilyn laughing, and Kim our translator

One of my highlights that day was meeting Mr. Ye, shortish man in his forties, I think, with glasses who always wore shorts, with a button up, short-sleeved shirt, brown socks and brogues.  He was to be the main interpreter for the group who also became a good friend to Nicola and I while we were there. 

Mr. Ye and Eleanor

We were also introduced to Brian and Honore.  Brian had supervised the previous course in Shanghai on Mandarin instruction and Honore would take over with the supervision of the “Education in China” course, the one, we were presently taking.  I got know the two professors better than the other students, partly because I was younger and more like them but also because I purchased a bike.

Me with my bike and Honore's

At that time, the primary means of transportation in Shanghai and other Chinese cities was the bicycle.  I’d read in a guidebook that I could purchase a bike from the Friendship store which sold Chinese products to “foreign guests.”  A special currency, the Yuan was required for purchases made in the store.  The Yuan could only be acquired through the exchange of foreign currency not available to the regular Chinese citizen at the time.  For the Chinese, long waits were required for the purchase of bikes so, once I was finished with the bike, I could sell it at a profit for renminbi, the currency of the local people.

Riding my bike down Nanjing Road in Shanghai was surreal.  Thousands of Chinese riding similar or identical green bikes and me.  Sometimes I would ride with Brian or Honore or Katherine and sometimes with Nicola riding side-saddle on the rear carrier of my bike.  Late one night, as we were walking our bikes across a bridge over Suzhou Creek, Brian asked me if I ever thought I would be riding a bike in Shanghai, China. “Never dreamed of it,” was my reply.  Obviously, I was not alone in my thoughts of the other-worldliness of this experience.

Cyclists in Shanghai, 1991

My addiction to music meant that practically every experience of my life has been accompanied by a soundtrack.  I started with the Astraltune which was among the first portable music players.  It consisted of a tape deck attache to a small power pack all contained within a nylon pack that strapped to my chest.  It was popular among downhill skiers of which I was an enthusiastic participant.  I also used it cycling. I remember listening to the Rolling Stones just as I was about to cross the railway tracks on Edmonton’s high level bridge.  For some reason, I looked up just in time to see a train coming straight for me.  I think of how close I was to getting hit and then, in one of my more mystical moments, I think that I was hit and have since returned.  

In China, I had replaced the Astraltune with a Sony Walkman and I listened to it everywhere, sometimes even in the cafeteria.  This was one of the first of many disagreements I've had with Nicola.  She'd just blown up at a group of ladies for talking about their gastro-intestinal problems while eating their lunch-time meal.  She then removed herself from their company and flounces over to a table inhabited by a bunch of guys from Zimbabwe.  I was sitting off at a table by myself at the time and could have cared less what the ladies had been talking about.  I did suggest that Nicola might have unnecessarily criticized the group for their obsession with stomach problems and she replied that I was ruder for ignoring them.  If that was true, I asked, why did they like me more?  She replied that middle-aged women always like younger men.