Looking at a Change for Next Year

Today's weather:  High = 19  Low = 12
Rainy
 
I can't say anything formally yet, nor will I make any formal decisions until after the winter holiday, but I'm greatly disappointed with the direction that the school is going in this year compared to last.  More meetings, more paperwork, and more financial stinginess is never a good sign that you want to see in a workplace, so when it goes this way, then head for the exits.  Fast. 
 
As such, the usual routine of changing schools next year will happen unless there is drastic improvement later on  (which I doubt).  Fortunately I've got a really excellent lead at a school that is literally across the street from my new apartment in the south of Shanghai.  Will be meeting the principal later on this week.

Enjoying This Indian Summer

Today's weather:  High = 25  Low = 15

Sunny

 

An amazing bout of warm sunny weather over the weekend.  Great chance to go motorcycle riding.  I found out it's freezing cold and pouring back in Vancouver Canada, so this is a nice counter-balance.  Summer-like weather in December, who would've thought

 

 

Cramster to the Rescue

Today's weather:  High = 14  Low = 6

Sunny

 

Why I didn't already think of this a month earlier is beyond me, but better to save the day later rather than never.

 

The website http://www.cramster.com  is an interactive study community where people can post math, physics, or chemistry questions and get real-time help and interactive responses.  I was highly involved with this a few years back and accured a massive amount of nearly 60,000 points for helping people answer physics questions.

 

Now these points will come to some major use.  The website has evolved considerably to the point it now works like this:

 

1.        A student posts a math, physics, or chemistry problem to the website and requests the level of urgency to have it answered.  A highly urgent problem will be answered in a matter of minutes because it awards a premium of points.  But such service will cost some of your own points.  A non-urgent question is free to post, while it also awards less points.

 

2.        Others keep an eye on the discussion board and answer whatever questions pop up, noting the potential points available.  Building points allows you to use the express service or redeem them for real stuff.

 

3.       When a student gets a response, he/she is required to rate it.  The highest rating gives the maximum amount of points available, whereas the maximum is defined by the difficulty of the question and the urgency level.   Other ratings give less points.

 

4.       The economics of points dictate a win/win situation for both people who post and answer questions.  The quality of the answers is extremely good, and far more detailed than any textbook solution manual or other standard website would give.

 

Of course, one has to ask if this is cheating.   I've brought this website up at school several times with colleagues and have been lambasted for even suggesting such a thing exists.  Yes it exists, deal with it. 

 

In defense, 9 times out of 10, when students ask a question on the website, they have tried it themselves first and gotten stuck.  This is evidenced by them writing things like, 'I've done this so far, but not sure what to do next'  or  'I'm not sure how they got this answer'.   The goal of replying to questions is to provide hints and steps to get the answer, and not say the answer directly.  This is really no different than what happens in class.   Student tries a question, he then asks classmates, and if he still can't get it, he asks the teacher.

 

The student would then internalize what was provided, and then come up with his or her own answer.  Most of the time, this is exactly what happens.  Literally thousands of students have said how the website helped them get As in class as the feedback process prepares them very well for tests.  Of course, in a test, they do NOT have the website available as a crutch.

 

Cheating occurs if a student simply gets an answer, and then copies and pastes the answer to hand in as an assignment.   Not only is this dumb, but there is no learning in this process. 

Most universities these days now assign questions using 'Web Assign' which randomizes the numbers in a physics problem and ensures that everybody must submit a unique solution.  In this way, the help from the website above is really good because it can then be modified to the unique question that the student must answer by himself.

 

To make a long story short, I'm also going to be relying on hints and help from others by posting questions to the website for my current assignments that I'm stuck on with my masters course.  Even the mere thought of having this 'lifeline' available is increasing the motivation I have for doing this next assignment.  I've nearly finished it and am rather confident of the results without having posted any questions yet.

 

It gets better:   if you do a web search, there is no way to see any answers to questions posted by yourself or others unless you are already a paying member of the website and have logged in.   You can, however, see the question itself, which tells you that it may not even be necessary to post because somebody else already did.  Just log in and learn.  Nuff said.

Temperatures Dropping

Today's weather:  High = 12  Low = 3

 

The rain cleared from the weekend, and we've now been enjoying crisp clear weather this week.  This is a sign we're entering the dry and cold season, which parallels the dry season in SE Asia.  On this note, the flood situation in Thailand which I've been following closely is slowly being alleviated as the monsoon is basically over now. 

 

It would be nice if a vacation were to happen right now, but it's still at least 50 days away until the winter break.  Ouch!    Unfortunately, more bad news has happened in that one of our teachers will now be out of commission for 6+ weeks due to major back surgery.  As a result, the regular staff are doing internal coverage to act as subs.  They are compensating us healthily for this, but it's going to be a major bitch of a workload for the next 3 weeks until my masters course has finally run its course on Dec 12.

 

Speaking of which, the first course 'software' ended well in October with a nice 94% mark to cap off the final project.  The current course I'm doing now is 'mathematical proofs' and to quote a colleague from Sino Canada (another school down the road) who's also doing this, the course is an "absolute nightmare" and "it's hell".  He is correct.  The intimidating language and nature of proofs is one of the things about math that I wish didn't exist, but it does, and we have to deal with it.

 

My goal is simple for this course:   survival.   The pass rate is 70% and I'm barely floating above that now, having been killed on the latest written assignment.

 

Once the hell of proofs is over with, then things will gradually ease off as we approach the winter break.  I've already got plane tickets booked ages ago and am now figuring out trip logistics in more details.  Stay tuned to that on the crazyguyonabike.com site, as this winter break trip is gonna be off the hook!

 

 

I Came This Close to Quitting China

Today's weather: High = 14 Low = 3
Sunny and windy

Before coming to China 10 years ago the advice I got in training still holds true to this day, even moreso. Namely, one friend told me there would certainly be days when I wondered what I was doing in China and I'd want to run for the exits.

Yesterday was one of those days.

I'm very grateful for the 3 pieces of advice learned in training which I've held onto over the last decade.

1. Lower the expectations. Good general advice and it especially applies for transport inconveniences.

2. Patience and flexibility. Nuff said.

3. Don't make decisions when under the gun. In other words, right now the most tempting thing to do is quit China but I'm going to take a step back and reassess over the upcoming holidays. Right now would be a terrible time to make decisions and April/May is the same story. I haven't always kept this advice and have quit jobs in the past when conditions went downhill or when things got rough.

I'm going to post more detail on the importance of community in Shanghai and maintaining a social network outside of work. This is something I go on a LOT about, even more than transport. However I'll just come right out and say it. Without that community network I would have totally quit and the community is what is compelling me to stay and not quit.
It is why I came to Shanghai in the first place.

I will also say unequivocally that it is destructive behavior to choose to solely rely on coworkers for social life and community when outside of the office. I realize this is very common in China and Asia in general but it is still a destructive practice and violates a sense of healthy boundaries. Any clubs or activities to this end I will stay away from and suffer the consequences. Such as international booze clubs, where coworkers meet in others' apartments and drink, or video game clubs or house parties to a similar effect.

Related to all this is the fact that our teaching staff has now become a de-facto men's club with 80% young single men this year and I shouldn't have to point out the implications as they are obvious. The situation is now becoming a carbon copy of the men's club that existed when I taught in Sino Canada 3 years ago in the boonies.
Now it seems we've simply migrated downtown but the fundamental problems of an imbalanced staff like that (in terms of age, gender, and marital status) are the same regardless of location.

In fact a far more astute colleauge and friend told me at Sino back then that I was focusing on the wrong problem (location) when it was really a people issue in terms of unhealthy boundaries and staffing. She happened to be a woman, thank goodness, and corrected pointed out that the STAFF would still act in an unhealthy way regardless of where the school was. Took me 3 years to figure out what she picked up on in 3 weeks but yeah, I get the point,
this is a people issue.

Now the question remains, what to do about it?

Verified: They Don't Rest on Weekends

Today's weather:  High = 23  Low = 17
Strangely warm and humid
 

Awhile back I wrote a post about the 'bragging rights' that the Chinese feel about how many holidays they get per year.  They come up with a huge number, from the fact that they count the weekends as holidays.  The underlying assumption here is that weekends are days that everyone could potentially be working, and the sad reality is that many people do exactly that.  7 days a week. 

 

This afternoon I was at the apartment office taking care of some business with my landlord, and it all went rather smoothly which is a rarity in China, and appreciated when it happens.  So we all stuck around for awhile longer and chatted in Mandarin, and they were rather impressed that I could do such a thing.  At that point, I threw in the fact that I also taught high school math which got more 'oohs' and 'ahh's.   Just love it.

 

Anyways, later in the conversation, one of the workers told me about how the Chinese view weekends.     This verified what I had long suspected.  That is to say, the concept of rest on the weekends is seen as a Western tradition and it works differently in China.  Literally, works.  The sad reality is that even if they could take breaks and relax on the weekend, they would choose to work instead since that's a way to amass more fortune

The conversation went something like this.  

 

Worker #1:      So you must be a pretty smart guy teaching math to the senior high students

Me:   Not really, it's just a job, something that pays the bills.       (It also finances my bicycle travel hobby and other long-term investment plans)

 

Worker #2:       Ah cmon don't be modest, there's a lot of teachers who can't do this, as the level of math at the senior grade is most difficult and they won't just hire anyone to teach it.  

 

Me:  True enough I guess

 

Worker #2:      If someone else wanted to teach that level, and they weren't up to par, the school would be like, 'Why do we need you?' and 'What's the use of you?'   So you must be pretty good

 

Me:   Thanks.  

 

Worker #2:    By the way, did you know that most of the Chinese high school math and English teachers do side tutoring jobs on the weekend and make more money?  

 

Me:   It doesn't surprise me they would do something like that.

 

Worker #2    They don't tell their employers of course, but they arrange 'upgrade classes'  (BU KE, not sure how to translate it) where groups of students pay 150 RMB an hour and they help prepare for the massive university entrance tests.

 

Me: Ah I see, yes, a long time ago I used to do similar things.   I was working in 2003 as an English teacher during the weekdays out in a school called YUCAI in Jiading district  (the boonies).  Then on weekends I had a side job teaching adults.  The side job gave me more money than my real job.

 

Worker #1       We can arrange that here too.  You want to make some extra money?   We can easily get a training class going on the weekends with other staff workers who want to speak English.

 

Me: Thanks a lot, but these days I'm busy and don't have time for it.  Unlike in 2003, my teaching hours are long and it's really a full time job.  Plus I'm doing other things on the weekends so I wouldn't be interested in more jobs and work.

 

I then described the stuff I do and the workers interpreted it as recreation, fun, and enjoying life. 

 

Then a worker said,  "Yes, that's the difference between Chinese and Western culture.  You guys like to do fun activities on the weekends and rest, but here it's different."

 

I said, "True, I understand, but isn't the weekend supposed to be for having fun and resting?  You can still work from Monday to Friday."

 

One of the workers said, "That's what you guys do in the West, work Monday to Friday and rest on the weekend, but here in China, we work all days."    

 

And that was the end of the conversation.

 

Keep in mind I've had many Chinese friends in the past tell me that foreigners enjoy life and they don't because they face a 'heavy burden'.  This isn't news at all, but the full gravity of the situation really hit me today that even on the weekends where they COULD rest, they choose not to, as it would be lost opportunities to make money.

 

They must think I'm a lost cause because I've got enormous money-making potential  as a white guy who can speak Mandarin and teach high-level mathematics, among other things, but I'm squandering the opportunities to make a fortune since I'd rather take it easy on the weekends.   Fool of fools I am. 

 

And even if I did make all this potential money, I would then be criticized because I'm spending too much of the money and not saving up to buy a house and get married.   Note the order !!

 

Many times a taxi driver will ask how much money I make, I tell him, then he calculates the yearly income and also how long it would take to buy a house with what I'm making.   When he finds out that I haven't bought a house in Shanghai, he wonders why not, and asks where all the money is going.  I point out that a lot of the money gets spent on small comforts every day and it adds up.  Such as the taxi I happen to be riding in this very instant.    The irony of that moment is not lost on either one of us, and we laugh.    

 

Even so, I know for a fact where my money is really going.  In a word:  travel.     I've seen more of China than most local Chinese have, and they are the ones who tell me this when I put together an abridged list of all the cities I have been to.   Spending all that money on travel is something I have not regretted for an instant, and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

 

Doug's Sichuan / Tibet Bike Trip

As mentioned in the last post, a cyclist Doug Warner is doing perhaps the best long distance bicycle trip and blog I've seen yet.  He works in Suzhou which is close to here, and he somehow managed to get 3 months off.  Jealous!!!   With that time, he has managed an incredible trip, entitled "Rolling West Through China".  For the past 2 months or so he simply got on a bike and pedalled west.

 

He is now at the Sichuan / Tibet border.

 

How he managed to get so far in such a short time is a mystery to me.  He has taken plenty of days off and is enjoying the trip more than you'd think for something of that magnitude.  Part of his success is what I should be doing for the next trip:   bringing along a local.  This is the ingenious idea, that a local friend can eliminate nearly 90% of the hassles that would go along with China travel, and the hassles I have often complaind about in past blogs.  For example, Doug has always gotten the cheap local hotel digs, and has rarely paid more than 60RMB for a hotel room.  With one exception, the police have never harassed him or bothered him in hotel rooms.  He always manages to find internet cafes to update the blog, and of course, he gets the local perspective on all things China along the way.

 

Of course, it's not easy to FIND a local partner who would want to do such a cycling trip, and it would take a lot of work and planning to coordinate this with a Chinese person.  In my case, I often op for traveling along as it's just easier and requires less work.   However, the hassles on the road of traveling alone in China are a real bitch.  I have long suspected that cycling with a local friend is the way to make these work.  Such people do exist and it's a win/win situation for both Doug and Peter who are enjoyig the trip of a lifetime.

 

Due to time constraints, and the onset of winter, they had to change their plan and can't go all the way to Lhasa.   Instead they have reached the far western point of their trip in historical Tibet  (still in Sichuan province) and will then loop south towards Yunnan province and Kunming where it's warmer.

 

Even so, there are some incredible Himalayan passes they have gone across.  One of them he described as Narnia and it is just making me itch to go !!!!    This trip has also given me a ton of ideas, that if I can't actually make it into Tibet autonomous region, then the historical Tibet is a nice backup plan. 

 

Anyways, here's the blog.

 

 

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=1r4vFZo&doc_id=9392&v=me

 

Thinking About Holidays

If you were in my shoes for this month, then you would be too!  On the bright side, we've been enjoying really nice weather for this time of year ... very similar to last year, how November was like an "Indian summer" in Shanghai and it kept up right until December.  

 

But if you're stuck working, then the nice weather is more of an insult since you can't be outside much to enjoy it.  It's really too bad that the busiest times of the year happen to coincide with the brief periods of the nicest weather in the city which take place in October/November also in April/May.    Aside from that, Shanghai is too hot in the summer, or too cold in the winter.  In fact we're expecting the temperatures to plummet within a week, and it will stay cold until April once that happens.

 

On this note, the most important part of teaching is that we enjoy two major holiday breaks a year.  Summer and winter, baby!  Winter break is traditionally when teachers head off to SE Asia, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why.  This is the prime time of year where you CAN enjoy the beautiful dry season weather, and it is only a 4-5 hour flight away to the traditional locations of Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia.

 

This time I've got a plan for Thailand and Burma and it's outlined on the crazyguyonabike website.  Only 59 more days to go!

 

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=1r4vFZo&doc_id=9602&v=4x

 

Watch that space for more details on how the trip itself will pan out.

 

As it turns out, I'm also thinking about summer break.  One of the bike journals has captivated my attention on a daily basis, Mr Doug's rendition of "Rolling West Through China"  This is the best cycling journal I've seen.  His humorous writing style keeps me glued to his blog, even while the students are writing exams and I'm supposed to be supervising them.

 

When Doug flies back into Shanghai just before Christmas, then the beers are on me.

 

His trip is amazing in that he is cycling around the western part Sichuan province which is part of historical Tibet but not actually part of the automous region.  Some of the views and Himalayan mountain passes he has crossed are absoluely phenomenal.  And of course I've been thinking, "Damnit, I'm so jealous and I want to do this too."

 

It has long been a dram for me to pass through the Himalayas on a bicycle, and espcially to Tibet, but it hasn't happened yet.  The lack of time is what makes this so difficult, and I may very well have to spend the entire summer break doing this.  Usually I go home to Vancouver during summer, but there may be a way to do this some other time, or cancel altogether.   We'll see.  Meanwile, winter break trip planning will be the immediate focus, and that's going to involve Burma, to pick up the trip that got aborted last August.

 

Over the Major Crunch

Today's weather:  High = 19  Low = 17

Sunny

 

If I've got this figured out right, the worst crunch of the year is now over with.   This isn't to say it will be all smooth sailing until the January break, but the last 2-3 weeks of hell are getting over with.  Now it looks my teacher evaluation by the principal is done, the student midterms are finished, the 1st term report card marks are all finalized, the masters degree proofs written assignment is handed in (stayed up until 2am doing this after getting my marks done first), and the transport and apartment situations are finally solved, then I can't anticipate another crunch like this happening for a long time.

 

Fittingly enough, the leadership conference just had to happen ALSO on the past weekend!  At any rate, I don't regret attending, even if it pushed me back a day and caused a backlog.  Anyways, it's common knowledge for anyone living in Shanghai that things pile up and happen all at once, then it gets easier once the crunch is done. 

 

It's a lot like how rush hour works, when the city reaches a state of absolute gridlock from 5:30pm to 6:30pm daily.  Then once the peak has passed, the traffic clears up amazingly quickly so that after 7pm it is hardly crowded at all.  Of course, everyone has to head back at the same time, hence the gridlock.  The same can be said for how the entire city eats from 12pm to 1pm and then after that it is not crowded at the restaurants.

 

Basically you just learn to deal with it, brace out the crunch, and then life gets back to normal. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grabbing That Oxygen Mask

Today's weather:    High = 19  Low = 8

Severely polluted

 

Regretably, as mentioned in other posts, this is the worst time of the teaching year, hands down.   We're approaching the midpoint of the marathon stretch between the National Holiday and the Chinese New Year.  It also marks the point where we do midterm exams and prepare the marks for the 1^st term report cards which are due this Monday.   The official halfway point occurs next weekend.

 

To use the marathon analogy, this is the part where I'm about ready to collapse, though there is plenty more to go.   This week was a major round of preparing tests and now spending the entire weekend to get marks in order.  Not only that, but a colossal written assignment is due for my online masters program on Tuesday at noon, which I haven't even begun yet.  Somehow it will get done at the last minute.

 

To use another analogy, when ripple effects of chaotic waves accumulate in the air, they reach a 'crisis point' where they resonate with the airplane's frequency and cause the plane to undergo severe turbulence.   Sometimes the plane drops out of the sky and the oxygen masks come out.  That's how it has felt for me over the last two weeks.

Despite all this, I still took a Saturday out and went to the Global Leadership Summit which was happening in Pudong.  This is a major leadership event that takes place every year and it certainly was phenomenal and very practical.  I'll blog more about that in another post, as I'm still behind on several other posts for this month.

 

Going to the event felt like grabbing the oxygen mask in an impending plane crash.  The Leadership Summit was much needed inspirational relief.  I still have to ride out the worst of the turbulence, but it is clear that the plane is getting back on course.  In times like now, this is why I appreciate living in Shanghai so much.  The same kind of craziness, hectiness, and wanton busyness can also happen in other Chinese cities of course.  The culture here is famous for people acting like this, 7 days a week, as I mentioned in other posts.  

 

But here I've got a considerable network of contacts outside of my immediate work.  Most of them have jobs in the corporate world, which is mainly what the Leadership Summit was about.  At any rate I appreciate the wide range of contacts within the vast network of other expats in Shanghai who are doing something else besides teaching. 

 

On the other hand, it is very rare to find such an expat community in cities like Dalian and Wuhan where I used to live.  When faced with similar circumstances over there in past years, I am not sure how I managed to survive.   But clearly I will never go back to living in cities like that.   They say you can improve your Chinese, make Chinese friends and experience the "real China" in 2^nd tier cities such as the above.  Maybe you can do that if you teach ESL and work very few hours a week.  

 

But when you teach in BC offshore schools such as Maple Leaf and others located in the suburbs with enormous workloads, then the sad fact of the matter is that nobody has any time to learn Chinese, experience Chinese culture, or make Chinese friends,  let alone make friends with other expats. 

 

Instead what ends up happening is that teachers socialize and work together, and spend the bulk of the time with each other.  In Wuhan, this was the most extreme case, which nearly drove me to the brink.   There are even some instances of it happening here, but as mentioned above, the vast network of other expats makes it possible to get away from the school compound which, in general, may as well be a mental hospital.

 

One of the most difficult things I grapple with in China is how the culture works against people meeting new friends, mingling, socializing, networking, and so forth.  Due to the work unit mentality (literally:  mental hospital)  people spend the bulk of their time working, in closed networks, with the same people, living together, traveling together, staying in a small area, etc.  so there are few opportunities to meet new people.   People are also scared of meeting new friends due to understandable lack of trust of strangers.  The idea that a stranger is a "friend you haven't met yet" doesn't quite apply here.

 

I've expressed this quite openly with other Chinese friends and they usually come back with a quick little remark like "People have to work in life", with the implication being life suck, work sucks, we sit and suffer, and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it.   This kind of sad and nihilistic tone is all-too-common in modern China.  Yet when they talk like this, it's also a clear indication that the topic is sensitive and they don't want to elaborate.   

 

For these months in November and December, we spoiled and whiny teachers get to experience what Chinese people have to face their entire lives.   On average, they might get 10 holidays a year, including with the Spring Festival and other stat holidays.

 

Meanwhile, Shanghai is more progressive than most Chinese cities when it comes to this sort of thing.  It's  been a lot better year this time round.  At a time like this, I sure appreciate the chance to get out of the cabin fever and do some meeting and greeting.

 

Major Benefits to Current Location

It looks like the bicycle is on the way to paying for itself already. Saved nearly 100 RMB in cab fares alone after a party tonight. Admitedly, getting on the bicycle isn't my favorite thing to do on a cold night after a party for 30 minutes but this can be gotten used to.

The fact of the matter is that colleagues living in xuhui district downtown are paying through the nose for really small places. I was shocked to find a coworker paying more than me for a shoebox. Granted it was a very nice and well kept place but I couldn't have imagined it to be more than 40 square meters. As a point in comparison I've got 110 square meters and am paying less per month.

The downside of course is the commute but the bicycle has got it down to 30 minutes once again consistently. Another huge advantage is the police don't bother me that far out. I was both amazed and offended that the PSB showed up at my friend / coworker's party downtown tonight, thrust a Chinese badge in his face that said "resident permit inspection" and asked to see his passport. This all took place in Chinese and I deliberately stepped back at first to see what was going on, and my friend handled it very well. I would have stepped in to tell these guys off or at least argue but the situation was under control so no need. My anger was such that my friend / coworker spoke limited Chinese but these PSB folk neither acknowledged or thanked him for his effort. They just asked a bunch of questions like "Do you live alone here" and "Who are all these people with you" and "What's your cell phone"

Details were then entered into a book. I faced the same sort of intrusive bullshit last year when I also lived in downtown xuhui district. The PSB cops came at least 3 times a year to check details, etc.. Granted they're doing this because of recent escapades downtown with filipinos and indonesians who share 10 people to a small room and many have expired visas. Or the recent story of the Eastern European model who killed herself by jumping from a 20 story window, also in xuhui district, over low pay, job stress, illegal working conditions, and the fact she was on an expired visa.

Not surprisingly that particular district is on the police hotspot and they are checking regularly after all these mishaps. Even so they never check out in the suburbs now, they never checked when I lived in Sino Canada or Songjiang 3 years ago, and they never checked when I was in Wuhan 2 years ago.

It is bad enough that these pigs will often check on foreigners in hotels and disrupt privacy but when it takes place in long term rented and leased housing it is really offensive and I take it personally. Thankfully though there are huge pockets of both Shanghai and China where they don't check.

Subway Letdowns

This will be the last post about the subway for a long while, I promise. Having ridden this thing for nearly 10 years now I've seen it grow by leaps and bounds to become the world's largest subway network.

But I've also seen some major frustrations develop where the system is going down the tubes, literally, or it most certainly is not living up to its potential. This is what makes me so angry, that such a world-class potential subway system ends up fraught with trouble and obstacles, to the point where you are better off not using it in the first place.

The same could be said for a lot of new developments in China that are not living up to their potential. I call this the `cha bu duo` mentality where people don't strive for quality or excellence, only what is 'cha bu duo' which is just enough to get by. As a result, new quickly becomes old, and systems with huge potential end up going down the drain simply because people don't care enough

Back on the Bicycle

Today's weather: High = 17 Low=8
Sunny

Interesting day today it is 11/11/11 and the Chinese view this as marriage day. The reasoning is simple, they view this as pairs of 1s so that means two become one. Or is it one become two? Whatever, in response to that many have declared today singles day. Whether you're married or single the fact remains that next year will be last `triple` pair where the day, month, and year are all the same.

To that end, people are declaring 12/12/12 as the end of the world. But I don't think this a very fruitful exercise to predict days of the end of the world as nobody has gotten it right for those who have attempted thus far.

So when 12/12/12 comes to pass one thing for sure is that we'll need to wait 100 years for the next triple which is 01/01/01 in 2101.

Let's talk about something else. Transportation. The details of that last post about subway timings will be "outsourced" to my students as a math project as I've basically thrown in the towel on the Shanghai subway. Forget doing any experiments with time calculations for myself as I've just had extraordinary bad luck with the subway system ever since I gave up my motorcycle to the new rightful German owner two weeks ago.

It's hard to believe but for every single day I've walked into a subway station and watched as a train just left. Granted this can potentially happen 4 times a day as I have to transfer lines, and of course do the return trip home from work.

I've done the math on this and there's about a 40% chance that I miss the first or the 2nd train or both on the way to work or it happens on the way home. Given 10 subway rides (counting both the trip to work and the return trip in the last two weeks) then it can only be a shockingly low 4% chance of missing a train every single day. My atrocious luck showed that it happened.

The final straw was coming home on Friday and line #1 stalled one station before mine. The doors stayed open for 5 minutes and I then got out, hopped an illegal motorcycle taxi right in front of a policeman, and got a ride to the nearest place to buy a bicycle.

Plans to get a transitional scooter or motorbike have fallen through the roof and so a bicycle it is. Once I can recover enough finances next semester I will then upgrade to a Yamaha YBR250.

Until then it will have to be my own two legs

Are the Locals Nuts? Actually No!

Today's weather:  High = 16  Low = 11

Cloudy

 

Locals may seem crazy when they push and shove, and hurry and scurry to gain a minute on their subway commutes.  But a minute gained can translate into being one train ahead, maybe even two trains ahead of the game, relative to if they were taking their sweet time.

 

Even though I only moved house a kilometer down the road, my new position in reference to the subway station has really thrown a wrench in commute times.   The new location of my place has now added 5 minutes to the walking time to reach the subway, but this has resulted in a NON-LINEAR increase in the total commute time to get to/from work.     This non-linearity suggests why 30 minute commutes have now morphed into 40-minute and even 45-minute slogs.

 

Fortunately though, there is a solution.   Until I get another bike, I will just walk faster.  Specifically, I will cut the walking time by half the train interval time.

This is how my commute works, looking at it backwards

 

Commute stage  D:     Final subway station to work.    6 minute walk

Commute stage  C:     2^nd subway train.     5 minutes

Commute stage  B:     1^st subway train.     12 minutes

Commute stage A:     Walk to the first subway station.   12 minute walk

 

What determines how this commute will go is the 2nd subway train as it runs in longer intervals  (6-minutes).  The first train runs at shorter 3-minute intervals, but how quickly I can get on the first train then determines what will happen with the 2nd train.  Probability calculations bear this out and match up with common sense.  In other words, whether or not the whole commute will take longer than 40 minutes depends mainly on the 2^nd train's interval, but how quickly you can get on the FIRST train will give you the "edge" needed to  make the total commute time less.  

 

Let's say that "just getting on" the first train occurs at t = -4, 0, 4, 8, 12, 16, etc..

 

I'm including 4-minute intervals because of the 1-minute that the train is parked, the doors open, people push and shove their way on Shanghai style, and the doors close.

Similarly "just missing" occurs at t = -3, 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, etc.

 

Let's look at all the possible cases where I leave my house at a random time.  My evil twin leaves at my former house which takes 5 minutes less walking time to reach the subway.   We then subtract 5 from this random time 

 

Case 1:       I get there at time t = 1, miss the train.  So I catch t = 4 train.    My vil twin gets there at t = -4.  He gets on right away.  He is then two trains ahead of me, and is practically guaranteed 30-minute commute or less.  As for me,  it's practically a 40-minute commute or more.    25% chance of this happening.

 

Case 2:      I get there at t = 2, catch the t = 4 train.   Twin gets there at t = -3, catches t = 0 train.   He is then one train ahead of me.   25% chance of this happening

Case 3:      I get there at t = 3, catch the t = 4 train.    Twin gets there at t = -2.   Same result as above.

Case 4:     I get there at t = 4, just catch the train.   Twin gets there at t = -1.   Same result as above.

 

This repeats for every cycle

 

 

Now if I am 6 minutes behind the control, we have these multiples

Train Leaves:    0, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32

Me:       2, 3, 4, 5   (random)          Catch:     4, 4, 4, 8      

Twin:    -4, -3, -2, -1                          Catch:     -4, 0 ,0 ,0

Here it is a disaster because there are now TWO cases where I'm two trains behind, and it's a 50% chance of that happening.

 

On the plus side, suppose I am only 4 minutes behind the "control twin"

In this scenario, I will never face the situation of being two trains behind, as we will then arrive one multiple apart, so one train apart always.

 

But what if I am 2 minutes behind the control?

Train leaves:    0, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, etc.

Me:       3, 4, 5, 6    (random)         Catch:    4, 4, 8, 8

Twin:    1, 2, 3, 4                 Catch:   4, 4, 4, 4

Similarly, now there are two cases (50%) where I am one train behind, or we both get the same one

 

So in summary, this is what you should do:

1. Cut your walk time by HALF the train interval, to get a 50% chance you'll get a train earlier

2. Cut your walk time by a FULL train interval to guarantee you'll catch the earlier train

 

Hurrying and scurrying at a transfer station is only useful  (50% success)  if you can somehow reduce your transfer time by half the interval time of what you are trying to catch.    Seems pointless, but when the distances are long between stations, it is possible.  Locals will no doubt try.

 

A useful exercise is to pace out a normal walk between stations, without hurrying, or from your house to a station, etc. and also memorize the train intervals.    For the most part, the intervals for each line are constant, due to how the signaling system works for each specific line.  That is, the intervals depend on how many trains are running on a line, and not necessarily the time of day.

 

I'm actually going to try this out as an experiment to see if it agrees with the theory

Why the Subway is Crap

Yet ANOTHER story on Shanghai subway mishaps.  These stories happen in the news almost daily now.   Many other delays and obstacles happen on the subway that don't make the news, such as the routine situation around Friday afternoon rush hour where Line #4 suffers a passenger overload meltdown and trains are reduced to 30-minute intervals.  This may have something also to do with events happening at Shanghai Stadium around that time and they limit passenger flows by some trains not stopping.
 
Of course, they never TELL you any of this information, or why the trains are running slow, etc.    You just expect delays and frustrations at any time in China, build in the extra time, and deal with it.  Or in my case, stop taking the subway altogether and go back to the tried and true method to get around the city:   scooters and motorcycles.
 
On a more general note, this is just the age-old probem of service providers in China who don't care or show any kind of regret if there is a flaw, breakdown, or other kind of difficulty in customer service in general.  Every now and then, people lose it and snap when things don't go as planned, but most people just accept this as a reality.
 
 
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THE city's Metro Line 2 had to limit the number of passengers for about one hour this morning because its computer system slowed down and caused trains to run at slower speed.

The problem occurred around 8:07am and was solved 8:23am, but the delay of trains stranded many commuters in some large stations, such as People's Square Station and Jiangsu Road Station, local news website, Xinmin.cn, reported.

The platforms were filled with people who tried to squeeze into overcrowded trains, the report said.

Metro Line 2 operation returned to normal around 9:11am after the morning rush hour.
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Time for Another Bike

Today's weather:  High = 19 Low = 16

Rain

 

The nice thing is that my financial situation has somewhat returned to normal.  I was able to get a major lump sum back from the former apartment agency which reimbursed the former deposit and a month's rent.  I used that lump sum to quickly pay back all the friends who bailed me out last month, and am still making a profit from the school's housing allowance situation.  More on that in another post.

 

Meanwhile, the selling of the Yamaha YBR125 bike to a German guy has now left me bikeless, and life is rather inconvenient.  Regretably, my new place is now a 12-15 minute walk to the subway, which was a detail I overlooked since I actually had a *bike* when moving in the first place.

 

The old place was only a 7-8 minute walk from the subway.  May not seem like much, but I've been having super bad luck this past week where I consistently MISS trains just as I walk up to the platform.  This delays another 4-5 minutes, and of course, interchanging trains I have the same bad luck which puts me further and further behind.

 

So to make a long story short, a 20-minute bike commute has now morphed into a 45-minute subway commute, and I ain't liking it.   It's time for another bike.

 

The financial situation is still rather tight as I'm recovering from October, so a brand new bike upgrade won't happen until well into next year.  But a cheap transitional scooter is certainly on the cards, and I'm making a trip this week out to Sino Canada and picking up a cheap bike from a teacher who is selling a whole score of bikes.  That school is where I used to teach 3 years ago.  It's way out in the boonies, but close enough to nip over there on a bus and then scoot back home across the provincial border.

 

I'm basically throwing the towel on the Shanghai subway at this point, as truth be told, the system is crap.  Despite having 11+ lines of operation, the whole system is riddled with flaws and delays.  They are purposely running the trains slower out of fear of more accidents.  On top of that, they have extra security precautions at all stations now, the interchanging is not convenient, and they no longer give discounts if you have a prepaid card.  Of course, most of the time there are long walks to the station, and it's just not worth all the delays, frustrations, and hassles.

 

So once again, the scooter and motorbike trumps all other transport, and I'll soon be back on the horse.