Adjusting to Shanghai was the harshest learning curve of my life. In my first week out of orientation, I quickly began to realize that without the immediate guidance of one of the locals, I was leagues away from being able to function. For that reason most people around you will try to give you a lot of quick tips for how to live in a foreign country. Some are very helpful, some work better for different types of people, and some don’t work at all. One tip that I was given that I wish I hadn’t been told was to strap my backpack to the front of my body when walking through crowded metro stations. The person who gave me this piece of advice meant well, probably trying to keep me out of the reach of pickpocketers, however she did not account for my complete inability to be aware of where my feet are located spatially to the rest of my surroundings. Some people don’t have hand-eye coordination; I don’t have feet-eye coordination. This is important because what with my laptop, every charger cable I’ve ever owned, and several notebooks packed away, I couldn’t look past my full book bag to see where my feet were. This wasn’t a problem until the overpopulated metro car I was in reached my stop; unfortunately, it was about half of the other metro-goers’ stop as well. Some ungodly behavior happens on public transport during rush hour in Shanghai. The doors opened. People began pushing and shoving. It was unlike anything that I had ever experience. My main goal was just to get out of the way as quickly as possible. I walked forward through the crowd with my backpack strapped to my front where I could keep an eye on it. Regrettably, there was something else that I should have been keeping an eye on: the gap between the metro car and the platform. I stepped forward expecting ground beneath my feet, but there was none. My right leg plummeted into the abyss that was a four inch wide gap, only being stopped by my knee which became fairly bruised and scraped from being wedge between the two walls. Audible gasps were heard through the metro car. One kind lady helped me up and made sure I was okay, which was very nice of her, as everyone else treated me like a spectacle. All in all, it was a learning experience. From then on, my backpack stayed on my back.
Sincerely,
The clumsiest girl on Line 3