In August of this year, Shaler native Eric Carlson, 29, graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design with a bachelor of fine arts in furniture design, an interest in painting -- and "a huge mountain of debt," he reports. Weighing his career options in America, he decided to strike out for the promised land: China. Over the next two years, he intends to learn Mandarin Chinese and gain inside experience in the furniture industry. But first he must -- like American expats the world over -- teach English. Eric has been sending weekly e-mail dispatches to his family and friends. We offer a selection here, charting the ups and downs, and sights and smells, of a young American's new life in booming Shanghai.

Eric can be reached at EricCCarlson@msn.com

10/28
Well, I made it! The plane ride was not as much fun as I had hoped it would be. I watched about six movies, none of them very good. All in all, my travel time was just over 28 hours.

The strongest first impression here would have to be the smell. Each part of the city has a different smell; there is fish, fried food, sulfur, exhaust and something like tortillas cooking but the one smell that seems to be constant is burning paper. The minute you walk outside it coats you like greasy steam. There is so much smoke and pollution that the whole place looks fogged in. People wear surgical masks riding bikes.

Went to the apartment. [Eric is staying with a college friend, Luke Homitsky, a Cranberry native and artist who moved to Shanghai last year.] I got showered, we got some dinner at a little place down the street and went to a bar just around the corner. The bars here are a little different, but I had a good time being entertained. The bargirls all seem to know English, go figure.

10/29
I feel like I got a lot done today. We visited a school and it looks pretty nice. Luke and I went shopping at Carrefour (like a Wal-Mart). The place was an absolute zoo. I got a phone and a bunch of other stuff that I didn't pack. I think I have the money thing somewhat under control.

I ventured out tonight on my own to try to find a wireless Internet coffee shop, but I am unsuccessful so far. Not knowing the language is bad, making it very difficult for anything but buying things so far. Will be doing lots of gesturing for a while, I guess.

Traffic is loud because people LOVE their horns. I'm glad to not be driving here; it's majorly disorganized. Our cab driver almost killed us on the way to the market, so I'm not sure I'm that much better off.

10/30
My Chinese is up to around 6 (very important) words, and I think I can say where I live. Tonight we are having dinner at a place that serves Western food; supposedly the WiFi there is smoking fast. We'll see about that.

10/31
Woke up again at a quarter to six this morning ready to go. Broke out the maps and started trying to get oriented. Read a language book for a while, then headed out for a spot of lunch and to try to find my way back to The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.

Got back to home and met the housekeeper. Nice lady, she did the laundry, ironed seven dress shirts, did all the dishes, cleaned bathrooms and kitchen, swept, dusted and mopped. Eight dollars a visit well spent.

11/2
OK, so my run of waking up at 6 a.m. came to an end. Woke up at 11 with a killer headache and the remains of some crazy dreams. Word from the school is that everything is looking good, and that I should be getting a call soon. Felt feverish all day and went to bed at 9:45.

11/3
Back up at 6, feeling fine. Went to meet HR at the school for my "interview." Quite the experience. I feel like I have been on some tough interviews, but this takes the cake. HR looked right through me. No teaching degree is what seemed to be most important to him. He offered me less money that I was quoted before, and all of the excitement and relief that the other staff was expressing was gone.

Think I'll head home and change and walk to the zoo. It's less than a block away. It'll be good to see how the panda bears are living.

11/4
Luke and I went to the "mall" for some necessities in the afternoon. We bought rollerblades. Idea is to save on the $1.50 cab rides as I'm too scared to ride a bike here. It was pretty much smooth sailing, and as it turns out, Chinese people are very interested in watching two husky ex-hockey players with shaved heads weave in and out of traffic, bicycles and pedestrians.

I finally figured out the traffic thing. It's all related to mass. People yield to bikes; bikes yield to scooters, scooters to cars and so on up the food chain. Buses don't yield. Bus drivers here are the most feared men in the city. If you want to switch lanes and there is someone there already, you just do a fake like you are going to ram the person beside you.

11/7
All of the aluminum drink cans here have the old style pull-off tabs, even my favorite drink, Coke Light. One thing that is hard about Chinese is that they have a Chinese word for everything. There are no "Westernisms." If you ask for a Coke, even though it is everywhere, they don't understand.

11/9
The 60's Bar (our local spot across the street) got a pool table. It's a snooker table though, smaller pockets and skinny cues. Play on this for a while and I'll get good.

11/10
Found out what all the smoke is: There is some kind of incinerator in town; it gets so smoky that you can't see one block. Believe me, it smells terrific.

11/11
The international-school teachers are an interesting bunch. They seem to all just travel from country to country teaching somewhere for a few years at a time, then moving on. They all have strong opinions about the world and the States, but there is definitely something off about them. This is especially true of the ones that do not speak the language. The expats are the only people that they communicate with. It's like they don't really even want to be here. I hope to not be that way anytime soon. I'm shooting for full assimilation ... even considering having my eyes "fixed."

11/12
Went to Bubba's Texas Barbecue for dinner and got a good look at the way Americans act en masse. Went home and took a hot, hot shower.

11/14
Luke and I took a trip to the art district today and looked in many, many studios. We also had a chance to hang out with some artists that Luke knew from various shows. I was introduced several times, and did a lot of smiling and nodding. Of particular interest to them was my mustache.

11/16
It rained all day today, hopefully washing away all of the filth. This city is the dirtiest place I have ever been in. I have never owned my own umbrella; now that I don't have a car I understand the importance.

11/17
So, I applied to a Korean tutoring place and got this e-mail back: "HI Eric, thank you for your resume. but it seems that you don' have too much experence for english tutor, rite?"

It was all I could do not to unleash a barrage of grammatically correct English upon the sender.

11/19
We went to the shopping place where the bargains are to be had. Had my first experience with the price negotiating process. I bought a Hermes wallet for 20 dollars, down from 40. Luke bought a Cartier watch for about 25 dollars, and it's real. Really a watch, anyway.

11/20
Walked down to the grocery store in the evening and did some shopping by picture. If the picture on the carton looks OK, then I buy it. So far, nothing has been all that bad. One thing that I am noticing is that there is no cheese anywhere. Luke says that it can be had at the foreign markets only. Imagine a life without cheese.

Tomorrow will be spent job finding.

11/23
Thanksgiving here is not what it is other places. At Blue Frog [an English-friendly restaurant/bar], they are serving a Western-style Thanksgiving dinner, so in the evening, Luke and I and this Canadian dude Wilf went back to eat. I ate a third of my plate then felt sick. I don't think it was the canned turkey, but whatever it was, I was sicker than I have been for probably 10 years. I was throwing up, and had a fever until 4 the next day. I guess the lesson here is when in China ...

11/26
Some Cultural Do's and Don'ts:

DO take off your shoes whenever you enter anyone's house or apartment.

DON'T bow, only Japanese do that.

DO smoke as much as possible wherever you are, but always offer smokes to all of the men around.

DON'T use a toothpick at the table unless you cover your mouth with your other hand.

DON'T leave your chopsticks stuck in your bowl, instead, rest them across the top. When someone dies, they set a place for them and put the chops like that for the spirit.

DO stand up to take someone's business card, use both hands to accept it, examine both sides carefully and make like it's a $100 bill.

DO be careful of bar girls who know English very well.

11/28
Went to my first teaching interview today at BSK, a language school. I had to take a cab, then the subway, and finally the bus. In all it took me like two hours to get there. I was quite the entertainment on both the subway and the bus, which is fine.

For my interview, I conducted a mock class and pretended to teach ESL to a 30-year-old woman. She made me sing the ABC song though, which is not something I practiced, and I was asked to draw farm animals on the board and I could improve there too. It went well.

I also have a plan for a new body of paintings, and I think I have run down a good source of materials. As soon as I get that together, I'm ready to start working. I'm excited to get into it.

11/29
Today I went and observed four classes at a public school in the Puxie district of Shanghai. I met my chaperone at the BSK office and then we went together.

I got to the office, we had some talk about the job and I was given a contract to sign. I held off and took it with me so I can read it more carefully. They arranged to get me a complete physical (standard for all teachers everywhere) tomorrow. They also had a problem with my living situation. Since I am staying with Luke for the time being, I am not registered with the local security office, which I am told is a hefty fine.

So, the school was pretty nice, although there is no heat in any of the schools in Shanghai, and they keep all of the windows open. I bet it was less than 50 degrees today. Everyone just wears his or her coat. The students that I observed today were rowdy second- and third-graders. I was surprised how much English they knew. Some classes were pretty quiet and some had students wrestling on the floor.

12/1
So, I have decided to take the job and move downtown. I'll have to give up the free place to stay and having Luke to bail me out of trouble. I think having my own apartment will have some advantages too though; at least I'll be able to get Internet access. I hope I will be able to just register with the police once I move in.

I walked to Bubba's Texas BBQ for an overpriced but meaty dinner. Ate until I was ready to burst, and it felt good to be full of pork and beans and potato salad. On the way home I stopped and tried to buy three oranges from my fruit lady, but she wouldn't take my money. I took the oranges to the employees of the 60's Bar as a gift

12/5
My new apartment is near the subway line, and near my schools. In China, it is customary to give the landlord three month's rent plus one month's rent as a deposit in advance, so the price for me to move in will be 8,000 RMB, or just over 1,000 USD. It is very small, however -- when they say one bedroom, what they really mean is one room. If anyone visits, we're going to get familiar quickly.

I taught my first class today. I had no class list with names, and the students had no books or papers. There's a teacher's assistant, though. And the students -- they are all so cute, and very enthusiastic to learn and eager to please. I run over the rules of class, no talking and all that jazz and they understand perfectly. I divide the class into two teams and keep track on the board. Answer a question correctly and the team gets a point. Make noise when they shouldn't and the team loses a point. This is surprisingly effective.

Here's what I covered: Today is Tuesday -- tomorrow will be... Yesterday was... Read a story about a hungry pig and asked comprehension, number and color questions. Next week we will go on to Happy Birthday.

Overall, it was fun, like being the host of a game show. I finally have a purpose for being here.

12/6
I am starting to see how ridiculous we Westerners are with our trucks and SUVs. I saw a man today transporting a full-size refrigerator on a bicycle. He probably could have handled two. Made me feel like a punk.

12/7
Today was my longest day teaching so far. I met Jennifer at the subway stop and she showed me where my second school is. There is a huge difference between the schools. My first school is very good, and hard to get enrolled in. My second school is for the rest of them. The children do not behave as well, and are dirtier. The biggest difference is the teeth. Many of the kids at this school have black teeth, but they are still charming.

The kids still follow me around everywhere, and in the bathroom a crowd of about six were asking me if I had super powers. As in, could I fly? I said of course I can fly. The moustache is really amazing to them.

I have tomorrow off, but then Saturday is going to be a killer ... eight classes of third-graders at the crummy school. At least I have all day to prepare.

Came home and slept hard.

-- John Allison ( thenextpage@post-gazette.com 412-263-1915 )