Polar Opposites

If my sister and I wanted to make my parents nervous for an entire summer, we couldn’t have succeeded better if we tried. This summer, both my sister and I are away from home for almost the entire summer. Not only are we away from home, we are in countries that present their own set of challenges that make it difficult for our parents to lend a hand or even be aware of what’s going on.

Shanghai

Kumasi


The commonalities all end there. This summer, I’m in Ghana and my sister is in Shanghai (follow her blog here). Ghana is a developing country in Africa and Shanghai…is hyper-developed a good way to describe it? Here is a table of parallels:

	Eva	Jo
Country	Ghana	China
Work	Clinical Quality and Management Research in Ob/Gyn	Architecture Internship
National Language	English	Mandarin
Local Dialects	Twi	Shanghainese
Fluent in National Language	Yes	No
Fluent in Local Dialects	No	Maybe...
Number of Skyscrapers	0	Innumerable
Local Food Favorites	Fufu, Banku	Xiao Long Bao, Sheng Jian Bao
Ease of Blending in with Locals	Impossible	Impossible not to
Family Nearby	No	Yes
Team Represented in World Cup	Yes	No, but Chinese Ads all over stadiums
Reliable Electricity	No	Yes
Reliable Water	No	No
Most Common Form of Public Transportation	Tro-Tro, Taxi	Bus, Subway, Taxi
Common Ways Locals Use to Call Out Foreigners	"Obroni"	Staring, Calling you Crazy (Sheng Jing Bing)
Treatment by Locals	Everyone wants your name and number to be your friend; targeted to buy local crafts and no one believes I am a very poor medical student in serious debt	If they figure out that you are a foreigner, all prices for things will be overinflated
Weather	Hot, Rainy Season	Sweltering Hot, Monsoon Season
Concern about Mosquitoes	High	High but no Malaria
International Event Congesting City	None	World Expo
Ease of Finding American Food	Moderately difficult	Very Easy
Night Life Options	Handful of clubs for dancing, drinking, playing pool (Vienna City Club, Genesiz, Café Masarati)	Unknown (personally), but I’m sure Shanghai is full of at the very least bars, especially around the Nanjing Lu and Xintiandi area
Most Common Items Sold on the Street	Loaves of bread, cassava, phone cards, second hand clothing and shoes	Fruit (changes with the season), trinkets, knockoff items
Pollution	Very Bad	Very Bad

Though, even in Ghana, everything seems to be made in China. So, perhaps our summers are more similar than we think!

If you had a choice between Ghana and Shanghai, where would you spend your summer?