The Art of the Elbow (or how to survive a line in China)

One thing I've learned in the brief time I've lived here in China is that people rarely line up neatly. Rather, everyone pushes their way to the front of the line and if you want to make it through, you need to learn to shove. Here is where all the skills I learned playing rugby come in handy. Push, shove, elbow, straight arm, push, elbow, shove, straight arm, elbow.

Yesterday Eric and I stuffed ourselves into a metro car with what seemed to be a quarter of the city's population. We were packed so tightly, you could not slip a single sheet of paper between the people. There was no real need to hold onto anything as the car lurched forward since you literally could not possibly move anywhere. Thank goodness that all I had in my backpack was a soft coat and not anything fragile, like a priceless Ming vase; it surely would have been crushed into oblivion. We only had to ride for 2 stops and then had to struggle out the door since we were the only ones getting out at that stop. You could almost hear an audible 'POP!' as we freed ourselves.

On Saturday afternoon, we met with a friend from Eric's office to go up the Pearl Tower. There is an observation deck up there that affords a wonderful bird's eye view of the city. In the base of the tower is the Shanghai Municipal History Museum. The museum shows traditional life in the city and the history of the foreign concessions in Shanghai. I recommend that anyone visiting Shanghai should do this. It is really quite fascinating.

The entrance to the tower was decorated with red lanterns. A uniformed band was playing 'Auld Lang Syne.' The crowd was fairly light. Penny told us that on holidays, you can wait in line for an hour in order to take an elevator up.


It was really cool to see the city of Shanghai from this perspective. In the foreground is the Bund. From this height, cars and people were tiny. You could see sparks from new construction as workers welded.



Digital cameras are ideal for a person like me. I tend to take tons of pictures, often of the same thing. If you look at the picture files on the computer here, you'll see hundreds of the pictures of the cat, a dozen or so pictures of some eggs, scores of pictures of grass and so on. I don't profile all the pictures I take here, but most of them end up on my Flickr page. Check them out. The link is at the right: S Flickr page. I need to really sit down and organize my Flickr. I should probably start by taking a break from uploading more pictures.

On Sunday, we visited the Yu Garden Bazaar. Yu Garden is a garden (duh) with teahouse set in it. It is known for the zigzag bridge leading to the teahouse. Around Yu Garden is a bazaar. The bazaar is 4 floors of stalls selling anything you can imagine: socks, cell phones, calculators, underwear, jewelry, kitchen sponges. Shanghai people think of it as a tourist trap and it is. But it still fun to walk around there.


Later this week, we'll likely go clothes shopping. We don't have enough warm clothing. Though the air shipment delivery has been estimated at 15-20 days and the ocean at 6-8 weeks, we had not really considered when the countdown would begin. In our defense, no one really told us. Right now, we are waiting on our residency paperwork. Once that goes through, then the shipments will get sent and then, finally, we can start the countdown. I believe that both shipments are currently being held in Atlanta waiting for the go-ahead from the Chinese government. One other thing we need to consider is the length of our visa permits. I have a 60-day visa and Eric has a 30-day visa. If our paperwork gets delayed past the beginning of April, Eric will need to leave the country for a few days and come back in order to reset the clock on his visa. Fortunately, he has a multi-entry visa, which means he can exit and re-enter the country however many times until the visa expires. Here's to hoping the paperwork goes through quickly.