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After a crappy day, it was wonderful to find you've received a package from America. With sponges inside! I had a hard time finding decent sponges here. They were poor quality. It is odd the sorts of things you crave when you can't have them. My beloved mother-in-law include a couple of sponges in the last Fedex she sent. We also got pictures of our new nephew, Wesley. Believe me, he's adorable. Better looking than sponges from America.
Other things I want besides sponges is Mexican food. I like Mexican food but it has never been my favorite cuisine. Now that I'm here, I so want a burrito and guacamole. Some women here have margarita nights so I might join them and see if there is decent food to go with those margaritas.
Another new thing I love (besides my sponges -- I might never unwrap them) is green tea. I bought a small baggie at Carrefour and I'm really enjoying it. Most of the green tea I've had has been pretty bitter and grassy. This stuff is much more subtle. It may be that I just like watching the leaves unfold in my cup.
Before and After. I didn't realize how much the leaves expand and dumped a lot of tea in my cup the first time.
Last night Mugsy and I stayed up late watching movies. Okay, just me since Mugsy was sound asleep under the covers. Today it is raining. In the dream I had last night, I was going to make chili for a friend. That sounds like an excellent idea for a rainy day. I'm going to scrounge around and see if I can't find all the ingredients.
Usually, I can't read my blog on its front page nor can I read any other blogs hosted on the same site. Sometimes though, I'll try to open it anyway. And sometimes, it actually comes through. It's such a pleasant surprise. When the window cracks open, I oftentimes rush to read my favorite blogs before it slams back shut.
This past weekend and extending to today, I've been having what I refer to as "China Days". Days when I get so utterly frustrated living in China and having to deal with everything that entails. And I've only been here a month!
Shanghai has a population of about 20 million people. I think all 20 million of those people decided to follow and congregate around me all weekend. Xu Jia Hui, the part of Shanghai where we live, is one of the city's biggest shopping districts. The malls here are packed on weekends. Usually I can take this in stride, but this past weekend, it was driving me absolutely nuts. People pushing and shoving and elbowing their way in front of you for the cashier, the elevator, the escalator, the metro, taxis. People casually lighting up cigarettes anywhere and everywhere. People hawking up phlegm. Shopping for a 12RMB (1.50 USD) item and having to walk halfway across the mall floor to find a cashier (why can't each shop have their own cashier?). Fighting for space on the sidewalks with mopeds, bicycles, and cars. Dodging cars, buses, mopeds, trucks, bicycles and everything else with wheels when trying to cross the street. It's all been driving me crazy.
Today, I was going to meet with a bunch of other American women to tour a silk factory. The map made it look really straightforward. You take metro line 4, get off, walk along the street for a bit, then make a right turn, walk a bit, and make another right turn and you should be there. Not so easy. I got to the part where you get off the metro and walk along the street, but this metro station, unlike the others I had been to, has no English on its maps. You kind of have to guess what is where. After walking up and down that street for about an hour and a half, I gave up on finding the street I needed and simply got back on the metro. Even looking at the map, I still am not clear how I missed the street.
This evening, Eric is off on a business trip. I don't know when he'll be back and neither does he. He is scheduled to go to Taiwan. Today he just found out that he may also need to go to Dubai. We don't know yet. Two couriers stopped by, one about 3 hours before his flight left with his ticket to Taiwan, the other about an hour later with his passport. I don't think I need to say that we are both starting to lose our minds.
As if things couldn't get crazier, our household shipments are not coming this week as we had thought. The shipping company had not made the government deadline with the proper documents. Which isn't surprising since we keep getting different information about what documents are needed and then when we think we have submitted everything, they ask for something else. This has been going on for the past week and a half. Just today, we were asked for a letter confirming that we had an employment offer here. Then 3 hours later, we got the message that it was too late and we needed to try again later when Eric (and his passport) are back. I wonder if the officials here are just making stuff up as they go along. I better find my 4th grade school report on the planet Neptune in case they want that, too.
So, I don't think I need to say that I'm tired. Although it's only 6p, I'm feeling ready for bed. A better plan would be to go to the gym and then go to bed. I think I'll try for that one.
This is what happens:
He snapped a nice picture of himself with the phone's camera and left it as the phone's background image. I think everyone should have the opportunity to have Eric's mug on their mobile phones.
Last night, we were invited to Penny's for dinner. Penny is one of Eric's coworkers. She is a Chinese woman who in addition to speaking Mandarin and Shanghainese (the local Shanghai dialect) is also fluent in English. A coworker from the U.S. had been in Shanghai for a business trip last year and he had been invited to Penny's for dinner. She had made a microwave steamed fish that he raved about. Penny lives in Hong Qiao in an apartment she purchased a couple of years ago. Her place is warm and inviting. She has blond wood floors and blond wood furniture, which gives the place a spacious and airy feel. Here Penny is wearing her apron and preparing the dinner. The entire meal was prepared in about 30 minutes, including the rice. She prepared several dishes, including cooked greens (something similar to baby bok choy), chopped cucumber salad, scrambled eggs with tomato and scallion, barbecued chicken, and of course, steamed fish. The ingredients were simple: soy sauce, vinegar, salt, oil. She did most of the cooking in a wok or in the microwave.
It's amazing that such simple ingredients could produce such delicious results. Partly too, food prepared by other hands seems to always taste better. Haochi (delicious)! I feel inspired to try my hand at cooking fish. Penny has a market near her place where she buys fresh fish. The grocery near us has tanks of fish, too. I'll have to get my nerve up and my dictionary ready. Once when we were at Carrefour, we saw an especially lively fish jump out of the tank and flop on the floor.
I went to the April meet and greet for the American Women's Club of Shanghai (AWCS). Pretty self-explanatory, but it is a group for and by American expat women. According to one woman, there are about 500 members in Shanghai. It is rare to see all 500 members at any single event. The newcomers are put into Huan Ying groups (huan ying is mandarin for 'welcome'), which are sort of peer cohorts of women who arrive in Shanghai around the same time. These groups arrange to meet 3-4 times during the following month and is a way for people to figure out Shanghai. You have a group to commiserate with when things seem overwhelming and people who can help you learn how to cope in China. I'm looking forward to meeting more with these women.
The meeting place for the AWCS was at a place in the French concession area of Shanghai. Briefly, in the 1800's, the British established a settlement in Shanghai after the Opium War. The French, Americans, and Japanese each established their own concession areas. In the concession areas, the law of the occupying country took precedence over Chinese law. Foreign occupation of Shanghai endured until the early 1900's (1930's? 1940's?). Discussing Shanghai history in the depth it deserves is a topic for another day and another blog entry.
Anyway, this was the former French concession area. The French concession was, and still is, known for its beautiful tree-lined avenues. I had taken the metro to Changsu Road and walked down Huaihai Road and then turned down Xiangyang Road. Along Xiangyang Road, as with many smaller side streets, are stalls selling a variety of goods and services. Restaurants, bicycle repair, fruits, vegetables, shoes, shirts. I saw a stall with styrofoam boxes filled with water and panting fish next to a woman selling shrimp on a tray. On one street corner, someone was getting fresh chicken for dinner. It appeared that there were live chickens in a metal cages attached to a bicycle. (Living in Shanghai, you learn quickly that you can buy nearly anything from the back of a bicycle -- plants, fruit, shoes, chickens.)
You would pick out your favorite chicken and the woman would butcher it for you on the spot. The pictures I managed to take are a bit rushed since I snapped them as I was crossing the street. You don't want to lose concentration when you're crossing the street as you an be easily taken out by an impatient and / or distracted moped. I don't know what that feels like nor do I want to learn. I've had enough close encounters with illegally turning buses and taxis and kamikaze bicyclists.
Further on the street, I saw a man calming riding his bicycle while reading. Maybe they're directions. I don't know. I suppose that it probably isn't as worrisome as it seems since most people on the road don't seem to be paying
close attention to the road. Many are talking on their mobile phones. It doesn't matter how hyper vigilant you are, someone else will be distracted. Some things are true the world over.
Tonight I'm going to cook chicken (packaged from Carrefour -- not fresh from the street). Tomorrow, or the next day, I'm going to try my hand at buying a live fish. I'm going to find the proper phrases for 'No, I don't want to carry it home in a bucket' and 'Please clean this fish'. I hope it isn't still blinking when I'm eating it, like the fish Kevin ate in Japan. Right now, I am off to Watsons Pharmacy to buy hand sanitizer. I thought I'd share that bit of excitement with all of you.
Smile Kevin! (Happy Belated Birthday!)
Shanghai counts its blue sky days, days where the air and sky is clear enough to see blue. It's one way they measure the success of their anti-pollution campaign. I don't know how many blue sky days Shanghai has had up until now, but this weekend was all blue sky. We had an enjoyable weekend. On Saturday, we went wall-climbing with our friend Penny. We love Penny because she is so laid-back and easy-going. Very little fazes her and she's game for just about anything. We invited her to go climbing with us and she agreed to join us though she's never done it before. It's been nearly 10 years since Eric and I last went climbing, so we had to relearn how to do it all over again. Eric found a climbing gym at Shanghai Stadium, which is only 1 metro stop away from us. Easy peasy.
Penny came dressed on khaki slacks and a short-sleeve blouse with low heels, which didn't deter her from joining in. The shoes didn't matter since we all rented climbing shoes.
We all tried climbing the same wall 3 times. Eric made it to the top all 3 times and Penny and I made it about half way. Eric then attempted a more advanced wall that was taller with smaller handholds and made it about a third of the way up. There's Penny on the left. Can you tell who has the camera most of the time? Eric and I plan to return to the gym and climb again, even if Penny can't join us.
On Friday, I took the metro to Zhongshan Park. I like to visit Carrefour at least once a week to replenish our kitchen and other household supplies. During the week, I shop at whatever fruit stands I come upon to buy more fruit and vegetables as I need them or I go to the market downstairs to get a few items. I'm trying to see if how many places I can get to via the metro. Supposedly there's a Carrefour by Zhongshan Park since that is an expat haven. I didn't find the Carrefour then, but I did find a wet market and watched dancers at the park.
A wet market is what people here call a street market where you can buy meat. These places usually sell produce as well. Some of these wet markets have live chickens that they will butcher on the spot for you. I have yet to find a live chicken place. This place I found had tables of seafood, poultry, pork, and beef. I walked around it and simply decided to buy baking potatoes and sweet potatoes. Food bought at street markets is cheaper than at places like Carrefour, though you can't be as sure of the cleanliness of the place. If I'm not planning on peeling the food, I give it a quick soak in a bleach solution. As for meat, I am not yet comfortable with buying meat from a wet market. On a slightly related note, I did find dried beans at an expat-oriented grocery store.
I knew Carrefour was not far from the metro stop, but I had neglected to write down anything specific, like an address or a cross street (what's new). I ended up wandering around until I got lost (again, what's new). I then asked a traffic officer where Zhongshan Park was. Zhongshan Park is sizable and an easily recognized landmark and it's right by the metro station. I know just enough Chinese to ask where someplace is. My pronunciation must be suspect because the officer asked me to write out where I wanted to go. The only written Chinese I am capable of are the number '1', '2', and '3'. I'll teach you right now. Grab a pen or a pencil and a sheet of paper. Go ahead; I can wait. Now, make a short horizontal line: 
Beautiful. You're a fast learner. O.K. Looks like you have the technique down. Here's how you make number '3'. Make 3 horizontal lines, again, one on top of the other.
Then, I spent about 5 minutes being schooled by the traffic officer on the proper way to say 'park'.
me: "Zhongshan Gongyuan zai nar?" (Where is Zhongshan park?)
traffic officer (TO): "Gong yuan"
me: "Gong yuan"
TO: "Gong yuan"
me: "Gong yuan"
TO: "Gong yuan"
Repeat a few more times. He did point me in the right direction and even followed me across the street to make sure I knew.
While at the park, I decided to walk through and see what there was to see before boarding the metro back home. All over Shanghai, and especially in the parks, you see people participating in all sorts of activities. Tai chi with a group or solo, people walking alternately forwards and backwards, and on that day in Zhongshan Park, dancing. There was music playing over the P.A. system. The park even has these coat tree poles. There was
a crowd gathered there to watch the people dancing. I took a short movie. People were dancing in pairs and a few were dancing solo. I don't mind getting lost. I don't have any appointments to keep and there's always something interesting you find that make getting lost something to look forward to. I never did find that Carrefour. I'll have to go back again and look. With the address this time.
This past weekend, Eric had a trade show he needed to attend in Beijing. I decided to tag along. Once one of the women at Eric's office learned that I planned to visit Beijing, she kindly organized a driver for us and a brief sightseeing tour. (Thank-you Wu Jin!)
We left Shanghai Thursday morning and landed early afternoon in Beijing. Beijing is about 900 miles north of Shanghai. We had a driver pick us up from the airport and bring us to our hotel. The driver then took us to the Forbidden City. He dropped us off and (we thought) agreed to pick us up there when we called him. Unfortunately, the Palace Museum ticket booth was closed (they have summer hours and winter hours -- we are still on winter hours) and we weren't able to go inside the Forbidden City. We instead walked down to Tian'Anmen Square. We walked a circuit around the square. We couldn't see Mao's tomb as it was closed
for renovations. When we returned to the drop-off point, we called our driver, who, for some unknown reason, couldn't or wouldn't return to pick us up. Between the two of us, we remembered enough landmarks to walk back to the hotel. The walk was short and enjoyable.
When I was a child, I would drop pebbles into a pond and watch the water radiating outward in a series of concentric circles. Beijing is organized like that, with the Forbidden City the pebble at the heart of the city. There are now (I think) 7 ring roads extending out from the Forbidden City. Our hotel is located within the inner ring and is quite close to the Forbidden City. Walking back to the hotel was actually a blessing as it helped me orient myself on the streets for the walks I was planning on taking the next day.
Friday, Eric needed to work, so I spent the day wandering Beijing. I walked to back to the Forbidden City, planning on visiting the Palace Museum. I took a circuitous way there, though not on purpose. I saw a beautiful Catholic church I would have otherwise missed.
Once at the Palace Museum, I could understand why their ticket office closed so early. The place is enormous and you could easily spend a good 2-3 hours wandering the place. I took a ton of pictures, too many to post here, but I put them on my Flickr. Not surprisingly, the place was full of tourists. There were parts of the Forbidden City that were under renovation, also not surprising, since Beijing is getting ready for the 2008 Olympics. Despite that, I really enjoyed walking around. There wasn't a map available (aside from the one you could buy in the gift shop) so I got lost a bit. Nothing unusual there for me. As I was wandering through, I thought about all the people who built the place, the artisans who painted the roof arches, the craftsmen who carved the rail posts, and the people who lived there. All
around Beijing you see similar curved and painted rooflines. Even the toll booth roof has it.
Once I was finished walking through the Forbidden City, I walked back to the hotel and took a brief break. I then headed back to the streets and walked down to the Hong Qiao Pearl Market. Walking through Beijing makes me appreciate Shanghai all the more. Beijing is a gritty, working class city. A sort of Chicago to Shanghai's Los Angeles. Every few yards (or meters -- China is metric), I would hear someone hawking up phlegm and then spit on the ground. Every Few Yards. I see / hear less of that in Shanghai. Do I need to say how nasty that is? Same thing when we visited the Great Wall. I actually caught some spit on my coat collar on the Great Wall. I didn't notice it until Eric told me and then he tried to ease my disgust by trying to convince me that he was the one who spit on me (this is why I love him so much). I'm glad I had my head and face wrapped in a scarf. I have no idea how Beijing will be ready for the Olympics next year. Everyone spits, the subway stations I saw were poorly lit and small, and the street vendors are hyper-aggressive to foreigners.
The Hong Qiao Market is 5 floors of all sorts of crap. Electronics, clothes, shoes, purses, tchotchkes, and pearls. I enjoy browsing. After walking through the market, I took a taxi back to the hotel, ready for a rest.
The next day, we went to the Great Wall of China. We went to the Badaling section, which is well-preserved and a popular drop-off spot for tourists (read: crowded). It was extremely windy. We fought the wind and walked up and down the Great Wall. We took the 'sliding cars' down, which dumped us near a small
bazaar, where people were selling snacks and souvenirs. Further down was a man with a camel that you could have your picture taken with. Then we were in the bear park. There were a few enclosures with black bears, who were obviously accustomed to tourists. You could buy a dish of cut up apples or tofu for 5 RMB and feed the bears. We were scheduled to see the Ming Tombs after the Great Wall, but we decided to skip that and go on to the airport. We were tired and ready to go. After walking all over Beijing, I had had my fill of Chinese antique architecture. I'm sure I could spend days around the Beijing area looking at museums and tombs and other points of interest. I would like to see the Great Wall at some of the other, more remote, access points. Perhaps when it is warmer. I hear that further in the spring, the Great Wall is beautiful. One part is known for the profusion of yellow flowers that bloom on the mountain. Now, it is still winter and the place looks barren and forbidding. I can't imagine what life must have been like for the soldiers who had to patrol the wall when it was an active border.
What struck us the most about this trip were not the things we had seen, though they were remarkable, but the fact that it didn't seem odd or unusual that we were going to the Great Wall or that we were going to the Forbidden City. It seemed as normal of a thing to do as visiting the Lincoln Memorial on a trip to Washington, D.C. It's probably all part of the expat experience.
Today is coming to a close and I am ready for bed. We had thunder showers today. I wasn't sure at first whether we had thunder or fireworks. We saw fireworks going off as we were landing in Shanghai last night. I think I am coming down with a cold. I'm going to hunt for some Zicam in the medicine chest and head for bed.
After a crappy day, it was wonderful to find you've received a package from America. With sponges inside! I had a hard time finding decent sponges here. They were poor quality. It is odd the sorts of things you crave when you can't have them. My beloved mother-in-law include a couple of sponges in the last Fedex she sent. We also got pictures of our new nephew, Wesley. Believe me, he's adorable. Better looking than sponges from America.
