I heart Shanghai. Our interesting Saturday...

Okay okay okay. I'm back.
So March came very close to robbing me of my will to live, but alas, finally it is a new month. WELCOME APRIL!!! I somehow survived. My Dad passed away at the beginning of March. :( {By the way- thank you everyone for your condolences.} Plus half the month I had only one clumsy arm/hand and the second half of the month I endured physical therapy torture sessions to regain range of motion in my elbow. Then I got to spend a week really sick which included 6 hours in the ER after my doctor sent me there, upon my second visit to him, with "appendicitis". Although it turns out I just had a crappy kidney infection. (Yes, this was in the US). Yet here I am - alive. Not sure how that happened.
And this concludes my whine session.

Upon my return "home" to Shanghai, I found it surprising how much ground I'd lost (while away for 3 weeks) on my acclimation progress. It took me a full afternoon on the streets to get used to the onslaught of things coming at me again...people, bikes, scooters, buses, taxis, cars. People were even staring at me again. That's how you know you live there versus just being a tourist - when people don't really stare at you anymore. I mean, they look, but mostly they don't just open face STARE. Somehow they know the foreigner visitors from the foreigner residents - I guess it's in the way you walk or something. Or it could be the wide-eyed deer-in-the-headlights expression on your face.

This week has been good but busy. I started my chinese lessons again - 2 hours, 4 days a week. Half of that is learning to read and write. Just in case I thought learning to speak Chinese wasn't challenging enough. It's sooo diffffficult. I can't imagine how I'll ever learn! Seriously, even after 4 hrs of lessons this week, she kept flashing me one of the wee 10 characters I was supposed to memorize - she'd say "what is this one?" and I'd say "chicken scratch" or "more chicken scratch" and laugh. She didn't think it was as funny as I did. Stupid Americans. It's exhausting - humor is the only way to survive it.

To cap off the good week, Bill and I did a bit of running around today with our new driver. Our first driver was temporary until we got the driver we have now. Our first driver was really nice - but 29 years old and almost no English. We were told he was really young for a driver - apparently it is a very good job to have here. Our new driver is fabulous! He even speaks some English! It's amazing how much easier it is to get around! And he knows great places to take us! Although it was interesting today, after a week and a half of walking to get around, it felt rather odd to be riding around in a car (Bill uses our car most of the time). Strange feeling. I was so grateful, considering it rained all day. Umbrellas really have a new sense of importance in your life when you walk everywhere.

Please note: I'm adding small photos but you can click on them to see them better if you so desire...






Today we set off for the "fabric market" which is where you go to have clothes/suits/coats (even bed linens!) or any other garmet type thing made. There are stalls upon stalls of vendors with fabrics and sample items that they are able to make for you. You can walk around until you see something you like or you can take them an item of clothing you already have to duplicate, or if you are really adventurous, you can take in a photo from a magazine or something to have made. They measure you and then you return in a week for your item. Usually this process requires a few fittings and alterations. It might even take a few weeks until your item is just right. But overall, it's fantastic. Especially for people like me who have odd proportions and have trouble finding clothes to fit properly. Oh I suppose that's just about everyone right? ;) I have a really long torso so often times dresses have the hips at my waist and the butt darts in the middle of my back. And don't get me started about my long monkey arms that can make just about anything with long sleeves look like I inherited them from a younger sibling. Ha! Not anymore! I can get everything made especially for me. You can also change little things if you don't like them on the sample design like choose different buttons or add a pocket, etc. And I might mention the other important factor is that it is very reasonable aka CHEAP - for custom tailored clothes anyway. Today Bill ordered a houndstooth sport coat for 300 RMB which is about $45. I ordered a wool blazer for about the same and a cashmere winter coat with an insulated type warm lining for 400 RMB. I think maybe we still paid too much. I'll give an update and some pictures when these are finished.

We had visited another of these fabric markets with our friends Harry and Catalina. That day Bill had a dress shirt made for 100 RMB (about 15 bucks). Here's some pics from that trip too...


















Next we headed over to a local Chinese food street near Nanjing Rd. On this street they serve many types of "xiao chi" [small eats] as our driver called them today - like snacks. Although all of it could easily be a meal! We were on a mission for my favorite Shanghai treat: Sheng Jian- Mmmmmm! These blessed little dumplings are filled with pork and pan fried so that the bottom is crispy and delicious. Although you must use caution when eating, for they also contain a molten hot lava broth that you will, without a doubt, burn your mouth on the first time you try them! Almost like an initiation rite - but then you'll be hooked. They are rather difficult to eat because you use chopsticks and try to dip them in a vinegar/soy sauce mixture. Bill is a bit chopstick-challenged so he usually makes a huge mess. :) (see photos)
Our driver took us to "Yang's fry dumpling" which is the most popular Shanghai venue for these heaven-sent nuggets. He even paid for us. All he would tell us when we asked how much was "no worry - verdy verdy cheap". (Which I believe, considering I paid 1 RMB each (~15 cents) for a couple bao buns across the street from our apartment yesterday.) This place is a typical cramped, simply furnished, kinda grungy Chinese eating hole. Here the sheng jian are served in old tin plates with the enamel chipping off. A couple times I saw a guy come down the old creaky wooden stairs carrying an armload - literally am armload - no bowl, bag or anything to contain it - of dumpling dough. I couldn't get my camera whipped out in time to catch him in the act. As we were leaving I caught a couple of the kitchen girls taking pictures of each other with their cell phones- it was really cute. The whole experience is very chinese and quite wonderful!









After our bellies were super full, we explored an interesting antique furniture shop. I forgot to take photos- sorry. Then to one of our favorite weekend activities - off to shop at "Even Better than Movie World". Ha - yeah, that's what it is fondly referred to by local expats - see the photo to understand. It lies on a short street with many DVD shops - but this one is supposed to have the best quality DVDs. {Note: It's sketchy buying DVD's here because there is no regulation on quality (as with most other Chinese products!). You can buy DVD's of movies that are still in the theaters in the states. So you never know what you're going to get - maybe it's taped at the theater and the sound sucks or something.} This place is great because most of the time the discs are good quality with surround sound and if there IS a problem, you can take it back and they'll give you a better one. You might find some discs on the street cheaper - but you never know what you're getting. Besides, we pay 6 RMB (~$1) for DVD-5's and 12 RMB (~$2) for DVD-9's from this place - I mean come'on, how much cheaper do you need 'em? From what I understand, the difference bwtn the two types is the region code it is encoded with. I guess DVD-9's can play almost anywhere in the world no matter what kind of player you have. (Clint, I mean Bob - correct me if I'm wrong.) We always buy the 9's so we can try to take 'em home with us. Interesting note: It's technically illegal to take them out of the country but you can get away with it if you don't take the boxes. So you can buy other ones that are just in a plastic sleeve with the cover art. For us, we're hoping to get away with shipping them in our sea crate when we leave.
Oh yeah, and this is a fantastic place to buy boxed sets of TV series. For example, I paid 35 RMB for Season 4 of Grey's Anatomy today. They also have CD's which are 20 RMB (~$3) each. Awesome. On saturdays this place is packed with foreigners. Here are pics of my purchase today which was altogether just under 200 RMB ($30).


We actually decided that after stuffing ourselves this afternoon with so many sheng jian we could not possibly stomach dinner out and ended the evening at home with a Sam's size bag of peanut M&M's lovingly smuggled from the US and a DVD. However, just to make our Saturday seem even more exciting, I'll throw in our dinner date from last Saturday. :)








We went with Harry and Catalina to a delightful little Moroccan restaurant followed by an after dinner wine cap across the street at a cute little wine bar. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...except that "No" those are not all Bill's wine glasses. We only had two each. :) (We were trying two different wines!!!)

Tomorrow we are going with friends to a fancy brunch at the Westin where they apparently have a chinese acrobat show and all the champagne you can drink. I'll try to take pics to post.

Ahhh. Shanghai is a great city!