Shanghai with Angela
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It's now been several weeks since I was there, but I really had a memorable experience. Angela went to Shanghai on a Monday to meet with a friend she knew from before. She had invited me to go with her that night so we could all meet up, but I was pretty exhausted and decided to go Tuesday morning. I hopped on the Maglev that travels from Suzhou to Shanghai at around 9:30 or 10 and it took a whopping 30 minutes to travel the what would normally be 2 or 3 hour car ride. The train was nice and clean and people seemed to be in good spirits since it was the National Holiday.
When I arrived, I over estimated my ability to navigate in a foreign city alone and couldn't understand Angela's directions. I was supposed to meet her at "exit 1" but I miss understood a large part of her instructions and waited at the train station near the south exit until she came and got me. Now, I understand that I was supposed to get on the subway too and then go to exit one, which is "The People's Square" - a garden much like Central Park.
At any rate, and only after some cajoling and heckling from her, we made our way to the northern part of the heart of Shanghai where there is an older neighborhood that has been renovated into more of an artistic locale. In particular, we went to Shanghai's oldest Slaughterhouse. Though to you it might sound like a bad place to go, even under the most substantial remodeling, you are horribly, horribly wrong. From the outside, it is a large cube of fading brick. On the inside it is a spectacular maze of beautiful architecture twisted with wood, stone, and metal. The goal is to have this location be a lively, young, artistic section of the city. They want cigar and wine bars, galleries, and studios to fill the building. Unfortunately the cost to overhaul such a large building in an expensive city is high, so rent is pretty substantial. Accordingly, the building is still rather empty. See these pictures:
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| Shanghai (9_30_08) |
Other things of note was the city scape that you could see from almost anywhere. My camera's battery died pretty early in the trip, so Angela has most of these photos. I'll upload them in a little while.
We left Shanghai around 10:00 that night. Angela and I walked the whole day and had good conversation. We had 小笼包 (soup dumplings called xiao long bao) and got to see a lot of neat things that weren't really "tourist traps." I purchased a collection of Edgar Allan Poe's horror stories and a set of character flash cards that I have been studying in spare moments.
I definitely enjoyed myself. Thanks to Angela for the invitation!
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Anything Else
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The remainder of my national holiday was spent sleeping and figuring out the weeks to come.
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Things that perplex me:
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1.) Outside of my school, it is somewhat common that I am stared at or people make the comments 老外 (lao wai) or 外国人 (wai guo ren) when they see me. They both mean foreigner and it is said since many people aren't used to seeing a white dude walking around. HOWEVER, in my school, the students see us 老外 pretty much every damn day. I am perplexed that some of the young kids still are shocked to see us on campus. It's pretty funny.
2.) At one point in time I was trying to come up with some sort of "equation," if you will - and you will, that related the age of the woman and the shoes that she wears. This was vastly unsuccessful though, since the shoes women wear in China are pretty ridiculous. Don't get me wrong, if you look around you'll see women in sneakers, sandals, high-heels, pumps, boots, etc. And really, don't get me wrong, I have better things to do.. But when I'm sitting on the bus or at a restaurant and some lady in 4 inch spikes trots by I am perplexed.
Incidentally, the vast majority wear heels. Are they wearing short shorts and tank-tops with them? Yes. Are they in sweatpants and a coat? Yes. Are they in very fashionable dresses and tops? Yes. I don't think there are rules for shoes and women here. At least I don't see flip flops anymore. Still, it looks like the trend is that shoes are becoming more difficult, not more comfortable.
Guys pretty much wear Converse All-Stars/Adidas or black shoes that they get polished regularly. I say "awesome" to this.
3.) One thing I love about being in SFLS is that there are little kids running around. Right after 4th period, the bell rings, people are going to lunch. Not the little children though. The second that 3rd chime strikes, chaos ensues and the desire to play floods out. Containing them would be equivalent to trying to change the flow of the mightiest rivers. They run, at full speed, teeth from ear to ear, towards any open space large enough to "play". There is no "5th period" there is no "homework due tomorrow" they WILL play.
It reminds me of one Christmas when I went to church (gasp!) with mom in Milwaukee. About 4 or 5 pews up, there was a little guy who must have been about 5 years old. 1 hour was far, far too long to keep him still. At about the 3 minutes-into-mass mark he starts fidgeting and looking around in boredom. At about the 50 minute mark, his mother had yelled at him no less than 8 times and he was spinning in circles in pew. When mass ended he bolted from the pew, like a shot from a cannon, right into the adjacent wall. Mom and I laughed pretty hard about this. Other people's children are OK sometimes.
I'll have a fresh post about more recent things later today.
Best
-Mike
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