green tea latte story.

green tea latte was what i purchased when i first met sarah at Costa Coffee, an over-priced fancy coffee joint in the Gateway Plaza shown here. with their lounge chairs and nice deck view, the over priced green tea latte was really good and more potent than espresso on crack. it kept me up allllllllllll nite. i never had green tea latte either, which can probably only be found in asia and will turn me into a major latte drinker. the prices made Starbucks coffee look like a steal!

the shrink is in!

dave set up my new "office" since i'll be doing all my reports from home. the chair is mega-uncomfy and obliterating my back despite my makeshift lumbar roll. i need a footstool cus i'm a midget. but other than that, i like the window view, a/c and my personal office space!

move over kelloggs!

i've accepted the fact that i won't be eating Kelloggs with my skim milk for breakfast. well, Kelloggs would cost about $10US and skim milk is nonexistent b/c people here are skinny anyway. so this is the substitute. Hahne Bio Cornflakes from Germany and Country Goodness lowfat milk from New Zealand. IMO, the cornflakes taste like iron and the milk tastes like goat or human milk.

my first Chinese book.

i was so excited to get my first Chinese book to begin my home study program. After much searching, I found the perfect book: it has pinyin, English translations and Chinese characters. This way I can recognize the characters, know what they are saying, and pronounce them. It was cool cus i recognized alot of the characters i used to know. I found it at the local bookstore, XinHua, which is likened to Border's or Barnes and Nobles and carries Chinese and some English books. I have finished the Name and Greeting sections. The book is divided into 4 parts. There is even a CD included where they read the sentences aloud. It is done by professional Chinese announcers. I like how at the end there is a "Reading column" with Chinese proverbs and riddles. I feel a bit embarassed that I had to purchase a Chinese for Foreigners book but technically, I AM a foreigner, right? It was funny at the bookstore b/c I was elbow to elbow with this 5 or 6 year old in the children's section. Her parents were trying to pick out a book for her in the same section I was trying to find a book. There was one copy left of something I wanted and they were looking at it too. Back off of my book, kid!

sarah.

so i decided i was going to find a language partner if it was the last thing i did here. i wrote back to classified ads (many of which seem shady and didn't respond anyway) and requests on the expat forum. after many emails and some searching, i found a language partner who works near where we live. her name is sarah and she's delightful.

some things about sarah:

she is from jiangsu province, which is a neighbor province to SH. she comes from a small town there, and the name eludes me.
she has been in SH for 1 year.
she works in a french marketing company where they create chinese brand names for non chinese items.
she majored in some sort of business or finance.
she works with germans, french and canadians and they all speak chinese with her and each other.
she has never had a language partner.
she went to college in wuhan and lived there 2 years. she says there's nothing to see there.
she has traveled around many parts of china.
she said her favorite place in china is chengdu which is the capital of sichuan province. she says the scenery there is breathtaking and life is laid back.
she lives near where i work.
she works near where i live.
she is a thin, pleasant looking girl who has pretty good english, IMO.
she is a great language exchange partner b/c she corrects my chinese, teaches me chinese characters and is nice about it when she does.
she is around my age.
she prefers chinese food.
her name in chinese is lu sujuan.
we will meet once a week in the evening.

she asked me how we should do this as she has never had a language partner. i said usually the person wanting to learn mandarin only should speak mandarin and the person wanting to learn english should only use english and we correct each other when necessary. i think i'm sorta a bad language partner. i hope she meets up with me again. i forgot to correct her grammar, mostly b/c i grew up around bad english and think it's normal and can understand it. she actually corrected herself at one point. i was relieved she was a great language partner b/c she corrected all the phrases and grammar that i embarassingly have been using all my life.

some things i learned:
-you don't say the weather is "warm" in chinese, it's either hot or cold. i basically translated my english to what i thought could be said in chinese. you can say nuanhuo but you can't say wun. that refers to food.
-when you ask someone's surname you don't ask, ni de gui xing? you say, ni gui xing or gui xing?
-she taught me some chinese characters on a receipt she had, which i don't recall and wish i wrote down in pinyin
-people here love KTV where u drink, sing and play games. they like bars too.
-the shanghai expo mascot is supposed to be some sea creature but it looks like toothpaste.
-the best places to buy cheap clothing is at little vendor shops or the street vendors where they lay out the clothing. apparently $10 US for a tshirt is a decent deal.
-the squat pots are considered toilets too
-the West Lake in hangzhou is the largest natural lake in china.
-she says the SH train station which is the stop she gets off for work is dirty and filled with tons of bums. i have not gotten off at that stop. this is in contrast to the S. SH railway station where i get off which is pretty nice and clean and new.

anyway, i am thinking of getting another language partner in addition to sarah so i can get different perspectives, hopefully from a male, and someone who can speak SH-nese. i got a small notebook i will start jotting down terms and sayings and characters when i meet with sarah. i left feeling embarassed at how bad my chinese really is and realizing how complex this language is.

party like a french person.

yesterday we went to dave's former producer's going away party at their house. the producer and her bf are moving back to france today. their apartment was tucked away in the french concession, in a small, dirty and hidden chinese hutong, where you would never know expats lived. it was a narrow 2 story loft with the living room on the 2nd floor and kitchen on the first. outside their living room window you could see a small community garden and the yellow moon. there were chinese, french and americans there. a string of different cheeses, bread, chips, different types of beer, lots of wine, champagne and other beverages. it was interesting how even in the microcosm of a party, people gravitate and form enclaves according to nationality. i saw the small group of local chinese hovering in the corner, drinking more beer than they could metabolize. the french clustered together, holding their glasses of wine and speaking of philosophy. the french canadians mingled with the french as well, but you can always tell them apart. the french people looked so classically french. then you have us americans, standing around as if we were at a bar in newport beach, talking about the chinese and the french. dave's coworker's gf, a local chinese girl, and the only one who could not speak english in the entire room, looked bored as she tried to join the conversation her bf was in, but ended up just standing there looking pretty. she was stuffy like a typical high maintenance SH gf, very pretty and fashionable in chinese standards, but snobby, and talked smack about the people she knew in the room. i watched as her bf's coworkers gave her elevator eyes, unbeknownst to him but probably knownst to her. i had 3 servings of alcohol which doesn't sound like much but i am chinese. i got walked in on while i was in the water closet b/c i couldn't get the door to lock. i didn't even care, which speaks to how buzzed i was. afterwards i complained of hunger, as the chips and bread weren't enough and we left the party and went looking for grub. i originally wanted local chinese food, as i am starting to filter out the smell of sewage from the smell of the food, esp when i'm hungry. dave offered for ropaul to join us but since he did not like chinese cuisine, he opted out. i decided i would be open to any food so he joined us. we walked back towards dave's work place, thru the french concession, with the canopy roads and old architecture but nothing seemed open. after they went to their atm's, ropaul got into another domestic dispute and decided to leave. i was delighted b/c that meant local food. dave took me to this 5kuai noodle joint he's been to and the two of us gorged on a big steamy bowl of beef noodle soup. it was soooooo good. and it got me bowels moving again. we came home, both of us were sooooooooooo tired, we fell asleep before we got past the living room. i slept 2 hrs the nite before b/c the green tea latte i had was espresso on crack and it kept me up all nite and i had a long day at work the next day. now for the green tea latte story..

strangers in a strange land.

a few days ago, one of dave's coworkers said to me, "i haven't found my rhythm in shanghai." and i don't think it could have been better put. no matter where you move in life, when you first get there, you feel unsettled and a bit edgy until you find your rhythm. the problem is when you get too comfortable somewhere, you get in a rut. this is how it works for me anyway. i know people like to be comfortable, to settle in, and they get used to life as they know it. but that is actually aversive to me, and a bit boring. i think life is too short to stay in one place too long. i think it makes you complacent, a bit lazy and you forget to grow and expand. just my philosophy, and everyone has theirs, but this oner drives my life.

i've met a few expats now in shanghai. they all have their stories, as to how and why they are here, what they are doing here, and most either really love it or hate it. how people have adjusted to life here is fascinating to me. we are all strangers in a strange land. but i am not just talking about expats. there are quite a few local chinese people who are not local to shanghai. china is divided up into many many provinces. as i mentioned in an earlier post, people are very nationalistic and proud of the province they come from. which means, when they come here, the shanghainese do not always welcome them and as a result, they don't ever feel like this is their home. this is a big city that many small town folk move to for jobs or schooling. i can imagine a farmer coming here hoping to look for work in the local grocery or at a vendor cart. or a young college student attending school with hundreds of students and having to live on their own for the first time. it's easy to drown in the crowd. maybe it's comparable to someone from upstate NY moving to NYC. but you can't tell when you walk around here. i must have lost my ability to discriminate but i hate to say most people here look similar. so i started staring at people on subway rides, mostly b/c there isn't much to do when you wait for your stop except listen to music, play with your phone or hand held console, or stare at people. i decided to do the latter. i decided to look for physical differences among the subway riders. i can differentiate between poor and affluent people, people with style, people who are expats (usually their fair skin alerts me to this), what people's occupations might be. but i haven't yet been able to distinguish the people that come from different provinces b/c i am guessing there are some. some people look straight up mongolian, with their olive skin, small eyes and nomadic looks, some look like they came from northern china who are typically taller, with taller noses and fair skinned. i wonder if they can tell i'm taiwanese from the OC.

going back to the topic of adjustment and finding the SH rhythm, i get the feeling dave's coworker isn't adjusting so well. from what i've been told, he's an ex-marine, african american, in his mid 30s, who makes a ton of money, but drinks it all away. he's been here about 2 mos, originally from LA, and is in the game industry. last night apparently there was a horrible event that took place at the guy's house. he's 10 kinds of messed up and honestly i think SH is not a good place for him. he is an example of someone who is definitely not well adjusted at all. but i get the feeling he was not well adjusted in all the different places that he's lived, which apparently are many.

this is a tough place to be, whether you're local or expat. we are all strangers in a strange land. i wonder if the shanghainese feel that way too sometimes.

20 + 1

20 + 1 shanghai thoughts:

1. i eat bad food b/c it tastes so good. i simply don't care about the horrible consequences i suffer later. i probably should.
2. i am no longer fearful of crossing streets with a plethora of red crossing lights and zooming cars. i haven't been hit yet.
3. i don't think i will ever get used to the b.o. on the subway trains. i wish they would hand out deodorant bars as a public health promotion.
4. i haven't used a squat pot here yet. i held in my pee for over 2 hrs today and took a taxi home so i get me to a toilet asap.
5. they say when the first child is born, the parents take tons of photos b/c they are so excited. any children after that get no fotos. i think that's the same with taking pictures when u first go somewhere new. i hope i never lose my shutter happiness.
6. i am as pushy as everyone else in the crowd now. i find myself treating children, old people and young people all the same.
7. i can hail a taxi like it's nobody's business.
8. i think my hygiene has slipped since i got here. at least that's what dave says. :)
9. i am paranoid that people know i'm not local. i try to speak chinese fast so they can't tell.
10. i want be local but i also want people to know i'm american.
11. i wish i could understand shanghainese so i know what shanghainese people are saying after i tell them i can speak mandarin.
12. my boss makes me nervous and not just cuz she's my boss.
13. i think swedish men here are emo and sorta effeminate.
14. i find myself developing body image issues b/c the women are so skinny here. i deal with it by drinking tons of redbean green tea. :)
15. i try to take the subway at all costs, except if i'm not feeling well and really need to pee.
16. the expat families i've worked with so far seem a bit entitled and... i'm not sure yet.
17. i eat salad even though i know there's probably pesticide still on the leaves. i've been craving salad since i got here.
18. i like this place alot more than i expected.
19. i never realized how much i liked americans til i got here.
20. i don't feel homesick but i do sorta miss my gramma.

21. i wonder if any of my friends read my blog.

taxicab photo confessions.

more fotos of this new and strange city.

the Bund was a bummer.

pretty racist toothpaste there. i remember squeezing the paste of out my grandfather's yellow tubes in taiwan when i was young. it literally translates to black person toothpaste! plus no jumping into the tracks!

mulch view-yay!

one of em is supposed to b the tallest building in china or SH

the bund on pudong side

i am obsessed with this thing

architecture on the bund

why???!!

people's square area. nope kids, that ain't minnie!

ok, so the Bund wasn't how i thought it would be. first of all, they're doing major construction to prep for the shanghai expo in june '10 so the walkway which would usually boast a nice view of the 58 styles of architecture and the murky huangpu wasn't in existence anymore. we walked thru clouds of dust kicked up from the construction and were inches away from oncoming traffic to find a sidewalk or crosswalk or something that resembled safety from the imminent harm. we finally found a crappy but A/C'd ferry that took us to the other side of the river, to Pudong for 2rmb, which is really cheap. before that, we entertained the idea of going thru the Bund tourist tunnel, in which i'm not even sure there is a view anyway, and i'm unsure if it goes over or under the water, but thought better of it and saved our 100rmb. after watching mulch on barges pass us while on the ferry, and smelling the usual chinese B.O. and worrying if there was lice on the seats we were sitting on, and not really having a view of anything but the brown river water, we ushered off the ferry like cattle to Pudong, where we walked and walked, enjoying the huge skyscrapers, a viewspot of the river and the bund from the pudong side, (i thought the other side was more impressive probably b/c the cool architecture was over there), a park, the Oriental pearl tower, up close, which is the hugest phallic symbol of china, and a green tea smoothie, and we finally found a subway and took that back across the river to puxi. we concluded that if you walk long enough, you will eventually find some metro station, or at least taxis that can take you home.

it was a fun day for me altho dave complained of sunburn and his back hurting. sorry dave. :( we walked thru the People's Square area on nanjing east road, first going the wrong direction, then finally going the right direction. we walked a few blocks then hit zhongshan road which is basically the road the Bund is on. we passed by the place dave got scammed and saw the scammers waiting like vultures.

later that nite we met up with a fellow DnD-er, a swede studying in SH who has a chinese gf at a grungy expat bar called Harley's Bar down the street. i want to do a social psychology study to profile these local chinese women who date expats. i'm guessing there is a pattern here. my first specimen confirms my theory that local chinese women with expat bfs/husbands tend to be more nonconformist, open minded, educated and not just opportunists who are money grubbers, which was what i originally hypothesized. i asked dave if he would canvas his coworkers for me to interview their partners. there are a couple other DnD-er expats with local gfs/wives. perhaps i could make a mini-documentary about these women who are quite numerous here in SH. my theory is that for them to go against the tradition of dating and especially marrying within their race, where the guy won't be able to communicate with their families, is a big taboo. the chinese are pretty racist people in general, and even in the US where the traditions don't run as deep, it is kinda taboo for us to date outside of our race b/c our parents want to be able to talk to our partners and want them to understand our traditions and values. what happens here is the guy eventually learns chinese and becomes accustomed to the chinese ways, which always impresses me, b/c i can't even do it! anyway, the study continues of people and culture.