Shanghai in May

Weather was great- cool, breezy, even with blue skies. Cynthia and I went to Shanghai for a quick “Lisa Pearl” shopping trip. We got almost all the requested pearls and we shopped at the “Knock off” market and found my sister some Ed Hardy scarves. Cynthia’s Hangzhou roommate was able to join us so the three of us had a good time taking pictures on the Bund and exploring. The weird thing was that I had been visited Shanghai so often- that actually I was the one that knew all the places to go and how to get there – That’s a real rarity – me being a tour guide for two smart Chinese women in China.

Highlight of MY trip was getting to go to Peter’s Tex-Mex restaurant. I strong-armed Cynthia and her roommate into going with me – we rode the metro and when we got off we assumed that it might be a really long walk to get to the restaurant so we caught a taxi. The taxi driver drove us around the corner. A good 12 Yuan laugh. We had great spicy beef burritos, tacos, chips and dip, as well as some wickedly strong margaritas.

Side Note – If you ever win the lotto and visit Shanghai - make sure you stay in the Peace Hotel. This 20’s art deco hotel was recently renovated and it looks great. http://www.fairmont.com/peacehotel

Field Day Military Style

They call it “Sports Meeting” but since they have sack races, 13 legged races (12 guys with their legs tied together), grenade toss, skip relay, along with normal type of track events, I would call it a “field day”. They were just missing the dunking booth and all the junk food that goes with an American school field day. Opening ceremony consisted of a very colorful parade with drums, costumes, dances, performances, balloons and flowers. Each college sat in their own section with matching outfits and their own inventive type of pom poms. Some teams wrapped plastic coke bottles with colorful paper to shake, a couple of teams used fans, another used umbrellas, one team used bowls lined with shiny paper. All very noisy. Two of our teachers participated with the English College faculty and Meagan won 3^rd place in the hammer toss and Amy ran the 100 meter and didn't come in last.

I wore my “Ting Bu Dong” (I don’t understand) T-shirt to the event and got a lot of laughs in this relaxed atmosphere – made me feel so much better about the students here. They DO have a sense of humor. Even though this event was much more formal than anything we would do – they were all having fun. (as an example of the formality - the NUDT students actually sat & remained in their cheering sections for the whole afternoon - how many of our kids would do that for field day)

This was one of the rare times we were allowed to take pictures of the students- the photos of the "field day" are at the end of the Changsha Spring Album

PS - I was interviewed by some NUDT guy with a camera - hopefully it will end up on the cutting room floor - (NUDT has their own TV station - and they only show it to the military guys- which is good - I won't accidentally see it- we don't get that channel in our apartments). He told me what he was going to ask and he told me what to say -- I did as I was told but I still sounded stupid....maybe that was their goal

New Apartments

New Apartments

I seen them and they are real! I was promised last summer that the foreign teachers would be moved into them in January of 2011 – obviously that wasn’t true. We are all surviving with bad plumbing – poor Meghan’s apartment on the first floor above the apartment building’s plumbing, usually has her bathroom overflow about once a week – YUCK. Kate below me had a leak – thought it was me – but it was HER kitchen pipes that had sprung a leak. My toilet just got sort of fixed- it was really hard to flush and finally broke – so for a day or so I had to flush with a bucket – now I push a little tiny straw to flush it – hope it holds out till July when we are suppose to move.

I was so in awe of the new place with nice floors, elevator, drawers in the bedroom, medicine cabinet in the bathroom, washing machine NOT in the bathroom, a place to hang the clothes, did I mention drawers in the bedroom and Internet we don’t have to share-- that I forgot to take any photos… I will take them when I move in. It is located off campus about a mile away from where we are located, so I guess we will have to find new restaurants that we like and new stores to shop in. Another new adventure in China.

Side note – It seemed strange that on the way back to our old apartments - we all talked about how exciting it was to have drawers. In both Hangzhou and here I had to buy decorated boxes to put my socks etc in. The strange things you miss – Drawers…. Notice that I didn’t dwell on the elevator – I actually have gotten used to the stairs. I still tend to breathe hard if it is a hot day – but basically I can do the 4 flights without too much trouble now.

The World On the Back of A Bike

Who needs cars and trucks – It is amazing what the Chinese can fit on the back of a motorbike, bicycle or tricycle. Last week I saw a busted Motorbike on the back of a NON-motorized tricycle – unfortunately I wasn’t carrying my camera. Seeing a family of 3 on an electric motorbike is very common and I have actually seen a few that had a family of four. Real motorCYCLES are banned in the cities but are allowed in the country- so you generally only see but can't hear the electric motorbikes. This can be rather dangerous when getting off the bus - because these silent bikes have a tendency to drive in the space between the bus and the sidewalks where you get off.

I got this great picture off the Internet so I can’t take the credit for it but I have seen similar bikes with similar loads, but I just lacked the speed to get an image myself. I will keep trying.

One of China’s Advantages

This doesn’t make sense – I make way less here than I do working in America and I spend every Yuan of my pay (always in cash) but when I return to the US my checking account is always higher than when I left. I have been here almost 4 months – I have been able to pay off all my credit cards – and I still have a larger bank balance than before I left. Conclusion – it is soooo expensive to live in America. My uneducated, non-financial background, guess is that it is 4 times more expensive to live in America. So move to China and live well! (IF you are willing to put up with their traffic, noise, crowded buses, inability to communicate your needs, questionable health care, blocked web sites (like Facebook), lack of comfortable furniture and mattresses, inability to buy clothes that fit if you are larger than size 10 and missing the American self –centered news). We will see how much I deplete my accounts and increase my card balances during the month of July when I am at home – buying clothes that fit and filling the gas tank of my CRV.

Side Note: Steve and his Chinese girl-friend showed me where a great tailor was. All you do is take in your favorite clothes and they can duplicate them – Reverse engineering at its best. Anyway I took in two jackets and picked out some materials, which they reversed engineered into 3 new jackets. Their cute, they fit and they were relatively cheap (not clearance outlet prices – but reasonable). I paid about 25 dollars for each jacket and I plan on using her again.

Do I Need An Intervention?

Pictured are my stats from the Spiderette Solitaire game on my iPad (good thing they don’t keep stats on Angry Birds or Plants VS Zombies) – Hey Nadine – I finally beat your percentage – but anyway the number to notice is the 337 – that is 337 hours wasted playing the solitaire game since I bought the iPad just a little more than a year ago. Should I be worried that I MIGHT be addicted. One of my rationalizations is that I usually play it right when I wake up or before I go to sleep. Time to vote….

Side Note: Results - It was about 60 - 40, with the majority of "60 percent-ers" that said I needed an intervention, confessing to their own personal gaming addiction. I am still playing........