Paula's Packing Perils

On any trip Paula usually qualifies as the perfect packer. She has the smallest bag, smallest bottles for her cosmetics, cutest outfits, never lugs around something she doesn’t need and doesn’t forget things she does need. This trip she will remember as a pimple on her packing perfection (can you tell I making my students say tongue twisters to improve their English – except they are great with the ‘p’ they have trouble with the th, r, l, dr, and v’s). Anyway, this trip she brought 3 pairs of heavy shoes, which was 1 or 2 more than she needed. The funniest item she forgot was her bra. She doesn’t wear one on planes and there were none in her suitcase so when she did her ‘buck dancing’ for the students in English Corner it was very entertaining. Maria has a video of her dancing and we plan to use it for blackmailing purposes.

Hard Seats to Hangzhou

I cheated and got the Peace Hotel concierge to get our train tickets for us so I didn’t have to embarrass myself when attempting to buy them at the train station. Trains are divided into classes “Soft Seat” and “Hard Seats” There is a slight price difference 33 RMB ($4) for hard seats 47 RMB ($6) for soft seats for the 2 hour trip from Shanghai to Hangzhou. Hard seats are not really hard but the soft seat have a little more leg and seat room and the soft seat waiting room alone is worth the extra. We were unable to get soft seat tickets to Hangzhou so Maria and Paula had the full effect of 1000 heads turning at once when the ‘3 LoaWai’ walked into the packed hard seat waiting room. I am sure they had seen foreigners before but not without a tour guide, flag and lots of luggage. Except for my goodie suitcase I was lugging back to my apartment, all we had were small backpacks. After a sleepy 2 hour train ride, we arrived in Hangzhou and took a taxi to Xiasha. The poor driver had to figure out how to get there with just my pointing and my 3 Chinese directional words (left- zuo, right- you, and straight- zhi). Unfortunately, the poor guy had an added distraction. On the drive I felt like a little kid trying to show off all my toys at Christmas. I would get so excited that I kept pointing to places and things I wanted Paula and Maria to notice. Of course the driver assumed my pointing and strange talk meant that I wanted him to turn here or there. I learned to keep my finger down after a while. (Don’t worry I gave him a tip - which they do not expect).

We arrived safely at the hotel/apartment and got ready for our short trip on the ‘stuff it van’ to the DVD store and WuMei. I made them ride in the back – tee he he – In WuMei we bought some Great Wall wine. Paula said it was ok but not Great. It was sort of hard to tell which kind to buy so Paula selected a bottle that cost 60 RMB which is very expensive here – but only about 8 bucks in the US. I made them walk thru and experience the meat section of the supermarket with all the live eels, snakes, turtles, fish, frogs, and rabbits. It looks more like a pet store than a meat market but that is how they sell it. Food in the US hardly resembles its original beginnings. Our food is so processed and ‘homogenized’. Is that good or bad? Paula was definitely turned off by the live animals so it was bad for her. I am just glad I don’t have to gut or clean any live animals – give me those nice processed, pre-prepared homogenized, frozen dinners any day.

After our WuMei trip we rode back on the nice new B1 bus and joined Nathan, Elizabeth, and Ricky for a dinner together in our restaurant. Afterwards we all went to English Corner so Paula and Maria could see a typical classroom and meet some students. Paula and Maria were my “show and tell items. The kids enjoyed comparing Maria’s Yankee accent against Paula’s southern accent and they especially enjoyed the show that Paula put on. She did a ‘buck dance’ and some ham bone. I have no idea what the kids were thinking, but most of their mouths were open. I was laughing so hard I forgot to take pictures but Maria did.

Roof Top Drinks, Roof Top Weddings, & Beef

After our touring and shopping adventure we went up onto the roof of the Peace Hotel had a nice drink and enjoyed the view of the Bund and counting the number of weddings going on (3 or 4 in our hotel and one on the roof of another hotel). We had an early dinner where I ordered a steak. It wasn’t as good as Outback but it was the best beef I had tasted in 5 months. I don’t eat much red meat but about once a month I do get a craving and I had built up 4 months worth of cravings. Yummm. That night Maria crashed as soon as she hit the pillow and Paula feel asleep sitting up in bed and in the middle of a sentence

Side Note: - I tried to forget - but Paula would just nag me until I put this in .......At the Knock off Market Paula got a great compliment at MY EXPENSE. One of the stall clerks asked me if I was Paula's Mother! I would not let them stop in THAT stall -- also I attacked my gray sideburns with a pair of cuticle scissors when we got back to the hotel. Nicole - I need that hair color NOW.

Adventures in Shanghai's Knock-Off Market

art 3 of Saturday in Shanghai with Paula and Maria
After many warnings from the Marco and our driver, they let us off at Shanghai’s famous Knock –Off Market. We quickly escaped the ‘professional shopper’ that tried to ‘Shanghai’ us from our van to their store and found our way into the maze of stalls. It is way better with 3 people, the vendors don’t have one person to concentrate their efforts on. If you usually get gifts from Paula, Maria or myself….don’t read further - you might ruin the surprise.

Paula was looking for Tag Heuer watches. We found a couple of stalls that had what we wanted and each stall attendant made sure to bang them on their palm and hold them up to our ears saying “they are best quality, best quality” This happened in more than one stall – so maybe the attendants were given an instructional video to watch before selling the watches. We could never hear what I think we were supposed to hear, but we figured it was a good sign that they didn’t fall apart in the banging.

We were also looking for North Face jackets and again we were successful. But the Galland and the Willliam’s clans better not get together at the same time because they will look like an ad for a North Face Catalog. I picked up a pair of Dior sunglasses, and a Prada purse. I couldn’t leave Paula alone when the bargaining was going on – because she would feel sorry for clerks and give them whatever they asked for. I am sure Maria would have gotten the hang of it if she didn’t have jet lag, but I don’t think there is any hope for Paula. After a couple of hours of wandering thru the stalls (it is very easy to get disoriented) we safely found our way out and got a taxi back to the hotel using our ‘taxi card’. A taxi card is a business sized card that you can get from almost any business or hotel in China that tells the driver where to take you. It also has instructions in English for the passenger such as “get a receipt from the driver…”. These cards are great, make sure you ask for one anytime you are in a store or hotel in China that you might want to return to. Most drivers do not understand English maps.

Side Note - I forgot to mention in the second Shanghai blog that at breakfast this morning Paula added soy sauce or maple syrup to her coffee - she thought it was milk.

No Maria -We Are Not at Epcot

Early Saturday morning after my REM sleep and their naps, Paula and I walked on the famous Shanghai Bund to see if we could photograph some Tai Chi. We saw kite flying, dancing, and of course the traditional Tai Chi. We met Maria for a nice breakfast in the hotel with a great view of the river and started our tour of Shanghai with Marco at 9. First stop was the Childrens’ Palace. It is a school where artistically gifted children attend in the afternoons and on the weekends. We were impressed with their talent, especially the cute girls in their pink leotards. A lot of the parents and grandparents were watching from the sidelines or outside by the windows looking in. Maria really left an impression at the school (she stepped into some wet cement). Next stop was Yu Garden (Yuyuan) where Maria kept looking around saying –“ doesn’t this look like Epcot”. Here Marco taught us about how the windows and doors frame the scenery and how to tell the difference between the male lion and the female lion (male- pointy ears, hand on ball, female lion– head down, ears down, hand on baby). There were lots of dragons on the rooftops. President Clinton and Mrs Clinton ate in this park. Paula has decided that all presidents should be world travelers before they become president. She makes a good point!

Paula and Maria’s Quickie China Trip

After a frustrating false start Paula and Maria arrived a day later than expected on Friday night. After much smiling and hugging, I gave them a few minutes to dump off their bags and my goody stuffed suitcase, which they had lugged here for me. To fight the swollen legs you get on long flights we walked from our Peace Hotel down busy Nanjing Rd to Pearl City. Pearl City consists of about 20 different tiny stores that sell pearls. I had gone by earlier that day and scoped out a store that seemed the least pushy and easiest to bargain with. After a lot of bargaining, (which Paula is horrible at) we gave the “Lisa Pearls” niche a good bit of business. The store girls ended up working hard for their Yuan because they had to do a lot of restringing, with included knotting between each pearl. After we warmed up our credit cards we had a late dinner at Pizza Hut and walked back to the room. I slept great because the mattress was so soft when compared to mine but Maria and Paula’s time-confused body clocks never got that nice REM sleep they needed.

Chinese Chorus Competition

Last week I went to a talent show and if I understood the information correctly, (remember I lose a lot in my translation) it was a competition between our university’s freshman class chorus groups. Each major had their own chorus group with costumes and sang 2 patriotic songs. Some of the costumes were really fancy with white suits for the guys and evening dresses for the girls. I have decided that our English majors must have had a really small budget because their outfits were t-shirts and jeans. Each group sang the same first song and a different 2nd song. After about the 10th group, I got pretty good at humming along with the first song, but it would take me about 50 more repetitions to approximate the words.

It was the first time I had been in the school’s auditorium. As people entered, they were welcomed by a Communist youth group. Inside it was very nice, comfortable and very large. The only big difference in US theaters and China theaters was the movement and the noise levels. It sort of reminded me of a Friday night at the Island movie theater with the kids doing their usual musical chair routine in the front rows. Except here it never stopped or even slowed down when the show started. Cell phones going off, normal level conversations, and walking around all during the performances. So next time at the movies, don’t complaint about the guy behind you with the crinkly candy wrapper, you could be in China.