Chinese curry and United Nations

Alright, so it's almost 4 in the morning here, I just got home from another partying night....oi. Shanghai is quite dangerous....the bars doesn't close until 4 here so the party gets quite late. And side note, i'm a bit drunk so hopefully this post makes sense.

Anyhow, to start off the evening, after work, I went to dinner with this guy, Steven, whom I met on facebook. yeah yeah, facebook is quite popular with people outside of the country if you guys didn't know this. My british friends LOVE facebook to bits. We met at Zhongshan park area, which is suprising to me because my guide book never cover this park and this area is quite...happening. There are at least 2 shopping malls here. Well Steven and I met and we picked this chain restaurant called Coco Curry....YUM. Think delicious Chinese curry. You pick your curry, which break down to meat, veggies, seafood or specialties and everything can be made with curry here. There's even a pasta curry...and omelette curry...yeah...eggs...curry....cheese curry...yeah... Anyhow, I had a chicken curry...delicious. Pick my curry, pick my rice size, and then picked my spicy level. Delicious. Steven knows a little bit of Chinese since he is here studying chinese so it helps. Oh and he's from Columbus and have a friend who is a pre-junior in Fashion design at DAAP. Small world right? We had delicious curry ( rachel, I can't wait to take you here) good conversation and then walk around the mall while I tried to find shoes. Lets just say that Steven had this funny conversation in Chinese with the shoe shop owner about how big my feet is because the largest size they have here is 9...what the hell??? 9??? that's tiny.

After that, I left and went home, showered, went to Jing'An area, met up with Josh and Theresa ( who happened to just had dinner at another branch of Coco Curry also!!!!) Josh left us to met up with this new girl he met, her name is...get this...COCO.... The only person who should be named coco is Chanel....lol. Anyway, Theresa and I struggle to find this guy, Shane, house that she knew via facebook. Finally found it, went in and met...Shane, who's from London, an attractive man. HIs roommate, Youseef, who's Irish actually, funny and sarcastic. Love him to bits. He's suffering from food poisoning these few days so all he can drink is coke. Also a guy named Victor, who's from Spain, another guy who goes by the name of Chou who's from spain originally, but mixed between Spanish and Taiwanese. And another chinese girl. So I'm sitting here, in this pretty nice bachelor pad apartment, having conversation with these Europeans, while they're smoking the hookah...pretty weird night.

Then we left to go to Chou's friend's house, Reuben, who's having a going away party. Arrived, went to this nice apartment, with tons of chinese people and white people too. Met Reuben, who turns out to be Malaysian, who is going to London to finish up hi schooling, so hence the good bye party. I tried some Remy Martin ( had a few tsingtao already and quite buzzed from this) and chatted with Reuben and Theresa a bit. The party is quite hopping actually, lots of people, crowded.... Then Shane and Chou was chatting with these 3 girls and somehow I end up chatting with them too. Can't remember their name, i don't think we remember each other names either so we called each other by the country we came from. I'm known as the American. Anyhow, one girl is from Germany, who's working as an engineer and going to school as a student, studying chinese. One is from Sweden, who was a student but now own her own companry in Shanghai, the other one is from Poland and is a student here. Pretty fabulous girls, we chatted about our own countries stereotype. The german girl keep spilling beer and she's like " oh, i'm German, we wash things with beer." Great group of people actually. We all chatted some more and then people are leaving the party to go to this club, Club 97. So the entire party left for the club and it was a taxi madness. Went to the club, dance a bit, it was playing ridiculous amount of Lil Jon, but I still enjoyed it. There were way too many white men there who couldn't do the hip hop thing...it's quite hilarious. I danced with all the girls, had a drink, dance with the boys, but then we all got bored eventually and left.

So that was my night. Pretty interesting people. It's kinda sad about Shanghai that you met so many interesting people, but it's only for that one night only. Come day light, you will probably never see them again in this city...so fleeting. No real connection aside from the business connections that you make while partying. So weird for me. I have only been here for 2 and a half week, but I feel like I've been here for ages...

Anyway, tomorrow is a long shopping day with Theresa for her new apartment. Good night all.

picture set 2: Fengyu Shengjian

So tonight, Theresa, Howard and I went to dinner together. Originally we were suppose to go to Yi Jia Yi, which is a Taiwanese 24 hours noodles joint, but we walk up Shaanxi road instead of down Shaanxi road so we stopped by one of the place recommended by Lonely Planet guide book: Fengyu Shengjian. Which is an adventure of its own for there's nothing in here that's English, Theresa can't read any of the mandarin on the menu and can't really understand what the lady is saying...we just pointed and ordered stuffs...which turns out to be super cheap. I mean, 2 giant bowls of noodles, 3 servings ( 12 dumplings) and a weird meat dish for only 20 kuai. Lets just say that the fried dumplings are F-ing delicious. And dipping it in the weird unknown meat dish's sauce....just make it even better. It was a pretty decent meal if I do say so myself. Albeit the place is a bit...hole in the wall and dingy...but the food is great.

SO we start to take some pictures... so here are some pictures of me ( obligatory Eve from Top Model pose included), Theresa and Howard. Howard is such an adorable british man. Theresa loves his northern accent ( apparently the british can love each other's accent??? Isn't there accent enough???) Then i took some more pictures of Howard and his bike outside. Adorable. Then Theresa tries on the bike...she doesn't know how to ride a bike....and I don't think Shanghai should be the place to start... then Howard left to go home and get ready to go out at Mao ( it's their official Grand opening, the other party was just pre-grand opening grand opening....whatever) Theresa and I don't feel like going to Mao ( Josh is going there though) so we went down to South Maoming Road to find some bars, end up at Blue Frog. I had a Singaporean sling ( delicious...which there was more alcolhol though...) and someone was celebrating his b-day so he gave everyone in the bar cake. Yum. We had a drink, chatted, have my much needed girl talks ( don't worry, I didn't replace you Rachel) Then we left, took forever to flag down a taxi...Shanghai has like a gazillion taxi, but trying to flag one down at night or before the rain...impossible. We gave up and I convince Theresa to use the metro and walk home from the metro stop. We left separate direction, I went on the subway, didn't get my coins out fast enough to give to one of the beggar in the subway...feeling kinda guilty about it, walked home listening to avril lavigne, again, feeling kinda down because....

I got stood up on my date tonight. Yes, after dinner, I was suppose to meet up with Greg, the guy that I went out on the great date with a few weeks ago when I first got to Shanghai. He just got back from his corporate bonding crap in Kentucky, talked to him last night online, he asked if we can see each other tonight, I said I have dinner plan, but we can see each other afterward. I texted him before I left for work, called him tonight, no answer. I'm quite annoyed and peeved off about it. Somehow this has the making of the wonderful date incident 2 summers ago with a guy named Patrick. Wonderful date, told me he has to go to Toronto for business, afterward, never heard from him ever again. Didn't return any of my calls...a total asshole about it. So if anyone who can remember this incident, know that I don't handle this " no call-ignore me completely without having the balls to say no" thing not very well... So I was feeling kinda like that tonight...I'm crazy, I know, but still...lol. Hence...Avril.

Anyway, enjoy the picture. Hopefully I will get my Q5 card tomorrow and be able to go to the Air Bar with Thersa on Saturday. I'll explain the Q5 card later...it's quite fabulous.

pictures...set 1: work

Alright, so some pictures from work. One is of Josh's back. He sits right behind me in our little "foreigner cubicle". One is of Jose, he sits right to my right. He's from Spain, some real famous tourist island. He has a daughter here with his wife and she's expecting another one next month. :) He's so nice, doesn't speak fluent english though, but if you speak slowly enough, he understands you. Love him. Then one is of Susanne. She's from a little town in Germany. She's leaving Shanghai for Germany at the end of August. So sad. She's very nice and friendly. She talks to Josh and I alot about everything. I'm slowly trying to influence her with some ridiculous American's celebs gossip which confuses the hell out of her I think.

We don't have emails at work, if you want something, you instant message the person you want. So weird. And since most names are in Chinese, guess who I instant message most days? just Josh. But I do know Susanne and Jose's instant message name though. The four of us are the only one with non-chinese name on the list.

Also a picture of Yan'An road, one of the large main road in Shanghai that's outside of my office. This is the intersection of it that passes beneath the highway ( or as they called it "elevated ring road" here). To say that this area is crowded, hot and smoggy around 5:30 is an understatement. I walk by here if I need to get to the metro line 1.

And for my DDG people, if you look at that picture I took closely, you can see that it's the ad for Vicayze (spelling?) town center that we did. That area is located in Pudong, the otherside of the river. I finally figure out that the Shanghai that everyone lives in is Puxi, west of the river. Pudong is the east side of the river ( like New Jersey) where all the development are and where you can see all the iconic buildings of Shanghai.

one last one for the night

Things I have tried in Shanghai that I can now cross off my list of things to do:

Walk to the Bund
Ate mysterious meat
Drink a Tsingtao
Eat at the Chinese canteen that my firm provided ( great food. HORRENDOUS filthy atmospher, floor, everything else)
Get picked up by a prostitute on Huaihua

Things that I'm deal with on a daily basis:

-Dodging cars, mopeds, and bike on the side walk ( at least 10 times today)
-Figuring out what is that mysterious smell ( 5 this afternoon)
-Almost getting hit by either a car, a moped or a bike crossing the street ( 3 today)
-Side stepping so that people don't spit at you as they spit on the sidewalk ( 3 today)
-Side stepping barf, dirty water, or some other things that I'm not sure about ( too many, i can do this while texting on my cell phone now)
-Seeing ridiculous things in Shanghai that you could never see in the states ( 5 today)
-Wondering why the Chinese don't sweat from wearing 3 layers of clothes in this heat ( all the time)
-Picking out attractive wonderbread from the mass of Chinese (1 today)
-use my chinese to get what I want (4 today)
-Silently in my head having a walk off with some chinese girl on the sidewalk walking toward me ( 4 today)
-Checking facebook to see if Theresa wrote to me and writing back to her because I have nothing else better to do (25 times today)

good food...

Hello all,

Today, I found the greatest lunch spot around my work area. It's this Italian restaurant inside the Parkson. The Parkson is like a giant Macy's and a Walmart combine. So weird...you can get your high end clothes, then grocery shop in the basement while buying tampons on the next floor. It does have the cutest dessert shops though...all kind of stuffs you can imagine and it does have a pretty decent selection of foreign goods. I'm still, however, am pissed over the fact that I can't find SALT still. I found salt here, but it's 90% salt and 10% MSG....I don't get it??? And the pure salt I found were in crystal form and it cost way too much for me to buy. I have made it my mission to find real 100% iodize salt in Shanghai.

Anyhow, this Italian restaurant, which I can't remember the name to because it was some ridiculous name, has the cheapest menu yet while still delicious. I got a bowl of pasta for only 9 kuai ( the slang term for money as I found out). Delicious!!!! And you can get a pizza for like 12 kuai. I called this place the Shanghai version of a Fazoli. Josh and I plan to go here often for lunch. Although there are other japanese restaurants around that we want to hit up. Maybe one day I'll splurge and go to a all-you-can-eat sushi, sashimi or korean bbq for 100 kuai ( about 14-15 dollars...but when in shanghai, you always try to look for cheaper deals).

After being bored at work, like I always do, I went to Carrefour after work in this...ridiculous heat. Sweating all the way to Carrefour, I checked out some face wash of the brand I always use but has been struggling finding it in Cincinnati before I left. I mean, in B-more, i bought these things at the grocery store, but not in cincy..grrrr.... anyway, i found the stuffs, but it was a bit more expensive than I expected it to be. It was 100 kuai for the tube smaller than the normal size...it's quite annoying. Sometimes, in Shanghai, stuffs are expensive for no reason. I mean, i can get a bike for 200 kuai and you're telling me my anti-wrinkle matte finish sun protection cream is half the price of a bicycle? Anyhow, I fork over the money for the face wash ( still have some anti wrinkle cream left for a while just yet), went and look for fabric softener and found it. Quite excited about that, went to paid and walk home in the horrendous heat. By the time I made it home, i was soaking wet. Although I did find out that there are certain colors that I can wear that won't show my sweat as much. Those are: white, and shades of white ( although it gets see through sometimes), bright yellow ( you can tell but not as bad), and bright orange. Green...not so much as I found this out.

Josh called me because he was slacklining between 2 trees in our apartment complex, which would explains why all the old ladies were not talking about me as I walk into the complex today. They were too busy looking at the weird foreigner tight rope walking between trees. We went to search for dinner at Brilliance West which we found hold the secret to a plethora of delicious cheap eat. We went to one of the japanese noodle shop that has many chains in Shanghai and all over the world actually. I think according to its map, it has one in LA, NYC, and Boston??? The food is AMAZINGLY good here and huge portion. I had the most delicious Crispy pork curry with steam rice. Think like indian saag, but with breaded pork in it. YUM. They also have a variety of octopus meal on skewer, pretty cool. I plan to explore this menu further. After dinner, Josh and I went to try this fruit juice stall next door where we tried to get these delicious dessert drink but apparently they're out of and somehow I wanted some coconut drink and we both got mango juice instead. I wasn't thrill but Josh was excited either way because it was delicious. Then we walk around and look at clothes, pretty pricey...( Ok, so they're the same price as the US, but i'm in china damn it, i want cheap stuffs!!!) Then...we finally found a UNIQLO and all hell broke loose. Shanghai UNIQLO is freaking awsome. It's weird that the price is different between each UNIQLO though. The other night, i went to a UNIQLO near Shanghai's version of Times Square, and saw they charging me 125 kuai for a v-neck t-shirt. Here, this UNIQLO were having a sale where these AMAZING CUTE graphic T's were only 50 kuai.

Alright, these graphic T's require their own paragraph because I don't know if the US would have them or not, but these T's are freaking awsome. It's a special Japanese street art collection so it's pretty colorful and bright and hit the currently club trend right in the head ( for those of you who follows fashion trends). They break down to classic japanese screen prints vs. modern what you might think of harajuku prints. Some of these graphics were too amazing for words and you probably could never be able to wear them in the US, but in Shanghai, ROCK ON. SO i bought a t-shirt with the screen print of Kwan-Yin sitting on top of a giant Koi and another t-shirt with this abstract guy and girl figure but with golden metallic prints on it. Then of course I cracked and bought a pair of linen pants because...well...they were linen, white and super cute. Josh and I thought that store is quite dangerous. There was this one shirt that I really like, it has giant prints of Chrysanthemum all over it and in the back, it's quite pretty, but I stopped myself because it was one of the delux edition one and for 99 kuai...I need to stop. lol.

Well that was my night. I'm waiting for my firm to reimburst half of my plane ticket so I can get some money to go to the gym. Wanted to join this gym that has the hottest model on the ad. He's probably the hottest asian guy I have ever seen and I can only wish to look like that. Although the gym is not close to me by any mean, i figure that since it's a pretty decent gym ( with a pool) and works out to about 30 US dollars a month, and I can use any of their branches in Shanghai once I'm a member, it's worth walking to the subway after work to go to the gym. Not to mention that I found out that in this brand of gym, 50% of the population is gay so hopefully that'll motivate me to go to the gym even more and with the competition between the gay guys, I'll actually work out and not just run on the treadmill and go home. lol. But exciting news, I have lost 15lbs in Shanghai so far...so for all of you guys wanting to shed the winter fat, please come to Shanghai. The heat will do it.

Well I should go to bed, kinda tire tonight. Can't wait for lunch tomorrow, I think i might try the fish pasta... My days revolve around me eating....I get to work and think about what I'll have for lunch, then after lunch I think about what I'll have for dinner. Speaking of which, for dinner tomorrow, I think Theresa and I are going to another one of the asian fast food joint where you can get dumplings, juice, and other dinner items, all for less than 10 kuai. I think half the fun in Shanghai is to figure out where you can find things cheaper than the last cheap thing you found, all you have to do is look. Maybe tomorrow morning, if i'm super adventurous, I'll stop by this dumpling shop and get one of Shanghai's famous "xiao long bao" ( shanghai dumpling) to eat at work. I always chicken out because i know that none of these people speak chinese and there are always 20 or so people standing around getting it. The pastry shop last week was a big step from my day to day walk....baby step trinh, baby step.

Night all. I really need to start taking pictures of my food. lol.

poodles

One last blog for the day, I swear. But I saw this oddest poodle today while walking around Jing'An park area. Apparently the Chinese like to spray paint their poodles in different colors. I saw another one with orange stuffs on it, but couldn't walk fast enough to catch up with the lady. So this is the only one you guys get to see. I wasn't the only one taking picture of this dog. A bunch of european tourists did too...Hilarious. enjoy

part 2

You know you've been in china too long when... part deux

1. You’re at an expensive western restaurant and don’t even notice the guy at the next table yelling into his cell phone
2. You enjoy karaoke
3. You walk backwards in the park listening to a transistor radio
4. The China Daily is your source for hard hitting, fast breaking, investigative journalism
5. You smoke in crowded elevators.
6. All white people look the same to you
7. You like the smell of the bus.
8. You find state-employed retail staff helpful, knowledgeable and friendly
9. You no longer need tissues to blow your nose
10. You find western toilets uncomfortable
11. You throw your used toilet paper in the basket (as a courtesy to the next person)
12. You think that the heavy air actually contains valuable nutrients that you need to stay healthy
13. You think a 30 year old woman who carries a Hello Kitty lunch box is cute
14. A sexual pervert is a man who prefers women to money.
15. It’s OK to throw rubbish, including old fridges, from your 18th-floor window
16. You believe that pressing the lift button 63 times will make it move faster
17. You aren’t aware that one is supposed to pay for software
18. You are not surprised to see your tap water run dark brown
19. You tell your parents their house back in your home country has bad feng shui
20. You think that a $7 shirt is a rip-off
21. You always leave tray and trash on the table when you are in Starbucks because you insisted it is the way to keep everyone employed
22. You buy an XXXL T-shirt in store when you returned home
23. You take large sum of cash whenever you go hospital in home country
24. You have no reservations about spitting sun flower seeds on the restaurant floor
25. You think it’s silly to buy a new bike when it’ll get stolen soon and stolen bikes are half the price.
26. You’d rather pay the 10 yuan for an all night stay at the internet cafe than the 30 for a taxi home.
27. You feel cheated if you don’t receive a full head and shoulder massage when getting a haircut
28. You blow your nose or spit on the restaurant floor (of course after making a loud hocking noise)
29. You no longer wait in line, but go immediately to the head of the queue
30. It becomes exciting to see if you can get on the lift before anyone can get off
31. It is no longer surprising that the only decision made at a meeting is the time and venue for the next meeting
32. You no longer wonder how someone who earns US$ 400.00 per month can drive a Mercedes
33. You accept the fact that you have to queue to get a number for the next queue
34. You believe everything you read in the local newspaper
35. You have developed an uncontrollable urge to follow people carrying small flags
36. You regard it as part of the adventure when the waiter correctly repeats your order and the cook makes something completely different.
37. You are not surprised when three men with a ladder show up to change a light bulb
38. You look over people’s shoulder to see what they are reading
39. You honk your horn at people because they are in your way as you drive down the sidewalk
40. When car accidents become a source of heartwarming humour
41. When shopping at Carrefour some laowai stares you down for catching you looking into his basket while you wonder to yourself what laowai’s eat
42. You have figured out that it is actually the Taiwanese who are running this country
43. You have a pinky fingernail an inch long
44. You burp in any situation and don’t care
45. You start to watch CCTV9 and feel warm and comforted by the governments great work
46. You think Pizza Hut is high-class and worth queueing for
47. You have learnt how to detect someone is in a hurry behind you, and now have the ability to not only walk very slowly but also grow eyes in the back of your head, so when they start to overtake on the right hand side, you automatically cut in and walk very slowly directly in front of them
48. When you are able to jump the queue because the idiot laowai left 2 centimeters between themself and the person in front of them
49. You have absolutely no sense of traffic rules
50. You start calling other foreigners Lao Wai
51. You start cutting off large vehicles on your bicycle
52. The last time you visited your mother, you gave her your business card
53. You think no car is complete without a tissue box on the rear shelf and a feather duster in the trunk
54. You go to the local shop in pajamas
55. When looking out the window, you think “Wow, so many trees!” instead of “Wow, so much concrete!”
56. Pollution, what pollution?
57. You think “white pills, blue pills, and pink powder” is an adequate answer to the question “What are you giving me, doctor?”
58. Someone doesn’t stare at you and you wonder why
59. Firecrackers don’t wake you up
60. Your family stops asking when you’ll be coming back
61. You wear out your vehicle’s horn before its brakes
62. You buy a top-of-the-line karaoke machine
63. Forks feel funny
64. Chinese remakes of Western songs sound better than the originals
65. You get homesick for Chinese food when away from China
66. You realize that smiling and nodding is Chinese body language for, “Go away; leave me alone.”
67. All the top-level government officials you befriended for guanxi purposes when you first arrived are retired and living in your country
68. After being in an accident, you tell the ambulance driver which hospital to take you to
69. Your company offers you a job in your native land, and includes regular “Home Leave” to China as an incentive
70. You think of “salad” as diced apples in mayonnaise
71. You don’t bother to take the sticker off the lenses of your fake Ray-Bans
72. You only wear a suit when you dig ditches or do home repairs
73. Your handshake is weakening by the day
74. You compiled a 3-page list of weird English first names that Chinese people of your acquaintance have chosen for themselves.
75. Your collection of business cards has outgrown your flat
76. You and a friend get on a bus, sit at opposite ends of the bus, and continue your conversation by yelling from one end to the other
77. You cannot say a number without making the appropriate hand sign
78. You like the taste of Green Tea and Chivas
79. You start recognising the chinese songs on the radio and sing along to them with the taxi driver
80. You feel insulted when you enter a restaurant and only three waiters welcome you

funny...but true

This list is " You know you have been in China too long when..." and some of it is already true for me.

The smell of stinky dofu doesn't faze you anymore.
>
>- You complain about that price difference of DVDs/VCDs/CDs bought in the
>stores and on the streets.
>
>- You are not surprised when your garbage lady answers her cell phone and
>keeps digging through your trash!
>
>- You (female) stop wanting to be tanned in summer and start carrying an
>umbrella.
>
>- You no longer feel that females look like prostitutes wearing tight short
>shorts in the summer.
>
>- It doesn't shock you anymore when you can see female's underwear through
>their dress.
>
>- You shove the guy before you back to where he stood half a minute before
>in the queue, barking a loud "hou mian, hou mian, ni nongmin!"
>
>- You dial the wrong number, and instead of saying "buhao yi shi, wo da cuo
>le..." you simply hang up.
>
>- You can open and hull sunflower seeds with your tongue.
>
>- You eat so many sunflower seeds you now have a dent in one or both of
>your front teeth.
>
>- You have a jar full of "fen" (Chinese pennies) at home.
>
>- You can climb 6 flights of stairs without a rest stop.
>
>- You dress according to the calendar instead of the weather, e.g. wearing
>3 or 4 layers in April -- even when it's 20 degrees Celsius outside.
>
>- You have trouble sleeping when you go home for a visit because it's just
>too darn quiet.
>
>- You feel at home when you hear mosquito's buzzing near your ear.
>
>- You can sing The Moon Represents My Heart -- in English and in Chinese.
>
>- You forget how to program a VCR at home because that is obsolete
>technology in China.
>
>- You wonder why everyone is so fat back home -- even the Asians!
>
>- You have ten different responses to the question, "Do you like China?"
>
>- You know ten different ways to point out a foreigner in Chinese.
>
>- You stare at other foreigners.
>
>- You stare back (especially at knockout women).
>
>- You point out foreigners to your Chinese friends even though you're
>foreign yourself.
>
>- You no longer find it humourous that the bus never really stops to pick
>people up, it just sort of slows down.
>
>- You find yourself asking anyone and everyone if they can make the price
>cheaper.
>
>- You know words in Chinese for which you don't know the translation in
>English.
>
>- Your mashed potato has squid guts and fish heads in it...and you think it
>tastes fine.
>
>- You answer 'China' or some Chinese city when people ask where you're
>from.
>
>- You answer 'China' or some district name when people ask where you live.
>
>- You answer 'ni hao', giggle, and run away when someone says hello to you.
>
>- You pick your nose, burp, fart, and scratch so much even your Chinese
>friends get embarrassed.
>
>- You start thinking that stupid questions are reasonable.
>
>- You call home and your family tell you to speak faster and stop
>correcting their grammar and pronunciation.
>
>- You think that having the runs for 2 weeks is normal.
>
>- You don't have any idea what something is, but you'll eat it anyway.
>
>- If you just ate it and liked it, you ask what it is so you can order it
>next time.
>
>- You know what it is and you eat it anyway.
>
>- You have strict mental rules as to when you reply to a hello (ie person
>must be within a 20 foot semi circle radius and not with a group of men).
>
>- You completely ignore most people who say hello to you.
>
>- You have a conversation while sidestepping feces, vomit, and mysterious
>green puddles on the sidewalk without blinking.
>
>- You see a woman with dyed hair and trying to figure out of she's Chinese
>or foreign by walking fast to catch up.
>
>- You eat cake with chopsticks.
>
>- You don't eat your cake anymore, after all cake is for food fight only.
>
>- You've stopped wondering why it takes a 20 gallon flush to clear a 2
>ounce pee.
>
>- You answer 'So is mine.' when people say their English is so poor.
>
>- You convince yourself that it doesn't matter how dirty the cooks' hands
>are, cooking will fix it.
>
>- You think squats are great because no one can piss on the seat.
>
>- You think Yang Rei (CCTV9 'Dialogue' program) is an unbiased reporter.
>
>- You believe that anything done to you is because you're not culturally
>sensitive enough.
>
>- You stop wondering why they're not culturally sensitive to you, their
>guest.
>
>- You are becoming proficient in 4 other languages: Mandarin, local
>dialect, Chinglish, and gibberish.
>
>- If there are only 4 screaming children running around the classroom, you
>consider it a good primary class.
>
>- If there are only 4 students sleeping, you consider it a good middle
>school class.
>
>- If there are only 4 dictionary obsessed nerds, you consider it a good
>language center class.
>
>- If you're only mocked in public 4 times, you consider it a good day.
>
>- You love tofu because there's nothing to spit out and it doesn't have any
>taste.
>
>- You start saying 'play computer' 'I very like' and other assorted
>Chinglish.
>
>- You know exactly what CS is, and you can't live without playing it at
>least once a week.
>
>- You hold hands with men and think nothing of it.
>
>- You avoid touching women like they have cooties.
>
>- You get absolutely knackered at a 12 year old's birthday party while
>playing drinking games with children and munching on turtles.
>
>- You whole-heartedly agree with things that you don't agree with.
>
>- You can do almost anything standing on, but not actually wearing, your
>sneakers (i.e. change your pants)!!
>
>- You've got a pre-paid ticket with a booked seat for a soft-seat train or
>plane, but you still run like mad to make sure you get a seat.
>
>- You forget that vegetable soup is actually pesticide broth.
>
>- You laugh and smile when someone calls you a fat pig.
>
>- You point over your back with your thumb when using the past tense.
>
>- You watch TV and not know what the hell is going on but enjoy it anyway
>because of the women in the shampoo commercials.
>
>- You think that America's '60 Minutes' program is 48 minutes of bullshit
>and 12 minutes of commercials, but you can't wait for China's '60 Minutes',
>which will either be 60 minutes of bullshit OR 60 minutes of commercials.
>
>- You're beginning to like fruit salad and mayonnaise.
>
>- You've stopped wondering why you only get bread if you order a chicken
>and mayo (mei you 'nothing') sandwich.
>
>- You eat chocolate from home and: (a) miss the taste of salt and (b)
>bounce off the walls from sugar overload.
>
>- You've learned that it's okay to be 3 days/weeks late for appointments
>because everyone else is.
>
>- You've stopped wondering why restaurants don't clean up the barf right
>outside their door.
>
>- You've stopped wondering why people will step over it to get into the
>restaurant.
>
>- You've used those big toothpicks so often you now have circular gaps
>between your teeth.
>
>- You just love it when new brethren arrive and give you their list of what
>they will and won't do and eat.
>
>- You have accumulated hundreds of notes and addresses but you can't read
>any of them.
>
>- You start making commentaries when watching a VCD/DVD or in a theatre.
>
>- You think it's pleasurable to ride your bike down the road with 10 tonne
>monster trucks flying past you 2 feet away.
>
>- You have no qualms that someone who thinks you're stupid and gullable has
>total control over your life.
>
>- A hike up a mountain calls for a plastic grocery bag full of junk food,
>later you add to the scenery by littering the ground.
>
>- You love and hate children at the same time.
>
>- You give names to your roaches and cry if one dies.
>
>- You know that the New Year's Eve countdown must begin before 11pm or
>you'll be doing it alone.
>
>- You start thinking instant coffee tastes pretty good.
>
>- You realize that all wild animals are to be caught and eaten and/or
>ground up for medicine.
>
>- You wear the same clothes all week because nobody cares.
>
>- Your biggest decision every morning is matching your tie colour with your
>face mask.
>
>- Local drinking games are your most effective language learning
>environment.
>
>- Your daughter comments "there aren't the flies here, like in Australia",
>as she kicks the shit out of the way.
>
>- You eat your lunch whilst admiring the live baby rat in a cage (complete
>with watermelon rind for food) your friendly restaurant owner caught and is
>keeping for a pet.
>
>- Only five minutes of prep time for a unannounced class no longer fazes
>you.
>
>- You begin to question your own pronounciation.
>
>- When children ask if you like Chinese students you reply "Yes they are
>very delicious" without batting an eye.
>
>- You plan to ask students questions they must form their own answers to
>and you bring reading material along to occupy your time during the long
>silence that fills the period between you asking the question and the first
>hand that tenatively rises.
>
>- Being served dog when you go out is no longer your greatest culinary
>fear.
>
>- Begin giving the staff ratings on the answers they give you based on
>their creativity rather than their candor or truthfulness.
>
>- You no longer expect the truth.
>
>- You can use "face" as a weapon.
>
>- When you hear "7-Eleven" it reminds you of two of your students

Mao & a long crazy ranting post

Hello again all,

I just woke up from what I would consider my first crazy partying night in Shanghai with my British friends ( oh the expats are quite crazy here) I didn't get home until 5 in the morning so yeah, I have never been out that late before. Last night, after I wrote on my blog, i left to grocery shop, it was packed at the Brillant West Shopping Center near me. Again, everything is in Chinese inside this store so it doesn't help me very much. I went home, was about to get ready for a date ( yes, a date) when my date cancelled on me at the last minute, just as I was putting on my clothes. Needless to say that I was really disappointed and somehow, kinda down about it. SInce I was home alone now, I cooked some dumplings, pop open this bottle of redwine that we have in our kitchen ( which turns out to be the most normal tasting Chinese red wine I have had so far...oh Changyu, you and I shall be good friend from now on), pop in our illegal dvd of Constantine, and began my night. My movie didn't play very well because it's pirated and my mac does not like that at all, so I watched half of Constantine ( I recall me wanting Keanu Reeve to straddle me somehow because in the movie he was straddling someone to exorcise a demon of some sort....), i switched movie, pop in X-men 3, no luck, pop in Ultraviolet and began my dumpling and wine routine. The DVD stopped at halfway point of the movie again, I gave up, listened to my music while it's thundering outside like crazy. I think I was quite buzzed at some point when I began to have a little Shanghai moment. My Shanghai moment is just when I stopped and wonder " what the hell am I doing here?" lol. I was having one for some reason, probably the wine makes me emotional, luckily, Josh came home from his rock climbing thing, soaking wet because the city was flooded so the water was up to his pedal and he is..disgusting. Theresa texted me because she just woke up, want to get something to eat. Josh showered and we head out to meet Theresa at Jing'An temple subway station.

We met up, I wanted to try this down home chinese restaurant that I read in my guide book, we found it, it was closed because it's 9 something, end up going to Always Cafe where they do serve the best lunches. Josh and Theresa oredered some food, I have some beer, and then they start to complaint about the music that was playing. THey were upset because it's not playing rock and roll or their taste in music. The cafe were playing some sort of pop music which was ok for me, Theresa asked the waitress to play something different, and the cafe puts on M2M. If you guys don't know who M2M are, just think early mandy moor and early jessica simpson. The 2 are gagging, i'm enjoying it because I do have M2M in my iTunes and I'm quite buzzed so it's lovely. They started to make fun of me for my music taste, which I was slightly annoyed because I have not make fun of their rock crap. So the entire dinner was the two of them ripping the music apart really...( there's nothing wrong with a little bit of Destiny's Child and Beyonce in it, but no...not to them) Apparently it was an awful experience for them in the cafe which irk me a bit because I have sat through alot of places with music I hate and never care much to constantly talk about it.

We found that we need to meet up with Howard, Piere and Nick at this bar called Abbey Road, across from Mao, our club goal of the night. Mao is apparently a new club in Shanghai that just opened and have pretty good review for the interior and music. We met up at Abbey Road which Josh immediately commented about how "yuppie" it's. The boy confuses me because he called this place yuppie while he wears polos and pop his collar...huh? I don't think it's yuppie as it's just filled with a lot of the expats. We have a drink, I tried my first Tsingtao beer, met up with the boys, chatted for a while then head over to Mao across the street.

Mao was interesting, it's not a big club by anymean, but they were playing pretty good music...actually, the DJ was doing a pretty good job putting some great beats to the songs and add in some great hip hop. Needless to say, I grab a drink and began to feel like dancing. The people around me weren't drunk enough to dance just yet, so I chilled with them for a bit. The club is quite packed with a good mixture of expats and chinese. Drink a little bit more and my dancing begins. I dragged people to the tiny/wet dance floor and starts doing my Trinh thing likes it's no body business. For those of you who have danced with me before at the club, you know how I get... I was dancing like a trooper and of course, sweating like crazy. Goodthing is that everybody is sweating too and everything is kinda wet from the rain so no one cares...at least I didn't. My only thing is that the Chinese girls here don't DANCE. these bitches don't dance, they stands around for a bit, shake their body a little bit and calls that dancing. And since the club is a mixture of white men and chinese girls, it's kinda weird since there aren't alot of good dancers out there, except for me of course. You can spot a few good dancing people, but those are usually the foreign girls, and there were....3 of them. Rachel and I could have tear the dance floor off...to take note Rachel. What I did discover however, is that Nick is quite and AMAZING crazy dancer. His dancing is a bit...odd, think 80's funky white boy dancing but the fact that he does it so well and doesn't care, makes me love him for it. Finally someone who doesn't care about what people think of how they look!!!! Drank some more, dance some more, music is actually really good by now, and the club suddenly changes....it becomes quite....GAY somehow. Local Chinese men slowly drop off a little bit and the club is now mostly white men and chinese girls...who a majority of them are really prosties working for the night at these kinda places. In shanghai, sometime you'll meet a girl, take her home, have your fun, she won't reveal until the next morning that she's a prosty and threaten to call the cop on you if you don't paid her. Lucky for the straight boys. So the club is full of them now, and there were men dancing with each other, but not in the way you'd see them dance in a gay club so it was confusing for me. I personally didn't think that there were alot of gay men here because really....still hip hop ( and we know how alot of gay men don't like this, except for trinh of course). I think it's just because it's mostly prostities girls and the guys outnumber girls 2 to 1 or something rather. Either way, I didn't paid attention much, was dancing away, drinking down my mint mojito that tastes like sugar mint water and not alcohol. But Theresa was complaining that it has too much alcohol in it....so I don't know.

We were at the club for quite a long time, i'm soaking wet from dancing, hot right? I was wearing some hats through out the night. One was a chinese cap with a long braid at the back, the other was a communist red star hat. Pretty funny as Nick and I switched that out through out the night. At the end, the club suddenly drop off into this weird thing where they were playing dance music version of R&B favorites...which is not that great because really, how do you dance to soft Ushers, Craig Davis and Chris Brown??? We decided to leave, but Piere wanted to go home and Howard stills want to go out, it's only 3:30 in the morning, the night is still young he said. It's pouring rain outside, so Howard and Piere went back in to have a drink, Nick, Theresa, Josh and I grab a cab. Suddenly, people wanted food, specifically Papa John...this was an entire Josh idea that he shouted out. Pretty dumb I think. Got into the cab, NO ONE KNOWS of whwere there would be a Papa john around this area...or it would be open at 3:30 in the morning. Then someone, people starts fighting with each other because Theresa is upset that Nick is not giving her a straight answer of where he lives so she can tell the taxi driver to take us to the area and there will be food. It was the weirdest thing because I was all happy and elated from my alcohol and the next thing I knew, people were fighting. I told Theresa to just tell the driver to take us somewhere that had food since people wanted to eat. Funny thing is that I was the drunk one of the group and I was being more calm than everybody!!!! We get to this chinese restaurant that is apparently very popular with the late night bar goers, Nick said he needed to find an ATM or some sort and walked out to find it. I think it was just his way of excusing himself after the argument, which is sad to me because the night was going so well. We ordered some food and I was in my mellow drunken state, which Theresa took for me feeling upset of some sort....when I'm drunk, i get really mellow and people always think that I'm pissed off at something or upset at them. We talked and somehow Josh got my nerves. Well I do know how he got on my nerves actually. I think it's because his personality and mind are very different and sometimes I'm saying things just to get it out of my system and he's doing his Josh things which makes me feel like he is thinking that I'm in one of my high strung stuck up mood. lol. It's weird, I know. One of the conversation we had was just about me telling them how I didn't get the fight in the cab between people all of the sudden and that if people were more patient with each other, we could have avoid Nick leaving us. Which Josh construct as me being pissy about it which is not true since I was merely telling people how I feel, i have no anger, just simply, I wish it could go better. Then Josh and I got into a little conversation about how I was using the full length mirror in his room and saw 5 dirty glasses laying around and I asked if he could just leave them in the sink for me so I can wash them. That annoyed him somehow because he said there are like 20 glasses in the house and it won't hurt if he leaves 5 dirty glasses in his room. Which is ok, whatever, but I was just merely asking that if there are dirty glasses, just put them in the sink since I do dishes every half day anyway, I can do them. Somehow that was a big issue with him and I feel like like he is dissmissing it as if it's another "high strung Trinh thing". That feeling and the combination of the alcolhol totally did not makes me feel good anymore. So needless to say, the night kinda went down hill all of the sudden, like club Mao.

So yes, my very long night in Shanghai where friends suddenly gets upset at each other. Kinda sad, but it was a good dancing night for me for the most part. I don't know what I will be doing today, probably make some dumplings for food and then who knows. chill around the house. Will write more later. It's 90 F here and feels like 113 F. I do love the humidity.....right.

apartments

Well it's about 2:17 PM in Shanghai on a very hot Saturday afternoon. It's 91 F outside but with the humidity, my temperature widget is telling me that it feels like 117 F. Needless today that it's hot hot hot. Anyhow, I think Josh came in last night around 3 after his massage, makes noises and then went to bed. When I woke up this morning, he was sleeping so I locked the door and then head to the subway to go meet Theresa since she's meeting a real estate agent for her apartment hunting. I took the subway, not crowded at all, get off at Jiangsu Road, walk around the corner to Le Residence, but i was a bit early so I thought I should hunt down a starbucks......FAIL MISERABLY. There were no starbucks in the direction I was heading, and you would think that in a city that has more starbucks than chinese restaurants....grrrrr. Well I was fanning myself with my map, walking around the street and I did manage to snap some pictures of the road I was on. It's the Jing'An district. Pretty cute area. Not as fancy as the French Concession, but still very nice.
I head back, met Theresa and the real estate agent, then met one of Theresa's Singaporean co-worker and off the 4 of us set out to see some apartment. The first one was close to her area, it's ok...the road to it was a bit...too real for me. The apartment itself is nice....LOVE the master bedroom and the master bathroom. In hindsight, i really should have taken some pictures for you guys to see.... For about 8000 yuan, it's decent. Housing in Shanghai is quite expensive...not as much as NYC or London, but nevertheless... Although for the place that you would pay about 1000 US dollars here in Shanghai, you couldn't get it any lower than 7 or 8,000 in the rest of the US. lol. Then we left to see another apartment a little bit closer to where Theresa works, it's right next to this uber posh One Park Avenue complex. These 2 apartments that we saw were nice. Love the blond wood hardwood floor. Nice view of the city, and for about 9000 yuan, not bad at all. These places are 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and maybe a study room if you guys need to have an idea. Then the real estate agent took us to the creme de la creme of semi-cheap living in Shanghai. One Park Plaza, the golden child of the area. Funny thing is that One Park plaza is right next to where we were and if you don't really know, you can't tell them apart from the outside. But as soon as we walked up to the door, 3 attractive white gay men walked out, who obviously just finished exercising...Theresa and I looked at each other and was like " yep, we have arrived." We walk in toward the club house area first. GORGEOUS GORGEOUS. All glass wall, then down to where the giant indoor lap pool is. Theresa and I heard someone playing squash so we went and checked it out...OH DEAR LORD he was a gorgeous 6'4 blond european who took both of our breath away. We shyly said hi and then left. Saw the pool, saw their dancing studio. yes, this apartment complex has a dancing studio next to the pool as well as a Kareoke room that you can reserve for your private parties. Then we came into the apartment on the 28th floor....it was to die for. 2 bedrooms, 2 bath rooms, laundry room, great kitchen, LOVE the living room. It was nice, and only for about 1500/month. I mean, for that price, the services that the place offer, the location, i can see why people are flocking to shanghai. Your money go WAY FARTHER here.

After that wonderous place, we went and saw a few more apartments even closer to work for Theresa. Nothing too special, I think Theresa might either take the One Park Avenue place ( albeit a little bit higher than her living allowance from the firm) or the 9th floor apartment next door to One Park Place that has the most adorable little study room and the most......SHAGTASTIC second bathroom....Think glass wall, gorgeous overhead light.....I'd want to shower there all the time. We were going to see some more apartments when Josh called me, he woke up and realizes that since I locked the door when I left, i apparently locked him in and he can't get out. HUH? yes, apparently in our apartment, if you lock the door when you leave, the person inside won't be able to get out....soooo human trafficking scenario. I had to say goodbye to Theresa and take the taxi home to get Josh out. It's kinda depressing going back to our apartment, which I need to take some p ictures as soon as I cleaned it up some more. I like our apartment, and it's definitely nicer than the Baltimore apartment, or the Buffalo one for that matter, but still....I was visiting the high life. lol. I figure that since there is nothing too exciting about the job, running around the city and having fun is what I'll end up doing for this 6 months...hopefully. I also planned on looking to make some guanxi ( chinese equivalent of networking) here in the city and see where it'll take me.

Although I don't know if Shanghai is ready for graphic design just yet....People are not very educated about design here, it is only about the price and not about the substance. My observation so far is that the city lacks a certain atmosphere of creativity. Everything is copied off of something, and piled up with glitter just to make it look amazing. I haven't spot anything super intriguing for me. I inspected some signs around these high end apartments and to my disappointment, they are just made to look interesting on a passing by, but when I really look up close, they're molded plastic. Don't even get me started on the font that these signs used....what the hell. I haven't seen a good tracked out Garamond here.... I think things need to compete against all that bright/flashy stuffs that people have to make it as tacky as possible. Have you ever seen a phone box with LED screen broadcasting commericals? yeah...that's only the tip of the iceberg. lol.

Well, enjoy this post all. Will write more later. Enjoy the pictures if I get it work.

Fuyuan!!!

That's my Chinese word for the week. I finally have learn how to flag down a server at Chinese restaurants. Fuyuan apparently is the Chinese equivalent of " Miss" and the server will come to you. Yay! Oh, not to mention "mifan" which is chinese word for rice...very important.

Anyhow, it's official that I have finished my first week of work....boring boring and boring, nothing too exciting in the work area, outside however, is another story. I can't remember if I wrote to you guys about meeting up with my friend Theresa or not, I think I did. If not, let me know and I will write about that. Well tonight, while Josh went to the climbing place...for the 3rd time this week since the last 2 times were unsucessful, I went home, instead of going to Carrefour to grocery shop, I was too tired and hungry so I went home, had some of my old pasta...DELICIOUS, then Theresa called me. She is having a drink with her coworkers right across the street from her work and since during the day, we have exchange a gizzilion facebook messages about hanging out tonight, I should come to meet her and then we can go to get a cell phone for her. I makes myself look pretty, went out, find a cab and hop to the location. I actually got the cab driver to drop me off right outside of the place, pretty proud of myself. Went inside, nice wine bar, with plenty of westerners in there, met up with Theresa and her boss, who happened to be gay and have an asian partner... ( cut to Trinh imagining this would be him someday, british boyfriend, living the good life of a young professional in a fabulous city)... Anyhow, Theresa makes me finish up her wine, then Nick, whom I know from the last time we hung out, ask if we would mind him joining us...of course not. I enjoy his company. He's my gorgeous british fix currently. We went back to the office since Theresa need to get her money and Nick needs to check his email, then we off to go to this cybershop that Theresa's boss's partner has suggested. Took a taxi there, but atlas it was closed. Huaihai street was crazy around 8 at night. Think Times Square with tons of Chinese. Since Theresa and Nick was super hungry, we just went blindly into one restaurant and it turns out to be an amazing cantonese restaurant. We had the usual, one dish of beef, one chicken, one fish, and one duck. Nick was quite a fan of the beef dish, it was definitely good and spicy. We tried to call Howard to see if he wanted to join us, but he's at somewhere and was going to the Bund later and so we told him to just call us after he's done with is stuffs. Then we head out, and I suggested that we all go to the Fragrant Camphor Garden in the French Concession. I read that it's a nice teahouse/dessert area so off we go to search for a taxi...which we failed...miserably. Even when we sent Nick out as a white man to flag a taxi down, you can't find an empty taxi anywhere in this area at night. So I took them to the subway line and give them their first subway ride.
Riding the subway in Shanghai is definitely one of a memorable experience that everyone should do. I'm surprise that Nick, who have been in Shanghai for 6 weeks have not done that. And at this time at night, it is RIDICULOUSLY PACKED. NYC subway has nothing on Shanghai subway. People were pressed against each other, hot and sweaty, Theresa was freaking out because she was literally being jammed between 2 bodies. Nick and I were slightly luckier because we were close to the door and in a corner. Luckily we only have to take 2 stops to get to where we need to be. I think Nick and Theresa were appreciative of me showing them an experience in Shanghai that they will never soon forget, or do ever again. Me personally, I kinda like the subway, not so much during peak hour, but the rest is very nice. Anyhow, we arrived at The Fragrant Camphor Garden, met up with JOsh and went in. Nick and Theresa were shock that this place looks so posh, yet affordable dessert. Granted that it's fancy dessert, and things were around 40 yuan here, but for the atmosphere and location, can't be beat. The place has these giant floor to ceiling glass wall that let you watch people stroll by in the street. Very romantic place for a date if you asked me. We each order something different and then tried each other's stuffs. No one seems to like my dessert because it was a tastebud overload. I think it has kiwi and mango with coconut milk and then tapioca balls and then a bunch of other things in it. Nick ordered this amazing peanut smoothie thing....it's like eating an entire jar of peanut butter...but cold. We built phallic/sexual shapes with our dessert and then takes turn eating off of it. It was quite nice. We all chatted about stuffs, and I have learned a few new British words. Like "a pull" is when you hook up with someone, although for Theresa, the definition of a pull is just snogging ( making out). After that, Theresa wanted to get a massage and so does Josh, but I'm not a fan of being touch so I decided to go home instead. Nick left too, we all say goodbye and I took a taxi home. I'm so glad that I have found new friends in Shanghai who are quite cool and fun. We're all relatively new in Shanghai so it makes going out an adventure. I should go to bed soon for I have to go and meet up with Theresa tomorrow at her apartment so we can go apartment hunting together. I do want to stop by Starbucks tomorrow and get a Red Bean Frappuccino....i think you can only get it in Starbucks China and I'm curious. Theresa doesn't have a phone yet so I have to just meet her in the lobby of La Residence or as Nick called it " Le Shithole". lol.

Well all, I think Shanghai is slowly growing on me like a cancerous growth. But who knows, it has only been approximately a week and half that I've step foot in Shanghai...you never know. I could end up hating this place with all my heart. lol. But cheers to good friends, good food, and amazingly smoggy weather.

Love all. Write to me. I'll try to take more pictures next time. I'm so horrible about putting my camera in my " Say No to Plastic" tote bag that Rachel got for me. LOL. Bye.

my foot...

So today, thinking that I will have to take the firm's driver and get him to drive me to Central Huahuai Road in the uber chic French Concession area to take some pictures for this project that I get assigned to, I decided to wear my nice pants ( yes, it's the Kenneth Cole one that I got from Costco...stylish and cheap...I know, I'm a bargain whore), a nice white button up shirt and my FIERCE shoes. For those of you who don't know about my fierce shoes, it's this nice pair of black dress up boots that I got at macy for half off, granted that it's 1 size smaller than my shoe size...but all you women out there know about the price of beauty.

Anyhow, so I was looking hot walking down the dirty streets of Shanghai to get to work....until I got to work...where i'm sweating like a pig, taking off my shoes and fanning myself. My hair gel is not working out so well in Shanghai, my hair went limp from the heat and the humidity...urgh....how do those chinese boys survive with their feminine long hair is beyond me. Anyhow, I sat around work until....lunch time because the driver is no where to be found. Went to lunch with Josh @ Wagas ( will write more later on this FABULOUS joint). Got back, sit around some more, read Wallpaper that Shu We (or is it Shu Wen?) loan to me...then finally found the driver. I get to take Josh along with me for company, so he and I left for the place. Through miscommunication, i end up taking pictures of the area that I thought were the site plan...but in fact, just some random building that is being built. What I was suppose to do was take pictures of the lobby of this one building as well as the interior signage of the place. And josh and I get into a fight for nothing...grrr...well i get to go back tomorrow to do this. But my 40 minutes walk to work, my half an hour of walking around taking pictures, and my 40 minutes walk from work in those shoes....killed my feet. And I have a giant blister on the heel of my left foot...not so hot anymore...but those shoes...I look so good. lol. So yeah, that's work so far.

As for Shanghai, I have discovered probably the best little deli spot for lunch in Shanghai. No Chinese food here, but it serves AMAZING baguette and pasta...AND on top of that, I found out that after 6 PM, their pasta is only 28 yuan...which is about 4 bucks for this giant bow of deliciousness. Oh, the place name is WAGAS. It's where alot of corporate people came out to lunch and foreigners too. I've seen some decent loaf of wonderbread there. YEs, Josh and I came up with the nick name of Wonderbread to all the white men that I try to spot in Shanghai. It's cute, I know.

I made dinner tonight when I got home. Josh and I had bought what we thought was pre-breaded chicken....but upon tasting it, I'm not sure what it's...could be breaded dog for all I know, delicious though. But Josh came home after he left work to go find this climbing gym, but apparently he failed miserably and have been biking for like 3 hours. We had dinner and then he left to get normal ice cream while I enjoy this "rum & raisin" ice cream we got. Josh is not a fan of this ice cream because...well it's basically is just rum. I can get drunk off of this stuff...I love it. I would take a spoonful of ice cream, wince because of the alcohol content and then let out a sigh.... it's like taking a delicious shot.

Not much is going on in Shanghai with me these days. Work is slow, i spent most of my day walking to and from work. Contemplating getting a bike...but the traffic. Oh, and I think Shanghai pollution is the cause behind my sporadic cough...Oh and I came up with a game recently. Whenever I see a Chinese girl sashaying my way, i turn on my fierces walk and try to out walk her while pretending that I'm a top model. Everyone should do this once in a while.

Anyway, sorry for the random stream of consciousness tonight, I'm a bit tire. Time for me to go to bed now. Night all. Write to me.

pictures

Some pictures of the Bund over looking Puxi where the trademark Shanghai landscape is and Josh with his new bike aka sex on wheels. Oh and it's the monsoon smog...hence the greyness.

date night

So you guys can probably tell that I really need to find something to keep me busy because this whole waking up at 6 in the morning, going to bed at 2 is boring me and so...i write alot. lol. Anyhow, yesterday was an ok Saturday for both Josh and me. We spent the bulk of the morning doing nothing. I woke up at 6...again, clean the house, decided to cook some pork with bok choi, had my food, then josh woke up and that's when I get sleepy again so while he watches a movie, I fell back to sleep. lol.

Afterward, Josh went to bargain for his bike that he has been dying for...and the boy, and I love him for it, came home with a really nice red bike and the biggest grin on his face. He actually bargained the bike for 100RMB less than it listed price I give him mad prop for that. I watch as he fiddle around with the bike, and trying to convince me buy a bike. lol. Then we both walk to Carrefour, the french owned super grocery store, inside the Gubei Shopping mall. It was a crazy Saturday evening to be out in Shanghai because everybody and their mother is out. But I do decided that we will be doing the bulk of our grocery shopping at this store rather than at Brilliance West down the street from our simply because this grocery store is catering to both foreign and chinese so there is actually English in my products!!!! Oh and my latest complaint is that I CAN'T FIND SALT in chinese grocery store. Or at least pure iodize salt like we have at home anyway. I can only find seasoned salt or garlic salt. What they have in abbundance is MSG!!!!! I can't cook with that crap??!!!!! lol.

But anyhow, I did have a date last night...yes, I know it has only been 4 days since I'm in Shanghai and I already have a date. What can I say, my gay social network keeps my life interesting to say the least. But yes, I went out with a guy named Greg last night. And if you guys know me, you would know that I don't do asians so Greg is white. Actually he used to live in Columbus before moving to Shanghai...weird, I know. I met him in the French Concessions area and it was a super cute place. This is where most of the foreigners are I assume since there's a TGIF restaurant on the corner of Greg's apartment....and lots of bars and restaurants. We went to Haiku, this new Japanese restaurant and I had some of the best sushi ever!!! Actually, we ate A LOT of sushi last night and I also had my first drink of sake. Well, we both had a bottle of sake to finish and by the end, I was definitely feeling good.

Anyhow, after dinner we took a walk around the neighborhood and the beggars, hustlers and prostitutes are out full force. I guess midnight is the time to hit up foreigners and all the club hopping people. There were plenty of attractive girls in this area and I thought of how Josh would die, albeit I don't think we both can afford anything. lol. But as Greg and I walk down the side walk, I saw a bunch of prostitute standing around smoking and one of them actually saw me and signal her head to ask if I want to pay her. Then a bunch of prostitutes starts asking us if we want them or not. It was definitely the oddest experience in my life. Actually, I believe that I was laughing my ass off once we clear the prostities. Wow...those girls need to refine their gaydar because they were definitely barking up the wrong tree. Somehow it was kinda disturbing. But yes, definitely a highlight of my time here in Shanghai so far.

Well, got to get ready to tackle Sunday before having to work tomorrow. I'm debating whether I should buy a bike or not like Josh...most likely not though. Shanghai street is too crazy!

Shanghai moment, part II

Ok, so the story continued.

Inside the shopping center, of course everybody and their mother was at this shopping center. I made my way to the grocery store and struggle to find the entrant to the grocery portion of the super market. Here is where my frustration got the best of me. Normally when I get to another city, at least the grocery/cooking thing is pretty standard. I knew how to go to the grocery store, when I'm there, I knew what stuffs to buy to eat and everything, here, all of that is thrown out of the window. I don't know what I'm buying is the same vegetables that I normally eat or not. I don't know what I'm picking up is beef or pork. I know it's definitely not chicken because the chicken isle is quite...scary. I don't know how to package things that I want that are in container because I don't see any form of bags to put it in or what I'm suppose to do. There are Chinese everywhere and I don't know the chinese phrase for " Get the hell out of my way" in mandarin. I picked up some veggies that I somewhat recognize, shop for some frozen dumplings since I figure my plan to cook Josh and I dinner is a bust, head straight to the alcohol section and picked up a bottle of Chinese wine that I have no clue whether it's red or wine. ALl I know is that it's horribly misspelled and grammatically f*up in english. Then i remember that I forgot to get my veggies bag and stickered by the veggies people, so I had to weave my way back, get the stickers and try to find my way out. I couldn't find salt or alot of the thing I wanted simply because there is nothing that could indicate for me that here is where all the seasonings are. I head to the check out lane, wait and then the cashier said to me in mandarin what I constructed to be " where is the price sticker for this?" about my packaged nappa cabbage. It came in a plastic bag already!!! Why do I need to get a price sticker for it? Couldn't you look it up like at home? I gave up in frustration and motion to her that I don't need it. Then the lady behind me came up to say something that I don't know and lean up in front of me to look at how much I'm paying for my grocery....??? I left that place is frustration and went home where Josh can clearly tell that I was having my moments. We laugh in pain while we drank this bottle of Chinese wine...which by the way, is only about 1.25 US dollars and are like grape juice. We cook some dumplings that I bought and had our dinner before heading out to the town to this party that somehow i got invited via one of my contact in Shanghai... That was a bust and I won't even convey to you guys the struggle of finding the place was. In the end, we gave up, bought some large bottles of Budweiser ( which is surprisingly delicious) take a cab home, in which the cab driver drop us off still far from our house because NO ONE SEEMS TO KNOW WHERE WE LIVE!!!!!! We got home, get drunk and call it a night because we both are frustrated by the experience.

So yes, Shanghai has been/still is a huge learning curve for me/us. There are time when Josh and I just look at each other and say " why are we china?" and burst out laughing because really, we can't believe what we just saw or what happened to us. I think i was reallly resentful of China last night due to the events of the day, I feel better today and perhaps try to explore different part of Shanghai today. One more day until work...that will be another thing on its own. :) At least then there will be my 2 european co-workers who hopefully can understand. Stay tune guys.

a shanghai moment....

Hello all,

It's Saturday morning here...and somehow I seem to unable to sleep past 8 here...even though I went to bed at 2 last night...with a little alcohol buzzed and all. Where do I begin about yesterday....it's another day in Shanghai and another huge learning curve.
Josh and I decided to go into the city via the subway station. Of course it's a long walk to the subway station, another reason why josh insists on getting a bike to join the million of crazy chinese on wheels. but the subway station is very clean, very nice, albeit can be crouwded at certain stop. We get off at the Ji'an Temple station exit and went up to the ground was immediate greeted by wonderful civilzation. Now this is what I sort of expected an international city that Shanghai claimed to be to be like. We strolled the streets, finding the Kerry Center where it is said to have a gym with a revolving rock climbing wall for josh, but no luck. We couldn't find the gym inside this building. :(

Josh and I had lunch at Always Cafe, this cute little restaurant close to the subway station.It has a set price lunch so I had rice with beef wrapped in Lotus leave for RBM25. We had a nice table by the enclose patio to people watch while eating. Josh oogle at the asian girls because there are plenty of them around, and catch rare glimpses of white men but not many attractive one...more Eurotrash than anything really. In fact, so far, Shanghai has been good to Josh with the visual eye candy department of women...me however, living in a dessert here.

Then we walk along Nanxi Road via one of my guide book walking tour and saw....gorgeous shops. You got your Burberry, Gucci, Hermes and all sort of high end stores with not alot of people shopping in them because of the high prices but plenty of people on the side walk. We saw a Ferrari dealer ship where Josh basically had his visual orgasm and was being an utter and complete straight boy. It was basically sex on wheels for him. He went ballistics at these cars that while I thought were nice and hot looking, I couldn't appreciate it on the sexual level that he did. We continue to plow along into this sea of people on the side walk and as josh was commenting about how he haven't been hustle at all so far since we have been to Shanghai....we found the real Shanghai for tourist. The street gets impossibly crowded and every 5 seconds, someone is asking Josh and I if we wanted " shoes, dvd, watches"? They don't even have the real product with them, just cards of the product...i don't even know where they keep them if we had say yes. I put on my sunglasses and try to fiercely stomp my way out of the masses to no avail. We finally reach Remin Square...the largest green area in downtown Shanghai and yeah....no. We also reached People's Park and yeah....this is the crazy Shanghai on steroid. Think Times Square, but million of Chinese and imagine being hustle at every 15 steps you take for " addidas, rebok, watches, t-shirt?" It's a very cool public square though I must say...granite walk way and everything. However, some part they do allow cars to drive through the square also.....that's dangerous. Josh and I trekked on, getting out of the square, into more crazy side walk cramp with Chinese and heading toward the Bund to see the symbol of Shanghai. The Pudong skyline with the Oriental Pearl Tower and the Jinmao tower.

We finally reach the Bund where you can see all the old colonial buildings on our side of the river facing across all the new architecture of Puxi/Lujiazui area....and then this is where things get ugly for me. One thing is that the monsoon smog ( yes, monsoon smog) is so thick that you feel like you're looking at some freakist grayish fog on the other side of the river. And on the Bund, the hustlers for shoes and watches are replaced by a new breed of hustlers, and my least favorite. These hustlers pretend to be your friend and come up to you and start chatting with you in English and ask all sort of question. My guide book has told me about them already so I knew what to expect, but what I didn't know was how ANNOYING they're. These hustlers ultimate goal is to be friend you and then get you to "hang out" with them where you have to spend money in restaurants and shops etc...where you end up paying for everything. So as Josh and I stands on the balcony, me trying to take pictures of the gray skyline, 2 Chinese came up to us, a guy and a girl, and started talking. Josh, of course, being the friendlier of the two of us, chatted with them a bit and they started yapping. They asked us where we're from, blah blah blah, wouldn't stop asking question. Then they turn their attention to me specifically and keep asking if I was Chinese because I look very Chinese. This is where I got pissed off. In my head, I'm thinking " Bitch, if you're going to hustle me, don't insult me by calling me Chinese and that somehow along the way my ancestor is Chinese." To add salt to the wound, after me keep telling them that I'm not Chinese, they ask if I was black...???? WHAT??? Josh thought this was hilarious however because he sees how my facial expression keeps slowly turning into being complete pissed off. I quickly ended that shit and drag Josh away. We went further down the Bund as Josh is laughing his assed off about what they just said to me, we stopped for me to look at the guide book to see what else we could do at the Bund. Big mistake. As soon as we stopped, 3 ugly girls attack us and start yapping again. The usual bull shit begins with where we are and such, then one more time, attention is turned into Trinh's ethnicity. I apparently look Chinese again, which I said no, but then one of them asked: " You're no Chinese? You born in Mexico?" This was probably the high light of the conversation for Josh because he thought it was HILARIOUS as my face went completely pissed off and I excuse ourself to go. We couldn't handle being hustles at anymore so we start walking back. We decided to go back to one of the subway station that we saw in Remin Park to go home and of course, we had to walk back to the impossibly crowded side walk and gazillion hustlers asking us for shoes or watches. That 2 hours walk of just not more than 2 miles really exhausted me. We went home...another really long walk home to our apartment in the outskirt of the city with nothing interesting around.

We now realize how outside of the tourist/downtown Shanghai we are, and while it has nothing interesting, at least we're not being hustle at walking the street. We got home, rest our weary feet and watch Lucky Number Slevin on the pirated DVD collection of our. Josh feel asleep on the couch while I started to try to cook in our kitchen with 2 tiny pots and 2 pans. It's impossible to cook rice in the pot because it keeps burning it. Then I chop some meat but then realize we don't have salt in the house, well, only seasoned salt, and what the previous interns had was this Ojomoto stuffs that I'm familiar with at home, but these are definitely not salt. They're like chemically altered salt that has a different taste of saltiness and i don't like it. So after struggling with the rice, finding a giant cockroach chilling by the garbage can, I decided to go to the Brilliance West Shopping Center of our next block down to pick up some more grocery. I told Josh that I can do this by myself so I left and this is when Trinh begins to have his moments....

English...again

Hello all,

So finally got this whole english blog thing to work again, thank goodness. So now I can update you guys on what's going on with me. Today was a very productive day. Josh and I woke up at 4 in the morning because we couldn't sleep. We basically got caught up on our emails and sat around waiting until 8:15 so we start leaving to go to work. We got dressed...i made Josh dressed up to go to work on the first day...but in the end, he didn't take an umbrella and it's monsoon season here so he was drench. We were lost trying to find our office building and that took alot out of us. Josh was drenching wet when we finally found it...I felt as a gay man, I have failed my own personal dogma...somehow...

Anyway, we got a tour of the office, kinda disappointing because it is such an odd place, met a few co-workers, got our key card and I hurried Josh to leave. lol. We walked back...in the rain...in my FIERCE shoes...which by the way gave me blisters....but I was stomping on the street of Shanghai like a top model. lol. We took a nap...well Josh napped on our couch which is WAY SOFTER and NICER than our bed....which are wooden boxes...or feel like it. I circled a few restaurants where we could go but quickly gave up. Josh and I ended up checking out Carrefour, this huge french supermarket that has amazing food court in the basement. And by food court I meant a bunch of restaurants with excellent wait staffs all of whom you don't tip...a very weird concept to me.

After we bought some stuffs at Carrefour for the "bachelors pad" as our apartment is known, we ate some delicious food and then head off to home. Then we hit up the grocery/shopping mall a block down from us where Josh was super stoked to find a sporting good store. The boy has been dying to get a bicycle since day one and look like he might get his wish. He's trying to convince me to get a bike and get on the road...but yeah, this whole en mass no traffic laws thing, not so well for Trinh. But I'm glad that Josh is happy though. Shanghai is slowly making itself available to us...although me buying bok choi was a problem. You can't just grab the veggies and shove it in a bag and go to the register, you have to stop by the veggies counter where they put a sticker on it. Josh and I was trying for the longest time to figure out what the chinese character for bok choi is before someone kindly point us to the counter...which the girl working there didn't know either and ask us what veggies it was....finally someone know it's bok choi. That was tough. Well anyway, during the course of me writing this blog, we have discovered a humongous stash of American movies with Chinese subtitles that are obviously filmed inside the theatre.....the bachelor pad is looking up!!!

Will try to upload some photos soon. bye all.

uh....everything is in chinese

So i guess this blog is a fail experiment because I'm struggling to access it right now. Everything is in Chinese and it's not letting sign in of some sort. I don't know what's going on..... I'll try to figure it out and let you guys know. In the mean time, be glad to know that I've made it in Shanghai...struggling but made it nevertheless. More stories to follow as it's 4:30 in the morning here and I have to be at work at 9...yet i can't sleep.....

rice queen

Well it's 2:15 AM on Sunday night, I'm still up trying to pack/watching Law & Order: SVU. Oh Christopher Maloni....hotness. Anyhow...I'm starting to get nervous about Shanghai...you would think that I would be use to moving to different cities by now...but no. Still nervous.

On a brighter note, I'm glad that school is over for now and it's "vacation" time for me. Only 1 more days to go....then I get to start another interesting chapter in the life of Trinh.

Cheers.

PS: 6 tubes of toothpaste should last me for 6 months right? I mean...we all knows how the chinese toothpaste are like...death paste... Thank god for Crest.

Well the next time you guys read this, hopefully i'll be settle in Shanghai already. LOve all.

11

Yes, only 11 more days until I will be boarding a plane and leaving for Shanghai....lets the countdown begins. :)