happy every day!

Chinese companies love using winks in their logos. I have no idea what the significance of this is (if any) or why it's so popular, but of course I love it.

Whenever my sorority took "silly" pictures during Bid Day, I usually rocked the wink. Totally silly of me. And, good practice for my time in China it seems.

Happy Lemon is a mini bubble tea shop in the plaza near my school. It's logo is this little lemon looking girl head that's winking. Obviously, I'm all over it.

My NEW goal for my time in China? Forget trying to learn Chinese or making Chinese friends. My newest ambition is to try everything on Happy Lemon's menu once. Reach for the stars, right?

what doesn't kill us

I do this thing when I travel or take trips places. This very annoying, inconvenient thing.

I don't know what comes over me, but I suddenly want to be this chic-er, better dressed version of myself when I think of spending an extended period of time abroad. So, to expedite the process, I only bring chic, uncomfortable clothing.

Beggars can't be choosers, right?

So if I only bring one t-shirt and more than a dozen fashionable work blouses, I'll be forced to wear the fashionable work blouses, right?

Wrong. I'll just wear the one t-shirt every day and curse myself for being so lame and not packing more.

Of course, when I was packing to move to a country where it used to be common practice to bind women's feet, my size 10 self thought "Yeah, I'll only bring pumps and heels because then I'll be sure to always be cute! All the time! No matter what!"

Ya, well, walking for hours in black leather pumps in weather that is 78 degrees but "feels like 107" according to weather.com because of the humidity is not a combination that automatically brings "cute" to mind. It does, however, bring to mind the words "blister" and "backache".

Needless to say, I have been relying way too heavily on the two pairs of three dollar Old Navy flip flops I thankfully had the presence of mind to pack. I brought 10 pairs of shoes and all of them are heels, save the no-traction death-trap flip flops.

The thing that bugs me the most is that I literally had several pairs of sturdy Reef sandals in my hands ready to be put in my suitcase, but I put them away, deluding myself into believing that in China I would become that girl that wears heels everywhere.

Y'know, that girl that doesn't exist in real life. Like Carrie Bradshaw. Or a happy French woman (yeah, they wear heels everywhere, but have you ever seen one of them smile?).

So I've been surviving so far with my cheap-o shower sandals. But barely. All the flooring here is made out of cheap wanna-be marble, my guess is because it is cheaper than concrete. Well, slippery tiling and rain pretty much mean that I have to waddle everywhere for fear of falling on my ass. That is, when I'm not actually falling on my ass. Behold, my bruise (and the one t-shirt I brought to China):

It is actually much worse than it looks, I assure you. The entire right side of my body is still sore from my total full-body fall two days ago. I probably broke something, who knows. But so far it's not life threatening, hence not worth a trip to the scary Chinese doctor.

move over mid-autumn festival

Forget mooncake! It's all about the "American Food Fair"!

I walked into Carrefour today to do a little Monday morning grocery shopping, and what did my stars-and-stripes deprived eyes behold but a fabulous American Food Fair display filled with such American treats as Jello pudding, pancake mix, and vanilla frosting! Hellz. Yes.

I didn't actually buy anything, but it felt good to see lots of American products that I could buy if I really wanted to. I did give in and buy some frozen American entrees, but they were super on sale (6RMB each!) so I didn't feel as guilty as I would if I had purchased that delicious looking box of Corn Flakes for 35RMB.

I bought a DVD off the street for the first time yesterday. Everyone has always told me you can find any DVD ever made on the streets of China. I'm not sure if that's true, but I bought Wall-E for less than 1 US dollar. I've already watched it twice.

a nation of bobs

Romy and I were walking around Puxi the other day, just checking out the sights and doing a little shopping (for some cute chopsticks, mostly). Despite what everyone told me, there aren't that many white people in Shanghai. Sure, they're around somewhere, but it's pretty much like looking for a white needle in a haystack full of Asians. I feel like Romy and I stand out wherever we go, if not because we're very clearly white chicks, then because we very clearly do not speak Chinese.

Sometimes I hear an American speaking English in a crowd and I think "Sweet! Someone I can have a conversation with" other times I think "Gawd, I hope that dude doesn't try to talk to us". My reaction to hearing native-speaking English is based on a lot of factors, but for guys it mostly comes down to the Frat Factor. If you're that douche bag who everyone tried to avoid at your fraternity house, then I do not want to talk to you. Guys like that get to China and suddenly they become someone people not only don't avoid, but actually make an effort to talk to!

Why? Because, as Romy would say, they're a "Bob". Best of the bunch. Ex-pat circumstances eventually lead to a lowering of standards. You can't have the same expectations for friends or significant others as you would at home, because there is simply not a big enough population to choose from. There aren't many Americans here, so if a Bob is even remotely entertaining or fun to be around, they will find acceptance with pretty much any ex-pat community because it's slim pickins out there, so "I guess you'll do".

Romy and I were wandering around the streets of East Nanjing road, when suddenly I overheard some American dude say to another American dude "I'm totally falling in love with China." I stopped to glance in a nearby shop, and to let the Dude Crew pass so I could see the person who said such a tool-y thing. He was wearing a polo with the collar popped, of course.

You're not falling in love with China, you're falling in love with the fact that in China people actually think you're cool.

i'm looking for my leopard, where can he be?

Someone please help Mr. Kitty find his leopard!!


Just in case that stops working (as Youtube videos so famously like to do), the static link can be found here.

china time

I finally figured out how to switch my blog over to China time. It wasn't something that was difficult or anything, I just never thought about it except when I was away from my computer. But now it's done so my post times will actually reflect the time of day which I write them, not half a day before.

Also, if I read your blog/have read it in the past and you haven't received any comments from me recently, it's because China is full of haters who don't want me to look at any websites that I actually enjoy reading. Cnn.com is amazingly never blocked, too bad I hate any sort of real news.

I have everyone on my "Strawberry's Faves" list saved in my Google Reader so I'm able to read your posts, I just haven't figured out how to comment on posts from the Google Reader platform. Is this possible? Anyone? Beuller? Beuller?

The few times any of you HAVE received comments from me, it's because I'm accessing your site from a proxy server which is actually a huge pain in the ass. I can't even access my OWN website without using a proxy server, which is why I haven't been replying to a lot of comments on my own blog. I really appreciate all the comments, though!

I've been trying to access my site via proxy at least once a week to reply to everyone, but China only lets you use one proxy site for so long until they block that, too, so I'm kind of hitting a "Great wall", so to speak. At least I can still get on Blogger.com to post.

What sites they choose to block and not block totally make no sense to me. Like, for example, the fact that icanhascheezburger.com is blocked is both very upsetting and very perplexing. Is there anything politically subversive about a cat saying "kthxbye"? I'd have to go with a resounding "No" on that one.

And yet, some government official somewhere thinks lolcats are socially sensitive enough that they need to be hidden from everyone in China. The saddest thing about it is the Chinese don't even know what a plethora of hilarity they're missing out on. Yeah, I'm ending a sentence with a preposition. Suck it.

local celebrity

I've been in China nearly two weeks. It's weird because in some ways that's such a short amount of time, but I feel as if it was ages ago that I was running through the airport in San Francisco silently praying that I wouldn't miss my flight. Well, I made it, and so far I'm surviving.

It's been so hectic getting acclimated to the 15-hour time difference, creating a schedule for my graduate courses, and thinking of lessons for the three different classes I'm teaching, so I've barely had time to relax much less sight see. This weekend I thought I'd go crazy if I stayed on campus so Romy and I took a trip to the Bund.

The Bund is a district in Shanghai, I think. I mean, I don't really know how to describe it, I just know what it is. A lot of tourists go there and take pictures. It's basically just a wharf overlooking a bunch of cool looking buildings that line the Huangpu River. It looks like this:

Romy and I took a lot of pictures of each other with the river and city skyline in the background, since that's pretty much the only thing to do at the Bund. Some guy came up to us and asked, "Can I take picture?" and we assumed he meant take a picture of the two of us since we were unable to get any together, but I'm weary of handing off my camera to strangers so I said no and he started to laugh nervously and then apologized, when Romy realized he wanted to take a picture with me, not for me.

So I laughed and said sure. It happened once more before we left the wharf, I'm toying with the idea of charging 5RMB a photo or something, y'know, for a little "mad money". The Naked Cowboy gets away with it in New York, why can't I do the same thing in China? I could be the Naked Cowgirl of Shanghai, only not naked. And not a cowgirl.

My friend Penny who is also a blond American got asked to hold someone's baby while they took a picture of her. I'm keeping my fingers crosses someone asks me that, because that's just awesome.

life lesson #1

If someone begins a sentence with the words "I don't mean to be rude, but..." or "I don't mean to be mean, but..." they are about to be rude and/or mean.

supporting child labor in every country

Since all the products at American Walmarts are made by small children in China, do Walmarts IN China get their products from here, too, or are they supplied by another developing country that's being exploited for its cheap labor?

I have no idea. My guess would be that it all still comes from China, but since all the product labels are in Chinese I couldn't say for sure.

Either way, I went to Walmart today with my friend Romy (she's the "Romy" to my "Michele") and it was fabulous. It reminded me a lot of home, just seeing that giant yellow smiley face and all the signs for "rollbacks". I don't even shop at Walmart in the States, but shopping at Walmart here in China comforted me.

Something that's always interesting when you're visiting (or living, in my case) somewhere foreign is how many mistakes you make from simply not knowing the language. So far I haven't really built up the courage to attempt full-on conversations with locals or anything, so it's not language mistakes yet. For the time being, it's mostly accidental purchases. Like purchasing sweet sliced bread instead of regular white bread. Or salty, sour-seasoned dried orange peels instead of "dried plums" like the package indicated.

It's really just a trial and error thing until I learn more than two characters (ni and hao, which are never on product labels anyway). Everything is an adventure in China, even grocery shopping! Every day I go in with my list of things to buy, wondering what little surprises I might encounter. For example, did you know that they don't sell ANY sunscreen in China? It's true. For as much as Chinese women like to walk around with parasols to protect their skin from UV rays, they don't have entire aisles devoted to sunscreen like in the United States. I found one bottle, after look at four stores, and it was 80RMB, which is super expensive, especially since it was only 2 ounces.

They have a wider selection (maybe four or five brands to choose from) of sunblock that doubles as a skin whitener, but putting bleach on my skin is 1. not necessary for me 2. not something I want to experiment with here in China.

the most important thing

A colleague of mine (I'm so important now being in China and all that I have colleagues, not co-workers) came in today after teaching 12th grade International Relations and told me how much the students liked me.

"Oh really?" I asked, hoping he'd give me more details.
"Yeah, they all said you were super nice."
"Anything else?"
"They all thought you were really pretty."
"Well, that's the most important thing, isn't it?"

anyone can be a poet

Even Michael Phelps! Who I just happen to be in a fake relationship with on facebook. How effing SWEET is that?

Today in my 8th grade class we discussed four short poems. I thought they were all pretty boring, but I had given my students homework on them so I didn't want to just throw the whole lesson plan out and do something new. They seemed to like them, which is ultimately the most important thing when you're teaching I suppose. But in the future, I'm going to steer clear of poetry.

I feel like poetry is one of those things you either love or hate. And I hate it. So, trying to explain something that I hate to people that don't know anything about it wasn't the most enjoyable way to spend 80 minutes of my life.

I've only been a teacher for three days, so I can't exactly "wing it" yet if I start discussing something then want to switch to another topic. To buy some time while I thought of a way to make the material fun, I threw them a hand-out and had them work in groups for 15 minutes. Thank God for group work.

I don't know how it happened, but suddenly, out of nowhere, a creative on-topic activity just came to me. It was like, the angel of English literature for junior high flew down from the heavens and presented me with the best idea ever. Well, maybe not ever, but the best idea I've had so far in terms of teaching.

I read the four poems again out loud then asked my students which poem sounded the most like a song they might hear on the radio. One student mentioned poem #1, another poem #2, and so I had the class vote. Once a consensus was reached I gave them instructions to re-write the poem as if it were a song they might hear on the radio. They could choose to mimic the style of the poem, the theme, or just use a word that was in the poem. They also had to choose a singer that would sing the song.

The class is comprised of four boys and four girls and so far they've wanted to stay separated by gender and I've let them since it's their first week and I'm still trying to feel them out in terms of their abilities and willingness to participate. The girls were super excited and immediately started buzzing about what their song lyrics would be.

The boys...were less excited. Well, that's not exactly right, they had plenty to SAY about the assignment, but they weren't really producing much (/anything) so I had to push them a little more by telling them they wouldn't be excused for lunch until it was completed. That was all the motivation they needed.

They had trouble deciding on a singer, so I told them they could choose any famous person, and in true Olympic spirit they chose Michael Phelps. Adorable, right?

This is the original poem, by Shel Silverstein:
"Forgotten Language"
Once I spoke the language of the flowers,
Once I understood each word the caterpillar said,
Once I smiled in secret at the gossip of the starlings,
And shared a conversation with the housefly
in my bed.
Once I heard and answered all the questions
of the crickets,
And joined the crying of each falling dying
flake of snow,
Once I spoke the language of the flowers...
How did it go?
How did it go?

Their version, by Michael Phelps:
"Yo"
Once I spoke the language of the fish.
Once I understood each word the octopus said.
Once I made friends with a white shark.
And shared my gold medal with the
big whale.
Once I swam 100km with the dolphin.

let the teaching begin

I don't want to jinx myself since I haven't had my 12th graders yet, so I'll refrain from making any generalizations about the students until after my class with the older kids tomorrow morning. But let's just say that I survived, so that's something.

I introduced myself briefly to the 12th graders today before my school had a big welcoming ceremony for the entire international division. It all happened so fast I can't really make any kind of judgments about them, except that there are some native-born Americans in the class. And they at least seemed to think I was cute, even if they didn't care about what I was saying.

I fibbed a little and said I was San Francisco since most Chinese people know where that is, and really, I'm close enough.

During the welcoming ceremony they called out the name of each foreign teacher and we had to stand up and sort of wave to the auditorium. All the students clapped after each teacher stood up, but they totally started hooting and hollering for me. It was kind of embarrassing, but I have to admit, it was mostly flattering.

I swear, it's all about the blond hair here. It totally sets me apart from 95% of the Americans. I'm hoping to use it to my advantage in my classrooms. Y'know, the boys think I'm cute so they'll be more inclined to behave better because they want to impress me. Either that, or they'll be total monsters as a way of "getting my attention".

My eighth graders were pretty nice, and paid attention most of the time. There's 9 of them and 3 of them know absolutely no English, which I wasn't prepared for. I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to lesson plan for such a wide range of English comprehension (extremely limited to fluent). We'll see how it goes.

We played a fun icebreaking game at the beginning of class. I had each person choose a food that started with the same first letter as their name, then we stood in a circle and each person had to introduce themselves in a clock-wise fashion, with each person having to say the names of the person (or people) that went before them. It was a great way to learn everyone's names really fast.

I find it so much easier to remember names if I associate them with something else. Lettuce Lisa...who could forget that? My favorite was Spaghetti Sean. Or Caramel Cindy. I don't know! The food choices were all so cute!

lots more pencils, lots more books, lots more students' dirty looks

Today is my first day of teaching, wish me...something, anything. I don't even care if it's "luck" at this point.

Hooray for 2-hour morning assemblies that cancel my 1st period 12th grade class! But I still have a bunch of 8th graders to contend with post-lunch.

Where's my lucky rabbit's foot when I need it?

now, turn your head and then cough

In order to get a Chinese visa to live or work in China, you have to turn in a bunch of paperwork, pay a big fee, and get a physical examination in the United States before you arrive. Oh, and apparently you ALSO need to get a physical examination when you get to China.

Do you remember getting a physical exam for high school or junior high? Probably not. In the United States they're pretty uneventful experiences, for my most recent one my doctor glanced at my chart, did a quick exam of my lungs with a stethoscope, took a quick look at my throat and ears, then signed me off as healthy and ready to work.

Not so in China.

Chinese physicals are much more intense than any kind of medical ANYTHING I've had done in the United States. I'm a pretty healthy girl, so I don't have a ton of experience in hospitals, but trust me, my Chinese hospital experience takes the cake.

To start things off, we had to leave the school at 6:45 in the morning. I'm still pretty out of it from the 15 hour time difference between here and home, anxious about teaching, and feel like a child because of the whole not being able to speak the host language thing, so I was pretty much a walking zombie when we got to the hospital, which was a good hour van ride away.

All eleven foreign teachers I'm working with were required to go through the physical examination. We handed someone at the front desk our passports, were given a form to fill out and a slip of paper with a number, then pointed in the direction of a waiting area.

In the waiting area numbers were called out slowly and we had to go into a little room where a webcam sat on the desk taking our photograph as the assistant grabbed our forms from us and inputed them into the system.

This whole time none of us have any idea what's going on, since none of us speak Chinese and no one there spoke English.

We all have to go change into gowns, which is where it got interesting. We put our belongings into small lockers, and then preceded to be pushed and shoved from one room to the next with no explanation at all. If hospitals could be assembly lines, this hospital would be the model to which all other hospitals aspired to be like. Each room had a different purpose, and each patient was seen for about 2 minutes maximum by each "doctor". Who even knows what kind of degrees these people had.

I had to have about half a dozen different procedures done, and it was all done so quickly that I didn't even have time to protest. I stood on this metal thing, that apparently took my weight and height through some kind of laser beam, but I didn't see or feel anything so I really don't know how it all worked.

Next, I was pushed into this dark room with one single light in the far corner. The being pushed thing was the most unnerving aspect of it all (at least initially), because it made me feel completely out of control of what was going on. I had a chest x-ray, but at the time didn't realize that was what was going on until the guy shoved my chest against the machine and shouted something in Chinese in my ear.

Then I had to get blood taken. I'm not even going to mention the statistics on dirty needles in China to you, but I had no choice so I did it. They looked clean to me, and it seemed like they were using new needles each time, but who knows what they did with the needles afterward or if they re-used them from day to day or what.

Next was an eye exam which was pretty standard. Every room was so big with just a small desk and a doctor sitting there. For some reason it reminded me of Saw in terms of the overall ambiance of the place (dark, grimy, full of shadows). It's never a good sign to be reminded of a horror movie when you're at the doctor. After testing my sight, the doctor shoved a light up my nose and then aggressively pointed for me to leave.

I sat in the hall with a bunch of other bewildered foreigners for a few minutes, waiting for the ultrasound room to be free. Both men and women had to get ultrasounds of their stomachs and lower abdomens. Good news people, I'm not pregnant! No actually, I still don't know what they were looking for and what they found, and I'll probably never know.

After being poked to the point of bruising by the ultrasound technician, I had to get an EKG. The EKG machine was very archaic looking (like everything else in the hospital) and instead of plastic sensors everything had little metal suction cups on it. Very strange.

Finally, I had my "general examination" which consisted of a woman nurse rubbing on my stomach then asking "You have surgery???" I was kinda confused as to whether she meant EVER, or if I was to have surgery sometime later that day, so I just went with "No".

After that, I was pulled back into the changing area, where I put my clothes back on and prayed that they used clean needles.

Note to self: don't get sick here.

mooncakes: NOT "out of this world'

I had to use some sort of space pun in the title of this post, and "out of this world" was the only thing my jet-lagged brain could think of.

On the 15th day of the 8th lunar month (usually September) of the Chinese calendar there is a festival known as the Mid-Autumn festival or Moon festival. I actually don't know too much about it, but I hear lanterns are somehow involved as well as the consumption of a Chinese pastry known as a mooncake.

Pastry you say? Cake you say? I'm totally in! I had to try one of these things, because 1. it's so Chinese and 2. there's a giant display of about 100 different mooncake varieties in the Carrefour (French version of Walmart here in Shanghai) where I shop.

Verdict: nasty. I lived in France for 9 months and became a total fatty from over consumption of pastries and bread, so I'm somewhat of an expert when it comes to the deliciousness of baked goods. If you can bake it, I've probably eaten it. More than once. I've sworn to never go down that road again (fat does not equal fabulous, in case you were confused), so it's probably a good thing that I absolutely hated the little mooncake thing.

I'm surprised that anything with the word "cake" in it could actually taste bad, but the Chinese pulled it off! They're also pretty pricey, the cheapest one was about 8RMB. I could buy a whole bowl of noodles at a sit down restaurant for that price. I took one bite and tossed it in the trash.

But I did try it, and that has to count for something.

it's raining cats and dogs

Or acid from all the air pollution, same difference.

The weather here has been completely crazy. The first day it was super sunny with blue skies (which I had heard were the Chinese equivalent of seeing a unicorn) and then the last few days have been very gray.

Not gray because it's going to rain or anything, just gray because the air is so filled with smog and other pollutants. Minus today, because today it actually IS raining. I'm sort of afraid to go outside in it. The photograph above is from my balcony.

The water here is very dirty, and I'm sure rain water is no different. All tap water has a sort of yellowish tint to it, and it smells very metallic. A mixture of iron or nickel or something, I'm not exactly sure. It's very strange though, because you can smell it in the tea in restaurants and stuff.

Keep in mind, I'm in Shanghai. The largest port city in the world. As far as the environment, sewage, and sanitation, it is important to remember that despite it's ever-growing position of power on a global scale, China is still a developing country. We experienced our industrial revolution 150 years ago, they're experiencing it now. So I'm not exactly shocked by the overall dirtiness here, just, well, unprepared? I'm not sure how else to describe it.

it should be called "LeFakesac"

I experienced my first ever, real life, Chinese bargaining showdown today at a market in Pudong.

There are tons of markets all over Shanghai where they sell pretty much anything you could imagine ever even thinking about wanting such as a personalized parasol, a tapestry of a fat panda in the forest, or some Russian nesting dolls that look like Chinese people. I had a goal today, though, and that goal was some good old-fashioned knockoff handbags.

Honestly, I'm completely against knockoffs in the States. It's not so much a snob thing, because it doesn't really matter to me if I can tell someone is wearing a fake Gucci or not (and trust me, purse people can tell). There's just something about me knowing that the handbag I'm wearing isn't genuine that I don't like. So if I can't afford it, I just don't buy it. It's that simple.

I didn't bring any of my nice purses here, mainly because I didn't want them to get filthy from the extremely polluted air or by using them on a day to day basis and setting them down on dirty streets at restaurants or Metro seats. I brought one black leather bag because I figure, even if the leather gets affected by the pollution, it won't show it like a fabric bag or something.

The only problem is, the black leather bag has a magnetic closure which is cute and fun, but not very safe or practical for a city of 20 million people who all crowd onto the Metro with me at 6 PM.

I wanted needed something that was big, had a large enough strap to throw over my shoulder, and had a zip all the way along the top. I also didn't want to spend an arm and a leg on it, because what's the point? I'd rather have something I wouldn't be broken up about getting ruined, since it probably will be ruined after 10 months here.

When scoping out the market, the purse that seemed to best suit all my purchase qualifications was a LeSportsac. Of course, they have about 300 different fabric options to choose from, and at least 100 different stalls selling the same kind of stuff, so just finding a place with the fabric/style I wanted took a while.

And remember, these vendors are trying to maintain the guise that these are "best quality! Very authentic! Real! Straight from manufacturer!" So it's not like they have a huge sign saying "fake bags, super cheap!" They're trying to pawn them off as the real thing, baby. Obviously, most people know better, but some of the higher end fakes were still very pricey (like Chloe or D&G).

Currently, it's about 1USD to every 7RMB, so if you're paying 21RMB for something, that's only 3 bucks in the states. HOWEVER, I am making way below poverty level in the states (salaries in China are no where close to salaries in the US because it's so much cheaper to live here), so you can't really have the "Well it's only ___ in the US" mindset when shopping. Vendors are asking you for RMB and they expect you to be thinking in terms of RMB, not dollars.

I wanted two LeSportsac bags. One large one with a poppy pattern (I LOVE poppies!) and a small one with an art deco-ish bird pattern. Initially, the woman quoted me over 400RMB for the two. We checked out purse vendors near-by, and it seemed like this was pretty much the "going rate" for these purses.

But, Chinese vendors expect you to bargain with them. In fact, they would be slightly offended if you didn't. I say slightly because I'm sure there immense happiness over making a ton more money on a item they would have sold at a 1/4 of the asking price tends to outweigh any feelings of offense. Still, it's a customary thing to do and the vendors are expecting you to do it.

My advice: totally low-ball them. Whatever they say, respond with an offer of about 20% of that price. They'll act offended and dismayed that a person would even think of offering such a low price, but they'll continue to bargain with you until you both reach a price you have agreed on. Generally, you should stay in the 25%-35% range from the initial asking price, definitely never over 50%. And if one vendor is acting extremely non-willing to work with you, just remember, this is China, there's tons of fake stuff to sell, and tons of Chinese people who will be willing to do it.

They say 400RMB? Shoot back with "Hm, I'll only go for 50RMB" This will bring on a lot of huffing and puffing by the vendor, who will sometimes even grab you and say "LADY YOU CRAZY!!!! THIS IS BEST QUALITY!! 5 ZIPPERS!" Then she'll get out her calculator and type some numbers on it and hand it over to you with 320 on the screen, insisting "THIS BEST PRICE! I GIVE TO YOU!". Then you'll be like "Oh, I dunno....I don't even need zippers....I mean what are zippers, anyway?...." and sort of walk out of the stall, where she'll grab you and shout "WHAT BEST PRICE FOR YOU, TELL ME!!!" and you'll say 50 again, and she will shout and call you lady and say "THIS IS JOKE! THAT IS JOKE PRICE!"

This back and forth will continue for several minutes, she'll come down lower in her price, probably like 120RMB or so, and then you'll say something like "No, I'm only willing to spend 60RMB." and then she'll say 85, and you'll say 70, and then she huff and buffs and calls you lady some more until you start to walk out then she runs after you and says "OK OK! JUST FOR YOU!!! JUST FOR YOU I GIVE YOU THIS DEAL!! GEEZ LADY!" And then you'll walk away with two totally cute, albeit totally fake, LeSportsac purses for 70RMB, and everyone (i.e. me) is happy.

XOXO & potstickers,
Strawberry

ni hao from china!

I made it to Shanghai safe and sound, despite my initial mishaps at the airport. My flight from Vancouver to China didn't seem as long as it really was (nearly 13 hours), probably because I was asleep most of the time. I managed to watch two movies, which was pretty awesome and they had a huge selection to choose from. Foreign carriers are so much better than any American airline out there, if you ask me. Everyone got their own touch screen video monitor and there were about 25 movies, 30 or so different TV shows, a bunch of video games, and an endless selection of music to choose from. Go Air Canada!

The food was very strange, sort of a mixture of Chinese and American food, but they had these cute mini-soy sauces that were in plastic fish containers. I don't know why anyone would want soy sauce for mashed potatoes, but when in Rome, I guess. We got two meals and then right before we landed everyone got a Cup O' Noodles which made me laugh. It seems a little dangerous to serve soup right before landing, doesn't it?

I'm still jet-lagged and have been waking up at 5AM every morning. I wouldn't mind if that side effect of jet-lagginess continued because I've been getting a ton of stuff done in the mornings when everyone else is sleeping.

Overall, China is nothing like what I was expecting. People tell you all these things about a country before you go, and then when you actually get there it seems like everything is different than what you've heard. There are pretty much NO white people here, which is totally fine by me because I want (and need) to make Chinese friends, but I was told there was a huge ex-pat population in Shanghai, specifically in the area of town where I am living (Pudong).

Me and some friends took the metro last night and we were the only white people in a sea of Asians. I tend to stand out because of my hair, which is a good and bad thing. Good because people always come up to me and want to talk, bad because people always come up to me and want to talk. It's a double-edged sword. Maybe in a few days when I'm not so tired all the time I'll feel more comfortable experimenting with my Chinese, but at this point I don't even remember any of the 2 months of instruction I had and have been surviving off of "ni hao" and "xie xie" and a lot of pointing to things.

plenty of misadventures already

My flight left San Francisco at 6 o'clock this morning which meant I needed to be there at 4 AM which meant I needed to leave my house by 2:30. Well, I personally hate SFO because when compared to other huge international airports, the layout is a total mess. Of course we got semi-lost just trying to find the departure area since there was no "Air Canada" in the international area. And this was before we even got out of the car.

We ended up finding where we thought we were supposed to be, but after 45 minutes of waiting and the clock ticking closer to 5 AM, I called Air Canada customer service and asked what time the check-in area at SFO is supposed to open. Long, boring story short, we were in the wrong area, and had to go to some area of the airport I had no idea even existed and of course the lines were HUGE and my flight was scheduled to leave in under an hour. Keep in mind they close check-in 45 minutes prior to take off.

We start off in one line but then we're told we can't be there so they send us to another line. That line was gigantic so I went and pleaded with some lady who sent us to another line. And this whole time me, Mom, and Dad are lugging my two 50 pound bags around and my carry-on across the airport.

At last, some wonderful little man in a knit sweater checks me in and I think I'm in the clear as I skip off to security...then the security guy tells me my carry-on is too big and I need to empty some of the bulk. Um, that's nice, but at this point it's 5:30, I have NO WHERE to empty "the bulk" AND I still have to go through security. Mom ran off and got this huge plastic bag that they wrap around some strangely shaped luggage (my hiking back pack, for example) and I dump all my school books into it and show Mr. Security High-and-Mighty that my carry-on is smaller and lug the suitcase, my purse, and a giant plastic bag through security.

I made it to the gate right before it closed (think Home Alone frantic running through the airport shenanigans), then proceeded to sleep the entire 2 hour trip to Vancouver. I have an hour and a half before I board my plane to Shanghai. Is it possible to back out at this point?

guess the dish 8/16/08 answer!

There were a lot of good guesses (curry, mystery stew) and several bad guesses (barf)...the REAL answer is Ghorme Sabzi! Ghorme Sabzi is a Persian dish made up of a mixture of greens (fenugreek, parsley, coriander), kidney beans, onions, saffron water, and dried Persian lemons. I've had this dish at least a dozen times because it's Rod's favorite so he always used to bring it back to school with him after breaks, and I finally decided to take the plunge and try it out myself!

Prep time took about an hour and then the stew had to simmer on the stove for nearly 4 hours. It was SO worth it though. It tasted, smelled, and looked like the real thing! Hooray! I love when food experiments turn out fabulous.