Last weekend

So my genius collegues(the boys) left my camera at work, but I have to tell about my wonderous weekend without visual aid.

Beautiful saturday sunshine welcomed me to work to do a photoshoot for work! More because I speak english than anything, I aided my supervisor communicate with little kiddies (babies-2 yrs) on new products and prototypes. It was a lot of fun, tho a bit chaotic! I got to chat with the parents as well, and found out that both our moms were chinese born and raised in chicago! The kid were absolutely a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e!!!! They fought a bit, but they were in a wonderland of toys. trikes, swings, ball pits, slides.... the list goes on. After a certain point, no one wanted to go in the ball pit, so then I kinda got in it and was like, "OH I'm having SO much fun!" and then the photographer took a picture of me and so my co-workers all got a good laugh out of it.

After that, my roomie J and I hopped down to the URBN hotel to en Eco design fair- which was about 20 vendors selling mostly bamboo-ey consumer products. The URBN hotel touts being the first carbon neutral hotel in shanghai. One of the highlights was the BBQ- like a real american grill with sausages and hamburgers- with ketchup and mustard! yumm! mine managed to get wasabi in it too, and the frank was a little reminicent of bratwurst. It tough to get hot dogs in buns here. Anyhow, bamboo clothes, toys, you name it- and we ended up in a conversation with a man about water filters, and he knew from my accent that I was from cali. He was from San Jose, and actually organizes expat mixers here in shanghai! he talked a lot, and my roomate was like, "Gah. You californians never stop talking!"

So then we enjoyed the weather and walked towards the main street by Jing An, and hear all this American Rap and a huge crowd of people. They were just standing there looking at these two open trailers with clothes (some kinda promo) and there's this DJ spinning american rap which was really kinda funny/odd/entertaining and we walked on to a shady tree area which actually was a park, with a pond, and we ran into our boss and his fie and tiny baby!!!!! the park had a resturant on the pond, so people could dine on the docks, and there was also a small enclosed area with dudes exercising on bars. One had a paddle with ball, another old man was doing kung fu (J was trainging in that for a bit) and two other teens were trying to kung fu, but he kicked so high he fell on his back. ouch! I felt ashamed for him and opted to walked away.

Sunday I took out my friend the purple bike and we ventured out to hong mei lu but I got lost anyhow and found a shoe store where I bought a dress(and tried it out w/o a mirror so then I was taking pictures of myself but since my arm isn't so long, all you see is the big flower print or my nose) I really love biking now, its so much faster than walking! AND i get a cool breeze thru my hair, a bit of exercise, and the excitement of getting hit by a car. Just kidding. I found hong mei lu by accident and had to call J to figure out how to get home and he got mad at me for being so unsafe(or bad directional sense) and reminded me we were getting a visit to fix our apt, so i ran home.

following church in the afternoon, we ate on the rooftop seeing a magnificent view of shanghai, and talking about plans for the holiday, food, inspirational stories, and just fun stuff. I kicked myself for not having my camera that evening, cuz the space was great. open, private, modern but still comfy.

some inspiration

Many hours were spent in school looking for the proper images to photoshop with our computer modelled products, and the best source was flickr.

Heath and the BLT boys has a flickr collection of her Favorite rooms: kids rooms, living rooms, craft rooms-mostly homes and all very very cool. I love perusing thru the photos for their wide variety of color, mood, texture, lighting, and some very very clever ideas for decoration and use of space! She picks them from magazines, off the web and gives ref/credit to where they came from in case you want to look into it more.





and i can't link the images. so sorry. Whats cool above: [1] the tree in the second photo [2] the Bottom row left mid- the one piece for the bunk bed and ladder [3] to the right of it are Tube bunk beds!! how fun! As well as the dotty room. . . or in the words of my HS art teacher, "Circles make people happy!"

But the other thing I've been working on is my business card. And there was a great argument whether or not to put a phone number on it, or just put a fake one. hahaha just kidding!

Anyways, I've been saving up some really good stories of my weekend- to come once I upload my photos!

This coming thurs> is may holiday and my friend Carmen is coming to visit me from beijing! hooray!!

my first terrible cab ride // wonderful desserts!

this morning we took a cab to work. Work is only about 15 minutes from our apt, straight down xianxia and then right on fuchan. Quite simple, and simple enough for a simpleton like myself to direct on mandarin. So our driver says, doesn't understand the cross street, and we're like," fine. just go down fuchan, and we'll tell you. " and then he hangs right prematurely and pulls over 1 block later and whips out a map. And we're all waving our arms saying "go straight!" in mandarin. pointing is universal. And so I call my boss to tell him where to go, if he is lost- but he refuses the phone. Two blocks later he refers back to the map, and we're all telling him where to go. This is our hood, ya kno? Anyways. we're going the opposite direction, the meter is running, my roomate is irate, my boss is asking me questions, and I'm trying to figure out the best thing to do. My boss says not to pay him, I'm thinking maybe just jump out. But since i"M with my roomie it has to be synchronized jumping out.

arrghh. we finally get to the office and my boss is outside ready to tell this guy off. I didn't want to talk about it any longer.

that was the morning. the flipside is the evening, when our cell group went out for dessert together. There's quite a variety of us: singaporean, korean, australia, african, malaysian, canadian, american. . . . and we got 4 pieces of delicious cake and shared them! Carrot cake, lemon meruingue(sp?), flourless chocolate, and coconut cream!!! yum! From City Diner on tongren lu.

Here's my review:

1. Coconut cream: my favorite of the 4, was perfectly sweet, light and fluffy.
2. Carrot cake: moist, good texture, but some parts of the cake were a bit dry
3. Lemon meruingue: Very tangy and quite overpowering, but good thick shortbread crust, nice n flaky.
4. Flourless chocolate: looks like fudge- the top frosting layer was terrific: Melts-in-your-mouthness, but the body was not sweet enough( I ate this before the lemon meruingue)

tunes, tex-mex, and a computer for cooking

For my birthday, my parents sent me an ipod with mandarin and cantonese lessons and some music. This one of the CDs they put on was Vienna Tang//Warm strangers, which is really growing on me. After working a 12 hrs day, I was getting sick hearing british english teaching me mandarin so I started listening to her soft woozy dainty music.

Me and my roomate had tex-mex for dinner in hong mei lu - craving mexican so badly!!!! Its nearly impossible to find sour cream here, among other things. I had shredded beef tacos, and J had enchiladas, even tho he ordered a burrito. It was a pretty cute resturant, styled like a crayola-made house. Super quaint front balcony, bright inviting colors, ENGLISH signs, and was basically like entering someone's kitchen. The front room we ate in was the "family" room. In the corner was a sectioned off play area with toys for kids, plus a kid sized sink next to it. All the tables had brightly woven table clothes, and all the dishware was super colorful! AND they serve rootbeer- amoung a long list of breakfast items, sandwiches, and tex-mex grub. We will definetly be going back there!

We decided to head out for a hair cut as well, and it was the 2nd time in my life that I've ever had my hair cut at a salon. so we got the shampoo/massage/cut package for 50 kwai which is about $7 USD. It was awesome except I didn't know how to communicate what I wanted. . . but it all turned out well in the end.

And check out this interesting article on China's transformation and christianity From Global China center, and I found it pretty intriguing how it compares china today to the states in 1900, as of big industrial boom. I see it everyday-the construction is astoundingly quick. That, and my post office just got demolished and levelled this past week. So.... I'll have to find another one. (They have a pot of paste on their counters and a brush for adhereing stamps)

and one other must-see item: The Honeywell H316, aka Kitchen computer

3 un-interesting things

1. Bats
2. Food Poisoning
3. Flooding

1. There are bats here, and j hates them, marc thinks they are very cute and I have yet to see a single one.

2. I got terribly sick friday night and was puking up a storm. Saturday it gragled loudly all day, and Sunday it was lower abdominal pain. Monday was better, and J has been cooking for me. I have yet to explained to marc what "puke" means.

3. Monday we got a call at work to go home cuz the apt above ours flooded. This absolutely freaked me out, because I was thinking flood like noah's ark..... but there was hardly any damage, and the security guard, Mr. Lee wanted to see if his magic light bulb was working properly. Everytime something with the property goes awry, the translator says to tell Mr. Lee. And then I say, jokingly, "Mr. Lee? You mean my dad?" haha but no one seems to think its funny except for me.

And I'm sure the neighbors are humored by my practicing mandarin late into in the night. I repeat after my berlitz ipod lesson, and my roomate says, "what did you say??" I've got a lot of studying to do.

work and birthday.

This is work. Making cardboard prototypes with sharp tools!



For my birthday (and john and abbie's) we had a 1930's shanghai costume party, and ate at a art deco resturant. It was grande, and one the few times I will ever look so chinese!



birthday surprise from the guys.

whoa! another week rolls by~

So I haven't ridden my bike since day 1, but I have been running around supporting the cab drivers. It's been a busy, but I have been keeping a list in my notebook to write about.

1. Bikes are the main mode of transport. I don't mean just 1 person on a bicycle with their friend riding on the back. I mean rigged up tricycle's pulling sofas and poles the length of a car. Even the street cleaner is a bike rigged thing. One man bikes pulling a metal box on a trailer which pressurizes the water, while his buddy up ahead walks with the hose spraying the sidewalk. And when they run outta water they just hook up to a fire hydrant. Some trailery bike things are stores- a mini open pick-up truck loaded with hair stuff, scarfs, mittens, jewelry. And then there's the food vendors that I've mentioned before. They've got little BBQ's on the back of their bike, (yes, with coal and raw meat covered in paprika) Their illegal, so the bike part is more of a livlihood feature. And there's also the advertising bikes. A team of 4 or 5 people all in red wearing those sandwich boards with ads on red bikes. And there's a man with a bell who comes to collect recycling in his pick-up bike too. The "business" bikes ride in teh opposite direction in the bike lane. The food ones are usually by train/ferry stations.

2. Not only is construction constant, its temporary and quick. Driving around one will quickly notice the shambles and cranes. Now I've finally been here long enough to actually witness some progress from nothing-to something. There is a patch of land next to our office complex, that I walk past every day. There's a big factory, and then maybe 30 or 40 yards to the cement wall. In the 2+ months I've been here it has mutated:
a. They made the wall higher, knocked out a span and erected a gate in its place, plus paved a driveway.
b. They built a frame in the small space between teh wall and the factory. I think their almost touching!
c. The minute the frame was done, blankets and towels immediatly appeared on the railings to dry.
d. 3 mangey dogs showed up.
e. they put in the walls, and voila temporary living for construction workers. (that's our guess)
When we first moved in our apt, there was a mysterious tent ontop of the (tiny)gym next to my bedrm window. It would be glowing at midnight. And we'd see shadows. ANd it was SNOWING. and then one day, it was gone. Some building projects never get completed- like one high rise outside tucker's apt in pudong. His parents have been living there for over a year, and said there's been zero progress since moving in. Its completely stopped midway.

3. An old man poked me on the bus and told me to take the open seat. And then his wife pointed out the stains on his clothes and he pretended not to notice. That made me feel happy. In SF, all old people sit and all younguns stand. I'd willingly give my seat to teh old man, but he wanted to give it to me. I thought that was rad sweet.