adventures with carmen!

woo hoo!

May "holiday" aka labor day allowed us three straight days of running around shanghai being absolute tourists. (except Carmen actually knows some manadarin which helped) Holiday is in quotes because they gave us the day off, but required us to work on sunday. Carmen is a fellow Oaklander, who also gets the pleasure of going to school across the bay in SF.

Back to the adventure. We saw every major stop in my tour book as well as a witness some rumors come alive.

7am. I met her at the railway station(8 hr ride from beijing, where she is studying) and we caught breakfast together. I ate a fried chinese donut with pork floss on it wrapped in rice, and she had a type of jook. I am not fond of pork floss. We begun our voyage at yuyuan garden, where the masses had also met, ate shur lum bao and coconut juice from a coconut. There weren't any tables, so we hit teh street to rest our food and coconut on a planter. Some girl heard us speaking english and immediatly begun pitching fake purses and watches to us off a 4 X 5 card. We ignored her, and she persisted(this is normal) and then this man spun around and grabbed her by the arm, yelling at her, and she tried to hide her product card from him when another guy grabbed her other arm and they dragged her off. I'm assuming it was plain clothes police... or something.

So then we walked some and somehow ended up at the bund, where the lighthouse is, aka Bund museum, or Atanu Bar by night. (It actually has a great patio and view!) the Bund was covered in chinese people, so we headed straight for the ferry. We waited behind the metal gate for the boat to come, and when it did, the flood gates opened, literally, and it was like the beginning of Bay to Breakers. And before I could comment, carmen grabbed my hand and we ran for our life onto the ferry. I mean, they had to be running for a good reason, right? we got good seats, I tell you.

On the pudong side of the Bund, we were welcomed by a variety of bicycle food stands. For a few blocks, you could get hot well seasoned snack(don't ask about the meat), cotton candy, play darts, and get get your name written in ENGLISH for all of 1 rmb. It was grand amusing, and we devoured candied strawberries on a stick which inconspicuously snapping photos of vendors with boxes strapped to their heads are visors. (carmen has the photos)

We got our pictures with the Jin mao and the pearl tower, marveled at the buildings, and kept on walkin. While we exited super brand mall, I noticed 5 or 6 girls (15-18 yrs) with babies strapped to them, ethnically a little diff from chinese, by clothes, as well as complexion. As we tried to get the whole of the Pearl tower in one photo(as well as carmen) I spotted the girls with babies again walking the opposite way, with their backs towards us. One of them pointed to a chinese guy who had his bag on his back, and the other girl slipped her hand in his back pocket. and then I yelled "Carmen!!! Their robbing him!!!' And we were staring them down and not quite sure what to do. And even tho they had babies on them, we were still outnumbered, so we kept our distance from them(but they did catch us staring at them)

yeah, It was quite an eventful day, and yet it still goes on. We relaxed at jing an park, listening to opera singers and their three pice band(two violins and an accordian) and sipped boba naicha. Then we also hear some latin music and found performers by a mall, where we hung out a big, then escaped to the nearby accessories market, which was the cheap place to bargain. We were there a short time, before we had to catch dinner with my collegue and his pals.

We hit marc's at about 7pm, and had dinner together. It was one girl's birthday so, we sang "happy birthday" to her naturally. In 5 different languages. It was very cute.

Friday, we hit Qibao, the water town which also was a hot spot, and we did a ton of walking there, then headed back to my friend's apt for the evening.

Saturday we were exhausted, but still wanted to make the best of our holiday. We went to People's square/park thing to the Modern Contemporary art museum(MoCa) to see a fabulous show on Itailian designer Ferragamo(mostly know for hollywood shoes) It covered recent work as well as how the shoes were made, and his patents and innovations. We wanted to see the bird market as well, but it ceased to exist. My tourist made is from 2005, and it had led us to a very nicely landscaped park with a "no tresspassing" fence around it. so we just watched little kids chase pigeons while our feet rested, and then went back to jing an for a bargaining frenzy. Or rather learning to! I"m rather terrified of bargaining. Carmen was saying that you have to be "sweeter" here in shanghai than in beijing.

We ate hot pot for dinner and then went home and rested.

The end.