July update

Went to moganshan, roughly 2 hrs outside shanghai.

About 20 of us (friends and friends of friends of friends) all took the train from shanghai to hangzhou, then took a bus up to Moganshan, where we stayed at Naked Retreats . The purple ridge lodge was our home for 3 days and two nights- we cooked our own meals, ate together, talked and devised plans for hiking, which were then detoured by a saturday of night. The weekend was chock full of relaxation, rejuvenation, and refreshment. Clean air! tons of tall green trees! crazy caterpillars, and a water reservoir we couldn't swim in b/c it was their drinking water. The photo you see above is over a little lake next to the reservoir. It was beautiful at nighttime. We also BBQ'd (yesss) played with the 4 dogs that roamed the house, play'd board games, read, etc. The house was beautiful in a modern rustic way, decorated with wall hangings, curvy tree trunks, and loaded with ikea glassware and dishes. There was an antique barber chair, as well as a "pit" area outfitted with cushions, and pillows in front of a, you guessed it, flat screen TV and DVD player. (we watched Beijing bicycle)

Last weekend we hit the fabric/textile market, where I submitted a sketch in hopes of having a dress made. Its a casual dress for work and whatev, and we'll see if its turns out, when I go back to pick it up this saturday! The fabric market is typically where you get clothes custom made- but in style and fit. For a sweet price. We're talking $11 for custom men's dress shirt. My dress fully lined, will be roughly $25, i think.

Oh yeah, and we're also having a typhoon right now. I got caught in the rain yesterday and it was immensely - raining. Raining elephants and whales. Stupendously windy, and surprisingly not hot!

Can't remember anything else. Playing in cardboard boxes a lot. Peace!

photo update!

We JUST got the internet to work here, with the help of a pal. and internet is slow, so I reformatted my pics in groups because doing them individually would take more time than I wanna spend. (iphoto crashed twice already)




Montage 1: The new apt. This my new roomie Claudia, plus a metro station and seaweed. I don't know how the seaweed flakes all stick together, but it makes for a really interesting texture of organic shaped layers. Note the blue kitchen in our apt(an upgrade from the blue bathroom in the last one?), and colored lights in the ceiling.(there's even color changing LEDs in my bathroom.) There is also a ceramic vase in the glass tv case with a scorpian on it that is about the size of a lobster, and even tho its totally ceramic I can't stand to look at it!



Montage 2: Picnic!!!! We've been trying to get a picnic together for sometime now, before its gets too hot. This is about 6pm at zhongshan park, so the sun is nearly done. There's kite flying and some musicians. Prior, we stopped at a public pool where swim caps are required. (HA!) [I used to split mine a lot. I had sooo much hair it'd take forever trying to flip it on] Bottom left is Family United hospital's women's waiting room. It was filled with maternity and breastfeeding literature: I was a little scared that they had sent me to the wrong place... I had a swollen foot! but everythign turned out fine. The waiting room had a few albums out of thank you cards sent by expats who had their babies delivered there!! so cute and amazing! The reason I took this picture was that either side of the waiting room were these frosted glass walls that let in a lot of ambient light, and you could see the blur of people walking past, kinda like when your groggy in the morning. And there's Claudia eating cold noodles at zhongshan park.



Montage 3: Choir at SCF. Their second song was beautiful, but I didn't start video recording til the one after it, and regretted it. I love choirs. To the right: My new closet, with pants rack and really high hangers and little cubbies. I had my suitcase in front of the left side, and struggled hanging up all my clothes on the right side, could barely reach! Finally got myself organized. it smells very very woody, and I fear my clothes and me will start smelling woody- but in a varnishy way. In the red and white stripes is warren, from the UK, and we're all eating fried wonton at a dumpling place! yum! cheap eats. And the last bit is the view from tucker's apt in pudong, 31st floor.


We had a great week and weekend! details latez. peace.

new friends!

The skies have been REALLY blue. (and yes, it is quite hot here)

We recently got 3 newbies in at the office, one from UK, one from Germany, and one from Pennsylvania. Basically we've got a tidy crew now so its all more interesting- and I have more than 1 person to speak english with at the office.

Its been really cool hearing about everyone's different points of views, the rumors they've heard of China, expectations and experiences leading up to coming here. And alas- China itself.

Last weekend was great! Found out where there's a public pool to use, had a picnic until dark , then hung out and talked the rest of the night. On sunday I heard a beautiful choir, (I took vid, but i imagine it'll take an eternity to upload) but I hiave some cool pics of sightseeing with Claudia, my new roomie.

To get the ligihts to turn on in the apt building it is activated by stomping on the floor. So the minute we get into the hallway or out of the elevator we're jumping up and down trying to turn the lights on. (it totally works, but I wonder what everyone else does)

I've also managed to get about 20 bugbites this past weekend, my whole foot is swollen up b/c i'm allergic so i got some true Shanghainese bug repellent. it comes in a tall thin green glass bottle(looks like a sauce or booze bottle)

What day is it today?

This week went by mad quick. (in words of my NY roomie)

Besides biking around the 'hood and getting to know my new housemate better, I've hardly blinked and the week is gone. My campers have graduated from High school(!) and my friend are continually moving and dispersing themselves.

I find the biggest prob with miscommunication is lack of listening. Everyone wants to put their two cents in, but nobody wants to take two cents out. Nearly everyday in the office is the same argument, where two folks are talking about two different things AT each other. I just want to grab them both and say, "Stop talking!!! Listen to each other!" In a leadership training class, we had to practice 'active listening' aka, the ability to pay full attention to the opposing party rather than try to create your side of the argument while they are speaking. The topic was Ninja turtles, and you had to debate with a partner on who was the best ninja turtle and why. Of course I picked michaelangelo. My partner picked Donatello or someone and we ended up talking over each other more than anything. So listening is not one of my strong points, but at least I kno I need work on it.

I met with my mandarin 'tutor' yesterday for a few hours. She owns a jook resturant, and is soon to open a new one. Mostly we work on pronunciation, I've been reading on sentence structure on my own. She had a middle school level text book on reading comprehension that was pretty good, and hilarious! I started reading one of the chapters which was about eating in the states. "People who work normally don't have time to cook. So oftentimes, they will dine out at a resturant, or buy frozen food. Frozen food can be heated quickly and easily in a microwave oven. It was very popular." and then a few pages later I happened to read, "Some Canadians have pets as friends." (note: I didn't read the context of this statement, but found it funny anyhow) I need to make simpler flashcards, even tho the phrases help when I'm out at the market. Now its just practice, practice, practice!

Words of wisdom from my recently rootcanalled mother:
"be true to your teeth and they will not be false to you!"

I was also totally intrigued by this article on electronic eating ants

Learning at work

Theseyangmei are sold on the street everywhere, by vendors with the long shoulder sticks, and the fruit balanced in baskets in either side. Someone shipped a few boxes to our company, and they arrived in styrofoam coolers, with 2 mini grocery baskets of fruit and a frozen water bottle in the middle. It fit all compactly together. cute. Now my co-workers enjoy sharing their things with me, but I'm a little wary after the chewing tobacco they gave to Jeremiah. And before that was various kinds of snacks/or "candy" >> what actually was dried salted fish slivers (*eh*) and some other chewy semi digestible fruits. One of the coolest things tho was this seed you put into hot water for your throat. it expands like jelly until it fills your cup! its really really cool. Doesn't taste like a lot, but its cool to watch expand over the course of 1 hr, it'll just fill your cup.

The yangmei are a lil tart, but sweet and yummy. I asked my co-worker, "is it good?" and she said, "maybe you died," and I was like, "wha??" and she said, "just try. It very good." And I took one cautious bite, and next thing I know bright red juice is all over my hands. oOo.... like blood, I see. And then she laughed at me, "haha! see, you died!"

Ups n Downs:
-its beginning to be humid, raining often now
-3 more months on my visa
-new roomie from hangzhou/UK
-next wk another new female colleague from Germany will come
-Had a very peaceful monday sipping tea at taikang lu
-had a dinner party thursday night with friends: potato salad, ribs, corn, chicken!

New loves

One of my new loves is riding my bike at dusk.

Today i went a exploring again, nearly got myself lost, but had an energizing time looking at china. Ok, sounds a bit odd, but that's the best way I can put it. I strolled thru a little market, with arm length stalls on either side, and crates down the middle with produce. It reminded me a lot like the markets in mexico, with tarps stretched over, and families just sitting out playing cards. It was peaceful. Not like the fake market everyone's shouting and at least one person is angery. It was such a community atmosphere, with the culmination of diff family's shops. stereos, clothes, locks, veggies, shoes. And the street i was on, Maotai was tree lined. So it was something like yuppie neighborhood meets strip mall meets city. I'm not sure why multitudes of trees=yuppie neighborhood, but they were all mechanically there, fully green, and fully organized.

So i headed towards the water, and the sun was setting-ish. The sky is light grey, and becoming more dim. The neon lights, and yellow apt room lights begin to glow more prominently. The sky's natural light is calmly fading out as the aggressive man made glows of shops and cars overtake the scene before you know it. mmmm tall buildings, and the hustle and bustle slows to a trot.

goings on

Spring has spung, the weather is perfect!

I picked up my business cards this week from the printer, a tiny shop next door to a fake starbucks. They didn't speak a lick of english, but after a phone call and saying yes to everything, we got what we wanted. Business cards for networking and keeping in contact, with our email, website what have you- not to mention a large discussion on phone numbers. Do i give people access to reach me anytime anywhere? But then it IS the quickest way to reach those who don't check their email often enough(or maybe just don't respond)

I've been biking a lot in this great weather, in the evenings, and on the weekends. It's now my main mode of transport, and I love it! I went down the next main street perpendicular to the elevated highway, and found a street where they sell taiyaki(fish SHAPED waffles)(my roomate thot I meant fish flavored waffles, and was disgusted when I asked if he wanted one) shaved ice, and purple eggplant curry, plus a few bars. I saw a couple in a screaming match, and bought another purse, Tod's replica. I picked up a few books and caught up on my reading. . . kinda. My cousin tipped me off to google reader, which gathers all teh subscribtions to your blogs for you like a little personal newspaper(awesome!) the only problem is that I've neglected it and I have 1000+ posts to read. crap! Some included are Crave, the gadget blog, Design*sponge, and Inhabitat, which I've found myself pouring over multiple times this week! Liquid solar cells, furniture fairs, horse powered vehicles. . . etc. And have you heard of the cell phone novels in Japan?

I ate eggs and tomato dish three times this week. Last week I tried a green bean drink that was really unfavorable, and today had a strawberry one(pink is safe). yum! Except that it was hot.. . .

Sunday had dinner at a vietanmese spot, that had great interiors and decor (sitting cross legged on a big padded booth) but the food was... interesting. There was pungent smelling sauce that everyone but I could smell, and the dishes were aiite. I loved the softshell crab.

Anyhow, thats it for now. Or, as far as i can remember at least. happy trails