Week in Review

The week has gone by so quickly, I thought I would just post a "week in review".

Monday - Visit to the Shanghai Museum, it's free and the collection is nice and well organized. The building has 4 floors. The collection is comprised of all Chinese artifacts and reminded me of the Getty Museum in Los Angles. I find that collection 'nice' and well organized but rather dull. If you are someone who will only be able to visit one museum in your life time the Getty offers a nice overview of art, same with the Shanghai Museum.Here is a picture of the museum.

I went with my gal pal Kate Hayes and we did a little lunch after our museum visit. We first tried to find Barbarossa, located in Peoples Park near the Museum, we thought. We couldn't find it after a 3/4 lap around the park in poor walking shoes. We landed on the JW Marriott and Kate remembered that there was a restaurant that may be ok for a quick bit inside the hotel. It was as she predicted, only OK. It was a all you can eat dim sum menu for RMB 98 = $14.34 quite dear for a lunch that at best was ok.

Tuesday - Grocery shopping and some DVD shopping. Carpenter came to hang pictures in the apartment. Tony was sick as a dog and went to the Dr's, then tucked himself into bed.

Wednesday - Tony back to work, highly medicated with a huge dose of cipro. I went to the American Women's Club of Shanghai for the monthly coffee meet and greet. Then went to Carrefour for buy a water cooler. I am just so tired of buying water everyday. Now all I have to do is call the front desk and they call Nestle and a big jug of water is delivered. The cooler cost was RMB 199 = $29.26 and the 5 gallon jug cost RMB 19 = $2.79. I figure we will go through 2 jugs a week.Thursday - a visit to the Restaurant Supply store with the American Women's Club. Walked around a bit.

Friday - Found the Everlasting Spa around the corner from out apartment. Indulged in a 70 minute hot stone foot massage for RMB 88 = $12.94. Deeeelightful! Made a nice tabouhel salad for lunch on Saturday. Dinner with Ben and Carol Ward. Ben is one of the guys that Tony reports to. Dinner was at Casa 13, located inside a 1930s villa that once was the home of the French Consul the building was nice and there was a beautiful courtyard. It was already dark so I couldn't take a picture of it. But here is one of me in the lounge, behind me is a photograph of the Bund, doesn't everyone look better in candle light? Dinner was nice and the restaurant is about a 25 minute walk from the apartment so we are planning a return visit. Here is the link to the restaurant, if you go to picture 3 on the home page you can see the dining room. http://www.casa13.cn/Home.html

Saturday - went for a walk, bought some flowers and got my nails done. What a luxurious life I lead! Dinner was with Kathi and Todd at Maya a Mexican restaurant. What a great meal we had, no Chinese influenced meal here just good ole Mexican food. The restaurant is only a 10 minute walk from the apartment, we will be back!

Don't worry that I will become too spoiled, my job starts Feb. 23, orientation is Feb. 20. I will be teaching English at Donghua University. There are 2 locations for the university, one is about 4 miles up the road from the apartment on YanAn Road and the second is in Shanghai but located on the periphery of the city in a district called Song Jiang. The center of the map with the numbers is Shanghai proper. We live in number 5 the JingAn area. Donghua University in Songjiang, I am told, is about 50 minutes from our apartment. I am having the driver take me to this campus tomorrow. Sort of a dry run. I am meeting my boss and he will take me around, hopefully give me the text and requirements for the class as well.

Sun Yat Sen Residence and our Sunday walk

Geez, I hope this crowing about the wonderful unseasonably warm weather we have been having won't be a jinx and I'll be inundated with what is known as typical Shanghai weather, cold wet and grey.

Yes indeedy, warm and sunny and perfect for a walk. We headed over to the home of Sun Yat Sen. He was a Chinese revolutionary and political leader often referred to as the Father of Modern China. Sun played an instrumental role in overthrowing the Qing Dynasty in 1911. He was the first provisional president when the Republic of China (ROC) was founded in 1912, a precursor to Communism. (a little wikipedia info for you)Not surprising to find a store named after a celebrity but would you choose this one?Here was a small shop with a strange combination of merchandise.

And Tony contemplating ........

Uighur Restaurant

Remember the fella who tried to pick my pocket, well his "people" have a very popular restaurant in Shanghai. It's known for it's grilled lamb dishes. They also have a guy outside grilling lamb kabobs and selling them individually. I had read about the restaurant in various travel books and I just stumbled upon it on one of my walks. It gets very good marks for food.

Dropped my camera

Ug, dropped my small camera and it split open, I managed to push it back together and it still works, for that I am grateful. I do want a new slim camera, this one is about 6 years old and a bit clunky, but I have to tell you it's a great camera. I don't need a slim camera for my purse. Tony got this one for me for Xmas and it has never let me down. And Tony generously offered the use of his fancy Canon camera. Doesn't he know I have been using it? And I have actually claimed it as my own. I have been shopping for a new lens, you know one of those zoomy type things. Yeah sure I'm a professional and really need a new lens! I guess I best read the booklet before I invest any money into the fancy pants camera.

I dropped the camera at the wet market near our apartment. A wet market is an outdoor market selling vegetables and meat/fish. OK this one is in a covered concrete like alley. I like the fish area (albeit stinky) because the fish are swimming around live in their pots so you know it's 'fresh'. I have not 'ordered' one yet but I may get up the courage to do so one day. Here I found the clover like leafy veg we ate the the vegetarian restaurant last week. I bought some to cook up. It really is clover, how about that! Cost for about a half pound was $1.00 USD.

I also bought some flowers at the flower store on my walk home from the wet market. Pretty, yes? I spent what I thought was a lot for flowers, RMB 70 for the tulips = $10.30 and RMB 110 for the Lilies (8 stems) = $16.18.

My Favorite Things

After 39 years and 11 months and 28 days I finally lived in a house that had a public /county water and sewer! Be still my heart!

Now for those of you who have never had a septic tank or your own water well on your property seriously you haven't been missing much. Hard water, and years of visits by the "honey pot" if you want to keep you septic tank happy and healthy. Perhaps your well runs dry at precisely the time you are out of town and your mother-in-law is watching the house, $1,500 later and a new well is dug, but with much hang wringing and worry. OK, so if you don't know any better you think you don't miss much with this public utility thing. Wrong! I can tell you I have secretly coveted the mindless flush of anything down the toilet or the reckless pour of oil down the kitchen drain - ah the luxury of it.

And now we lived in Glen Allen, VA, a community developed in 1994 or so and equipped with all the modern conveniences.

Yes, I flush it all down the drain, I grind it up in the kitchen disposal and let it run right down the kitchen pipes. A bit of hot water after the oil pour keeps my pipes clog free....so far....I hope.

And now here in Shanghai I live no differently then in Virginia! This country too offers me the opportunity of the mindless flush and the reckless pour down the sink, including a kitchen garbage disposal - except for this little thing...... I am constantly losing small items down this disposal. Generally I see it sticking up out of the drain so no harm, except this last time.

I am a frequent grinder of egg shells - why not I say! And the sound is rather crunchy which I confused this time with the sound of metal. Oops. I heard the crunch crunch and then the sudden STOP! Ugh. I peaked in and didn't see anything so I thought I just jammed it up - a price I am willing to pay to be able to experiment with what can and cannot go in the disposal.

OK willing to pay if it doesn't cost much, i.e. I can fix it. And I am quite handy if I dare say so myself! I walked away from the crippled disposal and was really really bummed, was this the moment that I would have to change my reckless ways? To be cautious with what goes in the disposal which in turn will force me think about what goes down the drain? No, no I said to myself......if you think Tony was listening or even knew of this small drama you're kidding yourself. While I am sure he would have some thoughtful comments, he did not live with septic for almost 40 years, ok he had a brief stint of it in Ridgefield, CT, but he just couldn't understand this deep feeling I have, you have to live with septic for years to really appreciate how I feel!

I returned to the jammed disposal and gently snaked my hand into the dark hole (certain that it would instantly begin whirring and take off some of my digits) and felt around. I ran my hand along the rounded wall and success(!) a metal object jammed between the metal disk of the blade and the drum. This is a picture of the munched up spoon and a healthy one from the kitchen drawer.

Things are back to normal, my reckless ways will continue and the pleasure I take in them will know no bounds. I have happy tingles running up and down my arms even as I write this!!

Great Shoes and Other Shops

This Saturday has been splendid and I have been having such a good time walking around and just looking at the store fronts. I love these shoes in the window, I wish I had a place to wear them. Then of course some store fronts just make me laugh and these are located in a very nice neighborhoods.

Still Looking for my magazine, ~that's shanghai~

Beautiful Saturday, 50 degrees in the sun, no wind, perfect for a walk and to find a magazine stand that sells my magazine. I found Food and Wine, Esquire, National Geographic, Cosmo, Car and Driver, Better Homes and Gardens, all in Chinese - which I thought was pretty neat. But no that's shanghai magazine. I think I am going to have use the sticky finger approach at one of the coffee shops.

Bentley Shanghai

I was just walking around and saw the Bentley car dealership, closed of course for Chinese New Years. The dealership is located about 3 blocks away from Nanjing Rd, the 5th Ave of Shanghai. It would be hard to find and easy to miss if you didn't know the address. There is a street on the other side of town that is one car dealership after the other, I guess this is too high end to be stuck next to Shanghai VW Santanas or a Geely.

I love the door handles, don't you?

Dried Food Store

Here was an interesting store I passed by yesterday in my quest for the magazine, a dried meat and fish store......or maybe they are smoked, or maybe some were pickled. Here are a few shots, what do you think?

Buying a Magazine

Today I went out to buy a magazine, in particular, a magazine called ~that's shanghai~, it's a magazine with listings of upcoming events, restaurants, and other helpful and interesting information about the goings on here in Shanghai. I have been getting mine 'free' at the local coffee shops or restaurants that leave them laying about. I asked my pal Kathi where she buys them and she said that in the past 2 years that she has been here she has never paid for one. Well I don't frequent as many coffee shops and restaurants as she does and it is not on my mind to lightly lift one from an establishment when I am enjoying a meal or a coffee. So today I decided to find a newsstand and buy the newest issue.

Being Chinese New Year...I have mentioned that haven't I?? So much is just shut down. Now don't get me wrong, there are plenty of restaurants and shopping open for business but most smaller establishments are just shuttered for the week. Here is a picture of the newsstand closest to our apartment - closed. I know that this massive celebration will be over on Friday or is it Saturday? And then I hope I can buy a magazine catering to my expat ways.

Here are pictures of our street, Nanjing Road, all dressed up for Chinese New Year!

Shanghai Godly Vegetarian Restaurant

The weather this week has been stunning so far, sunny and mild about 55 degrees F, or more in the sun!!! As Tony has the week off due to the Chinese New Year, we decided to take a nice walk and find a vegetarian restaurant that I had read about for our lunch. Turns out the restaurant itself was on Nanjing Road West, which is the road that we live on. Nanjing Road is a major city road sort of like 5th Ave in NYC. And the stores on Nanjing are similar (Chinese style) to 5th Ave.

I found these 2 pictures on the Internet to show you what Nanjing Road use to look like in 1911 and present day.

We found our restaurant no problem, about a 20 minute walk from the apartment. The restaurant has a wonderfully pleasant atmosphere and the food was exceptional. Here is a picture of our meal, well most of the meal, we had already devoured the green leafy veg with mushrooms when I remembered I wanted to take a picture. Oh well. We over ordered so that we could have leftovers for dinner. The meal consisted of the green leafy veg with mushrooms (our favorite), no idea what the actual plant/vegetable was, it looked like green clover, you know what you find in the grass at home. The 'meat on the stick' was described as grilled lamb kabob with spicy powder. This was actually trumpet mushrooms dipped in a light light crumb or power and grilled, the texture was just like meat and the flavor was great! We ordered the hot and sour 2 mushroom soup, we keep forgetting they serve soup as if you were a party of 4, this has been our experience in every restaurant so far. Then 3 kinds of noodles, which was just like a noodle dish we have had called Shanghai noodles and we don't know what the "3 kinds of noodle" meant as it only had one kind of noodle in the dish. The last dish was shredded "chicken" in a chili sauce. This was the one dish that we could have completely done without. It had a nice spice and was tasty and it had all kinds of neat ingredients, pine nuts, peas, chopped mushrooms, chopped tofu, chili peppers and well I'm not sure what else. I think the "chicken" part was the Tofu. But it was overkill at that point, too much food, and the other dishes tasted even better, even though we thought the "chicken" was really good.

The cost for the whole meal was RMB101 = USD$ 14.85. We could have done with half of the food and the bill would have been half too! Next time we'll order more conservatively.

Chinese Lunar New Year Crazy Amazing!

These pictures do not do justice to the fireworks display we experienced last night. The fireworks began at sundown 5:30p -6:00p and continued nonstop until 12:30a or so. The noise from 11:30p to 12:30a was incredible. I can only describe it as 25 marching bands going at full tilt with drums only! The sky was littered with color, smoke and ash and the acrid smell of burnt fireworks. Everyone, I mean everyONE....OK maybe every family in Shanghai lit fireworks. From every street corner and courtyard they were being fired off!! The city was all aglow with flower like bursts of color! The pictures above I took from our balcony shooting north west with a visibility of about 5 miles in spite of the smoke and ash. It was not a still night, there was some breeze so the smoke was moving along. I circled the 'fireworks' in white. Since I don't know how to shoot at night and by the time I realized I should take some pictures it was past midnight and I became frantic to get some shots for you to see. Had I thought about it sooner I could have set the camera to rapid fire and probably even have figured out how to do 'night' shooting. I did bring the book for the Canon camera, which is the camera that I used for these shots. I will start reading the book so I can better capture pictures for your viewing pleasure!

These pictures are shot from the south west corner of the balcony straight down on to the street below. It was incredible. You can see sparkles of light behind buildings which are just other fireworks being shot off on other streets. I circled them for you.