Week 4 - A Second Look

I recently returned from a fun/hectic trip back to the States to help run Canary's Annual Early Detection Symposium. I was a great way to wrap up my two years with Canary. I also managed to squeeze in a little time with friends which was a real treat. I especially enjoyed hanging out with Esther and Bea (the junior Deans) who just get cuter every time I see them (see photo evidence)!

It's been neat to come "home" to Shanghai and see it again with fresh eyes. Somehow, many of the differences have struck me more the second time - the smells, sounds, street etiquette... are all taking me some time to readjust to. Here are few fun illustrative details from last night's dinner and today's trip to the local supermarket:

1: My chopstick skills need work! Evidence: Last night we had dinner at a fancy local Chinese restaurant. After we refused chopsticks at the start of the meal (and I subsequently spilled a bit on the table) a sweet Chinese girl showed up bearing a silver platter with two sets of forks and knives. She tried really hard (without speaking english) to get us to accept them but we refused. Actually, I cracked up and the quiet girl trying to help us also couldn't contain herself and busted out a laugh too!

2: Tastes are very different than North America (and Chana's in particular). Evidence: Flavours of Lay's potato chips: Red Wine Chicken, Fragrant Red Chili, Steak, Savoury Prawn, Italian Red Meat, French Chicken, Mango, Lychee. As you might have guessed, we have yet to try any of them yet.

3: They're watching you! Evidence: (this is hard to convey but I'll try). I was standing in the personal product aisle, seeking shampoo to help de-frizz my hair that has gone wild here, and was struggling to decipher whether the product I had my eye on was shampoo or conditioner. Thanks to my years of Guesstures experience, I eventually succeeded in figuring it out with help from one of the shop workers using a combination of props and miming. Pleased with myself, I put the product in my basket, only to realize moments later that I wasn't carrying enough cash for both groceries and shampoo. Now that I'm Suzie-Q-homemaker, I figured I should keep the dinner groceries and come back later for the shampoo. I slyly put the bottle back on the rack thinking that no one noticed. But... when I got to the checkout and went through shampoo-less, the lady who had been helping me came up as I was about to leave the store and started emphatically speaking Chinese to me and gesturing about washing her hair. I tried to explain (in English!) that I would come back later with more money. Soon the whole store was intervening and trying in vain to get me to understand Chinese. Eventually several staff went back to the shampoo rack, surveyed the contents, and after some discussion let me leave the store and seemed satisfied. I still don't get what happened!

Lastly, I have to share that I am quite pleased with my first attempt at Chinese egg-vegetable fried rice so if anyone wants a recipe, let me know!

Earthquake

As I'm sure you all know, on May 12, a deadly earthquake struck China's Sichuan province. Shanghai is several thousand kilometers away so there was no physical impact here. Of course, there was/is a huge emotional impact for so many people... everyone seem to be managing to carry on, but the latest stories of the quake are always on the news, and many donations boxes have cropped up around the city. The generosity has been amazing - for example, Jerel's company has already contributed over a million dollars through personal donations matched by the firm. The country had 3 days of mourning, May 19-21, which Jerel was here for but I was not. He said the most remarkable part was the 3 minutes where the city stopped - all cars pulled over and honked for 3 minutes, while everyone at home came to their window.
Here is a u-tube video of Shanghai: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xb3n_XLZnI

Slow Sundays

It turns out that one of the big (expat) activities here is Sunday Brunch. We experienced our first multi-course, multi-hour brunch this weekend at Mediterraneo - one of numerous cool garden-setting restaurants in town. As with many restaurants in Shanghai, the menu was quite extensive, and Chana was able to find a very veggie super-green soup while Jerel rounded off his meal with a 3 part dessert platter.

After brunch, we strolled over to the Jade Buddha Temple where buddhas, incense and koi (goldfish) abounded. We also stumbled upon a buddhist restaurant where Chana gleefully stocked up on prepared gluten.

Week One

We are happy to share that we successfully survived our first week in Shanghai! We learned a number of lessons along the way. Here are a few especially memorables ones:

* When trying 'Body Pump' class for the first time, don't try to keep up with the little Chinese woman next to you (Chana tried this and is still sore 4 days later!)

* Maintaining silence can be a darn good bargaining tool (the price tag for Chana's potential gym membership dropped by about a third thanks to this handy technique).

* Don't try to mail a cardboard box when it's raining, they will ask you to come back later (lost in translation, perhaps?)

* With patience and the confidence, it is possible to win a game of pedestrian 'chicken' against a local opponent. In fact, just such a victory was Chana's fondest moment of the week. She braced herself for a collision, was determined not to move first and it worked - the pedestrian coming her way actually turned sideways just in the nick of time!

* The words Taicang and Taikang are vastly different. Jerel's work is on Taicang road. It turns out that Taikang road is about 30 minutes away from Taicang road by cab... or longer if you are driving at rush hour around the time that all important meetings (including your own) start.

Day Three - Tour of Shanghai

Today we were taken on a guided tour of Shanghai. Our agenda included the Bund river, numerous shopping-oriented stops (districts specializing in fabrics, tailoring, jewelry) and glimpses of some sites to re-visit with more time including Yu Yuan Garden, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai Museum, Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall...

One of the cool sightings of the day was the lineup for dumplings at lunch today at a local favourite:


Tomorrow morning we have our health checks which according to our tour guide makes you feel somewhat like cattle being herded from one room to the next. Woo hoo, can't wait!

Day Two - The Supermarket

Today's main adventure was a trip to the mega supermarket (Carrefour) to stock our fridge. We had fun checking out the novel produce including some scary looking prickly fruits. Chana also particularly enjoyed the large selection of teas and tofu products. We allowed ourselves a fair number of familiar imports (cheese, olives, peanut butter) but also stocked up on chinese cooking essentials in the hopes that we'll soon be competent in preparing this cuisine.

Some of the 'groceries' were rather frightening and made me think I might have wandered into a pet store by mistake.
Q) Can you make out the creatures in this photo?
A) turtles (L) and frogs (R)!

For dinner we tried a Shanghainese restaurant called 1221 where we both favoured the garlicky green beans. We also both got a kick out of the cool tea pourer that wielded a meter long spout - apparently the Chinese equivalent of those guys that walk around with oversize peppermills! We had extra entertainment trying to explain to our taxi driver where we lived since he didn't speak any english (and our 'hello' and 'thank you' didn't help) and his eyesight was too poor to read the address on the notepad we had with us.

Quote of the day (by Jerel): "Everyone here is playing chicken at all times".

Day One in Shanghai

Today was the first day of our six month adventure in Shanghai. We are living in a furnished 1BR apartment on the 25th floor of one of the city's tallest buildings.

We spent most of the day today wandering around our new neighborhood, getting the lay of the land and attempting to pick up some 'essentials' (tea, soy milk, fruit).

Here are some surprising 'facts & figures' from today's tour of our new neighborhood:

number people per square meter of sidewalk: >1

number of times we almost got run over while crossing a crosswalk on a walk sign: >0

number of couples spotted wearing matching shirts: >3 in 5 minutes pausing in People's Square

number of Starbuck's: same as home

Here is the view out of our apartment looking South East. The flat roofed building in the foreground is the Shanghai Museum or Art and the round reddish one with parks surrounding it is the Shanghai Museum.

Chana has already found her 'perch' in the new apartment so she can keep the pulse of the city.

Before our first dinner we asked "Jacky" the concierge, who promises to be our consummate saviour, if he would write us a note. We explained that Chana is vegetarian and asked if he would write this down so there would be no confusion when ordering. He wrote a long sentence, handed it to me, and explained it said: "My wife is vegetarian"... Awesome.


We walked 1/2 a block from our hotel and entered the first place that looked half decent. Turns out we had walked into one of the only restaurants in Shanghai where the note was not needed. It was a famous, completely vegetarian place called "Godly". Takeaways: sesame vegetable are tasty, steer clear of chilied gluten prawns.