Today John and I went to the Shanghai Museum, located in People’s Square. A nice four-storied building with beautiful art galleries displaying calligraphy, ceramics, bronze figures, scultures, etc. But John and I tire easily at museums, so we were in and out in 90 minutes.

Well the pyros are at it again and Remy and Martin are back on high alert here in the war zone. Yesterday marked the fifth day of the new year… celebrated with another night of explosions. Of course safety takes a back seat on ocassions such as this: our neighbor set off a bunch of firecrackers and our kitchen window was showered with fiery debris. In the parking lot below, people lit off strings and strings of crackers, causing all the car alarms to go off. It was crazy. We went out onto our 14th floor walkway and you could smell the gunsmoke and see the dirt clouds rising. The pictures don’t really do justice to the event, but we weren’t about to take our laptop outside to collect sound recordings either.

On New Year’s eve, John and I had dinner at Ya-ya’s parents’ home in NE Shanghai. We celebrated the holiday with a huge New Year’s feast, complete with jellyfish, cow liver, sauteed shrimp, scallops, mini-escargots, SH hairy crab, dumplings, soup, and some delicious vegetable dishes–celery and cashews, shrimp and edamame, and asparagus and lily petals. During dinner, we watched the SH version of Dick Clark’s rockin’ New Year’s party, a variety show with Chinese acrobatics, song and dance.

After dinner, we had our first SH bus experience. Thankfully it wasn’t too complicated. We just followed WJ and YY, and because it was New Year’s eve there weren’t many riders. We were on our way to YY’s workplace– a hospital near the Bund. YY is an emergency room nurse and she was on call that evening from 10:30 pm to 7:30 am. I guess she didn’t miss all the festivities… while we waited to leave the station, all of the passengers were treated to a fireworks display right outside (put on by the bus’ staffers). Some of flying debris even hit the bus… probably wasn’t very safe but it was still fun to watch.

Around 11 pm, John and I met up with Anqian, Catherine, and Mike (whom we met a few weeks ago). We had drinks at the CJW (Cigar Jazz and Wine) bar on the 50th floor of the Bund Center. Hung out for a couple hours and watched the fireworks. Unlike the US where fireworks are essentially one big, orchestrated pyro show, in SH fireworks go off randomly all over the city– set off in hidden alleys, people’s backyards, business parks, etc. The result, when viewed from somewhere high, is a beautiful spontaneous performance of light and sound.

I was almost pickpocketed today. John and I were on our way to meet up with Wang Jian and his wife Ya-Ya at the Pacific Hotel (where we stayed in September). It’s location alongside Nanjing Xi Rd. has always been a bustling spot in the city… just across the street from People’s Square and near a shopping distrcit where plenty of foreigners drop some dough. We got off the metro and walked through the square, passing three unkept women, each carrying a toddler. They seemed to know one another– could have been part of some organized begging operation which I’ve been told is common here… but as I continued walking, all I could dwell on was the children. Certainly SH is like many cities with the blatant and uncomfortable juxtaposition of affluence and poverty. There are beggars everywhere, but what I find most disheartening are the child beggars. Sometimes they are just so painfully young… maybe only two or three years old. They sit on the sidewalk for hours each evening, with a cup in front. There’s no harassment, no clamoring for coins, just a lifeless steady stare straight ahead and cheeks burning red from the cold. I was carrying this image in my head when suddenly John turned and said, “Watch your bag!” I looked to my left and what I had dismissed as a shadow shrank back into a small dark figure. I turned around to find a frightened 5-year old boy. He said “hallo” and then quickly turned back. I looked down at my purse and saw that the zipper had been pulled halfway. I had no idea someone had been tagging along so closely. Fortunately, nothing was taken… but the scare of nearly losing my passport or ID has now prompted me to put a small combo luggage lock on my purse.

So we went out to a Mongolian restaurant for dinner with WJ and YY. The restaurant had a really rugged, frontier-feel to it with large tree stumps for chairs and fur pelts hanging everywhere. The food was good though… always is so long as someone else orders. Afterwards, we went to a tea house on Hengshan Rd.–formerly the most popular late-night street (but now surpassed by the trendy Xintiandi). We had wulong tea, prepared and served in that special tea-pouring sequence (which includes rinsing/warming the tea cups, washing the tea leaves, pouring into the fragrance cups, inverting it with a regular tea cup, and passing the cups out on wooden coasters). Had some snacks with the tea too… mini-walnuts, pistachios, and sour plums. Over tea, we saw their digital honeymoon pictures from Phuket Island, Thailand. They went in November and it looked so warm and sunny and beautiful. I think John and I are going to have to take a trip somewhere warm during this bitter winter.

Today started off as any ordinary day. Remy and Martin got us up early (before 9), we took them out, came back in, and returned to bed. From our brief 10 minutes outside, we already knew it was going to be another cold, dreary day. It’s too difficult getting up knowing that small piece of information, so John and I slept in late. We didn’t wake until around 11:30. Some days, sleep simply ranks above all else.

Still, today promised a busy schedule. My friend Emily was back in town (she took a 3-week vacation to visit family back in the States) and we were gonna catch up. For John and me, catching up always takes place over food. So I call Em and suggest getting food. She wants to go to the Flower Market but there are food places nearby she says. So John and I skip breakfast (as usual) and wait for to have lunch with Em and Zac. What I’m expecting to be a brief stop to pick up some flowers ends up being a three and a half hour ordeal. I buy some calla lillies and gladioli… they get pink tulips, purple/white peonies, white roses, pink roses, greens, red hairy flowers, gladioli, and this huge chair-sized potted plant. When we finally get out of the place (with a massive headache), Zac supposedly runs off to grab a cab (not sure how he planned to get the chair into it) and disappears. for like 30 minutes. After hearing horror stories from my relatives in Taiwan about people getting abducted and shit, I start panicking (internally, of course. One must still maintain outside composure). And the dude has been here 5 years and does not have a cell phone! So Em, John, and I split up and scour three different streets. No Zac. Finally, he appears as quietly as he had left. Who knows where he had gone… it’s not as if a tall African man is difficult to spot in Shanghai (Did I tell you he is fully fluent in Mandarin?). Anyway, after having the group reunited, we spend another 40 minutes in the f-ing cold trying to hail a damn taxi. When it’s rush hour, cold, or rainy, your time is better spent walking. But we had all those flowers… by the time we got to Em’s, it was 6:00. Zac disappeared again to buy food for dinner. We watched an episode of Trailer Park Boys, this hilarious Canadian “reality” show and then had to jet for the pups. So we couldn’t even stay for dinner. John was not thrilled. Guess what we had for dinner? Pizza Italia pizza (called in as soon as we stepped in the door) slathered with our grocery-bought tomato sauce (instead of their pizza sauce, i.e. ketchup), salad, eggplant Parmesan, spaghetti, dove chocolate… yeah all of it. That’s what happens when you starve the whole day. When you finally get your hands on food, you binge like there’s no tomorrow and then you go to bed and surrender to the food coma.

On Tuesday, Nai and Yeb began the painful 24-hour journey back to the States. They’re both in their 80’s and still making crazy long trips like that! It’s amazing. I don’t know where they get that kind of stamina. Yeb spent his final days taking advantage of all the pampering services SH has to offer. He went to the bath house down the street for the third time. Soaked in the hot tub, took a dip in the cool tub, went to the sauna, got a back rub. Then went to the local massage parlour and had got a foot massage… For dinner, we went to a tiny food joint a few doors down. It has the same name as I: Xiao something Hui. The place was so mobbed, with dirty dishes left on the tables and soup spilled all over the floor. Seats were so few and far between that random people shared seats at a table. After a few minutes of strategizing, we secured four seats at a table, but the fifth seat was taken by some random young lady. We consumed so much food at this meal: a dozen wontons, two bowls of beef noodles and 24 shen jian bao’s (dumplings). Total cost? A whopping 20 kuai (or $2+ USD). Yeah the food is cheap as hell and according to John, the dumplings are incredible. But still, I prefer my PBJ. Old habits are tough to break.

So Wednesday was our first day without Nai and Yeb. It was definitely a little strange. No more waking up to a hot morning breakfast. No more constant commotion in the kitchen. And no more cab rides everywhere. One good thing: we were able to break the Chinese food diet. For dinner, I was so excited to eat non-Chinese. We went out for pizza at La Casbah… unfortunately, this place was all quality not quantity. We devoured the thing in a matter of minutes and then headed to good ‘ol McD’s to fill ‘er up. I know, it sounds ridiculous. In the States, we rarely visit the golden arches. You’re probably familiar with all the news about the multinational corporation falling into a rut, closing shops and suffering losses for the first time in the company’s history . Well whatever the story is in the States, it’s completely different here. McD’s is always packed. You have to push and shove just to get in the front door and then you have to wrestle with all the line butters at the counter. When you finally do get your food, there are no seats. It’s insane. But I have to admit, those fries hit the spot. And at McD’s you can always count on the food tasting just as it should… the fries, the coke, the apple pie– processed, packaged, and heated to utter perfection! Other successful US MNC in Shanghai include: KFC (that place has more business than McD’s), Starbucks, and Pizza Hut. But the Colonel definitely rules in Shanghai. KFC’s elite status has even prompted some knockoffs (see left).

Thanks for sending all your positive comments regarding John’s new hairstyle. I think Mr. Fancypants is quite pleased with his new look. The ball is now rolling… The latest change? His fingernails. Let me explain. I’ve known John since 1995. He has never, and I repeat NEVER had that white part on the tip of his fingernails. He has always ripped them off (yes, violently) with his teeth, resulting in red, raw little nubs for fingers. Early on, I had already accepted this idiosyncrasy. Fingernails occupying just half of the nail bed were fine. We’re married, after all. Then all of the sudden, John tells me he’s going to grow his fingernails. As a test of will, he said. A way to demonstrate that old habits can be broken. Fine, whatever floats your boat, right? Three weeks later, voila! There was about 3-4 mm of white on every fingertip. It was all uneven and jagged, but a huge victory nonetheless. We went to the nail salon for his first manicure (I know, a little primpy, but it’s just this time). Even got the clear gloss. 🙂 And boy do his hands look nice. Have a look for yourself. Smooth, trimmed nails. At this rate, in another month, I won’t even recognize him!

In other news (I almost forgot), I was offered a couple of teaching positions this week. After facing weeks of discrimination (to put it bluntly), I finally found some employers who agreed that I could both be Chinese and a native English speaker (Imagine that!). So I will be a part-time ESOL instructor for two places, starting after the Chinese New Year. Hurray!

Yesterday, John and I had dinner with Anqian and his two friends Catherine and Mike. I’m connected to Anqian through Luiza, my good friend whom I met at FMF (where she volunteers!). Anqian was born in SH and stayed through high school. Afterwards, he moved to the US for college and graduate school. Now he works for Deloitte & Touche Tomatshu doing consulting/auditing. He hates SH. He told us that everyday when he leaves his apartment, he mutters to himself, “I hate Shanghai, I hate it so much. I have to leave.” Of course, it all makes sense, considering his dream is to be in Latin America, more specifically Lima, Peru. He was totally bummed out upon discovering that 1) John and I are not Latino 2) neither of us speak any Spanish. Anyway, he seems to have a really bad attitude about SH, but we can sort of relate. We too wanted to get out of our element… Every now and then, big change is good. Speaking of change, I received an email from my friend Roz the other day… she used to be the IT director at FMF. Last August, she sold her car, subletted her apartment, and took off to Australia and southeast Asia for four months. In her own words:

Much as it might just look like a big vacation, this trip was a big leap of faith for me. I quit my job, sold my car, sublet my apartment, and accepted the possibility of depleting 4 years of hard-earned savings. The big payoff? A renewed realization that world is a big, beautiful place filled with interesting people and hair-raising adventures. Here’s what this trip taught me: Take a chance; get outside of your comfort zone because that’s where you grow the most; and growing (though not always comfortable) makes you feel alive.

Roz is so on the money. Back to Anqian… such a funny guy. He wants to leave SH so badly, he’s refused to purchase any furniture or household essentials. He insists on having one 1 plate, 1 set of chopsticks, 1 bowl, and one cup. I wish him luck on his Peru endeavor.

My cousin Jia-Ying in Taiwan gave birth last week to her first child: a daughter. A cute little baby… I saw her via MSN Messenger. (MSN messenger is crazy popular here. Getting the MSN email goes hand in hand with passing out business cards.) No name selected yet, but I’m giving Jia-Ying my list of English favorites. At all costs, we have to avoid ridiculous names like Kitty Meo or Fish Yu (yeah, no joke: those are real names). We’re still looking for a Chinese name for John. He wants something super easy so I suggested Wang Da Zhong, the main character in all my Chinese school textbooks.

Sorry for the absence this last week… we’ve been very busy. After a few days of tolerable, even decent weather (sunny and in the 50’s), Shanghai once again plunged into a dreary, bone-chilling cold. Yeah, those of you suffering through a harsh winter in the States, don’t even bother with your gripes. You have central heat. When it’s 30 degrees here, my bathroom is 30 degrees. My tile floors are 30 degrees. And we still have it pretty good at our place. Most people don’t even have room heaters!

My sore throat and cough returned, and I starting feeling fatigued again. Don’t worry, it isn’t SARS. No fever. But John and I alternated sick days. We are such wusses over here.

In other news, my article appeared in JobWeek last Monday. I hate the front-page picture, but Nai said the article was written alright. I’ve gotten a few bites from it… I’m in the interviewing stage. One involves working with a young global company doing business in international trading, travel, web services, education, and textiles. The other is a teaching position for area college sophomores. I’m also pushing to expand our network. Many of my contacts in the US know some people in SH, so we’ve been meeting up with them. One person we met on Friday: Tony Wai, who moved his family to SH in 2001. He heads a consulting/training firm servicing supply management professionals and said he’d be interested in having me develop an English training course to supplement his program. I don’t know much about purchasing/supply management work but intend to look into it. Could be a great opportunity offering a lot of control and flexibility (Thanks Andrea!). Mr. Wai also hooked John up with fellow mac enthusiast Kevin. Thanks to Kevin, John will be picking up his 23-inch mac cinema display screen this Tuesday (previously, all the places told us the wait time would be over one month).

Yesterday, we all took the bus down to JiaSan, Nai’s birth city. It’s only about 90 minutes south of here. We met her younger brother and little sister and their kids. A big family. Visited her parents’ grave– they were born in 1903 and 1904 and passed away in the 1990’s.

At lunchtime, we went out to a hotel restaurant in downtown JiaSan. Tasted some specialty foods, including chestnut-like legumes (I think) called Lings (the horned thing pictured to the right), wu xiong jiang ya (soy sauce duck), and turtle-fish. John said the turtle-fish (which looks like a black soft-shelled snapturtle to me) tasted like chicken. He ate two clubby legs with the claws still on them. Ugh!

On Saturday, John and I had dinner with Laura Wang and her friend Teh Ghee. I met both of them the day after Christmas when I attended a web-blogger’s meet up. Laura works for Forbes magazine (China) and Teh is a daytrader– here to just soak up the culture in transition. His sister-in-law is a feminist in Singapore but he didn’t talk much about her beyond saying they get into a lot of arguments. Nuff said. A pleasant dinner though… Laura is interested in doing a language exchange.

Today, we took Nai and Yeb to the Golden Jaguar, a new Taiwanese-run buffet located on Nanjing Xi Rd., in the hoyty-toyty Jiang An district. The restaurant has only been open for two months, but it’s this elaborate 3500 sf place serving over 100 dishes. I think Nai and Yeb really enjoyed it (though Nai almost got lost in there). They had all kinds of seafood, including clams, shrimp, squid, Shanghai hairy crabs… we ate for about two hours and are skipping dinner.

At Golden Jaguar, a young Chinese lady (probably our age, maybe a little younger… it’s hard to tell) sat with this 60-some year old Caucasian guy at the table next to us. The woman was wearing these hipster jeans, with her lower abdomen exposed. I mean, I know the low-riders are in style now, but you could see her pelvic bone and the curvature of her belly, below the belly button! It was a little extreme. And then the guy was old! a bald white guy with circular wire-rimmed spectacles and a ringmaster’s mustache. Honestly, at first, I was just taken aback by her jeans. Sure, it was an odd pairing, but I waited to reserve judgement. You never know… she could have been his adopted daughter or something. When I looked across the table at Nai, she muttered something to me. I barely heard her and was convinced she was relaying something to me in Chinese. Then she said louder and clearer, “sweet daddy.” And she had this smug smile like she knew a secret. What?? Where did she learn this term? We head back to the buffet table and Nai says she’s read all about this in the papers. Young girls going with old men who afford them a comfortable lifestyle. The Chinese term for it is “tang die.” Meanwhile, I’m still in denial. I mean, she really could be his adopted daughter, right? Wrong. They start holding hands, feeding each other… Okay so I’m still a little naive.

The other day while John and I went shopping for music CDs, I met a young woman who had frostbite. I’d never really seen it before except on like the IMAX Mount Everest movie. She worked for the store actually and while she was locating Tian Zhen and the 12 Girls’ Band for me, she kept rubbing her pointer and middle finger on her left hand. Her fingers were all swollen and red. They looked like bees had stung them. I asked what had happened and she said it was frostbite. She pointed to her lower ear lobes too… both puffy and somewhat bluish. It was so disturbing. She said she put some kind of ointment on them, but it didn’t seem to help. Apparently, she had gotten all of this before, but it was some years back before she moved to Shanghai. This winter though was especially cold and walking to the store and back for work was brutal. I didn’t know what else to say. I just wondered to myself… how cold and how long for someone to suffer from frostbite? Didn’t she have a hot water bottle or something? Does she know what happens in severe cases of frostbite? AMPUTATION for god’s sake! She was quite matter-of-fact about it and then went about helping another customer. We bought our two CDs and left. I re-bundled myself extra carefully this time: I even re-wrapped my scarf to cover my mouth and nose.

We’re a few days into the New Year now and people are still scaring the wits out of my pups with their artillery-fire explosives. When we took Remy and Martin outside yesterday morning, per usual, they got very excited watching the apartment pigeons in their glass coop. They jumped up scratching the glass door frantically hoping to get their mouths wrapped around one of those pudgy feathered creatures. Ears perked, tails straight up… maybe today would be their lucky day. Then a firecracker went off in the distance– a single low boom and that was enough to send both pups, tails between their legs, scurrying back inside for cover. Remy who is especially regular, drops her packages twice a day– once in the morning, once in the evening. She’s all off schedule now (and stopped up), thanks to the pyro-happy Chinese.

Yesterday, John and I went to JinJiang Hotel–one of our favorite stops for 1) a potty break 2) foreign bookstore 3) travel agency. While we were in there checking on airfares from SH to Hong Kong to Taiwan, the wind blew so hard, it swung the front glass door open, off it’s hinge, and sent the thing crashing to pieces. It was pretty surreal.