7,230 miles is a trip.
10,678 miles makes me Marco Polo.
That's how far I traveled over 4 days. The drive from Malibu to Texas, the flight from Texas to Los Angeles, the flight from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, and then FINALLY the flight from Hong Kong to Shanghai. I must really like traveling. Or at least the movies played on the plane.
Flying over HK harbor
Despite the richness of the entertainment menu on Cathay Pacific flights, I am glad to be staying still, at least for a little bit. I am in the middle of looking for apartments, so I'm put up in the Shanghai Marriott Puxi at the moment, which, thanks to my mom's Marriott points, has me sleeping in a pretty sweet room. Been to see one apartment today already, and I have two more to go see tomorrow.
I got in very late on Tuesday night (Shanghai time) so I ended up just going to sleep, but Wednesday was busy. I met Adrian Ordonez and his friend Rafa (who is totally awesome and should just move back here) at the subway station by Adrian's apartment because my directional capabilities are less than.....capable. We walked around People's Square and found a random Chinese restaurant to eat at that had a quite the interesting translations for their dishes. There was an entire page devoted to "exploding" dishes (crunchy exploding cow pieces, pork tangy explosion experience), a dish simply called "it resembles honey", and others that looked like the translators were trying to playing Scattergories.
Surprisingly though, after I asked for chicken chow mein and got a very disgusted look, I ordered a noodle dish by pointing at the picture and it was REALLY good. A little Tsingdao (Chinese beer), and we had a pretty decent and edible meal - something that can be quite elusive in the good old P.R.C.- then walked around a little before going back to Adrian's apartment (or trying to).
Something about the Shanghaiese summer - its gross. It's really hot, and muggy, and everytime you step outside you get coated in this pollution/sweat combo that is not only sticky, but causes Chinese men to roll up their shirts to just below their chest, exposing their oh-so-dream-worthy sweaty potbellies. I have GOT to find me a Chinese boyfriend. Shamelessly, because of this heat, I have adopted the practice of Chinese women to carry umbrellas around, and I think how crazy I would look doing the same in California. Regardless, it does keep me a little cooler, and I also get less stares because my obvious foreignness isn't quite so obvious under an umbrella.
That's another thing - I thought I was used to being stared at from the last time I lived in Shanghai, but I must have either forgotten how intense it can be, or I must look way weirder this time. I was in the back of a taxi one time and the taxi driver who pulled up beside us actually leaned forward to better see me and pressed his face up against the window. One guy on the subway wiggled his eyebrows everytime my eyes passed in his direction. Make that two guys. One pedalling a heavy load on a bike screeched in delight as I passed in front of him and waved to me so hard he almost fell off his bike. Flattering? Hardly. I feel like a carnival attraction. Besides that though, most Chinese people are pretty helpful and only mostly, not overly, obvious with their curiosity.
I went out Wednesday night with Rafa, Adrian, his sister Fabi, and her friend Juan Pablo to Teppanyaki. It wasn't normal hibachi - we got different kinds of fish, oysters (my first time eating them, and they were really delicioso), some really gross Chinese ice cream, and these oily bananas which totally tasted like the meat that was cooked before them. Regardless, some of the meat served was super tasty and we had the one thing a big meal in China is best served with - Tsingdao, Chinese merlot that was surprisingly good, and sake sake sake. Adrian actually filled up an empty water bottle with the rest of the wine, and definitely got away with it. Proud of you, man.
We went out after to a bar called Sugar that seemed mostly French, and had free vodka drinks for girls before 11:30 pm, which was nice except that one of the drinks I got was vodka with apple juice, mint leaves, and lime. It tasted confusing, and not in a good way. Still, I drank it while trying to learn from Adrian and Fabi how to tip your cup upside down, covering all but a small part with your hand, and chug the contents. If any of you have an idea of my coordination, you know it did not go well.
Despite my failure at that, I met some awesome people (Mirna, JuanP, Fabi) and we had some intense dance parties after at JuanPablo's apt, followed by a failed attempt to go out to Mint.
Today was a lot less busy....mostly because I slept the majority of it. I went to an "electronic city" to get my Blackberry unlocked so I could use a Chinese SIM card in it - I've been running up my American cell bill undoubtedly texting Adrian and various apartment listings. Unfortunately they had to keep my phone overnight to unlock it because I guess it was difficult? Super sketch, and I'm really nervous about going back tomorrow, because Chinese or not, I will go kung fu on their asses if they decide to keep it.
Anyways, I came back and passed out (so unusual) and accidentally slept through an appointment I had to see an apartment in People's Square. Woke up in time to go to another apartment near XinTianDi that had a really cute kitten, so that wasn't really a hard sell for me. I did go into two different buildings before I found the right one - one of them a police building, and one of them in which I knocked repeatedly on the wrong door and had to witness some vomit in one of the elevators. I also had to ask three different Chinese people who gave me answers I only half understood, but actually helped. I'm going to look at more tomorrow though, so hopefully by the end of tomorrow I will actually have a place to live.
Trying to buy a camera out here, so I will post pictures as soon as I have the ability to take them.
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