I think I live here now...

It's only been three weeks since I got here, and I feel like I've been here three months. 

I never expected to get settled in so quickly, to pick up routines and have local "haunts", but thanks to the help of my friends that have been here, Shanghai doesn't feel strange at all. It actually feels like I live here....which, according to the police I don't yet because I haven't registered with them.....oops.

I finally met my other roommate, Emily, and she's great. She's also from the U.K., and her half Japanese boyfriend is staying here too for a bit and they are both really sweet. Unfortunately, in the U.K., unlike in the U.S., you can't just add pages on to your passport when you run out, so Emily has run into some visa troubles and has to leave for a month or so. So I guess I'll be getting a new, temporary roommate here for about a month - really hoping we don't get a weirdo who is into freakishly growing their pinky and thumb nails out like the Chinese here. Really grosses me out, and I don't really want to know exactly why they do it.

Other new things: if you stalk my facebook (I hope you do), you have seen my beautiful new scoot scoot. I feel like such a baller driving it around, obeying the Chinese way of driving, (don't pay attention to lights, street signs, or pedestrians) but I especially like not arriving some place and having to shake off like a dog because I'm sweating so much in this damn humidity.

Charging my scooter is a bit of a challenge though - apparently at our apt complex the guards yell at you if you charge your battery in the basement (not as intimidating since I have no idea what they are saying), and the power center on the corner charges you 1 kuai for every ten minutes, so I have had to take the battery out of my scooter and bring it up to my apartment to charge it overnight. It weighs about 80 pounds. Seriously. I've never encountered a denser package in my entire life....it must be filled with plutonium because i can only carry it about 8 feet at a time, and if I didn't have an elevator I'd never get it up to my apt at all. Roommate suggestion: buy a skateboard and transport it on there - I think this is a brilliant idea, but am a little worried I will try the skateboard myself and break something.

In other news, I have started Mandarin classes - three hours a day, five days a week - which are a little challenging (the people in my class definitely understand more than I do) but I desperately want to get my Chinese better in a hurry. A worker came to fix our toilet yesterday, talked to me for five minutes afterwards, and it was only when my roommate came back and talked to him that I realized he had been threatening to charge us for the next time he had to fix something. I had been sitting there thanking him and saying "Good, good" the whole time. Then again maybe I could have frustrated him enough that, had he wanted payment immediately, he would have given up. 

Another Chinese mishap occurred when I tried to make mashed potatoes the other day. I ran to the corner market to get milk, and after I made the mashed potatoes and started eating them, I realized I had bought yogurt instead and put it into the mashed potatoes. I still ate them, but I can tell you milk tastes much better.

Best part of my week: going over to Angela Zhou's house and getting crazy with the Zhous.

Angela is my friend who is from Shanghai, and whom I met during my first stint in Shanghai. The Zhous on numerous occasions had invited me over for dinner and treated me with such good hospitality that I felt quite obligated to return the favor. The plan for Friday night was that I would come and cook Italian food, and Fabi would cook Flan, and treat the Zhous to a little laowai (foreigner) food. 

It ended up that not only did Mr. Zhou make us about 10 dishes, but we didn't even eat the pasta I made, and instead stuffed ourselves on Chinese food (best spring rolls I've ever had) and got drunk on the 6 bottles of wine and liquor Mr. Zhou pushed on us, even trying some rice liquor he made himself and a bottle of liquor marinated a la dead snake.

I brought Fabi, Adrian, and Juan Pablo with me, because the Zhous have always been so encouraging to bring friends, and I dare say they love the Zhous as much as I do. Mr. Zhou almost drank Adrian under the table (don't deny it Adrian - we all saw you dry heaving at the table), and he certainly got Alex (who was late and had to take shots to make up for it) wasted. The spanish speakers also taught Mr. Zhou how to say "Salud" when he drank, so at least we were all having valuable international exchanges - besides the Russian vodka, Chinese liquor, and Chilean wine.

The rest of the night was....just insane. We went to Mural's 100 kuai all-you-can-drink night, and proceeded to ....party? We had already all had a lot to drink, and besides Alex, who was helped home by Adrian, proceeded to drink more, dance, and dump drinks on each other's heads. 

Oh wait....*cough* Fabi and Juan Pablo *cough*

Happy to be a witness to that, as you have not been amused until you see someone's hair flattened by a glass of whiskey and Bailey's. At least you got him first, Fabi.

Ignorance is Bliss

Finally moved into my apartment on Sunday after visiting a few, and for the most  part, getting extremely lost along the way. I think its actually located in the Xuhui district, right outside the French Concession, but I have no idea - I actually had to have my mom send me a package at the Pepperdine house because neither of my roommates know the zip code for our apartment. Sorry for being a foreigner.

It's been pretty chill here so far, minus an incident with a mouse, where apparently it was caught on sticky traps we put down, and then to make sure it was dead, my rooms smacked it against a wall several times then squished it just to make sure. Luckily I was out at the time and didn't have to be the one taking a hammer to the thing.

Some pictures of my apartment for those pushy - I mean delightfully interested-ones who've been asking (Cliff)

Also, a nice little note in my bathroom....if you didn't know, in China you have to throw your TP in a trashcan bc the plumbing here isn't up to international scratch.

On Monday I met with one of the guys who offered to hire me - he was really nice and offered to teach me Mandarin for free, but it was kind of a sketch proposal, and the pay for working for him was not that great, so I have a new Chinese friend, but probably not an employer. 

However, he did treat me to lunch, at which I insisted he pick out the dishes, because my choices of Chinese food here have been limited to Chow Mein and Fried Rice. The first dish he told me was chicken, and actually didn't taste too bad at first, until I started chewing and discovered many small bones, at which time he added that I was eating chicken feet. I had a hard time finishing after that, but I took the bones out best I could, but not in the Chinese way, which is to simply dribble them out of your mouth and aim for the plate below you. 

The rest of the meal consisted of millet and pumpkin soup (not too bad), shrimp (which he made me eat with the shells on - don't try it), some weird spicy noodles, some very delicious stringy veggies in broth, beef (but I didn't have much because he didn't know what part of the cow it was from), and some tiny mussels maybe? He didn't know the word for that in English either....yet another reason to be nervous. I think I'll be pre-screening the dish choices next time, but some of them surprised me in a good way, actually.

Uploaded some pics of the menu on facebook....for some reason they kept coming out sideways on here..

That night though, was awesome. I met up with Adrian and Fabi and her three French friends who were leaving to go back to France in the morning. We went to a restaurant called Southern Belle, owned by an American guy who perpetually chewed on a cigar. He pop-quizzed me on a bunch of US history and I pretty much failed all of it. Oops. We had cheeseburgers and dart contests and got pretty tipsy before going onto Mural for their Latin Night.

It was Latin Insanity. That, would actually be the better name for it. They had a live Mexican band and it seemed everyone in the joint knew how to salsa or mambo, or whatever the band was playing. One guy danced with me, and it was HARD. You have to concentrate on what your feet are doing, and despite having danced for many years, my coordination still isn't up to par. After a while he told me I needed a break. Whomp whomp. 

I think I did better later though, because I danced with Juan Pablo, a Columbian guy I met through Fabi, and HE said I was the best American he ever danced with....although I'm pretty sure I accidentally punched him one time when he was spinning me. Oops.

Anyway, pretty much everyone except me was completely trashed, so it made for interesting dancing and interesting conversations. Sometimes it was just better to watch the people who clearly came here after using all week to practice their Latin moves, to shame the ones of us who were born really REALLY white. Needless to say, I'll be going back :)

Until next time, here is a Chinese picture to keep you entertained: apparently dogs, as they are first, are more dangerous than explosives. To the Chinese, at least.

Ohh, Herro

1,464 miles is a doozy.
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.