China #11 - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

December 17th, 2012 -
hi there folks...i know, i know, i know...its been way too long....but i fell in the black hole of work here in shanghai....plus for the past month and a half i have had a problem with my vpn....what's a vpn you ask....its the way i get on blogger and facebook from china, where they are not allowed....what a vpn does is scramble my ip address and make it look like i am really in seattle or seoul or somewhere other than china....so then i don't get blocked....but china is cracking down on vpns....so you never really know when yours will work....

no excuse i know for not updating....so i apologize and i decided i better get this one out before the end of the world in a few days and before my trip to india, a few days later.....things here in china are finally getting to vacation...life has been crazy busy with school and fun stuff...even had two ice friends come and visit since i last wrote....and we went a visited somewhere new for me in china....more on that later....

but the pictures below are from two months ago now....and my trip to kuala lumpur (KL) to visit anka and family, who have moved there this year from croatia....so some of you will know the other folks in the pictures and some of you will not....i have to say i enjoyed KL quite a bit....much more colorful and diverse compared to china...also, not as perfect as shanghai....it had interesting sites, smells, spices and people...plus the food was quite tasty....i made it to china town and little india while i was there and it was interesting to visit both....but i get ahead of myself...on to the pictures...

 

for those of you who don't know, KL is in malaysia...and it is well known for its pewter....its royal selangor pewter at that....this is the place that makes all of the pewter glasses, dishes, tea pots and such for the royals of malaysia...and of course they have a version of the famous petronas twin towers....made from pewter....way coooooooooool.....

while in the pewter factory, we were allowed to have a cool beverage in a pewter drinking glass, just to show how cold they keep the drink you have....this is me and nikola cheers - ing each other with the pewter...they came to visit the factory with me and we even got to make our own pewter bowls at the "school of hard knocks"....lets just say no one would want to buy the one I made, except maybe my parents...because parents always want the things their kids make ;)

one of the days while i was exploring the city i was at the cultural craft center...the center itself was okay, but while i was waiting for my bus this guy from india pulled up with this motorcycle filled with snacks...yes, everything hanging form the bike is edible...from chips to candy to baguettes....it was a crazy ride....

one of the stops on the bus route was the royal family's mansion/palace....its on the outskirts of the city....yet looks at the twin towers....this is the main gate with the palace in the middle section...this was a close as we got, and i never did meet any of the royals....

for those of you who don't know, KL is a mecca for shoppers...it has been called a shoppers paradise...but then again, so have most of the SE asian cities i have been to in the last year and half...who knows which one is the best...not my specialty...but i did like all of the t-shirts at one of the markets i stopped by...this was at the central market...one of the biggest...and the food court on the top floor here is amazing....tons of different types of food....

this shot above was my favorite store....yep...its the engine of a train and they have refurbished it to be a clock store...hence the grandfather clocks at the front....you actually went inside the full sized engine and could look at clocks and watches from all over the world...this was a very creative store..i loved it!

the building above is one of the arts centers in KL...specifically for music and theater....the roof is really interesting and its light blue...this is made in the same style as a traditional malay house with the peaked styled roof....this is on the outskirts of a great park with two lakes and boats and such....the parks in KL are really impressive....

this next shot is of the KL tower...i was very sad...i missed the free base jumpers my first night in town....that means they jump off the this building with a parachute in hand and it deploys when they throw it to the side...i guess this happens twice a year in KL and i missed it....i didn't go up into the KL tower, because i decided to go into the petronas towers instead....they are much more shiny and new...however....this tower is located directly in the center of town, in a rainforest....very cool parks as i said before...they really like their green space in this very polluted, traffic filled town...

as i wrote above, KL is a shoppers paradise....this is the street sign announcing you have made it to mecca for shopping....the malls are HUGE and sparkling and new looking and they have every chain you can think of for clothes, jewelry and food...its just insane...

i really liked this building because it kind of gives you the idea that not everything in KL is shiny and new...this is located just outside of china town and is an apartment building that is well lived in...it just looks so different from buildings here in shanghai....it definitely adds to the flavor of KL....

this beautiful building is the train station....it is a mix of eastern and western designs....as islam is the most prominent religion in malaysia...many of the buildings have an islamic feel/design....this one is stunning with the white domes and staircases...and it was a busy place too...

one of the main parts of the city is little india.....this is the main drag of that part of the city....the city of KL is really made up of three types of people....the malay, the chinese and the indian....i am not sure if this is what india looks like, but i enjoyed the colors and smells of indian food in this part of town...i actually found this incredible veggie only buffet....yummy!!!!  i should know more after my winter holiday if this is what india looks like....

as i mentioned above, i decided to go up in the petronas twin towers while visiting KL....and these were way cool....this first shot is from the center portion of the bridge between the towers....what's really cool about this bridge is that it is flexible and movable and not really connected to the towers...it is snug fit, but has the ability to expand and contract with the wind hitting the towers....we were not there on a windy day, so unfortunately i can't say what its like from personal experience....but really it is a flexible pedestrian bridge....these towers are 452 m (1483 ft) tall and are amazing to look at in the sun or lit up at night....so elegant....

as you look down onto the central city park from the bridge, you can see that the mall below you is powered by all solar cells....that's what the dark geometric designs are on the building are... the park as you can see, has fountains that get lit up and dance at night...its a really nice central portion of town....

this was the view from the towers looking out in the direction where anka and family live....as you can see, some cool buildings, with some green spaces sprinkled here and there....the school where anka works is in this directions as well...and even though she wasn't that far from downtown, the traffic made getting around quite crazy....

this is one of my favorite shots of the trip....the one tower taken from the other....i love the look and feel of these buildings and am really happy i got to go up in them....uber modern and cool :)

this next street shot is one the main eating streets in KL...just on the edge of chinatown....most of the people selling food from these stalls spoke chinese and malay....so i got to practice my chinese a bit...i think i did okay, but you would have to ask anka to be sure....we had a tasty meal one night here....

another night we went out for dinner we came across all of these different shake flavors...the first one on the left is a durian milkshake....GROSS!!!!  if you have never had or smelled durian fruit...you aren't missing anything....but this is the king's favorite flavor in malaysia....so you can find places that will serve you durian-anything....personally i think they smell like stinky feet and the slimy texture makes it really hard for me to enjoy....definitely not one of my favorites...you can find durian here in china too...the last milkshake...the purple one...is a taro milkshake...which does not even sound appealing....needless to say, we did not get those flavors....

one night anka and i went out on the town....we stopped at the dancing fountains just outside of the petronas twin towers...there was no music, but the lights and dancing were quite nice....we actually went to a rooftop bar across the way, that had a pool inside of it....it was quite swank...

 

from that above mentioned bar, i was able to get this beauty of a shot of these super cool towers...they do not leave them lit all night by the way....they turn them off around midnight every night....so although this was a stunning picture...they did lessen the light pollution a bit later in the evening...which is something i can support....obviously they left the lights on for planes, but not the big spots and such...i love these buildings...

 

my last picture from the trip is of me and anka from the balcony of my swanky hotel i stayed in for my last night in town...i needed some down time and a spa day, so i sprung for the view, the lounge with the night caps and the amazing hydrotherapy pool....it was totally relaxing and great way to end my visit to this fun and culturally diverse and varied city....it was a blast seeing anka and family and catching up...plus, it was great to see another part of southeast asia....

so again...here you have it...another trip of mine....i am hoping to post pictures from my visit to guillin, china with wendy and shandra....because we stayed in a great guesthouse and had an awesome visit....but i am not sure that will happen before i head to india this weekend....i am heading there for a few weeks with a good friend from here and AM SOOOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!  my first time...woot!!!!

i will post pictures from there....don't you worry....okay...off i go...hope you enjoyed this adventure...more coming i promise...i hope everyone has a happy and healthy holiday season and i wish you all the best in 2013!!!!

have a fab day :)
dani

China #10 - More Shanghai

October 20, 2012
hey there folks....well i am finally getting the chance to say hi and check in again from china....it seems like this year is just overly busy....so much to do for school and so much play in life away from school, keeps me moving a quick pace these days....i am again in a few different supper groups, singing in a choir, swimming three mornings a week and have now joined zumba.....woot!!!  i am also in charge of what is known as our House System....its SCIS' version of hogwarts....so we have five different dragon houses that all of the middle school students participate in for academic competitions and sport competitions and service learning....so its been fun working with house captains that are kids and the great people in the middle school this year....its a complete 180 degree turn-around from the feelings on campus last year.....i'm lovin it....but i am a bit exhausted with everything....

i decided to do another round of pictures form shanghai....since i do live here and try to get out and about as much as possible....i was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for october break visiting a friend and her family who have moved there this year....and those pictures will be in the next update....but for now i am sticking with shanghai....the glittery, crazy, china-lite city i live in :)  first stop the junketeria.....
  

the markets in china are an amazing thing....and you can find them all over the city....i have a new friend who has moved into town and she wanted to pick my brain for a day and wander everywhere to find things for her house and classroom....and she came up with the junketeria....i had never been there so i thought....why not....whoa....it was an elementary school teachers dream....you name it, it was in the junketeria....the picture above is only one aisle of the first floor...it has SEVEN floors with about 15 aisles each....and literally you can find anything....
 

for example the things above can be found there....i think this one store has at least 50 different kinds of googly eyes...and look at all of the string and yarn....when i say you can find anything you can find anything.....
 

but it wasn't just crafty stuff....it was also holiday stuff...i could have already started stocking up on decorations for the chinese new year and that's not until february....one of the funniest things i saw at the junketeria was an older gentleman playing with a snake made out of wood....he was prenteding it was scaring him and in return was frightening the children around him....that doesn't sound funny, but everyone around them...and yes, even the children, were dying of laughter...i do have to say the chinese people love to smile and laugh...i see that all the time...
 

one last shot from the junketeria...yep...you can even find underware there...all shapes and sizes and styles....and its just a stall next to the googly eyes and stickers....simply amazing....and what's even crazier is that there is a similar sized market, that sells mostly the same stuff, just two blocks down the street....really, you can find anything in china....odds are good, but goods are usually not high in quality....but you can find them....
 

we came across an amazing noodle stand on the side of the road while walking around, you just point to what you want and they make it....choices were veggies, beef, fish, chicken, pork, organs of various animals and of course amazing noodles...probably made by the guy's wife and grandmother at home....i love these stands...and you can find them anywhere....street food is always best after a long night out though, when you have been having a drink or two....the perfect nightcap....yum!!!!

the two pictures above come from my local wet market....this is where i buy my fruit and veggioes and tofu...but you can find all sorts of food stuffs here....it is also in a local neighborhood...and in the first picture you are seeing the local chinese older guys reading the newspaper through the glass...the newspaper gets changed daily and really, it gets read....every neighborhood like this one has a news area....it also has an exercise area and a place to sit and catch up on the latest gossip of the neighborhood...the chinese really do get out and about and community does mean a lot to them....the second picture i love...its the ice man delivering ice to the stalls in the wet market....because as i said before, this is where you can get everything....you can pick out chickens and have them plucked and killed right there...or fish fresh from the ocean/river delivered that morning....or eels...right now, hairy crabs are in season....i had dumplings with some crab in them last weekend...not really my favorite...but here in china they come from one region of lakes and are quite the delicacy.....but i love the way this guy is delivering ice....you can do everything here in china with a bicycle or motor scooter...its amazing.....
 

i don't know if any of you recently saw that china was in the news about some islands in the south china sea....these particular islands and who owns them are being fought over by the chinese and japanese and philipinos....its pretty crazy....about a month back there were a lot of demonstrations against the japanese and how they were claiming these islands....and one of the demonstrations went past my house....it led to demonstrations outside of the japanese embassy and some businesses around china were attacked....even some of the car parts factories that are japanese owned....tensions are still high, but i haven't seen any acts of violence or demonstrations recently....the japanese and chinese are not the best of friends however....so who knows where this could lead....

the picture above is me with bao zi - its a bun, cooked in a steamer that i sometimes have for breakfast....you can have them filled with pork or beef....but of course i get the ones filled with veggies and tofu....you can see there are many different levels of the steamer...all holding buns for folks to enjoy....these breakfast foods generally cost me 15 cents each....what a tasty bargain i say :)
 

one of my favorite sights of shanghai is the couples who match what they are wearing....yes....they actually dress the same...and this is very common....especially younger couples and families traveling together...i have seen families of six and seven where everyone is wearing the same outfit....my favorite just this morning was a couple out walking in their matching pajamas...here in shanghai if you are out in your pjs, it means you have time to be leisurely....so it means you have money and time to relax and can show the world this fact by walking around in your pjs....simply amazing!!!!

recently i was down at the bund for some drinks on a rooftop bar...and every time i go, i have to take this shot...i just love it...what i also love is that the lights do not go on until 7pm and they get turned off between 10:30 and 11pm these days....really they do think about conservation of energy in ways that surprise me every time...

where else but china could you get your hair done and smoke a cigarette, all on the sidewalk for others to notice you and what you are doing....this guy was actually having his hair colored....from grey to black....it looked like shoe polish and i have no idea how long it lasted...but having him as the demonstrator was pulling people in to buy the stuff....who knows why...i love the cigarette....its just another way to spend your day in china.....
 

i have seen many different modes of transportation here in shanghai and these are two of my recent sweet ride shots....the one above is great because we are coming into winter and you want to be sure your passengers are comfortable and dry when you are taking them somewhere on your trike...but its surrounded in plastic....not glass...but it does have the frame....so maybe that's the next step....
 

in shanghai there are tons of the side car motorcycles...you can even do a tour of the city in one...they are everywhere when the weather is good....this one is really well maintained and i have seen it all over the place...the guy who drives it has the old style goggles to go with it and it is in mint condition....anything goes in shanghai and if you want one, you can find one...no matter what it is...

for my birthday this year i tried out a new restaurant down on the bund...quite tasty and it had an amazing roof-top bar....on the way back and down the steps they had this incredible piece of art....they are ceramic characters of chinese hanging the length of the staircase...just incredible....but they are more curvy than normal characters, giving them a sense of calmness i just don't normally feel from chinese characters...i loved them....

this last shot is of me at the rooftop bar of the restaurant...look at that view of the bund...simply awesome....this city has it all....and its is still so much fun to explore...cheers....

and there you have it...shanghai in a nutshell or at least in a few pictures.....i could send out many, many more as i am always surprised by something in this city...but next up is kuala lumpur....a city filled with color, greenery, traffic and som incredible architecture.....it was a fun vacation...more to come...

i hope each of you is well and happy and feel free to drop me a line whenever...i really do try to answer email as fast as possible...because if i don't, i forget to later....so if you want to get in touch...please do....all the best in the next few weeks and i hope to have the next update out sooner rather than later...talk soon.....
 

China #9 - A New Year in Shangai

September 9th, 2012

Hi there folks.....well, its official.....I am now back in Shanghai!!!! i had a great summer seeing folks and catching up with many in the USA....from seattle to philly, from denver to jersey....it was a great summer....a bit hot, but overall things were relaxing and filled with laughing and hearing stories from the past year and beyond....thanks to all who i saw and stayed with....it was nice to hear your updates in person....i am headed back to the states over next summer...so if i missed you, hopefully we will connect this coming summer.....

i have been back in shanghai for just over a month....and what a crazy, busy time it has been....i have moved into a new apt....same complex, but a different place (pictures to follow)....i have been given a new classroom...funny stories here...more to follow...i have met 41 new teachers here at SCIS...which sounds ridiculous when i tell you we only have about 90 teachers to begin with....but it has been a great thing....i have spent many days and night showing people all around this city...and i have started school....which is always a lot of work.....BUT....the year for work has started off well, and so far i am much happier than last year with my situation.....the new folks have breathed new life into this place and people actually are smiling and excited to be here...its a great feeling.....

but let's get to the pictures and i'll tell the stories along the way.....as you can see from the shot below, for the first time in my life, i decided to fly executive class back to china....its a 14 hour flight and we earned a bonus last year that i put toward flying in this manner....and i have to say...it was AH-MAZE-ING!!!!! i have no idea why i have not done this before....okay, actually its rather expensive, but its totally worth it....the seat that you see below, turns into a bed and for the first time ever, i got some sleep on a long flight....it rocked.....the food was good, the movies were good, i had no one next to me....i will do this again, but only on the really long flights....this is what i have decided to do as an adult :)  gotta love it....

thanks air canada...it was a great trip :)  woot!!!!

once i was back in shanghai, things started happening fast...this place has sooooooooo much to do and see and experience, and it felt like i picked up from last year....a friend had her mom visting town, so they were headed to a brunch on the bund (the river area you see above) and they invited me along....it was a very warm and muggy day, but we almost had blue skies....so of course i went for the view and the company....the food was pretty darn good too....but this was the shot i took from their balcony at the restaurant....i do love this view....

  
as some of you may remember, i had to move my things at the end of last year into a new apt....so i decided i would show you how it is shaping up....i am in the same complex and there are some new perks with this place, but overall it is smaller and less pretty than my last place....but very functional and works for me....in the shot above you can see my dining room....the glass circle on the far wall is one of the perks, as it lets me display life stuff....and can be back lit....the doorway on the left goes to a full bath with a shower and the doorway on the right leads to the kitchen...you can also see a polka dotted thing to the left, and this is the door to may spare bedroom (come on over for a visit!!!!)

this next shot above is looking from my dining room into my living room and enclosed balcony....it has been too hot to use this so far, but someday it will be cooler and less humid....someday....this was before i put any art of the walls, so it looks a bit less sterile now...but that is still coming along....not finished yet...its hard when your walls are cement...need to borrow a drill....

and last, but not least, this is my kitchen....the reason i had to show this was because i have been lucky enough to get an oven with this place....this is rather rare in china and many other places overseas....yes, i will need to guess at temperatures as the numbers on the dial are missing....but its exciting to have one of these....and located just next to the oven is the washing machine - yes, for laundry....gotta love that in your kitchen ;) all-in-all its a nice and cosy place...i think i have worked out the storage and space issues and am now in the process of making it look better....but i am not much of a "nester"...so putting art on the walls is probably the extent of what i will do....come for a visit!!!!
 

on with the show....i decided to take a picture of a lady i see all the time on the way to my friend's place....yep, she is a tailor...on the street, with a very old fashioned sewing machine....you still make it move by pumping with your foot....she of course recognizes me now and waves hello every time i walk past....she usually has quite a few customers, as she has set up shop across the street from the hutang near me, where lots of folks live and most of the have no electricity or running water....and she does their tailoring and fixing of things....i just lost a button on a shirt, so i will need to try her out :)

school, as i said, has been extremely different this year....the admin is going out of its way to treat us well and give us little thank-yous...its quite nice....and one of the best ones they have given us this year was a river cruise on the Huangpu in shanghai....this is the river you see in all of the pictures of the bund....and lucky us, it was on the night of the full blue moon....as we were walking to the boat, i took this picture of the moon rising and linked it up with one of the many cranes in shanghai....not bad, as it looks like the moon is hanging from the chain of the crane.....

this was the boat we went on....as you can see it is sponsored by a corporation...all of the boats are well lit and have a sponsor....and there are quite a few...it was a two hour river cruise and below you can see some of the fun shots i took along the way :) it was a beauty of a night....
 

this first shot is of me and lindsey, acting out the bad "chinglish" on the boat - if you can't read what it says - its...."The working orea The tourist halts"....lovin it....we tried to look as serious as we could...that way you would follow the rules better ;)
 

this is a shot of the pearl tower all lit up....i love this building....it is a tv building that you can go inside...i need to get back over there again this year, as the last time i was there was when i was a tourist in china....not living here...i need to walk on the glass floor and take some shots....and i hear the museum at the base of the tower is pretty good concerning the history of shanghai....

in this shot you can see the financial buildings in pudong, the tallest one being the one outlined in blue that looks like a bottle opener....over to the right you can see the moon...and the boat in front of the buildings was one of my favorites on the river that night....it has dragons on the front of it....and was lit up well...its sponsor was china telecom....one of the the country's phone companies

the last shot from the cruise is the other side of the bund.....the building with the flower like top, is the westin....one of my favorites....the architecture on this side is quite different than the other side, as many of the lower buildings look like they should be found in europe...love all of the lights....
 

as i mentioned above, i got a new lab this year, in a different part of the buildings of school....this used to be a normal math classroom...but they have remade it into a science lab...its a bit small, but has all of the necessary parts....the funniest thing about this though was that when they built the room, and took all of the teaching things out of it - bulletin boards, a white board or two, the smart board, the clock....they gave them to other classrooms...so literally when we got here, it looked all pretty and new, but there was no way a person could teach in here....i just thought that was funny....it seems to be working well, but we start labs this week and we'll see how it works with 23 kids...a bit tight....
 

its funny, they also left me no wall space....so great storage, not that i have any stuff, but trying to put things on the wall is definitely a process.....i need to figure out where i will put the goggles holder next....it has to have enough space for 120 kids....yep....i have quite a few this year....6 classes, almost all at or over maximum capacity...this place is a lot of work...but again, my kids are great....so that i can deal with.....

the next few shots are things from around town that show some of my daily sights and experiences....i had to take a picture of this sign for my mom and her friends....look the toilet is more than a toilet....it is delicious and happy....i have no idea what that means....and it was NOT  a western toilet....so i am not really sure what they mean by this....thoughts????

people wanted to know this summer if shanghai was a clean place....and the answer is yes, with a little asterisk next to it.....we have tons of street cleaners like this guy..notice the uniform and the style of broom....plus he has to carry his little wheeled part himself....there are tons of these folks everywhere in shanghai....so its a clean place....but lots of folks spit everywhere....and i mean everywhere....and people go to the bathroom everywhere....personally i think these two things are gross, but maybe they are why we have so many people cleaning streets...because really, when you look at the street, it looks clean.....

the other thing that surprised most people this summer was how anything and everything can be delivered to your house.....and i mean anything.....so i took a picture of a mcdonalds delivery guy on a scooter....he wouldn't smile....but this is the way most things are delivered to your door...its amazing what you see on motor scooters here...i will try and make those a focus with some pictures in the near future....i have seen everything on them....

for the next two pictures, the school started the year off with a good luck lion dance and acrobats...i only had my iphone, so the pictures are not that great....but i loved these lions and thought it was a cool good luck thing for the school to do....there are two guys inside the lion...one is standing on the other ones legs....that's how they get the height....
 

we also had performers and this guy was amazing at balancing...he is on a wooden board, that is balancing on 5 metal tubes that are all rolling around on each other....again, not very clear....but i thought he was incredible....acrobats are very big in shanghai...i am hoping to go to one of the shows sometime this year, as i never made it to one last year.....

i love this last shot of the bund, as it was taken out on of the windows of a bar along the bund....i took some of the new folks out for dinner and drinks with friends of mine and was able to take this beauty of a shot, as it was a somewhat clear evening....it just makes me smile, so i thought you might like it too....
 

the last shot of me is a traditional one of me with a beer...taken of me on the river cruise....with their cool fish tank and staring waitstaff, i know i am stunning :).....it was a fun trip on the boat and it was terrific gesture by the school....it has been a great start here in shanghai and i have a fun fall/winter breaks already planned...i am next traveling to kuala lumpur,  malayasia to see some friends and relax in october, friends from the ice are headed here in november and i am doing a trip in india for the winter break.....so things are shaping up nicely

i hope you enjoyed this update....i will try and have another out about shanghai sometime in the near future and then will probably send out one about my time in malayasia....woot!!!!  if you have any questions or comments or an update of your own, please send them my way....i hope everyone is well and happy and enjoying their fall or spring....talk soon.....