hey there folks - sorry once again for taking so long to email you the latest pictures and stories...i just seem to run out of time here all too often....i hope everyone has had a good start to the new season - spring or fall, depending on your hemisphere....things here in shanghai are still rainy....but now we have the humidity creeping up and up....everyone seems to think this is the rainy-est year here in shanghai they have ever seen...i keep saying they can thank me for bringing it to them - ha!!!!
since we last caught up school has been moving quickly towards the end and spring break happened for me, with a trip to singapore and beijing included....the next update, which i hope to get out in the next two days, as we have a four day weekend, will be singapore....a very clean and very green place, which is a beautiful break from china, if a little too perfect for this girl....
the pictures below are from random things i have been doing here in shanghai....from wandering streets and having random adventures.....to deciding to do high tea at the tallest building currently here in shanghai....there is such a wide variety of things to experience....i love it!!!! so on with the pictures.....
during the winter months, when it was cold and rainy, i actually got out of the house a bit to catch classical music and ballet....and one time we were trying a new route on the metro and came across this underground street of "shanghai, from 1930"....it is totally random....they have "outdoor seating" underground of course, with shops and pubs and such along this underground avenue....now i have seen plenty of underground markets here....but this was the first underground walking "street"....it was bizarre....we did go back later and sit and have a drink...but really...it was weird...perfect for people watching here though....which is a sport in-of-itself in this city.....
the shot above is of the shanghai grand theater....what a beautiful space to catch a show...i have been there a few times now...and the first time was to see a russian ballet....we were in the balcony, and much to my surprise the audience was awful....we even had people opening up plastic bags to eat their dinners of fried chicken....crazy....now, unfortunately chinese audiences were living up to the bad rap i had heard about them....cell phones going off, people having conversations throughout the show and having dinner???? it was a bummer...but about a month and half ago i went to a different show with yo-yo ma and the silk route ensemble....and the audience for that one was very respectful...i have been told yo-yo is a home town hero here in china....so that may have helped the situation....and....if you get a chance to see that ensemble...go!!!!! they are simply amazing....
the second shot above is of my friend lisa dancing with the chinese crowd....people here get out and exercise all the time in the parks and on street corners....this is fuxing park, and you can see couples dancing behind her...it was cha-cha i think....its amazing to see all of these folks up and dancing every night and most times during the weekend....its really cool...there are usually two sections in one place...a line dancing spot for single dancers and a couples dance....and they dance everything....the other night i saw them doing something like the hustle....and while out and about last weekend i saw some women doing a traditional fan dance.....its their form of exercise and everyone joins in...way cool!!!!
the shot above i took while wandering the streets one afternoon when we had sunshine....you always see people hanging their laundry along the streets, but i thought this was a cool shot of laundry on one side and bird cages on the other...birds of course are good luck animals here...and they are always kept in a cage....otherwise they could get taken or eaten...i have not seen many birds just flying around for the heck of it....not sure why, but i have my suspicions....anyway...i love the old style of the bird cages and that they are iron and classy....you just never know what you will see as you wander around....
one of the biggest fads here at the moment is to wear glasses frames with no glass in them...everyone is doing it...and we came across a vendor selling the glasses, so of course i needed to try some on....its a frustrating fad, as when i see folks walk by with no glass in their glasses, i want to poke them in the eye....not very nice i know, and i have not really done it, but i just get the urge when i see them....because as you can see from my shot...how dorky can you be!!!!!!
one of the sunny days we had at the end of march, two friends of mine and i decided to go have high tea at the world financial center across the river in the pudong section of town.....the financial center is currently the tallest building here in shanghai...and we thought it would be the perfect place to look out over the entire city on such a blue sky day....we were headed to the hilton on the 97th floor and at the elevators they had this funny sculpture....i just had to take a picture....
so as you can see from the picture above, we were super high up....but when we actually got to that height of the tower, we were then equal with all of the pollution....you can actually see where it changes to light brown....blech....tea was actually sold out, so we went to the bar instead and had a few drinks and enjoyed the view, well, as much as it could be enjoyed....it was at this height that i realized why i have this cough i cannot get rid of....that's the air quality of shanghai.....this view is looking at the second tallest tower here, and the pearl tower further back and in the direction of where i live....
in this picture i decided i needed to take a shot of the pudong side of shanghai....not as citi-esque as the other side in my opinion....its more of the suburbs and is just coming into its own....but this is the side that many people have sent me a picture of, because there is a picture going around the web of shanghai and how much it has changed in just 30 years....this side used to be swampland....and now look....definitely not swampland any more....gotta love all of the colored housing....make it a color and then it won't look communist....ha!!!!
we left the world financial center as the sun was setting and i got this great shot of the pearl tv tower and the building to its right, which i have no idea what it is called....but i loved the crispness and modern aspect of this shot....clean and clear....so different from what we saw at the top....
then i turned around to take a shot of the building we had just been in....we call it the bottle opener, because with the opening at the top, that is what it looks like....i am hoping to go back to the observation deck here, the floor is glass and is supposed to freak people out....would love to experience that....plus, i just love the way the building looks....originally this building was supposed to have a ferris wheel on top...but the architects said the winds up there were much too high and it would be too dangerous....ya think?????
then i got lucky and a kite vendor started flying the chinese masks kite in front of the pearl tower....what a great shot this turned into...sunset, pearl tower, and miniature kites...love the combination....
have i ever said how much i love my camera.....well, this shot is the money shot with the mini kites and the pearl tower...you see these kite vendors eveywhere...so it was perfect timing for getting the shot....gotta love a sunny day in shanghai!
the last shot is of the pudong financial district where all of the really tall, shiny, new buildings of shanghai are located....i do not come to this part of town much, as i am not working in a business....but i like how shiny and new it all looks....especially when the sun is going down....
the folks above are greg and di and this was our end of the season hot pot experience....hot pot is something made famous by shanghai and its where they give you soup broth in the silver pot and then you buy all the different things you want to cook in it...noodles and tofu and seafood and veggies and meat....its a perfect meal on a cold and rainy day here in shanghai and you get to cook the food up the way you like it...plus, di has a little red bowl in her hand and the other cool thing about hot pot is that you make your own sauce for your food...as spicy or peanutty or oily or bland as you want...they have all of the ingredients you could want to make your food your own....so much fun to play and mix and match....yay hot pot!!!!
the next few shots are of art in shanghai...just down the street from my apartment is this large sculpture of a bouquet of flowers....it's huge and i have no idea why it is at an intersection, but here in shanghai, at most intersections, you come across a piece of art....they even have one like the people waiting for the bus like seattle (freemont) does....i haven't been able to get a shot of it, as i am usually driving past in a taxi....but i will get it at some point.....
in the same set of warehouses, i came across this astronaut just leaning against the wall...it was not in front of a particular gallery, it was just hanging out....so of course i had to take a picture....its not every day you can get this close to an astronaut in a space suit ;) the entire area was rather random...but we had fun walking around and checking out the exhibits for a few hours....
this next shot is to show you just how smart these motot scooter riders are....in the winter everyone super glues or attaches somehow their big warm gloves to the handlebars of their scooters...this way their hands do not get cold as they are riding through the winter weather....this particular scooter was parked outside of my apartment building....you gotta love the ingenuity of the chinese.....
this last shot has to do with food again and is possibly the most creative meal i have been given as a vegetarian....this year i was a coach for a robotics competition and the competition was held out at a university on the outskirts of town....when i let the people running the event know that i was a vegetarian, they got a bit nervous.....they asked if i wanted a chinese style lunch or a western styled lunch...of course i thought that meant a cheese sandwich for the western styled lunch and that it would be easier to deal with....boy, was i wrong.....they were aiming to please, but what i received was hilarious....if you look really closely at the wrapping on the sandwich you can see what looks like tomatoes.....well, if you thought they were, you were wrong....this was my strawberry and whipped cream sandwich on white bread....what the???? can you say GROSS!!!! i know they were trying to do the right thing, but holy cow....this picture was taken after a few friends of mine and i had a huge laugh after we realized just what was in my sandwich....yes i tasted it, but no i did not eat it...it was as disgusting as it sounds.....next time i will just go with chinese food, because then i will get rice and tofu.....
and there you have my 5th update from china....the random-ness of shanghai....its been fun exploring and trying out new things and overall, i really like this city :) lots to see and do and experience and the novelty and craziness has not worn off at this point....woot!!!!
school is about 6 more weeks and then i am done for the summer...i am having a layover of a week on my way back through seattle....and then will be in pa and then head to denver for a week in july....and then the rest of the time will be on the east coast...let me know if you are around and want to get together someplace this summer...i am looking forward to relaxing and getting out of humid china....
hope everyone is well and having fun....drop a line and say hi if you wish :)
