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.....