April 8, 2017, 10:05 am, Shanghai
The 120th anniversary of Jiao Tong University is a big deal here. This morning there were bus loads of older folks here visiting the campus and each other. Women were dressed in elegant clothing, men in Mao style suits. Ages ranged from 60-95. Cushy travel busses lined the university roads. Lots of college kids in red “volunteer” coats showing people around.
I woke at 6:15 am, showered, made my green tea provided by the hotel, found a hairdryer in the drawer (yeah!) and somehow it was 7:45 when I went to check out the breakfast buffet here. The hostess smiled and said something. I saw there were tickets. “Do I need a ticket? I don’t have a ticket.” She nodded. I showed her cash. She pointed to the front desk. I asked them “Can I get a ticket for breakfast?” They say, “Yes, you could…get that here.” “Okaaay…” “Thirty eight RMB,” she said. I thought it was going to be 102 RMB, since I think Laura said it was around $15 when she was here 9 years ago. (So much has changed here). I paid and got a ticket and went back and gave it to the smiling woman. A waiter next to her said “Morning.” I said “Morning… How does this work here?” His mistake! Now he was trapped with me. He looked flustered since he had used his only English word. But he followed me and showed me where some stuff was…chopsticks, and bowls, fried eggs, then he showed me the Westerner’s section: white toast, butter, jam, coffee. (No knives or forks that I saw.)
I got myself some seaweed egg drop soup, chop sticks and a spoon, and set them on a free table. I went to get something else, and when I went back, the efficient waitress had cleaned it all away. Time to mark my territory with my purse and start over!
Breakfast was great, but the coffee was bad: weak with only sugary coffee mate in those little plastic containers. I tried as much of the foods as I could, so I could report back:
Bread and butter, fried egg, sesame croissant, small dumpling in water with black peanut butter inside; orange wedges, squash, a plain white rice bun (thought it would have something in it, but no). Hot rice cereal, and the seaweed egg drop soup. Tried a very salty boiled egg. I heard other people slurping away, and saw they had yogurt containers with tiny straws. Got one and tried it. YEAH! It was the fil mjӧlk I used to have in Sweden, which you cannot get in Seattle. So awesome! At 8:15 I had taken the last one and they did not seem like they were going to put out more. Oh well, I was stuffed anyway. You jab the straw into the top of the metal lid that we would usually peel back, then slurp to get every last drop.
I live right by a side gate, but decided to go out into the campus for a walk. I passed all the older (alumni?) and volunteer tour guides, then continued on. Then there were 100 people in their 20s and 30s seemingly heading to work. Some walked, some biked. Many had plastic bags with buns or dumplings in them, a few had coffee. As I wandered on, lots of people seemed to be strolling the campus. Then I saw college age people playing tennis, and found the track. All ages were jogging or walking the track. Some were doing warm up exercises. Very athletic of them at 8:30 Saturday morning. These were not the loud people outside my window at 2:30 am last night.
From 2 am to 3:30, there were regular loud noises: people opening the large metal gate, people talking loudly entering the Faculty Club, someone seemingly repairing an iron gate with a hammer… Then around 3am, cats making that awful caterwauling…I thought they would fight, but instead just kept it up for 15 minutes. Healthy lungs.
When I woke at 6:15 this morning, I heard an owl, and saw people driving, walking, bicycling. By 7:15, there were more people, and the busses had plenty of people, too. Busy city.
The sun is shining today. Yeah! I plan to walk to Starbucks, but maybe I will check out a mall, too.
The beautiful traditional entrance to the university is impressive. I enter by the side gate, usually, but it was locked. They seem to feel it is secure to keep that door locked; it opens around 10 am.
1:20 pm April 8
I made myself go out walking, and ran into the wonderful neighbors! Frank and Marsha have been here almost 3 years. They invited me in and shared what they know and will take me to dinner soon, yeah! They are also happy to have an English speaking neighbor. They have been teaching English writing and speaking here for 3 years, both to Chinese and to international Korean and Japanese students. They know everything. Yeah! They have a fridge, microwave, oven, and pantry full. They bought it all.
I left them and walked to the mall. That was a let down. Very sterile and white with all the Western name brands and all that stuff is really expensive. A pair of Clarks were $205 dollars. I left and tried to walk to the Ichi Bakery, but took the wrong road where I could not cross over the 4 lane road.
On my way back I saw the Metro entrance again. I have been avoiding it since I can’t see what is down there and did not want to get stuck where I could not come right back out. But I found an entrance where you could see it was mall-like and went in.
I found two dangerous things down there:
- A French bakery named “Christine” with every yummy pastry you can think of
- The entrance to the Orient Shopping Centre, with every Western food you can think of: candy, cookies, pasta, milk, mayonnaise, cheese, chocolate, etc., etc. Geez! I thought I would eat Chinese food for 3 months and lose 5 lbs while here! I need to forget that place exists.
As I walked the streets here in Shanghai, it was nice to see that everyone was out enjoying life: families, friends, everyone. Families with young kids frequently were carrying the kid’s scooter. I live close to McDonald’s and on the weekends they have a walk-up window where they sell ice cream cones. Everyone in the area had one. People seemed relaxed and happy. It’s good to see, since the Chinese work so hard, and the kids are pushed to study so hard. My neighbors are tutoring a 10 year old girl at 8pm one night a week because it is her only unscheduled time that she can make it. Typical.
On my way home I took a photo of the place I think Laura and Bryan recommend to eat at, a Japanese noodle house. It’s on the corner. We’ll see if they recognize it.
I am reluctant to eat out since I don’t know how to say “no beef or pork, please.” Need to get that written in Chinese.
April 9, 2017 6:20 am Shanghai (3:21 pm April 8 in Seattle)
Hello Jetlag! Yesterday I stayed up until 6pm then decided to go to bed. At 4pm I was soooo tired. I made myself go eat my first meal in Shanghai. I tried to find the Japanese restaurant Laura said was one of her and Bryan’s favorites, almost across the street from my apartment. The menus are all in Ipads on the tables, but you have to know how to get into them. I pushed a couple buttons and nothing happened. A waitress came by and gave me a plastic menu with pictures and prices. (She could have taught me how to use the Ipad, but nope.)
Almost everything is pork and beef here, but I found a crawfish noodle soup.
I really wanted noodle soup. I saw a girl, about Ben’s age, eating across from me, so I copied her. You get a long wooden spoon and use it to get some broth and noodles. You hold that and then eat the noodles from the spoon with your chopsticks. I wonder what I would do if I could not use chopsticks? Paul and Ben will want to start practicing now, and bring some forks with them when we eat out. I wonder if they keep forks in the back for westerners who can’t use chopsticks? The food was was very good. While eating, I figured out how to use the Ipad. I enjoyed watching families, moms and daughters, and couples coming in to eat, hanging out, and really enjoying the food.
It was sunny and beautiful all day, then got cloudy around 4:30 pm.
I then took a different side road and walked a ways to try to get in my 10,000 steps (5 miles) for the day. As soon as you turn off the main road, things get dirty and broken and dingy. Lots of broken windows and old, forgotten trash sitting on the window ledge above you. Then there will be a bit nicer housing. It’s all apartments, and laundry drying on the lines everywhere. This is the China I remember. The sidewalks are very high off the street here, as in most Asian countries and places in Mexico. I think it’s’ because when it rains it’s no problem to keep the water away. Once when we were at Isla Mujeres, Mexico, it rained so much the waters were rushing down the street 4-6 inches high. It was clear they needed those high sidewalks.
I have walked past at least 30 westerners now, and none have greeted me. After the first 20, I guess I did not try to greet the either. I guess it’s a bit like being in New York City, but really, there are very few white people. I think I will start saying hi. I did see one family, though, then heard them speaking something that was not English. But almost everyone else I could hear speaking English. And several of them were younger men who had found Chinese girlfriends, and were speaking English. I saw many more westerners in this side-road area. I kept going and stumbled into Starbucks, finally! My Google map says there are 4 nearby but I never found any. I went in. It is the place to be! Cannot find a seat. They have a bathroom with toilet paper. Very nice. I asked the guy in front of me “Is there a line?” and he said, “Yes, it’s a line.” I said “Wow, you speak English!” We talked a bit and he is a tourist from Taiwan, just visiting for two weeks. Figures. I did order a latte and the girl at the counter spoke English just fine, but no more than necessary. You’re not in Seattle anymore, Toto.
Starbucks is selling an origami pour-over with coffee in it that you put on top of your cup each time. So cute! I bought some.
It’s very fashionable to walk around with a small bag from some cool place you just shopped, so here I am with my Starbucks bag now. I turned left, hoping I would find my way back to the main street. I did, then found the side-street from the other day with all the hair salons. Decided to walk it again. I went 2 long blocks further this time and found a whole hip area with more westerners, pizza, Chinese small noodle shops, a gyro place (Paul will love it), and about 6 more coffee shops (lattes, etc.) Oh, and I found 3 more French bakeries, including another Christine’s. Many shops are the size of a restroom in an American house, selling clothes and shoes. I think shopping here would be much more affordable than the fancy mall – but would anything fit me? I will try some day.
I headed back home and it was easy to find. Yeah! This is a good little vacation for me this weekend with nothing to do but explore and unpack. I looked up my area on Google maps and found more restaurants to try. They are not obvious from the street so I need to go find some I saw on the map.
Relaxed, then went to bed. Woke up several times, and got up at 1:45 am. It was pouring, so you could easily hear the traffic sloshing through the rain. But no cat fights! Man is it noisy outside my window all the time! I think someone was dragging out the recycling at 2:30 am. I listened to several Ted Talks, learned a lot, then tried to sleep another hour, but couldn’t. Just laid around until 5:15. It gets light at 5:30, so I got up and got to work. I am almost done building my blog.
The internet is very spotty here. It works much better from midnight to 7 am when people here are sleeping.
Things I will try if I get brave: the subway and renting a bike. Everyone seems to use rented bikes. You pay for them like you pay for a parking meter. I bet you can leave it at any station.
I am on We Chat, so if you join, you can call me.
I ate at the Faculty Club again. Pretty good food. They had these deep friend potato fries.
3:30 pm Sunday April 9. The American neighbors Marsha and Frank Lovell invited me over today. We talked for a bit then they offered to show me where to shop for groceries. It was fabulous. After 3 years here, they found the cheapest, best local places near campus to shop. They walked me through campus and showed me the laundry lady (you cannot do your own laundry). Then they showed me “City Market” where you can buy any foreign goods. Then they took me to the little grocery store where they get everything cheap. I bought some stuff. Then they took me to the “wet market” where the floors are hosed down often – Chinese selling fresh fruit, veggies, meat, beans, noodles, fish tanks with live fish, of course, chicken feet, and some daily needs like floor mats, etc. I have to go back and take some pictures. They taught me how to remember to go back. We walked through a park where the older crowd had lounge chairs gathered around under cover tables playing cards and smoking non-stop.
I was out of food and feeling too tired to walk so far again, so it was perfect timing. It was enjoyable listening to them, and they were very nice and helpful. These are their last 3 months here. They have travelled all over Southeast Asia and lived in Europe, but learning to live in Shanghai took time, and they are passing that knowledge on to me. Yeah! We ended by shopping at “85 degrees” a Taiwanese bakery that is as good as any French bakery.