Hi,
Many of you wrote to me today and that was just fabulous. Thank you! I actually worked a lot today doing translation work and sending class notes to my current students and following up on work from Highline. I am making the translations easy to read for Americans. I did about 400 today. I think SJTU is helping the local government with this project. Hospitals, museums, malls, amusement parks all seem to be part of it. So there is one translation, then a student offers a second, another student offers a third, then there is a space for Lisa’s translation. Example:
- Smoke suppression 2. Extinguish Cigarettes here. 3. Extinguish cigarettes here! Lisa: extinguish cigarettes here
- Do not pop out the head or other part of the body. 2. Danger: keep body parts inside the car. 3. Do not stretch head or other body parts out of the platform. Lisa: Danger: keep all body parts inside the car.
English is much more difficult than we realize!
In the afternoon I visited with my neighbors to ask how to get to city mart grocery store. They said “Just walk out the back gate, turn right, cross the street, go to blocks and it’s right there.” Well, after I turned right there were two ways to cross the street leading to two different streets. I took the wrong street for about 10 minutes. The Shanghai natives were watching me, so this was obviously more for locals. I backtracked and found the other street, walked 2 long blocks and found the little city mart part of the huge mall. You go up the stairs to go in the mall/movie theater, but go back down some stairs to the grocery store. They had the perfect cream for my coffee. I bought that and some peanut butter and things. I check out and the woman holds up one of the cream boxes (not refrigerated, a liter, I think) and says something about it and points to where they are kept. I do not know what she is saying. Is this a bad one, or ..? Finally she gets someone to go get me another one but does not take one away: it’s buy 2 get one free. They are all very nice about giving you what you are supposed to get, including correct change.
I was determined to eat dinner tonight, but could not find somewhere that looked like they would speak English. I decided eating on campus counts. There are a few restaurants open until 10 pm. I went to one and looked around. You could get a ham and egg sandwich on a roll, or they would cook you something to order. They were frying 2 eggs and bean sprouts on a wok for someone. I thought that seemed good. Then I saw they were cooking pots of fresh greens in water with maybe tofu. I asked a student if she spoke English (Shelley told me they all can, but they are shy.) She looked pretty nervous, but finally she helped me.
You have to go to another counter and tell the guy what you want and pay for it, then take your ticket to the cooks who make it for you. No way I could have done that alone. She asked me what I wanted. I pointed to the greens and tofu pots. Then she showed me a list of 8 kinds, in Chinese, and I had to pick! I showed her my note “I do not eat pork/beef/lamb.” Then she picked one for me — only 8Yuan! ($1. 17) I paid and she gave the cook my ticket. So nice! The cook was boiling the greens, tofu and other things in an iron pot on a stove with 6 burners each with an iron pot. It took about 5 minutes.
I put my things down at a table, then came back. The cook gives you a very burned red tray, a plastic bowl, then takes the boiling iron pot and puts it right on the tray. Grab chopsticks and spoon and have at it!
It was great! Mushrooms, bok choy, cabbage, tofu, great noodles, and this tofu that is like paper strips, and a bit of seaweed. And the sauce was spicy but I could just manage it. It seems like a TON of food. Takes awhile to eat it all.
The woman who does the dishes there was chatty with me. She had a lot to say — in Chinese. Wonder what she thought? She seemed to be having a good time. Maybe westerners do not come to this place too often? I see a handful of western students on campus every day.
Lunch today was the usual greasy veggies at the student cafeteria. They taste good This is tofu with peppers, then bok choy, cabbage and mushrooms. I tried the shrimp but no — too much trouble to take the shells off and they don’t taste good. (This is 12 Yuan — $1.80)
The student cafeterias are… very relaxed. The servers grab a prison tray with rice on it, then you tell them what you want. They use one big spoon for everything, so you want greenbeans? The big spoon slops some out and onto your plate. You want the pork? Same spoon. The fish? Same spoon. Slop. Slop. Yum Yum. Don’t look too close. (See the piece of pork on the edge of my plate?)
It is a very organized procedure. Students stand in line for the food. About 3-4 stations offer the same 8 dishes. One or two might have something different. Slowly from 11-12 the lines shrink down as the food runs out and they consolidate. The food staff are cleaning and pairing down as they go, so by 12:30 lunch service is about over and they are done. They are feeding an army every day: one cafeteria on Xuhui campus plus 5 restaurants; 5 cafeterias on Minhang campus, each with 2-5 sub cafeterias, plus restaurants.
Yesterday I got the veggie noodles at the Japanese restaurant. They are also good. Everyone here really knows how to serve things that are hot and stay hot. The noodle dish is the size of your head — bigger, actually, so I took the rest home. But it wasn’t very good later at room temp. This was $27 Yuan ($4.00)
My next post will show you the beautiful restaurant Shelley took me to last Monday.
Hugs,
Lisa