Lisa in China 2018

My fingers itch to help these places make better signs, but sometimes I just appreciate the opportunity to think about what the signs say and mean.

I feel I have earned some kind of degree in technology by figuring out how to use the internet here. Even when we have figured it out, it appears and disappears randomly during the day and night. So you might be tired, but if the internet is on, better get to work.

Today we discovered our password will work on other rooms, so even though my room internet access disappeared, I am able to use the neighbors. (I’m sure they are fine with it…)

You have to use your American phone hot spot in China to use the maps you want and get internet outside of the room, but you have to use the Chinese internet in the room to get to any websites, which often exclude anything Google related.

On top of this, I just got a new laptop and it does not automatically download photos from my phone. It’s like a 4-step process. So really this blog thing is a major investment of time and effort.

I admit we were frustrated at times, but hey, I’m on right now, and I got the hotel to connect Ben’s pad to the internet, so he can access the books he downloaded from the library (yea!)

There is so much to see in this huge city. We visited Laoximen, a neighborhood built maybe 200 years ago, which is slated to be torn down. It was featured in Time Out Shanghai, a monthly magazine. As the article stated, some residents look forward to the teardown, and some do not. They will be compensated and given new apartments, but some do not want it. They share one community sink outside, and their apartments are maybe 1-2 small rooms, often with a community toilet outside. Dogs and cats are free-roaming, very calm, and a bit curious but distant if you try to approach. Dogs almost never bark or growl here in the city. As you see, it’s fine to hang laundry where ever you can. It adds color to the neighborhood.

Yesterday we met my friend Dr. Ma for lunch at our campus, then rested, then went back to the French Concession where a lot of Ex Pats hang out and there are movie stores and restaurants and stores with western items.  We shopped, ate at Baker and Spice, a very trendy western café, then got ice cream for Ben, which we had promised for 3 days.

We “shared” chocolate and strawberry/raspberry

April 6 in Shanghai

Day 3 of jet lag.  We went to bed at 9 pm on April 3 after our flight from Seattle.  Ben and I were up at 2:30 am the next day.  We unpacked and ate energy bars and hung out until it was finally 7 am and we could go to the breakfast buffet.  Paul got up around 5 am.  We all took a 5 hour nap later that day (oops!).

Ben and I enjoy the breakfast buffet. Paul is willing to join us sometimes.  It’s $6 per person, which isn’t bad, but it’s expensive for China, and that’s $18 a day for the three of us.  When we start sleeping normal hours, we wont’ visit the buffet so often.

 

The coffee is stronger at the buffet this year, which is a welcome change from the watery coffee of last year. Otherwise everything is the same. We get green veggies, noodles, yogurt, and eggs fried in oil, and usually watermelon.  It’s 7:15 am and Ben and I are going to the breakfast buffet. We’ve been up since about 3:40 a.m. and had oatmeal, but that was then.

The exchange teacher Gavin who is spending the year at Highline College is helping take care of us. His wife has contacted us and will take us to lunch today (yea!). Before that we need to get laundry soap and dish soap (daily life goes on).

We walked around Shanghai the last two days, and it was chilly (55 degrees) but it started raining last evening and now it’s 48 degrees and very chilly. I was hoping it would be warmer her. We will have to wear all our layers since we mostly dressed for the coming warm weather.

The internet is always spotty here, but it’s been terrible. I lost it while I was about to post a photo here. It takes 7 minutes to wait for 1 photo to post! So I am publishing this blog now. Will post photos later. I am off to the hotel front desk to ask for help with wifi.

Ok, one maid came to check the internet, couldn’t fix it, so another maid, a manager and a tech guy came. The manager did something with his phone and now, we’re back up! However, I don’t have wifi on my phone now, which was working yesterday. Welcome to China! Technology is so frustrating here.

My family will return to Shanghai April 3, 2018 and be there until June. So, I will add more posts. Maybe I can change this blog name to 2018.

Sunny will miss us, until she realizes our pet sitter Lindsay will keep her well fed.

We got together with my student Adeal several times. We went to the museum of natural history and spent the day.

 

 

Ben went swimming with Shelley’s daughter Sophy several times. Here, we met for lunch, then planned to go to this park to play, but it was pouring. I insisted we go anyway. It was fun! We saw black swans, huge koi, and large and small turtles swimming.

We took Ben to LEGOLAND since it’s not too far, and since he has to put up with being in China with us. Many things here are designed for kids 8 and under. I think this is partly because by the time they are 9, they are A) busy with homework every day, and B) they are enrolled in classes on Saturday and Sunday to improve or enrich them (music, math, robot building, whatever).   So this LEGOLAND had rides and activities for young kids. But the lego Shanghai city was amazing (see previous blog post).

Adeal said we could visit a chocolate theme amusement park. Paul looked for it on the internet and found an Austrian chocolate factory tour. Adeal asked where we should meet from the metro but we kept putting off finding the stop. We said off line 12 and she said “no.” And I said “Oh yes, we will show you later.” So the morning we were to go we sent the metro stop to her and she said that’s not it. We finally figured out she meant an amusement park with everything in shapes of cake and where little kids could make candy. Reviews said it was going to be shut down and torn down in a week. Some said it smelled bad. Others said it was still fun. We sent Adeal the link to the chocolate factory She said she never heard of it, but let’s go.

Adeal was pleasantly surprised to find a large outlet shopping center built around this chocolate factory.

 

 

We took the tour and gorged ourselves trying the 212 kinds of chocolate. We each made our own chocolate figures, too, about the size of Ben’s head, for $12 each.

 

 

Ben was tired so the boys went home. Adeal and I shopped, then went to dinner at Hongkong style food at Charme. Yaping loves this restaurant, too.

 

 

 

We almost did not go to this Wild Animal Park because the website was unclear about how much we could see without a car, and you had to take a taxi after the metro.  But we spoke to our neighbors Marsha and Frank and they loved it, so we decided to go.  It was easy…once we saw what the Chinese were doing to get around.

We took the metro all the way out… took about 45 minutes. Then got a cab to the park — only about 5 minutes. Then had to buy tickets, all in Chinese and there are 4 lines for different kinds of tickets and who knows what you are buying? I bought 3 tickets for just the park. Turns out there was a circus show, too, we could have seen, for another $20 per person.

Then we tried to figure out how to do the safari where you ride inside an open-air, caged bus. The Chinese workers’ directions of how to get to the safari bus were awful. I guess without much English, it’s tough. The first one said, “Just to your left there,” where there was a parking lot with buses. Paul had seen a picture of the busses on the internet so knew what we were looking for, and that was not it. After walking to various places we found it, but then there was another line for more tickets. I asked how much and she said 240RMB (which is like $32 per person). I walked away, but then saw the sign below her that said 4oRMB. Just then a bunch of Chinese arrived to wait in line for these tickets, but I shoved back to the front (Chinese style) and asked for 3 tickets — I had just been there and would have bought them. (Chinese style) she sold them to me since I was there.  Then we boarded the bus.

It was fabulous. The bus has food for the different animals so they walk close to the bus.   There is one guy who feeds and says a bit about the animals, then there is a driver. There are other buses you can take that are normal busses where you view from the closed windows. Those were in front of us. The bus driver was bizarre.  He kept honking his horn at the other buses to hurry up. Sometimes he would try to drive around them. I don’t know why he was in such a hurry!  For all of us on the bus, this was a great opportunity to see big animals up close. But you could barely take pictures because the driver stopped a very short time, or not at all.

The tigers were willing to lazily walk up and get a bit of meat. The giraffes were happy to come take the leaves.  The zebras, camels, antelope and deer didn’t really care we were there. They stood in the rode or next to it. The wolves seemed a bit afraid of the bus.

But the bears were happy to jump up on the metal cage of the bus and ride along quite a ways while the feeder kept giving them carrots. It was amazing. They easily hung on to the bus while it drove around turns!

After the safari, you can walk around the other half of the park and see the zoo.  We saw Chinese pedaling these carts and wanted one. It was quite an effort to figure out how and where to get one. You have to be a bit pushy in asking when you find the guy who rents them. It’s a $90 deposit, then $12 an hour to rent. This really saved my food!

 

 

 

Seems we are on our feet every day for hours. We did take off yesterday, then today Ben and I walked to the wet market and back. It was like a sauna the whole way, and my foot gave out before we got back. It’s tough not to be able to walk for miles. Every time we take a taxi we see another cool neighborhood we would love to explore.

Today our neighbors Marsha and Frank flew home. We had dinner with another couple that we met through them at Bistro Burgers. The food is great there.

We visited Jing’an temple which was cool.

We ate here four times. It’s on the way back from the Foreign Languages Bookstore, where we have invested possibly $200 since we have been here. Ben and I have gone through at least 10 books each.

One thing we like about this restaurant is we are the only foreigners. They run a brisk business with lots of customers. Below we have our staples: shrimp friend on scallions under garlic in tons of buttery oil; eggplant in a delicious sauce, bok choy’s cousin, and noodles in soup. I don’t recommend the tofu in sauce. It’s bland.

China is an odd mix of very modern and old. For example, the waitresses have scanners so we point to the dishes we want and they scan them in. In many other restaurants you use an Ipad to order. And almost everyone pays with their online account: scan their We Chat or Alipay account on their phone. But other areas of life are old. They have not modernized the sewer system. At most museums, it’s cash only.

We took Ben to LEGOLAND here, which is pretty small, more for younger kids, but still fun for Ben for 5 hours. The Shanghai LEGOLAND display goes from night to day every 5-10 minutes.