Let's play catch up - round 1

So the last few months I’ve been a major blog slacker – obviously. But after a couple small trips, the holidays, my family’s visit and winter finally coming to an end I’M BACK and have a lot of catching up to do.

Back in November, I went across town to Old Shanghai and explored one of the city’s wet markets. I think this market is also referred to as the “small animal, bird, fish and flower market” which is a really accurate summation of what they sell there. After the pet store around the corner of me sold their only two-mohawk squirrel I was anxious to see some other crazy “domestic” animals. The great thing about Old Shanghai is the absence of skyscrapers and huge corporate businesses. It feels so much more like "real" China. 

The market has a lot of birds and a lot of birdcages. They pretty much sell anything from pigeons and roosters to more exotic tropical birds. I’m fairly confident those roosters and hens or whatever kind of chickens they had were not being sold as pets.

Once you buy your bird and a cage you can also find all sorts of critters and grains to feed it.

I felt pretty creepy crawly after walking through the bug section so then I went to check out the small animals. They had some really cute bunnies, a few puppies and kittens and lots of chipmunks and squirrels.

After those cute little creatures, I found the turtles. There were so many different kids. I felt pretty bad for the big ones as their cages were definitely not large enough.

Just my luck – there happened to be a deal on crickets and grasshoppers that day. One for three or two for five! You pretty much can’t beat a price like that or so I was informed.

The rest of the market was really random – you could buy a leash or a bed for your dog from the same vendor that was selling cacti.

A few vendors had a couple tropical looking plants for sale which is random because China is pretty much the exact opposite of a tropical country in terms of culture and weather (except in the deep south I guess).

And just in case you forgot what these cages might be used for, the vendors were kind enough to remind you by placing a small stuffed dog inside.

This wet market also happened to sell oranges which were not at all appealing after seeing the creepy crawly things, roosters wandering about and chipmunks just a couple cages over. But the addition of fruit apparently makes this market one-stop shopping. Who needs Target after visiting a market like this?

Well that pretty much covers the west market. I'm off for now to go study Chinese.

Zaijian!

Hangzhou

I spent the last 10 minutes trying to coming up with a catchy title for this blog post - a waste of time I know but "Hangzhou" just sounds too boring and ordinary for such a beautiful place. Alas I've come up empty handed so I'll be boring just this once.

Last Tuesday, Pam and I took advantage of one of our days off to visit Hangzhou, one of China's most "prosperous and well-renowned" towns. I say town because in comparison to Shanghai it seems like such a small city but in reality, it has over 6 million residents. I've heard Hangzhou described as the Aspen or Lake Geneva of Asia. Since, I have yet to visit either one of those cities I will hold out judgment on the accuracy of that statement and instead let the pictures speak for themselves:

 

 

This was a rather spontaneous trip seeing as Pam and I just showed up at the train station at 8am hoping we'd be able to get tickets and we did, no problem - although we did did accidentally buy first class. Luckily, that's not really an expensive mistake like it would be if we bought first class plane tickets. It only cost us an additional $1.40. The train was a quick 90 minute ride and we caught our first glimpse of the countryside outside Shanghai.

We hoped in a taxi upon our arrival and headed to the Dragon Cave Mountain Park. Pam brought her cave headlight with her and we actually managed to use it!

 

 

 

After hiking to the park's summit, we explored the Rising Sun Pagoda before heading down the other side of the mountain to check out West Lake. Apparently there are dozens of lakes in China with the same name but this is one of the largest and most famous. It's semi man-made but it was completed some 2,000 years ago - pretty impressive and a subtle reminder that China is really really REALLY old.

 

 

I was pretty obsessed with the willow trees and huge lily pads - they were everywhere! 

 

 

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening walking around the lake which I later learned added up to about 9-10 miles depending on which website you read. It got pretty chilly with the wind and at one point I think I had on like 4 layers which reminded me of out trip to Hohhot but it's hard to mind the cold when the scenery was so beautiful. We took a little break in the middle of the day to rest on a bench. I actually fell asleep and woke up when I realized that I was getting my picture taken not just by Pam but by random Chinese tourists.

I can't wait to go back and visit this spring when it's a little warmer. Hopefully then we'll plan ahead so we can stay overnight in one of the lakefront guesthouses. I also intend to rent a boat for a few hours and send some more quality time on the lake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other than our trip to Hangzhou we haven't had a lot going on but we're starting to plan our trip to Laos over the Lunar New Year holiday in February.

Oh and President Obama will be in Shanghai later this week - I'm hoping for a sighting but the chances of that happening are probably pretty slim. The city seems pretty excited about his visit and they are planning to unveil plans for the mainland's (there's already one in Hong Kong) first Disney theme park in honor of his arrival. Kind of a strange thing to do in honor of his arrival but that’s just how China rolls.

Tennis, Yu Garden & Halloween - OH MY!

I've been on track to update the blog every week but that didn't happen so I'll have to play catch up this time. I was going to write all about going to the Shanghai Masters Tennis tourney but since then Pam and I visited the Yu Gardens and I had a Halloween party at my school so there are a few more pictures and stories to share.

Tennis was really fun even though it's not my usually favorite sport to watch. It was held at this stadium in Minhang which was built specifically for the event several years ago. From the sky it's supposed to look like a magnolia thanks to its retractable roof but since it was the perfect day and evening to sit outside, the roof wasn't necessary.

We started off watching the Bryans (twins) play doubles tennis against a team from Spain.

Then Pam had a Rafa sighting and took off to watch him go practice. It was worth looking like a crazy person running after him and his entourage since it's Pam's favorite player. We were so close we could even watch him tie his shoes but that's not nearly as obsessive as the crazy Chinese fans who mobbed him after he finished practicing.

 

After we watched some more practice sessions and a match between two guys from Spain we headed to the main stadium to watch the key matches from the rest of the night including the one between Rafa and James Blake from the U.S. Luckily for Pam, Rafa won after 3 sets. It was as if we were in the United States at any sporting event with the over-priced souvenirs, concession food and great atmosphere!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The week after tennis we went to visit the Yu Gardens which are supposedly a must-see in Shanghai. I wasn't so impressed. I mean the gardens are certainly beautiful and way old but everything around them is so commercialized that it kind of takes away from their historical value. Oh well, that pretty much sums up all of Shanghai - nice but not real China or at least not Old China.

We did however get lost (par for the course for us) trying to find the gardens and ended up in some little alley nearby that did provide a glimpse of a more traditional Shanghai. Why go to the barber shop when you can get your hair cut on the street!

 

 

The Yu Gardens were originally constructed back in 1559 as a private garden for one of Shanghai's residents. After a couple hundred years of disrepair, the Chinese government took over and declared the site a national monument. There are six general areas in the gardens that supposedly cover nearly five acres but I'm a little skeptical - not that I'm an acre expert or anything but they just didn't seem that big to me.

 

 

 

The Yu Gardens weren't kidding when they tell you not to climb on the side of the stairs - it really is slippery. I nearly fell flat on my face after ignoring the warning - although for some reason anytime I see a warning here like that I'm so tempted to try it, just to see if the sign is really accurate.

 

They also had these huge ponds of goldfish which reminded me of the carp at Smith Mountain Lake - would not want to fall in there!

And the bonus of our visit to the Yu Gardens was the traditional Chinese music concert. I want to learn how to play one of those while I'm here although I should probably learn Chinese first seeing as how that's actually a useful skill.

Last Friday, the school that I work at canceled classes and threw a big Halloween party instead. As the only American on staff, I was in charge of coming up with lots of games to play and re-creating an "authentic" Halloween experience. It ended up being a lot of fun. We all decorated the classrooms and hosted a different game inside each one. In my room I had the kids do a bobbing for apples relay and they loved it - most of them would dunk their entire heads in the bucket trying to get the apple. Then they would go to the next room soaking wet and ready for mummy races.

 

 

 

We also all dressed up right before the kids came. As the students entered my room I would jump out and yell BOO! Most of them loved it but poor little chubster Bob ran away in tears. He would not stop crying and refused to go in any other room so they had to call his parents and send him home - pretty funny considering he was 7 or 8 years old and most kids that age would love that sort of thing. Bad part was that he was just stopping by the Halloween party to see if he would like to go to the school for English lessons - I'm betting that no one was able to sell any courses to his parents. Oops!

 

 

 

 

 

Thankfully the party (other than the little Bob mishap) was a success as most of the kids LOVED it!

 

 

Now I've been put in charge of coming up with some Thanksgiving games/activities to go and do at a local Kindergarten. I'm not aware of any Thanksgiving games and I tried to explain to my boss that it's not really that sort of holiday but he didn't really buy it. Guess I'll have to be a little creative!

Several other funny things have happened since I last wrote and one of them is a pretty great example of Chinese logic. We have to wear this navy polo-like EF shirt and khaki pants when we teach and since it's getting a little chilly here they just gave us all long-sleeve rugby versions of our summer shirts. I ordered 2 mediums but was given 2 smalls. This is the conversation that followed with the admin lady, Kelly, from my school.

Me: Kelly, I ordered 2 mediums.
Kelly: Yes, those are smalls.
Me: But I asked to have a medium.
Kelly: But those are smalls.
Me: Yes, so you can see the problem.
Kelly: There is no problem.
Me: But what if they are too small.
Kelly: They won't be.
Me: (holding up the shirt that's clearly too small) I don't think this is going to work.
Kelly: You can wear something under it.
Me: I don't think that will help - it will just make it smaller.
Kelly: After you wash it, it will get bigger.

I pretty much had nothing to say after that other than laugh. I'm really hoping that somehow her logic is correct otherwise it's going to be a long cold winter - we will see!

One more thing - this is the new creature in the pet store around the corner from my apartment. A black squirrel with 2 mohawks!