World of made up words and lung biscuits...

I think back to when I lived in Fargo. Funky downtown apartment, no TV, within walking distance of loads of good stuff. That's not too far from where I am now. I like that.

Well, even though I am a native speaker of English, I learn new English words all the time. I joined the techo-revolution and bought a digital camera. Very happy with it. The fun part was dickering over the price; think going into Best Buy and taking 20 minutes to lower the price $10 or more. Fun right? Well, you get some borderline ridiculous statements when you do that in China (it's expected).

Danny the Salesman: "I am giving you the USB cables (um, doesn't that come in the box), the battery and battery charger (same), a bag, and the camera job." I had to stop the guy there.
Me: "Camera job? What the hell is that? I'm a native speaker of English and I've never heard that word before."
Danny: "It's the thing that you put the camera on. You put the camera on so you can take pictures of you. (stands in front of camera and does the peace sign. Why do all Chinese take pictures like that?) Let me show you." Goes to the counter and pulls out a tripod.
Me: "That's a tripod. Kind of like iPod but with tri in front. Tri means three and it has three legs."

That was interesting. I still need to figure out when I will be using my "camera job" to take self-portraits. Sounds kind of lame, but the thing was free like the USB cables that I was so lucky the guy was generous enough to throw in.

The little things...
When I think of Shanghai now, I don't think of the big tourist spots (I just went to Nanjing and the Bund for the first time yesterday) anymore. I think of the little things, both good and bad.

The guy in the subway that has the job of keeping everyone in lines so that the people getting off the metro can get off before the people getting on can get on. You have no idea how many times I've either felt like a salmon or a fullback as I was trying to get off the metro. How brilliant do you have to be to just wait? Are you really surprised when I accidentally smack you in the face when I am pinned in, really don't want to stand next to the guy with halitosis, and it's my stop?

I love to just walk around. For some reason, this has become one of my favorite things. On the weekends, even though I may be dog-tired, the first thought is when I'm going to go walk. Usually with minimal purpose, I find it infinitely interesting to walk around in Shanghai and China in general. There are stores that sell fake purses next to an fix on the spot scooter shop next to a fruit stand next to a shop where you can buy live fish. I've seen large slabs of meat next to laundry (that was pretty funny and gross). These walks definitely fulfill my need for randomness, maybe even exceed it.

And the ever popular question: why do people feel the need to spit in the street? Not just spitting, bringing up mucus from what sounds like the toe area and then spitting it right in front of my feet? Also, didn't your mom ever teach you to cover your mouth when you cough? For 20 minutes...in my face? Crazy. I recently read an article in an expat magazine about the World Expo (some may know it as the World's Fair) in 2010. Someone with some foresight to say that Shanghai needs some manners. The article listed several of Westerners top complaints (refer to what you have just read) and then person on the street interviews. The comments boiled down to "Yes there are some people who need manners training. I think I could benefit from it but I am too busy so I can't go." Yep, they just don't care and will keep plugging along and expats will continue to roll their eyes and repeat the mantra "That's China!"

The next week should be interesting. I've had some things fall into my lap and through work I will be going to Lijiang in Yunnan province. If you've ever heard of the Leaping Tiger Gorge, I'll be about 2 hours away and am hoping to see it. I also need to fill in some stories so I might be back logging the blog, watch for new stuff.

The day of green is coming...

Wanted to say thanks to Sarah, Dave, and Jason for the great week in Dublin last year. Here's to shite phones, delayed flights, pizza+ice cream+ a 3 hour bus ride, dancing on the Liffy, crazy English bachelor parties, the Temple Bar Bar Bar Bar (it really has that many), kissing the Blarney Stone, The Gin House, me cheating at hearts, all the music and singing. I would do it all again!

I fought the law and the law won...

So in someone's infinite wisdom, when I applied for my Chinese Visa while in the US, I was granted a 30 day tourist visa...for my more than 30 day stay. So this means the fun task of trekking over to Pudong (and taking time off work). I've done this before, so I thought it would just be one trip, pay my money, come back in a week... boy was I wrong.

I take the metro over and refer to the helpful map outside the exit, but it was in Chinese and I had brilliantly forgotten to write down the characters. Started off in the direction that I thought it was and turned out to be correct. Got to the building, took a number, waited a bit, and when it was my turn I got a bad sign. The nice service lady looked at all my things and told me to go to the "Special" window. That's never good. Seems I didn't have my documents in order and the ones I did have did not have an official stamp. In my haste, I had forgotten the Chinese obsession with rubber stamps. Also, I did not have the proper registration documents that proved I had a residence in Shanghai. I would have to go to the local police station for that. Because I still had some ambition I got the address for the main police station in my area and headed over. Luckily by the time I got there, the office had been closed for 15 minutes and I was advised to come back tomorrow.

So I did. The next afternoon's adventure to my district's police station was initially not good. When I explained what I wanted to the clerk, she called someone else and then told me to come back Monday at 14:00 (this was Friday at 15:30). I said that this was unacceptable, and then I was told to wait until 16:30. I couldn't continue my visa quest without this registration paper, so I had to wait. Luckily for me, the man came early but did not have good news. Apparently there is some law in China that no one really tells foreigners about. Within 24 hours of arrival in China, a foreigner is supposed to register with the local police station. This is neither publicized or seemingly enforced... unless you need to do anything official such as get your visa extended or changed. Not only that but they could not do my registration but because I was outside the 24 hour window (by a few weeks) I would be fined 500 RMB (63 USD). That was pretty much the last straw and I had them write down the address and as I looked at it, realized it was right across the street from where I live. This caused the expected reaction. I burst into tears. This officially sucked.

I was able to compose myself and showed up at the second police station of the day. Here they did not speak English, so the Chinese lady next to me was kind enough to translate. This new person told me that I would have to produce a copy of the contract that I signed for my apartment. This was going to be a problem. I'm effectively sub-letting this place and just paying my flatmate in cash. No deposit, no lease, in my mind, no hassle. At this point I had no idea what to do, so I went back to my flat. My flatmate, Luan, happened to be home at the time and I explained this situation to him. He said that getting a contract signed would not be a big deal, but kind of a pain. Luan gave me a rent receipt and said to try it first before we got into contract details. This was better than nothing. I went back across the street to try my luck again. This time there was a British woman who spoke fluent Chinese. I chatted with her a bit and she was facing the same problem that I was, did not register and needed the stupid yellow bit of paper to take care of her visa. She was able to help me fill in my sheet and told me the process would involve a short interview, and then I would be fined 200 RMB not the 500 RMB I had been told at the previous place. This process moved at the speed of government and I ended up spending about 3.5 hours in the police station. I paid my money, got a lecture about how I should register in broken English, and got my stupid piece of yellow paper. I celebrated getting that part done, so ended Friday.

Monday morning, I got up bright and early went to the visa office. My own fault on this one, I assumed that it would open at 8am. Wrong. Let's try 9am. To give you and idea of the area where I was, Pudong had been developed since 1992 and it's very new. This means that there are not necessarily the same conveniences, i.e. not even a Starbucks or McDonald's which seem to be on every other corner. So where was I to hang out for the hour I had to wait? I walked around the block and ended up finding a 5 star hotel. Waited there a bit, went back to the visa office when it opened, got in line, got to the window, was told to go to the "special" window again.
I knew I had all my documents, so I smooth talked my way through thier need for more documents and was successful. This was so complicated, I advise anyone coming to China to have everything in order before you go. This is easy for tourist who will only be here under 30 days, but if you're going to be here longer... good luck.

Goodbye old friends...

So I've received a couple of shopping blows in the last week or so. Through different developments, my two favorite places to shop will be moving or leaving. The Clothing Market (Dongjiadu) and the Knock-off or Fake Market (Xiangyang).

I'm not quite sure why the Dongjiadu is closing but they are going to be done the end of March. From what I've heard talking to different vendors, some know of a new location and some don't. One of my favorite vendors (some people from the summer trip may remember or have a suit from Jason at No. 82) will be moving somewhere near People's Square. In any case, I'll be on a mission in the next few weeks to get things made while things are still in the same place. Then I'm going to have to collect a bunch of address as I don't think they are all relocating to the same place.

Next is that place you hate to love and then can't live without; Xiangyang. It's a place that takes a bit of getting used to, but sooner or later once you get used to it, it's one of those places that is great for getting souvenirs and fake name brands. They say that the leases of the booths will be up on May15. From there, who knows where things will go. One of the vendors I talked to said he will be moving to Longhua, and that is quite a bit south from the main area of Shanghai. Quite honestly, the fact that it had been allowed to operate so long in clear violation of IPR stuff was amazing. I think that it's going to be funny when all the tourists come with their outdated guide books and there's nothing left of Xiangyang. You can see where I turned into the snobby "I live here" person.

Work is going well and I'm settling into working the 40 hours per week. Looking forward to all the projects and conferences that I can see coming down the pike.