There are some expats that live for the days when they can forget they are in China. I revel in the moment for a short time, but I actually do enjoy living here. There are days when I want to body check every other person, but on the whole living in Shanghai is like living in any other gigantic city.
Spent the weekend half working, half living the high life. Friday was work release and a return to the JW Marriott that has held many fond memories, holiday and otherwise. I expected a small intimate crowd for martinis, but ended up in a private room with a revolving crowd of about 20. I knew a few people but ended up talking to a whole different bunch. I got harassed for the Sioux losing for the second time in two weeks. To make it worse, last week it was a bunch of Badgers. It made me feel like home. After realizing that we were in some desperate need of Thai food, about 5 of us piled into one of the guy’s car…a mini van with his own driver. That’s definitely the way to roll in Shanghai. Ended up being another rotating group but Thai food is great so I didn’t really mind. After that I was pretty tired and considering I had to be at work at 8am on a Saturday I wasn’t up for an all night rager. Some of the group was going to this club that I’ve wanted to check out, mostly because it’s right down the street from my house and people like Paul van Dyke and Oakenfold have played there. Trust me, after going there, I would be pissed if I were those guys. The whole place is set up so nearly no dancing can take place and everyone who thinks they’re cool needs to reserve a table and shout at each other all night long over some actually good music. Local crowd, good music… who knows if I’ll go back there but now I know what it's like.
Saturday was spent with the Chiner-ized version of going to the beach. We had an event for work in support of a pet food group that is promoting US imported pet food. Fun right? Dogs, sun, sand…that was all there but in a different context. People in China like pets. Because you only get one kid and that’s a huge time and money investment, some days it’s easier having a dog. Who’s going to argue that one with me? Well, the Chinese really know their pets, but they are not always fully aware of what their pets are capable of. I saw a few German Shepherds, Rottweilers, and endless Labs and Golden Retrievers. Well these dogs like being outside, but they don’t always like being around other dogs. Tough call where there are about 200 in a small area. I saw numerous near dog fights and one lady sitting right in front of me got bitten, bad enough that any Westerner would have gone straight to the doctor. It broke the skin and didn’t look so good. Instead someone put some “Chinese medicine” (aka Iodine, the concept that just because something is written in Chinese makes it Chinese medicine still amazes me) and she was there for the rest of the day. Now for the beaches. (Some people who will remain nameless may remind me that I’m a little beached out and they would be also after this.) So after lunch the people from my office ventured over to the “beach” area that was really a bunch of white sand that had been hauled in and a fence at the edge to prevent anyone from going into the water. I saw the water. You didn’t need a fence to keep me away. It was someone had siphoned off all the stagnant water from a bunch of sloughs/marshes and brought it to China. Yuck!
As you may or may not know, or in my case, you may or may not care, the Rolling Stones were in Shanghai last weekend. This was only a big deal if you are in the expat community. Many Chinese did not even have a clue. Tickets were outrageous and I explained the reason I did not go as thus:
“Did you see the Super Bowl? Do you think Keith Richards had any idea what planet he was on? I’m not paying $150 to see that. Got that show for free.”
I didn’t hear any rave reviews and my guess was that it was for one of the following reasons. 1. They’re old and aging rockers are not always on their game. 2. The concert goer didn’t really know who the Rolling Stones were. 3. The ticket was a status symbol and the people would have bought that ticket weather it was the second coming of Christ or Yanni, as long as people said it was THE event to go to.
Oh yeah, Sunday was Easter. Now the string of consecutive holidays away from home is 4 (or 5 depending if you count Christmas as two days). I went to Sunday brunch with my friends Beth and Meghan and didn’t go to church because I found out the time too late to go. It was a beautiful sunny day and the only downside is that I did not eat any ham. Plenty of salmon sashimi though. (Yum!)
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