Shanglows

You know when it's tough to live in Shanghai?  When you wake up needing the kind of day where you quietly go about your tasks, listening to your iPod and, should you feel ambitious enough to cook, reflecting about what you might make for dinner later.

It's all fine if you can spend the day at home watching Seasons 1-5 of Project Runway.  (Oh, it's happened.)  But when you have stuff to do, there's just no way to do it without getting sucked in by the city's frantic pace.  I'm talking about an end-of-the-conveyer-belt-into-the-slaughterhouse kind of atmosphere.  There's noise.  There are people.  There are people's elbows.

Here are the two things that put me over the edge, and by "over," I mean, "in need of," and by "the edge," I mean "an ice cream cone to bring me down":

1.  Yup, I speak Chinese.  I went shopping for Christmas wrapping paper down on Fuzhou Lu.   

ME:  [in Mandarin] Hi, how much is this coloured crepe paper? 
VENDOR:  Three kuai [RMB].
ME:  Oh... hmm - [about to explain that I usually buy it for one kuai - which is true - but will offer him one-fifty]   
VENDOR:   [to other salesperson]: Stupid foreigners.  You can charge them anything.
ME:  I can understand everything you're saying.
VENDOR:  [ignoring me and holding up three fingers.  In English:]  TREE!  TREEEE! 
ME: [still in Mandarin]  Forget it.

2.  Um... thank you?  I took my usual Line 2 back home, crushed against a pole by the rush-hour crowd.  These women were so intimately close to my body that when they spoke, I could feel the condensation from their breath on my neck. 

WOMAN 1: This foreigner's scarf is a strange colour.  [It's mustardy yellow]
WOMAN 2: Yes.  It makes her skin look worse.
WOMAN 1: But she is nice and pale.


Let it be known that Baskin Robbins' Cookies 'n' Cream ice cream is as effective a sedative as any.  And now, back to Project Runway.

People In My Neighbourhood: the seafood family

One of my favourite neighbourhood shops is the very small seafood store close to where I tutor on Tuesday nights.  The family who owns it always smiles and says "Nihao!" as I approach, and then "The foreigner again" when I'm walking away.  But in a friendly way.

Of course, business demands that they do horrible, murderous things to fish, meaning that you really have to watch your step as you pass.  But October is hairy crab season in Shanghai, so today all hands were on deck for less gory work - plucking wee crabs from a cooler and swaddling their little legs to their bodies with long blades of grass.  As per usual, this was all happening on the sidewalk in front of the store.

Hairy crabs are found in the lakes and rivers around Shanghai, and are a major delicacy.  According to my Shanghainese cousins, crab season is a big deal because it's an opportunity for wealthy businesspeople to gain face by treating each other to crab feasts at exorbitantly pricey restaurants.  I've tried them.  They're super-yummy, though the crab smell lingers on you for at least a day, even if you exfoliate three times.  I've always wondered if this eau de crab also has caché in the business community.

Nooooo! *flailflailflail*

Oh.  Okay.  (Apparently, they keep the grass long so it's easy to pluck them out of the steamer.)

The dad explained that they wear gloves so the pinches hurt less.  Ouch.

Their little boy kept jumping in front of the camera, and then darting around to see the photo on the LCD screen.

Canada FLASHBACK!: (Part 2 of 4: Edmonton)

Edmonton is my hometown.  Now that I live all far away, every visit becomes an insane mash-up of past, present, and future as I:

• dash around to all my old favourite places 
• to see the loved ones that I'm keeping in touch with 
• AND buy all the stuff I'll need during the coming year but can't buy in Shanghai for less than the price of my first-born child
  

At best, the situation looks like:

//
ME:  Oh hi, [dear friend/family member]!  ...A macaron?  At Duchess bakery?  Yes, let's meet there, and maybe after we've had a leisurely coffee, we can browse the racks at Value Village for vintage treasures.

ME & DF/FM:  [Companionably] Yay!
//

And at worst, something like:

//

ME:  Hi, [dear friend/family member]?  Just stopped at a red light - I'm on my way - just have to stop at London Drugs / Superstore / Zellers / Mountain Equipment Co-op for non-sketchy vitamins / wholesale cases of Cheerios / 100-percent cotton socks / BPA-free water bottles.  Augh!  I have to apply for my China visa!  Totally forgot!  Augh!  [Cars honking as I attempt U-turn] ... I might be late for dinner...

DF/FM:  *sigh*
//

But this time, I had FOUR WEEKS in Edmonton.  Embarrassing riches of time rained down upon my head!*  So it was relaxed, and I didn't do one single U-turn.  Hazzah!

Mom and Aunt Alison (2nd and 5th of six sisters) catch up at the Farmer's Market.

Grandma and I hit Jasper for some hiking.

... then we got wasted.  KID-ding!  (Those glasses of beer are smaller than they look.)

Carla, Nick, and I do a quality-check on the coffee at Transcend.  Yup.  It's perfect.

A Tarty Party: industrial design classmates Jeff and Sergio and I baked shells; guests brought fillings.  It was super-fun and we want to do another one next summer, but the working title ("Summer 2011: Let's Get Re-Tarted") is a little insensitive.  Suggestions welcomed.

*Quote shout-out to Uncle David, who always has the best one-liners.

The many (smiley) faces of national pride

Now that the week-long holiday celebrating the PRC's 61st anniversary is over, I guess they'll take down all the national flags lining the major thoroughfares.  And maybe that other patriotic symbol, the blinking multi-colour LED smiley daisy.  Wait, what the -

(Also spotted near home - a purse store with JUST ONE CATCH!)

Julia visited!

Remember Julia?  She was one of my closest friends the year we studied together at Donghua University.  Then she moved back to Poland.

:(

But she came back!  And we went exploring around Xiaonanmen ("Little south door"), where Shanghai's southernmost city gate used to be.  Now, it's a neighbourhood clinging to its past as highrises and a brand-new metro station pop up around it.  We found an amazing laneway fabric market, took some photos, and ate lamb-on-a-stick, one Shanghai's most delectable street foods.

In the old parts of Shanghai, the photos take themselves.  Bicycles, of course, are everywhere.

The fabric market street.  Produce and poultry were further down.  (Loving my camera's B&W auto setting.)

The colours everywhere were beautiful - it had just rained.  I'm not sure if this is a storage shack or a very small home.

Duck A: "DON'T.  LOOK.  BEHIND YOU."  Duck B: *stifled quack*

The ginger in Shanghai is incredible - so fresh it's actually juicy.

Here we are!  Me rocking the old "I hate being photographed but maybe if I look sideways I'll just look ironic!!!"  Works eeeeevery time.