Days 14, 15,16,and 17 "What is a level 10 typhoon wind?"

Days 14, 15, 16, and 17 “What is a level 10 typhoon wind?" quote by me, Hollie

We have been mostly just hanging out the past few days. The weather went from pouring down rain, to sweltering hot and humid; back to thunder showers and buckets of rain. We went out shopping today down in the subway, when we left the weather was hot and sunny. When we got out of the subway a major storm had hit (only a couple of hours had passed at the most). We were now faced with getting back to our apartment (which is about 10 blocks away) without umbrellas in a torrential down pour! There were also continuous lightening strikes. I guess while we were in the subway there had been level 10 typhoon winds (what ever that means?). Jeff said at his work there had been bicycles strewn everywhere and their cafeteria was flooded with rain water. Meanwhile, we were happily shopping and avoiding most of it. We decided to not wait the storm out and walk to our apartment. We are already a spectacle where ever we go, but this was apparently pretty hilarious because everyone not only stared at us, but laughed at us now. I guess we did look pretty pitiful.

There are several things that they do here in Shanghai that I think we should do in the United States. I hate to admit, but I am not particularly mindful or frugal with the plastic bags I get from the grocery store. Here nothing is for free. I have to pay for every plastic bag that I get (it’s not much, .30Yuen…which is around 4 cents) at the super market. I have reused the same 3 plastic bags I bought when I first got here. I am cheap, or maybe frugal, but never the less I haven’t bought more. My point is I am being charged for something that I already have, so why buy more? I hate to say it, but because I get the others for free I am not as conscientious about reusing them. I will be now. Being here has really made me think about how much we have and take for granted.

I also think here in Shanghai they have a great street light system (now if the taxis and buses would just follow them consistently). There is a count down timer for the red light, for the green light and for the cross walks. For example if you are sitting at the red light in your car, there is a timer that starts at 20 and goes down until it turns green. This way you know when you’re turn to go will be and I think it makes traffic move more fluidly. Then you can spend your time doing whatever you usually do while you are at the red light, but you know to be ready when your count down is done. And the same is true for the green light, there is a count down, followed by a quick amber light and then a red light. If you drive your car and follow the rules and pay any attention what so ever then you should have plenty of time and warning to be out of the intersection when it turns red. I'll attach a picture to the next post, I forgot to download it before I wrote this entry.

One more observation I have about Shanghai. I do not see strollers or other plastic devises for carrying babies. Every where I go I see people carrying their babies. On one hand it would be really hard to push a stroller through the streets here because it is so crowded, but I think these devices are not part of their culture. At all the museums and the zoo I have seen sleeping babies and toddlers in their parents or grandparents arms. It is physically hard work to carry a sleeping baby, but I think it’s important for babies to have skin to skin contact, they learn so much by being with us. I do not agree with where our society is headed with babies being physically so far removed from their care givers. I think we could learn from their example here.

I said I would write more translations. Here are a few that we have read on menus; these were not jokes: Bad young soy beans (I’d actually prefer the young good beans myself), Cuts the beef in vain, The frying pan rips the cabbage, Punctures the body to spell greatly, Does the pot sacrificial donkey meat, Unwearied effort however beef, The grandmother is drunk the fish (Maybe it takes so long to prepare grandma is sauced by the time the meal is done?). Here is a picture of some translations we saw in a sign shop.

Now that we’ve been here a few weeks I’ve had lots of time to watch people and there is a wide range of fashions. Shoes are probably the most interesting and diverse. Shoes are important here or at least it seems to many. I see many women dressed in strappy high heel shoes. Even when we went to the zoo, there were many really dressy, uncomfortable looking shoes. One woman had a pair of boots made out of what seemed to be slats of wood. I didn’t want to stare, but I really wanted to get a better look (or better yet a picture), they looked incredibly uncomfortable (remember I said I was at the zoo when I saw this?!?....I was wearing comfortable walking shoes). On the other hand I see a lot of fake Croks too. They sell them in the subway for about $3. I have also noticed many t-shirts with English on them. Most are not a particular brand, but a cute saying. I haven’t seen any clothes with Chinese writing branded on them. I fully expected to see many t-shirts with the Olympics being advertised, but I have seen few of these types of shirts either.

There is a definite division of classes here. There is the obviously wealthier, more stylish crowd and then the working poor. The poor are wearing very, plain and simple clothes. I’m not talking about jeans and a t-shirt, I’m talking about clothes that I remember my mother wearing during the 60’s (okay so I don’t exactly remember the 60’s much, but I have pictures of my parents then). The fabric colors or patterns are very plain and faded and the amount of stitching and seams are very minimal. The more stylish are wearing the extravagant shoes and carrying the fake (or maybe that’s just me) Prada and Gucci bags. My understanding is the poor come from the surrounding villages to find work. The poor workers are the 18 or so people that I see in nearly every store that I see doing nothing.

Near our apartment I also see many of these poor workers cleaning the street with home made brooms. The brooms are basically long, dried grass tied to a stick. The good thing is the grass is a renewable resource and readily available. The workers are constantly cleaning up after everyone. They are busy, very busy! This society or at least this city is not concerned with liter, or at least their own liter. People are constantly dropping their garbage and cigarettes everywhere. The poor workers are constantly sweeping up and dumping the debris. When you get too far from our apartment you can tell that people aren’t paid to clean those areas and they are littered with debris. Maybe some of the workers in the super market could go clean up those streets?

We had to leave our first restaurant without eating. We went to a hot pot about 6 blocks from our apartment. If you haven’t been to a hot pot, it is where they have a pot in the middle of the table with a heat source boiling some sort of broth and everyone dips their item of choice in the broth and cooks it for a few minutes. We usually get various types of meat and veggies. This particular restaurant didn’t have any English translations on the menu, pinyin, or pictures so we couldn’t even begin to guess how to order. No one spoke any English so we couldn’t order anything. It was really disappointing because every thing smelled yummy. It was odd walking out of a restaurant without ordering or eating.

Oh, I also found out more about the elevator numbers. I’m always learning more here. So 4 translates to death, 14 translates to about to die, and 24 translates to hard to die. I guess by the time you get to the 24th floor you are probably going to be okay. Remember in an earlier blog entry I said our apartment had no 4th and 14th floor, but had a 24th floor and I was trying to figure out the meanings?

Random pictures…

This is of a man working on the lines on the street. Notice the ladder on top of the truck, propped up against the lines above and his two buddies stabilizing the ladder below? Wow, that’s trust!

Here are some pictures of our apartment. The first one on the left is of the dish dryer. We don't have a dishwasher, but we have a dish dryer and it is in a cup board, under the stove. The dish dryer is way away from the sink and in a cupboard without any ventilation. Who designed that?

Here are some pictures of a market I found around the corner. It is a very authentic store, it’s a bit too far for me to walk for everything, but I go here when I’m in the area. I took the picture of the fish and turtles quickly because the man who worked there was not happy about me taking the pictures. I realize now after looking at the pictures, maybe he wasn’t happy about me taking pictures of his tanks with dead fish floating in them. I just can’t imagine going down to my local Safeway and picking out the chicken that I was going to have that night for dinner. I know they have them alive so that the customers can see that the food is fresh, but like I mentioned before I do prefer to stay in denial about where my food lived before.