Day 4 - Hitting the Markets

I enjoy shopping. Sara doesn’t.

Luckily, my sister’s best friend from home up flew in today and we had pre-coordinated a massive multi-day shopping spree. Here’s an excerpt from previous email communications with her:

"Oh! I want to buy glasses too!! Maybe we can go together and haggle a good price for both pairs? I want to get a regular pair that'll be really different from my main ones (I'm wearing a super retro looking pair these days) and also some prescription sunglasses. (I'm pretty good with negotiating...but you've probably learned a trick or two from your dad...) ... Am definitely up for shopping - need to update my wardrobe with more artsy/design stuff and less corporate looking stuff. So, can I propose that we try shopping on Monday?"

This is how I felt after reading her reply:


Meet Alicia:

^'MERICAN

Alicia grew up in my neighborhood and I've known her for as long as I can remember things. She's an Architect who's currently a student at the Royal College of Arts for their Innovation Design Engineering program. Super cool, eh? She's basically doing what I want to do.

Meet Sam:


Sam is a Mechanical Engineer from Bristol, UK (not Tennessee). He's also in the RCA IDE program. He has a yellow and pink hat, orange pants and is basically awesome. He could probably dunk a basketball over LeBron based on my assessment of this photograph. He's doing exactly what I want to do.

Alicia and Sam (A+S from now on) had just flown in from Beijing; where they were working on a class project. We meet at the People's Square metro station and ventured off to the glasses market.

Our objectives:
Alicia’s: Artsy glasses and sunglasses
Sam’s: Color contacts.
Mine: Artsy glasses and sunglasses.

The glasses market was located inside a mall outside of the Shanghai Rail Station. The glasses market was situated on Level 5. An electronics and photography equipment market occupied Levels 3 & 4, respectively. This place was basically like the Singapore electronics market I visited last year; multiple levels of sweet sweet temptation... I viewed this place as one huge test of self restraint...

Upon setting foot on the 5th floor, we were immediately bombarded with hawkers trying to sell us glasses, fish, and firecrackers (actually they only sold glasses). We started off in the back of the building and sifted through 4 or 5 shops. We eventually found a shop near the center of the complex and dug-in for the afternoon.

Alicia found her two pairs pretty quickly although color of frames became a hot topic. I found a pair of aviators pretty quick and had some trouble finding a pair of regular glasses. Sam found some blue contacts but they couldn't order them in quick enough :-/

After what felt like a few hours of denying initial offers, some yelling/arguing, futile attempts of begging/pleading, and a few hurt feelings, we were able to hug it out and agree on the following terms:

Alicia’s total cost: 280 RMB for glasses + sunglasses ($40 USD)
My total cost: 200 RMB for glasses + aviators ($30 USD)

Kübler-Ross was onto something...

Afterwards, we met up with Sara and Tony to go to baller Sichuan restaurant. We got to the place and there was confusion over our reservation. We got it sorted out and were sat in a private dining room. We immediately started ordering food since no one had really eaten the entire day. Tony was a bit bummed that they had changed their menu a bit...

Then he exclaimed, "OH CRAP, THIS ISN'T THE RIGHT RESTAURANT!"

Having visited a Ninja Academy earlier in the day, we stealthily escaped our mistake while our servers were out, and we headed to the correct restaurant (one floor up) via fire escape.

Actually, we apologized profusely and ventured to the correct restaurant. This place had a minimum order amount which was fine by us. We were in "face-slam" mode and were just ordering anything and everything possible. We eventually figured out we had ordered too much food (although we had to do this to meet the quota).


^Luckily this meant leftovers for Sara and Tony.

With a daytrip to Suzhou the next day, we called it a night and caught cabs home for the night.

Day 3 - Statistics:

Amount of sleep obtained: 5-hours
Cost of an 1-hr foot massage: $9 USD
Photos taken: 7

^photo 3 of 7

Suits tailored: 2
Cost of suits: $50 USD each

Amount of conversation w/ tailor that I understood: 15%
Family friends/Texas neighbors met for dinner: 1

Number of trips to Family Mart: 3+

Mosquito bites: 0
Best drink purchase: Howmax Lychee
Best ice cream purchase: Meiji's Creamy Oats Delight

Caloric intake: 3500+

Velociraptors encountered: 2 packs
Number of people in the subway at night: 0

Day 2 - EXPO! EXPO! EXPO! + NIGHT OUT!!!

It’s 5am local time. I've been up for 22 hours... and this was supposed to be a vacation... Hopefully I can recount what happened today. I'll try my best.

As previously mentioned, we had opening day tickets to the Expo. We decided to take our time in the morning and we got breakfast a la Carrefour (think French Wal-Mart w/ food court). There was a yo tiao shop which also had Mai-Tsai Koh-Roh (basically my dream diner) and a Dunkin Donuts (mochi donut overload). After hammering our faces with foods, we headed the Expo site.


^I was too excited and forgot to take picture of the yo-tiao...

On the way to the Expo, we were saluted by a PLA soldier (ya know, we're kind of a big deal). Actually, Sara had startled this poor soldier when she ran up to him and asked him for directions (in Chinese). He saluted her, then realized what he had done, and helped us with directions. It was pretty awesome. I then ordered a military motorcade to the Expo.

We arrived via cab after opening/after the rush of folks.


We mosied our ways to the Chinese pavilion, only to find out that to get in, we needed reservation tickets. These tickets were given out at the opening... so we were SOL. There were tons of people finding this out with us, and one Chinese lady quipped,

“WHAT? We’re Chinese! And we can’t get into the Chinese Pavilion?!”

HOWEVER! We were extremely fortunate and found two ladies who worked for the company that supplied all the furniture for the Chinese Pavilion. They gave us two tickets for the 7:30-pm tour. So, we started exploring other pavilions.

Sara's criteria for pavilion selection was short lines. My criteria was that it had to be a nuclear threat to the US and/or be part of the Axis of Evil. We got lucky and found two countries that fit our needs:

^Sara and I ran to Iran’s pavilion but then we saw it was bff’s with North Korea. We went to N. Korea instead.

Inside the N. Korean pavilion...

They also had some caves in an exhibit to show their ancestral roots and a gift shop with plenty of Engrish. It was pretty bare bones.

We quickly left and headed for the Moroccan Pavilion. The whole place reeked of new paint smell. They had glass walkway that housed fountains underneath (the coolest part).

Inside were museum like exhibits with historical items from the country (pottery, clothing, tools, etc).

Since we saw the N. Korean Pavilion, we ventured off to the S. Korean Pavilion. Unfortunately, everyone loves S. Koreans so the line was hours long.

What's there to love about South Korea? Let's see... Hyundai cars, Korean romantic comedies, Korean thrillers, F1 races, buyer of 'Merican weapons systems, they're stylish, good food, fun country. Ok next...

We walked by some more pavilions only to find similar lines (Israel, UAE, Saudi Arabia, India) and finally found a short line at Nepal. Their pavilion was quite spectacular (from the exterior), except, their exhibits were unfinished...

^FAIL. What does the outside look like? well you'll have to wait 'til I post photos from the 2nd day at the Expo...

Hours had passed by now, and we decided to take shelter from the heat. We headed towards the Cultural Center. Inside was a hockey/ice rink, restaurants, movie theaters, and a performance hall where the Philadelphia Symphony was going to play on Friday. The center looks like a giant UFO and has a balcony spanning the entire circumference of the building.


^View from the CC of the Saudi and Indian Pavilions.

We ate, hydrated, sugar-ated and ventured off again. The square on one end of the Cultural Center turned out to be a misting garden where many people were using as shelter from the heat:


We decided to check out the Europe/America's end of the Expo and found many of the same things... 2+ hour long lines at NZ, Australia, France, Italy, UK, Denmark, Germany, etc... (look on facebook for some of these pavilions). We found one lonely pavilion, Finland.


They had a really cool Nokia exhibit where you you stood in front of a phone camera which took 5 shots. Then the photos were plastered across a wall made up of phone LCD screens.


Following Finland, we looked at Denmark again but lines were long.


We were fortunate to find another friendless pavilian, Slovenia.

^so ronery

Their greeter enthusiastically ushered us into their space and gave us books written by a famous Slovenian author.

^apparently Slovenians love trippy lighting, and ONLY trippy lighting.

We made our way through what should have been experienced with mushrooms and then headed towards the US Pavilion. We arrived only to find it was kind of crappy so we bailed on our country and went to China.

Talk about the story of our lives…

Actually, we only had 30-min to make it across the expo site to the Chinese Pavilion but we lucked out and caught a people mover with a family headed to the same place. The parents pointed out to their kids that I was a Chinese person and Sara was a foreigner (why-gwo-ren). Sara then proceeded to say something to me in Chinese and everyone in the car gasped and then the interview questions came flooding out. The family's kids had just learned to talk but proceeded to recite some memorized poems and impress everyone, adorafrickenble.

We made our ways into the Chinese pavilion. The Expo was in a ways, a way of showing the world to the Chinese people (Whereas the Beijing Olympics was a way of showing China to the world).

Dwarfed and located below/next to the Chinese Pavilion were the HK, Taiwan and Macao Pavilions. Very interesting.

The tour sequence brought us up to the top of the pavilion where we watched a 10-minute long patriotic movie that was shown on three screens that surrounded you (the ceiling was a giant screen too). After the movie, Sara had to bail to meet up with her special gentleman friend (her bf). Katie, if you’re reading this, there’s so much to talk about!!!

It was nearing closing time and the site started to clear out. I stuck around for some photos:

Expo Road

Flag Gardens


After the Expo, I met up with an old Industrial Design classmate, Cole, at a dive bar in Shanghai. He moved to Shanghai for work (at Monster Toys). The bar was known for their music scene among ex-pats; and his friend was rapping there that night. The DJ was spitting out mad mashups, and I will say that the next Eminem is coming out of Shanghai. He introduced me to his coworkers and friends and I learned how to play rock paper scissors games and Chinese dice games. We departed the bar after some time for another bar, S’us. On the way, we crashed a family mart for food and drink.

FFWD to now and It’s 5-something-am. Time for bed.

Peace out y’all.

Day 1 - Arrival in Pudong!!! Day in Puxi!!!

PVG is a pretty nice airport! and full of Expo decor. Customs and Immigration lines were fabulously quick. The immigration official asked if I had a Chinese name. I told him my parents gave me one but it’s not official. He made me write it down on my arrival paperwork anyways.


^Haibao welcomes you to China!

Five minutes later while trying to buy get through a metal detector, the rush of Chinese culture came flooding back... First, we have absolutely no understanding of the concept of waiting in lines. Two, we have no regard for other people’s personal space. I was standing in a “line/mass of people” and two people just straight up cut in front of me. I told both to "pai dway." They did, and are now hovering behind me like a bear on honey.

OH EM GEE, the maglev is SO NICE. I found a window seat among some Japanese tourists. They’re taking mad photos. I am too. We just hit 301 kmph!



This train is a beast! It sucks that America is so caught up in arguing and paperwork that we can’t ever have nice things… The Sounder Transit? Ughhh, super lame. After covering 30 something kilometers in 8 minutes, I found Sara!



We took a cab back to her place for only $3 (so cheap!). She lives in Pudong, which is East of the Huangpu River in Shanghai. We dropped everything off and took the subway to People's Square in search of food.

We tried to get some Xiaolongbao, but the hole in the wall place we went to was out for the day… luckily there was a Little Yang’s Fried Dumplings house across the street.

When we walked in, the employees greeted us in Chinese. Then one employee asked the other, “Why are you greeting her? She doesn’t understand!” If only they knew her Chinese is better than mine. We got two orders of Fried Xiaolongbao.


a fierce 3-minutes later:


After the first meal, we tried to find this local bakery that has well made everything, however we found they were shut down… apparently this is quite common here. SOoo, We ventured around Nanjing East Road, and WOW this place was packed! the photo doesn't do it justice, but it was just tons of people everyyywhere.

We made our way to a Taiwanese dessert place that she'd been wanting to visit. She got Mango something and I got a standard issue bubble tea.


After some sightseeing and an adventure in a public toilet (ask me about the girl who couldn’t flush her number-two sometime), we got back on the subway to meet up with my dad’s business contact in Shanghai. He scored Opening Day tickets to the Expo for us. We got out to the burbs and met at a McDonalds. He brought his wife, son, and mother there and we exchanged items. I got them chocolate and a toy 787 for his son. He got us opening day tickets.

Ah yes, the trade imbalance…

After the handoff, we had to make our way back to People's Square Station. We had dinner reservations on the 45th floor restaurant of the Radisson (Epicure 45). We sat next to a 68-yr old Chinese man. Midway through the trip, he turns to me and asks me where Sara is from. I tell him America. Then he asks me where I’m from, and mention America. He informs me that I’m Chinese.

This brings back what happened this morning at immigrations. The locals don't understand the concept of Chinese people being born and growing up in America and referring to themselves as Americans. On the flip side, I refer to myself as Chinese when I'm asked, "what are you" in the states. It's quite interesting... Maybe I'll reply "American/Texan/I'm from Chuck Norris' city" for all future questions of this nature.

The discussion with our new friend continue, he asks if she’s visiting me, and I reply that it’s actually the opposite. You should have seen the look on his face; actually, most people have that same reaction. Chinese guy visiting a white girl in China, what the heck is this world coming to?!

He then proceeds to guess our ages (this guy was good) and asks us to guess his (big fail). Then he tells us a little about himself, he moved to Shanghai to retire after working at a power plant up in Northern China, and he was headed downtown to watch the Expo Fireworks Show.

Then he points to my shorts and sandals and smirks at me. I get confused, he then comments on me wearing shorts, sandals and a t-shirt and quips that it’s not summer yet. In typical/default Chinese fashion, he warns that I’d catch a cold... ahhhahh I smiled and said I was used to this weather in 'Merica (I carried Tiger Balm with me at all times, just in case). We got to the station and went our separate ways.

Epicurian 45 is a rotating restaurant on top of a tall structure (a la Space Needle or Reunion Tower) with an AMAZING view of everything. We also got lucky, because it was also Expo fireworks night. The food was western and tasty, and the fireworks came on 1-hour late.


After dinner, we had options with meeting up with her bf or some friends she knew. Jet lag was getting to me and so we just tried to get home. The subways were an absolute mess from the crowds watching the fireworks. We got to our train and waited among hundreds of other locals (again with absolutely no personal space). When the train arrived, everyone saw that it was completely packed and the masses let out the loudest collective “AIYAAAAAAA!!!” I’ve ever heard.

This was the last train.


The doors opened and everyone just started pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing. It was one giant



There were battle cries, immense pain, and screams for help. The scene was utterly hopeless. It was a human stampede. There were random hands and arms in my face and I was getting jabbed by everything from everywhere. This was one battle we didn’t win... When the doors closed and we came to our senses, we ran outside with the others who didn’t get on the train and tried to catch a cab.

Half an hour later, we did and made it home.

standardized vacation processes

I am starting a document (D6-Vacation). Let me know if you want to contribute. Currently it has:

1. dessert at every meal.
2. daily visits to the local convenience stores.
3. exploration of the local art college.

Day 0 – 29.April.2010 – SEA to PVG

It was raining in Seattle.


I sat next to two ladies from LA. One a supermodel, the other worked for CBS. The model was 6-ft something tall and barely fit into the row, I felt bad. She had just completed a shoot at Nordstrom HQ in Seattle and was heading home to LA. She looked absolutely famished but didn’t eat on the plane, obviously... I really wish I had a some fried chicken, cheese or fritos to offer… note to self for next trip, pack those items.

Sunset was nice so I started snapping away, I'm glad I bought that extra hard drive for this trip. It's going to be insane...


I was able to strike up a conversation with the supermodel on frequent flier mileage programs; which was pretty hot. She has AAdvantage and has been all around the world, doing shoots in Turkey, Prague, Australia, Hawaii, the Caribbean… and is only 20-yrs old! She’s worked with some pretty amazing clients (D&G, Prada, blah blah) but wants to stop modeling at age 25 to become a nutritionist for modeling agencies. Ya know, to advise models on eating healthy and how to avoid eating problems. Props to her!

Then the girl from CBS butt in and the conversation changed to beautiful men, gym trainers and the LA club scene. LAME!!! Actually I enjoyed listening to all their drama. They complained that all male models, gym trainers, and remaining LA-folk were douche bags and had security issues. I agreed, offered my own thoughts on gender roles and expectations, and told them to date engineers.

I hope they do.

Turbulence kicked in during landing and the model kind of freaked out. I assured her that Boeing planes were designed by the most badass of engineers, and that it’d be fine. I was right (on both accounts) and we landed ten minutes later. We flew over an In-and-Out Burgers on approach and the model reminisced about the days when she was able to eat hamburgers there. Oh how I wanted hug her and tell her that she was free to fight the power and eat to her heart’s desire! If only Alaskan Airlines still had cheeseburgers, they only had cheese flavored snack mixes on this flight... We eventually got to our gate, said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.

Their names were Amy and Jessica.

LAX is probably the worst airport I’ve ever been to. It’s dim, ugly, doesn’t have many shops and is small. The only reason I chose to fly through LAX was to get onto a Boeing 777-300ER... I guess one cool thing is that you pass by windows with views of your plane on the moving sidewalks.


^this is my CAT777-300ER

I have a couple hours to burn so I’m just sitting at the gate. Oh dear, the guy who just sat down next to me is rocking some seriously fierce old man cologne. I'm guessing Drakkar Noir... time to find a new seat...

Next stop, CHINA!!!


Day 0 + 10 hours – International Airspace

It’s minus 63°-F outside! Brrrrrr.

Dang, this is one long flight. There’s always a faint glow over the horizon, and you can see the slight curvature of the Earth.

You’re probably noticing that this blog entry has become more narrative and less just massive amount of photos. I thought I’d mix this up a bit. I’ll tell the story of my next vacation through pictures of cats with funny captions a la The LOL Cat Bible. Hopefully the trip will be to England this summer or New Zealand during our Christmas holiday. We’re flying north towards the Arctic, and then back down over China, to Hong Kong.

Cathay Pacific 777’s are BALLER. Singapore had more/better food and amenities, but Cathay has great seats and good in-flight entertainment. Their service is equal. Shell seats in economy?! Shewwwwt, they are huge! Like, I can curl up to sleep, huge. It helps that I’m Asian (slim) and that the middle seat is empty, but still! The guy next to me is on some business trip to Jakarta, has his own noise cancelling Bose headphones and is crunching away at some spreadsheet. He asked me where I was headed, I said, “Shanghai,” and he just nodded.

Last year, on my flight to Singapore, I sat next to some Hong Kong-onians (is that what they’re called?), and they started talking to me in Cantonese. I informed them that I only spoke Mandarin. They replied, “Oh, that’s too bad.”

Burn!

One of my favorite parts of flying is the airplane food, true statement. AA used to have the worst pizza (that I couldn’t stop myself from eating), and the best quesadillas (which they normally ran out of, leaving me with pizza). We’ve had one meal so far; I chose chicken and rice. It was pretty frickin' tasty; it came with smoked salmon salad (mmm) and cheesecake for dessert. I suspect they used a steam oven on the food, it turned out quite nice.

I just got a cup of ramen. Woot! The chopsticks are nice too!


One of the drawbacks of flying to Asia is length of flight. I got bored and started to look around; they use Monogram 3210 Trash Compactors and have bland lavs. The flight attendants are giggly and camera shy. I got lucky and found some in the aft galley to finish up a photo project I was working on. I had to scale the project down and my area's attendant seemed fed up with my multiple requests for stationary... it's not my fault that it's hard to write when there's turbulence...

On the flip side, a perk of long haul flights is the selection of movies. This flight hasn’t disappointed yet, I’ve gotten my fix of Hong Kong cop thrillers and Korean rom coms. Other positive discoveries?

1. The ramen actually has chunks of chicken in it! nom nom nom.
2. No crying babies!!! Yeahhhh!!!
3. Five hours until HK.


Day 0 + 14 hours – Chinese Airspace

Oh my gravy, WHEN WILL THIS FLIGHT END?! I think I’m getting dehydrated and my jaw hurts when I open my mouth. I might have hurt it during a yawn. This better not reduce my ability to chew the mass quantities of food that we’re planning to consume this trip (it’s Shanghai Restaurant Week). Luckily they’re serving breakfast so I can perform some trial runs.

The guy next to me has been watching The Simpsons all flight long (when not working). I’m watching this Korean rom-com called Fortune Salon. I hoped it’d be a good alternative to My Sassy Girl but so far it has been a bust.

Korean rom-coms are normally wayyyyyy over the top silly, dramatic and somewhat violent (in a comedic way, It’s nothing like their thrillers). Oh, and it’s always the guy that get hurt (rest assured, there’s minimal-to-no violence against women). However, in this film, the protagonist has only gotten hit by one car, had both wrists broken, and gotten the back of his head cut open by flying glass… and they’re already together, boooooring.

OK breakfast is here. We have an egg and ham croissant, fruit, and yogurt.

^The jaw is looking good so far and the sandwich is tasty. Double-WIN.

For those BCA readers, FLAM! FLAM! FLAM!



Day 0 + too many hours – Chinese Airspace



I was able to sneak one last facebook login at HKG before boarding my flight to Shanghai; I had forgotten to tell my housemates that I was leaving for the week. I asked they alert me if something bad happened to the house or my car (meteor strike, Tea Party riots, fire, Rainier pulling an Eyjafjallajokull, you know, typical doomsday scenarios…). Kayla responded and will let me know if there are any Tea Party riots.

phew!

I also contemplated a trip to Popeyes or Burger King for my last fix of 'Merican Cuisine (you can get value meals with beer?!). However, in my hunger driven insanity, I decided against it; leaving me starving. Luckily, I’m sitting in an airplane and the FA’s are serving breakfast!


^HK from my window.

I believe the options are Chicken and Noodles or Egg w/ Sausage Omelet, and the word ‘juice’ on juice cartons is spelled ‘Joos.’

Engrish, I can’t wait!

The lady probably thinks I’m weird for taking so many photos of other airplanes on the runway, the engine, the food, the seat, etc…

My good friend Shane loaned me his Canon S90 point and shoot camera for this trip, so far it’s been pretty spectacular. I hate lugging around my SLR with my carry-ons, so this has helped reduce the amount of weight I’m carrying. Too bad I have a second bag full of chocolate, toys, and medicine for the folks I’m seeing. OK, I’m going to try to strike up a convo with this Aussie lady.

OK, she works just outside of HK and is meeting her friend for the weekend in Shanghai. She lives in Sydney but is originally from England. That’s about all she wanted to talk about. I hope she's not reading this while I type... Oh, we’re about to land!!!

Oh, and remember in my last post (from the Singapore Trip), that I mentioned that "this is going to be the Cathay 777-300ER that I'd be on in 1.5 months? It turned out, IT REALLY IS!