Lunar New Years Plans

Yesterday I hosted "breakfast" for 3 Chinese friends; Zhu (see Rock and Roll party entry), Tony, and a girl ( a friend of Zhu's...I met her a couple of times at a bar, but I forgot her name and I felt too embarrassed to ask). The girl is a nurse who works with Zhu. An African-American friend from Brooklyn named Tevon was supposed to show up, but he bailed. Originally I thought I would make omelets, but I just have one pan and making omelets for 5- 6 people is difficult. So I made Jesse's special scrambled eggs - mushrooms, garlic, beef sausage, cheese, spinach, olives, onions, and 9 eggs (but only 5 yolks...don't need all that cholesterol). Haga showed up (she was working on Sunday) and my friends were a little shy around her, which surprised me. Oh...I also served Jesse's special potatoes - potatoes chopped into 1 cm square bits, with Chinese chili sauce, wine, Chinese chives, garlic, and soy sauce. AND bagels, lox, and cream cheese. I found an Israeli bakery about a mile from our apartment. He didn't sell the cream cheese and lox though (got to write to him about that... He should provide it), so I ran to the French Kmart-type department store to get those materials. My friends said they liked it. They didn't talk much during breakfast. I think they might have been very hungry because normally they don't eat breakfast at noon.

That day it snowed in Shanghai. Very crazy to see snow here. Of course, the snow melted as soon as it hit the ground - its not that cold here. I would have taken a picture but it would just look like a wet, rainy day. So the snow combined with the cold rain. Not too comfortable, but our apartment was warm and the food good.

Incidentally, I made a pizza the night before using Xinjiang bread and other ingredients we bought at the store. We don't have an oven, so I used a covered pan. It turned out good though.

So in case you don't know, Haga and I are going to Thailand on Wednesday - which is Chinese New Years. Everything in China shuts down for almost two weeks. Actually, Chinese people have started to slow down work for the last two weeks in preparation for their holiday. We are very excited about this trip. Our friend Tony Huynh is going to pick us up at the airport. Tony just got laid off from NEC France - with 7 months severance pay (he only worked there 8 months are so). He seems to have found a girlfriend or two in Thailand and is staying there for a while. I do not know if I will be writing anything on this blog while I'm gone.

We will stay in Bangkok until Monday, when we will fly to Phuket and then stay near the beach for a week. We will return to SH on February 1.

When I come back to SH, I will get an English teaching job to make some extra money while I look for better things. If anyone reading this has ideas for stuff that can be sourced here in China, let me know. February is the hiring season in China, so hopefully there will be a lot more work opportunities when I get back.

We are very excited about this trip.

Parental visit

Haga's parents arrived two Saturdays ago and left today. Since Haga had to work during the week, my responsibility was to take them everywhere.

Saturday: They arrive. We go out for Mongolian lamb hotpot. They are impressed with the tasty food. I almost kill waitress for being an idiot.

Sunday: We travel to Suzhou. Pictures are in the gallery. Suzhou is an hour train ride out of Shanghai. The city has a marketing program that originated a couple of hundred years ago. A poem everyone knows: Above is Heaven/ below is Suzhou and Hangzhou. The poem does not sound right in English...The last syllable of the first line (Heaven) rhymes with the last syllable of HangZhou. Anyway, Suzhou was a major tourist stop before there was such a thing as Chinese tourists. However, today, Suzhou seems rather industrial and dirty compared to Shanghai. I guess most places do. We visited some ancient garden resorts and took a cool boat ride on one of the canals. Haga's parents are pretending to be old now. They walk really slowly. Haga's dad says he has problems with his knees. I think they are faking it. We ate LanZhou Pulled noodles (Muslim food) for lunch. Haga's parents were impressed. We waited in the train station for 2 hours before we could get on a train back. Had Northeastern Dumpling King food for dinner. Waitress said Haga’s father looks like a Chinese man (which is a compliment). They were very impressed...but they mainly liked the Spicy - sour potato strips dish.



Monday: Early afternoon took the parents to get a massage. Then I bought some knee compression things for Dad so he would have less excuses. Then took them to Nanjing road- the main glitzy touristy shopping district. Pictures in the gallery. We later met up with Haga and went to have Shanghai Crab. They liked it, but were not impressed. SH Crab is the second most overrated food in China. After dinner, we walked back to Nanjing road, did some shopping. Then walked down the street. Checked out some garbage shops. I bargained then didn't buy anything. Later walked down to the Bund.



Tuesday: Ate BaoZi steamed buns for breakfast. They were impressed. But they mostly liked the XiaoMai, which is basically a dumpling stuffed with rice. Took them to a sort of old temple area tourist place. We all bought presents and stuff. Mom saw stuff she wanted, but didn't buy. So when she decided she wanted to buy it, we retraced our steps (through my navigation leadership) and found the shop. We walked the whole area twice. Then I went to Toastmasters meeting.

Wednesday: Dumpling King restaurant for brunch. Ate ZhaJiang noodles...sort of salty simple hand-made noodles. They were pretty impressed. Then went to the Fake Goods market and bought some stuff. I bargained constantly and pissed off a lot of vendors when I got the price down and didn't buy. Typical conversation:

J: How much?
V: 300 kuai.
J: OK. You are joking.
V: Friend, you name your price. How much you want?
J: 40 Kuai.
V: You find this for 40 Kuai and I'll buy it from you.
J: OK.
V: Seriously. Name your price.
J: 40 Kuai. You won't take a loss. [gawkers who find it incredibly amazing that a white-y can bargain in Chinese have started to gather]
V: Look. This is so pretty. Give it to your girlfriend.
J: My girlfriend will be mad that I spend so much money.
V: No. Your girlfriend will be happy you spent so much on her.
J: You are right. But I will think I'm dumb for spending so much money. [on-lookers are chuckling]
V: You think too much. Just buy it.
J: What material is this made out of?
V: Silk and [something]
J: What is [something]?
V: Uh...its [something]?
J: Is [something] and animal or a plant?
V: Uh... [something] is not an animal!
J: So is [something] man-made or from a plant?
V: What do you mean man-made? All fabric is made with machines!
J: OK. Look. I'll give you 60 kuai.
V: Come on.
J: OK. Bye bye
V: Friend. Come here. I'll give you for 130.
J: 90. And that's it.
V: 130.
J: Bye bye.
V: OK 90. 90.
J [in English and Japanese ] Ma, you like this? I got the price to 90.
Mom: Uh...Silk?
J: Its silk and [something]. I don't know what [something] is.
Mom: No. Too expensive. Not want.
J [to vendor]: Sorry. My girlfriend does not want it. [crowd is no laughing hysterically when they see me point to Mom and call her my girlfriend]
V: Hey! I sell it to you for 90!
J: But my girlfriend does not want it. Sorry.
V: Fudging Yankee! You talk all day long and don't buy! Your killing me you fudger.
J: Nice talking with you. See you later.
V: [mutters obscenities]

Wednesday night we had Mexican food. The parents were impressed. Then we went to see the Shanghai acrobatic troop. Which was fun.

Thursday: Jesse's special omelets for breakfast. Everyone was very impressed. Didn't do much during the day. Went out to a restaurant called "Little South Country" at night. At Crystal shrimp, which is good. Mom had Shark fin soup, which is the most overrated Chinese food there is.

Friday: XinJiang Muslim food for Brunch. They were very impressed. Went back to Nanjng road to pick up some more presents. Also so a Buddhist temple. I'm not impressed by temples. Chinese people go to temples and pretend to pray because they think its funny. I don't think its funny. There was a big Jade effeminate Buhda statue at the temple. I told the statue that I don't think it represents the spirit of Buddhism. The statue didn't say anything to me, but I think the spirit in the statue agrees with my opinion.

Saturday: Dim-sum for brunch. Pretty good, but I had better in America. Shanghai people don't like Cantonese Dim-Sum that much, so there are few Dim-Sum restaurants here. We later went to antique market bought some good stuff. Korean food for dinner. They were somewhat impressed.

Sunday: Breakfast was Egg-pancake and BaoZi. They were very impressed. Mom said I made their trip great and I am a good tour leader, especially good at the task of picking out good restaurants.

Its 2004...so where is my personal flying car?

New Years Eve on a boat party on the HuangPu river between PuXi and PuDong. Frigging cold. We are drunk. We are not drunk on Champaign (not yet anyway). We drank Saki at an all-you-can-eat/drink dinner party we attended 2 hours earlier. Haga is talking to family (or maybe friends…I don’t know) on here cell phone. We are having a great time. There is something about boat cruises in cold industrial harbors that I find appealing. Later we met up with some of Haga’s friends and went to a dance bar. Documentation is in the gallery.

The fireworks was not spectacular, but it was cool. Individual contributors were lighting skyrockets along the Bund. There was also fireworks that shot off from the top of the boat.

The dinner party before hand was attended by my Russian friend, a new Jewish-American friend from Philadelphia, Haga, and myself. There were some 30 other people at the table, but they were younger and not as cool, and the saki had blurred my vision. So effectively there were four of us at the table. I remember my Russian friend saying “so…Jews in America don’t all know how to play music?” This was in response to the information that I never learned how to read music…something Russians – and especially Russian Jews – consider to be a part of basic education.

The dance clubs were packed. As usual, I bumped into many people I have met before, including Chinese friends. It was very fun.

Saki can really creep up on you. And make you feel sick for a long time afterwards. I didn’t feel that drunk at dinner. Just happy. Excited. Maybe it was the combination of Champaign (Haga and I split a bottle), and assorted alcoholic cola drinks. At about 4:30 AM, I had to call it quits for the night. The next day was spent in recovery. My egg-omelet breakfast in the morning helped in that recovery.

Days before, at my Toastmasters meeting, I gave a speech titled “Why Christmas sucks and should not be promoted in China”. The audience liked the speech a lot. My three main points were 1) Christmas, as practiced in the Western World, lacks spirituality; 2) Christmas causes stress for many people; and 3) Christmas music is the most insipid form of psychological manipulation and causes me to think of killing myself. Quote: “If Christmas music could be described as a physical object, I would describe it as a bowl of sugar cubes toped with artificially sweetened syrup. It is too sweet to enjoy and will give you diabetes.”

Haga’s parents are arriving tomorrow. I need to clean the house.