谢谢上海 (Xie Xie Shanghai)

After all the sparkly newness of Hong Kong, the rich culture of Shanghai was very satisfying to experience. Easy? Not so much, but satisfying. My mom and I have had a pretty large share of mishaps during our two days here, but it's all just part of the adventure :)

It started with our taxi to the hotel from the airport. After having the taxi stand attendant give him the Chinese address based on our English reservation page, our driver proceeded to the general area of the hotel, only to get lost and ask for directions about four times over the next half hour. To his credit, the hotel was in an awkward location, and he still managed to find it. During this time, I spoke one full Chinese sentence to him, about 3 half sentences, and a nice jumble of half-uttered words and phrases. I was actually really proud of myself. Until the next day.

My mom and I were so rushed in Hong Kong that we wanted to sit down and enjoy a good Chinese meal in Shanghai. With that in mind, we headed off to a restaurant recommended by my good friend Madison, Shanghai Number One Restaurant. When we got there, I had to ask if they took credit cards, since we weren't sure if the cash we had on-hand matched up with their typical prices. After some hand gesturing and VISA show-and-tell, they finally said they don't take it. After quickly glancing at the tail-end of the menu (expensive delicacies), we thought we'd play it safe. Who knows they do here to make you work off an unpaid tab? So. Down the elevator, across the street to a nearby ATM, and back up the elevator we went. We finally sat down and got read to enjoy a delicious meal. Unfortunately with what I now understand to be my horrendous Chinese and their single English-speaking waitress's broken English, we were barely able to communicate at all. Much picture-pointing and Chinglish later, my mom and I have in front of us a glass of loose-leaf tea each, a kiwi smoothie each, our own individual bowls of eel and noodles, a plate of sweet and sour pork with pineapple AND all the little bits of bone, some xiao long bao (excellent Shanghai dumplings), and a plate of "chicken with cashews," with "chicken" referring to the FULL chicken, simply ch

opped up into smaller pieces and fried, and "cashews" referring to the unidentifiable crunchy things mixed in with the chicken. My efforts to get items like water and a boneless meat dish denied, I basically threw in the towel. It was just much.

Luckily, we seemed to serve as (embarrassing) entertainment to the waitresses, as my mom has yet to master chopsticks (they brought her daocha, a knife and fork), and neither of us knew what the awkward spoon in the bowl was for since we didn't order soup. They were actually really kind to us, and even though they seemed just as frustrated as we were, they still tried to make us as comfortable as possible.

The same cannot be said for one of the shopkeepers in the Old City market area. As my mom and I were browsing the shops in the market, one of the sellers came up to us with a pitch that quickly became familiar. He began listing the many designer knock-offs he had in his store, and that he could get them for us for a "very cheap, very special" price. We declined, kept walking. He followed us for a few stores, up until the crosswalk, insisting that he had whatever we were looking for. He pointed to my designer bag and insisted that he had more. We declined, again, and rushed across the street. There was an electronics store on the corner that advertised Canon, so we stepped in to see if they had a part my dad was looking for. No luck. But as we left the store, "very cheap, very special price" guy came back asking us what camera part we were looking for. Apparently he had stood outside and watched our entire conversation with the salesperson. I assured him he did not have what we were looking for. Not to be deterred, he continued to keep pace with us, insisting that he had cameras, memory cards, whatever we wanted or needed. At this point we were at least four blocks from his shop, and he still wasn't stopping. I didn't know how to shake him short of running away until my mom simply walked close to a nearby policeman. Well played Mommy, well played.

Other than those incidents, and the ever-present pushiness that seems inherent in such crowded urban areas, I've really enjoyed exploring the streets of Shanghai. Yesterday my mom and I began our exploration with a stop at a local noodle place (that ended up serving us intestines) followed by Dunkin Donuts. Then we walked around the Shanghai Museum, where I learned that all I really have to do is doodle my Chinese characters and they will pass for calligraphy. After that we wandered down to the antique market, then crossed over to Old City. In the process we might have gotten lost a few times, but hitting those backroads was a true educational experience in understanding the local culture. We found a real food market, where the eels are still slithering in their buckets and the chicken feet are lined up and on display in the glass counter and the bok choy and dragon-eye fruit are piled high. We also found a small Buddhist area of worship, where I asked for directions (in Chinese!) and understood 75% of what they were telling me. I was riding high on my success until the Shanghai Number One debacle. At least the Chinese candy ladies in the Old City were happy that I could speak a little 中文. From there it was a straight shot to the Bund, which granted us a clear view of one of the most spectacular skylines I've ever seen,

and then on to Nanjing Road, which is very much like a cross between 5th Avenue and Times Square. Then we quickly stopped by our hotel before heading off to dinner, grabbed some pastries (of course) afterwards, and called it a night!

Today was all about the World Expo (separate entry forthcoming), but after that was my best dinner yet on this journey, thanks to one Madison Grinnell. A friend of hers had suggested a restaurant for her to visit while interning here in Shanghai, so Madison asked my mom and me if we wanted to go try it out. Definitely one of my better choices; the food was amazing. And it was so nice to see a familiar face. Madison was great to chat with and had loads of good advice and insights on what to expect from China in the coming months. We ended up staying at the restaurant for two hours just chatting about people, Nebraska, pedicures, and guanxi. Lots of guanxi. After my mom and I caught a cab back to the hotel, we had to satisfy our sweet teeth (tooths, in this case?) and headed off to the bakery down the street again. While there, this definitively non-Asian woman walked in trying to get directions somewhere. I didn't catch where, but I saw briefly that her Chinese-translated Google Map had the number 88, the address of our hotel. I tried to catch her before she left, but I barely missed her. I watched as her group rolled their suitcases in the wrong direction. My mom had just finished paying for the buns, and I remembered how miserable we were trying to find the hotel, so we decided to rush after them. Luckily we caught them at the next major intersection, and double luckily they spoke Spanish. They were from Barcelona! So we explained that the hotel is awful to find and walked them back there. It was definitely a pleasant way to end the evening.

And finally, a shout-out to my mom who mastered the Chinese word for "thank you" today, xie xie. She practiced A LOT, but now she's a pro. Now if we can just master duoshao kuai?...