Today was a good day. Portia arranged for me to go on a tour of the city and unknowingly arranged for me to make a new friend. Sophia, as she calls herself in english, was a great tour guide but since we were so close in age and it was just me we ended up just hanging out instead. The language barrier continues to be a challenge as it was even difficult to communicate with the tour guide! Yeah all those years of languages mean squat to me here, its incredibly frustrating and im hoping to make some brit or aussie friends soon. Even so, despite the occassional hand gestures and very slow speed of speaking, sophie and i managed to have a great conversation about politicts, art, food and attitudes towards foreigners in all countries. She was a great insight to the chinese psyche for me, something i will continue to try to uncover and make sense of. She took me around to a few places today that i managed to snap a few shots at. At some point we were walking linked arm and arm very closely, something that could be mistaken for a lesibian experience in some countries but actually is just a friendly way of walking. I used to see men do it in italy it was so refreshing to see men affectionate with each other without homophobic concern who werent gay. likewise i had a similar feeling with sophie. It took me by surprise at first but then i told myself to shut up and just go with it and we became great friends. She is incredibly smart and outgoing and lovely. Yay for friends.
This is me at the top of the pearl tower, the most visible and recognizible building/tower in pudong where i live. One can easier spot this futuristic looking space needle from any photo of a shanghai skyline. Still not exactly sure what goes on in this tower but i do know that its almost the tallest in the world and that my ears certainly popped all the way up and down the elevator.
wouldnt ya know, theres a glas floor at the top, totally scary but really cool too. sopie and i had a few laughs making fun of the people tip toeing around on it. Best part of the day. Here are my tired little feet looking down.
beautiful skyline, shanghai is totally nyc in the east. a mecca of culture and entertainment with a bit of financial district tossed in there. The best part of dressing in china is that i can throw on whatever the shit i want miss matched crazy print little girl dress mickey mouse ears and walk out the door and no one really thinks much of it. vogue.
this is Hai Pao, or as he is more affectionately referred to by americans and the like, Blumby (blue gumby) blumby is actually the mascot of the shanghai expo that will be hosted in the city on may 1st 2010 so its a really cool time for me to be here. If you dont know what the world expo is you should google it cuz i dont feel like explaining, but basically all you need to know is that its a big deal for it be hosted in shanghai. Think the olympics but bigger. The government has totally cleared out an entire enormous area for this to be hosted, things have been built, mascosts created, metros made green, trees cut down. everywhere you look there is construction and its all in preparation for the expo. its crazy, and blumby is everywhere, these people have expo fever. Its actually a little strange, its all i hear about and see, and yes, i will be buying several blumby souveniers before i leave. Heaven knows theres enough of them, on the street, in buildings, in shop windows, blumby blumby blumby wah wah wah. hes actually made to look like the chinese character for "ren" which means "the people". Everywhere you see his picture or plush reads in chinese and english, "better city, better life". You cant imagine how big blumby is.
a land veiw of the pearl tv tower just before we went up in it.
okay okay. Let me tell you a thing or two. You havent lived, or rather, youve lived too much as soon as youve tried to order something gluten free in china. This means culture barrier, langague barrier, gluten uncertainties. This place is a minefeild for my stomach so this means a lot of white rice and veggies. This is what i managed to be able to eat today, still pretty tasty. Pretty sure sophia thinks im crazy after this dining experience.
this is the pre game tea that we drank at a restraunt on nanjing road, one of the main touristy slash financial roads in shanghai. pee ess tea is everywhere and i love it. Can anybody interpret my tea leaves?
this is a model of shanghai that i found in a museum. Learned how to say a new word today in chinese, beautiful, which is way to hard to type out in pinyin so i wont :) but trust me, its great. Oh, and pinyin is chinese translated into somewhat phonetic roman alphabet so it is readable by people who can read chinese characters, it is my new best freind.
Last but certainly not least, the gorgeous pagaodas in the old part of the city. This was my favorite part of the day, it looked more like China looked in my mind before i got here. Sort of Italy's venice or something. The lights makes for a really interesting feel rolling in across all those tiers. Oh, another thing, ive realized that my language of choice to revert back to in foreign situations is italian. Weird i know, i cant tell you how many times i said to someone today, "mi scusi"- excuse me. what the heck? always under my breath but still. Also everytime i saw an italian restraunt i got excited. i think its funny that i now feel some connection to italians as a lifeline where in italy there were the foreign to me. go figure. Anyways it was comforting. Tomorrow I may contact some people that i have numbers for, or i may just go to the gym and read.
fingers crossed and miss ya like ya dont know.
j
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