Day 21 8 RMB DVDs

So work today was great- Wednesdays usually are. We had a hilarious showdown at about 2 pm (2 pm-3pm is probably our funniest hour. Anybody remember how hard Candace was laughing at the Reptile Man birthday party last year? That’s me from 2 pm-3pm, no joke) between James and Evan over Evan’s
Google doc summary of an article on DBS Asset Management and some joint venture in Malaysia. Honestly, I still don’t know exactly what they were disagreeing over, but it was possibly the funniest interchange I have yet seen between these two. Then we headed home early (it being Wednesday and all) and went outside to blue skies again! This is the second day in a row of this welcome change, and gives me hope that maybe the rest of the summer won’t be so gray. Unfortunately, with the sun came our first 90+ degree weather, which was less than pleasant, so I guess you can’t win them all. Goodbye rainy season, hello hot, humid, grouch-inducing weather.

So after a little nap and a frustrating episode with my Ethernet cable, Evan, James and I went to our favorite alley to try a new dinner place. I’m not really sure if this alley has a name, but it’s kind of tucked away behind our hotel and hidden from the four other tourists who stay in Pudong (literally, I think there might be four other white people in our area of Shanghai). It has lots of little, fairly unsanitary restaurants that make amazing, delicious food for under $1.50. So we tried a new noodle place tonight and were shocked by how good it was. The noodles were made as we watched, plopped into a pot of boiling water, and then pulled out a few minutes later and served to us. Talk about fresh. We deemed this place a new “money” restaurant to go with the dumpling place we always go to. After dinner we headed across the alley to one of Shanghai’s many DVD shops to scope out the illegal DVD scene here. Best decision ever, this place had a really fun collection of movies and TV shows for 8 RMB per disc. Translation: I bought “Young Victoria” for barely over a dollar. Of course, there’s always the risk that they won’t work or will be in Chinese, but I just watched Young Victoria and the quality was perfect (and I would definitely recommend the movie in general). So there is a good chance that I will be coming home with 50 new DVDs and a new addition to my “Things I Love About China” list. Woohoo!

Day 20 Blue Skies!!!

Finally, after being in Shanghai for 19 days, we get a day with blue skies!! This morning as we walked to work it was raining pretty hard and we were a little discouraged, but then when we left work it was gorgeous outside. Seriously, it was like the rain had washed away the smog and it was SO beautiful. Actually, I bet it pales in comparison to the blue skies in Utah and Seattle right now, but for us it was amazing. We took about twice as long walking home because we just soaked it all up and we had to properly document the occasion. It’s rare we see the Shanghai skyline against blue skies (actually, we never do) so we got a ton of pictures that all turned out pretty well, thanks to Evan, who surprised us all with his photography skills.

After work I hurried to East Nanjing Road to meet up with Helena for dinner at Pizza Hut! Pizza Hut is actually pretty nice here and we were both craving American food, so we decided to splurge and go. The pizza was mediocre (but a nice change from rice and instant noodles) but mostly it was just fun talking about our experiences in China so far and being with someone so similar to me. She leaves this Saturday and I am definitely going to miss her and her adorable South Carolinian accent. After dinner we walked down Nanjing Road to the Bund (if you remember, it’s gorgeous at night) and took some pictures and then just sat and people watched. Actually, it was more like people watched us. We sat there and literally everyone who passed would turn and look at us and kind of giggle or start talking to each other and a few of the brave ones would come up and ask us for pictures. This one little girl was the cutest thing ever- we waved at her and then a few minutes later she came running back with another adorable little girl. At the same time they said “Excuse me, can we take a..” and then when they got to the word ‘photo’ one of them messed up and they started giggling and we were so excited to say yes because, hello, these were the cutest little girls ever. So we took several pictures with them and then with their other siblings and family and then pretty much everyone on the Bund wanted a picture with the two white girls. It was pretty funny, and actually sort of fun; we probably took thirty pictures over the course of fifteen minutes or so. Some of them were with young girls who were so thrilled when we agreed to pose with them and some of them were teenage boys (a little more awkward) and then some were forty-fifty year old tourist groups (probably the most awkward). All of them spoke very little English, but told us how beautiful we were and thank you and that kind of thing so we had a good time.

Day 19 Bumps for the Blind

There’s not much to report about work today. Basically the highlights were sitting through an hour long meeting conducted entirely in Chinese, playing MASH with my new Chinese friend Xuejing (another intern who we see occasionally) and deciding Evan and James’ futures during said meeting, looking up minesweeper strategies during lunch, and watching Evan “save our office from land mines.” Actually, now that I think about it, today was pretty hilarious, but it was kind of a “you-had-to-be-there” funny.

So another tidbit about Shanghai to make up for my lack of interesting work details: Every single sidewalk in the city has these weird bumps down the middle. It’s about a foot-wide strip in about the middle of the sidewalk that just has raised bumps all down the road. It’s really bizarre, and a major pain to walk on, so Evan, James and I have speculated as to what these bumps are really for. The most logical explanation has something to do with traction, but we have chosen to believe that they are for the blind Chinese who have to walk on the sidewalks. So today, as I was pointing out what a ridiculous theory this was, we made Evan walk on the bumps with his eyes closed to see if he could do it. I’m pretty sure he got about ten feet before cheating, but it was quite hilarious. These boys are growing on me.

Day 18 Church and the Buddhist Temple

This morning I woke to loud knocking on my door. I tried to ignore it, but the person would not stop knocking, so I got out of bed (looking like death, I might add) and cracked the door open only to see some confused little Chinese man dart across the hall to the next door down. 6:15 on a Sunday morning is not a good time to make a room number mistake. Since traffic is as bad as ever at 6:15 and the honkers were out with a vengeance, I was unable to get back to sleep.

Anyway, a few hours later I left for the Shanghai branch to go to church. It was raining pretty hard and someone was a little too eager to leave all rain gear behind in Seattle, so the walks between buildings and metro stations were a little painful, but oh so worth it. I didn’t get to go to church last week because I was in Beijing with the HCF group, and I was so excited to go this morning. Even though I don’t know many people in the branch, it’s still really fun to be with friendly, English-speaking, LDS people. We had two great talks today, too, and the other lessons were good too. It was mostly just wonderful to be there.

Meanwhile, James and Evan were eating Dim Sum with Fred, the awesome badminton-playing coworker, so I told them I’d meet up with them in the afternoon since Fred wanted to show us some things in Shanghai. First we went to the “PetSmart” market, a market not too many tourists know about that sounded pretty exotic. We got there and I immediately turned on “breath-through-your-mouth” mode. It didn’t smell great, and I’m sure I don’t want to know everything that is now on the soles of my shoes, but it was seriously the most unique thing I’ve ever seen. Cages and cages of birds, turtles, dogs, cats, bugs, fish, and anything else you can think of, but so unlike your American pet store. There was so much variety within the different animal groups- probably 15 different kinds of turtles and many more varieties of bugs- and I wanted to commend every person there for their open defiance of PETA. Probably my favorite things there were the little bug containers and crickets that were for sale- I looked around desperately trying to find someone who would agree that this was JUST like Mulan, but alas, James and Evan have probably never even seen it, so I had to keep that one to myself. “This cricket’s a lucky one!” So classic.

So next we went a few streets down to an antique market, where I will certainly be returning. There were very cool Chinese things- a little less trinkety- that I will need to spend my money on. After this and another market, we went to the Buddhist temple with the biggest jade Buddha. This was probably my favorite part of the afternoon. I’m pretty sure I have never been into a non-Abrahamic religion worship place before, so this was pretty new. There were so many huge, intricately decorated sculptures of the various gods and Buddhas and there was burning incense everywhere and people praying in a very unique way. I didn’t really get to take pictures, it seemed disrespectful to do so, but it was really fascinating. The jade Buddha itself was really pretty and had a neat story behind it: during the Cultural Revolution the government sent people into the temple to destroy it (as they did many of the other treasures of China) but the monks covered it with a large picture of Mao, which they weren’t allowed to touch or harm in any way. Anyway, the trick ended up saving this gorgeous statue. (Oh and what’s cuter than a little Asian toddler? How about a little Asian toddler praying next to her mom to the jade Buddha? It seriously was heart-melting.)

So after this we headed back to the metro, Evan and I got dinner (at a restaurant where everyone stared at us, surprise surprise), and now I’m relaxing for the rest of the evening. Overall, I’d say it was a pretty awesome weekend!!

Day 17: Shanghai Art and Shuttlecocks

As far as Saturdays in Shanghai go, this one was pretty awesome. Much better than my last Saturday in Shanghai (2 weeks ago) during which I was pretty sure I would be happier anywhere in the U.S. than in China. Anyways, today was awesome. Basically twelve straight hours of good, clean fun.
So first this morning I headed out to People’s Park and the Shanghai Art Museum. The museum building is gorgeous- really European looking with a beautiful clock tower and English ivy growing up the walls. Unfortunately, it was raining, so I didn’t get to study it as well as I would have liked, but I did get a few pictures. The art inside the building was mediocre, I am sorry to say. They were remodeling for a new exhibition that starts TOMORROW (nice timing of my visit, huh) that is showing some of the art from the Ufizzi gallery in Italy (which I happen to have been to and love) so they only had some stuff open. The first room had this really bizarre modern stuff- I said, “I could have done that when I was four,” and moved to the next room. This was more traditional Chinese artwork and some more modern Chinese stuff. There were some pretty paintings, but overall I would say that Shanghai needs to step it up in the art department.
Then I walked about People’s park for about an hour. This place was gorgeous and even though I got probably a trillion mosquito bites, the flowers and forest bits and ponds and such were very worth seeing. Probably the best part of the park (and maybe my day, the jury’s still out) was seeing rows and rows of papers attached to trees and rocks along the main path of the park. Each one had some handwritten Chinese writing on it, and I couldn’t quite tell what it was. It looked like it could have been some kind of memorial or something because people seemed pretty involved in reading the papers, so I snapped a few pictures and figured I’d ask someone later. Meanwhile, I walked over to one of the ponds and sat and read some of the information from my very touristy book on Shanghai. I got to a part that described what went on in the park and finished with “and clusters of old folks on the weekends putting up listings for their single children and grandchildren who are too busy to date or find mates.” Mystery solved. So, of course, I had to go back to observe what I now recognized as matchmaking and boy am I glad I did. I could not stop laughing. Interested in a Chinese husband who was born in November of 1984 and stands at 1.75 meters? I’ve totally got you covered. I can even get you his phone number. (Note: probably the best two pictures I took were of a man writing down notes in a little notepad off one of the advertisements and a girl entering a phone number right into her cell phone). So I guess those Shanghainese know how to get things done.
After this amusing episode, I walked over to Nanjing Road (this may or may not have been the third time I was there this week) and discovered two things: a really old, nice looking church that was the first to open after the Cultural Revoulation in the late 70’s (pretty significant, I’d say) and the Hershey’s Chocolate Factory!!! I was so shocked to see this, so of course I had to check it out. I felt immediately at home and yes I did succumb to buying some chocolate.
So the rest of the afternoon I spent doing some shopping at the labyrinth-like underground markets. I made a good haul too, but I won’t say exactly what because they are mostly presents for you devoted blog readers. (I will say, though, that if you’ve always wanted a custom made pearl necklace with a design of your own choosing, let me know. Pearls are delightfully cheap here and they make the necklaces right in front of you which is cool.) Unfortunately, I did not find any postcard stamps, so you will be getting any and all postcards I would have sent you after August 21st. Sorry.
So after I got home from shopping, laid out all my purchases on my bed and heaved a sigh of relief at not having anything stolen out of my purse today, I ran out the door to play badminton at one of Shanghai’s very own badminton clubs! Evan, James and I were invited to come by our coworker/intern mentor named Fred (who we agree is very similar to Kermit the frog in all the good ways) and we were very excited to experience something truly unique, but I don’t think any of us guessed how much fun it would be. We took the metro over to the French concession area of Shanghai and to a famous music conservatory that happens to have a badminton court/gym set up in it. Really random, but whatever. We had a blast (a little shout out to the Creers who introduced me to badminton last summer) and it felt so good to get some exercise while not destroying my lungs with acid air. Fred is now the coolest Shanghainese person I know. We stayed for almost three hours and played pretty much the whole time. By the end we were exhausted, but I think we’ll definitely go back a few more times in the next few weeks.
So on our way back to the metro, we passed the quaintest little square and about 20 older couples dancing to jazz music. It was so adorable. The best part was we would have missed it if Evan hadn’t noticed and made us go check it out and take a picture. So we saw a little bit of Evan’s soft side which was refreshing. It’s James’ turn now, though I think it’s going to take a little more for him.

Day 16: Food at the Office

So every morning James, Evan and I meet at 8 am in the lobby of our hotel to walk to work. We live about a mile away, and it usually takes us between 15-20 minutes to get there. This is often a pretty quite walk. I get the feeling that James and Evan are not really morning people. Anyways, we get to the office and we head to the breakfast room to get one of the breakfast foods they provide. These are usually pretty gross, so I’m not really sure why we do this to ourselves, but we do. Their favorite pastry to give us is really bizarre. Picture a croissant (or really any kind of flaky-ish pastry) and then add a little pocket down one side filled with a small amount of dried orange something. I think it’s pork, but I usually pick it out. Then add a layer of ham on top of the pastry. Then add 5 or 6 pineapple chunks, covered in some strange herb. Then add drizzled mayonnaise over the top and you’ve got the China Universal Supreme. See why I’m confused we continue to do this to ourselves?
At about 11:30 (ok, let’s be honest, immediately at 11:30) James and Evan announce that we are going to lunch and they book it to the elevator. As you know from previous posts, these two walk fast and I’m pretty sure they walk faster when they’re hungry. So we go to the basement of the building (we have to take two elevators, some kind of architectural oversight) and head to the cafeteria. We pay 15 quai to the little cashier man and then go get in line. By this point, I’m usually 30-50 feet behind James and Evan, and have given up keeping up with them and am taking my time. We then get to choose one item from the “drink closet”, two from the meat section, one vegetable and one rice. This actually turns out to be a lot of food and I’ve had some pretty tasty things at the cafeteria. They usually make some really delicious scrambled egg thing and you can always count on the rice being good. So we eat and then have to rush back upstairs (I kid you not when I say I have never seen these two walk slowly) and we’re usually back in our room at 12:01. I’ve been tracking it, and it is always 12:01. And usually James is unsatisfied with lunch and has to go down to the convenience store and get something American. Literally, this happens at the same time every day. Pretty comical.
So after work today James and I met some of the other Shanghai interns for dinner at a Tepanyaki place. The food was pretty good, way better than at Tepanyaki places in the US, but mostly there was just a lot of drinking going on which of course is not my favorite thing. (Oh and I ate sushi for the first time, I thought it was pretty good, but I think it actually made me a little sick later, but the actual act of eating it wasn’t as revolting as I thought it was going to be.) Then I headed back to our hotel, tried to take the metro which ended up being closed, then had to flag a taxi and communicate with the Chinese-speaking driver. But I got home eventually and managed to survive the evening.

Day 15: Things I've Learned in China, Part 1

So work today was pretty much the same as usual. We researched two AM companies in depth- Liongate Capital and Sumitomo Mitsui. Both were fairly hard to find information on, especially since half of the articles we wanted to read were short because we didn’t have subscriptions to the journals. (If you are reading this post and have a subscription to Asian Investor, contact me stat.) I feel like a lot of funny things were said today in the Boston Room, but now I can’t remember exactly what they were. So the Boston Room is the name of our “office” which sometimes just feels like a glass box. People always look at us as they walk by and we sort of feel like animals at a zoo… “And this is where we keep our three white interns, don’t tap the glass, you’ll disturb their environment” or something like that. After work we went to this fantastic dumpling place- I may never be able to eat Costco potstickers again- and got caught in a downpour.
Anyways, that’s basically all for today, but here are some things I’ve learned while in China so far:
1. Thinking you have the right of way as a pedestrian is deadly.
2. If you are white and if you take the metro, you will get stared at. And talked about. And giggled at. And pointed at. And overall made to feel uncomfortable.
3. Laundry is better done in a machine than by hand.
4. If you like what you’re eating, don’t ask what it is.
5. Nobody really needs facebook.
6. Nobody really needs a hair straightener.
7. That last one was a lie.
8. “Bu yao” means “I don’t want it.” If you go to China, learn this first.
9. Cutting huge holes in the pants of children is one way to potty train.
10. Your skill as a driver has nothing to do with anything except how loud your horn is. (Sirius Black, we have some work to do, I’m afraid.)

Day 14: Nanjing Road

            Work today was really great, probably because we get out at 4 on Wednesdays and it’s easier to work hard for 7 hours instead of for 8 and a half.  I spent some time reading up on Vietnam as an emerging market and then looking at companies who have invested some of their funds into that market.  So it was basically the average day, until a woman named Josie came into our room and asked if she could talk to me.  Apparently the company somehow got word that I play the piano (Evan said he put a sign on my forehead this morning announcing it) and they wanted to know if I could accompany a violinist at some Chinese competition.  I was happy they asked and the office even has a piano that now I know about. 

            After work I headed out to Nanjing Road to meet up with Helena, a girl I met last week at the Shanghai branch of the LDS church and do a little bit of shopping.  Nanjing Road is one of the best shopping places in Shanghai and a major tourist attraction so it was fun to check it out.  We also went over to the Bund, the area along the river, and strolled for a while.  The buildings on the Bund are GORGEOUS at night with the way they’re lit up.  Even though the haze was really bad, it was really pretty and the view across the river (looking at the skyline that includes the building where I work) was also awesome.

            Probably the funniest part of the night was all the Chinese people staring at us and sneaking pictures of us (although this was a little creepy).  We’d be standing somewhere, near a bench or something, and these tourist-looking people with cameras would try to sneak pictures of us.  Sort of awkward.  Then as I was standing in one of the more open areas, a lady holding the cutest little boy, maybe 18 months, came up to me and started showing me her little boy.  I was sort of confused, but kind of started playing with him.  Meanwhile, the lady’s husband ran over to the other side with his camera and started taking pictures of me with the little boy (and so did Helena, it was just too funny).  I’ve heard from some people that this kind of thing happens, but I didn’t really think it would.  Anyway, it was kind of fun and pretty memorable.  

Day 13: Another Day at the Office...and the Laundry Dilemma

            Well, I won’t bore you with the tedious routines that will occupy my time for the next six weeks, so I’ll try to find some more interesting tidbits to post here.  For a quick overview, this morning I woke up, walked to work with Evan and James, researched various Asset Management companies and China’s QDII scheme, ate lunch, etc.  Ooh but I discovered Google Finance (why had nobody ever shown this to me before?!) and I had a good time checking out the different funds that I’ve been researching.  Since I’ve never really been into finance, it makes me really happy when things start to click and I’m the one explaining how things work rather than the one confused.  I still know very little overall, but it’s awesome how much you can learn just by reading different Investing articles and stuff.  So I really haven’t been too bored, even though we really do sit at our computers for 9 hours straight.  We find others ways to stay entertained too actually- like sharing ridiculous slogans and pictures on websites and renaming companies’ mutual funds (my favorite today was Evan’s “Ninja Assassin” fund, wouldn’t you invest in that?  I know I would).

            So usually after work we go out to dinner, but tonight Evan and James wanted to stay in.  So I seized the opportunity to do something girly for once and went out to find a good nail place.  I totally scored- I found the best place with the cutest little Chinese lady who was so nice and did a wonderful job.  We didn’t really talk, because she didn’t speak any English, but it was so awesome and I enjoyed pretty much every minute of it.  Manicures here are really cheap- the one I had was 40 RMB, equivalent to about $6.50 so you can bet that I’ll be going back soon.  (You know, I really don’t enjoy manicures in the US, but something about being constantly out of my comfort zone/discussing World Cup soccer with boys all day made it so refreshing.)  Then I went to this pseudo-Italian place and ordered spaghetti and didn’t even use chopsticks and then ate some peanut mms. 

But now for the really good story: Once upon a time, there was a girl who lived in a great house with a laundry room about 10 steps from her bedroom. Then she moved to Seattle, where she had to go down 8 floors to get to the dorm laundry room.  There was some grumbling, and she felt more grateful for her laundry room at home. Then one summer, she decided to move to China for ten weeks.  In the second week, she realized she had one clean pair of underwear left and that laundry needed to be done.  Unfortunately, Chinese people are not into Laundromats, and it seemed ridiculous to dry clean twelve pairs of underwear and socks, so she decided to wash her laundry in the sink.  BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER.  Ok, well, let’s be honest, it really wasn’t that bad, but I’m now considering alternate laundry options. Here’s what I have so far.  (Note- I am most concerned about underwear). A) I have 59 days left here and I just washed nine pairs of underwear and I’ve needed new underwear for a while anyway, so perhaps I could buy 50 new pairs?  B) Wear diapers.  Pull-ups?  C) Not wear underwear at all.  Haha, totally kidding. Eew. Anyway, in about 30 minutes, I have developed a major appreciation for my washing machine, drying machine, all those pioneer women who washed clothes in ice cold rivers, and the Lander laundry room.  The best part: I only did half of my laundry.  So that means I still have to do the whole process again or come up with another solution very quickly.

Day 12: Sleepover with Strangers

            This is an appropriate description of a Chinese sleeper train.  You may or may not be sleeping with people you don’t know, who may or may not snore, and may or may not sleep in clothes.   Super fun.  Ok, actually it’s not all that bad, and I was with other interns who I sort of knew, but I just feel like sleeping is one of those personal things that shouldn’t generally done with random people in the small confines of a train.  But this I can handle as long as I can avoid motion sickness, which I successfully did so that’s pretty exciting. 

            Anyway, I’m back in Shanghai.  We rolled into the station around 7:30 this morning, hurried to our hotel (crowded subway!! oh my goodness, for those of us who don’t like to be touched, this was quite the experience), showered in record time, and hurried to work.  Actually it was good that this all happened in such a quick succession because this morning was probably one of the first times I didn’t have time to think about missing home.  So I think I’ve finally kicked the homesickness and can now much more fully enjoy my time here. 

            Work was really good today, in my opinion.  I feel like I learned a whole lot about random investment things.  For example, I spent at least an hour researching the stock market of Dubai and asset management companies that have recently expanded there and the uncertainty in the market there right now.  I also read a lot about India as an emerging market and the pros and cons of the stability of the Japanese yen.  I’m pretty sure I have never considered these things in my life before but they are actually really fascinating and I’m glad I’ve been handed these 8 weeks now to learn about them.  One thing that frustrates me, though, is the lack of women in the upper leadership of these AM companies- I really don’t think I’ve seen a single one in any of the Asian companies or even European ones. 

            After work Evan, James and I went to dinner at this place called “Let’s Go” which was actually pretty good.  It was probably the closest I’ve gotten to the type of Chinese food you would eat in the United States, but probably better as far as the food goes and worse as far as the sanitation goes.  But don’t worry, I pulled out the hand sanitizer and made sure we were all well-sanitized before eating.  I am NOT getting sick here.  

Day 11: The Great Wall

Today was my “go with the flow day” of the trip.  We got up early, packed, loaded the buses, and headed to the Badaling section of the Great Wall.  I took some “less-drowsy” Dramamine (I think the package lied- I’m pretty sure I fell asleep mid-sentence at one point) for the hour and a half bus ride so no motion sickness!  There were actually really nice roads up there and it wasn’t too windy which was a relief.  (Sorry for all the details about being car sick, but if you know me you know it’s one my greatest concerns.)  We got out at the Great Wall and it was quite hot but, luckily, Beijing is more of a dry heat, so it wasn’t as uncomfortable as it could have been.  There were SO many people there! Talk about tourists- there were easily more white people there than I have seen on every other day combined.  But it was so worth going- the area that we went to was GORGEOUS- I don’t think I’ve ever seen mountains more green in my life.  Even after being in Seattle, this was amazing.  The wall was really cool too; the scale of it is just magnificent and it’s amazing to think about the manpower that was harnessed to create it.  Badaling is one of the most restored sections, so the stairs were fairly even, but it was still challenging to get to the top because of the massive amounts of people.  We only had an hour or so to spend there because we had to get back for a lunch seminar, but I literally could not have stayed much longer just because of all the sweaty people touching me and the unpleasant odors.  (Pictures! Ok, I doctored these just a teeny bit, but the sky was blue today!!!)

**Maggie had two pictures added right here, but I don't have time to add them right now. They will be up this evening.**

After the Great Wall, we went to a restaurant called “Southern Beauty” that specialized in Sichuan cuisine, which, I now know, is very spicy.  This meal was easily the most adventurous I have so far had here.  We started with some cold appetizer dishes including jelly fish (this was the one thing I didn’t try), black fungus, stuffed duck/egg, some weird chicken thing and some other bizarre things I can’t really remember.  It actually was all pretty good and I guess it was good that it was already there for us because I never would have been brave enough to order that on my own.  I also continued to follow the good advice I recently got of not asking what something is if you like it.  We had a ton of other dishes (we had a great time with the lazy susan) which were mostly spicy and quite good.  And we had Peking duck, which I was told I had to try in Beijing, so I can now check that off the list.  It wasn’t too bad actually.  Then we had Mr. Fang, a CEO at some company up here, talk to us about the future of China and how it affects us.  He had some interesting points and put a lot of stress on the influence our generation will have.  So motivational. 

            So then we got back on the bus and took the interns from Changsha and Shenzhen to the airport and the Beijing kids back to their apartments. This left the fifteen of us Shanghai interns with a few hours left and a bus to use, so we ended up going to the Olympic park and looking at some of the things there.  This wasn’t the most exciting thing ever, and I was sad I never got to go to the Forbidden City or Summer Palace, but I think we were all so tired from the night before that it really didn’t matter where we went.  

Day 10: Back to Beijing

            So last night, after I wrote my last post, Evan, James and I left our hotel for the Shanghai train station to board the sleeper train to Beijing.  We walked to the metro (for some reason we went to the stop that’s past the one closest to us…trust me, that was not my call) and I had a smallish rolling suitcase which is fairly manageable but I knew I would probably have to carry it down some stairs.  Well, James and Evan are significantly taller than me and found it necessary to walk at full speed to the subway station which meant that I was having to take about 3 steps to keep up with their one and I had my big purse and suitcase so that was difficult.  We got on the train, took the subway a few stops, and had to trade lines.  We had several escalators to go up, but my lovely companions decided they were too crowded and we should take the stairs.  Whaaaa? I know.  I was thinking some very unholy thoughts about them right about then (as Rachel would say).  So there’s a little insight into my relationship with James and Evan.*              So we got on the sleeper train with the other 12 or so Shanghai interns (who are all very nice and I’m sure had enough sense to take the escalator).  The train was pretty interesting- supposedly it was the nicest one and there were little booths with four beds in each, two on top of the other two.  The beds had sheets draped over them, Mom, so don’t worry, we did not get lice and nothing got stolen (although I’m not sure that has anything to do with the sheets).  We actually had our own tvs, but I went to bed pretty quickly to avoid getting motion sick.  And actually I didn’t wake up until about 7 the next morning when we were about 15 minutes from the Beijing station so overall it was a pretty decent experience.  My one regret is that neither Evan nor James got any of my Hogwarts Express jokes which was seriously disappointing but, to be honest, not all that surprising.

            So when we got in this morning we headed in taxis to our hotel for today and tomorrow, the “Home Inn”.  I’m pretty sure it’s as far from home as I’m ever going to get, but I don’t have the proper language skills to convey that to the staff here.  Luckily I had the foresight to bring my passport (not like it took much intuition to remember that although a few did not have such foresight) and so it was easy getting checked in.  The room is decent and seems pretty clean, has internet and a regular toilet so I we’re happy.  I’m rooming with another Shanghai intern who seems nice.  After showering and getting situated, I headed over to the Grand Millenium Hotel with another boy where the performance is tonight for some rehearsals.  These were rather chaotic, but the decorations and place settings looked beautiful.

            After rehearsals and finding some lunch (I had my safety, egg and tomato noodles which are actually so good) and changing for the actual performance, I headed back over to the hotel and the real fun began.  The dinner was actually quite delicious and there were no chopsticks to be seen which was nice.  The musical program went really well, I thought.  The choir was fine (ok let’s be honest, it really wasn’t that good) but the other acts were very good.  Probably the most memorable moment of the night happened at the very end, right before the closing song, Come Thou Fount, which I was accompanying on and Wendy, another intern, was singing.  John Chen invited me, Wendy, and two of the host company CEOs to the stage to each answer a question.  (This was so out of place, I have no clue why he did this, I felt like I was in a Miss America pageant in the worst way).  So he asked the CEOs questions like “Why is COFCO such a favorite with the interns” which were both answered completely in Chinese, so none of us greenies could understand anyway.  Then he gave a little introduction to me and asked me “After this event and your first time in China, what will you tell your mom about China” (Mom- I guess he remembers your previous involvement with the program).  I answered with something about the love the Chinese people have for their country and made a reference to the previous two performers who were from Yanaan, or something like that.  So I think it went pretty well for the most part, besides the part about me being on stage answering a question in front of two hundred people including CEOs of China’s top companies.  Lovely.  But it was definitely memorable and really made my previous assessment “If I can survive this weekend, I can survive anything” more true than I thought it was going to be.  Anyways, after that little fiasco “Come Thou Fount” was a piece of cake and I thought sounded really good. 

*For the sake of those mentioned and the lack of the privacy that is the internet, I have omitted the remainder of my opinions about these two lovelies.

Day 9: Google Translator

            Today was just another day at the office.  (I’ve never been able to say that before, and I’m pretty sure this is the first and last time.)  I went running this morning, showered, looked forward to breakfast until I discovered mold on my bread, and walked to the Aurora Tower where I work.  I’m thinking this will become my daily routine, and I think it’s a pretty good one.  Today at work we continued our researching Asset Management companies in the Asian market.  After looking at one hundred or so websites in Chinese, which I’m pretty sure I have at this point, you start to relish the comic relief that some of these websites provide.  For instance, the pictures that the companies choose to pair with their funds.  What does this man in a suit jumping out of a fountain have anything to do with a close-ended Asian market fund?  Probably nothing.  The pictures of CEOs are often hilarious; we’ve come to call their facial expression the “I’ll Make You Money” expression.  Some are better at it than others.  The translations of some of these pages are pretty good, too.  Good as in pathetic.  I also enjoyed one company’s slogan: “One goal: To be one of the best” haha like they couldn’t strive to be the best, just to be one of the best.  Anyways, we get a pretty big kick out of these Korean and Chinese and Japanese asset management companies.  I’ve learned a ton even just in the past two days about investing and finance and I can see how it would actually be pretty fun to follow stocks and funds and watch them go up or down, etc.  I read an article today on “Sin Stocks” that was pretty funny, anyway, I’ve probably bored you to tears by now so I’ll try to spread out my finance stories between posts. 

            I continue to acclimate to the Chinese culture and the heat and the cute Asian children and the food and my hotel room and boiling water to brush my teeth and the gray sky and water and feeling like I’m tromping through a swampland every time I go outside and that kind of thing.  It’s all very different, but I think I’m doing pretty well and the next nine weeks are looking more promising than they were about 4 days ago.  (Oh and I find it really comical how grumpy my two coworkers are at the end of the day after being too hot while walking home in their office clothes.  Today as they were complaining I thought “these two would be the world’s worst missionary companions” and I definitely laughed out loud at that one- a little shout out to all my fantastic missionary friends in hot and humid places!)

Day 8: Starting Work

Day 8: Starting Work

Well, today was the big day!  I started working at China Universal Assets Management, a company based in Shanghai that is doing really well so far and is working on expanding into a more international market.  We headed over from our hotel (it’s about a twenty minute walk) at 8:00 and got settled in our own little room with computers and decent chairs.  Getting those dang computers set up took a while though, so we didn’t really do much this morning until after lunch time.  Lunch was pretty good, there’s a nice cafeteria in the basement of the building (if you’ve ever seen a picture of the Pudong Shanghai skyline, it’s the big gold building).  It has all Chinese dishes, of course, so I had to bite the bullet and eat some real food.  It wasn’t so bad, actually.  There were some pretty good dumpling things and I thought about asking what was in them and then remembered my Grandma Ilse telling me that if you like it, don’t ask.  So I didn’t, and I’m guessing I should be glad I didn’t.  We get an hour and a half for lunch, so after we ate we went outside and walked along the river for a while which would be really pretty if you could see more than 100 yards away and the water weren’t so brown.  Seriously, Seattle, be grateful for blue skies and blue water. 

So then we went back inside and got to work! We have two projects we three (Evan, James, and I) are working on this summer: one is researching other similar asset management companies and looking at their strategies for expanding and the other is creating a database for the company that charts the other asset management firms and their clients and what they invest in and that kind of thing.  Both of them require a ton of google searching, made difficult by the fact that our computers were not cooperating and I’m not used to sitting in front of a screen from 8:30 to 5:30.  But it sort of reminded me of my architecture classes in high school (a little shout out to Dave and the boys in my CAD room!) because when everyone gets in the zone we all do different things- like James will start talking to himself and comment on every other thing he reads and Evan will sit there in silence and not say anything until you can pull him from whatever internet world he’s in.  And I listen to their exchanges, which are hilarious.  Which I’m pretty sure is exactly what happened my senior year of high school in the drafting room, no names mentioned haha. 

            After work we went to dinner in this little restaurant in a “hutong” type of area.  The food was actually really good- I got this egg and tomato noodle dish that sort of tasted like pizza in a bowl.  It was actually really good and I was proud of myself for being so adventurous J (I actually didn’t really have a choice, the menu had no pictures and Evan’s translation was only so helpful) Oh and then we saw this fake DVD shop that I HAVE to go back to because I found the most awesome Chinese set of my favorite TV show….and it’s not like I would ever watch the episodes in Chinese but I think I just need to have this.  So overall it was a pretty good day and gave me hope for the rest of the summer that once I’m in a routine it will be easier to enjoy all the weird things about China. 

Day 7: Home Sweet Home

            I am back in Shanghai after dealing with yet another Chinese airport and Chinese airline.  It went pretty smoothly, minus the flight attendant being really strict about me turning off my electronic devices for landing, and I saw the funniest little boy on the subway.  He stood next to me for about 5 stops and was doing kung fu and shooting imaginary things and protecting us from all kinds of bad guys.  Little Chinese children are the cutest things ever.  Other than that, flying back from Beijing and a final choir practice ate up most of my day, but here’s some tidbits that I’ve been meaning to write about:

·      Weather: Shanghai is about 85 or so degrees right now and pretty humid.  It could definitely be worse, though, and I’m afraid it soon will be.  (Beijing was a little hotter, but a lot less humid)  Luckily, all of the subways that I’ve been in so far have been well air-conditioned and my room is pretty cool too.  So it’s really only when I’m walking outside that it’s uncomfortable.

·      Chinese food has not yet peaked my interest. This may be because whenever I go to restaurants, I can’t read what the menu says.  But it may also be because the food here is pretty different and I just do not have the stomach to try it.  I have found some good yogurt and noodles and bread and I of course have my 80 granola bar food storage that I lugged here with me, but I’m hoping to diversify my options here pretty soon.  There is good fruit here, which is probably the one thing that has given me any nutrients.  Is there such a thing as Tourists’ Scurvy?

·      I am the ONLY white person here. Well, I might occasionally see a few others, but really, there are not nearly as many as I thought there would be.  This means I get stared at.  A lot.  It’s a little unnerving, and last night I got full on laughed at in this market (this was right after the taxi in the rain/wrong bus/nightmare incident and I was desperately trying to find something to eat) because I couldn’t understand what the man at the counter was trying to tell me.  The best part- I’ve started staring at other white people too. 

Day 6: Choir Practice in Beijing and The Wrong Bus

*Apologies to any Maggie's-blog-followers...I was out of town this week. So, even though Maggie has been awesome at writing blog posts...I haven't been able to post them. So buckle up...I've got like a million posts for you!! Woohoo!*

            This morning we woke up early to get to choir practice at 8 am.  There are 7 people singing for the program on Saturday night and we met in the lobby of the hotel Nancy and I are currently staying at, Wanliu.  We had to take a bus to get from the hotel to the metro and then take the metro a few stops to the piano store where we were able to find a practice room with a piano.  So we got on and off the bus without too much trouble, got on the metro ok, and then, when it was time to get out of the metro station we went out the wrong exit and ended up in the completely wrong area and had to call our HCF representative to help us figure out where we were.  This should probably have been a sign for how the rest of the day was going to turn out.  The practice room was at this studio where they were teaching a ton of other little piano lessons and it was fun to hear the Chinese kids doing the same hanon exercises and playing the same songs that I played.  Except they’re all like five years old and playing things I couldn’t play until I was twelve.  Alas. Anyway, we started practicing (which I guess went ok, I had to resist a very strong urge to kick a few people a few times) and kept going until about 12 when we down to McDonalds for lunch.  It was a very welcome sight and I sort of think that now that I’ve been there I may not want to go back to regular Chinese food…ever. 

            We finished our rehearsal around 2 pm and then Nancy and I decided to make the most of our afternoon and explore Beijing.  We had sort of a faulty plan, but we headed towards a district that Anna, the HCF office manager, recommended and then walked along a road towards the Beihai Park.  Along the way we came across some good shops and found a few things.  I got a pretty Chinese vase (I bargained in Chinese! It only took my knowing the numbers, which I do, but I was still proud) and some really cute shoes.  We kept walking looking for a post office (Nancy wanted to find commemorative stamps for her dad, don’t even get me started on this one) and ended up in some remote hutong (kind of like an alley…) and then eventually found the post office and they did not even have what she was looking for.  Ahhh it was really frustrating.  Oh well, we proceeded to the Beihai Park which I insisted we go in which was AWESOME.  This was definitely the highlight of the day.  It was gorgeous and there were some really cool buildings and pavilions and bridges and ponds with lily pads and all those kinds of things.  Probably my favorite were the Five Dragon Pavilions on the lake that had Chinese music playing and older couples ballroom dancing.  It was the cutest thing ever. 

            After Beihai we wanted to check out the Forbidden City, even if we could only walk around it, and it looked pretty close on the map, so we started out walking.  We were so wrong. We ended up making it to the entrance of the city and we wanted to walk all the way down to the square, but it was so far and hot (and Nancy has obviously not been on a sightseeing trip with my mom because I literally think Rachel in Spain was 5 and did a better job walking than she did) so we ended up not having time and just took a taxi to the closest metro station which ended up being a pain too because we were on the opposite side of the intersection from the station and it was pretty much impossible to get over to it.  So frustrating! So finally we got on the metro and I got off to go back to the practice room and practice with another girl, Wendy, for some songs we’re doing on Saturday night.  This is when things started to get bad.  We finished around 8:30 and went out to take the subway back to Wanliu.  (Oh and by this point it was pouring rain.)  We got on the subway and went to the stop that Wanliu is at.  We tried to get a taxi to go the rest of the way, but couldn’t find one so we got on a bus (after being told that they all go by Wanliu and diverge from there).  So we got on the bus and a few stops later Wendy, who speaks Chinese fluently thank goodness, asked the ticket lady if we were going there and it turns out we were on the wrong bus.  So we get off the bus and end up outside the metro station that we started at (the one by the practice room.) We then proceed to spend 45 minutes trying to hail a cab, I am not kidding, it really was 45 minutes, and finally we get one and he manages to take us somewhere close to the hotel and I really want to be done with this story because it just pains me to write it. So eventually I fell into bed after having a yogurt for dinner (they actually have good yogurt here) and having everyone laugh at me in the little market I bought it at because I didn’t speak Chinese.  Oh and this morning our shower overflowed and our bathroom sort of flooded.  The end.  

Day 5: Welcome to Beijing!

So this morning I woke up in Shanghai and now I am in Beijing! These cities really aren’t that far away, so it’s not really that impressive of a feat, but navigating the airport (a different one than I originally flew into) and getting my ticket from a very last minute reservation and getting on the right plane at the right time and finding my choir-mate Nancy in the Beijing airport were all quite formidable tasks.  The phrase “What on earth am I doing here?” may or may not have crossed my mind many times as I tried to communicate with the ticket desk ladies and flight attendants, but now that it’s all behind me, I feel pretty satisfied with how everything went. 

            Beijing has quite the different flavor than Shanghai: it has the same white sky (blue skies do not exist in China because of the pollution, if you’ve never experienced this you probably won’t believe me but it’s so true) but it’s a lot less modern and has far fewer sky scrapers and fancy places, as far as I can tell.  I’ve been told this is the place to go if you want to really feel the Chinese character.  So, here I am.  Although tomorrow will be mostly devoted to choir practice for Saturday night’s performance and then again on Wednesday we’ll sing our hearts out and then I’ll fly back to Shanghai, I think I’m going to squeeze in some exploring tomorrow night with Nancy, my partner in crime.  We had never met before today when we finally found each other at the 2^nd terminal of the Beijing Capitol Airport, but being in China and both not speaking very much Chinese at all is a great environment for quickly making friends.  She’s been a great travelling partner because she’s adventurous and spunky and won’t stop telling a Chinese person what she wants in English even when she knows they only speak Chinese so we’ve had a great time together so far.  Tonight we went to dinner with one of the HCF office workers here, Anna, to a place sort of outside our hotel.  It was actually pretty nasty- the food is something that I really haven’t taken to here.  We tried a chicken dish which was pretty good and then some fruit salad with a hollandaise type sauce that was pretty sick.  Some of it was a little nauseating, to be honest; I really haven’t adjusted to the food yet although the bread I’ve had so far is really good and fresh (did I just sound like Candace there? I think I definitely did).  Oh and I’ve had a ton of rice.  And subway sandwiches.  Go ahead and call me a spoiled American child haha.

            

Day 4: In Which I find the Mormons of Shanghai

            Well, as you may have guessed from the title of this post, today I braved the metro and worked my way to the expat branch of the LDS church in Shanghai.  Thanks to two very devoted grandfathers, I got the address and pretty comprehensive directions to church. But, because of my keen skill at picking Mormons out of a crowd, I didn’t really have to use them because I just followed another couple.  The branch meets in a conference center of the Yongda International Building which is enormous (I’ll attach a picture later) and is a pretty nice facility for the church to use.  Definitely not your typical Utah meetinghouse.  Within just a few minutes of my arrival, I had already met the relief society presidency and had all their contact information and was sitting with another girl, Helena, who is a student here for the summer.  Everyone was very nice and there was a shocking amount of young families with four or five kids each (the relief society president said the nursery has 17 kids!) which was a total switch from the University 3^rd ward in Seattle, of course.  Overall, church was great and made me feel more at home than anything else I’ve come across here. 

            Then I came back to the motel and discovered a chain of emails about my flying to Beijing tomorrow for rehearsals for our opening ceremony and dinner next weekend and the music program going on at that.  For those of you who don’t know, I’m playing the piano and singing in a choir for this music event, which was part of the deal in my being able to come on this trip.  The original plan was to go to Beijing on Friday night with Evan and James and be there for Saturday and Sunday, but now I get to fly there tomorrow morning and stay Monday-Wednesday, come back to Shanghai and then take the sleeper train back to Beijing on Friday night.  Is this the most practical or efficient solution?  Definitely not.  But I am just going to do what I’m told and get on the flight, hopefully.  I emailed the lady in charge of booking my flight with some questions and she replied saying “Just pay attention to the Hongqiao airport”.  So tomorrow morning you will find me paying attention at the Hongqiao airport, whatever that entails. 

            So, in preparation for tomorrow, James and I braved the “technology mall” to find a local cell phone that I can use tomorrow morning (not my usual Sunday activity, but it had to be done).  This place was CRAZY.  Seriously, there were more computers and cell phones and iPods and iPads than I’ve ever seen in one place and everyone was trying to get you to look at their stuff.  Luckily, we found an English speaker selling cell phones who helped us.  For the phone and sim card the total was 400 RMB.  We probably could have found something cheaper had we been able to communicate perfectly in Chinese, but we figured that if this guy spoke English then we better just buy from him.  And it works well enough so I’m happy.  

Day 3: Pudong Exploration

So last night was not my best for sleeping….something about crossing that date line and being in a room only 3 stories above the honking street traffic made sleep really elusive.  In all I think I slept about 3-4 hours and spent the rest of the time unpacking and writing emails.  I figured I’d be ok for today and be fine, but boy was that a pipedream.  I just woke up from a 3 hour nap and would like to go right back to sleep, though, as my mom warned me, I don’t feel any closer to getting on a normal sleep schedule. 

This morning I went walking around the motel that I’m at to get the lay of the land.  It sort of worked, I think my stellar sense of direction was still asleep though.  I found a supermarket and a little bakery I got breakfast at then walked a little in a park on the Bund.  Oh and I saw the cutest little Chinese grandparents doing tai chi on the shore of the river! Maybe next week I will join them.

I proceeded to return to dear Motel 168 and felt totally sick at first so I tried to shake that (unsuccessful) and then decided to just ignore it.  I went back out to Pudong (the area we are in) with James to go find lunch and get to the more downtown part of Pudong where I hadn’t gone before.  Basically we just walked towards the big buildings and then around the buildings and on the water.  There are some really interesting looking towers here- there’s one that has a huge base of columns and then as it goes up there are stacks of smaller columns the entire way up.  It looked pretty out of place next to the HSBC building and other big shiny ones.  We also wandered into a more residential part of Pudong and saw the tons and tons of apartments with laundry hanging out the windows, an interesting juxtaposition to the enormous, modern buildings we had just seen.  We also explored our supermarket options near work and our motel- we found a few more American ones (woohoo!) and got a kick out of the packets of webbed duck feet with a rubber duck cartoon on the front.  Sooo appetizing.  And we found a Subway, which I’d say was pretty awesome, and I will probably end up eating a lot at. 

Day 2 OR The Clueless Taxi Driver and Motel 168

*Note to any readers....this is actually Casey. Until Maggie can figure out how to bypass the security, she will be sending me her posts and I will be updating her blog! Happy travels!*

            Well, I am proud to say I survived the travel experience yesterday and made it safely all the way from Salt Lake City to Shanghai, China.  The flight from SLC to Portland was pretty unmemorable, besides the fact that about fifteen people commented on the Forks, Washington shirt I happened to be wearing.  Then we found out my flight to Tokyo was delayed—great—so I had a little panic session about what would happen if I missed my connection to Shanghai.  It turned out that the flight was shorter than I thought it was going to be and the Delta people assured me I would have enough time to get on my flight to Shanghai, which I actually did.  The flight itself was a little disappointing because of the absence of personal tv screens on the backs the seats in front of you.  Apparently I’m a spoiled international traveler.  So instead I read Hunger Games, which was fantastic, and watched Dear John, which they played on the overhead tvs for the brief period that those were actually working.  (If you haven’t seen it, I probably wouldn’t recommend it, just saying). 

            So then we got into Narita (the Tokyo airport) and I realized just how scary it is to have everything around you in strange characters that mean absolutely nothing…thankfully most things were also in English which was obviously a major life saver.  Then I watched several hundred people try to “line” up to get on the plane.  Mass. Chaos.  There is not really the concept of a single file line in Asia, apparently.  It was pretty comical.  That flight was fine, and it was really exciting to finally get to Shanghai.  The airport in Shanghai is really new and really nice and customs was pretty easy to get through. I’m pretty sure they just had us walk through some roped off areas and we were good to go.  So I headed to Burger King to grab some bottled water (remember, no drinking tap water in China) and then to find a taxi. 

            The taxi ride and what followed were easily the most terrifying parts of the day.  I had the address written in Chinese characters and in pinyin (thank you Evan) so I showed that to the driver and watched him get a very perplexed look on his face.  This should definitely have been a sign.  Also, he looked like he was about 20.  Another sign.  So I get in this taxi and we drove about 40 km into the heart of the Shanghai financial district where we proceeded to ignore all traffic laws and nearly killed four pedestrians.  Although, besides some lane change blinker infractions, the driving wasn’t nearly as crazy as everybody says it is and there actually wasn’t much traffic at all.  This could be a complete fluke and my next ride will send me reeling into motion sickness, but thankfully this one did not.  So once we got to the financial district it became all too obvious that Mr. Taxi Driver did not know where he was going.  It was definitely a miracle that I ended up eventually at the motel and the fare was actually really good.

            Checking into the hotel was sort of a nightmare, and I mostly just nodded and signed which probably wasn’t the smartest thing ever, but I figured I’d go back down later when some other receptionist was there and clarify some things.  The room itself is fine, nothing better than fine though and that’s even pushing it.  Upsides: it’s big, the bed is pretty big, it has internet connection, it has a TV on which I will undoubtedly watch Chinese soap operas, and has a real toilet in the bathroom.  Downsides: apparently sheets on beds are unnecessary these days, even non-smoking rooms smell like smoke, and there are no drawers. 

            So, as you can see, things are quite different here and I have a feeling I’ve just scratched the tip of the iceberg….

Day 1

Well, today's the day! And I've pretty much thought of everything I'll need in China (but there's probably something massive that I"ll remember I've forgotten half way over the Pacific Ocean).  I've tried to pack sort of light, but mostly only so I could fill the extra space in my suitcases with granola bars, trailmix and peanut butter just in case.  First picture of the trip:

(Note the strategic placement of the Nature Valley granola bars)

So I leave the Salt Lake airport this morning at 11:30 am and fly to Portland.  Then I fly from Portland to Tokyo (11 hours) and then from Tokyo to Shanghai which is about an hour and a half.  I arrive in Shanghai on Friday night and will then attempt to get to my hotel in the financial district of Shanghai.  Fortunately, I don't start working at my internship until next Thursday because of the Dragon Boat Festival going on Monday-Wednesday, and I plan on doing some pretty awesome sightseeing in the mean time.  Wish me luck!