1. So I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve gotten used to it or what, but the weather in Shanghai is not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Six weeks ago I was preparing myself for the worst and attempting to force myself to accept that I wouldn’t feel comfortable until I was back in my air-conditioned home in Utah on August 21st but I think I psyched myself out enough that now that I’m actually here, things aren’t bad at all. Other than the painful day at the Expo, the temperature and humidity haven’t been totally debilitating. Even when things have been bad (like tonight when we were eating hot noodles in a small, poorly air conditioned restaurant in our stuffy little alley) I’ve been impressed at how well I’ve handled things, if I can brag a little bit. It definitely helps that I wear skirts just about all the time and go home to a 16 degree Celsius room every night.
2. China, as you know, has an enormous labor force. If for some ridiculous reason you don’t believe me, you can look at the Shanghai metro system, the Beijing Olympics, the Shanghai Expo, etc. etc. But what are all these people doing when they’re not building strange looking buildings? Well, turns out they are employed as security guards in Shanghai. Literally, you cannot go more than ten feet without coming to another security guard, even if there isn’t any kind of gate or entrance behind them for them to be guarding. At every subway station, hotel, apartment building, alley entrance, mall, restaurant, office building, you name it, there’s at least one security guard and probably two or three standing outside doing who knows what. (And when it’s raining these numbers double because, of course, someone has to have the job of handing out little plastic baggies for everyone to put their umbrellas in).
3. Shanghai has really embraced the Expo theme, “Better City, Better Life.” Besides the government’s efforts to keep the city safe (thank you 200 security guards in every square kilometer), they are also trying to keep the city clean and might even be employing more street sweepers than security guards. I regret that I do not currently have a picture of this, but about every 50 feet you’ll see another street sweeper cleaning up leaves or garbage. They use these huge bamboo brooms that at first look too primitive to actually function but at closer look are actually amazing. Then, once they have a huge pile of debris, they somehow pick it up (I’ve never actually seen this part happen, I just assume it does) and put it all in their very large green wheelbarrows. I will definitely document this whole process, because it is pretty fascinating. It’s weird to be standing outside some of the tallest and most technologically advanced looking buildings in the world and seeing a group of men with no shirts on using bamboo brooms and big green wheelbarrows to pick up trash.
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