Day 49-50 Lately

Well, as some of you know, I’m preparing to go on a week-long field trip with my internship program to rural parts of China- we leave this Sunday. Tomorrow and Saturday I’ll give a better introduction to what exactly we’re doing, but for now, all you need to know is that there is going to be a joint performance with some of the students at a college in Yan’an at which I will be playing a few songs with Kenny Chen, who plays the viola. The past two nights I’ve met up with him to practice over at a music school in the French Concession area. Kenny is the son of the program director, John Chen, who is a good family friend and one of the most generous people I know.

Last night after practicing, Kenny, John and I went to dinner at a Sichuan-themed restaurant. (For those of you who haven’t ventured out of Panda Express yet into other types of Chinese food….Sichuan food is spicy. Think Kung Pao chicken.) The food was pretty good, and, if I can brag a little, I continue to be amazed by my willingness to try things. Literally, I do not know why I have tried half of the foods I have tried here. Actually, before I left Seattle, I ran into a random classmate from my Chinese class who I guess remembered that I was going to Shanghai for the summer. I asked him for any advice and he said “Try everything, the food is really good.” I said something like “Yeah, that’s a good suggestion” while thinking something like “Ha, yeah right.” I am astounded at how well I’ve followed his advice. Today I found some dumplings being sold at this little place in some alley (I love alleys, too) and I couldn’t really tell the vendor what I wanted, so I just pointed at some random dumplings and took those ones. Could have been filled with fish guts, I wouldn’t have known and probably wouldn’t have cared. I guess it’s a survival technique. Oh and there was a bug in some little dish last night that didn’t look like such a good thing to eat, so I pulled it out with my chopsticks, smushed it in my napkin, brushed off my chopsticks, and continued eating the pickled cabbage. That really happened. I feel like I’m losing my identity haha.

Another great thing about the past two nights- I’ve taken fairly long cab rides back to my motel on what I now like to call “Rainbow Road”. As in the Mario Kart racing arena. There are all these crazy elevated high ways in Shanghai that are lit up really cool with funky lighting and when the taxi drivers start racing…you really feel like you’re in a video game. Last night I was literally unable to fathom how the taxi mirrors weren’t ripped off. Tonight I was almost smashed by a bus. Twice. Two different buses. And I just sat there, in the back seat with no seat belt (no fault of my own, they just don’t have them in China I guess) listening to my iPod thinking something like “Oh look, that bus is really close to us.” So to anyone who’s ever been frustrated by my slight OCD tendencies, you’ll be glad to know that they’re almost entirely eliminated now seven weeks into my ten here in Shanghai.