Shanghai Junk

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

JANUARY 31, 2008

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, my next posting most definitely must be written about the weather. You may recall that I have described Shanghai as somewhat "tropical." Typically, the weather here emulates southern Georgia and northern Florida in terms of climate but with much higher humidity (and that seems to be the case year 'round ... the high humidity, I mean). Well, I am having indigestion lately from having to eat my words!! Tropical, indeed!

As is normally the case, the weather here was fairly palatable right through the Christmas and New Year holiday .... a little cloudy at times, and even a spitting of rain here and there, but the temperature was still into the upper 40's and even 50's most of the time. Pretty comfortable for a couple of Michiganians who are used to seeing 10's and 20's that time of year. But by the middle of this month, the temperatures had crept into the lower 40's and started descending into the 30's. Now that may not sound all that cold to you folks who are reading this from our home state, but for some reason, 30 in Shanghai FEELS like below zero in Michigan!! I do not have a scientific explanation for this phenomenon, but trust me ... it's true! I have spoken to other midwestern American expats enough to know that my complaint is indeed true. It does seem to be fairly windy here at times but I believe that the chief culprit is the humidity. As everything is simply more damp here, the cold is really felt much more acutely. I believe the correct term is "bone chilling!!!"

Another dimension of the chillier Shanghai cold, I believe, is the fact that in this neck of the woods, one only heats the space in which one is immediately occupying. Or to put it simply, if you happen to be inhabiting the living room, only the living room is heated. I am certain that it helps in terms of energy savings (I'm all for that). And this notion is further supported by the fact that each room in our apartment has it's own unit which serves for both heating and cooling (except the bathrooms and kitchen .... the bathrooms have heated floors and the kitchen has no means of heating or cooling). Each room is equipped with a door which seals off the room so as to make each area insulated from the next. As such, we typically only heat the living and dining areas (essentially all one room) as that is the area we occupy the most.

Having said that, I find that I am constantly walking in and out of rooms with little or no heat all day long. I'm not much of a cook anyway, but with the kitchen feeling like a meat locker, I avoid it at all costs (so why am I not losing a ton of weight ... puzzling?). The other issue is that the washer and dryer are located outside on the kitchen patio. That along with the fact that we are 24 stories aloft, the wind chill feels to me like about 25 below! I have to put on my coat and gloves to do the laundry!! The hallways, stairwells, elevators, and lobbies of all buildings are unheated (again, the meat locker syndrome), and it's even a bit of a trial to fill a bathtub with hot water some days due to the hot water heater being on the kitchen patio (keeping the washer and dryer company) and running hottish water into a freezing bathtub which cools far too quickly for my taste.

OK, I'm whining. But it does seem to be an effort to chase the chill and feel comfortable for any given period of time these days. Randy wears long johns (top and bottom) to work every day with a couple of layers over those. The only place I'm truly warm enough lately is in bed and that's probably a result of a once nightly hot flash!! Too bad I can't seem to conjur up one of those during the day!! Oh, I guess I need to back track just a little bit. There ARE places that one can ALWAYS count on being warm enough .... Shanghai restaurants! Apparently there is a law on the books here that reads something to the effect that all restaurants after December 1 and throughout the winter must heat to a temperature of no less than 90 degrees. Makes dressing for eating out a real challenge!! I usually put on four layers for the outdoor elements, and when we arrive at a restaurant, I typically remove three ("Table for six please!! No, there are only two of us, but I need four chairs on which to heap my clothes!! Thanks!").

A little more than a week ago, we got a very pretty (albeit somewhat unexpected) evening snowfall. This was somewhat quaint, and we expats all had a little chuckle when the Chinese were all snapping photos of the snow and the kids were running around trying to catch flakes on their tongues. "Isn't it funny? The Shanghaiese have never seen snow!! Yes, it's cold, but it will no doubt melt away by morning."

A day or so later, a more serious snowfall blew into the city with a bit more serious consequence. We watched out the window in wonder as the air grew heavier and thicker with fat, juicy flakes sometimes profuse enough as to prevent us from seeing the next building. What was it we were told? Ah yes. There is NEVER an accumlation of snow in Shanghai. OK, this was an event for the record books. Some locals professed to having not seen a significant snowfall in 30 years. Again, we were somewhat amused by the half-hearted attempts at snowball fights and snowman building .... yes, cute!!

With raised eyebrows, the next morning Randy pointed out that our grill on the kitchen patio had a two to three inch covering of serious snow over the surface of it. And a truly nasty freezing rain had started to pelt our windows. OK, not funny anymore! Sometime over last weekend, Mother Nature deigned to take a serious crap on us!!! It grew colder and snowed on and off over the course of three days. The temperature dropped and dropped. As of yesterday we'd had several days in a row below the freezing point. The slurpee slush mixture was freezing on every exposed surface creating virtual havoc in an area completely unequipped to deal with such precipitation.

Schools closed, businesses shut their doors, roads were blocked, children delighted in building snow men, snow forts, snow CITIES!! Dogs couldn't find a place to perform their daily eliminations! Walking to the subway station became an adventure on ice, and the already crazy traffic of Shanghai became a gigantic bumper car ride!!! And you haven't lived until you've seen four inches of snow on palm trees .... lovely!! We even received a notice from the American Embassy that we were experiencing a SEVERE WEATHER EVENT and as such, travel and procurement of supplies could be difficult if not impossible. Nice to know they are looking after us over here, and we have someone we can notify if we run out of peanut butter.

It was about this time (Monday and Tuesday of this week) that the locals who were all preparing for the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday started to get worried about their holiday travels most of which would occur this coming weekend. There was a rush for the train and bus stations as many folks simply decided that they would go as quickly as possible while the going was good (which, by then, it wasn't). The problem was that even if a train or bus could make it out of Shanghai, the destination was more than likely not attainable as roads, tracks, stations and such were shut down for what was becoming a serious weather event.

Add to that the fact that many locals were starting to utilize the bus and train stations as a "warming house," and the realization of those becoming agitated about not being able to get home for the upcoming holiday, and true chaos was beginning to set in. On Tuesday, the Prime Minister issued an offical apology for the effects of the severe weather. We stifled a laugh about that one. This being a country in which the government controls literally everything, I suppose they feel compelled to apologize when they can't control the weather!! This apology was issued to the multitudes waiting for the trains to commence traveling again and becoming more and more irate by the minute. Soon after that, the government issued a statement requesting that the general populace consider disbanding their travel plans as it was becoming clear that the mess was only growing more dismal. We're told that the storm (which has lasted better part of a week) is the worst in over 50 years!!

Yesterday, I heard that hundreds of thousands were stranded at airports (that being inland airports for domestic flights .... I believe international travel was still near normal in and out of Shanghai), and millions were stranded at train stations. The message "Look, you can't go home," isn't going over very well. That's akin to saying to the western world, "Hey, we're calling off Christmas this year!" For many who work in Shanghai and live apart from their families who are residing a great distance inland, this is the only time of year they get to see their families. Also, the "inlanders" count on the extra money being brought to them by the folks working in the cities. Many locals receive a holiday bonus which is traditionally given to their families "back home."

I must say that I am truly relieved that we didn't plan any travel for the holiday (as is the case for many expats who work for a business that closes for the week of the holiday February 6 through 13). However our dear friends, Judy and Neal, from Michigan are due to fly in tomorrow to have a two week vacation here with us in Shanghai. We have been not only looking forward to their visit, but also to experiencing the Chinese New Year holiday in China. You may recall that last Chinese New Year, we traveled to Scotland where Randy worked over the holiday so we weren't able to be here for the biggest holiday of the Chinese year. We are hoping that Judy and Neal don't run into any weather related snags in their travels (or non-weather related either).

We monitor CNN and BBC here which continue to report on the chaos that is the storm of '08 in China. The forecast seems to suggest that we are not out of the woods by any means. Currently, the sun is shining and we're due to hit a high of 34 degrees today (Woo hoo!) so we may get the beginnings of a thaw here, but there are more storms brewing to our west which may have nearly as bad or worse results than this week's. And me without my snowmobile suit ..... SHOOT!!

Will someone please put another log on the fire? Thanks.

Monday, January 21, 2008

JANUARY 22, 2008

Winter is entrenched here in Shanghai. Don't let anyone tell you that the winters aren't so bad here. I haven't seen the sunshine in over two weeks. It threatens to rain daily (sometimes even snow or sleet), and the cold seems to be bone chilling for some reason. I don't know if it's the humidity or what. 10 degrees in Michigan seems warmer than 40 in Shanghai, and no, I can't explain it. OK, enough pontificating about the weather .... can't do anything about it anyway.

Ali and I set off Tuesday to pick up my Lost Passport Report from the Exit/Entry of the Security Bureau in Pudong. I was really happy to have her company. When one is heading off to try to accomplish some seemingly impossible feat, it always helps to have back-up, especially when the back-up has 14 years experience living in a foreign country.

We took off fairly early via the subway, and arrived at the Bureau around 10:15 AM. As luck would have it, there was no line waiting at Station No. 15 (the official line for picking up one's Lost Passport Report). A very serious looking policeman sorted though his stack of officially stamped forms until he came to mine. He re-examined the forms to make sure all was in order, and handed me my report along with some written instructions. I asked if I could have the copy of my passport returned to me. "Must make copy." He then pointed off towards a corner where we assumed there would be some means for reproducing the documents with a stern instruction to return a copy to him.

We wandered off in the general direction he'd indicated while Ali read aloud the instructions we'd just been handed. Basically, it said something about the fact that one must apply for a new passport within 30 days of receiving the official report, or one faces the possibility of being, and I quote, "punished by the Police Organs!!" Ali and I stopped and looked at each other for a moment, and then burst out in uncontrollable laughter. Wow!! Punished by Police Organs!! Maybe that deserves further investigation!!! We giggled like schoolgirls all the way back to Mr. Grumpy Policeman to return his copies. He inquired as to what all the frivolity was about (or rather "Why you laughing?"). We put our serious faces back on and reported that "nothing was funny, sir" until we reached the escalator where we couldn't hold it in any longer. Too funny .... punished by Police Organs!!! Yes, that was the best piece of Chinglish I'd heard in a while, and Randy and I threaten each other with said punishment at least once a week now.

As I was still feeling the lingering effects of some kind of upper respiratory ailment, I was tempted to call it enough fun for one day. But at Ali's wise insistence, we pushed on to the American Embassy to apply for my replacement passport. It wasn't too far off the subway station at the West Nanjing Road station, so she convinced me that there was no time like the present. Actually, the Embassy was no big deal .... finding it was probably the hardest part. It's on the 8th floor of a department store building although one must pass through a really nice shoe department which is a bonus! After turning over my cell phone and emptying my pockets, I walked through a metal detector and made my way to a small room where I took a number to wait my turn. I turned in my form, paid my 800 RMB (gulp!!), held up my right hand and swore that everything I said and wrote was true (why the right hand, why not the left? ... Is the left the equivalent of crossing your fingers when you tell a lie? OK, just wondering.), and then learned my photo was the wrong size. Shazbot!! OK, the Kodak store a block away was keenly positioned to rip off every American citizen who needs a passport photo for 50 RMB. But it only took a few minutes, and it was done. I was told I would be notified via email within a few weeks when I could pick up my passport. Yippee.

One thing piqued my curiosity though. I was never asked for any other piece of identification. And I was prepared!! Marriage license, birth certificate, new driver's license. Apparently, it's OK to use the sworn statement of another American that you are who you SAY you are. But no .... they didn't seem to be concerned about that. I could have been Osama Bin Laden applying for a US passport. It just didn't seem all that secure to me (other than the fact that I couldn't get my Uzi through the metal detector). Oh well. I suppose they will scour the internet for any signs of my involvement in terrorist activity before they issue me the new documents. Randy could probably give them a few scary stories.

In spite of the cold weather, we have been busy with entertaining. Randy's boss, Carrie, was here last week. Her visit coincided with the first annual ADS Shanghai holiday party which was Friday, January 18th, and definitely worth a mention in the blog.

Da, the driver, picked me up at 3:00 for the 45 minute drive to ADS. For a change, it was a rather uneventful drive (whew!), or maybe I'm just becoming jaded to the Shanghai style of driving which is akin to a Grand Prix auto race. Randy was waiting for me and took me on a tour of the facility. It was interesting to see the plant now that there is a full staff and the machines are operating. Paul, visiting from McGavigan's currently, was working on programming a robot for a new program due to commence soon. I recognized a few of the workers that I'd met previously, but there were a few new faces as well. Everyone was busy as little bees and everything appeared fairly well organized and productive.

We took off around 5:15 for the restaurant in Anting. A private room was organized with four round tables each seating around 10 or 12 people, and large Lazy Susans sported various local Chinese appetizers .... cold vegetables and marinated meat items, most of which I'd eaten previously were placed around the outside edges of the Lazy Susan. Also there were bottles of beer, orange juice, and millet milk (like soy milk) on each table.

Lifeng had a nice slide show and presentation describing the challenges, the setbacks, and positive strides made at ADS in 2007. A handful of employees were named Employees of the Year and given gifts. Then the food started coming out. I think they brought food out for two hours straight!!!

There was every kind of meat dish imaginable .... pork ribs, chicken, beef were in good supply. Soon the exotic foods were being presented ..... jelly fish, ants with pine nuts, soup with dumplings that were stuffed with sweet black beans, turtle (completely intact, shell and all), pork stomach (a cousin to chitlins I suppose), and an assortment of soups one of which included the chicken head (OK, that's old hat for us .... we've seen the chicken head many times). There was a large fish (I think it was a halibut but I'm not certain) that came out completely intact on a large platter, and chopsticks were quickly stabbed into the flaky white flesh for it's consumption. And of course, a HUGE pile of fried rice. We tried almost everything. Surprisingly, one of my favorite things was the ants. They were nicely fried with the pine nuts, salted, and served warm. Reminded me of a cross between popcorn and warm roasted nuts. I kept thinking a bucket of these would be great at a movie theater with a large Coke!!!

The common way to drink at an event such as this is a rather formal toast presented by the host. Everyone stood, and Lifeng thanked all present for their hard work and wished us all well in the new year, and we drank. After that, the proper way to drink at a Chinese meal is to never take a sip of a drink unless it is preceded by a toast. So many times, each table stood to wish one another well and then drink to each other's health and happiness.

Another interesting dimension of the toasting ritual is the "personal" toast. This occurs when one person presents his full glass to another (who then has his glass filled to the brim) in a toast, and then they both drain the contents of the glass. I believe there may have been a conspiracy to see if they could get Randy drunk (I overheard a translation of an employee's comment about Randy and this particular employee's desire to "lay him down" which I am quite sure refers to "passed out.") Unfortunately, they underestimated Randy's beer drinking ability. Several of the employees approached him many times with their full glasses, and basically proceeded to only get themselves pretty tipsy. It was a whimsical scene to be sure!

It does appear as though the staff of ADS Shanghai get along well with one another, have a strong team spirit, and truly enjoy one another's company. There was a lottery-type drawing for some gifts, and everyone seemed genuinely happy for the winners. The party made me a bit homesick for my colleagues at Kaumagraph where the camaraderie is also evident among the team. I believe a good time was had by all, and with luck, a prosperous New Year was indeed heralded.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

JANUARY 14, 2008

Happy 2008 to everyone!! Randy and I had a fairly quiet New Year. We decided that rather than have a New Year's Eve party (which has been our habit the last few years), we opted for a New Year's Day open house type of event. We must be getting old. We were NOT confident at all about our ability to remain awake until midnight, and there's no ball to watch drop over here!!

We decided upon Jambalaya as our main course for our New Year's day buffet. In our family, the other name for Jambalaya is "near death experience for Stu!" A few years ago, Randy made Jambalaya for either New Year's Day or the Super Bowl, and my father ate several bowls. The next day, he was rushed to the hospital with chest pain and fear of a heart attack. After a rather tense day in the heart ward of the hospital, it was determined that what he was really suffering from was some painful gastro-intestinal ailment due to Randy's Jambalaya .... something we've NEVER let Randy forget!!

In order to make life easier for ourselves, we ordered desserts from a local French bakery called Bastiaans. Bastiaans is located on the Hong Mei Lu pedestrian street that I believe I have mentioned previously as being one of our favorite streets in Shanghai. It is entirely restaurants, bars, bakeries, and the like catering to the expat community. There is every kind of ethnic food imaginable on this street (even Iranian). When you aren't sure what you are hungry for, head for Hong Mei Lu pedestrian street ..... you'll find something there, for sure!

There is a new Italian place on the pedestrian street, so we decided that we'd eat our New Year's Eve dinner there, as Bastiaans was only a few steps away. The new Italian place is called Porto Novo. At first glance, it appeared to be a pretty nice restaurant. Linen on the tables, a clean looking dining area, and an attentive staff seemed eager to please. The restaurant is fairly large and sported big picture windows that provided a pretty decent view as Porto Novo is located at the very end of the the pedestrian street, and one can admire the creative lighting of the crossing street from a table near the window.

Our waiter was a young, Chinese man and seemed quite attentive to our needs. We ordered appetizers, dinner and some wine. The inside of the restaurant was pretty stark .... no artwork on the walls, candles on the tables or flowers in vases, nothing decorative to speak of at all. But we decided that we'd let the food speak for itself. Unfortunately, the meals were OK, but nothing to write home to Mom about. I will say that the Chinese waiter was very keen to get our opinion as Porto Novo had only been open for a few days. So we tried to tactfully offer a few suggestions .... a bread basket would be nice, Randy's meal was missing the grilled vegetables mentioned on the menu, some flowers or candles would spruce up the tables, maybe some framed posters on the wall. He was good natured about our comments and seem to take them to heart. We'll have to try it again in the future to see if the improvements have been made.

It seemed to be very quiet in Shanghai this New Year's Eve. We strolled the pedestrian street prior to heading to Bastiaans to see if any parties were in full swing, but the only establishment that showed any real sign of life was Papas Bierstube, the German restaurant. As we peered in the window, we had a pang of regret that we hadn't decided to eat there. Papas had spread out a lovely buffet and the folks inside appeared to be enjoying themselves.

We picked up our tiramisu and apple pie which were both nicely decorated for the holidays, and decided we'd head home for the remainder of the evening. It was a slow TV night, and we both ended up falling asleep on the sofa until the midnight fireworks woke us. The Hongqiao Marriott had quite a fireworks display which could be seen very clearly from our living room balcony. We called a few folks back home to wish them a premature Happy New Year (as it was only 11:00 AM at that time back in Michigan), and went to bed as we needed to be fresh for our party the next day.

We had a pretty good turn out for the New Year's Day party. One of our Chinese friends, Cathy, brought a couple of traditional Chinese meat appetizers which were wonderful, and most of the dozen or so other folks that arrived brought us some kind of wine .... even a traditional Chinese wine from Wind, Randy's coworker, and his wife. Everyone proclaimed the Jambalaya delicious, and no trips to the hospital were made as a result of it's comsumption (whew!).

Sometime during the holiday, I started sorting through some things in the closet, and I realized that I hadn't seen my passport in a few days. I wasn't that worried about it as the passport often gets changed from bag to bag as my accessory needs change with each event (no, I'm not THAT high maintenance, but I have taken advantage of the cheap knock-off market while we've lived here). I finally decided I should wage a careful search of my handbags and track down the passport. Nothing in any of my handbags or shopping totes. OK, no problem. Probably stuck it in a coat or jacket. I started going through the coats and jackets .... nothing! By now, I was starting to get a bit nervous. A passport isn't something one wants to lose while living as an resident alien in Communist China!

Finally, I declared all out warfare and begain tearing things apart in earnest. Drawers, clothes, under the bed, behind furniture, anywhere that it may have dropped in the apartment was checked. Nothing. I called the Sofitel and the Regent hotels as we'd visited those places for my birthday and Christmas Eve .... nothing. Even had Mike and his driver search their vehicle as I'd been an occupant of their Buick several times over the last week .... nothing there either. I was reluctant to say it had been stolen, but was starting to become resigned to the possibility. My best guess at this point is that it may have been nabbed from a handbag I carried on Christmas Eve. The evening bag had only contained the passport, a lipstick, and a compact, and I suppose it would have been pretty easy to simply reach in and grab it while I was at the buffet. Our understanding is that a valid U.S. passport fetches quite a price on the streets of Shanghai.

Well, just call it another China adventure!! We have begun the process to have the missing passport replaced. Randy accompanied me to the Chinese Entry and Exit Bureau to start the process which commences with a Lost Passport report. I had hoped that once we made that report, I could go straight to the American Embassy and apply for a new one, but that was indeed a foolish hope. Everything in China must be made official with the "offical stamp." And no transaction here is considered final without it!! So they took my report and asked me to return in two days to pick up the stamped copy which I will need to take to the Embassy for the next phase of passport replacement (I'm sure another two trips will be required to accomplish that ... at least!). Sigh! I swear, the next passport will remain on a chain around my neck for the duration of our stay!!

We are having some strange weather in Shanghai the last week or so. It has been on the warm side recently, and Friday, although grey and gloomy, the temps reached a balmy 65 degrees. I was allowing myself the dream that this would be a mild winter for us, but yesterday told a different tale. It started out cool and grey, changing to windy and misty later in the day, but by evening we were having a good old fashioned Michigan blizzard. It was unbelievable!! All the locals were outside taking picture of these huge, wet snowflakes that were blowing and swirling in the streetlights, and red-cheeked children ran around trying to catch flakes on their tongues. Looking out over the gardens of our compound, I could see flashes from cameras going off from all directions while many tried to capture a rare winter moment in Shanghai.

I met Suely for our workout this morning, and in order to get to Suely's apartment, it is necessary for me to cross a stretch of boardwalk that runs along the outdoor pool area. It was covered with ice, and I almost fell several times!! Everyone was bundled up like Nanook of the North, and even though the sun was shining, the air was foggy with the frosty breath of the mothers and their kids greeting the school buses to start the week. Very unusual.

After a fairly quiet holiday, life resumes in earnest for us this week. Randy and I went to the airport yesterday to greet Paul, a technician from McGavigan's in Scotland who will be working here for a couple of weeks. And Carrie, Randy's boss, came into town last night and will be here for a week. Out of town guests usually mean a few evenings of entertaining, and we enjoy showing a newcomer Shanghai now that we know our way around fairly well. My Mandarin class resumes this week, and Suely and I checked out the Tai Chi ladies this morning. It appeared that our usual routine was being performed, so we may soon be doing a more traditional Chinese workout in the morning rather than the treadmills and weight machines in the gym.

I hope to finalize the passport situation this week, but am not going to get too optimistic about that. This IS China, and everything has it's own timetable that one must honor (or drive oneself crazy in the attempt to circumvent it!!). So remaining pragmatic about that is probably best. I'll let you know.