Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Shanghai Art Museum

Daily life in Shanghai isn't really all that different from back home. Work, dinner, a little tv, read a bit, then sleep. The specifics might be different, but the rhythm is the same.Every now and then though, we try to remember that we're not here in Shanghai just to work and watch three seasons of Ugly Betty in a week. Nope, there's more to Shanghai than dirty street food, futureland like malls, and grandmas pushing you out of the way (and sometimes out the door) on the bus. With that in mind, James, Stephanie, Nicole, and I went to the Shanghai Art Museum.This is outside the museum, which used to be the main hall of the old Shanghai horse racing club. Next to it is the new Shanghai.This steamtrain circa the Cultural Revolution was a part of the museum as well.What you don't see is that the large group of Chinese people taking pictures of us.This is inside the train.scary doll.Inside the museum was everything I have been missing since coming to Shanghai. Look, culture...art...opinion. Above is a miniature replica of a slummy apartment.The layout of the museum was strange, since it was forced into the space of a stately Victorian building.I took a picture of people taking pictures of themselves. A video of people passing by was projected onto the wall.In all, there was too much for me to post everything, but I'll put up a few highlights.
There were these crazy happy dinosaur people things.
Stephanie and Nicole getting into the dinos.
Nice foot action
oops, me getting carried away.


There was also this disco ball room, with voices speaking both English and Mandarin.

This is what the disco ball room looks like with the flash on.
Nicole and Steph dancing. That's James talking, I'm following them around with the camera.





a neat video in the museum. Hmmm, quite Chinese of me to secretly record this. Maybe I can sell it for 5 rmb on the street.
Outside the museum, in People's Park.Everything lights up in People's Square after dark.

The museum was exactly the kind of break we needed. It was just nice to be surrounded by art that was meant to challenge. Living here, it's easy to let our brains slowly decay, especially considering the simple material we're teaching. The museum was a kind of jolt to the synapses, like the ultra-sugar rush of shanghai sweets.

A haircut in China

Ok, so I was scolded for not updating the blog with enough words (hi DK). Here then, is a brief description of getting a haircut on Baise Lu, Shanghai.

November 25, Beijing standard time, I decided that enough was enough; I had to get a haircut in Shanghai. I had managed to avoid it thus far by sneaking in a haircut while in Singapore, but that was a month ago and my locks were getting a little too locky. I was, as my office-mates said, starting to "look very Chinese."

The first step was figuring out which salons were legitimate, because here there are hair salons, and there are "hair salons." Just on our block alone, there are at least seven salons, but I was only interested in the well-lit and large ones (no shady stained rooms please). I also remembered that one in particular had a good mix of male and female clientele, plus it was called Aiya, which I liked (it's an exclamation of surprise in Chinese). So Aiya it was.

Cole was supposed to back me up, but she died on the couch and couldn't get up. I was on my own. Ok. I got on my bike and rode out of the school, onto Baise Lu. It was 5:30 in the afternoon, and all of the night street vendors were out in force. I only had the fading dusk light to guide me in avoiding riding on the various blankets, socks, dvds, flatware (street flatware!), marinated eggs, etc....In addition, by then, all of the schools were out (we're surrounded by three other large schools besides Shanghai High School), and kids took to the sidewalk in that very chinese way of walking, otherwise known as the meandering, zombie-like shuffling wave. In the end, I walked with my bike to my side.

Enter Aiya, and four greeters welcome me, and then ask me....something. What? Um. Sorry, I don't speak Mandarin, I say in Mandarin, which only makes them not believe me. Er...I want a haircut, I say in Cantonese. They squint, and tilt their heads. I say it again and make a cutting motion with my fingers. Ah! Yes. Haircut.

After getting my hair washed (where I had to struggle through another very short and broken Mandarin conversation: I'm American, I teach at Shanghai High School, I've been here for three months, etc....), I make my way to another chair, where a guy with spiky, red-tinged hair (pretty much required here) started to comb my wet hair.

He pointed to a picture of a magazine. I looked at it, reasonable short hair, neat. Good enough. Ok, I say. He then tells me that it'll take a couple hours and cost 180 rmb. Um, maybe not. I still don't know what the process was, but I opted for a normal cut instead.

As the guy cuts my hair, four other Aiya employees crowd around me. Mandarin questions bombard me from all sides. I smile nervously, er...I don't understand I say. I try Cantonese, which confuses them even more. Then I tell them that I'm American.

One guy in particular gets up close to me, about an inch away, and says in English, "But you look Chinese." Sigh. Again, the concept of Chinese-American is too much. I won't go on too much longer about it, but in the end, the haircut was great, and it cost 15 rmb, or about $1.25

The whole experience was so odd, because, for the first time, I was the spectacle. Usually I can avoid it, but in the salon I was trapped, without cole to run interference (nothing is as distracting as a white person). In many ways, I was even more foreign to them then someone like Nicole. The people here literally cannot fathom that I'm from the United States. Most of them settle that I must be from Guangzhou or southern china, since I can speak Cantonese.

What else has happened? We just had our first lesson with our Mandarin tutor, and found out how little we really knew. In fact, right now all of our conversation skills revolve around food and transportation, and that's about it.

The teaching has been going well for the most part. Navigating through all of the rules that change every other month has been difficult, but the kids have been good. I've settled into this odd, older brother role with most of them, and some of them have even started to jump on me, which is what they do to each other and the Chinese teachers.

And that's about it. We're in the stretch with no vacation days for over a month. We don't even get Thanksgiving off, but tomorrow a group of us teachers will have dinner at The City Diner, which is an American restaurant. Cole covered our other China Thanksgiving (that we had last week) on her blog.

Next, I'll post some videos of the Shanghai Art Museum Biennial. Ack, I switched tenses again midway through my post. China is definitely deteriorating the writing.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

A Minute of Waiting

Here's another glimpse into our daily lives; waiting for the bus along the street.

This is right around the corner from the school. I always expected that the locals would be used to foriegners because of the whole international school thing (and it's shanghai after all, the most westernized city in china), but here non-asian faces are few and far between. nicole's pretty much used to the staaaaaaaring, but here's what it's like to stand by a bus stop. I think that day was a not-awful pollution day.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Xujiahua park in the morning

A week ago, cole and I walked through the nearby Xujiahua park. Here are some of the sights and sounds:






that blue thing is the mascot for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. I think the World Expo is similar to the World Fair, except fancier.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Fabric market and street grub

Awhile back, nicole and I went to the fabric market to buy new coats. Inside (the fabric market is indoors) are endless rows of booths filled with bolts of fabric stacked high above your head, and coats, suites, dresses, even pajamas hanging from all angles.

Actually, I went in with absolutely no intention on buying a new coat, but then as I walked past one of the booths, I stopped and looked at a jacket. Big mistake. The lady working the booth ensnared me immediately. "Try on. You try on."
"Um, I'm just looking."
"Try on. Try." At this point she has the jacket off the mannequin and is wrapping it around my shoulders.
"Really, I'm not looking to buy a new coat."
She slips my arms in the sleeves, and starts pushing me toward the mirror.
"Go look."
"Really. I'm not...hmmm" I catch my reflection and pause. Not bad, not bad at all. In fact, I rather like it. Oh no, now she knows I like it. There goes one bargaining chip.

Five minutes later, I'm getting measured for my very own black cashmere coat. Oh well. Now, if it'll only get cold enough in Shanghai for me to wear it.


Here is me surprising cole with picture. I even used the flash. We're such tourists.

The entrance of the fabric market.

Outside of the market were many many street vendors because the fabric market is a popular destination for those crazy white folk.
Me on my china cell phone. These days my hair is even longer; I can even comb it.

Also outside of the market, just a street to the right, underneath a highway overpass, was amazing street food. I'm pretty sure these were vegetable dumplings, but considering how good they were, I don't really care what was inside. These cost us 3 rmb for six, something like 40 cents.

To go with the dumplings we had made-to-order chow fun from this cart. I didn't catch all of the ingredients but it was something like, flat noodles, soy sauce, oil, an egg, sprouts, three kinds of spices, two scoops of msg, and a spinach-like veggie topping.
Mmmm....
The msg did make us really thirsty though. Nothing that funny tasting china diet coke couldn't wash away.
That night, cole and I went to Best Buy (yes, they have a Best Buy in Shanghai, the only one in China) and I couldn't help but play their Hello Kitty guitar. I am seriously considering buying it because there just isn't anything like this back home.

In my free time, I've taken to learning how to play anime theme songs. The two latest have been Naruto season 2 theme, and Beck. I know, I know, such a dork, and china is definitely not helping in that respect.

I'll leave you with this video of cole and me in our new coats. The lighting is our horrible industrial dorm lighting (we have nice soft white bulbs now, courtesy of ikea lamps) so we're not looking our best. I also can't seem to act not embarrassing. It's a talent I have.