The Routine and Random
Last Tuesday started this past week with a full day of work in Nan Qiao, followed by an evening of exercise with my gymmate. During the day, I had a chance to quickly check my email and get the results from the test I had taken in Milan. I passed, and am now eligible to attend the Polytechnic University of Milan. I didn’t expect that. But, as I wrote before, I don’t think that I’m interested in pursuing further formal studies in design anymore, even if it is in Milan. If this was a year or two ago, I probably wouldn’t have thought twice about going. It’s funny how time changes things.
I told my roommate that I would go see her opening pole dancing show on the Bund that evening (a very popular tourist area in Shanghai), but I felt too tired from the day’s activities and ended the night early. I felt kind of bad doing this, because it was her first time performing there, but as with so many other things in my life that I feel I need to improve on, taking care of myself before others is definitely up there. So I headed home.
On my way back to the apartment however, I walked into a crowd of people standing around a square in a park nearby. It was the Chinese doing ballroom dance. I remember hearing about this before I left on my trip. It was nice to see,… and be apart of. One of the older ladies there asked me if I could dance (in Chinese), and before I knew it, I was dancing the foxtrot, swing and cha-cha. I learned to quickly mimic her movements, because I couldn’t remember a lot, and I didn’t want to lead someone who obviously felt as though she knew what she was doing. It was a lot of fun. Nevertheless, I was tired, so I went back to the apartment and slept.
As a side note, I find Shanghai to be a good place to be able to work on self-improvement in so many ways. In a city of 14+ million people, there is so much stimulus, that you can’t help but notice when you should join in or when you need a break from it all.
Wednesday was sort of a routine day for me. Buying groceries in the morning, working in the mid-day, working out in the late afternoon, and practicing salsa in the evening. The only major thing that I did that was different from any other day, was a trip to the Shanghai train station to buy some tickets to go to Chengdu (a city in central China) next week, and a stroll through the park I danced in the previous night. There were some older Chinese practicing Tai Chi and some younger teenagers painting the scenery. It was a pleasant experience. That night, like the last few, was filled with fairly vivid but really random dreams. It felt good to dream like that again.
Thursday it was back to work in Nan Qiao. After work, I was dropped off at the Xin Zhuang train station to take a train into central Shanghai to attend a dance class I was told to check out by a girl at Zapatas the Sunday before. It turns out that this girl is actually a salsa instructor from New York who’s looking at forming her own dance company. Wow! (Ok, for those of you who don’t know, New York is one of major centers for salsa (among other things), where they dance on 2 (a totally different style from what I’m used to) and she wants to start her own company! Cool.). Needless to say, she taught a pretty good class. Oh yeah, on the way there, I got to see a part of Shanghai I haven’t seen yet, (of which there are still many) and ended up running into a crowd of hardcore Asian MTV fans. Apparently someone famous was staying at the Four Seasons Hotel there. Afterwards I caught a ride to a bar with some of the other dance students, where I finally had some dinner and we danced a little while longer.
Friday morning, I headed for the gym to quickly get some exercise in before work began. I ended up listening to my fitness trainer talk a lot about his past, wages and cost of living in Shanghai and why he “hates” teachers. It was a lot to take in. I couldn’t really workout as a result. From there, I went to work, went back to the gym to finish up my exercises, came home and practiced some more salsa – dancing on 2 and some combinations. This was the first time I practiced for a solid 2 hours straight. It felt good. (All this dancing and exercise I think is really helping me physically adapt to living in China. I don’t feel sick anymore.) Later that evening I hailed a taxi (my dominant form of transportation around Shanghai), and was on my way to the Air Bar once more. It was another salsa night, but a little bit different this time because it was the DJ’s birthday (the same from Zapatas). I met my dance partner and my new dance instructor there. As you might have guessed, it was a good night.
Saturday was back to school only because all of next week is China’s national holiday. The afternoon was working out at the gym and practicing salsa. For dinner I met my gymmate, another one of the teachers and some of their friends visiting from Australia (I never thought I’d be in Shanghai hanging out with so many Australians. My roommate’s Australian, as is my gymmate, another one of the teachers and nearly everyone we hang out with that isn’t Chinese.). We had planned to eat at 021 again, but because it was too crowded, we went to a Xin Jianese restaurant nearby. This was quite the experience. First a little geography lesson though: Xin Jian is a province of China in the northwest bordering the former USSR. Part of the historical ‘Silk Road’ that linked Europe to East Asia oh so long ago. As a result, it’s people take on influences from the surrounding areas, in language, culture and physical appearance. For example, the people working at the restaurant were a really lively bunch who liked to yell out calls like “Yeah! Yeah!” as the staff gathered around in a sort of celebratory way, every time a new dish would arrive, or a new customer would enter the restaurant. It reminded me a lot of some of the Lebanese and Arabic friends I used to know. This must also be how the southern USSR is like. Their facial features also had resemblances to Arabians. All around the restaurant were writings in Arabic, the TV showed music videos from Bollywood, and the staff danced to the music in a very Arabian/Indian style. Apparently, my gymmate says, it’s very common in Xin Jian to dance during your dinner. So, when we were called to join in, we did. Think about this: A bunch of Australians, Xin Jianese, one German/Indian Canadian dancing to Indian music over dinner in Shanghai. It doesn’t get much stranger than that. These are definitely not your stereotypical Chinese. The bill also reflected that.
From there, we left for the nearest convenience store to pick up a few things and were stopped on our way out by a 76 year old Chinese man who looked not a day over 50, and spoke excellent English. He explained to us why there was a crowd around two police officers down the street (they were handing out tickets for moon cakes, a specialty during the National holiday), why he thinks Chinese wages are justified (For example, in the convenience store (similar to those back home) there were three people working, when one person would have sufficient. The other two are just employed because they need work, and are willing to just stand around (literally doing nothing) and at least get something for it. There are just too many people in China. If you have work, you should be happy you do. Once again, like so many other things, it made me think), why he likes talking to foreigners (because he doesn’t think they’re spies), and why Shanghai has the most beautiful women from all over China (they are here to “test their fate at finding a husband”). Who knew? He also asked if we play football (soccer), I said I used to, but would love to get back into it again. He gave me his number, and said he has access to one of the nearby university’s football fields because he used to be a professor there (most private residential and school areas in Shanghai are protected by huge metal gates controlled by guards). Ok, so I might get a chance to play soccer with a 76 year old man. Why not?
That evening, I went out salsa dancing again, but for the first time I really noticed some of the talent this city has. There are some really good dancers here. I was feeling tired though, so I called it night earlier than I thought I would.
Sunday was another day of cleaning and practicing dance, followed by dinner with an ex-employee of the company I work for now. She just quit a few days ago saying she “couldn’t get used to [our] boss’ style of work”, or in other words ‘being on call’. Fair enough. We had a pretty good time just hanging out and seeing a different part of Xu Jia Hui. I told her it was her choice what restaurant we would eat at, because we were celebrating her quitting work, but I had to make some suggestions: if we could avoid it, no chicken or beef (because I felt like I get enough of that back home) and, (after some convincing) no Pizza Hut. So we ate at a surprisingly cheap Italian restaurant. Pictures of Florence and Venice surrounded the dinning areas, while Italian opera played through the speakers. Ah, the enchantment of it all. The only difference between this and Italy, were the Chinese staff and customers. It was an interesting mix, if nothing else. I asked my dinner date if she wanted to go dancing afterwards. Surprisingly, she said yes, and we were off to Zapatas.
When we got there, it still felt a bit early, so we decided to walk around for a bit, talking about whatever crossed our minds and singing made up English and Chinese tunes. When we finally decided to head indoors and could hear the sound of the calve (an instrument used in salsa music), her attitude all of the sudden changed, and she started to say she didn’t realize that we were going salsa dancing and that she didn’t want to do it because it was “too easy”. Ok. So, she decided to leave and I stuck around to dance. I met my dance partner and my dance instructor there, and we had a few dances. The night ended a little later than I thought it would (because it’s now the National holiday, and people can stay out later), but (apart from being followed by a lady and ‘her’ child asking for money (This is apparently a trick according to the people I work with. These women take children from other families to work for them as ‘pity bait’ to get foreigners to give them money) it ended well.
Today, I was on a mission to find a place where I could get my camera fixed. I noticed it wasn’t working a couple of days ago, but was sort of hoping it would just ‘fix itself’ up until now. As I made my way to the place where I would eventually give my camera to be sent to another place in Shanghai to get fixed, I had a lot of interesting little experiences with people (getting directions from everyone from a police officer to girl with her mother in an electronic store; conversing with a taxi driver (who reminded me a lot of one of my cousins in England) in broken Chinese and English about everything from the weather to girls; witnessing a line of people waiting for their moon cakes that would rival that of the Vatican) and places (waiting for a taxi in the rain in front of a huge new building that is being built with bamboo scaffolding) that I would have liked to capture on film, but couldn’t. So when I finally found the place to give my camera to, I bargained my way into getting a rental camera replacement (apparently they don’t do this) and started taking pictures of any and everything I thought was remotely interesting, until my batteries ran out.
I hit the gym, and ate some Xin Jianese and Taiwanese food on the roadside before coming back to the apartment to finish this off. This evening I’m heading to Chengdu, camera in hand, with my gymmate. It should be interesting.
I told my roommate that I would go see her opening pole dancing show on the Bund that evening (a very popular tourist area in Shanghai), but I felt too tired from the day’s activities and ended the night early. I felt kind of bad doing this, because it was her first time performing there, but as with so many other things in my life that I feel I need to improve on, taking care of myself before others is definitely up there. So I headed home.
On my way back to the apartment however, I walked into a crowd of people standing around a square in a park nearby. It was the Chinese doing ballroom dance. I remember hearing about this before I left on my trip. It was nice to see,… and be apart of. One of the older ladies there asked me if I could dance (in Chinese), and before I knew it, I was dancing the foxtrot, swing and cha-cha. I learned to quickly mimic her movements, because I couldn’t remember a lot, and I didn’t want to lead someone who obviously felt as though she knew what she was doing. It was a lot of fun. Nevertheless, I was tired, so I went back to the apartment and slept.
As a side note, I find Shanghai to be a good place to be able to work on self-improvement in so many ways. In a city of 14+ million people, there is so much stimulus, that you can’t help but notice when you should join in or when you need a break from it all.
Wednesday was sort of a routine day for me. Buying groceries in the morning, working in the mid-day, working out in the late afternoon, and practicing salsa in the evening. The only major thing that I did that was different from any other day, was a trip to the Shanghai train station to buy some tickets to go to Chengdu (a city in central China) next week, and a stroll through the park I danced in the previous night. There were some older Chinese practicing Tai Chi and some younger teenagers painting the scenery. It was a pleasant experience. That night, like the last few, was filled with fairly vivid but really random dreams. It felt good to dream like that again.
Thursday it was back to work in Nan Qiao. After work, I was dropped off at the Xin Zhuang train station to take a train into central Shanghai to attend a dance class I was told to check out by a girl at Zapatas the Sunday before. It turns out that this girl is actually a salsa instructor from New York who’s looking at forming her own dance company. Wow! (Ok, for those of you who don’t know, New York is one of major centers for salsa (among other things), where they dance on 2 (a totally different style from what I’m used to) and she wants to start her own company! Cool.). Needless to say, she taught a pretty good class. Oh yeah, on the way there, I got to see a part of Shanghai I haven’t seen yet, (of which there are still many) and ended up running into a crowd of hardcore Asian MTV fans. Apparently someone famous was staying at the Four Seasons Hotel there. Afterwards I caught a ride to a bar with some of the other dance students, where I finally had some dinner and we danced a little while longer.
Friday morning, I headed for the gym to quickly get some exercise in before work began. I ended up listening to my fitness trainer talk a lot about his past, wages and cost of living in Shanghai and why he “hates” teachers. It was a lot to take in. I couldn’t really workout as a result. From there, I went to work, went back to the gym to finish up my exercises, came home and practiced some more salsa – dancing on 2 and some combinations. This was the first time I practiced for a solid 2 hours straight. It felt good. (All this dancing and exercise I think is really helping me physically adapt to living in China. I don’t feel sick anymore.) Later that evening I hailed a taxi (my dominant form of transportation around Shanghai), and was on my way to the Air Bar once more. It was another salsa night, but a little bit different this time because it was the DJ’s birthday (the same from Zapatas). I met my dance partner and my new dance instructor there. As you might have guessed, it was a good night.
Saturday was back to school only because all of next week is China’s national holiday. The afternoon was working out at the gym and practicing salsa. For dinner I met my gymmate, another one of the teachers and some of their friends visiting from Australia (I never thought I’d be in Shanghai hanging out with so many Australians. My roommate’s Australian, as is my gymmate, another one of the teachers and nearly everyone we hang out with that isn’t Chinese.). We had planned to eat at 021 again, but because it was too crowded, we went to a Xin Jianese restaurant nearby. This was quite the experience. First a little geography lesson though: Xin Jian is a province of China in the northwest bordering the former USSR. Part of the historical ‘Silk Road’ that linked Europe to East Asia oh so long ago. As a result, it’s people take on influences from the surrounding areas, in language, culture and physical appearance. For example, the people working at the restaurant were a really lively bunch who liked to yell out calls like “Yeah! Yeah!” as the staff gathered around in a sort of celebratory way, every time a new dish would arrive, or a new customer would enter the restaurant. It reminded me a lot of some of the Lebanese and Arabic friends I used to know. This must also be how the southern USSR is like. Their facial features also had resemblances to Arabians. All around the restaurant were writings in Arabic, the TV showed music videos from Bollywood, and the staff danced to the music in a very Arabian/Indian style. Apparently, my gymmate says, it’s very common in Xin Jian to dance during your dinner. So, when we were called to join in, we did. Think about this: A bunch of Australians, Xin Jianese, one German/Indian Canadian dancing to Indian music over dinner in Shanghai. It doesn’t get much stranger than that. These are definitely not your stereotypical Chinese. The bill also reflected that.
From there, we left for the nearest convenience store to pick up a few things and were stopped on our way out by a 76 year old Chinese man who looked not a day over 50, and spoke excellent English. He explained to us why there was a crowd around two police officers down the street (they were handing out tickets for moon cakes, a specialty during the National holiday), why he thinks Chinese wages are justified (For example, in the convenience store (similar to those back home) there were three people working, when one person would have sufficient. The other two are just employed because they need work, and are willing to just stand around (literally doing nothing) and at least get something for it. There are just too many people in China. If you have work, you should be happy you do. Once again, like so many other things, it made me think), why he likes talking to foreigners (because he doesn’t think they’re spies), and why Shanghai has the most beautiful women from all over China (they are here to “test their fate at finding a husband”). Who knew? He also asked if we play football (soccer), I said I used to, but would love to get back into it again. He gave me his number, and said he has access to one of the nearby university’s football fields because he used to be a professor there (most private residential and school areas in Shanghai are protected by huge metal gates controlled by guards). Ok, so I might get a chance to play soccer with a 76 year old man. Why not?
That evening, I went out salsa dancing again, but for the first time I really noticed some of the talent this city has. There are some really good dancers here. I was feeling tired though, so I called it night earlier than I thought I would.
Sunday was another day of cleaning and practicing dance, followed by dinner with an ex-employee of the company I work for now. She just quit a few days ago saying she “couldn’t get used to [our] boss’ style of work”, or in other words ‘being on call’. Fair enough. We had a pretty good time just hanging out and seeing a different part of Xu Jia Hui. I told her it was her choice what restaurant we would eat at, because we were celebrating her quitting work, but I had to make some suggestions: if we could avoid it, no chicken or beef (because I felt like I get enough of that back home) and, (after some convincing) no Pizza Hut. So we ate at a surprisingly cheap Italian restaurant. Pictures of Florence and Venice surrounded the dinning areas, while Italian opera played through the speakers. Ah, the enchantment of it all. The only difference between this and Italy, were the Chinese staff and customers. It was an interesting mix, if nothing else. I asked my dinner date if she wanted to go dancing afterwards. Surprisingly, she said yes, and we were off to Zapatas.
When we got there, it still felt a bit early, so we decided to walk around for a bit, talking about whatever crossed our minds and singing made up English and Chinese tunes. When we finally decided to head indoors and could hear the sound of the calve (an instrument used in salsa music), her attitude all of the sudden changed, and she started to say she didn’t realize that we were going salsa dancing and that she didn’t want to do it because it was “too easy”. Ok. So, she decided to leave and I stuck around to dance. I met my dance partner and my dance instructor there, and we had a few dances. The night ended a little later than I thought it would (because it’s now the National holiday, and people can stay out later), but (apart from being followed by a lady and ‘her’ child asking for money (This is apparently a trick according to the people I work with. These women take children from other families to work for them as ‘pity bait’ to get foreigners to give them money) it ended well.
Today, I was on a mission to find a place where I could get my camera fixed. I noticed it wasn’t working a couple of days ago, but was sort of hoping it would just ‘fix itself’ up until now. As I made my way to the place where I would eventually give my camera to be sent to another place in Shanghai to get fixed, I had a lot of interesting little experiences with people (getting directions from everyone from a police officer to girl with her mother in an electronic store; conversing with a taxi driver (who reminded me a lot of one of my cousins in England) in broken Chinese and English about everything from the weather to girls; witnessing a line of people waiting for their moon cakes that would rival that of the Vatican) and places (waiting for a taxi in the rain in front of a huge new building that is being built with bamboo scaffolding) that I would have liked to capture on film, but couldn’t. So when I finally found the place to give my camera to, I bargained my way into getting a rental camera replacement (apparently they don’t do this) and started taking pictures of any and everything I thought was remotely interesting, until my batteries ran out.
I hit the gym, and ate some Xin Jianese and Taiwanese food on the roadside before coming back to the apartment to finish this off. This evening I’m heading to Chengdu, camera in hand, with my gymmate. It should be interesting.
posted by Tim | 4:03 AM
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