Local Time: 730pm Thursday Night
Super Bowl Plans
I have been doing my research in this area for awhile now. We originally booked at a place called The Spot about 30 minutes away by cab. It was going to be kind of a distance to go, but the plus was we had a reservation for 26 people. I continued looking for a better place and last night I visiting a local pub called Bulldog Pub, formally British Bulldog Pub. The food was good, but more important I got to speak with the manager, spoiler alert - we booked here.
After my roommate and a friend of mine all finished dinner, we asked to speak with the manager. He was a young "chap" from London who moved here a few years back and started this pub. As we talked, I brought up the Super Bowl party he was hosting on Monday morning and asked how many people already had on the books. When I told him I have quite a crowd, he was interested in our business and took us upstairs to show us his setup. On the way up there I mentioned we were talking to another bar about watching the game over there. He apparently has hard feelings for an ex-gf that works at The Spot because he was pretty keen on our business. I proceeded with slight interest displayed. We continued to talk and mention that we're really interested in the game.
He offered to waive the 100 RMB cover (which included breakfast) for the whole group and the second floor of his bar. Many of us will still pay the 100 RMB cover, because it comes with a British style breakfast, but we have a projector all to ourselves and a 40" screen opposite that. He's banking on the large group of american college students spending money on beer- a safe bet. We will be leaving our hotel at 530 and will be ready for the game starting at 728am local time.
Formula 1
For the first time in my life, I will be attending a real Formula 1 race in April. We decided that we wanted to grab a few tickets this week for the race. The original plan was to sit in the grass along the straight away, but after a couple minutes of consideration - we opted for an upgrade to turn one grandstands. It will be one of the few times in my life that I'll be going to a race like this, so I figured why not splurge a little and upgrade. At the next campus, I will not have classes on Thursday or Friday, so - I will be able to attend practices, qualification, and the race over a three day period. The race starts at 3pm on April 18th, look for me on television; I'll be the guy who does not know much about what is going on.
Museum of Arts and Crafts
On Wednesday, we visited this museum not far from campus. Just as in all the previous field trips before, we had a large 40+ passenger a bus. The only reason I bring this up is because this bus was fully electric. It was my first time in a fully electric vehicle that was capable of highway transport, it was very quite if we were under 20 mph, silent. Going faster had a hum - that's life. It was still very cool. The museum on the other hand wasn't that cool. The most interesting part of this museum was that it was a living museum of sorts. The art that was there was a mix of old pieces and pieces that were for sale by the in house artisans. There were folks working on ivory, paper lanterns, silk stitching, and folks clay dolls. It wasn't very large and didn't take too much time to see everything. The picture above is completely stitched yarn, it was one of the cooler things I have seen that was done with yarn.
Vehicles in Shanghai
I'm not sure if this is a law of China or just of Shanghai, but I asked my culture teacher why there were not more beat up cars on the road. She said that there is a law that cars aren't allowed to be more than 10 years old. When a car reaches 10 years old, it goes back to the dealer who sold it or the manufacturer or something -- and they just junk it. I'm not sure how true this is, it is just what my teacher told me. If anyone finds out more on this topic, I'll happily post a correction!
Odd Classroom Event
We were sitting in the classroom waiting for class to start and it is very rare we have the lights on, but we did. The Chinese are all about being conservative, to the point where the classes are taught in a room with no lights on and just the shades open on the windows. This particular day, with the lights on - the teacher was trying to turn on the LCD projector for her computer. The projector wasn't turning on. She got closer and held her arm higher, but it wasn't evening indicating it was in standby. The problem was the power supply to the classroom circuit breaker doesn't have enough power to turn on the projector when the florescent lights are on. I find this kind of odd that a fully developed country doesn't have enough power in the class room to power both the lights and the projector. They also don't heat the buildings. It is not uncommon to have all the doors on the main level open to the outside, because there is no heat or air condition. The classrooms have heaters in them, but they only are on when someone has arrive to the class to turn them on.. they're not automatic or programmable.
Contact
So I've decided that Skype doesn't work very well in this hotel. I've switched back to my old MSN messenger @hotmail.com account. If you're on Live Messenger, you can add me by looking for lion460. Also, feel free to send me a text or use the gadget on the right side of the page to leave me a voice mail. It does not have to be anything special, just a call to say hello and what is happening that day in the news. I don't really get to check the news here, because the internet is filter and slow. I am essentially disconnected. Anyways - if you do use the gadget on the right, this is what will happen. You'll type your name and phone number and hit call. It will then call you and connect you to my voice mail. I will check it and get back to you - be sure to leave an email address in the message!
Tonight there's a drinks special out on the town that many of the people on the trip are going to. I'm on my way to join them. Until then - keep in touch, thanks for reading.
Go Colts,
JBiber
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