Weather: 16C sunny with a hint of blue in the sky (hazy)
Local Time: 10am
Formula 1 Tickets
Friday afternoon, I came back from class and counted the money. I had over 7400 yuan cash in hand. Oddly, the preferred method of payment was cash on delivery. They do not accept international credit cards on the website or over the phone. I had a scheduled delivery time of noon to two and after about an hour the man showed up with the tickets in the lobby. I was happy when he used the hotel's money counting machine rather than going through by hand. I now have my ticket in hand and I am ready for the mid-april weekend. Hopefully the weather is great.
Shanghai Vehicles
It sounds like cars must be less than ten years old. The cars around here are rather usual. It is quite common to see the big brands, Honda, Toyota, BMW, VW, and Chevy. There are some local name brands as well that I'm not familiar with. There is the occasional Porsche. The most odd thing to many of the Americans around here is the luxury associated with the brand name Buick. Buick is the luxury of China from what I'm told. There are still Park Avenues being manufactured here, where as in the USA that car went out of production in 2007 or so. That being said, it is not the same exact car as in America. They have a newer body style and look quite nice. If I come across a parked car, I'll try to take a photo. Police use many kinds of cars, VW, Buick, and Chevy from what I've seen. Taxi's are almost all VWs. They are an older body style, but if I have heard the rules correctly taxi cabs are not allowed to be older than five years.
Knock-Off Markets
I didn't make it to the KOM this weekend, but some of my friends went. The KOM is a place where they sell items with name brands that are not actually name brand items, this is where my PSA experience happened the previous weekend. I called my friends in the morning and told them I would likely need some more athletic shorts and a better back pack for my upcoming biking trip. I told them what I was willing to pay and kindly accepted the burden. I was out looking for colts jersey's at the time (good game saints) when I got called about the shorts. I got two pairs of tennis shorts for about 11 usd. Not a terrible deal. I also ended up getting a "North Face" hiking backpack for 13.50usd. All items are quite usable, and I used the backpack on the biking trip the next day.
City Shop
I had a shopping list from the trip coordinator, and I figured that many of the items would be difficult to find at the local supermarket. I had heard about an international type store not far, so I headed to City Shop. Armed with my new backpack I was ready to purchase items, there is a charge for bags (.2 yuan per plastic bag). I found some more cheese, I also was able to get some Munchies (Cheese Fix) as well as some American Lays BBQ. I also found some gatorade and powerbars. It was expensive, I spent about 36usd on what would have been 25-30 in USA but I was happy to have them on the trip. That being said, the gatorade doesn't taste the same as back home. There are chips in the Chinese supermarkets, but they aren't classic flavors that I'm use to. I've tried many of these chips and found that the favors are strikingly accurate. Roasted Chicken, BBQ Pork Ribs, Tomato and (something random), as well as shrimp and other very unpromising flavors. Having some home style bbq chips is amazing. I will enjoy food way to much when I get home.
Big Bang Theory
I brought along a few seasons of Big Bang Theory. I am surprised to see how many engineers haven't seen the show. It is one of my favorites these days. Over the weekend there was a bit of a BBT party in my room. About twelve of us crammed into my room and watched a few episodes from season one. Those who hadn't seen it liked it a lot, those who had seen it enjoyed it. I heard someone say, who would know you can make so many jokes referencing science and math - I thought of my friend Dave who will always try that pun or joke no matter how corny it may be.
Brasil Steak House
Saturday night was another one of the amazing experiences at the lovely B-BBQ. A long story short, we went to the a bbq that was just about 20 minutes walk away and costs 99 RMB or about 14.50usd. We were enjoying the all-you-can-eat protein fest. I was with an adventurous set of friends so we tried some of the odd dishes. I ate; grilled chicken, chicken wings, roast beef, steaks, beef tongue, duck, chicken wrapped in bacon, sausage, flan, fruit bread, cooked bananas, garlic bread, lasagna, and other things I can't think of right now. It was again one of the top meals of my lifetime. Those restaurant are amazing and if you can find one it is completely worth it. I feel fortunate that I was able to eat at one for only 15usd because normally they are much more expensive than that.
Nanbei Lake
On Sunday this weekend, marking one month since I left the USA, I went on a biking trip with an outdoors group I found via a website for weekend entertainment in Shanghai. I knew going into it that the weather wasn't going to be the best, but I also knew going into it that I was the only male going on the trip. I had high hopes that the six other women would be about my age, athletic, fun, attractive, and adventurous. I wasn't too shocked to be greeted by an older group of women who were mostly all forty plus except for the guide who was probably in her late twenties. The weather in Shanghai was a light rain and about 55F. That morning, I walked to the meeting point in shorts and was passing folks with very large coats and very shocked looks on their faces. Nanbei Lake is about two hours outside of Shanghai to the southwest.
The conversation on the bus was fairly basic at first for a group that was unfamiliar with each other, occupation, time in shanghai, and location were the dominate questions. (Teachers + business people, Canada;south Africa; France; Germany) After a bit of small talk I wanted to ask some useful questions. I started by asking the expatriates if they were making local wages or international wages. They talked about how they're making more than they would be making in their home counties because of the housing allowances, displacement fees, hardship bonuses, etc. They noted it was a very good deal and they were able to live a lifestyle of luxury because of living in Shanghai. I also brought up health care, to ask how the systems work in their home countries. The general consensus was the socialized system is usually full of trouble as far as how long it takes to get care as well as a quality of care being generally lower than a private system. They said that if you can afford to have private health care and if it is available in that country, it would be the way to go. Better conditions, faster treatment, don't need to wait for an MRI where as with the social medicine plan it's possible that the MRI could take over a month to get. We stopped at a rest stop and it was odd. You can see a good example of the weather in the panorama. It kept up with tradition of not caring to heat the facilities or have doors installed on the building. I also very much enjoyed the translation of the signs at the rest stop. (Above photos) We continued on and got to the park.
I don't know really how much to describe about the park. The weather was misty and cool. We rode around the lake for awhile in the morning and stopped at some of the interesting places. There was an island that had a Chinese Garden on it, it was connected to mainland by a footbridge. It was a very nice garden. The most unique and serene part of the lake was it was nearly completely still. The reflections were unbelievable. I have quite a few pictures but I don't want to spoil the fun by posting all of them. I borrowed a 5 MP point and shoot camera to take on the trip, it fairly well. The park was different than the American equivalent because despite paying admission there were definitely people living in there. Houses, fruit fields, restaurants, hotels, tourist attractions, small shops, etc. It was very odd because at some points we were riding through back alleys of these small villages. The residents all had their gardens to live off of and wild chickens and ducks. It was a different experience. We rode around quite a bit in the morning and had lunch at a Chinese restaurant. It was nothing special, more chopsticks practice.
The afternoon started on the bike but then switched to hiking. We went up at 200m tall hill and when we got to the top we could see all the misty fog we'd be walking through the entire way up. We were quite literally in the thick of it. Pictures of this location didn't really show anything other than about 250 ft of visibility. As the hike continued the fog cleared a little bit. We saw some bamboo growing and visiting some "scenic view" spots that were essentially worthless from the fog. We finished the afternoon at a small fortified Daoist Temple. It was interesting to see that very old building still being used.
Other quick observations:
The highways have bumps from small elevation changes; over two hours this probably happened four times.
The highways have tolls, it could have been the one road we were on, but it was fairly expensive and multi stops.
There is an "I-Pass" type RFID system to pay tolls, if the car has the equipment installed.
They use worms for fishing here too.
Many quickly build structure use bamboo. Even in Shanghai, bamboo is used to build construction scaffolding.
Despite not many people being in the park as tourist, almost all the shops were open and staffed, begging for business as we passed.
Super Bowl
I did get to see game 44 in its entirety. I even saw The Who over halftime. Outside the US, the game was broadcast on ESPN apparently. The commercials that were seen on CBS were not shown here. I was happy to see the game, it was great. I enjoyed almost all of it. There were a few plays I would like to have not happened, but the Colts had a great season anyways. I'm not that into The Who, and the last few games have left me wanting MTV's management of the Super Bowl again. They haven't been allowed to manage it since the wardrobe malfunction. I would rather hear new music and keep the generations that watch the Super Bowl together as a nation current with music, not fall into tradition. I'm living where tradition is taken into account in nearly everything that is done. It is a hindrance to progression.
These are my thoughts,
JBiber
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