Weekend Things

Weather:  6C "clear" aka ... smoggy

Local Time: Monday 1045pm Feb 1st

This weekend was a pretty poor weekend to try and be doing too much of anything outdoors.  The forecast for the week seems to match that same attitude.  Rain is expected to dominate the forecast keeping in the mid to upper 40Fs as a high.

Saturday

Knock-Off Market

I really only wanted to go to the knock off market to see if I could pick up some athletic shorts.  This didn't work out but it was still very interesting to see.  In tradition Shanghai style, the market is multiple stories tall in what was likely once a factory of some sort.  Each floor was roughly the size of 4 football fields worth of goods.  The basement is filled with shoes.  Since it's fake product, there's always something visible incorrect about them.  On of my favorite examples came on a pair of shoes my friend bought.  He got New Balance, and on one side the "N" is correct, but the other side the "N" the same direction.. making a mirror effect.  All of the shoes that have been bought have been reported to be painful to wear, but for less than 10usd, I think that should be expected.

As should be expected at any of these shopping areas, there are young men who are paid to try and lure you into the store.  One of the people I was with had been there the previous day and knew one of the sales men.  We dubbed them the Personal Shopping Assistant/Annoyance (PSA).  As soon as we had walked up to the factory sized building two PSAs recognized a group member I was with and began to "help" us shop.  They didn't specialize in the shoes area, but they patiently waited 30+ minutes as we browsed.  I believe these people are on a commission type of system with the stores they try and push you into.  They waited for us to be ready to go upstairs and once we got to the second floor they became much more pushy about where we should be going.  As Americans, we were not too inclined to be told what to do and where to go.  I especially don't enjoy this type of shopping experience, I don't like shopping as it is - the last thing I need is some guy telling me where to buy things.  I walked away from our group of eight and started browsing on my own.  I was farther than 80 ft before one of the PSAs noticed I'd wandered away.  He started down the hall way saying "Sir! Sir!" about every.. 3 seconds.  I didn't turn around despite hearing him and waited for him to tap be on the shoulder.  He wanted to know what I was looking for, but I wasn't about to tell him.  (If you haven't figured it out yet, that wouldn't change anything about their objective)

After a couple minutes he faded back to the larger group that was actually buying things.  I got to wander the second floor on my own for a bit.  I made it to a less crowded area and as I came around a corner there was a group of about nine PSAs and ALL nine began to say.. "DVD! WATCH! HANDBAG!"  I wasn't thrilled by this, though I used it for practicing my deaf act.  I continued to walk and ignore.  A rather persistent fellow kept on my tail for many minutes.  I met back up with the group and they had acquired a tail as well.  If you walk towards their shop and then pass it they'll leave you alone for a bit.

The second to last interaction with random PSAs happened with an older lady before we left.  Remember, these people are hired because they know a little bit of english.  We were taught in Chinese class that when they people bother us, just say "bu yao" (Boo ya-ow) meaning - no want.  I was with a few of the others and the girl I was with said no want to the older chinese lady.  She replied basically-- "no want? you don't know what you want, why would you say that?"  I then stopped walking and sternly but politely said, "You're wasting your time.  Please leave us alone.  I do not want that."  She mocked me, so I raised my voice a little bit, and asked her to leave us alone.  I wasn't yelling but speaking firmly.  I asked her which way to go she pointed and started to call someone.  We made two steps in her direction then did a 180 and left her in the dust. She clearly has never seen an NFL game.

Finally, as we waited to meet up with our group... we were approached by the last PSA of that area.  He started on his typical sales pitch, shirts, coats, shoes... I was just having fun messing with them as usual.  I began to repeat him.  As be said an item I pointed to it on my body.  He continued to repeat his sales pitch, I repeated him and pointed at other group members clothing as he mentioned it.  It just made him smile and leave us alone.

Fabric Market

It was the second day a row I went to the tailor area.  One of the girls got some pants tailored and wanted to try them on.  To make a long story short, they didn't fit at all for her, completely the wrong cuts.  They were going to try and fix it but she has very little faith.  I had a few more of my friends look at that Korean style jacket and we decided it is not for me.

Applebee's

We got dinner at Applebee's.  It was a good finish to a long day of being on our feet.  I ate like an American at an American restaurant.  I was overly full, as most Americans are, when I finished my meal.  It was a little cheaper, I got a soda/coke/pop/kele/pepsi and a burger for 8usd.  We all ate like hogs.

Tanghui VIP

I had found a club on a website for shanghai activities.  It seemed like a really good deal for something so unique.  15usd gets an open bar for the evening.  It works like most open bars in Shanghai, theres four or five liquors and five or six mixers.  Rum, Whiskey, Vodka, Gin - that kinda stuff.  We tried to get a booth at this place, but the expectation to get a booth is to spend 2000 RMB or about 300usd on alcohol.  We all had wristbands for a lot less so we didn't really need to spend anything like that so we waited and then got a table - I hope we didn't kick anyone off that table thought.  About fifteen of us went out that evening, and we were the only US citizens in the bar.  There was one other man from Canada and nearly everyone else was Chinese.  It was a lot of fun for us because we dominated the dance stages.  I got a lot of really good videos that evening.  Most oddly aside from the US dancing, was the opening act.  Apparently, it was a themed evening and there was an Avatar dance.  It was really odd - two folks danced on the bar doing splits and stuff.  I can't really describe it.  I initially wondered if we had stumbled into a gay club because there wasn't very much co-ed dancing going out, turns out thats just not the Chinese style.  There were women and men and it was full of very nicely dressed people, but the culture here is all about being reserved and disciplined.  Conservatism is a common theme, which isn't what you'd find at many American dance clubs.

Sunday

Nothing especially excellent happened.  It should be documented as the day I found a Brazilian BBQ within walking distance.  When I say "walking distance" I'm referring to the walk there, not the walk back.  If you're leaving a Brazilian BBQ, nothing is withing walking distance anymore, not even the car you drove there in.  It takes about ten minutes to get there.  It got me thinking, I wonder if there are any others in Shanghai that would be better.  I found online that some places highly recommend, what happens to be, the cheapest B-BBQ.  For 78 yuan or 11.40usd you get to part take in the all you can eat buffet.  If you're unfamiliar with the B-BBQ style, it starts with a small salad and maybe some soup.  Then you're given a coaster sized indicator colored red and green on opposing sides.  Green means keep it coming.  They'll bring out all kinds of meet to your table and just shave off as much as you want right at your seat.  Beef, Pork, Chicken, Fish, etc.. usually 15 kinds of meats.  When you're full flip the indicator to red.  This is a very good price for this type of eatery.  I am excited and I will report back.

Chinese Tea House

Our culture class took us to a local tea house.  It is a Chinese tradition to head to these types of establishments to get the best tea available.  It was an interesting cultural experience to see how seriously the locals take their tea.  Some of the prices were quite high, 100+usd per 500 grams.  Many teas were cheaper, few were more expensive than that.  I got the opportunity to taste many types of tea.  Different green teas, jasmine, many other flowers, mixes of flowers, black teas, and others I can't remember.  I do know I didn't find any of them particularly compelling.  I'm not a big tea guy.  If people like tea and want some, I've learn a lot about how to prepare it.  Never use water over 80C.  Let it soak for a minute or so, but no longer than three minutes before serving.  These instructions vary by variety, but it was all over my head and mostly not in English.

I want to let you know, this was suppose to be a short post - it wasn't; that is alright though.  Thanks for reading.

JBiber