I think that the Chinese invited the fad of mixing prints.  My first visit here I was taken aback by the propensity of the women to wear stripes, polka dots and flower prints all at once.  That was a little too much for this “no white after labor day” New Englander to handle.  It has gotten a little better- switching out patterns for trends.   On my run Saturday mid day- I encountered a group of middle-aged women- all dressed up for a day in Shanghai. Now, they were wearing a lot of black- but with mixed textures and styles.  One woman had on a leather mini skirt, black stockings and combat boots… and a sparkly sweater.  Oh, and she was about 45 or 50.  Her friends were that much better off- they had on knock off Uggs and skirts too- but some type of textured satin.  And it was raining so they had bags on their heads.  I am sure I didn’t look too much better to them in my running capris, Callaway visor and Amphipod running belt.

The other odd fad here is the younger generation wears very large ‘nerd’ glasses- with out lenses- as an accessory. How we wear scarves or earings.  Both sexes. I found it very amusing as a full-time glasses wearer- who switches into contacts when I go out to the clubs, they put on glasses.  Well, frames actually.  I was tempted to buy a pair from a vendor by the subway this weekend… wear them out to the club with my contacts… but I just couldn’t do it.  Maybe next time.

… cause there are pickpockets up in here trying to snatch up yo belongings. Yep, that’s right.  I almost got pickpocketed while walking around during lunch this week.

My co worker Danielle and I often take walks during lunch to get out of the office- and we decided to go cell phone cover shopping during lunch (who can pass up a knock off Paul Frank iPhone cover for 3 USD? Not me!) On our way back we stopped at the local corner store and picked up some steam buns for our lunch. We are walking, chatting, munching… I have my purse behind me, across my body.  I didn’t have it zipped- maybe it was the fact I was walking by work mid day that I was lax in my normal paranoia regarding pickpockets.  I usually think they lurk on the crowded metro or in the tourist areas.  Not on the street where my office is located.  So here we are, strolling along and I feel my purse lifting from my butt.  I turn around to catch this guy with his hand in my purse lifting my sunglass case out… my sunglass case looks like a purse- it’s clutch shaped.  I yelled “HEY!” and leaned toward him. He lets go and says “Sorry” – like he slipped and his hand fell into my purse.

I was so startled I didn’t quite know what to do as he slunk away back to his little gaggle of thugs.  There were 4 of them in total.  They must have been following us since we were foreigners, and not paying attention.   But it happens to locals too.  That night we had dinner with a friend of ours.  We tell the story and she says that in the past 6 months she has gotten 3 phones stolen from her.  Lifted at a club- stolen right out of her front pocket as she listening to music on it… again, a group of guys were following her and one just ran up, and snatched it right out of her pocket- and they all just scattered.

Moral of the story:  Walk with your purse in the front of your body, and make sure it’s always zipped.

When I lived in Chicago, I did so with out a car for about 8 years.  Who needs a car when you can get anywhere on the el or the bus?  When you have Peapod that will delivery your groceries and carry them up three flights of stairs? Once again, I live in a large city with out a car.  Living in Southern California- everyone drives.  You can’t get anywhere with out a car- no good public transportation and everything is very spread out.  Heck, I had a 30 mile drive to work.  Living in Shanghai is similar to Chicago.  Good metro system, lots of cabs, and crazy traffic.  It does present a smallish problem when it comes to grocery shopping. Heavy things, like cleaning suppliers, are not fun to lug on the metro or in and out of cabs.  But, you do it. There are delivery services, but I am never sure when I am going to be home, so I don’t choose to use them.  Also, just like in Chicago, I tend to go to certain stores for certain things.  There are large grocery stores such as Carrefour, which is like a Super Target.  One floor is small appliances, shoes, clothes…. second floor is the grocery store.  But, their produce leaves something to be desired.  But, you can buy an ironing board, an iron, a rice cooker and an HDMI cable all in one trip.  Ok, it took me two, since I have to lug it either in a cab or on the metro.  There is a nice little grocery store down the street from me- nice produce, good meat and fish, but the fruit is not up to snuff.  That is where the fruit vendors come in.  They sell nothing but fruit- apples, bananas, grapes, oranges, etc.  And then there are the bakeries, where you get your thick cut ‘milk toast’ bread.   I go to the store about 3 times a week- produce doesn’t last as long here and I have a smallish fridge.  To find Western foods- you need to go to a specialty store- that is code for expensive and in Pudong – and I made a stop there last week.  Spices, taco shells and cool ranch Doritos made it home with me.

I have been cooking some- lots of stir fry and noodles, some rice, and even some pasta and sauce.  This morning was scrambled eggs and home fries.  I was hoping to make french toast (scored some maple syrup on sale at the specialty store) but the bread I bought at the bakery yesterday had ‘meat floss’ in it.. think  beef jerky finely shredded.  Hmmm… no thank you.  I made ma po tofu last week and brought the left overs to work… yummy! Many people don’t cook here- eating out is just so inexpensive if you ‘go native’.  You can get a nice meal for 20 RMB – $3.25 American dollars….. But then again, I can buy an entire bag full of produce and such at the grocery store for the same amount.  Two meals worth of tofu cost me thirty cents.

There is a gym a block from my house- I signed up when I moved into my apartment and made it there for the first time this week.  It isn’t bad- two floors, includes a pool, a spin room and other classes.  The treadmills are OK, and I have yet to venture over to the weights.  I ran 5k on the treadmill with out too much issue, which was very comforting given the fact I had only run once before that since I moved.  There is a marathon and half marathon on Dec 4th in Shanghai that I want to run- so I need to get to training.  Did 5 miles on Saturday morning.  The first mile was fine- streets were pretty open… and then came the crowds.  It was almost as bad as dodging runners during the first mile of a race.  Weaving in and out.. coming to a dead stop since people are walking three abreast.  You also have to dodge electric scooters and cars- because for some reason when pedistrians have the walk signal, cars turning right on red seem to have the right of way…  Only once close call in 5 miles so I consider myself lucky.  The air quality wasn’t awesome, but I didn’t have too much of an issue with my asthma at all- so that was a relief!

After the race in December I want to start taking weekend trips to the surrounding cities. Suzhou, Hangzhou, maybe even the high speed up to Beijing.

Sometimes, you just want some pancakes for breakfast.  I miss breakfast food the most so far in my time here- I found peanut butter, micro wave popcorn, pasta and sauce.  I have not located pancake mix and I can only imagine the cost.  Boxes of cereal are super pricey- like $8 american dollars.  So today, after a night out at a local club where we celebrated a co workers birthday, we decided to head for some breakfast at Mr Pancake.  Turns out, that I can WALK to Mr. Pancake from my house.  It is on Wuding Lu, which one the streets that borders my complex.  1.7 KM later, we are at Mr Pancake house.  There are a ton of expats outside- it reminds of any brunch place on a Sunday.  Luckily some friends were already inside and we were able to join them and avoid the 45 min wait.  The menu was mouth-watering… blue berry pancakes, banana nut, omelette, oh my!  Yes please.  I ordered the vegetarian omelette, comes with home fries and pancakes and a coffee, for $35 RMB.  Yep, that is $5 USD.  Score.  It was delightful.  I have had better for sure, being a breakfast lover and all, but man, pancakes in China?  They tasted like heaven.  They tasted like home.

Since I moved apartments on Thursday of last week- I now take the metro to work rather than walking the entire journey.  My commute starts off with a 10-15 walk to the metro stop along a few sides streets until I hit Nanjing Lu- a major street – where the metro station is located.  I was eased into the metro when I went out to the ‘Pearl Market’ during golden week (I shall write about that another post), and it was good that I did ‘ease’ into it because there is nothing easy about taking the metro in Shanghai during rush hour.  I was thinking about how to compare the process to taking the ‘el’ in Chicago and the best I could come up with is the Addison stop on the red line after a cubs game.  This is rush hour on the metro in Shanghai.  The good thing is that the trains run often.. no waiting for 20 mins like I did back in Chicago.. this is like the brown line at rush hour frequency.  About one every 5 mins.  And each one is PACKED.  I only need to go two stops…. one stop is the People’s Square stop.  I got off at that stop once, and I saw signs for no less than 17 exits. That’s big.

The boarding process is somewhat of a free for all. Sure there are little arrows painted on the ground for you to follow in terms of letting the folks exit the train in the middle of the door and enter from the sides, but not one really follows that.  In Tokyo everyone queues up very nicely.. in Shanghai, you push your way on. At the People’s Square stop I have seen people actually line up to get on the train, and there are actually people there who work for the metro who will somewhat scold you if you are not standing in the proper place, but it’s not all that effective. People still stand where they will and shove their way on and off the train. There is also no waiting to passenger to get off the train before others attempt to board, you just fight your way out.

The announcements at each stop are made in Chinese and English, as are all the stop names.  It’s rather easy to take once you ride it once. You can buy a rechargeable card (I did) or you can pay as you go.  To buy a card you walk up to the kiosk, select the little ‘english’ icon, and then you find the stop you are going to get off at, touch it, and then a fare amount pops up.  You pay basically how far you travel. The most I have paid is 4 RMB… that’s less than 50 cents a ride.  Not bad.

So each morning I walk to the metro- haven’t found a side street with snacks yet so I am totally missing my scallion pancakes.  Bummer. The metro stop where I disembark is only about a 5 min walk from the office.  Door to door it takes me about 40 mins or so- which is longer than the 20 min walk at the temp housing, but I still think that’s not bad since I get a nice walk in the AM.  I may not be saying ‘nice walk’ once the Shanghai summer hits..

*sidenote- my washing machine cycle is finally done and it just played a little tune. Not like I couldn’t tell it was done since the thing is LOUD*

Bathroomlaundry room

Living roomDining room

Bedroom BathroomKitchen

Unfurnished study/guest roomlaundry roomKitchenDining roomLiving room

I am on holiday this week.  Monday was “National Day”- kind of like our 4th of July.  It is followed by a week off from work, and then at least for my company 7 straight days of work. They refer to this week as “golden week” – mostly because people go out and spend their hard earned money shopping, visiting relatives, basically boosting the economy.  Not unlike our ‘black Friday’ in the US. So, in true capatlist fashion, I went to Ikea to go shopping to furnish my new place.  There are two Ikea’s in Shanghai- one in PuDong and one in PuXi (east of the river and west of the river).  I attempted to locate the larger and newer on in Pudong earlier this week ad got amazingly lost.  Like 45 mins outside of Shanghai lost.  The website said “free shuttles buses at the exit” so I followed the crowd to an area where buses were staged, asked “dao Ikea ma?”  ‘going to Ikea’?  Bus driver says ‘shi’ or ‘yes’… so I hop on board.  I should have known something was up when they collected 17 yuan from me – “hmmm thought it was free- maybe I read it wrong”. We head out of the city- a bus full of youngish looking Chinese and me.  And we keep going.  And going. And going.  We finally get to a location and everyone gets off… so I get off.  And again, follow the crowd.  Hmmm… doesn’t look like a shopping area to me… I walk up to a gate and ask the gent guarding it “Ikea shi tzi na li?”  “where is the Ikea” he replies “ting bu dong”  “sorry, I dont understand what you are saying” but he allows me through the gate. Hmmm….  I walk up to a sign post that has some English on it. Lo and behold I am on a college campus.  WTF? So I walk back to the terminal where a taxi driver tries to get me to hire him. Hell dude- I don’t even know where I am!  Luckily a student walks by, the cab driver hails him over. I ask “shoa ying wen ma?”  “speak English?”  He did.  Thank goodness.  He walked me over to where I could catch the express bus back to the metro stop.  I met some nice female students headed out of town for holiday- they kept me company on the long trek back to the metro stop.  I headed home after that.

Not to be thwarted- I headed to the Ikea in the city the next day.  And found it without getting too lost. Man oh man.  Picture your neighborhood Ikea on a Saturday during a sale.  Now multiple that by 3.  That’s the Ikea I experienced.  They have arrows painted on the floor so you don’t go against the flow of traffic.  I walked around, picked out what I wanted and started a list…. picked up some nice pillows that matched the couch and a frying pan.  Paid, got my ‘fa piao’ or official receipt, and headed home.

I moved into my new place today. I was staying at a ‘temp’ housing location- a ‘serviced’ apartment which means that they come twice a week, take out my trash, tidy up and change out the linens.  My new place is semi furnished- which means a couch, TVs, some dressers and a bed.  My apartment rental service agency dude – James- helped me to negotiate additional furniture for the guest room/study. We hung out in the place this AM for the internet guy and the satellite TV guy to come (if you want English channels you must have sat TV) and after that we headed to Ikea where I picked out my sofa bed and desk –  along with some other things like sheets and towels.  You forget how much crap you need to live in a place.  I need to head back there to pick up dishes and utensils, kitchen gadgets like scissors and a decent sized garbage can.  I think I might try it tonight- since my buddy James told me everyone goes back to work on Saturday.  Remember that whole working 7 days in a row thing I mentioned?  Yeah, that starts Saturday.  Sheesh.  I’ll post some pics of my place- unfurnished as it is since the delivery of my other furniture happens next week – you can pay to have it assembled too!  I paid 106 RMB to get it delivered and set up.  Yeah, that’s roughly $17 USD.  done and done.

 

In addition to becoming reaquanted with the day to day life of a materials manager for a steel distribution company, I have been searching for my permanent apartment.  I am currently in a two bedroom ‘service’ apartment- meaning that the staff comes twice a week to change the linens and clean up a bit. The service apartment is serving as my temp housing as I figure out the ins and out of renting a place here in Shanghai.

I’ll compare it to finding a place in Chicago.  There is not really a craiglist here… or a Chicago Reader where you can input a zip code and a price range.  Instead, you have some rental agencies websites that will list out average apartment prices in various ‘compounds’ in different ‘districts’.  A district is like a neighborhood back in Chicago- Wrigleville, Lakeview, Logan Square.  I am looking in Jing’an, Huangpu and looked at a place in Pudong, which is on the other side of the river.  Jing’an is the more ‘social’ district, with lots of malls, bars, restaurants.  Huangpu includes the Bund and is where my office is located.  On a few websites you can sometimes input the monthly rent parameters and district you want to review, some you just sorta click on the links and look at the photos of ‘model’ units in the different buildings you are interested in looking at.  Of course all of the photos look fantastic and the rent seems reasonable.  When you inquire about a specific apartment its rented but they can show you one just like it… for a little bit more money.  Just like in Chicago.

I have seen about 7 apartments all through out my price range and I found one that had almost everything I wanted.  I decided that was near my office didn’t fit the bill- most of the buildings were old and small….. apartments that were on a high floor with a view that I could afford were older and not very well maintained, or only a one bedroom.  The two bedrooms range from 100- 120 sq meters… (900 – 1100 sq feet), which is decent living space- one bedrooms were only 60 sq m. – roughly 600 sq feet.  I saw some stunning, large, breathtaking views from Pudong, but they all felt a million miles away from the action.  I saw some small, dingy apartments on the low side of my budget.  The apartment I chose is a two bedroom, in the Jing’an district.  About a 10 min walk from the #2 Metro, and it’s two stops to my office.  It is about a 5 min walk from the metro stop to my office building. I have not yet braved the metro, but hey, I took the el in Chicago during rush hour so I know what I am facing….

The kitchens here in China are small and usually have a three burner gas stove with NO OVEN.  Chinese don’t bake.  They also don’t use dryers to dry their clothes- they hang dry everything. I saw two apartments with a dryer and an oven- the land lords must have wanted American expats. Oh, that’s the other thing.  The apartments are usually owned by individual landlords.  You might get one that is owned by a company, like a Hong Kong based realty company, but usually it’s an individual landlord.  So my kitchen is workable, I have a balcony and a little alcove where my washer is… two bedrooms, one is a master.  Two bathrooms- one with heated marble floors (oh, they also love marble floors here.)  Mostly a dark hardwood floor.  I saw this particular apartment during my first day of viewing and was tempted to sign for it then and there, but I decided to keep looking.  After a few more lackluster places I decided to go back and view it again, and said ‘I’ll take it’.  Even though it’s only on the 6th floor and doesn’t have a stellar view… it’s clean, well laid out, decent sized kitchen.  I will post pics soon.

I hope to move in this weekend.  Since my housing is part of my ‘package’ my company pays my rent directly to the rental agency.( Which is also good because they pay rent quarterly here… that means three months rent up front, along with the security deposit! That’s a lot of coin.)   I decided to go through the agency since my landlord doesn’t speak English. The agency gets a percentage of the rent as a ‘fee’ but this means I have a contact that will negotiate with the landlord and who is responsible for getting things set up like my satellite TV and internet, gym membership, etc.  He will also be my contact if something breaks with the apartment…

There is an Ikea here in Shanghai- two actually, so looks like I am going to be making a few trips there in order to set up my place, which isn’t a bad thing. I will be looking on some expat sites to see if anyone is selling anything like a rice maker, toaster oven, etc so I don’t have to buy it all new.  I will post pics of my place as soon as I get the key!