Against My Better Judgement

Here's a short vlog from my hotel in Shanghai. It's a pretty sweet room, and I have it for a few more hours. I haven't taken a shower yet, so I look pretty scruffy.

This morning I got up at 6:30 and took a walk around the neighborhood. I found where the company was, found where the subway was, both short short walks, so no more cabs in Shanghai.

For breakfast I had two hum bao with pork that were the best I've ever had in my life. So delicious. Not sweet, like the cantonese ones. I've often told people someone oughtta open a ham bao stand in the UDistrict so people can have their hum bao for breakfast... mostly people thought that was a gross idea. Americans are very closed minded when it comes to breakfast.

Anyway, this neighborhood is pretty interesting. There will be pictures when I get back to Hangzhou tonight. I don't want to say it's an "old" neighborhood, but it does have that old-chinese feel to it. When I look to the right, I see two story houses, old people in their pajamas walking, bony security guards asleep in their chairs, young women cooking at their street food stands, the cardboard recycling tricycle guy ringing slowly past a man with a coffee cup, squatting over the gutter to brush his teeth. There was a lovely looking park filled with people walking backwards and forwards, exercising around a winding artificial lake.

Contrast that with the high rises and construction that you see when you look to the left.

On my way back to the hotel, I bought a power strip, so I can charge my computer in the hotel. Four bucks. I saw a pharmacy on the way, so I stopped in, used my PDA to look up the word "bandage" and asked for one. Both the pharmacist and the lady she was talking to were so nice. She pulled out a roll of gauze and asked me if I need tape. I gestured a small cut on my finger, and she brought out some band-aids; her friend said, "that's different!"

Then, as she was about to ring me up, I remembered that in France they have these miracle foot blister strips that make blisters go away in a day. So I pointed to the blister on my toe, and the friend said, "that's another different thing!" So to my delight, she pulled out the magic blister strips and asked me for si kuai wu.

After over a week in China, I still have a hard time figuring out the difference between 4 and 10. In Shanghai and in Hangzhou, they sound the same to me except for tone. The lady wanted 4.50 kuai. She pointed to a five in my wallet.

If I go back to my teaching job in Seattle (probably will!) and decide to come back to China next summer, I've been thinking about going to the north. For one thing, they have the accent I expect, the accent all of my teachers have. That's nice, right? But then I remember, I'm a big fat liberal linguist, to hell with standard language! I can learn a regional variation just as well as a standard, right?

Actually, the main reason I would want to go north next year would be because it's way too hot down here. Way way too hot. Chinese a/c is going to give me bronchitis.