Shanghai, Baoding and the in between

Well, I've done what I told myself I wouldn't. I've let too much time and so many events pile up to the point where it becomes difficult to write about. I've been in China only a week, but I have experienced such a blur, it's already mixed up in my head. But I'm going to try to document it so here I go:

Orientation:

Day 1:

As I mentioned, Day 1 consisted of mainly lectures. Night 1 consisted of taking 2 large buses to a Sichuan (in the US sometimes Szechuan) restaurant where we watched the aforementioned "face changing performance." The meal, and all of our group dinners during orientation, were Chinese banquet style where a group of 10 or 12 sits at a large round table. Dishes are brought out in a seemingly endless procession with (to me) no rhyme or reason to the order or timing. They are placed on a large glass lazy susan almost the size of the table. This is very typical for a Chinese restaurant. As was also the case with the group dinners, this night there were many dishes I liked, and many more I didn't. Nonetheless I still left feeling as though I had eaten my bodyweight, which was a marvel since I thought i had only eaten a few bites (followed by a few more and a few more and oh yeah, a few more).

The performance was set to very boisterous music, and involved the performer rapidly changing the silk mask he wore. So rapidly, that even when we watched the video later and knew when to expect the change, it still appeared flawless. Very fun.

After our return to the hotel most of our group was interested in going out for a drink. Unfortunately organizing a group of close to 25 or 30 is basically impossible. After talking, decision making, decision changing, and then more talking we all headed out of the lobby. We ended up walking in circles, the group slowly spreading out as stragglers fell behind, and speed walkers jumped ahead. The group began shrinking as different units gave up on the parade of Americans and began to split. I ended up sticking with a group of about 6 or 7 who ducked into a little restaurant/bar we had passed a few times (it had not been the intended destination. but apparently the intended destination was not to be found that night). We ordered a couple reasonably priced pitchers of beer and enjoyed the conversation (and the card tricks by Felice -- I'm in awe of this girl). Back home a couple hours later, I was tucked in bed comfortably well before midnight.

Day 2:

Stunning shot by Josh Mansker

More of the same. Lesson planning, survival Chinese, lectures and then after a lunch an excursion. We went to Shanghai museum, which was very neat. Some really stunning exhibits, but at times very odd and not very informative captioning. Such as "stone square" or "Jade carving of a monkey" with very little background or explanation. I probably should have picked up an audio tour thing. It was fun, but we ended up having a lot of spare time after wandering around all the exhibits. We decided to sit at the tea room and have a snack, but soon discovered the tea room was more of a cafeteria, and the tea or coffee was 30 kuai (rmb/yuan) a cup. Instead we decided to leave

neat shot of the museum lobby - Andrew Capone

the museum and wander around outside a bit. We didn't get far before having to meet back up at the buses.

Next was a vegetarian restaurant (Jujube tree). Great reviews, very popular with Westerners, but unfortunately not my thing. I am a little opposed to a food (debatable in my opinion) that masquerades as other foods, so the tofu was out. And the tofu was everything. It was really a beautiful meal though, very intricate dishes, and I did my best to try nearly everything.

4 motorcyclists zooming around -by Leslie

Then it was back to the buses and on to the Acrobatic Show. I had seen a similar Acrobatic Show in Beijing, but it was still absolutely marvelous. We were in the front row, and literally had performers swing from large ribbons of silk directly over our heads.  By this time I was exhausted from the long day, and jetlag was hitting me hard, so I was glad to be led back to the buses and return to the hotel, where my exhaustion won.

Day 3:

perfect example -- fabulous shot by Josh

Standard breakfast, lectures, lesson planning practice and Chinese classes, and then another excursion after lunch. This time we went to the old shanghai quarter, which was very neat, but also very manufactured. Reminded me of the Old - New Souq in Doha, with the "renovated to look like traditional" architecture, and the commercial, Westernized reality. Still very awesome. We ate at a restaurant specializing in seafood. I really liked this food. The stand out dishes to me were the Gong Bao Ji Ding (kung pow chicken with cashews) and the sweet and sour fish (which is served whole, staring at you. So cool!).

taken by leslie

another beautiful view by Leslie

Then it was onwards, to cruise the river. We all piled onto the second deck of the boat and grabbed seats. The buildings had been lit up; on one side of the river the French Concession area with stately, European, elegant buildings, and on the other, futuristic, giant LCD screen sporting, anything-but-uniform feats of engineering. It rained a little, but all in all a lovely evening.
It was then decided, that since we were in the area, why not go out somewhere nice. Many ideas were thrown around, but I ended up joining a group that made its way up 87 floors to the tallest bar in the world: Cloud 9. We were prepared for the rather brutal prices, recognizing that such a rare experience comes at a high price. We went for the view (which unfortunately was largely obscured, but allowed us the very unusual experience of being entirely surrounded by clouds). As well as the novelty of being so far above the city, we also had front row seats to our own private magic show done by a Chinese man who claimed to be a student of David Blaine. (Don't worry, its back to reality now that I'm in Baoding about to start teaching tomorrow.)

CIEE group!