Why Are They Laughing at Us??

I've been in China for 2 weeks, and today was a really great day for adventuring and exploring the city of Shanghai a bit more, especially because I had the day off of work...

Paul (a newly arrived intern, 22 yrs old from Wisconsin) and I did some pretty huge things. First off, we found the Wal-Mart of China - Century Mart. It has everything from gas powered scooters to cereal boxes to mini kegs of beer, and it's right around the corner from our apartment. I imagine I'll spend quite a bit of time there over the next 10 weeks for all the basic necessities. From there, we set out to find a way to golf. I called around to a few clubs and didn't really have much success in the area of public courses in Shanghai, however I was able to get in touch with a Chinese man named Tommy who works for the 'Captain Golf Club' only a 30 minute metro ride away from our apartment. After he tried very diligently to convince us to become members of his club with the poor English that he could produce over the phone, we agreed to swing by to speak with him face to face. And look where it got us :-) ...

One hour of free driving range time with unlimited balls and free rental clubs!!

We got to the Golf Club (which was a three level driving range with a lounge, bar, restaurant, pro shop, and more built into the clubhouse...incredibly nice) and Tommy took us upstairs into his office where he continued to try and convince us that a membership to his golf club was the way to go. Essentially, it worked out to a $400 USD one-time 6 month membership fee which got us some golf hats and polos, free rental clubs, 12 hours of free driving range time, and access to all the Shanghai golf courses for $80 per 18 holes. Without the membership, it would cost us about $200 to play 18 holes at any of the courses in Shanghai. With or without the membership, it just wasn't worth it to us. Tommy still wasn't having it, so he gave us a free hour on the driving range to try and sway us into the membership. So we hit a ton of balls for a while, then told him it still wasn't for us and we took off. If we do ever find ourselves longing to play some golf, it seems that shooting 9 or 18 holes is out of the question because all the courses around here are clubs that cost way too much money, but we can always go back to the Captain Golf Club and hit balls for one hour with rental clubs for $20 USD...so that's always an option.

After golf, we headed off to one of China's infamous 'black markets' where they have tons of different fake products sold in many various types of small shops. It was a really cool site to see, actually. Imagine a nice, clean, compact mall with tiny stores back to back to back wrapping around every corner with shop-owners standing at each front entrance encouraging you to buy their products, and the ability to basically tell them what you want to pay. It was fantastic - Paul and I spent about 4 hours there. I picked up a new back pack (since I have accepted that mine will never come back from Delta), a USA Soccer team jersey, a long sleeve button up shirt, and 6 DVDs. The movies I picked up are Shutter Island, Invictus, Bounty Hunter, The Blind Side, Iron Man 2, and Sherlock Holmes. All of these things were accumulated for only $90 USD...epic! Bargaining the prices down is definitely an art, though. You've got to take them down at least 75% of the first price that they give you, and then work your way up from there. If you get stuck and they won't go any lower, you walk out, that's guaranteed to get them to drop the price. It was a lot of fun, and I'm sure we'll definitely go back many more times. I've got to pick up a phone charger, a camera battery charger, some dress ties, more button-up shirts, and who knows what else.

From the market, we ventured out to find a new place to eat dinner near our apartment and we found a real quality spot. It's a good size Chinese restaurant with some great food for moderate prices. We were set on the fried rice and noodles, so that's what we ordered, along with some beers, all for only $7 USD per person. But for whatever reason, the servers and everyone around us would not stop staring and laughing at us the entire time we were there. We couldn't tell if it was the food combination that we chose, the way we were holding our chop sticks (chop stick use is much more difficult to master when people are staring you down), or just the fact that we were clearly the only Americans in the place. Either way, we couldn't figure it out, but in order to get around as a foreigner in Shanghai you just have to accept that people are going to be staring at you quite often...not too concerned about it :-)

I've noticed that umbrellas are more often used to block sunshine than anything else. In fact, that seems to be their main purpose for existence in Shanghai. The sun does not come out often, as it is almost always overcast due to high pollution from coal burning, automobile exhaust, and abundant pesticide usage. Very few birds roam the streets of Shanghai - they just can't survive here I guess. But, when the sun does come out, people whip out their umbrellas as if they are trying to protect themselves from knives falling from the sky. It's pretty funny to watch.

I recently found a Dairy Queen not far from my apartment, which has turned out to be both great and bad...I love ice cream, and so it's a great snack especially on hot days, but I've been getting a Blizzard every day for the past 5 days! Super delicious though. In China, they give you your Blizzard for free if they forget to prove that it won't fall out of the cup when it's turned upside down before they hand it to you. I never realized the thickness of a chocolate brownie oreo Blizzard until I got to China :-)

I just finished up three loads of laundry, because I realized I only had a few pairs of underwear left, so I figured I should get it done asap...Without the convenience of a clothes dryer, it turns out that my bike makes an excellent drying rack for socks and underwear!

I have officially registered to play in a 7 v 7 soccer league as a free agent. I'm hoping that I'll be able to join a team and I'll get a chance to play on a weekly basis.

6 friends and myself organized a trip to a city called Hangzhou for this upcoming Saturday and Sunday (about 120 miles southwest of Shanghai). We're taking a train. It's supposed to be one of the most renowned and prosperous cities of China for much of the last 1,000 years and is very well-known for its beautiful natural scenery. It should be a pretty awesome time!

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PMM