A few minutes to myself

Sipping a complementary glass of beer at the hotel lobby in Shanghai, I take this opportunity to write a few lines in my blog… as Val would say, it needs updating!

So, I’m going to have a few spare hours this afternoon to visit Shanghai. Hadn’t planned on this spare time and am not quite sure what I can do before in the next little while but I’ll try to keep busy…
Unfortunately, the Chinese are HEAVY smokers and smoking is permitted everywhere…so right at this moment, I’m feeling a bit nauseous.. .or perhaps it’s because of the Moutai that I had late last night…
We were out for a contract signing dinner (the contract was signed at 2200hrs) and the first toast is done with this Moutai stuff… you may recall that I described the taste in an earlier blog… the rotted potato…well although it is an acquired taste, it wasn’t as bad as the first time… I must have had no more than an ounce, I still had the taste of it when I was in bed later that night… It just lingers forever…
So, let me describe a typical Chinese dinner with the yard:
Your seating is assigned by a high-ranked person: the chair opposite the door is occupied by the host (the one picking up the bill) and the privileged guests sit either side of the VIP. The bottom of the pack are seated with their backs facing the door… Then, dedicated waitresses serve you your choice of Beer, Motai or MILK! (ouash!) As mentioned earlier, few women drink alcohol so I already have my reputation made at this yard too. They first toast to celebrate the new business deal and then, as the evening progresses, toast again, but this time, they select another person to toast with, not a group toast. Custom has it that the person who raises the toast and the ‘toasted’ must ‘bottoms-up’. (at least the beer is poured in wine glasses so it isn’t that bad). But you can see how this evolves… I got to be the ‘toasted’ a few too many times – I guess they thought I wouldn’t be up for it… I guess I shouldn’t have but I called them and raised the stakes and this harmless dinner became a booze fest… One of the technical designers got the brilliant (i’m being ironic) idea of playing “spin the bottle” … you place a bottle ( 1 litre) of beer or wine on the turn-table on the center of the dining table and if the bottle stops in front of you, you must pour yourself a glass and finish it before spinning the table again… I can imagine you all reading this and picturing a group of teens out on a Friday night with nothing better to do….well it’s rather a group of +40yr.olds, professionals with nothing better to do…quite pathetic actually but it’s a big, big deal here…they take their entertaining seriously…The dinners are long and sometimes quite boring, depending on the quality of the host’s English…
...
So I did a little more shopping at the Open Market and bought an Oakley back-pack for approx $20. I also bought a couple of shirts too. Unfortunately, the clothing sizes are totally inaccurate and although the label says L or even XL, you must judge for yourself. I learned the hard way: One of the shirts has a sleeve length that’s about 10 cm too short and if I move to fast, a button will pop off.

After shopping, I figured I’d try to walk back to the hotel from the Market (and see if I could find a shoe store that carry my sizes). It’s usually a 20min taxi ride (mostly stuck in traffic)…so I figured it would take me a little more than an hour to get there, provided I didn’t get lost. I am not at all worried about getting lost in Shanghai as there are taxis everywhere (at least, they don’t honk at you)… I started walking in the wrong direction and ended up making a long detour…it was an enjoyable walk through non-tourist areas where you get a better sense of how/where the locals live. I did walk past a large bookstore and tried to find some CDs to learn mandarin. The selection wasn’t great but I was offered assistance by a nice lady who spoke very good English. Turns out that she’s going out with a guy now living in Montreal (comme le monde est petit) in any event, we exchanged phone numbers and she invited me to call her when I’m through Shanghai next time. It’s amazing how easily people ask and give out their mobile numbers…they think nothing of it. Try that in Montreal and people would think that your nuts!~ or desperate for a date!
…
I continued my journey on foot and the rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. It did take 2 hours though and my feet were killen’ me! And stubborn as I am, I convinced myself that I was going to be able to find my way back and I did…The skyscrapers all lit up in the evening make perfect beacons… Shanghai must definitely be seen at night. There are neons everywhere: above stores, along buildings, even under raised highways...Some love it, other hate it, but you got to see it to believe it.
…
I’m now in a plane somewhere between Shanghai and Beijing. It’s only a 2 hrs flight (1,900 km) and the plane is packed. I’m on my way back to my home base after a 15-day trip which was supposed to be a short 3 day trip. Needless to say, I’m tired of wearing the same clothes day-in and day-out. At least, I was able to buy a few shirts while in Shanghai

At the Airport, I met-up with my Roxana. I had convinced her to travel economy so that she could travel back to Chile whenever she wanted to… She was totally swollen from the long trip: 18hrs from Chile and another 18hrs from Canada…la pauvre. So far~so good with the initiation to China…I had overstressed how miserable this place is so that she would expect the worst and be pleased to see that it isn’t that bad…I took my first day off yesterday, Sunday to be with Rox…We went walking through the food alleys and to some shopping malls and met-up with Michelle and her mom who invited us for dinner at their place next week for Spring Festival. So I’m off to the yard now, it feels like it’s been weeks since I’ve been here…actually, it has been weeks…!

A+