I don't really know what the hell just happened, but I'm pretty sure I have a Chinese girlfriend

  Whew! What an eventful week! I've been working myself pretty hard and due to a lack of sleep I'm unfortunately sick.  What a bummer.  Last week I put in 60 hours and worked 6 days so that we could rock out a huge tour for a huge financial firm.  I've also been looking for a new place to move into with a co-worker and his friend and I've been waltzing into hotels and hanging out taking pictures while dressed up just to see some cool restaurants and such.  I saw my first ever 3D movie this week which was great because it was in English and decently thrilling, as well as hilarious to be the only white person in the theater.  And now, the moment you've all been waiting for, this week's climactic episode: My Chinese Girlfriend.



  I've been a little sick lately unfortunately due to a 6 day, 60 hour work week putting together a huge tour for a prestigious international financial firm.  I got some good money this week from the over time which I was happy about but boy did we have to work ourselves hard.  There were four of us guiding 40-some business execs around the downtown of Shanghai telling them about the past and the present and how we believe they will affect the future which really got their minds thinking about Shanghai in a business perspective which is exactly what they were hoping for.  I got several business cards from a couple of the guys on my tour and one guy said he enjoyed my tour so much that if I were to come to Japan (he's based out of Tokyo) he'll take me to see the city on his dime.  I thought that was very generous and it really makes me want to check out Japan now but I know a trip out there is quite far off if I do end up going at all.


  I've been looking for new housing lately with a fellow part time co-worker and his friend.  My boss said that I could continue to live in an apartment with the other full time intern for the rest of my contract or he could give me a stipend each month and I could find my own housing.  The other full time intern is a good guy and very capable but he's not the kind of person that I'm used to living with, so I told my boss I would take the stipend.
  In China right now, the real estate market is quite bonkers which works in our favor.  A lot of pretty decent housing is being built with the anticipation of China's economy booming within these next 10 years but unfortunately, nobody is buying up this property yet and so it's dirt cheap for a massive place.  We found a nicer place than I've ever lived in with 3 bedrooms a kitchen 2 bathrooms with crazy fancy showers, a dining room, leather furniture and more closet space than I'd know what to do with for just over 1000USD a month.  It's quite ridiculous really.  With the stipend I'm getting from my boss plus maybe a couple hundred RMB out of my own pocket, we all agreed on a solid price range and although we're going to be 2-3 subway stops away from the office, the accommodation is worth it.  I've been really bad about taking my camera around with me lately so no pics, but when I have a less-crazy work week, I'll make sure to get some good ones.



  When I did manage to scrounge up some free time, I dressed up in my work clothes and headed out to hit the town in search of nice international hotels.  (I didn't know this but apparently if you're a foreigner, you're not allowed to stay in a run-down hotel because the Chinese government doesn't want to give off the wrong impression about it's hospitality.)  It's fun to walk around the nice bars and restaurants looking like I'm important and the Chinese workers never question my intentions, for they fear that I might be someone powerful with connections.  I snap quick pictures and no one ever protests which leads me to believe that I can get away with a little bit more.  This week with a little of my free time I am going to try to make it up to many rooftop lounges and bars to take some breathtaking pictures of the city.  Here are a few pics so far.


  A few days ago, I went and saw the newest Pirates of the Caribbean movie in theaters a couple of days ago with my good friends Yang Jie and his girlfriend Cici.  It was the first time I had ever seen a movie in 3D so that was pretty cool in and of itself, however, it wasn't the most amusing part of the movie.  Now, granted the movie wasn't that great in comparison to the first three, it was still entertaining and the Chinese viewers made the experience even better still.  The movie was in English with Chinese sub titles so I had the pleasure of being able to listen for once instead of reading.  I was the only foreigner in the theater and it really showed at a lot of points during the movie where I noticed no one else was laughing...  One particular part that really stood out involved a sexual innuendo which apparently went right over the heads of the Chinese viewers.
  The scene is set in a jungle with the actors Jonny Depp and Penelope Cruz who have had a bit of a romantic past and have recently found themselves in each others company.  Jonny Depp pops out of some brush and surprises Penelope Cruz with a sword pointed at her neck.  Cruz then busts out a line somewhere along the lines of “Jack (Jonny Depp), why is it whenever we meet, you're always pointing something at me?” I laughed at this line obviously understanding it's underlying demeanor but I was the only one in the theater laughing.  Yeah, I was that guy.  My friends looked at me baffled and I tried to explain it but I assume they wouldn't really get it at all since the theme of sex out here is quite tabu.  Regardless, it was a fun time and everyone enjoyed themselves.  Even that stupid foreigner.


  A couple of weeks ago I hung out with a friend and his girlfriend whom I had met last year.  During dinner, him and his girlfriend asked me if I was looking for a Chinese girlfriend to which I replied I wasn't so much looking for one right now but if the stars aligned and the opportunity presented itself, I wouldn't mind having one.  They asked me about the attributes I look for in a woman and I told them.  It was quite literally right after I had posted my blog last week that I got a call from him telling me he had found me a Chinese girlfriend and that I needed to go meet him right at that second.  It was 9 o'clock on a work night where I had to work at 9am the next day but heck I had already had a few beers, and you could say I was quite intrigued by this interesting opportunity.
  I rushed down to the subway station and rode a couple of stops until I was at the designated meeting place.  My friend came and got me and took me to the restaurant where his girlfriend was sitting with  three other girls.  As soon as we both got to the table he pointed at the girl that he had found for me and whilst standing right in front of her said “That's the girl that we found to be your girlfriend.” Uhhhhh what am I supposed to say? What am I supposed to do?  Never has it been so open with a girl that I just met but now all of a sudden, I'm supposed to act as though this girl and I should be moving towards becoming a couple... please pass the beer!
  Every few minutes during dinner, if I wasn't talking with the girl (who's name is NiNi (pronounced knee knee) my friend would make it a point to point it out and then embarrassed, I would turn to her and ask her questions about herself.  We were eating a style of food called hot pot which is a big pot in the middle with hot broth to which you add ingredients of your choosing such as meat or vegetables.  Once you dump stuff into the boiling broth, you wait for it to cook, then snag pieces with your chopsticks, put it in your bowl then enjoy.  The whole time I was at the table and talking with my new-found friends, NiNi would periodically put some food in my bowl which was very sweet of her to be serving me and I would always say thank you whenever she put food in my bowl.  Well hahahahahaha everyone laugh at the foreigner!  They thought it was crazy that I was saying thank you so often and they kept telling me not to be so polite.  They told me it's a normal thing to have happen and that it's more obligatory on her end than it is being kind.  Sweet deal (sort of)! But I still felt obligated to always say “thank you” which they kept laughing at.  Dinner kept going on for awhile and the beers kept coming.  Enter the Chinese drinking games!!!!
  At the table they “taught” me how to play a game which turned out to be “rock, paper, scissors” and the loser had to drink half a cup of beer.  It's a mild twist to this classic child's game so I thought I'd spruce it up a bit and teach the Chinese how my friends and I used to do it back in our early college days by teaching them the great drinking game of quarters. Essentially, you need two empty cups and two quarters (or 1RMB coins work just as well).  The objective is to slam your quarter down on the table and have it bounce into the cup.  Two people on opposite sides of the table start at the same time and if you make it into the cup, you pass it to the person to your left.  If it catches up with the other person with the cup, they must drink!  We had a blast playing this for awhile until the restaurant finally told us to leave because it was closing time.  Ok, time to catch a taxi home.... YA RIGHT!
  It was about 11:30 by this time and we started walking although I didn't know where to.  I was pretty toasty by this time and was just soaking it all in.  My friends kept trying to isolate NiNi and I which was funny and mildly embarrassing but instead of shying away, I embraced it.  We walked by a lady selling flowers, so I bought three of them and gave them to my “date” which I guess was quite flattering.  We kept walking and eventually entered a building where my friend's girlfriend went up to the counter, paid some money then led us all to a private room.  They call it KTV but it's basically a private karaoke room with room service.  As more beers were ordered, my friends wasted no time finding some songs to sing and they started belting it!  They weren't shy in the least bit and it turns out Nini has quite the amazing voice.  Although this was interesting to watch, the beers we ordered were brought and along with them came the spotlight of my night (besides meeting the girl of course)!
  Have you guys ever seen the Pirates of the Caribbean movie where Orlando Bloom plays this dice game against his dad and Davy Jones?  Didn't think so, however, that was what they brought! Apparently it's huge in China and holy cannoli is it super fun!  The rules are very complicated and considering this one story has already gone on and on I'll spare you all of the complicated details.  You start with five dice and a cup and you shake them up then slam the cup down on the table hiding the dice from your opponents.  From there, it's basically a game of BS where you try to tell your opponent what you have and then they try to one-up you until one person finally reveals his hand to either prove he has what he boasted or to call the other player out on his shenanigans.  I caught on quick and it was only two of us playing but I found myself winning over half the time.  After belting out a classic: Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd, I immediately turned back to the drinking game and continued to neglect Nini.  Whoops!  Don't worry, I still snagged her number at the end of the night to show that I was interested.
  Finally at 5:00am we left the karaoke place and headed for the subway which would open at 5:30am.  It was the first time I've ridden the subway home in the morning after a big night of drinking and it was a blast! Oddly though, it turns out Nini and all of her friends were actually in town visiting from a town called Tai Zhou (Tie Joe) and were headed back on a train that morning which baffled me.  If she lives three hours away, why was my buddy trying to hook us up?  Chinese culture lesson: she wants to move to Shanghai and a foreign boyfriend with an apartment in Shanghai means she has a place to stay. WHOA WHOA WHOA!!! Hold the phone!  We just met and now all of a sudden there's talk of a step that wouldn't happen normally in the US for at least a couple of years.  Pardon my language mom and dad but this shit is getting crazy!
  Well, we parted ways that morning and as I walked home alone contemplating the events that had unfolded that night, I decided to embrace the situation as a learning experience and take it in stride.  She texts me every now and then to which I reply jubilantly, but I don't really foresee anything serious coming of it.  Mind you, none of this night unfolded in English, so you can just imagine how much of an adventure this was for me.  So like I said, I'm not really 100% sure, but it's quite possible that I have a Chinese girlfriend.


  To finish off the post, I'd like to show you a recent discovery called huang jiu (hwang joe).  It literally translates to “yellow alcohol” and I recently had it at a decently fancy dinner with my Chinese mother and her daughter's boyfriend as well as his parents.  They were a blast to hang out with and they treated me very well.  They brought a bottle of this huang jiu and poured me a glass.  I didn't know what to expect but it was really smooth and finished well.  I looked at the bottle and it's only 14% which is not much and explains the smoothness of it but eating it with food really highlighted it's flavor.  It's also quite cheap too so I can foresee myself having a drink of this every now and then when I get off of work to relax a little bit.



  Dang, this post ran a little longer than I was expecting it to but hey, it was that kind of week.  I even had to leave some stuff out for next time, so I might write two posts this upcoming week since I will have a 3 day weekend.  I hope you enjoyed reading about my crazy antics and experiences in this wonderland of Shanghai and I do hope you'll be back next week to see what I'll have gotten myself into.  Big shout out to my friend Eric White and his possible job opportunity here in China as well as to his partner in crime, Cameron Hayes who will be coming out after the summer.  In closing, I leave you with the great words of the great fictional cartoon character Tigger: Ta ta for now!


Tony G. 

Toto, I don't think we're in the USA anymore

  Crap, they ate Toto... just kidding

  Another week has passed and another handful of new experiences have been explored in this great skyscraper-filled city. However, I find myself clicking my ruby red slippers together (I got them cheap after haggling for about 20 minutes) to go back home but every time I wake up, I'm still here in Shanghai. It's really settling in that this isn't just a vacation but rather my new life and I have to say it does strike an emotional spot every now and then. On a side note mostly for one of my avid readers and great friends Seth Yoder, I'm listening to Judith right now and I'm stoked for you and Kasi to move to Seattle and start fresh. Like Maynard says, you're such an inspiration for me (but in a positive way unlike the song haha)! Continuing on, I've for the most part accepted the fact that I'll be here for at least the next eight months and it's time to start embracing it! So, during my coping process, I've had my fair share of fun this week and I've had a chance to check out some local hot spots full of beautiful women! So to those of you who have money riding on me already having a Chinese girlfriend by now....... Pay up! Nothing to report as of yet. So there you go folks, that's my blog post, see you next week.....

  Actually, I guess I'll tell some boring stories about coagulated chicken blood, the club scene of Shanghai, partying with some Irishmen, my first tour as the main man in charge, going back to the stomping grounds of the university I studied at last year, eating lunch with my oh-so-subtle Chinese mama, a new restaurant that I can't stay away from and learning a good amount of Chinese slang. Time for show and tell!

  This is a picture of my favorite restaurant in my local vicinity. It is a stone's throw away from my apartment and they serve up some good dishes. This is actually an ethnic Muslim restaurant and out front as you can see, there is a gold shiny thing that these two guys are standing in front of. That's actually a grill where they cook up some lamb quanr (chwar) or skewers as we might call them. This place has been my savior in these uncertain times of money flow and budgeting because I can get a hearty meal of really long noodles with beef and potato for only 8RMB ($1.20USD or so). If I'm feeling like I have a protein deficiency, then I add on two skewers of lamb meat for 3RMB apiece bringing my total cost to 14RMB which is right around $2USD. It's hard to beat this price right now while I'm figuring out how much I'll be able to spend per week with my given salary. Plus it's delicious, and all of the workers there know me now and as soon as I walk in, I hear them yell to the cooks to quickly serve up a dish of beef with noodles and they promptly set a steaming bowl of freshly made food in front of me. It's fun to joke around with them a bit in Chinese, and they love that I keep coming back.

  Although I eat at the restaurant at least 5 times a week, I don't always find myself at home when it's lunch time. The other day I was at people's square preparing for a tour at the Shanghai museum and we had lunch near the museum. I went my own way and walked into a restaurant that looked decent and just pointed at two things on the menu. Turns out I ordered a nice soup with some rice noodles, little pieces of bread, some tasty but chewy chicken stomach and some coagulated chicken blood. Last year when I was in Shanghai I tried what I call chicken blood jello and I didn't hate it, but I wasn't a big fan. This time when I tried it, I actually quite liked it! Call me a sicko if you want, but the soup was great and then when my little dragon dumplings arrived, I was in heaven! It's not on my top 10 dishes of China so far, but I would honestly eat it again.

  Speaking of little dragon dumplings, I went to my old university's campus last week to get some good old fashioned street food. Before I continue, "Little dragon dumplings" or xiao long bao (shaow lowng bow haha, it's hard to try to write the appropriate pronunciations) are just little dumplings that are filled with pork and then are steamed in a wooden basket. When they are done, they are moist and chewy with a little bit of broth-like liquid inside. I prefer to pick one up with my chopsticks, dip it into a mix of vinegar and hot chili peppers and eat it whole. YUMMMM!

  While I was walking around the campus, I saw so many familiar things that brought memories flooding in. I had mixed feelings about being back on the campus due to some extenuating circumstances of my last visit but I ultimately reveled in the feeling of being reborn in China with a chance to live life anew. Unfortunately, a lot of the street vendors have changed, and my revered xiao long bao outlet is now a crappy clothes store. What to do?! As I frantically looked around for another xiao long bao restaurant I found a welcoming sight. There was the shawarma lady with here skewered lamb and fresh baked bread with her trusty spices right beside her. To those of you who don't know, a shawarma is basically a lamb and lettuce sandwich with spices mixed in that is traditionally Muslim I believe. Either way, it's dang tasty! I was saddened to see that she had raised her prices, but it was still oh so delicious!

  After walking back out through the campus gates, I went to see if a certain Muslim restaurant was still open that we used to eat at every day last year and I was elated to see that it was. However, another sight caught my eye and I immediately changed my course accordingly. XIAO LONG BAO!!! YESSSSSSS! I was already full from all of the street vendor food I had already bought, but I didn't care, I was going to reap the fruits of my labor. Tasty, tasty.

  I decided that it was about time I treated my Chinese mama to a meal after all she has done for me in the past few weeks while getting settled in. I called her up and told her that I was taking her out to lunch on my dime. This brought about a lightning-quick blur of protests in Chinese but after finally convincing her to let me buy her a meal, she told me to bring a LOT of money. This then prompted her to laugh (thank goodness) and she told me where to meet her the following day.

  When I met her for lunch, we went to a nice hotel restaurant and were practically the only ones in there. All of the workers were staring at the odd couple made up of my Chinese mother and myself and I can only imagine what they were thinking about how her and I were connected. When we sat down, I let her do the ordering and within minutes, they were bringing out the first of our dishes. The food was quite tasty and as we sat eating the several courses, she began to do what she usually does which is to lay out heavy amounts of advice for me.

  As she sat there and told me about who to hang out with and who not to give money to etc, I couldn't help but feel like my wonderful real mother was giving me a pep talk when I was younger. Oh the memories! She also started ranting about how she has some Chinese girls she wants me to meet and some new job opportunities she thinks I should pursue after my contract is up with the tour company. She's a wealth of information and I quite enjoyed the lunch we had.

  When the bill came it wasn't too bad and to even further help out, she had a 50RMB coupon for the restaurant which brought the total down substantially. It was good to treat her and spend some time with her and I hope I can do this every two weeks or so. Don't worry mommy, you're still my #1 mom and always will be!!!

  The following night, I led my first ever tour by myself without the boss man looking over my shoulders and it was quite fun. I led a couple from Jacksonville, FL on our Ghost Tour and scared the bejeebus out of the wife. The husband got a real good laugh out of that and we all got along just fine during the tour. A lot of the tour that we do is walking from site to site so there is a lot of small talk involved which is where I thrive. They were definitely an ideal group to lead on the tour and were very warm and welcoming. As I told all of the stories and revealed some ancient Chinese traditions they were very genuinely interested in what I was telling them and they asked several follow up questions to further pursue the subjects.

  At the end of the tour we do an interactive activity involving water calligraphy. We teach the guests how to write certain characters pertaining to some of the stories we told earlier and tell them new ones with which we subsequently base our next characters on. They loved writing these characters and at the end of the tour as I left them with one last story and a small gift they couldn't thank me enough for showing them some amazing sites of Shanghai that you'll never see if you don't know where to look. As we were about to part ways, the husband handed me a handful of bills to pay for the cost of the tour. No sooner had the money been put in my hand that I realized it was too much and I asked him if he needed change. He immediately responded that I should keep it all due to my entertaining tour guiding and I promptly thanked him. Later in the evening as I was sorting out the paperwork, I realized he left me 100RMB as a tip! I'm proud of myself for having done the best job capable and being rewarded for it. It's a good feeling to know that people like what you're doing. As I'm writing this, I'm actually feeling a bit emotional thinking about it. I'm proud to be starting my professional career by putting everything I have into my work and feeling like I will be successful in the future.

  As I hang out with my local friends more and more, my language skills are seeing improvement. I learn a lot of slang from them so I can now express myself a little bit better instead of being so formal with them all of the time. It really feels like we're getting closer and with my closest local friend, we've even started calling each other a slang term for brother which denotes respect on either end. I also gave him one of my Slash T-shirts that I bought at a Slash concert to solidify our camaraderie. He said he couldn't possibly take it from me since the opportunities to buy that specific shirt are fairly rare especially with the meaning behind it but I insisted and he eventually accepted it and now wears it everywhere to show off to all of his friends.

  Soon after, I asked him to take me to a place to buy a new wallet since mine was falling apart. He took me to a shopping center and I looked at several rather nice leather wallets with a mildly hefty price tag on them and when I found the one that I was going to buy, he quickly took it from my hands, went up to the counter and bought it for me as a way of saying thank you for the T-shirt. I was quite honored that he would do that for me and I sense that we will have a very strong friendship in the years to come.

  Last but not least, I would like to talk about the recent encounters I've had with the Shanghai club scene. An American co-worker of mine lives with a bunch of Irishmen in the dorms at an international university and they went out a few nights ago and extended an invitation to me which I hastily accepted. It was nice to go to a bar with some friends for the first time in awhile although quite to my surprise (and demise) it was full of many obnoxious Americans and a live band that covered the most mundane bar songs one can imagine. The drinks weren't cheap either so I drank sparingly and tried to make conversation with the Irish although it got harder and harder to understand them the more they drank. The club was fun and the dance floor was packed with such a diverse ethnic melting pot it was unreal! We had Koreans who could only speak to us in Chinese or Germans who would use broken English to speak with Jamaicans using their Caribbean English as well as Japanese people sitting and looking on politely unsure of who they could communicate with. It was really cool to be thrown into such a multinational crowd.

  In America, the bars do last call around 1:30ish to be completely closed down by 2:00 but at 1am, the house band was just finishing. The bar cleared out a bit once it turned to pretty standard recorded club music, but we decided to stay and swap stories as we had a couple more drinks. At 2:30am, it was suggested that we move to another club/bar where my newly found friends knew a bartender. As we walked out onto the street towards a slew of clubs, it was interesting to see the normally quite reserved Chinese peoples walking around the streets in their “after-hour” demeanor. Women were not dressed conservatively as is the norm and men were quite aggressive towards women which is very rarely seen in public during the day. I also must admit that I got a kick out of watching all of the really drunk Chinese. I'm not sure exactly why it was so amusing, but I guess it's like seeing something you can't really imagine for the first time like the ever-elusive unicorn that you finally gaze upon and it's actually just a painted horse with a plastic horn taped to its head. Now that I know what China nightlife is capable of, it's time to further explore this culture that is shrouded in a mysterious fog and I'm very interested to see what other fabled creatures I will uncover.

  Thanks to all of you for reading my blog and I hope it is entertaining enough to read the whole thing through. I didn't originally want to write a massive amount but life in Shanghai has been quite interesting. Make sure you've entered your e-mail address at the top so that you get updates as to when I post new blogs. Next week I'm going to continue on with nightlife as well as show some pictures of some nice hotel interiors I've been snapping. To my brother, congratulations on graduating at the top of the top! You deserve everything you've earned. Much love to you my man. To my sister and new brother-in-law, I hope Hawaii was amazing and congratulations to you both as well, I'll let you know when the present you sent me gets here.

Peace Outside.

Tony G.

Now that I've settled in a bit...

Well Hello! I didn't see you there.

Alright, so this week's blog is going to be about some interesting events that have happened during the last week of my life in Shanghai. I know that are already jumping out of your seats in anticipation, but slow down a bit! I haven't got to the juicy parts yet. As per usual, I will give you a rough summary of some of the things that happened so that you can either decide to skip the text and go for the pictures, or read half of the text before you get bored and play scrabble on facebook. This week's episode:

After two grueling weeks in the hot humid port of Shanghai I've finally managed to get some things accomplished (and some things checked off my bucket list). This week I finished my first full week of work, strung up my guitar, saw an 11 year old buy cigarettes, bought a beer at the supermarket from a 5 year old girl behind the counter, went to a bar to get a drink and was immediately hit on by four overly friendly women (bucket list), led some parts of a tour on my own to paying customers, got lost in the big city, jumped into a picture with some random Chinese girls, was presented a pig's foot as a gift, got a haircut (it's not as scary as it sounds) and learned how to play Chinese Chess. I continue to eat lots of eggplant, bullfrog and rice but this week, I was introduced to another gem of Chinese cooking: the potato.

I'm super, super glad that I decided to buy some shot sleeve button up shirts last week because this week has been hot! It's not the heat that I mind, it's the humidity that really gets me. Each time I shower and towel off, I immediately start sweating and it's like another layer of skin has developed over my already existing, quite pale, organ overcoat. I was also smart to buy light colors and have denounced my black, long sleeve button up shirt that I brought here as well as my black cotton slacks. My new favorite tour has become the ghost tour simply because we do it as the sun starts setting which brings the relief of a cooler atmosphere.

Work has been very busy with the learning of tour material as well as steadily working my way towards becoming the manager of tours in Shanghai. There is a lot to learn in the office as well as on the actual tour and I have now done each tour at least twice and presented in almost all of them. When my weekend comes (Wednesday/Thursday) I feel like I have earned it and am proud to be in the business world. I am meeting quite the variety of people and we have guests from all over the world that are either visiting or living in Shanghai. We've had people from Indonesia, France, Germany, America, Japan, Great Britain and even Mexico on the tour, and each person I talk to has a great story to tell as why they've ended up in Shanghai.

This week was also a little crazy because I started presenting parts of the tour to paying customers. I don't have stage fright so I don't mind talking in front of the guests, but I do get a little anxious when it comes to remembering all of the material and presenting it right. Making small talk with the guests is the easy part for me, but presenting material that I'm learning on an on-the-fly basis is a bit stressful sometimes. I have no doubt that the anxiety will pass once I've done the tours a few more times.

During my first weekend, I took out my guitar that I brought with me and threw some strings on it and was immediately rewarded with the sweet sound of the blues. My Chinese guitar buddies were jealous to see that I owned a Les Paul because out here in China, the cost in RMB is roughly the cost in USD unlike so many other products sold here. After a couple of hours of letting my baby sing, I put her away to go out and enjoy a bit of Chinese culture and cuisine. This is where the potato comes into play. My favorite potatoes are mashed or fried but in China, I've found a couple of alternatively, but equally tasty variations. One of my new favorite dishes is what's referred to as "sauteed sword potato" which involves very fine strings of potato being sauteed with peppers or green beans or something of the like. They're almost crispy but still soft and taste oh so delicious. Another of these delightful treats that my boss introduced me to is the potato pancake. You can see in the picture that it looks like a slice of potato pizza and it's really quite good. It has a subtle sweetness to it and the texture is amazing! A plate of these will run you 15RMB (about $2.20USD) which is definitely worth it. I don't usually make a whole meal out of it, but it goes quite nicely with a rice and meat dish.

On Wednesday, my friend Yang Jie (from last weeks pictures) took me to a place called Qi Bao (chee bow) where we met up with his good friend who is a partner in a tasty restaurant. We got a 100RMB meal for free (yaaa!) and sat around talking for awhile. They then took me to a canal town which is very close to the restaurant (I didn't bring my camera because I wasn't anticipating this little excursion) where we walked through a Venice-like market. They had everything from bizarre food (this is where my friend bought me a pig's foot) to ancient charms and everything in between. It was fun to walk around, but the alleys are so crowded that sometimes it's hard to traverse through them.

It was at this time that we were headed back to the restaurant and I saw some cute girls getting pictures taken by a rock formation and like almost every single Chinese (maybe Asian) person ever, they were all posing with the peace sign. As we walked by, I gave them the peace sign right back and they all laughed. My friends and I kept walking, but I heard them talking about a picture with me, so I ran back and jumped in a picture with them and posed with the peace sign accordingly. It was a great time and my friends and I later decided that I should walk around with a sign on that says "Picture with a Gwai Lo (Slang term for foreigner) 5RMB". Maybe I can make an extra bit of income...

Later that evening I enjoyed a "group discount" meal with my friends where we had plenty of tasty dishes including one strange dish which had bull frog, potato chips (not the potato gem I was referring to above) and cucumber in it. It was quite tasty but also a bit weird in the sense that is was a rather expensive dish... Anyway, after dinner we all parted ways and I decided to treat myself to a drink. I walked around my neighborhood looking for a bar and I eventually found one that now I know to avoid. In the picture you can see the bright lights and Heineken signs much like they had in Amsterdam. Those are all red flags! I figured they might have a decent beer selection so I went inside to take a peak at their drink menu. They had Guinness, and it was quite expensive (about $7.00USD) but I figured after a week of work, I owed myself a little treat.

 As soon as I sat down, four women that supposedly worked at the bar came and sat down on either side of me as well as across the bar from me and immediately asked me my name. Well, I knew that these were all red flags, so I quickened my pace on the beer with hopes to finish it within minutes. As they continue giving me compliments in Chinese and asking what I do for work they also start throwing in little subtle hints about their true nature. They asked how old I was and when I told them, they pointed at one of the girls and said she was the same age and that she could be my "girlfriend". "Haha...ha......ha" I nervously laughed as I started to gulp down the rest of my beer.

They then posed a question: "Would you buy us all a drink?" My first inclination is to say "no" but with four girls gridlocking me into my seat and a not-so-nice looking bartender only feet away I decided "why the hell not?" The only problem is that they only want hard alcohol, and the cheapest drink is the same price as my Guinness. As I cringe, I order four drinks for the ladies. This might have been part of the money making process because I didn't watch the bartender pour the drinks, but he served them as a mixed drink. I may have been swindled and paid 200RMB ($28.00USD) for four single malt glasses of orange juice, but I'll never know. We all did a quick cheers and as the conversation started getting a little heavier and a little less subtle, I thanked them for the company but told them I had plans to eat and quickly ran out of there without looking back. Whew! So let's see here, getting approached by what I believe to be essentially call girls and buying them all a drink... CHECK!

On the second day of my weekend, I decided to go for a walk with my camera to see if I could find anything interesting. I took some pictures of some decent-looking buildings but, I didn't really find anything of note. After walking for an hour, I tried to find my bearings. I looked around for landmarks or buildings that I recognize but unfortunately, considering just about every building in Shanghai is super tall, I couldn't usually see further than the block I was on. I wandered and wandered and wandered trying to find streets that sound familiar (they aren't numbered like the streets of downtown) and eventually found a subway station that connected to my stop. It was a fun experience and I asked several people for directions, but every time I asked a different person, they gave me different directions. Even though it was good exercise and interesting to see other parts of the city, I should probably pick up a road map...

After the first day back to work, I decided it was time to get a haircut. The weather is too hot to have even a medium length business haircut. Near my apartment, there is a whole row of barber shops, so I went to one that looked nice and walked in with my trusty dictionary in hand. I don't normally carry my dictionary around with me anymore because I like to have people explain what words mean in Chinese but this time, I wasn't taking any chances. As they took me to a seat, they showed me the prices depending on what level of stylist I wanted. The prices were a bit more than I anticipated, so I went with the stylist with the lowest "status". He started asking me how I wanted my haircut and I instantly became as stiff as a board. One wrong word and I could have ended up with a buzz cut or even worse... extensions... AHHHHHHH! This might be like any regular experience back in the states, but I was terrified due to the fact that my communication with him was limited.

I used my sparse haircut vocabulary and said "shorter" and he held up my hair and asked if I wanted about half of it cut and luckily that's exactly what I was looking for. He asked me if I wanted it off my ears to which I replied "yes" but then, he took out his clippers... As I sat in the chair, stone-faced with fear he went for what my dad refers to as my "neck beard" on the back of my neck and cleaned up the short hair. Whew, crisis averted. As the haircut went on, I was thoroughly pleased with the work that the stylist was doing and he certainly earned all of his money. I was in the chair for about 20 minutes and it was definitely weird for his assistant to come up every now and then and use a soft brush to clear the hair from my face. After he was finished, they cleaned my hair for no extra charge and I was very impressed with the work that he had done. In China it's not customary to tip in the service industry but to show my appreciation, I told him that in America we tip based on a job-well-done and I left him a solid 18%.

During one of the tours we give, we go through a park and see the daily activities of the locals. Among these past times it is very common to find water calligraphy (Chinese characters written on the ground with a big calligraphy brush and water as the ink), card games, people walking backwards while clapping their hands (exercise), the board game Othello (black and white pieces) and my new favorite game, Chinese chess. I was very interested when I first saw this game and decided to learn how to play by finding a website online with the rules and a place to play the game for free (for those of you who don't know how to play chess, you can skip this section if you think it will make your eyes bleed).

The objective of the game is very similar, to put the king in checkmate. However, the king has a castle or kingdom that he is restricted to and he cannot leave it. Along with this kingdom in the back middle of the players board, there is also a river that runs through the middle of the map which prevents some pieces from crossing while giving others additional abilities if they have crossed. For instance, the bishops can't cross the river, but when the pawns do so, in addition to moving forward, they can move sideways. Besides the pawns, other pieces of this version vary a bit and although a few pieces are the same, they function in different ways. For starters, they don't preside inside of a square box, but rather on the corners of the spaces. As for some variances, the horse in Chinese chess is very similar to the knight in Western chess. It seemingly moves either one space to the side then two up or down, or vice versa but actually, the horse in Chinese chess moves one space in any direction, then diagonally from that space. If you look at a board, it would appear to move exactly the same but here's the twist! The horse in Chinese chess cannot jump over pieces so it can actually be blocked in. This takes strategy to a whole new level with the horses. There are other crazy pieces like the elephant instead of a bishop, but I will spare you the rigorous details of each and let you check it out on wikipedia for yourself if you're interested.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog and if you want me to include any additional information that you may find interesting, please don't hesitate to ask! I might have forgotten to add some details that you would all like to hear about and if that is indeed the case, I don't want to rob you of the experience.  If you would like to see more pictures, simply click on one of the pictures in the blog!  As per usual, please subscribe so that you get reminders when I post new blogs and please look me up on skype if you have the chance! Much love to my mother in particular on Mother's day, and to all of the mothers reading this. Thank you for the continued support and well wishes, they mean a lot to me. Ciao!

Tony G.

My first days in Shanghai

大家好！(da jia hao) Hello everyone!

I feel like it's been ages since I made my first post when in fact it's only been a week or so. From the moment I landed in Shanghai until this moment in which I am writing, it has been almost non-stop action. I am going to give you the summary version first in this introduction so that those of you without the time (or interest) to read all of it can still get the gist of what I've been doing. If you just can't get enough of my enticing writing style, then I will also go into a little bit more detail below...

So a quick summary and introduction to my days in Shanghai (and pictures/movies yay!) I've been here five days and in that time I've met the company owner (and my new roommate), bought a Chinese cell phone (texting in Chinese is quite the rage), gone on several tours (and have learnt many sections of some of them), reconnected with my Chinese mother and Chinese friends, eaten more rice than many of you have in the last 6 months and have been exhausted every night after work or after time spent with my friends. Regardless, the times have been great and I've made new friends, eaten some great food (lots of bull frog and eggplant) and have had the pleasure of a change of scenery which many of you will see as you look at the pictures and movies. (I wish I had the energy to put a link right here to click on to go straight to the pictures for those of you who don't care for what in the English language we call "words")

Now for the more interested reader:

Right when I arrived from the airport, I was greeted with a co-worker holding a piece of paper with my name on it (I bet many of you have never had this happen) and a shrewd look from about 90% of the people in the airport. "It's OK" I tell myself as I remember that they're not looking at me out of disgust but rather it's because to them, I just look funny. Off we go on the Maglev from the airport straight to a subway station which is quite close to my place of residence. We are greeted at the subway exit by my new boss and upstanding gentleman, Daniel Newman. It was great to meet him in person finally, and off we went towards the apartment. Not long after I arrived at the apartment (7pm) Daniel invited me out for dinner and drinks on his tab to which I quickly accepted, bringing about a burst of newfound energy.

We went to a Sichuan restaurant (which in Chinese roughly means spicy) and settled down for some great dishes and a couple of (mildly) cold beers. During the meal we discussed a bit of business as well as leisure and got more acquainted with each other. I quickly devoured the delicious food relishing in the sensation of being in a new place with a new culture, however, it could have just been the cocktails... I was surprised to see that they had a semi-decent beer selection which included one of my favorites, Guinness. However, much to my demise, Guinness costs about $8-10 USD per bottle where as the local legend Tsing Tao is about 25 cents per bottle. The intermediate beer connoisseur in me tells me to go for the Guinness, but the broke, in-debt starving recent college graduate tells me to go with the cheap stuff. All in all, I miss my Guinness but Tsing Tao is actually surprisingly a little bit better out here in China vs the US. (Any of my beer friends reading this know what to send me for xmas haha). After the meal we went to a bar with a local ex-pat friend of Daniel's and as I almost nodded off in he bench seat, we decided to call it an evening and headed home.

The next day, the jet lag was still quite prominent and I decided to take it quite easy. The first on a short list of things to do was to buy a cell phone so that contact with my friends in Shanghai would be easily accessible. I headed to a big electronics store to buy my phone but had to go to a different place entirely to set up a cell plan. They require you register your phone with a passport and valid ID which is a bit controlling, but then again, it is China. The process, although excessive was quite easy and the rates are relatively cheap which I'm happy about. No international calls, but calling and texting within Shanghai costs next to nothing.

The following day marked the beginning of my work week. Immediately I was thrown into a tour (Where I listened and took mental notes) and then taken through a myriad of paper work back at the office. When I'm out on a tour, the dress code is quite strict. Nice slacks, a button up shirt with a collar (long or short sleeves) and some nice shoes to be presentable. Instantly you feel it wear on you because the temperature is almost 80 degrees F and the humidity is quite high. No matter, the tours are quite fun and interesting, and I will be leading parts of them this week.

After a couple of days at work, I have also managed to free up some time to meet up with my old friends and very nice Chinese mother as I call her. My guitar buddies from last time still work in music departments of big media stores (coincidentally the same store I bought my phone at) and are still the crazy guys I remember from the last time I was here a year ago. After an evening with them, my Chinese comes rushing back in waves and I quickly shake off the rust and dive right into intense conversations dealing with very important subjects such as the best cigarette to smoke or who speaks the best English... of course I don't smoke and their English is quite awful, but it's great to be back in the Chinese mode. I learn several new words every day and while being out and about, I hear or use these phrases in a lot of common every day situations which has been saving me time and trouble.

My Chinese mother had me over for dinner a few nights ago and it was great to eat her home cooking again for the first time in almost a year. Like always, she had prepared at least four dishes and expected me to eat all of it. When I told her I was full, she went on a rant about how I need to be a strong Chinese man and get myself a nice Chinese woman. She was also distraught in saying that unfortunately her daughter has found a boyfriend and is engaged to be married next year. In confirming my suspicions, she had wanted me to get together with her daughter all along and blatantly told me so, this time without holding back. I'm sorry to disappoint her, but I'm also a little relieved she has stopped laying down such "subtle" hints that she wanted me to marry her daughter. Regardless of this little anecdote, I am still so glad to be on her good side because today I went shopping for some business clothes and after an hour and a half of shopping, I managed to walk out of the mall with a new pair of tailored Armani slacks, two highly regarded Chinese-brand short sleeve button up shirts and a long sleeve button up shirt for less than $60 USD. As soon as I point out something I like, I can hear my Chinese mother start ranting about something or other that is not perfect about the item and instead of paying the usual foreigner fee of three times the whole sale price, I often walk out with something at cost or sometimes I feel like they had to pay me a little bit to buy their product. My Chinese mother can be quite obnoxious when it comes to shopping, but I would rather pay bottom dollar if I can get it.

As for the apartment and closing remarks, I live on the 23rd floor of a 30 story building and I have quite an incredible view. As you can see from the pictures, there is nothing but tall apartment or business buildings as far as the eye can see and I love it. It's quite different being here in the big city, but it gives me a sense of energy and really gets my qi ("chee" life force) flowing. I am very close to a subway station and a few good local restaurants and only 20-30 minutes from my friends and Chinese mother. My bedroom is actually quite nice and although it's not the biggest room ever, it has plenty of closet space for my newly bought clothing and a TV with remote that I will one day learn how to use.

As far as night life, I have been a walking zombie without the energy to really go out and experience it. I will in good time but, however, I have been working quite long days and have been absolutely exhausted at the end of each adventurous expedition.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog and if you want me to include any additional information that you may find interesting, please don't hesitate to ask! I might have forgotten to add some details that you would all like to hear about and if that is indeed the case, I don't want to rob you of your mon... errr time. (I wish I could get paid for doing this kind of thing, that would make travelling so much easier!) Anyway, my skype name is mastermonkey05 and if you have skype I encourage you to befriend me, and if you don't have skype, I encourage you to download it for free, THEN befriend me. As always, I bid you adieu and I thank you for the support during this adventure of a lifetime and I wish you all the best.

With Love,

Tony G.

P.S. OH NO!! China won't let me onto this site so I must do it through a portal site which does not allow me to to post pictures or videos here. SO, what I've had to do instead is make a photobucket account to which I hope you can all view for free. I hope some of you know how to simultaneously look at the pictures and blog at the same time so that you can link images with words. Here is the link (you will have to copy and paste it into your browser):

http://photobucket.com/albums/ab316/munkyguitarist/My%20First%20Days%20in%20Shanghai/