How do you like to eat watermelon?

 Have you ever eaten half of a watermelon in one sitting? Oh ya? Well, have you ever half of a watermelon in one sitting... using chopsticks?

 As Jack Black said in Kung Fu Panda 2: Skadoosh! That's what I felt like after demolishing the watermelon with chopsticks but it wasn't really a test of skill more than a realization that we didn't have any spoons or knives in the apartment. It was quite fun though and I have to say, my chopsticks skills have really improved over the last two months and now that I think about it, I haven't used a fork since I left the US. Wow, as I writing this I'm thinking to my daily eating habits and I don't even think twice about utensils anymore. The next time I go back home I'm not going to remember how to use a fork! AHHHHHH!!!!!

 Okely dokely down to business. What's on the menu for today? Hmm, how about by starting off with my solution to finding a Chinese girlfriend, meeting an awesome Aussie on a couple of tours that I led, EGGPLANT(I'm still not sick of it), becoming an uncle (sort of), getting back into a workout routine, becoming a regular working stiff, playing a little bit of guitar and last but not least, gorging myself until I gained about 15 pounds at an all you can eat/drink Japanese grill. The sake was killer.

 So I took a tour not too long ago with another tour company. It was kind of like a spy game to find out what information they had about certain spots in the city to see if they had any valuable information that blew the company I'm working for out of the water. Well, the three tours I took were quite fun but unfortunately, none of them had anything super special that we don't already have. It was kind of a let down but it makes my boss feel a bit better about the tours we do since the quality is way up there. Now it's just a marketing game...

 However, I did learn one quite amazing thing during one of the tours and I feel like I have to tell everyone about this because not only is it astoundingly different but it also blew me away when I heard about it! Deep breaths, let's read this one slowly: Every Sunday morning, Chinese parents go out to a place called the “Future People's Square” and they bring with them lots of resumes. What kind of information are on these resumes? Just the usual information about people (Specifically their children or children of good friends) like age, education, occupation, life experience etc. But these resumes also have other information like height, weight, eye color, habits, hobbies etc. Why you ask? Because the parents are essentially brokering their children! AWHAAAAAAAAA?!?!

 Yes, these parents take their children's resume to the Future Peoples Square and they try to find a match or a person with great financial stability who would make a great husband or wife. It's almost like a swap meet to put it bluntly. I was told that if I went there with my resume, I would be swarmed with resumes of girls left and right... I think I found the solution to getting a Chinese girlfriend, except that I think I would be getting a lot more than I bargained for. The next title of my blog would be: “Whoops, I think I just got married...”

 So I had a great guest on a couple of tours last weekend. I was leading our ghost tour for a guest from Australia and it turned out that the tour was just going to be the two of us which sometimes can be awkward. I didn't know what to expect as far as what type of person he was considering we get such a huge range of people out here doing our tours. As I waited at the designated meeting area, a man with an odd accent approached me and asked if I was leading the tours to which I responded that indeed I was the tour leader. Enter Ollie the Aussie.

 I immediately liked the guy because he instantly asked when the first beer break was. I told him that we would have a chance to drink some beers during the dinner that was scheduled after the tour but until then, we were high and dry (except for the fact that it was pouring outside). He looked a little squeamish at this prospect but went along with it, at least for the first half of the tour. Halfway through the tour we were passing the bar that I mentioned in one of my first posts where I got cornered by a gang of Chinese women who forced me to buy them a drink (haha or at least that's how I tell it now) and I told him the exact same story because he seemed like the kind of guy who would get a kick out of it. As soon as I told him the story, he suggested that we go in to the same bar and that we get some beers...

 Normally I would have to say no because we would have more people on the tour with us and I can't let one person dictate the route but since he offered to buy me a beer or two and it was just the two of us, I couldn't say no! In my last post I said I was going to cut back on the drinking a bit, but I figured “how often will I have an opportunity like this?” So I just went with it. One of the girls that was there last time came and sat by us and we made small talk as I tried my best to not be remembered. Eventually she remembered me but this time when she asked us to buy her a drink (I had forewarned Ollie that this would happen) we made a joke about the bartender buying her a drink instead and she left it at that. Awesome, that means one more round for Tony and Ollie!!

 We continued the tour as normal (with plenty of adolescent humor along the way) and finally reached the end of the tour which leads to the dinner session. Ollie was a little unsure of the food that I had ordered for the two of us but I told him he needn't worry, I had it under control. The first dishes arrived which consisted of a sweet dish composed of tomato, egg and beef followed by a spicy chicken dish (much like Kung Pao Chicken in the states) and a nice fried rice dish to finish it off. Ollie was into every single dish that we ate and we raced through them like it was our last meal.

 Well after the dinner portion he paid the tour fee and it was time to call it a night.... hahaha YA RIGHT! Does he seem like the guy to call it quits at 10:00pm in Shanghai? I went and dropped all of the tour props off at the office and then we headed out to the bars to get some more drinks! It was a Saturday so several groups of people were out in full force and my was it a good time. I'll skip the details of the bar scene but it was a good night. Trust me.

 The next day we had a tour scheduled and again it was just Ollie and I. He showed up 5 minutes late (at least I wasn't the only one with a hangover) and we got started right away. Two stumbling hours later, we reached the lunch portion of the tour and sat down to a nice meal which Ollie couldn't wait to try. I introduced a couple new dishes to him at the lunch (including my prized eggplant!!) and he couldn't get enough of them. I was glad I could open his horizons to Shanghainese food. Well, “have a good one Ollie” I said as he paid and we parted ways. And that was it... you better no believe that, did you not just read what I wrote?! Do you think it really would have ended like that?!

 That night after I finished work we hung out and got some beers then went and got some food. He was definitely good people and we hit it off right from the start a few days before. He's definitely the type of person you feel like you've known your whole life even though you've only befriended him a few days prior. Ollie if you're reading this, thanks for the beers and the good times. I hope things work out with that girl back in Melbourne and make sure she, well, you know! Haha. (Definitely can't post that in detail here where my grandparents will read it!)

 Whew ok Ollie, quit hogging the spotlight, what's next on the menu? Ah yes that's right, I'm now an uncle! I've made quite the good friends out of the family who works at the printing shop I mentioned last week and they're daughter is now encouraged to call me uncle. I also did indeed give her an English name and I ended up going with Kelli in reference to my cousin who absolutely adores little Chinese babies. This baby is so friggin cute it's outrageous! I've been going in to the shop every now and then when I have to print documents for work or when I have some free time and I'm in the area so that I can speak English with them. They've been introducing me to some good fruits that are indigenous to China that I've never eaten before and they are quite delish! It still baffles me that I've seen so little of the world that there is new fruit I've never eaten in so many more places. Looks like I need to travel more!

 So lately I have been doing a bit of working out to get back into the shape that I was in right at the beginning of college. I just feel like it's time to shed a few pounds and make my love handles go bye bye. It's easier to do here in China where the food is less fattening and the exercise is constant. I walk to the subway each day, then walk to the office only to go onto 2 hour long walking tours with no breaks in between. I definitely can slim down very easily out here and that's what I plan on doing. I'm thinking about studying a bit of Tai Chi or Kung Fu if I get the chance. That should help me out and be very interesting!

 Well, I am now officially a working stiff and I ride the subway in the mornings to work just like everybody else. Riding the subway at 8:30am on a weekday drives me crazy! People push and shove so selfishly to make sure they get on the train or get a good spot. It's so unreal sometimes how rude people are. It's a dog-eat-dog world and everyone is looking out for number one. I admit that sometimes I'm not the most polite person ever and do a little pushing and shoving but I mainly target the aforementioned pushers and/or shovers and I always say I'm sorry to people who suffer as collateral damage. I think it's just the mindset people have after being brainwashed by Mao... anyway let's move on before I go off on some tangents.

 Every night when I get home from work, I love to go outside on our porch and play a little bit of guitar and sing. It's nice because no one can hear me from the street and my roommates can't hear me inside the apartment so it's a win-win. I can play as loud as I want and no one gets mad. It's nice practice for when I'll be playing on the streets of Shanghai. The patio is great when it's cool outside but sometimes it's worse being outside even at night because the temperature never dies down. It's always so hot and humid and I have to make sure I have a nice cool accompanying beverage to cool me down. A nice cool can of coconut milk usually does the trick! Speaking of which, my parents just sent me a care package with some goodies like red licorice, Reeses, puffy Cheetos and some coconut M&M's. I have to say that I'd never seen coconut M&M's before but they were tasty! I recommend them to anyone who likes the flavor of coconut but doesn't like the texture. That means you Woody Harrelson! (Zombieland...) Anyway! On to my favorite vegetable, eggplant.

 I've been eating a lot recently at a restaurant that's located in the subway station right next to my house. It's a fast food Chinese place that serves some tasty dishes like Kung Pao chicken and beef with rice and it also serves one of my favorites, eggplant. The style of eggplant that it is is called Ma Po Qie Zi (ma po chie zuh) and it essentially means Grandma's eggplant. I love it! It comes served on a bed of rice with lettuce and half of a 1000 year egg (1000 year eggs refer to fermented eggs which I think are quite tasty). Although this dish is super tasty and quite cheap, it was nothing comparison to the all-you-can eat teppenyaki I had a few nights ago.

 Teppenyaki is like Hibachi grill or a Benihana's back in the states. A chef cooks all of your food right in front of you on a hot griddle which is in the center of the table. I was a little skeptical because of the price for the meal (168rmb which is the equivalent of about $25) but when we got to the restaurant, I knew it was worth it. For the aforementioned price you could order as much food as you wanted from a select part of the menu which included sushi, beef, lamb, chicken, squid, fish of all sorts and even cakes! On top of that, you could also order whatever drinks you wanted to as well which included beers, milkshakes (soooo gooooood) and of course sake. I've had sake a couple of times back in the states but this sake was like nothing I've ever had. They served it warm which is the traditional style to serve sake and it was quite spectacular. It had very little of a bitter after-taste but rather a sweet flavor that was prominent after you had taken your first sip.

 Well, we kept ordering and ordering... ordering and ordering... and then when we we're getting full we ordered more just to make sure we got our money's worth. The banana milkshakes, bottles of beer and sake kept coming and as we made small talk with some Germans at the same table I slowly felt like I was gaining pound after pound after pound and I was loving every minute of it. When we left, I literally felt like I had a food baby rocking out in my stomach. I definitely ate more in one night than I probably had in the past two or three days.

 Well sorry this blog took me forever to put up. I feel like I've been working 7 days a week due to the fact that on my days off I have so many chores to do and errands to run. I'm heading out today to do some shopping and get some pictures though so I should have a pretty quick next blog post. I want to give a big shout out to my sisters who just had their birthdays as well as my great friend Chris Moore who just had his. I also want everyone to wish a very happy birthday to a wonderful woman who raised me up from being a little tyke to being what I am today. Happy 39^th birthday Mom! Also a HUGE shout out to all of you who sent me emails or messages or left comments on my last post. I felt super warm and fuzzy inside when I saw how many of you actually read my posts. You guys rock!

Peace, love and special sauce

Tony G.


Photo album URL: http://s875.photobucket.com/albums/ab316/munkyguitarist/Watermelon%20Chopsticks/

The New Apartment and Such

You had me at hello.

  It's been a heck of a week and things have been just as busy as always. I moved into my new apartment after a few days of searching and my roommates and I are pretty happy with the place but it's going to take some work to get it to a point where we will be satisfied with it. Apparently the Chinese don't care about places they don't own because the family that moved out left behind a mess! It was pretty disgusting actually compared to when we saw it and signed the contract but I'll get into that later.

  I had a good time with my Chinese friends this week and we drove some go karts which were a blast! I also had my first experience as a street musician (even though I had to pay for the privilege), I jammed out with a new found friend, my Chinese mother told me I was fat, I went to see some parts of old Shanghai to scope out some places to buy some nice decorations for the new place, threw a ridiculous house-warming party and checked out some cool temples around town.

  Let's get into it but before we do, this is the longest I've ever been out of the country and the longest I've been away from my family. So I feel a little guilty asking this of you but if you have a spare second if you could just post some kind words on my blog, my facebook, my e-mail account, skype, wherever. I miss all of you guys so much and could use a little pick-me-up from my beloved friends and family. I tried remedying my homesickness by going to the local grocery store and buying some Coca Cola and Lays potato chips, but the only flavor they had was “Italian red meat flavor” so it just wasn't quite the same...

  I do have to say however that the other day I was reminded of Gramps, my grandfather on my dad's side. I was walking around in my new neighborhood scoping out restaurants and shops when I saw an older gentleman walking in front of me with a fish in a bag. The fish appeared to have already been cut up a bit (he had bought it at a market) but it was thrashing around wildly. The gentleman then walked up to the next tree he passed along the side of the road and proceeded to smash the fish's head against a tree and it promptly stopped wriggling about. I almost laughed out loud but I restrained myself. It was funny because there have been more than several occasions I can remember where I've seen Gramps do that when we caught fish in Grand Junction. Damn I miss fishing.

  I jammed out with a new guy this week at a pretty cool underground practice space near where I live. The guy's name is Bobby and he's a drummer so we rocked out for almost 2 hours telling stories along the way. It was a good time (Although it was no Seth 11 as I previously mentioned to my drummer from my Ft. Collins band days) we had a lot in common and he seemed like good people. We most likely won't be doing anything together musically in the future but I can definitely see a friendship coming of it.

  Well when we moved into our house like I mentioned before, it was rather gross. The people who moved out left all of their trash (including a used diaper in my room) and left so much stuff it was unreal. My roommate and a hired maid spent hours cleaning up to finally get the place looking pretty decent. It looks good now although we still need to put some work into it which will come slowly but surely. I tried taking some pictures of the views we have but the night shots don't look very good so I'll try to take some new ones during the day.

  We're on the 16^th floor of our building but in the picture above, besides the horrible glare, you might also notice there are a few numbers missing. Can you see which ones are missing? I'll give you 5 seconds, 5...4...3...2...1...0 the answer is 4, 13 and 14. I'm sure some of you can already guess why there's no floor 13, it's an unlucky Western number and the apartment complex I'm living in is definitely a little bit pricey in comparison to other places so it's catered a little bit more towards foreigners to suit their tastes. But what about the numbers 4 and 14? Why is that not there? Well the answer is simple to those of you who speak Chinese but considering most of you don't, allow me to explain. The number 4 in China is “si” (pronounced suh). The word for death is also “si” but with a different tone. So the Chinese therefore associate the number 4 with death hence being unlucky which then leads to the absence of the number 4 and 14 from the apartment complex. What a gip! So apparently we're only on the 13^th floor.... oh well, our patio is really cool and people loved it when we threw our house-warming party.

  We had about 30 people over (most of which I didn't know until that night when I met them) and just went crazy. We had guests from several different places of the world including Poland, Korea, Ireland, USA, the Netherlands, the UK and China. It was a great party and when all the beer was gone, we went to a club and paid 100RMB (15USD) for 5 hours of open bar and went home happy. To all of the people I've drank with before who are reading this, the Irish (from Ireland Irish) are crazy! They started drinking before they came to the party, then were the first ones at the party, then went to the club then came home and bought more beer and then slept a little, woke up and started doing it again. Holy wow they can drink. I'm going to take a break from drinking for the next few weeks or so because that's where most of my free time seems to be going and I need to rest more. (I can hear my mom cheering)

  I saw a couple of cool temples the other day while touring a little bit of what's considered “Old Shanghai.” It's kind of cool to contrast Old Shanghai with the new as you can see in the picture. That's the World Financial Center in the background which is the second tallest building in Asia. It's really cool to go up to the observation deck and look down at the city and on a clear day, it's quite majestic really. In the Old Shanghai area they also have a lot of good shopping so I think I'm going to go back on my weekend and buy some new decorations for the house as well as a Chinese chess board so I can start going to parks and playing with the locals. That'll be fun to see the looks on their faces when I sit down and bust out my board asking someone to play against me. I really want to learn how the Shanghai locals play Mahjong as well so that I can sit down with them and throw some money on the table and do a little bit of gambling! That'll be fun :)

  I've recently made a new friend at our local copying and printing center. It's actually a little shop that's about eight feet by eight feet that has a couple of computers and a printer/scanner/copier. We do a lot of printing with them and they know me by name now which is great. On top of that, the guy who owns the shop and his wife speak quite a good deal of English. They have a very young daughter as well and the owner and his wife want her to learn English. So in turn, we've reached a bit of an agreement. I go in there after work sometimes for an hour (if I work the earlier shift) and they help teach me Chinese as I help teach them English. I also speak English with their little girl who calls me “Shu shu Tony” which means Uncle Tony. They want me to give her an English name so I think I'm going to name her after my cousin Kelli down in Texas because she is obsessed with little Chinese babies. To sweeten the deal, Xu Ji Ning (shoo jee neeng, the owner of the shop) bought me a beer while we were practicing and it was really cool. It's like my dad says, “there are good people everywhere in the world.” He couldn't be more right and the friends I've made would be just like my really good friends back home if they had been born in the USA instead of China.

  I went to a formal tea ceremony the other day with a co-worker and it was quite a good time actually. I really enjoy drinking tea and it was really cool to see how the different teas were prepared right before us. All of them were really tasty and each one had it's own purpose (i.e. it's healthy for your skin or to help lose weight, they even had one to help your kidney and livers... I picked that one right off the bat). We had our fair share of tea and I wanted to buy some when we were done but it would just go to waste for right now since I lack a proper teapot and tea cups. As you can see in the picture, they had a LOT of teas which was really cool and I strongly recommend this to anyone who has the chance whether you can find it in the US or if you come visit me in China ;)

  Zoom zoom!!! It's like “Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” up in here! My Chinese friends got a group discount to ride some go karts on a track that is setup for drifting. It was really fun but actually pretty hard to control the go karts and I crashed a few times no doubt. I didn't do the worst out of my group though so I was pleased and regardless of the crashing, it was a blast. The picture is from the upstairs area where they had really nice couches and TV setups which was cool too because in between races, we could go relax upstairs. I'm so glad my Chinese friends take advantage of things like this because I would never have this opportunity on my own to find these deals. We're going to go see Kung Fu Panda 2 on Wednesday night which will be cool and again, the tickets are at a great discount price because of a group discount! It's good to know people.

  Alrighty then, I saved the best story (in my opinion) for last. It involves me being a street musician and it was quite fun to play a song or two for some Chinese locals. So the night started out a few weeks ago with my Chinese friends and I trying to see Kung Fu Panda 2 but when we got to the theater, it was already sold out. Bummer. What to do? Well the obvious choice was to buy a few beers and some peanuts and go sit around in public as we drank and had fun. Turns out we ended up in a nice little public square and it had a guy playing guitar and singing through a portable speaker. Well the guy wasn't half bad but after listening to him for 10 minutes, we realized he was only playing 2 songs. It's a smart move on his part because most people only linger for a couple minutes at the longest. Generally, people would just walk by and maybe drop a few RMB into his guitar case then keep moving on. Very few people actually stopped to listen to him playing. Well after a beer or two my Chinese friends told me I should go play a song. I told them I would love to, but they had to do the talking. We then started scheming...

  So the plan we formulated was this: my friends would give him 20RMB if he would let me and one of my Chinese friends play a song. Since he had probably only made 30-40RMB that night, he promptly agreed and we gave him the money. As soon as I started speaking Chinese into the mic an immediate crowd started gathering. “Foreigner, foreigner” I heard them say in Chinese as they all whipped out their cell phones to start taking pictures and videos of me. As I introduced myself and told them a bit about the song I was going to play (in Chinese of course) they just stared at me with puzzling looks. Well, I started rocking out “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd and my friends started cheering me on. Before I knew it, I had 30 random Chinese people in front of me either cheering me on or thinking they were high on opium. As I finished the song, my friends led the applause and most of the locals followed suit. Several people yelled out “Zai lai yi ge” (zigh lie e guh) “Play another one!” I looked at the musician whose equipment I was using and he gave me the nod. About 3 minutes later as I finished “The Wind Cries Mary” by Jimi Hendrix they cheered me on again and I thanked them and told them to give the musician lots of money as my friend stepped up to the plate. He rocked out a Chinese song as I cheered him along the whole entire way. It was fun to see him play and the best part about it was that the crowd stayed for the entire song so he got the audience as well which he told me was a really cool experience.

  After he finished, a really cute girl ran up and grabbed the guitar from him thinking it was some kind of open mic session and she started playing before the musician could say anything. I think he was okay with it though, we had paid him enough to cover one more song. The girl went on to play a really nice sounding song and singing along to it. I stayed there right front and center while she played and when she was done, as I was getting ready to go talk to her, I was dismayed to see her run to her boyfriend... Lame! After we finished playing we went back to sitting down and enjoying our beers and I got the occasional thumbs up from a local as they walked by which was cool. They love using their advanced English to say phrases like “very good”. Okay, so it's not advanced, but it's cool when they speak English to me. I felt kind of bad for the musician though because when he went back to singing and playing the whole crowd dispersed. He played for another 5 minutes or so then took off. I think we definitely still helped him out in the long run though. I can't wait to get out and play on my own in the very near future. Hopefully I'll meet some cool people and have some more great experiences to blog about. Who knows, maybe my street musicianship will land me a Chinese girlfriend haha. It remains to be seen.

  So in closing for this week I would just like to say that writing my blog has really helped me out with dealing with the fact that you are all so far away. I really can't wait until the first of my friends/family come visit me because we're going to have a blast and I want to show you all the good times I've had. I encourage you to drop me a line at munkyguitarist@gmail.com and tell me what's been new with YOU. I feel like I do all the talking and if this relationship is going to work, we're going to need communication :) Here's the link to my photo album for this week: http://s875.photobucket.com/albums/ab316/munkyguitarist/The%20new%20apartment%20and%20such/

Uhhhhhhhhhh ya that's it, soooooooooooo bye bye

Tony G.

Tiring Weekend

I had a 3 day weekend and somehow I managed to work more than normal...


  Holo! Do you ever have your iPod on shuffle within a certain play list or genre and it just seems to hit the spot every time it switches songs?  This morning was like that for me which was a nice relief after the hectic weekend.  I am exhausted and my work week just started.  Bummer.  This week I had a a 3 day weekend as the title suggests, but I managed to fill up those free days with plenty of chores that needed to be done.  Two of my friends and I are all moving in to an apartment together so we had to find a suitable place for the right price and dealing with Chinese agents was very frustrating.  I did get to jam out with some guys for a few hours on one of my nights off, but it was still tiring traveling all the way to their place and blasting some tunes for awhile even though it was quite fun.  My boss has been away on business in London for the past week and will be gone for this week as well which makes for a bit of a more relaxed work week although we have plenty to do.  I also had a run in with some craw fish which isn't too bad for you southerners but to me, it was a bit unsettling.  The week ended on a good note however, I bought a new acoustic guitar from a store where I have a few connections and I got it at cost which made me quite happy!  So let's get into some more gritty details about Chinese real estate and how to deal with the agents.





  That's a view of one of the apartments we looked at which is right next to the old World Expo site.  We would have taken it, but the area is rather undeveloped and shops/restaurants are few and far between.  We all agreed that it wouldn't be worth it to have to take the subway or walk a mile each way to get decent food when we we're at home and hungry.  As far as quality though, that place was pretty amazing with great beds (Chinese apartments come furnished as a standard), a patio (which is a must have for three 23-24 year old bachelors) and some great architecture as you see in the pic below with one of my soon-to-be roommates Bo.  It would have been cool to wake up every morning and open up my blinds in a 180° outlet and look out a a beautiful scene of a river and a foggy landscape.  But like I said, the pros did not outweigh the cons.





  Another place we looked at was great!  It was on the 26th floor with a great view and some nice rooms but the deal breaker was that the agents told us it was cheaper than it really was and we were trying to negotiate a bigger TV as well as get a lower price.  This didn't really work out plus the outdoor patio wasn't much of a patio so we told the landlord and agents it was a no-go.  Before I go any further, let me explain a little bit about the agents.  First of all, you can't just get one agent to help you out, you have to get at least 5-10.  They don't get paid unless you sign a contract with them so it's nice to get all the labor for free, but here's the catch: they don't freaking listen!
  We kept telling our agents (in Chinese of course, none of these negotiations had ANY English involved besides the chatter amongst ourselves) that we wanted to look at 3 bedroom apartments with the price range of 7000-7500RMB/month with a patio and on as high of a floor as they could get us.  Of course every other place we looked at was nothing close to what we said and we wasted time, energy and money to get all around town looking at these places.  As soon as agents would start jerking us around, we would promptly tell them in Chinese that they were idiots and we would leave because it was SO counter-productive to try and work with them.  A couple of times I lost my temper while talking to agencies because they kept insisting that we look at 8,000+ RMB/month apartments which we clearly stated we didn't want to.  In China yelling isn't really rude and it actually gets things done so when a foreigner started shouting at them in their native tongue, they usually tended to shape up.  If they didn't, then we would all walk out on them muttering curse words under our breath our sometimes out loud...
  We had finally found the place we're going to move into at the end of our searching which is nice and big (180m2) with comfortable looking rooms, 2 patios, a nice dining room, living room, kitchen and boy were we happy... for a few minutes.  We said we wouldn't move in unless we all had big beds (compared to the children's beds in 2 of the rooms) and if they replaced their TV with a more modern and bigger one.  The “agent” (as I'll say because he was certainly not very professional and definitely did not have a real estate license like just about every other agent in China) obviously was just looking to make his commission and tried to rush us into things.  Luckily one of my roommates-to-be had his girlfriend with us and as luck would have it, she's a real estate lawyer.  After several minutes of them arguing back and forth, we finally came to an agreement.  Mind you, this wasn't the contract agreement, this was just an agreement to have the agent negotiate with the landlord for our demands before we would even CONSIDER signing a contract.


  So 16 hours of searching in two days, 20 apartment viewings and 10 agents later we finally found the place we want to stay in and the landlord has accepted our negotiation.  They wanted us to meet them at 8a.m. (ugh there goes my sleeping in on the weekend) the next morning to work out the contract and put in some money as a deposit.  The next day we met them, but this time without my friends girlfriend and we had to sign a contract in 100% Chinese.  Whoa!  Between the 3 of us along with asking the agent questions we got everything figured out and it sounded fair so we signed, gave them cash and will be moving in on the 6th.  Finally! We're making progress.  I can't wait to move in and get away from the office because it feels like I'm never away from work at the moment which is a little trying sometimes.  I'm also excited to move in with some rather interesting fellows and throw a few parties at our new pad!  
  It almost feels like I've settled in to China and this will be one of my final steps.  Not to mention with a place of my own, I can continue the search for a Chinese girlfriend hahaha.  Now some of you are probably asking “what about poor little Nini?” Well I'm sure as you guys predicted, it's just not going to work.  I would list some reasons, but if it's not obvious after reading my last post, then I don't know what to say.  I'd probably say some of the things I called the Chinese real estate agents... Just kidding!





  That picture above is a cool place we saw that was a bit out of our price range, but it had 4 bedrooms so we could have rented one out right? Except for the fact that the 4th “bedroom” was barely big enough to fit a twin bed.  It's almost like sleeping in a coffin being in that room so we decided to just keep it to the three of us.  The picture right below was in an interesting place with some interesting furniture as you can see from the wood barrel-like wash basin.  Throw in a washboard for my clothes and a huge scrubbing brush and we're right back in the 1800's!  I would have had to sing barbershop quarter pieces while taking a shower to feel like I fit the scenery.





  Remember the Muslim restaurant I was raving about a few weeks ago?  Turns out there's a different one that's closer to the new office location and it's wayyyy better.  It even has some really good bread which has been my friend lately after eating such greasy and oily foods so often.  Every time I walk in (which now is quite often) they all use their broken English to say “Hey brother! What's up?!” Then they do some singing and dancing to the stereo they always have blasting with some pop tunes that I'm assuming are in an Arabic-Chinese mix because I can't understand a single word of it.  They always treat me right and the setting is a bit better than the previous Muslim restaurant I ate at so often.  They also have this black beer pictured below which is considered a “stout” with some of the “finest hops” in Asia.  It's not too bad of a beer but as far as a stout goes, it's nothing close and the flavor and mouth feel are actually rather unimpressive.  But hey, whenever I order one, the guy who brings it to my table always does a funny little dance and that alone is worth about ½ the price.





  There's also another restaurant literally right out the front gate of the new office that serves some really tasty fried bao zi (bow zzuh) that I'll snap a picture of and post next time.  They also have a really good tangy and spicy chili sauce that compliments them well.  Eat that with a bowl of tasty beef noodles and I've got a solid meal.  I've been a little less frugal lately when it comes to food because I believe that's why I have been sick.  I'm pretty sure I haven't been eating enough protein or vegetables lately so I've allowed myself more money for food every day and go for a little bit better quality when I can.  Eggplant still reigns supreme in my jungle of vegetables and I've been eating so many noodles, I wouldn't be surprised if they started coming out of my nose at some point.  My list of strange foods has been staying pretty low recently but the other day at a spicy restaurant, my friend ordered some spicy craw fish and it just wasn't my thing.





  They brought us plastic gloves to put around one hand so we could handle these suckers with our chopsticks, our teeth and our single-gloved hand.  The process was the most disgusting part considering the correct way to eat them in China is to hold them with your gloved hand at the head, hold the tail with your chopsticks and then bite into the shell right near where those two parts separate so that you can crack the shell and get a clean break.  That alone turned me off not to mention the meat wasn't that savory either.  Oh well, at least the squid and peppers along with the Huang Jiu filled me up and kept me satisfied.


  My Chinese is flowing a lot better lately and even if I don't completely understand every word someone is saying, it still registers in my head as far as a meaning goes and I am definitely only thinking in Chinese when I speak and listen.  To me, this is one of the first signals of fluency being attained.  I've even had a dream or two in Chinese lately which is good.  Although I can't express myself as fluently as in English or Spanish, I know that my mind is absorbing the language very well.  The only thing that's missing is a steady Chinese girl to help me use my Chinese on a more steady basis teehee!  I also find myself starting to absorb a little bit of the local Shanghai dialect of Chinese which my Chinese mother usually speaks with her friends so that's cool.  I'm glad that I finally found my niche after years of confusion in college and I'm glad that I'm putting it to good use.


  I jammed out with a couple of older guys the other day which was a lot of fun, but it was lacking something... oh that's right, Seth, Zack and David, the former all-star lineup of Tony G. and the Cure for Cancer!  It was still a good time and I might continue jamming with them, but we'll see.  I just bought an acoustic guitar as I mentioned, so I'll be doing some 1 man band stuff in the subways soon to give Shanghai a little taste of some Western music which should be interesting.  I've also been looking into getting connections with playing some gigs at some classy restaurants with a female singer.  I'll have to loosen up my attitude towards a lot of pop music which will be a challenge, but it's some pretty good extra money as well as a good place to make connections with international business representatives as well as expats living in the area.  I'm just excited to play for people regardless of whether it's in a dirty subway tunnel or in a classy restaurant.  It's the rush that does it for me.


  The trial period is over and it's time to do as the Romans do.  I'm finally getting into the swing of living here and adapting to all the normal customs and habits.  I'm interested to see what friends/family will say when they see me when they come to visit in regards to my way of life.  I think some people will be surprised at how I act but I assure you, I am assimilating to be like a local.  In fact, I'm going to buy an electric scooter soon since they are cheap and very effective at getting around.  I also just want to drive one around while constantly honking the horn like 90% of the Chinese out here with scooters so that I can feel like I fit in.  Either that, or I just really want to get my vengeance on all the people that annoy me by doing that.  Either or.


  It's come to my attention that you can't leave comments on these posts without making an account with this blog website.  Although it's free, it's a hassle many of you don't need so feel free to send comments or questions straight to my e-mail: munkyguitarist@gmail.com.  Also, I don't think the links from the pictures take you to my picture site, so here's that link: http://s875.photobucket.com/home/munkyguitarist/index The albums are titled to correspond with each post.





  Thank you Jen and Greg for sending me the present from Hawaii!  It's really funny because I showed it to a few Chinese friends and they didn't know what was so special about it because the way the Chinese count on one hand, that represents the number 6.  I explained that it's from Hawaii and that it means “Mahalo” which can mean any number of things including thank you.  Anyway, it'll be a great magnet on our new fridge in the new place.  By the way, the new place is about 35 minutes away from the office via the subway and so an idea popped into my head.  The idea is to expand my comfort zone and I'm going to try and talk with a different Chinese person everyday on the subway on my way to work to practice my Chinese and maybe meet some new friends.  This idea was inspired by my good friend Blair and how she constantly strives to make the most out of life by stepping out of her comfort zone as much as possible to experience as much as she can.  I would strongly recommend you give it a shot.  You'll be surprised at what you find out about yourself.


Bye bye


Tony G.