Monday, July 30, 2007

Ministry of Truth

Another weekend. I went to "JZ" on Friday night with Maggie, lunch with flatmates on Saturday to a Turkish/Uighur restaurant (happy, have wanted to try Uighur) and searched (in vain and in the rain without an umbrella) for the Taoist Temple of the Town Gods on Sunday afternoon, the thing I have wanted to do most since I arrived. I did stumble upon a small Buddhist temple on Bangfang lu instead, so went in and burned some incense for the gods and spent some time looking and kneeling. Though similar, I prefer Taoism to Buddhism.



Excellent veggie dumplings Sunday lunch


On Friday, Maggie and I left work early after the whole office (about 80 folks) celebrated the July birthdays with fancy cake and peaches. We walked around West Nanjing lu and went into the fanciest mall I've ever been in.. .they had every single designer I've ever heard of and a bunch I hadn't. I now love Anna Sui. A lot. Possibly more than Anthropologie. Yes, I know I am a hypocrite when it comes to these two stores.

Then there was the Hello Kitty store. Nothing but, including four shelves of this formidable army:


JZ was a jazz club with a Latin band and a lot of fat Italians and Germans smoking cigars and wagging their butts in my face. I had a margarita. JZ is very near The Best Statue Of My Life so Maggie took my picture with it and told me it is a musician-- figures. The photo of me with The Statue was the highlight of my week for sure.

Have you ever had the feeling in conversation that you are constantly talking past each other instead of at? I said to Michelle yesterday, "There's not very many Americans here. I've only seen, like, five, not counting the flat." Meaning: "Americans don't come here or cross my path much, every white person I see is Russian, French, British or Canadian." And she says, "For real? You need to go out more [to the clubs]!"

I had my palm read on Saturday. I will have a long life and die healthy (meaning of an accident or murder). I will marry once and have one child and cheat on my husband once. I will kill one person with intent and that may bring about my own death.

I hate to go on and on about the heat but it is so hot that even the locals are complaining. "If you haven't noticed (perhaps you are a human ice cube?) it's hot out. Really hot. Today's forecast features a 36C high, which is 97F to the Americans in the audience, plus another 10-13 degrees for the heat index. Yesterday the mercury hit 39.6C, making it the hottest Shanghai day in 63 years. The city's Labor and Social Security Bureau is requiring employers to provide a 10-yuan daily bonus to all employees who work outdoors, a 'heat allowance' for these sweltering, heat-stroke-inducing and extra-liquid-requiring days." And thus the working masses of Shanghai rejoice at an extra $1.42.

My Mandarin is getting better without studying at all. At this rate, I'll be able to speak a coherent sentence by the time I'm 83. I heard some people speaking Japanese and knew immediately it was not Chinese. I can pick some words out on the street. Now I know:

nihao=hello
xiexie=thanks
waiguoren=foreign devil
laowei=foreigner
ma=mom
ma=horse
lu=road
xi=west
nigga nigga (they say this all the time. awkward for english speakers)=sure, sure

I'm feeling a bit funny about this blog.. watching the news here, or anywhere, really, you know you're only viewing what they want to be shown and with the wider and wider audience I seem to be getting on this, it's like my own personal propaganda machine.. I am only telling you what I want to relay, which are not always what I consider to be the most important or interesting things that are happening to me, just the safest. Propaganda For All.

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