The Little Things

So right now I'm sitting in my friends apartment trying to plan vacations. As i've told you all before everything in Shanghai is very inexpensive, so i've gotten into the mindset and become very frugal! We are trying to go visit (参观） Beijing, now if we went soon the tickets would be $83 roundtrip but it would be freezing, its below 0 C there right now. But if we waited till it was better weather it would be $100 and now the debate is do we want to freeze just to save $17, Mom, Dad, Pari aren't you impressed!?
I can't believe i've only been here for 8 days, it feels like so much longer, in a good way of course. I know my route to school and all of the important stops (convenient store for snacks and the bakery for snacks!), i can make my way through a vegetable market successfully and I'm able to use a taxi! Now that i've mastered the basic survival skills I'm able to observe more of the daily life of the locals around me. Something that i've come accustom to people walking down the street with surgeons masks. During the SARS breakout the news showed people all over Asia wearing these masks but it seems that people wear the masks whenever they are sick. People even have "designer" face masks, sickness made couture! Its such a smart idea, if your sick and can't stay at home do your best to prevent others from getting sick as well. At school last semester when everyone was gettin H1N1 we had to wear those masks in the doctors offices and i felt so silly but now i don't even think twice when i see someone wearing one.
in the United States you're taught at a young age to look both ways before crossing the street, well in China the mentality is look both ways 9 times, then maybe its ok to cross the road, and the green walking man by no means means its ok to walk. The cars are just one of the many moving objects that you have to try and avoid, there are bikes, buses, and motorcycles that don't really have rules on the road and don't believe in using brakes! There are bike and motor scooter lanes and there are no rules on which way the traffic should go so if you look right and there are no cars, your are for sure not in the clear! And right turn on red means don't even slow down while your turning just speed up more and honk a lot at the pedestrians trying to cross. We've found that following locals is the way to go.
Now in the United States guys make fun of each other for being "whipped" aka their girlfriend can convince them to miss out on a guys night to go see a chick flick. Well American boys be happy you're not whipped Shanghai style. I've seen several guys carrying their girlfriends' purses for them. So next time your girlfriend convinces you to go shopping take a look at the purses and picture yourself sporting one. I'm not trying to put a bad stereotype on men in Shanghai, I'm simply reporting what i've seem.
Now to a section i know my sisters will enjoy...food! One of my favorite dishes that i've had so far here is called xiao long bao, which is a dumpling with soup and meat inside. There is an art to eating them that I'm in the process of mastering but none the less these little morsels of goodness are amazing! They sell them on the streets and in most restaurants. Since being here we have tried a mix of chinese restaurants and most american restaurants and the chinese ones win by miles. American food chinese style doesn't translate as well. For example today we went to a restaurant that had hawaiian pizza, and the first thing that comes to mind is canadian bacon and pineapple right? Well they went all out with this pizza and put bananas on it. Cheers to the effort but the tiny chinese restaurants with there menus in all chinese win!

Hope all in well across the pond! Please keep in touch again my e-mail is odonneka@muohio.edu and my skype is aodonnell89. Thanks everyone whose added me so far! Sending my love!

xoxo,
Aryn