Shanghai Explored

Because of the week-long holiday (October 1-8), the agenda for this week is to explore as much of Shanghai as I could. My holiday actually started two days earlier since I only have a Tuesday-and-Thursday class schedule so by Friday, I could pretty much do whatever I wanted.

Friday was spent watching the archery World Cup at the training camp, then taking some of the Pinoy delegates shopping at the Metro Market in Xujiahui in the evening. This was also the day when the women's compound team won the bronze so the mood was a celebratory one despite everyone being dead-tired. Never mind that I lost most of the people that I was supposedly showing around because of the sheer size of the place. All was forgiven the next day.

The next day was the finals and awarding in the World Cup. We watched the morning part because we just had to be there to see the women's compound team get their medals. The afternoon was spent shopping in YuYuan, or Yu Garden. Once again I lost my companions but found the others who were originally missing.

I moved from the training camp to an apartment near the Shanghai stadium on Sunday. This apartment is owned by the company that I'm working in so I can stay here rent-free for the week. It's nearer the center of town and it's more convenient for carrying out my agenda. Tiffany, my roommate, is such an angel so everything's going great.

On Monday, I met up with some of the Pinoy archers for more exploration. We started the day with lunch at Crystal Jade in XinTianDi then proceeded to wander about in shopping malls because of the rain. We thought of going up the Oriental Pearl but decided against it upon seeing how expensive it was. Instead we had coffee at Starbucks and wandered some more while waiting for the rain to stop. We then decided to walk along Nanjing Road, into what will turn out to be our death march. I wish I could show you the map of how far we walked but you'll just have to believe me when I say that it really felt like a death march. We walked all the way to the Bund, then back to XinTianDi because we couldn't find any taxis. I got home at around 12 midnight, not before Tiffany sending a message telling me to call her if I couldn't find my way home.

I found myself on the same road on Tuesday as I went shopping with Tiffany, her twin brother WangYong, and his girlfriend WeiWei. My legs and feet had not yet recovered from the death march but I gamely let them take me to shops in YuYuan, then to different places along Nanjing Road. When asked if I wanted to go to the Bund, I couldn't resist a pained expression and said, "I was there last night. No, please." And so we stayed along Nanjing Road until a little over 9pm to wait for the fountain that was supposed to start spurting water every hour. At 9pm on October 3, it didn't.

I stayed home during the day on Wednesday, catching up on lost sleep and reading some English fashion magazines I found lying around the house. Now I think I want some mascara and I need to buy sunblock. In the evening, I met up with Wang Jie, a staff at the training camp, and her 10-year-old son Tommy. I teach Tommy and his 9-year-old friend English for free when I have time. We had dinner then walked around. Wang Jie bought me a dress that I tried on but was still contemplating if 50RMB was a little too much.

Wang Jie brought me to the Shanghai Museum the next day. I'd been wanting to check out the museum for a long time and I was not disappointed. I loved that museum. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of power before we were done for the day.

Friday is Mid-Autumn Festival. I spent the early part of the day with Tiffany, WangYong and WeiWei. We went to watch the latest Jackie Chan movie. My fear was that I wouldn't understand anything. No subtitles, whether English or Chinese. It took a few minutes to get used to hearing Jackie Chan talking in Chinese and not the nasal voice used to dub him in English. About a quarter through the movie, I realized that I was actually watching the movie. I wasn't even translating in my head. I was just watching. Really watching. And that, my friends, made me so proud of myself. Of course it helped that the movie was not that hard to follow. Nevertheless, I was happy with my little achievement. After lunch, the lovers went about in their own merry way and Tiffany and I went home. I took the best nap that I had in a long time and woke up refreshed and ready to Multiply the rest of the evening.

While I was Multiplying, Tiffany suddenly made weird gestures towards the window. She couldn't say what was wrong and just kept gesturing at the big window. Because I'm naturally praning, I got scared thinking that there was a monster trying to break into the apartment or something. She got up and drew the curtains. It turned out that she saw the fireworks and got excited. Whew. She then decided to look for more Mid-autumn celebrations on TV and we spent the night watching different shows with this and that celebrity singing Chinese songs, old and new. I was perfectly happy with that, of course. She wrote the lyrics for "Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo de Xin" and "Xi Wang" for me and I couldn't be happier.

At one point, Tiffany said that if she were at home, her mom would probably have cooked a special dish to celebrate the day. Mid-autumn day is supposed to be celebrated with the entire family together. A few minutes later, she said her mom had probably cooked something for her older brother already and I felt so sad for her then. I suggested that she call her mom but she said she couldn't. She was specifically told by both her mom and older brother not to let WangYong, her twin, go to WangYong's girlfriend's house because "they're not yet married" and of course WangYong was in his girlfriend's house that night. Tight spot, sister. So we just celebrated the Mid-autumn night by singing Chinese songs. I think it was fun.

We're staying home today. Tiffany just ordered pizza and I'm looking forward to taking a nap after I finish this entry. Later I might take a walk. I'm going back to the training camp on Monday. By the way, come Monday, it'll be 6 more weeks before I go home. I have started my countdown.