So finally -- THE SHANGHAI POST
Disclaimer: Even though I met a lot of interesting people while in Shanghai, I don't have any pictures of them. When I'm alone and wandering I take a million pictures, but when I'm hanging out with people, I get distracted and don't take any. Consequently I have no pictures of the guys I stayed with while in Shanghai. Yes, I know, a pathetic excuse, but it's the only one I have.
Here's how I ended up traveling to Shanghai. Originally I was going to visit Hong Kong. I made a Hong Kong contact through one of my mom's friends and she was eager for me to visit HK. Unfortunately, my visa only allows one entry into China. I could go to Hong Kong, but not get back into mainland China.
I was bummed.
The day after I found out I could not visit Hong Kong, my mom emails me again telling me that Richard Hall lives in Shanghai. "Um, who?" Richard Hall, David and Mary Hall's son. "They have children?" Yes. Four children.
The more I learned about Richard, the more I don't understand why we didn't grow up as friends:
1) Our parents are friends.
2) We grew up less than 3 miles apart.
3) His father operated on my brother when my brother was two, saving his life.
4) I've been to his aunt and uncle's house several times and ate dinner with his aunt just this past semester.
5) He graduated from IU (my college) two years ago. My freshman year, my dorm was less than a block away from his house, which I must have walked past a million times.
6) Apparently I gave him a cat. When I was very little, there were a lot of stray cats that lived our garage. My dad caught them and gave them away to various friends. The cat we gave Richard was a black kitten that I had named Blackie (because I was a preschooler and had learned my colors). Richard named it . . . Richard.
Well, I had a week off and nothing to do, so I emailed Richard asking if he could recommend a hotel I could stay at while in Shanghai. He invited me to stay with him and his roommate McGregor while I visited.(McGregor is his first name, full name is McGregor Madden.)
I accepted.
Richard and McGregor's apartment is pretty sweet. The live relatively close to all the nice areas of Shanghai (the Bund, the French Concession, a really nice shopping district). Here is the view from their apartment window.
The building with the curly Q top is where Richard and McGregor work. It helped me a lot when I went for walk-abouts. No matter where I was, if I could find that building I could find their apartment.
Since Richard and McGregor worked all day, I would spend my days wandering around the city. The first full day I had in the city, I tried to walk to the Bund (about an 1 and 1/2 hours walk from the apartment.) The first attempt I made to get to the Bund, I was stopped by some kind of police sidewalk post. They were stopping all foreigners to see if they had registered with the local police station. If I had been staying in a hotel, the hotel would have registered me for me, but since I was staying with a friend, I had to register myself. I spent the rest of the morning getting registered.
The second time I tried to reach the Bund, I was stopped by the fashion police. Sort of . Some teenagers (which probably means they are 19-23 years old, but they looked 15 to me) came up to me showing their school ID's and explained that they were hair salon students. They asked if they could give me a free haircut as part of their final examinations. I thought, why not? If they butcher my hair, I still have a month and a half before I go back to the States for it to grow back, and it's free. The escorted me to this school building and into a large room with lots of women sitting on stools having their hair cut. No mirrors. I was the only foreigner. There are a lot of interesting women's hairstyles in China. And by interesting, I mean bad. As this student was cutting my hair, I looked around at all these different women getting, in my opinion, really bad hair cuts, and I started to freak out. Thankfully, I'm an actress and was able to hide my growing anxiety. I told the guy cutting my hair that I only wanted it cut a little. Just a little. Since he (and probably most of the other students) had never worked with hair like mine, he cut it very slowly. Plus there was an audience. Whenever they had a moment away from their own client, the other students would come watch my hair get cut. My hair stylist would proudly brag to them that I was from the U.S., that I was studying in Chengdu, and that I spoke Chinese (all which he had inquired about earlier). As soon as they learned I spoke Chinese, they started pelting me with questions that I didn't understand and couldn't answer. I never knew that Chinese speakers could have lisps. Well they can, and I can't understand them. After the student had finished cutting my hair, I breathed a sigh and wanted to see the damage in a mirror. But wait! not finished yet. A senior student came over to inspect the cut and make more trims of his own. After that, they moved me to the front of the room so that the teaching assistant could review my hair and make more cuts. Finally, they began to escort me to a mirror when, oh wait, here comes the master cutter! I'm standing up by now and the master cutter is so short he only comes up to my ears. Instead of having me sit down, he cuts my hair with me standing, surrounded by fifteen students watching in awe of his prowess as a stylist. Thinking about all the horrible haircuts being given to the other women in the room, I wanted to scream "Stop cutting my hair!" Finally he did. When I looked in a mirror, but I didn't know what to think because they had styled it. It looked alright, but I wasn't sure what it would really look like when I was out and about and my hair would get wind-tossed and what not. The students were very pleased with their work and at least 20 students asked to take pictures with me. After the photos, they let me go. For a whole block after I left the school, various students from the school bowed and thanked me as I walked by. They were bowing. I wanted to run. . . and I almost did all the way back to the apartment where I took a shower and hoped for the best. The haircut turned out to be good, miraculously.
After my shower, I tried once more to get to the Bund. This time I got further than my previous attempts, but was once more prevented . . . by my stomach. I had forgotten to eat lunch and it was dinner time, so I stopped for a meal. After dinner, I returned to the apartment to meet up with Richard and McGregor. My day's mission of reaching the Bund had been foiled.
The next day I was determined to succeed, and did. When I stopped for dinner the night before, I was actually very close to the Bund. Here are some photos.
All along the Bund are old European style buildings from when Shanghai was a center for European colonial powers.
After walking along the Bund for a while, I wandered into an area of the city I hadn't seen yet and found a nice park where there with lots of kids playing. I took pictures of them.
After walking through the park, I found my way to one of the more famous tourist areas of the city. The area is Yu Yuan Gardens and outside the gardens has been build up into a tourist shopping area.
Inside the gardens themselves is very pretty. There weren't very many tourists when I was there, so I was able to wander in peace.
This is a Chinese Opera stage.
After I left the gardens, I ran into someone I did not expect to see. This is Brian Stoller, we were in a play together two years ago as husband and wife (Chekhov's Three Sisters). Neither of us knew the other was in China. His father was on a Cultural Exchange program for opthamologists and Brian was able to go along. He left Shanghai the next day, so this really was our only chance to run into each other.
After leaving the gardens and touristy area, I wandered around until it was dinner time. All in all, I probably walked for 7 hours that day.
Inside the gardens themselves is very pretty. There weren't very many tourists when I was there, so I was able to wander in peace.
This is a Chinese Opera stage.
After I left the gardens, I ran into someone I did not expect to see. This is Brian Stoller, we were in a play together two years ago as husband and wife (Chekhov's Three Sisters). Neither of us knew the other was in China. His father was on a Cultural Exchange program for opthamologists and Brian was able to go along. He left Shanghai the next day, so this really was our only chance to run into each other.
After leaving the gardens and touristy area, I wandered around until it was dinner time. All in all, I probably walked for 7 hours that day.
I thought this sign was funny.
The next day I visited the Shanghai Museum. It is full of artistic Chinese artifacts. I had a wonderful, nerdly time.
Across the street from the Shanghai Museum is the Shanghai Theatre Complex. I didn't get a chance to go inside.
My last full day in Shanghai I went out to lunch with my friend Chahin and some of his friends who were visiting from Beijing. After lunch we went to a Turkish style restaurant and bar for drinks. The restaurant was located in the People's Park. This is a pond of lotus flowers just outside the restaurant.
And this is Chahin.
Across the street from the Shanghai Museum is the Shanghai Theatre Complex. I didn't get a chance to go inside.
My last full day in Shanghai I went out to lunch with my friend Chahin and some of his friends who were visiting from Beijing. After lunch we went to a Turkish style restaurant and bar for drinks. The restaurant was located in the People's Park. This is a pond of lotus flowers just outside the restaurant.
And this is Chahin.
I returned to Chengdu the next day. When I got back, it was to find that my new roommate had bought a cat. Nevermind that the roommate will only be in Chengdu until December, or that he not only didn't ask his 5 roommates if it was alright but didn't even tell them. Now we have a cat. I named him Richard.
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