One thing is certain: no matter how well I can speak and understand Chinese, I would never be able to completely assimilate into this culture. I will never look Asian.
Every day I am approached by different people saying the same thing: "Hello! Watch? Bag? Shoe? DVD?" and the occasional "Lady?" If you keep walking they usually leave you alone, but some are pretty persistent. Sometimes I just speak in French or Spanish and they leave me alone, but one time one of them knew Italian, Spanish, French, English and some middle eastern language. That's dedication.
It's funny how things are so opposite here. The Chinese love the parts of animals that Westerners find detestable. Chicken feet, duck tongues, ligaments, tendons, and other internal organs are delicacies. In the westernized supermarkets all the plain chicken breast tenders and ground beef are very cheap because no one eats them. Lucky for me.
Another thing you won't find much of here is blunt honesty. You can't tell someone their design is weak directly, that is not acceptable. You have to work your way around with pleasantries to get to your point. With architecture, they start at the end and work backwards. Whereas I am used to starting with a concept or sketch and moving from there, they want pretty, finished looking pictures at first, and design it later. Different ways to skin a cat I guess.
This is my 10 square meter room at 485 Yongjia Lu. That's my bed in the bottom left corner if you couldn't tell. Pretty plain at the moment, hopefully I'll get a t.v. or something soon. Below is a shot from my rooftop terrace/kitchen. You can't see much, but its something I guess.
Pretty much all design has become these days... a room full of computers. On the bright side I get a somewhat large desk, a good view, and free lunch.
This is a map I've been working on since I've been here. There aren't any good maps in English, so I thought I'd make my own. So far I only have the streets, metro lines and stops, parks, and a couple hotspots listed. If you can read it, I live at the star on Yongjia Lu. My work is the star up at Beijing Lu. As you can see, it's kind of a long commute: over an hour by foot. I'm going to keep adding places that I find interesting like restaurants, tourist spots, nice grocery stores, and other gems. Who knows, maybe this will be helpful to some other lost American trying to navigate through Shanghai without a clue as to what all of those squiggly lines mean.
This one comes to you from the metro station at People's Square. Gotta watch out for those equipment overhauls.
