That's Shanghai!

^My Chinese roommate Jeff and I practicing pronunciation

           As you likely just saw, every night my roommate蒋竣亦，or Jeff, and I share different Chinese and English colloquialisms and practice pronunciation with one another.  Sometimes we’ll go for a half an hour just practicing one or two words, but living with a Chinese roommate has been one of the best experiences of this study abroad so far.  I will also add that being so close to my roommate and his friends has also posed its challenges because I’m sort of stuck in limbo between my American counterparts also here studying abroad here and my Chinese friends.  I know it’s probably hard to imagine an American college student going abroad just to party, but if you can believe it not everyone came to China to speak the language every waking moment, and understand every nuance of Chinese life.

     

^Jeff and I at the Subway Station.

         I’ve also had to come up with a solution for my coffee addiction.  If you’re like many other expats, myself included, you haven’t quite jumped on the tea train and you still enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning.  Unfortunately, it comes with a pretty hefty price tag.  I was lucky enough to get a coffee machine from my roommate’s parents so that saved me approximately 300-500 Yuan on a machine.  However, I’m spending approximately 100 Yuan on ground beans from Starbucks (‘Merica), 10 Yuan on the jug of water needed to fill the coffee machine with clean water for the week, and then over 60 Yuan on milk because China pretty much entirely uses boxed milk.  This is what I’m paying every week.  Now it may not sound like my much when you divide all those numbers by approximately 6.3, but compared to local prices it’s almost a luxury good!

^My coffee machine and Starbucks beans, beside Jeff's tea pot.

             A few of us had some close calls while eating Chinese food too.  Genevieve, another study abroad student told me a story about finding a full-on razor blade in her soup.  She showed me a picture and it was a legit razor blade with tape wrapped around the end to act as a make-shift handle.  My only question for her was, “Did you finish the soup?”  She smiled and said, “It was 10 kuai!  Of course I finished the soup.”  What a champ.  I guess I thought I was immune to it, and while eating a piece of fish, I just thought I had a found a small fish bone so I decided to continue chewing, until the “fish bone” cut me.  I slowly pulled out a metal pin about the size of a sewing needle, which likely broke off of the metal wire brush they used to clean the fish with.  Fortunately, I didn’t swallow that one.

^The needle that I pulled out of my fish.

         There are also so many more impressions that actually living in China has afforded me.  For example, western men: don’t get overly excited.  The Asian women don’t actually think you’re a sent from heaven.  In fact, maybe it’s more of a Shanghai thing, but there are so many westerners here that the Chinese have really become pretty immune to seeing westerners.  There is some irony in that though, because although some of the Chinese won’t pay you much attention, they’re all walking around talking to Siri on their iPhone, wearing their Levi jeans, and staying up to date on the latest western trends.

^Shi Liu Pu Fabric Market.

           

            I’ve also come to love the local expat magazine, “That’s Shanghai.”  If you’re looking for great suggestions on places to shop, an insider scoop on Chinese cultural trends, or even advice on conducting business in China, this is a must read magazine.  The February edition led me to the ShiLiuPu Fabric market and to stand 116 and 248.  My buddy James, just as Chinese as he is American, and I had been planning to get some suits tailored, along with a few other guys.  So James wanted the rest of the white guys to hang back while he and I went to negotiate some prices at stand 248 because his theory is that the Chinese would rather make no money by not making a sale, rather than give a good price to a white guy.  Needless to say, I was proud to be selected for the negotiating team and I settled at approximately 550 Yuan for a three-piece suit and approximately 400 Yuan for 4 custom tailored shirts (100 Yuan each).  Of course, I went one step further and went to stand 116 for some beautiful silk to line my suit with.  Who wouldn’t walk into a business meeting with confidence if their suit was lined with red silk and golden dragons?

^The crew at Stand 248.

            Just some additional info to anyone who might be curious, after going to the South Bund fabric market, we couldn’t help but feel like they were all colluding on a set of prices, so its worth checking out, but you might find better prices elsewhere.  Another great place that is often overlooked is the Shanghai Science and Technology Metro Station.  Not only do they have an unreal assortment of knock-off goods, but they also do custom tailored clothing and the price only keeps dropping.  My friend Doug and I would jokingly toss out outrageously low prices thinking the merchants would just say no and we could walk away scott-free.  Well, the merchants more often than not took the prices and were outraged that we still didn’t want to buy the goods.  One merchant really went off on us in Chinese, half joking, half serious, and I understood a good portion of it so I couldn’t help but start cracking up.  Then as she stormed off, we told her that we’d come back to visit her next time, and she snapped around with perfect style and a big smile and said, “F!@# you!”  I hope that’s not the only English she’s learning from foreigners.

            But seriously, with all of this new clothing, you’ll probably need it dry-cleaned so make sure to check out the third Laundromat on the “back street” behind campus (Guangling Yi Lu).  Make a right out of the back gate, walk over to the opposite sidewalk, and continue walking along Guangling Yi Lu, pass the intersection of Guangling Er Lu, and you will run straight into three Laundromats side by side.  If you don’t like one’s price simply walk next door.  It’s almost like communist China is more capitalistic than the State’s sometimes!  I brought them two and half weeks of laundry and it was all cleaned and folded for 45 Yuan.  Love that.  More stories from the Middle Kingdom next week.