Great. Just great.
So, it's been going on a while. Ben would call, talk about his separation anxiety and then get mad at me for leaving him. I thought it would be fine. Only two months to go, I said at one point. And then it progressed to, only 50 more days to go. Today it's 48. But his anxiety is quite a bit worse, now that it's been over a month and I'm on the other side of the world.
Today he asked me to go back to Pittsburgh sooner so that we can be together longer. I understand that he wants to see me as soon as possible and I would like to oblige. However there's also the fact that I get home from China on August 3, and if I were to go back any earlier, I'll have barely spent any time with my parents at all. I can't just go home, say hello and be off. If I go back to Pittsburgh when he wants me to, I'll be too tired to even say hello because I haven't even recovered from jetlag yet.
We were in a pretty heated argument today. He seems to think I won't go back simply because my parents don't want me dating him and I think it will tip them off. He doesn't even consider the fact that I see my family for less than two months a year and it would be nice to spend some time with them when I can.
The argument descended to a point where Ben demanded my home phone number so he could call my mother, tell her what the deal is and declare that he'll never give me up, he loves me so much. As flattered as I am by his attentions, it's not going to help our situation. If anything, it could quite possibly make things horribly worse. Besides, meeting my parents over the phone is not the best introduction, even if it was a conference call. I told him that, and he doesn't understand. But then, he doesn't have Chinese parents, and so it would be difficult for him to understand.
So our conversation ended with something along the lines of Ben saying that "this" is all ridiculous, he gives up, my parents hate him, good bye. So what exactly does that mean? I'm horribly upset over the fact that he might have dumped me because of my parents.
I'm not going to let it get to me at work. I'm not.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Nothing much has been happening lately at work. There's been a lot of torrential downpours with sudden onsets. I started out for work yesterday with sunglasses thinking it was going to be an overly bright and sunny day, and halfway to work, the clouds come in and by the time I'm at my stop, the rain is coming down in sheets. I went into work completely soaked. Fortunately, someone had a hair dryer and an extra shirt for me to borrow.
But other than that, nothing much has been happening. I had a fun lunchtime conversation with Shelly and Kathleen about vanity in asia. It seems that in China, only girls actually give a crap about how they look and too often it consists of pounds of makeup, see through white dresses and cheesy side ponytails. We talked a little about girls in Korea. Apparently it's quite common for girls there to receive plastic surgery for their 16th birthday. We likened it to parents saying, "O honey, we're so sorry you were born ugly. But now that you're old enough, you can go under the knife and make it all better!" Yay! They told me that the process involves lopping off a chunk of eyelid, and even afterwards, there's a definite scar so it's still obvious that the double eyelids that people are looking at aren't natural. I don't know if it's worth it... Does having an extra crease to your eyelids make you that much prettier?
But other than that, there hasn't been anything happening. The dogs have somehow got a hold of WangYue's shoe so we must go and get it back from them now. Fun!
O and I think Ken Lau and company are in Shanghai but have forgotten I'm here. Which sucks because I am hanging out with a bunch of Shel's friends, and wanted to see if they could come, too. The more the merrier after all. Silly Ken.
But other than that, nothing much has been happening. I had a fun lunchtime conversation with Shelly and Kathleen about vanity in asia. It seems that in China, only girls actually give a crap about how they look and too often it consists of pounds of makeup, see through white dresses and cheesy side ponytails. We talked a little about girls in Korea. Apparently it's quite common for girls there to receive plastic surgery for their 16th birthday. We likened it to parents saying, "O honey, we're so sorry you were born ugly. But now that you're old enough, you can go under the knife and make it all better!" Yay! They told me that the process involves lopping off a chunk of eyelid, and even afterwards, there's a definite scar so it's still obvious that the double eyelids that people are looking at aren't natural. I don't know if it's worth it... Does having an extra crease to your eyelids make you that much prettier?
But other than that, there hasn't been anything happening. The dogs have somehow got a hold of WangYue's shoe so we must go and get it back from them now. Fun!
O and I think Ken Lau and company are in Shanghai but have forgotten I'm here. Which sucks because I am hanging out with a bunch of Shel's friends, and wanted to see if they could come, too. The more the merrier after all. Silly Ken.
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Annoyed
Why is it that my new roomie can find all the time in the world to go climbing all over her hometown and hanging out, and yet she can't find time to reply to an email of mine that requires one simple date for an answer? For that matter, why can't she read my emails clearly enough to write the correct zip code on an envelope. My mom seems to be very dubious about her. I hope I can prove mom wrong eventually...
Friday, June 23, 2006
The Aftermath
It's been quite a while since I started work at LWMA, and I thought that things were starting to fall into a predictable pattern. Go to work, makes cheesecake, go home, play with baby and fall asleep at 10:30. However, something amazing always seems to happen when I least expect it. Yesterday, it suddenly got very dark around 4:30 and the wind started blowing. We all knew there was a thunderstorm on the way, so we didn't pay any attention to it. And then, the rain came pouring down. The first big commotion happened when we heard people shouting in the printing room, far back corner or the office. We walked over to see what the fuss was about and apparently the windows weren't well sealed adn there was water leaking around the glass and dripping right onto our Best Plotter. So all the secretaries were flipping out adn stuffing towels into all the cracks they could find.
After a few minutes, the office manager ran by shouting something about the kitchen, so I went over to see what was happening. The water from our flat roof was coming into the kitchen through the light fixtures. It wasn't a trickle, it was definitely two very big showers of water. Yellow water. We blamed it on a clogged gutter whcih is being fixed today. Then we heard more commotion going on upstairs and found that the roof was also leaking right above all of our servers. All in all, no one did anything but gawk or bail water for the next hour and a half. In the end, the server room and the printer room stopped leaking and someone rigged up a fancy way of geting the water out of the kitchen.
It didn't help that someone let the dogs in and they were running around like maniacs. I suppose the indoors is better than the outdoors in the event of a thunderstorm, but since the storm kept them from going out doors, and the poor puppies had to go, they ended up peeing and pooping in the office...again.... Kathleen has a wonderful photo of her absolute delight at finding a piece of dog poo in the lobby.
Around 6, everything was pretty much back to normal, so we all went back to work. I left after work to go to the busstop only to find that the extra lane for bicycles and mopeds had turned into a crick more than anything. I walked quite a ways till I find a good place to ford the river so to speak. I briefly considered taking my shoes off and walking through the water, but there was so much dirt and debris in it that I wasn't sure I wouldn't step on something gross. Or sharp.
So I made it home, early by my usual standards. I sat around and ate some dinner, read a book adn then Yuko came in with Mumu-chan. A naked Mumu-chan. "He has daiper rash," she said as she dumped him in my arms while she went to make some tea. I just looked down and him and said, "You had better not pee or poop on me." He just looked and me adn started gnawing on the tv remote control. I must say, it's a little akward holding a naked baby, particularly a naked baby boy...
Today I came into work and found the internet out for a time. Ben Finally acepted my gmail invite, but now he needs to get GTalk so we can chat online.But now it's time for lunch! Dumplings!
After a few minutes, the office manager ran by shouting something about the kitchen, so I went over to see what was happening. The water from our flat roof was coming into the kitchen through the light fixtures. It wasn't a trickle, it was definitely two very big showers of water. Yellow water. We blamed it on a clogged gutter whcih is being fixed today. Then we heard more commotion going on upstairs and found that the roof was also leaking right above all of our servers. All in all, no one did anything but gawk or bail water for the next hour and a half. In the end, the server room and the printer room stopped leaking and someone rigged up a fancy way of geting the water out of the kitchen.
It didn't help that someone let the dogs in and they were running around like maniacs. I suppose the indoors is better than the outdoors in the event of a thunderstorm, but since the storm kept them from going out doors, and the poor puppies had to go, they ended up peeing and pooping in the office...again.... Kathleen has a wonderful photo of her absolute delight at finding a piece of dog poo in the lobby.
Around 6, everything was pretty much back to normal, so we all went back to work. I left after work to go to the busstop only to find that the extra lane for bicycles and mopeds had turned into a crick more than anything. I walked quite a ways till I find a good place to ford the river so to speak. I briefly considered taking my shoes off and walking through the water, but there was so much dirt and debris in it that I wasn't sure I wouldn't step on something gross. Or sharp.
So I made it home, early by my usual standards. I sat around and ate some dinner, read a book adn then Yuko came in with Mumu-chan. A naked Mumu-chan. "He has daiper rash," she said as she dumped him in my arms while she went to make some tea. I just looked down and him and said, "You had better not pee or poop on me." He just looked and me adn started gnawing on the tv remote control. I must say, it's a little akward holding a naked baby, particularly a naked baby boy...
Today I came into work and found the internet out for a time. Ben Finally acepted my gmail invite, but now he needs to get GTalk so we can chat online.But now it's time for lunch! Dumplings!
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Flooding!
The great flood of '06. This once lovely and quite moderne, sunlit kitchen is now the site of two new, very one of the kind, two in one shower light! Witness the superiority of Chinese construction techniques.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Morning News Shanghai
Newsflash! As of yesterday morning, I have been dubbed the ChiJiaoDaXian which means the "Barefoot Immortal" because I go everywhere in the office (other than the bathroom) barefoot. My statement that everyone does this in studio is met with shock and awe, as well as the idea that people Want to be tan.
Newsflash! Hot news of the morning is that a truck overturned just down the road, crushing some poor pedestrian to death. Word is it happened around 8 or 9 last night. Witnesses state that a definite crowd was forming to gawk at the victim fortunately hidden beneath a 7 meter long tank of oil. Shel said that this morning, a crane was at the site, trying to right the truck. Shel also hopes that it's not an open casket burial.
Newflash! Hot news of last evening was that around 11, WangYue (aka Wayne - we named him) text messaged me asking how to write "Fart" which he pronounces "fert." So I messaged him back saying that he ought to work on the pronunciation lest it be mistaken for "Flirt." A very important distinction between the two meanings was emphasized upon seeing him this morning.
Newsflash! Hot news of the morning is that a truck overturned just down the road, crushing some poor pedestrian to death. Word is it happened around 8 or 9 last night. Witnesses state that a definite crowd was forming to gawk at the victim fortunately hidden beneath a 7 meter long tank of oil. Shel said that this morning, a crane was at the site, trying to right the truck. Shel also hopes that it's not an open casket burial.
Newflash! Hot news of last evening was that around 11, WangYue (aka Wayne - we named him) text messaged me asking how to write "Fart" which he pronounces "fert." So I messaged him back saying that he ought to work on the pronunciation lest it be mistaken for "Flirt." A very important distinction between the two meanings was emphasized upon seeing him this morning.
Monday, June 19, 2006
Random Musings
I told Shelly yesterday that with a woman as clueless as my supervisor for a boss, I worry about the future of my career. I continue worrying beign that I'm sitting here, over an hour into work and my supervisor has still not showed up yet, nor left me anythin to do. I keep looking up at the sound of clicking heels, hoping its her, but no, it's usually the office manager glaring at me through his emo glasses. Yes, I'm not doing anything. No, there's nothing I can do about it. So shove it.
Yuko and Grandpa Duh's nurse have been in a silent battle over my breakfast rolls. Whenever there's no more regular rolls that Grandpa Duh eats, the nurse gives him one of the ones I buy. She's asked me before if I could, to which I said that it's not a problem. He's a nice old guy - he gave me a bracelet when I was 10. However, Yuko doesn't know that I have given permission for Grandpa Duh to eat my breakfast rolls and now it has escalated into a heated argument that took up 15 minutes of my morning. I don't think it's even a matter of the rolls anymore to Yuko. I think I'll just try not to get involved and hand the rolls over to Grandpa myself.
Speaking of rolls, I was buying some at Carrefour (China's equivalent to KMart, but horrifically Much happier) some weeks ago when I noticed something at the checkout counter. Those tall boxes that I thought were many colorful forms of cigarettes are actually boxes of condoms. How could I miss the happy banana-like condom man with sunglasses on? I should really be more observant. In a nation where only one baby is allowed per family, condoms Would be located where the boxes of candy aisle should be.
WangYue and I were looking at photos Victor took of all of us on our great Shanghai Weekend adventure and we deduced two things. 1) The camera definitely adds 10 pounds on me (great, as if the maid wasn't already telling me I'm too fat and should eat less) and 2) I don't look very Chinese. I keep hearing that. Though here they tell my I look a little Vietnamese rather than asking if one of my parents is caucasian...
Yuko and Grandpa Duh's nurse have been in a silent battle over my breakfast rolls. Whenever there's no more regular rolls that Grandpa Duh eats, the nurse gives him one of the ones I buy. She's asked me before if I could, to which I said that it's not a problem. He's a nice old guy - he gave me a bracelet when I was 10. However, Yuko doesn't know that I have given permission for Grandpa Duh to eat my breakfast rolls and now it has escalated into a heated argument that took up 15 minutes of my morning. I don't think it's even a matter of the rolls anymore to Yuko. I think I'll just try not to get involved and hand the rolls over to Grandpa myself.
Speaking of rolls, I was buying some at Carrefour (China's equivalent to KMart, but horrifically Much happier) some weeks ago when I noticed something at the checkout counter. Those tall boxes that I thought were many colorful forms of cigarettes are actually boxes of condoms. How could I miss the happy banana-like condom man with sunglasses on? I should really be more observant. In a nation where only one baby is allowed per family, condoms Would be located where the boxes of candy aisle should be.
WangYue and I were looking at photos Victor took of all of us on our great Shanghai Weekend adventure and we deduced two things. 1) The camera definitely adds 10 pounds on me (great, as if the maid wasn't already telling me I'm too fat and should eat less) and 2) I don't look very Chinese. I keep hearing that. Though here they tell my I look a little Vietnamese rather than asking if one of my parents is caucasian...
Sunday, June 18, 2006
An Exciting Shanghai Weekend
This weekend, I went out on a grand tour of the city with the new girl, Kathleen, and Claire, pretty Shanghai lady, WangYue, Jenny from the office, and Kathleen's distant cousin, Victor. I must admit, I was a little apprehensive at first because it would be going out with total strangers, however, I think in the end, we all had a lot of fun.
Day one we all met up at noon at Kathleen's uncle's office. Being it was the weekend, the building wasn't air-conditioned so we sat in a tiny little office waiting for Kathleen to get there while we chatted with Claire. Then we all went out to lunch with Kathleen's uncle to a Shabushabu place. Shabushabu is basically hotpot. The strangest part of the meal was the appetizer/"sushi." What made it odd was that the sushi was actually thinly sliced beef that we're normally accustomed to putting into the shabushabu soup to cook. So yes, ladies and gentlemen, I ate raw meat. And liked it.
After that, I went - again - to XiangYang. I bought a nifty purse for my sister (I think you'll like it May) but other than that, there wasn't anything interesting there. We made a stop at Mister Donut, where I introduced everyone to the wonder that is the chocolate pon de ring (chewy donuts, yum!).
Next, we went to XinTianDi which I already went to as an office fieldtrip. Same as last time, very nice but all in all too expensive to enjoy. Next we went to a bar called Face which was located in some sort of gated community place. It was horribly expensive like XinTianDi and was also filled with foreigners. The the interior was very interesting. Apparently Face is a Thai styled bar. We lounged there for over an hour and Kathleen picked up a monster mosquito bite kind of the like the ones I got when I first arrived.
Afterwards it started to get a lot more fun. Claire took us to a really nifty store that took factory leftovers from brands like Diesel and Yohji Yamamoto. I am now the proud owner of a really awesome Yamamoto jacket. Yippee! Next was dinner at a horrifically ugly looking restaurant that nevertheless cooked good food. Claire brought her boyfriend for us to meet - an extremely tall Dutch man charmingly named Bob. Bob was very polite.
Yesterday after a horrible morning of coordinating, I managed to get everyone to meet up at 12:30 and we proceeded to ChenHuangMiao - yet another super touristy place. The featured attraction is a villa complex once belonging to a very rich man. We wandered around there for over two hours, sweating like crazy. Then we went to Pudong where we walekd by the water and went to a restaurant that specialized in delicious mango deserts. Mango pudding...yummmm. Next was an o so exciting but very short ferry ride across the water to Puxi where we walked for half an hour into the Bund just to climb up onto a people filled platform to get a few people filled shots of the Pearl Tower. Then there was dinner at an alley that specialized in street food. Mmm, street food. We ended up only eating five ShenJianBao apiece. And everyone was too polite to say they were still hungry. Next we went to a snazzy bar in the middle of some park and ended up spending over 200RNB on yucky drinks. I ordered a pina colada and asked for no alcohol, but there was definitely some when I got it. Yuck, alcohol. At drinks we met Bud the art director from Cleveland who seems to strongly dislike the Japanese (all the while I was thinking about my cute little nephew - how can you possibly hate him?) and his prettily dressed up, extremely young companion for the evening and Claire's friend, Kelly. At around 11, I pointed out that tomorrow there was still work and we had to try to catch some form of public transportation. Yah, all the subways were closed, and none of the buses went where we needed to go, so we ended up splitting an expensive cabride, but not before we ran into various convenience stores to buy some food because we were Starving!
This morning, I finally saw Yuko and Kaigen after not seeing them all weekend. Kaigen called me a few times to yell at me for not telling them where I went, and then Yuko sent me a very polite text message saying that I can stay out as long as I want, but please call every so often to let them know I'm alive. Yuko said this morning that Kaigen is afraid that if I get lost or something my parents will kill him. I guess he still lives in fear of my daddy. ^_^
All in all, though, a great weekend. I made a lot of new friends. Yay!
Day one we all met up at noon at Kathleen's uncle's office. Being it was the weekend, the building wasn't air-conditioned so we sat in a tiny little office waiting for Kathleen to get there while we chatted with Claire. Then we all went out to lunch with Kathleen's uncle to a Shabushabu place. Shabushabu is basically hotpot. The strangest part of the meal was the appetizer/"sushi." What made it odd was that the sushi was actually thinly sliced beef that we're normally accustomed to putting into the shabushabu soup to cook. So yes, ladies and gentlemen, I ate raw meat. And liked it.
After that, I went - again - to XiangYang. I bought a nifty purse for my sister (I think you'll like it May) but other than that, there wasn't anything interesting there. We made a stop at Mister Donut, where I introduced everyone to the wonder that is the chocolate pon de ring (chewy donuts, yum!).
Next, we went to XinTianDi which I already went to as an office fieldtrip. Same as last time, very nice but all in all too expensive to enjoy. Next we went to a bar called Face which was located in some sort of gated community place. It was horribly expensive like XinTianDi and was also filled with foreigners. The the interior was very interesting. Apparently Face is a Thai styled bar. We lounged there for over an hour and Kathleen picked up a monster mosquito bite kind of the like the ones I got when I first arrived.
Afterwards it started to get a lot more fun. Claire took us to a really nifty store that took factory leftovers from brands like Diesel and Yohji Yamamoto. I am now the proud owner of a really awesome Yamamoto jacket. Yippee! Next was dinner at a horrifically ugly looking restaurant that nevertheless cooked good food. Claire brought her boyfriend for us to meet - an extremely tall Dutch man charmingly named Bob. Bob was very polite.
Yesterday after a horrible morning of coordinating, I managed to get everyone to meet up at 12:30 and we proceeded to ChenHuangMiao - yet another super touristy place. The featured attraction is a villa complex once belonging to a very rich man. We wandered around there for over two hours, sweating like crazy. Then we went to Pudong where we walekd by the water and went to a restaurant that specialized in delicious mango deserts. Mango pudding...yummmm. Next was an o so exciting but very short ferry ride across the water to Puxi where we walked for half an hour into the Bund just to climb up onto a people filled platform to get a few people filled shots of the Pearl Tower. Then there was dinner at an alley that specialized in street food. Mmm, street food. We ended up only eating five ShenJianBao apiece. And everyone was too polite to say they were still hungry. Next we went to a snazzy bar in the middle of some park and ended up spending over 200RNB on yucky drinks. I ordered a pina colada and asked for no alcohol, but there was definitely some when I got it. Yuck, alcohol. At drinks we met Bud the art director from Cleveland who seems to strongly dislike the Japanese (all the while I was thinking about my cute little nephew - how can you possibly hate him?) and his prettily dressed up, extremely young companion for the evening and Claire's friend, Kelly. At around 11, I pointed out that tomorrow there was still work and we had to try to catch some form of public transportation. Yah, all the subways were closed, and none of the buses went where we needed to go, so we ended up splitting an expensive cabride, but not before we ran into various convenience stores to buy some food because we were Starving!
This morning, I finally saw Yuko and Kaigen after not seeing them all weekend. Kaigen called me a few times to yell at me for not telling them where I went, and then Yuko sent me a very polite text message saying that I can stay out as long as I want, but please call every so often to let them know I'm alive. Yuko said this morning that Kaigen is afraid that if I get lost or something my parents will kill him. I guess he still lives in fear of my daddy. ^_^
All in all, though, a great weekend. I made a lot of new friends. Yay!
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Stupid Web
I realized a while back and just thought I would share. I now know why asian people don't use AIM or Blogger. The reason is because neither are easily accessible. In the case of AIM, not only can I not get onto the network, I can't even get to a website that will download the program. I couldn't even download gaim. I was able to get Terraserver, but that's how I found out the network is inaccessible. And because of this, I have resorted to just talking on the gmail chat network. If you feel like talking to me, get gmail (if you need an invite, let me know). O and my "screenname" is my gmail address - Irenia321@gmail.com. Do feel free to chat, it's quite lonely here and I crave being able to talk to people in English.
As for Blogger, while I can post, I can't actually access anyone's (not even my own) blog. How messed up is that?
As for Blogger, while I can post, I can't actually access anyone's (not even my own) blog. How messed up is that?
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Did it Work?
Here's my schewed Barragon. Too much chocolate cake, not enough cheesecake.
Let me know if the screenshot uploaded or not.
Photo and Other Things
It's blurry, I know. However, Ben brought it to my attention today that he has no idea who my friends are, or for that matter, what their genders are. So here are Shelly and LiQiang (a boy, as you can see). We were at a really nifty place that sells XiaoLongTangBao - Soup Dumplings.
Other than that, yesterday has been filled with the most interesting things. I'll start with work. Yesterday was the Architect's birthday. We celebrated with a humongous cake that makes me never want chocolate cake ever again. However, I believe that the party has put the Architect in a very good mood. Later on in the day, when my supervisor, Anita, and I went to see him and go over our designs, he was most amusing. What I'm doing is creating exteriors to pre-existing, unfortunately malformed and overcomplicated interiors. The end result looks somewhat like Casa Barragon, but very skewed. I had a scheme going on about solids and voids intersecting one another. If I can figure out how to get a rendering out of SketchUp I will post a picture. In any case, the Architect said he really liked what I had going on. However there was one problem. "You see," he said, and I translate, "These clients are very conservative. What they want is something more traditional. It's like they want cheesecake, but what you've given them is fancy chocolate cake. The fancy chocolate cake is very nice, but in the end, if we present them with no cheesecake, they'll walk away feeling like they didn't get what they want - namely cheesecake. What we could do is offer them some cheesecake with some fancy filling (he suggested something which I interpret as foie gras - in cheesecake?)." So he told me to hold on to the chocolate cake - he likes it enough that he's willing to present it as a final, very optional option, but he told us that we must work on making cheesecake. Anita later complained that she doesn't like cheesecake, and that she's not very good at making cheesecake. The senior designer, a fellow named Hung Ming, chimed in and said that she's just going to have to figure out how to make cheesecake even if it's really bad cheese or something along those lines. The whole experience has made me very averse to cake of any sort. I doubt I'll be eating any for some time.
Later, I went home. One of my other uncles stopped by to pick up a package my aunt left for him. While he was over, he needed to borrow a bottle opener for something he brought. Since neither of us knew much about the place, we looked everywhere for one. He was in the kitchen and I looked at the sideboard thingy where all the hard liquor is kept. At one point, I saw the shiny metal of a bottle opener and thought, "Oo! Bottle opener." Imagine my horrified consternation when I picked up the shiny piece of metal and found attached to it a very detailed wooden phallus. Yes, the "down there" of a man. I can only assume someone presented it in poor taste to my uncle as a gag gift. And, needless to say, I found a different bottle opener for my other uncle to use.
What's also wonderfully amusing is that the starter conversation of the day in our row at the office was about working women. By working women, we mean hookers. There are a lot of them in Shanghai, and though it is technically illegal, none of the ladies are ever arrested. We asked the boys in our row whether or not the ladies are in a legal business and they said that the policemen here don't arrest them. We asked why. They said because the police here need their services too. Then they asked us how to ask a hooker for her services in the states. Then we told them that it's illegal, but according to movies, the proper approach is "How much?" Then they asked us the usual price. Being that neither of us have ever needed such services, we had no idea. Adn that's a fascinating start to my day.
Today I went to lunch around here. Isn't it nifty? Shelly and I stopped to buy a Chinese yoyo (for her brother) and some pumice stones (for our feet). Since purchasing our rocks, Shelly has fallen madly in love with hers and is planning on buying one for practically everyone she knows. Also, while we were here, we had some cheap and delicious XiaoLongBao (Soup Dumplings). MMMMM.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Shanghai Some More
Last night, I went to a spa! A real one! I went with my aunt and uncle, soaked in a hot tub and got a foot massage. And the foot massage cost only a whopping $6. I love this country.
Today I went with my aunt to a street market that sells fake Gucci, Prada, Fendi and the like. I didn't really see anything that really caught my interest. The only thing I ended up buying was a purse in this random store in the market that was completely original. Mmm, purses. While we were in there, the store crowded up with English speaking people who couldn't fathom that some Chinese people can actually speak English, so that was pretty amusing. I was also at another store where a woman bought something at 10 times the price that I could have gotten it for simply because she was 1) caucasian and 2) could speak no Chinese.
Speaking of caucasians that speak Chinese, I heard a wonderful tale from my coworker, Shelly, about her unfortunate friend. He's in Shanghai working over the summer too. He's a nice American boy who doesn't know a single word of Chinese. The firm he works for set him up with a place to live, but the bed had to linens. So he went out and bought some pillows and blankets and sheets. On the way home he saw a place that sells really cheap beer. Awesome, he thinks and heads on in. The proprieter sees him holding his pillows and blankets and starts pointing and laughing. The poor guy stands there confused. Then, quite a few scantily clad young ladies walk downstairs and also starts pointing and laughing. Then, the young ladies go up and start touching him inappropriately. I suppose at that moment he realized he'd walked into a brothel and they were laughing because they thought he had brought his own equipment.
Gotta' love China...
Today I went with my aunt to a street market that sells fake Gucci, Prada, Fendi and the like. I didn't really see anything that really caught my interest. The only thing I ended up buying was a purse in this random store in the market that was completely original. Mmm, purses. While we were in there, the store crowded up with English speaking people who couldn't fathom that some Chinese people can actually speak English, so that was pretty amusing. I was also at another store where a woman bought something at 10 times the price that I could have gotten it for simply because she was 1) caucasian and 2) could speak no Chinese.
Speaking of caucasians that speak Chinese, I heard a wonderful tale from my coworker, Shelly, about her unfortunate friend. He's in Shanghai working over the summer too. He's a nice American boy who doesn't know a single word of Chinese. The firm he works for set him up with a place to live, but the bed had to linens. So he went out and bought some pillows and blankets and sheets. On the way home he saw a place that sells really cheap beer. Awesome, he thinks and heads on in. The proprieter sees him holding his pillows and blankets and starts pointing and laughing. The poor guy stands there confused. Then, quite a few scantily clad young ladies walk downstairs and also starts pointing and laughing. Then, the young ladies go up and start touching him inappropriately. I suppose at that moment he realized he'd walked into a brothel and they were laughing because they thought he had brought his own equipment.
Gotta' love China...
Thursday, June 08, 2006
LWMA = Loquacious Wayward Muddled Architects
So it's been almost a week since I started work. So far it's been pretty good. I've been working on the exterior of a building and it's transformed into a Casa. Kind of like Barragon or however you spell it, but the house is definitely looking more South American than American. I have so far learned how to use 3D studio Max and SketchUp. 3D Max is pretty comparable to Maya, but unless it's changed since I last used it, 3D Max is better an snapping. SketchUp is really great for making simple forms when you're just beginning to make massings, but after my casa got a few too many angles, everything started to go to pieces on me.
It's quite different from working in a tiny firm like last year's. I guess since Nestor and Jonathan were so much older, I felt a little odd hanging out with them, but I have a great time with all of my coworkers, since they're all around the same point in life as me. Well, I'm actually a little behind since most of them are recent archie grads. Still, the level of productivity is definitely lower because I'm having too much fun. I spend a lot of time gossiping with my coworkers about random things like the architect's love life or who does what. Today, Wang Yue (a guy) noticed I was wearing eyeliner and seemed to decide that would be a wonderful thing for him to copy, so somehow he obtained an eyeliner pencil and a mirror and sat at his desk for a good hour trying to put on eyeliner. He tried...it most ended up on his eyelid because he was afraid of getting too close to his eyeball. Silly boy. I can't quite figure out what induced him to put eyeliner on. Shel suspects it has something to do with his fascination with Marylin Manson.
The final deciding point that we were all definitely still kids came today. At 10:30 the senior desinger, Hung Ming or something like that, gathered all the architects into the shuttle. I think there are about ten of us. We drove over to a place called "The Bridges" because our next big project is going to be similar in that we will be taking pre-existing historical buildings and modifying them to become offices and shops. We spent an hour and a half scampering off in different directions, taking photos of everything and each other. Shel kept getting distracted by the merchandise instead of the architecture. At one point, we saw a firm for David Chipperfield, some English guy. Apparently he lectured at Yale so Shel wanted to find out what work they did in China. Since the door was open, Shel popped her head in and asked. The British guy at the table was very rude, asking, "Who are you?" and "What are you doing here?" She asked her question, apologized and then we left. We weren't more than a few feet out the doorframe when the fancy modern white door came whistling towards us, basically slamming in our faces. Never work for Chipperfield - check. We next saw a really cool looking firm which had very scandinavian design, a nifty place called Alsop which is actually British, too. We popped our heads in their too and the receptionist was very willing to tell us all about the firm and how to apply to work there. Maybe would love to work for Alsop simply because the name is cool and the receptionist is nice - check. Then, when we were all gathered in the courtyard, someone mentioned that SOM's office was in the facility. Shel used to work for SOM so we all decided to go on up and find the person she used to work for. We hiked up to the office, wandered in and the receptionist said, "No, Silas is in a meeting with a client." Basically indicating that he wanted all us low-rate Chinese architects out. Now. SOM is filled with self important jerks that don't make anything that interesting anyway so I'll never work for them - check.
After work I went out with Shel and another co-worker, really nice guy, if he had an English name it would probably be like Greg or something. Friendly and unimposing, very nice and get formal. He brought along an old classmate that apparently they all hang out with. I realized at dinner that it is possible for Chinese guys to be good looking. If only they heard of dental work. Greg's (That's what I'll call him) old classmate looks like Karl the really super cute designer that the blond American woman in Love Actually was in love with. Except he has crooked teeth. Teeth, they're very important you know. Irreplaceable. Can't really eat well without them. But yes, Karl is very nice. He works for an Italian design firm, but speaks no English. Greg on the other hand can say, "Can I carry that for you?" and when picking up the bill, "My treat." Gentleman in training - that's Greg.
It's quite different from working in a tiny firm like last year's. I guess since Nestor and Jonathan were so much older, I felt a little odd hanging out with them, but I have a great time with all of my coworkers, since they're all around the same point in life as me. Well, I'm actually a little behind since most of them are recent archie grads. Still, the level of productivity is definitely lower because I'm having too much fun. I spend a lot of time gossiping with my coworkers about random things like the architect's love life or who does what. Today, Wang Yue (a guy) noticed I was wearing eyeliner and seemed to decide that would be a wonderful thing for him to copy, so somehow he obtained an eyeliner pencil and a mirror and sat at his desk for a good hour trying to put on eyeliner. He tried...it most ended up on his eyelid because he was afraid of getting too close to his eyeball. Silly boy. I can't quite figure out what induced him to put eyeliner on. Shel suspects it has something to do with his fascination with Marylin Manson.
The final deciding point that we were all definitely still kids came today. At 10:30 the senior desinger, Hung Ming or something like that, gathered all the architects into the shuttle. I think there are about ten of us. We drove over to a place called "The Bridges" because our next big project is going to be similar in that we will be taking pre-existing historical buildings and modifying them to become offices and shops. We spent an hour and a half scampering off in different directions, taking photos of everything and each other. Shel kept getting distracted by the merchandise instead of the architecture. At one point, we saw a firm for David Chipperfield, some English guy. Apparently he lectured at Yale so Shel wanted to find out what work they did in China. Since the door was open, Shel popped her head in and asked. The British guy at the table was very rude, asking, "Who are you?" and "What are you doing here?" She asked her question, apologized and then we left. We weren't more than a few feet out the doorframe when the fancy modern white door came whistling towards us, basically slamming in our faces. Never work for Chipperfield - check. We next saw a really cool looking firm which had very scandinavian design, a nifty place called Alsop which is actually British, too. We popped our heads in their too and the receptionist was very willing to tell us all about the firm and how to apply to work there. Maybe would love to work for Alsop simply because the name is cool and the receptionist is nice - check. Then, when we were all gathered in the courtyard, someone mentioned that SOM's office was in the facility. Shel used to work for SOM so we all decided to go on up and find the person she used to work for. We hiked up to the office, wandered in and the receptionist said, "No, Silas is in a meeting with a client." Basically indicating that he wanted all us low-rate Chinese architects out. Now. SOM is filled with self important jerks that don't make anything that interesting anyway so I'll never work for them - check.
After work I went out with Shel and another co-worker, really nice guy, if he had an English name it would probably be like Greg or something. Friendly and unimposing, very nice and get formal. He brought along an old classmate that apparently they all hang out with. I realized at dinner that it is possible for Chinese guys to be good looking. If only they heard of dental work. Greg's (That's what I'll call him) old classmate looks like Karl the really super cute designer that the blond American woman in Love Actually was in love with. Except he has crooked teeth. Teeth, they're very important you know. Irreplaceable. Can't really eat well without them. But yes, Karl is very nice. He works for an Italian design firm, but speaks no English. Greg on the other hand can say, "Can I carry that for you?" and when picking up the bill, "My treat." Gentleman in training - that's Greg.
Monday, June 05, 2006
Shanghai: First Day on the Job
I hope I make it out of Shanghai alive. I told my cousin the other day that I remembered that in Shanghai, green means go, and red means go faster. Now take that into consideration and imagine me trying to cross an eight-lane highway where there's no stoplights anywhere in the area. Now imagine me only making it halfway across because the traffic on the other side caught up. Now imagine standing on the yellow line with cars honking everytime they zoomed by at 50 mph. I lived. Barely. And it wasn't like I was jaywalking either, because there were definitely zebra lines. And thinking back on it, I want to yell at those drivers for honking like it was my fault. After all, according to the law, they are supposed to stop for me. I'm not supposed to stop for them.
So, the office where I'm working is quite nice. They use a lot of stone in the place, and, as Zach says, the signage is awesome. One thing I noticed is that the office is definitely not to code. USA safety codes, I mean. The stairs don't have any railings at all and the glass thingies that enclose the mezzanine aren't structural in the least, nor do they have mullions. That means that if you lean on the glass, you make the glass fall. Also, there's a crazy sort of half-bridge that hangs out over the workspace. Think prow of the boat, or "off the plank!" or maybe have some mad scientist laughing devilishly as he lords over his little minions below. Of course, as lovely as the idea is, one also has to beware of the fact that not only is there no safety rails surrounding the thing, there's a 6 inch gap between the edge of the mezzanine and the start of the plank.
In the office itself, I have my own desk, my own box of pencils, my own desk lamp, my own computer and my very own empty drawers for stuff I don't have. The only other people in the office fluent in English are the architect himself (fat chance on getting to talk with him - he only spoke a hand full of sentences to me all day because he's so busy) and another intern - a grad student from Yale named Shelly. After a very frustrating day of not understanding my Malaysian neighbor (he mumbles too much) it was a relief to turn off the Chinese side of my brain and speak some English. I later realized, too, that it isn't that my Chinese is bad, it's that people from different parts of China have completely different accents. I had a hard time with the Malaysian accent, but when I talked to the senior project manager, I didn't have to ask more than a couple times for translations (I found out later that he is Taiwanese, so that explains it). It is also a bit of a relief to realize that my reading in Chinese isn't too bad. I need to find time to get my hands on a Chinese English dictionary so I don't have to keep bothering everyone for explanations. I think I made a lot of friends today. Shelly, Mr. Malaysian and some of the other younger people in the firm asked me if I wanted to stay a bit later and play some badminton, but I decided that I would save today for trying to get home without getting lost. Fortunately, I didn't get lost. Day one is over and I'm alive and well.
So, the office where I'm working is quite nice. They use a lot of stone in the place, and, as Zach says, the signage is awesome. One thing I noticed is that the office is definitely not to code. USA safety codes, I mean. The stairs don't have any railings at all and the glass thingies that enclose the mezzanine aren't structural in the least, nor do they have mullions. That means that if you lean on the glass, you make the glass fall. Also, there's a crazy sort of half-bridge that hangs out over the workspace. Think prow of the boat, or "off the plank!" or maybe have some mad scientist laughing devilishly as he lords over his little minions below. Of course, as lovely as the idea is, one also has to beware of the fact that not only is there no safety rails surrounding the thing, there's a 6 inch gap between the edge of the mezzanine and the start of the plank.
In the office itself, I have my own desk, my own box of pencils, my own desk lamp, my own computer and my very own empty drawers for stuff I don't have. The only other people in the office fluent in English are the architect himself (fat chance on getting to talk with him - he only spoke a hand full of sentences to me all day because he's so busy) and another intern - a grad student from Yale named Shelly. After a very frustrating day of not understanding my Malaysian neighbor (he mumbles too much) it was a relief to turn off the Chinese side of my brain and speak some English. I later realized, too, that it isn't that my Chinese is bad, it's that people from different parts of China have completely different accents. I had a hard time with the Malaysian accent, but when I talked to the senior project manager, I didn't have to ask more than a couple times for translations (I found out later that he is Taiwanese, so that explains it). It is also a bit of a relief to realize that my reading in Chinese isn't too bad. I need to find time to get my hands on a Chinese English dictionary so I don't have to keep bothering everyone for explanations. I think I made a lot of friends today. Shelly, Mr. Malaysian and some of the other younger people in the firm asked me if I wanted to stay a bit later and play some badminton, but I decided that I would save today for trying to get home without getting lost. Fortunately, I didn't get lost. Day one is over and I'm alive and well.
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Shanghai Day 3
I feel like it's been forever already, but I've only been in Shanghai for three days. Partly it's because my cousin has decided to take me around as much of the city as possible this weekend.
Today I went with him, his wife and baby, his grandpa and his aunt to the Century Park out in Pudong. Pudong, in case you aren't familiar with Shanghai, is the newer district. There's a lot of new development out there, mostly skyscrapers that look like rocket ships, imitation art deco or vertically inflated temples. The new airport is out there (photos to be posted on facebook when I'm not so lazy). It takes about an hour to get to Pudong by car and once you get there, traffic is so confusing that my cousin pulled a tricks that would have had him arrested in the US. For example, we missed a turn, so we did a U-turn and went the other direction - right into oncoming traffic. Fun...
Outside the park, Yuko (my cousin's wife) and I were accosted by a teeny old lady who was trying to sell us plastic bottles filled with tap water. Normally I would just say no thanks, but she followed us and kept waving the bottles in our faces. Fortunately, Kaikai (my cousin) and his aunt came to our rescue by whisking us quickly and efficiently away. We went into Century Park and enjoyed the sights. I think the whole landscaping of the park is geared towards framing the skyscrapers in the back. The skyscrapers that look like they could blast off at any second, that is.
We got back to the apartment around 7:30 for dinner and afterwards, while everyone was still eating, I brought my eating-ware into the kitchen where the maid/nurse was eating. I asked her why she didn't eat with the family. She said something unintelligible (For some reason, she speaks only in her dialect and expects that I understand every single word) and then thanked me for always putting my bowl in the sink. I responded that my parents would kill me if I didn't. Haveing a maid, or help of any sort, is really really strange. I don't really like it....
Today I went with him, his wife and baby, his grandpa and his aunt to the Century Park out in Pudong. Pudong, in case you aren't familiar with Shanghai, is the newer district. There's a lot of new development out there, mostly skyscrapers that look like rocket ships, imitation art deco or vertically inflated temples. The new airport is out there (photos to be posted on facebook when I'm not so lazy). It takes about an hour to get to Pudong by car and once you get there, traffic is so confusing that my cousin pulled a tricks that would have had him arrested in the US. For example, we missed a turn, so we did a U-turn and went the other direction - right into oncoming traffic. Fun...
Outside the park, Yuko (my cousin's wife) and I were accosted by a teeny old lady who was trying to sell us plastic bottles filled with tap water. Normally I would just say no thanks, but she followed us and kept waving the bottles in our faces. Fortunately, Kaikai (my cousin) and his aunt came to our rescue by whisking us quickly and efficiently away. We went into Century Park and enjoyed the sights. I think the whole landscaping of the park is geared towards framing the skyscrapers in the back. The skyscrapers that look like they could blast off at any second, that is.
We got back to the apartment around 7:30 for dinner and afterwards, while everyone was still eating, I brought my eating-ware into the kitchen where the maid/nurse was eating. I asked her why she didn't eat with the family. She said something unintelligible (For some reason, she speaks only in her dialect and expects that I understand every single word) and then thanked me for always putting my bowl in the sink. I responded that my parents would kill me if I didn't. Haveing a maid, or help of any sort, is really really strange. I don't really like it....
Friday, June 02, 2006
Shanghai
Hullo from the other side of the world! I had the most comfortable 14 hour plane ride ever in an aisle seat on Japan airlines sitting next to an archie that goes to the Boston Architecture College or whatever it is. BAC, BCA, something along those lines. He started the program really late so even though we're both just out of third year, he's three years older than me. It was interesting hearing what their curriculum is like. Teachers always tell us how important it is to have studio culture and from what I hear, this person (Yao is his name) barely ever goes to studio. He has it once a week, and all of his classes are at night. I think the students there (and they have way more archies than we do, and a lot of interior designers) spend the daytime working in firms and their evenings in class. They don't have any university-wide electives because there aren't any university classes and they rarely go to school community events. Makes me really appreciate how I have at least thirty-six more-than-acquaintance friends. Still, while I think the culture is nice, I think they're going to be a lot more functional as architects when they get out because those students live and breathe architecture with no distractions whereas we have hours and hours of extra classes to worry about.
So I thought that getting through customs would be a pain. I figured they'd question me, detain me, possibly arrest me just for the reason that I look suspicious. Obviously I was just being paranoid and got through customs in under ten minutes. I didn't even have to wait for my checked baggage to show up because it rolled right by me the moment I approached the luggage carousel. Looking for my cousin was another story. I haven't seen him since fourth grade so it was kind of doubtful that I would recognize him. I put on my glasses just in case, which made it a little harder for him to recognize me, but fortunately, we recognized each other. Sort of. I saw him and thought, 'hmm, I think...that's...him...but I don't want to be embarrassed if it isn't, so I'll look around and pretend I'm not making a b-line for him to see if he recognizes me.' And then I realized it was him and upon saying hello immediately proceeded to think, 'He's shorter than I remember.' Most likely because the last time I saw him I was only a little over four feet tall. I think he and dad are around the same height.
So then it was an hour ride back to my aunt's apartment and then another couple hours of chatting with Kaigen (that's my cousin's official English name - celtic he says) about stuff - we reminisced about how he used to pick on me (stealing my baby doll, making me run errands, how he and his old high school buddies used to take my doll and toss it around high above me so I would cry) and talked about his new family. He has a wife named Yuko and a little boy named Arvin whose nickname is Mumu. I still haven't met them because they were already asleep when I got there and are still sleeping now.
Today my plans are to hopefully get a phone call from Ben (hint hint) and then go out and figure out how to get to the office. Fortunately, I don't seem to be suffering from jet lag because I went to sleep around 2am and woke up at 8 - that's about normal, right?
So I thought that getting through customs would be a pain. I figured they'd question me, detain me, possibly arrest me just for the reason that I look suspicious. Obviously I was just being paranoid and got through customs in under ten minutes. I didn't even have to wait for my checked baggage to show up because it rolled right by me the moment I approached the luggage carousel. Looking for my cousin was another story. I haven't seen him since fourth grade so it was kind of doubtful that I would recognize him. I put on my glasses just in case, which made it a little harder for him to recognize me, but fortunately, we recognized each other. Sort of. I saw him and thought, 'hmm, I think...that's...him...but I don't want to be embarrassed if it isn't, so I'll look around and pretend I'm not making a b-line for him to see if he recognizes me.' And then I realized it was him and upon saying hello immediately proceeded to think, 'He's shorter than I remember.' Most likely because the last time I saw him I was only a little over four feet tall. I think he and dad are around the same height.
So then it was an hour ride back to my aunt's apartment and then another couple hours of chatting with Kaigen (that's my cousin's official English name - celtic he says) about stuff - we reminisced about how he used to pick on me (stealing my baby doll, making me run errands, how he and his old high school buddies used to take my doll and toss it around high above me so I would cry) and talked about his new family. He has a wife named Yuko and a little boy named Arvin whose nickname is Mumu. I still haven't met them because they were already asleep when I got there and are still sleeping now.
Today my plans are to hopefully get a phone call from Ben (hint hint) and then go out and figure out how to get to the office. Fortunately, I don't seem to be suffering from jet lag because I went to sleep around 2am and woke up at 8 - that's about normal, right?
