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.