Wuhan Whaddup

Let me just say that I think I am finally too old to say 'whaddup.' Or
at least too old to type it.

I've been in Wuhan for 2 days now. By myself! Who do they think they
are sending me with out my other half, Jill? No seriously- you may
think I'm kidding. But you live with somebody for 8 months for 24
hours a day and a sudden move a couple thousand km away & you feel
like you are missing something. I felt a little embarrassment when I
was talking to my Wuhan co-workers and EVERY story started, "Jill and
I always...." or "This one time, Jill and I..." Seriously, I might as
well just start calling myself Mrs. Glover. But it's okay- when we
talked to each other two times yesterday we made each other feel
better. :)

They put me in a nice two bed room apartment. It has a nice kitchen,
dining room, huge couch, porch, big bathroom, and a squat toilet.
Somehow- that squat toilet makes the rest of it not AS nice.
Especially since it really doesn't flush...but when you shower all the
water runs in and it flushes itself.... But it really is a nice
apartment overall. My bed room has an awesome HEATER and for the first
time in months I'm waking up feeling TOO hot. The bed is also
like...only 5'10'' long. So I sleep kind of diagonal.
It's weird living by myself. I spent two years of my life in my own
apartment--and enjoyed it. BUT I really feel lonely in this apartment.
Maybe it is that it is SUPPOSE to be for two people. Maybe it is the
foreign nation. Maybe I have gotten used to having a roommate. Maybe
it is the fact that my internet is SPOTTY at best. Enough about me
being mopey though....

Wuhan is a city divided into 3 parts- it's divided by two rivers
joining (think a Mercedez Emlblem) so each section has a different
vibe. We are in Wuchan- which is known for many good universities. The
Hankou area is known for shopping & nightlife. The last section,
Hanyang, is reserved mostly for industry. I must say I was a bit
nervous about moving down here. I have heard mixed reviews about
living in a "2nd tier" Chinese city. It's not that bad. I am most
disappointed by the lack of Subway restaurants. Also- my co-workers
don't seem to grasp the vegetarian concept aka I got ordered cow's
stomach today. Ew. There are very few Western comforts and this does
make it that much harder. I also get the general vibe that a Westerner
is about as common as a unicorn- so it can be a little overwhelming.
Last night I got paparazzi'd while we were out for dinner. Random
people starting taking pictures of me with their cell phones. I DON'T
like that- but I do understand that I am an oddity.

It is warmer here- NO GLOVES or jackets. It got to the sixties today
and it was nice. And they gave me an AWESOME sweatshirt, it even says
HAPPY BABY GARDEN on the back. I know my RnR employees state side are
SO JEALOUS.

One thing I do have to say for the Chinese people as a whole is that
they are some of the most welcoming, kind people in the whole world.
And although sometimes it DRIVES me crazy...I appreciate their need to
hold my hand and guide me across a busy street, or OVER explaining
simple things ("...this is A BUS and you give them MONEY and it takes
you places....") or telling me things about Chinese food ("We really
like rice.") Also- they all apologize for not knowing English better.
I believe it is SO engrained in them- but really I feel bad about not
knowing Chinese better. And I guess I have a Beijing accent because
they don't understand ANY of my Chinese down here. (And I was feeling
all cool and awesome for being able to tell a cab driver where I
lived....::sigh::)

One weird thing about it is that there is SOMETHING about Wuhan that
reminds me of Delhi, India. I can't put my finger on it. Maybe it is
the overall dirty look or the multitude of small stalls. It really
makes me understand how LUCKY we are to live in Beijing. It really is
a super modern and enjoyable. And many people DO speak English.

All right Mr. De Mille, I'm ready for my close-up!

Well- Jill and I have finally hit it big. Get ready to see our faces plastered on billboards, in the pages of your magazines, and on TV interviews on CCTV.

You are looking at the new faces of That's Mandarin!: Chinese School. 

Jill and I were asked by our friends to star in their commercial which will be ALL over the Ex-Pat internet. Watch out Brando, here I come.

As I sat there, surrounded by a small production crew as they adjusted the lighting, a few questions were brought to mind:

-Can I now join the Screen Actors Guild?

-Which side IS my good side?

-How will I sign my autographs…or who will I pay to sign my autographs for me?

-How will I remember all the little people who helped me get here?

-When do I get my entourage?

-Is Justin Bieber to young to be my first big Hollywood flame?

-When do I get to meet Lady Gaga?

-Should the world tour include dates to Egypt? Too soon?

-When do I get to fire my management?

TUMBLE TUNES MONSTER!!!!!!

Other possible titles: 

What Happens At RnR On Snow Days

or

When Training Goes Awry 

Spring Festival

Happy Chinese New Year everybody!

I know it's a little late- but it's better late then never! We bid goodbye to the year of the Tiger and said hello to the year of the Rabbit. 

And- boy to the Chinese know how to do New Years.

First you make and eat dumplings as a family. Also you drink together as a family. Then most of China tunes in to an 8 hour television show that showcases all of China's super stars. Then everybody and their neighbor gets highly explosive, real-deal fireworks and shoots them off. Starting from dusk until 3AM it sounded as if we were under an air raid. 

Jill and I went over to Luyin's and made dumplings. They were delicious! And Jill and I aren't half bad at making the dumplings. Then we drank some of the "best" rice-liquor….which just meant instead of just tasting like gasoline it tasted like gasoline and FIRE! We set off fireworks with Luyin and his son Jerry. We tried to stay up to watch the TV show, made it only till 11 and walked home. That's when we were inundated with fireworks in a way that I have never experienced. We ran back and got our camera's and ended up staying up till 2 AM taping the mayhem. EVERY direction we looked we were just SWAMPED with fireworks. You could walk 20 feet without somebody else shooting off fireworks. The idea behind the fireworks is that they scare off the bad spirits. But they are professional grade fireworks that you can shoot 100-150 ft in the air. And the only reason I can tell you that height is because when taking pictures from my apartment on the 10th floor they are eye level or a little higher. 

I was overwhelmed with the feeling that this was something special- this was a once in a lifetime type of experience. I was genuinely moved by it- and got a little misty eyed.

I am trying to get a hack so I can upload a video on to my blog and hopefully I can show you first hand exactly how crazy it was. 

But Happy Tudz (bunny) Year!!!

Pictures are:

Dumplings

Jerry making dumplings

Luyin holding a firework…(yes, they do that here!)

Firework outside

Firework from my apartment window!

Shanghai World Expo

Our last touristy stop on our touristy trip. Last year the World Expo was held in Shanghai and became the World's largest Expo to date. It was opened in May 2010 and closed in October 2010 and I really regret not visiting. 

Anyway- the building is known in polite circles as the "Oriental Crown," but us commoners call it the "Upside-Down Devo Hat." Who knew Chinese people loved Devo so much? The design looks slightly reminiscent of an Emperors Crown in over all shape. It also is based off of a special type of clay vessel (which is where the four legs comes from.) The last piece of inspiration came from wooden brackets often seen in Chinese architecture. The outside has 7 different shades of red used to emphasize a theme of "different but working in harmony." It was overcast that day and it is hard to see the different shades of red. 

You enter into the building through one of the legs. At the bottom they show you the construction of the pavilion. Then you take a high speed elevator up to the top floor- although it is themed as if you are riding a train. Then you enter in the to first area: The Footprints. The footprint area had all these long cubes hanging from the ceiling at different hates and terminated in a television screen. It showed news clips from the past 30 years of everyday Chinese life. Many of them seemed familiar to me- as some of these are things that I experience on daily bases. Here you cued up to watch a movie. The movie was projected on 3 GIANT screens that spanned 180 degrees of this round room. The projections even continued on to the ceiling which added a really cool element. There are two movies but we saw one that based around this family. It showed them beginning in a peasant village, and then the next generation moved to the cities to become migrant workers. Then the next generation grew up in the city and was witness to some national tragedy and triumphs. While it definitely was a propaganda filled film showing the progress that China has made in the last 30 years: it totally suckered me in. When they showed clips of the horrible earthquake that wrecked parts of China I got choked up. It really is amazing to see what progress China has made since the "Great Leap Forward" failed and left so many Chinese people starving, uneducated and many dead. 

After the film you want into this crazy room that had a laser projected river that looked real. Then it had a traditional chinese scroll painting on the wall that stretched maybe 75 yards. At first glance it was just a traditional painting. BUT- watch for a moment and you realized the scroll was ALIVE. The people, trees, rivers, all were alive and moving. It was a very dramatic effect.

This led into the crazy BAMBOO forest that was GORGEOUS! THey were these long bamboo tubes that stretch from floor to ceiling and were filled with LED elements and they changed colors, glimmered, and sparkled depending on the mood of the music/film in the background. This section was talking about how IMPORTANT natural resources are and we must respect nature.

Then you entered the 'Children's Hope' area that had pictures created by "children" across China showing what they hope for the future of the country. I say "children" because China must have 1,000,000 budding savant artists because some of these drawing were too good. Like 8 years olds who drew perfectly shaded figures. Or a 7 year old who is a master at a linoleum block print….as an art teacher I felt MORE then a little dubious about these "children." Then every so often they threw in a real child's piece of art to keep it sort of in reality.

Then it was on to an Epcot-esque ride that made absolutely no fricken sense. It was 10 minutes of riding around in what I think may have been a Surrealist Nightmare…. there were these large abstract color changing trees, then an ice world filled with pagodas, then this awful tunnel that showed city progress and made you wanna barf. As soon as I get blogger to post my video's all of you will see what I mean. Seriously…this ride made no sense- what so ever.

Then it was on to the section about China going green….it was a bit laughable. As the world's #1 Polluter you felt like saying to the Chinese Expo designer, "seriously?" It did offer tips about going green. So many tips in fact they contradicted themselves. ("Save gasoline by having business teleconferences rather then traveling!" "Save electricity by turning off your cellphone and talking in person!") It just seemed so hypocritical to talk about how China's going green- when 3 months ago they said they didn't need to because they were a developing power and all the other countries had time to develop before they went green. It's a very Chinese thing to talk about it and not do it.

Outside was a creepy Dr. Suess-esque creature and I have included a picture. Again- I was not sure the significance….maybe to show all of god's living creatures united and working together? I don't know.

After reading a little more on the subject I learned that Shanghai had in fact forced their people to go see the expo to create the feeling that it was busy. If they did not attend they might lose their jobs or their wages. It really sucks that they felt the need to distort the results on what I'm sure was an amazing Expo.

It was our last stop on what was an awesome trip to Shanghai. Our next day was Chinese New Years Eve…..and boy are you guys in for some awesome pictures!!!!!

Yu Garden & Bazaar

This day was our last full day in Shanghai. BTW- little factoid you don't say it Shang (rhymes with pang) but actually more like 'Shung' (rhymes with dung.)

Anyway- the day began LATE. Jill and I slept in and I was feeling rough- so we started slow. On our journey to the garden Jill and I stumbled upon a FRENCH bakery that actually baked FRENCH pastries. This is a HUGE step up from the normal Chinese style bakeries. They are OK- but something about it just isn't real. But this one: magnifique! The croissant tasted like it was straight from Paris and the elephant ear was flakey and sweet and delicious. We loaded up on the pastries and ambled on to the garden.

One thing I loved about this garden and shops was that it finally looked the way I imagined China to look. The hook shapes eaves on the buildings was EXACTLY how I had pictured China…but had yet to see. The shops themselves were tourist traps- but it was all decorated up for Spring Festival. 

The gardens were built in the 1500's by a son for his father. Since then they have changed hands many times- but is now owned by the merchants who's shops surround the garden. This garden is considered the BEST example of Chinese gardens. I do feel it is one of the prettiest I have seen here.

It has a huge rock collection- called a rockery. They are seen all over China- but this one you got to climb through and under you explore the garden.

My favorite feature is the dragon wall. The wall winds through and around the entire garden, undulating up and down, and then at each end is a GORGEOUS dragon head. Really impressive! 

One other great thing- is that it isn't that big but it FEELS massive. You get lost in it. It also feels centuries away from the bustling city that surrounds it. You feel as if any moment somebody may step out of the Ming dynasty and walk right by you.

Pearl Building

The Oriental Pearl Tower was next on our list of tourism spots. We went up to the booth and payed over 100 kuai (again! We're starting to realize how expensive Shanghai is….) for the 'full experience.' The experience started out as most things do in this modern age- with a security check. 

After that it was on to a super fast elevator and into the first large sphere.

The building was built in 1994 and became the first real building in the Pudong area. Before this building Pudong was mostly known as a shanty town. Somebody brilliantly decided to develop this ultra modern financial port right across from the historical financial center. Since then….and as you can see from many of the other pictures from afar…the Pearl Tower has now been joined by half a dozen other sky scrapers. And being built right next to it is the Shanghai tower which will become the 4th tallest tower in the world- the second in China. I recommend Googling to see a picture of the incoming Shanghai tower- it is a cool, swirling design.

Anyway. The first large sphere gives you great panoramas and has arrows pointing to other major Chinese cities. I got a picture of home sweet home! Jill and I hung out there for a bit…and then took a trip up into the SPACE MODULE. The Space Module is the tallest of the towers. It offers slightly better views on less smoggy days- but unfortunately we did not get to go on a 'blue sky' day. Around this time we met two westerners who work for a communication company developing 3G & 4G networks abroad. They had 2 days left before they got to go home. They told us about the glass floor---which we had been previously unaware of. So- back down to the first sphere and sure enough…down a flight of twisty stair cases is the glass bottom deck. It is such a mind trip. It really becomes a battle of your Id & your Ego. The animal-instinct part of your brain says "YOU ARE GOING TO FALL TO YOUR DEATH! DON'T DO IT! YOU WILL GO SQUISH!" And the more developed part of your brains says, "hey man- its cool! Its strong glass- it can hold people!" Even though I don't really have a fear of heights it was a little nerve wracking. A few sweet boyfriends would help their scared girlfriends by literally TOSSING them on to the glass floor. 

Jill and I took…ummmm about 1,000,000 pictures up here and I got a great video of walking around. It messes with your head.

Then we took another elevator from the sphere into another sphere….I think…which is where the ROLLER COASTER was hidden. Now- calling it a Roller Coaster might be a bit kind. It is a step above those little caterpillar rides you see for kids at carnivals. But it did have some hills and some speed. It wrapped around the interior of the sphere and if I remember correctly- was space themed.

Then we took the elevator down to the bottom and went to the Shanghai Museum. This museum was put together with help from Madame Tussouds and showed the development and history of Shanghai. It gave you many little vignettes from different time periods- really giving you sense of how the city has transformed in the past 400 years. It also was filled with creepy wax figures- and one random Indian wax figure that showed up in far too many vignettes. I know it was just being historically accurate showing foreigners from other British colonies but he looked slightly out of place and if he had been put there just to make it more politically correct. Then for Jill and I it became "Where's Waldo" of this Indian guy…. (I guess "Where's Raj?"). It turned out to be the LONGEST MUSEUM EVER….it took us 2 hours to get through it. I know a little too much about Shanghai history. 

All and all we left feeling like we had TRULY gotten the full price of our ticket.