The Friday two weeks ago was yet another English corner.
This one is probably one of my most interesting ones, though, as I introduced
and taught the students how to read Tarot cards for fortune telling (When there
are only one or two boys in the class, you kind of start tailoring subjects).
It started out awkwardly, but I got the feeling they enjoyed it, especially
when I did readings for them. One of them even went out immediately,found my
exact type of cards on Chinese Ebay (taobao), and bought them. I guess
imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
In the
evening I found myself at the top of one of the buildings a friend of mine
works at, in her bosses’ office. The office consisted of his “office”, a
secretary’s nook, a bathroom, and even a bed. It was tastefully decorated with
various plants and models (everything from fighter jets to Korean dolls), and
had an elegant seating area. We perhaps spent an hour just sitting on the couch
or looking out the large window over the surrounding area as the sun set. Even
though the stereotype of China is pollution and cloudy skies, the sky that day
was one of the more beautiful examples I’ve seen, with extremely nice contrast
between the red sky and the glowing dark clouds. Looking through the glass bowl
of the houseplants turned it into an almost surreal experience, with the floating
roots making a miniature forest with its own tiny upside-down sunset. All we
did was sit, talking didn’t even happen much. It was probably the most peaceful
I’ve been for a while.
After
that, we went back down to the company campus; it was practically a college,
with some people working the factories 24/7. The cafeteria food was nice
though; I wish we had such an option in my company. Regardless, we walked
around and talked, and then I went to meet another group of friends, this time
coworkers, at a homey place fittingly called “mama’s diner”… or something like
that. One of the girls sang for the restaurant. I didn’t order anything, but we
just talked and laughed. I mentioned I was going to a gaming convention
tomorrow; everyone was like, “Chinajoy?”, which is apparently equivalent to the
US’s E3, but with skimpier girls. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. Ah well.
The
convention I ended up going to was an international tournament for Magic the
Gathering. Definitely the most intense I will ever get into this game, as there
were teams flown in from around the world, wearing matching uniforms. Upwards
of 800 people were gathered in one huge hall. I recognized some people from the
local scene here, so I mostly talked to them. Unfortunately, I didn’t do very
well (partly because after my first loss, I just wanted to get the rest of the
games over with) so I didn’t move to the second day or in the money prize
range. It was a good atmosphere though, even with some hired cosplayers (not
bad…) but in the end, I think such an event is too intense for me; I won’t
attend another one. I really just wanted the special artwork, which was
guaranteed, now that I think about it. Regardless, that took about eight hours.
To
make up for this bout of extreme nerdiness, the Sunday after I went out for
dinner and bars with my foreign coworkers; one being German (his native
girlfriend also joined us) and one being Canadian. We first went to Elements,
which is a midrange Foreign-food staple and proceeded to make fun of the
Canadian (he’s tall and is a black belt in karate) for ordering a salad because
it was a good combination of quantity and price. The bar we went to on the edge
of the bund was pretty nice, and apparently a favorite of the German expats
there. Their wheat beer was quite good, and the scene was quite relaxing,
watching the boats go by as the night set in and the lights turned on. We took
the ferry across to go to another bar (which was a first for me), and ended up
going to Captains again. I tried the drink Alex got previously, which was based
on preserved plum, and it was quite decent. My… sense of humor totally showed
up during this situation, so now they know. Hehe. Ah well.
English
corner the next day only had seven people attend. I tried to hold a debate
about the Olympics; funny story, one of the girls answered my first question
with an irrelevant “ I hate japan!” Well, at least it was in english, sigh. It
turns out half of them followed the Olympics (I tried to talk about the
scandals) and half of them didn’t’ watch it at all. We ended up talking about
Twilight and celebrity gossip. Not exactly my strong suits, but acting like
fans is pretty universal across all fandoms.
The
only event that occurred that weekend was spending most of afternoon/night with
a coworker just walking around. We went to the biggest bookstore in Shanghai
and separately read (me in the art/foreign imports section, naturally). There
were a bunch of guys that day trading Japanese idol pictures in the foreign
imports section, kinda creepy. Afterwards, we just randomly went into tiny
shops and clothing stores. There is a pretty extensive Japanese figurine/model
shop somewhere near NanJing Lu; maybe I’ll go there again sometime by myself
and buy something cool. I’ve always wanted a fancy looking evangelion or
something. Otherwise, I bought some portable chopsticks for lunch. Shopping for
clothes was also kind of fun, even though salespeople in China are still quite
suffocating. Apparently I have pretty strong opinions about girls fashion
-__-;;. I ended up buying a pink polo at Uniqlo on a whim, because it was on
sale. I still think Uniqlo is a pretty good deal in terms of quality and price,
but I realized just how many people actually wear it, and how standard it
seems. It’s okay, as long as I just buy basics there I’m sure people won’t
notice/care.
There
was a typhoon on Wednesday, apparently one of Shanghai’s largest in quite a
while. The morning had pretty heavy rain; I really should have brought a change
of clothing, as walking to work pretty much soaked the legs of my pants
through. It got so bad during work that we were released at noon to try and get
home before the worst of the storm hit. However, by that time, the wind was at
snap-umbrella levels and rain had flooded some of the streets. When calling for
a taxi from work failed, I got the bright idea of changing into my gym clothes
and running back from the subway to home after taking the company shuttle from
work to the subway. As I dashed home, the paper bag holding my work clothes
began to dissolve, and I myself was totally soaked. The block between the
subway and my home was flooded, so I ended up having to jog through half a foot
of water; if I was in my business clothes, they definitely would have been
ruined. It was kind of exhilarating, though. I haven’t experienced anything
quite like it.
On
Thursday I got back in touch with John’s friend Alisa and along with a friend
of hers, we went to the molecular gastronomy cocktail bar The Alchemist. It’s a pretty flavorful place; the décor is nice,
there weren’t many people for happy hour, and the drinks were unique, if a bit
pricy. Lots of exotic ingredients and presentation styles. I ordered a bitter
drink called Witchy Woman (kind of because the accompanying sketch was done
pretty well). It was quite good, but my companion’s drinks were cooler looking,
if not tastier. One relied on carbon dioxide ice-generated lavender mist poured
onto the actual cocktail; the other had a unique looking type of ice and
ingredients that worked really well together. The happy hour appetizers were
also good, although I was the only person that liked olives. Combined with a
burger, though, it was rather pricey, so I think I would only go for special
occasions. Afterwards we went to a bar/club The
Apartment. Alisa and her friend had a list of Ladies’ night bars;
apparently there are about six worthy bars hosting Ladies’ night on a given
night (free champagne). It was kind of nice, although a bit noisy. We ran back
to catch the last subway and just barely made it.
English
corner was a requested “Q+A” about my life and America in general. From the
questions asked, they view America as having lots of guns, drugs, and sex.
Which may or may not be accurate, but is definitely exaggerated. I also gave
them an idea about college admissions in the U.S.
On
Saturday, I got to tune in to a mashup party of my East Coast and West Coast
friends, which looked like quite the blast. I got to have some fun times too
though, as later in the day I went karaoke-ing with some coworkers. I’m not
nearly as enthusiastic as some of them, and my singing voice is just too
variable (tending toward bad). For some reason a lot of Rihanna songs were
sung, as English songs go. I had the impression more people would come, but
this apparently wasn’t the case. It was around seven girls and me; two of the
girls seemed to dislike each other and almost all of them were interns or new
workers. It was still alright though. We ate at a shanghai-style restaurant,
and then five of us decided to go clubbing (my first time in Shanghai). It was
a motley crew; two didn’t have any clubbing experience at all, and I was
wearing sneakers, jeans and a pink polo; definitely a bit kiddy looking. The
first place we went to had sharks in a tank, but didn’t exactly have a decent dance
floor. Interestingly enough, there was also a line of what obviously were
prostitutes just standing at the bar texting. We spent a lot of time on the
other side of the bar, although we all just had one (overpriced) drink each,
since the cheapest table costed about 1000 rmb worth in drinks to sit at.
Everyone seemed to be energetic at the end though, even if I did dance quite
funnily (maybe there is a tutorial online…).
Two
left, and the remaining people talked in a park about random stuff, and visited
the second club, which had a nicer atmosphere than the first. I just wish I
remembered their names, haha. All in all though, I don’t think I’m a clubbing
person. I’m definitely more of a bar-with-friends person, since I don’t really
take advantage of the club to dance or to pick up people. Nice drinks and
ambient atmosphere are always the highlight, and bars definitely trump clubs in
this aspect.
Jeez,
I haven’t updated in about three weeks, my bad. I feel as if this has become
the boring, documentary style blog that I always feared/have a propensity to
write in. Perhaps I need stronger opinions. Ah well, for remembering things, I
guess this suits perfectly.
