Still, I was able to sneak off today and call James, and that made today far more tolerable. Whoot! It was a short phone call, but it was wonderful to hear his voice. It was just terribly hard to keep my composure when I went back into the group =).
Otherwise, the work day went alright. The complexity of applying the software I work with to Microsoft’s environment continues to make my migraine situation an ever increasing chasm of despair, but other than that, it was pleasant enough. I do wish, however, I had brought warmer clothing. Although the temperatures were about what I had expected, I failed to take into account (much as I had in Ireland, silly, silly me… Again with the silly!!) the windy, damp kind of cold that sort of creeps into your bones and settles into you. Were it not windy or not damp, things would be far more tolerable… but alas! I keep having that line from Tori Amos’ “Father Lucifer” go through my head:
‘Father Lucifer You never looked so sane You always did prefer the drizzle to the rain’
Yep, it never seems to rain here, but it does drizzle a good deal and other than day one (when the sun was shinning rather brilliantly) it seems to remain rather overcast a good deal. Of course, I’ve been here 3 days, so it’s not as if I can make blanket statements, I suppose… but I’m an American and we sure are good at such things =).
Did I just bitch about it drizzling but not raining? Now THAT was a silly thing to do, now wasn’t it? Fate was apparently listening rather attentively and decided that I was being a rather whiney sort and thus opened up the heavens and dumped a cold rain upon my head to teach me a little lesson.
This left me very cold as it was tonight, after all, that I was to see a bit of Shanghai.
Ah well. Let me stop bitching before something worse happens, I suppose. Suffice it to say it’s been a cold and dreary night for my exploration of Shanghai and my photos, alas, are representative of that. Still… my thoughts:
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Oh my God!! This city never ends. It’s impossible to put how this city makes me feel into words. How is it that I’ve been to NYC, with the same number of inhabitants, really, but somehow didn’t feel quite so overwhelmed? Certainly, if you need to get around in NYC, you do so by subway and that doesn’t take you by all the damn residences, I suppose. Here, you spend hours just driving by these HUGE buildings, towering into the sky that go on and on and on forever and eventually it occurs to you… these all contain nothing but people… these are all residences… these are apartments and condos… as far as the eye can see… and your chest starts to tighten a bit. I suppose saying “why yes there are 19 million people in Shanghai” really doesn’t mean shit to you until you start to SEE where all those people live in rows and rows of buildings that tower so far above they touch the clouds and reach out into a vast distance. It just sort of blew my mind, I guess.We drove through the “Shanghai Times Square” and the rather high class shopping areas, all of which had some rather snazzy lights and nice effects, but alas… no real pictures exist as it was raining… bleh! Shanghai is full of interesting architecture. The buildings are a mixture of interesting styles and colors, dating from all sorts of time periods and influences. Many of these are old and dated and need some serious remodeling, but they all have character. The new office buildings are rarely plain, but instead have flare all their own. At night, Shanghai lights up downtown.
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Oh! The traffic, by the way! I mentioned the horns, but the driving! People here drive like some closely choreographed dance. They weave and bob and come so close to one another you want to hold your breath and gasp! Horns blow and you swear these people are crazy and obey no rules whatsoever… but you know what? We drove what must have been 50 miles in rush hour traffic… bumper to bumper traffic in Shanghai… and there wasn’t a single wreck! Not one! Apparently, the government regulates who gets a license like you wouldn’t believe. You pay a king’s fortune for them here AND foreigners CANNOT drive here, no matter what. It makes sense then that the people who DO drive are rather talented at it, I suppose. They’ve earned the privilege. .jpg)
We finally made to Yu Yuan Garden, what I thought was a traditional Chinese garden that had existed for over 600 years… this is, after all, what I had been told. Turns out that this definition had much to be desired. It would seem that “traditional Chinese garden” translates roughly to “big flea market in traditional looking Chinese buildings with a couple of fountains and statues”. I don’t know, I think there may have been a garden part that we may have skipped due to the rain, perhaps? It was noisy and I didn’t quite understand that from our host, but I didn’t see the garden part if it existed, nor where it could have been, honestly. Nonetheless, I was, at least, able to get a few souvenirs for both me, James and Misty, so all was well. The haggling was sort of fun as well, actually. It all ended with good food (I’m now totally in love with Dim Sum… dumplings dipped in vinegar… heaven!!) and that long drive back to the hotel….jpg)
So, I have no idea if we’re actually going to the Bund tomorrow. Craig and Chuck may have gotten their fill of Shanghai tonight. Admittedly, it turns out we’re really far away from downtown out here and it takes a long long time to get there from here. Still, I do hope we do something tomorrow, though I wonder now what, exactly, Shanghai has to offer in terms of things to DO. Whenever we ask people what they do for fun, inevitably they tell us, “see movies”… hmmm… Ah well… That’s tomorrow’s thing… tonight, I’m exhausted!... and sooooo cold! So it’s off to bed!
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