Out and About and Meeting People March 27, 2010
Posted by freda in China.trackback
Just a few days after Elsie left, on Sunday (14th), we went to our first (of many, I’m sure) Tomson Wine and Cheese gathering, in the common room, with couples from our building. Everyone brings their own bottle and an appetizer to share round. Turns out, when we arrived with just those things, we also need to bring our own glasses – a fact not mentioned in the email – so us “newbies” had to run back to our apartments for glasses! There were about a dozen of us, and it was nice to start to get to know the people behind the faces we occasionally run into in the elevators.
A few days later I went on an outing with Tina, a GM wife, whose husband Tom regularly plays golf with Don. Tina and Tom live about a 10-minute walk from our place. Anyway, she picked me up and we first went to a little street of shops very close to her place, including a Chinese “wet market” – where I finally found sliced almonds. (I’d been looking everywhere for them.) The wet market is a good place to shop for produce (as long as you wash it really, really well), because it’s so fresh, and much cheaper than the grocery stores. I hadn’t know where the closest one was, so this was a good find. Tina also showed me where she buys international phone cards – so we can phone home cheaply. (As soon as Don asks his administrative assistant, Vivian, to tell him the steps, because the instructions are in Chinese (!), we can test them out.) Then, we went to the Metro (subway) station, and I bought a Metro card and Tina taught me how to use the subway – very efficient, clean, and okay when it’s not rush hour, as long as you don’t mind being stared at. (But, as I tell everyone, I’m way past my due date for getting looked at back home, so I might as well enjoy it here while I can!) We rode to the other side of the river, (much faster than being driven), to Marks & Spencer, where we had lunch and shopped on their food floor, then took the subway home, walked back to our place, and had tea here. Tina’s lived here a year, and while she’s settled now, she had a more difficult time adjusting (than I’ve had) because she didn’t know anyone when she arrived. (That would have been soooo hard. She has blonde hair, and when she first got here she would go to the local mall and accost anyone with blonde hair to ask them where they got their hair done! Luckily I’ve got several contacts to ask about hairdressers, etc. My first hair appt is coming up, so I’ll let you know soon how that goes.)
A fun Saturday – flowers, shoes, margaritas:
Last Saturday (20th), I had a fun day with Diane and Sharon. (Don went golfing on Saturday, so he had a fun day too, just in case you were worried!) It started with breakfast at my favourite local, Element Fresh, with Sharon. Then Diane came, with her driver, to pick us up and we all went to the flower market. Sharon was buying big plants in big pots for her balcony (which Don and I will also do in a week or two), and Diane and I wanted flowers, or a potted plant, or something. We ended up with both fresh cut flowers and potted plants.
hard to resist such gorgeous colours!
Diane and I and the orchids
I picked a round bowl with three orchids and some greenery, which looks lovely on the table behind my couch. Altogether, bowl and orchids and plants cost 120 RMB, about $18.50
From the flower market, we picked up Diane’s husband, Julio, and were off to Taikung Lu (the artists’ enclave) for a bite to eat and some browsing. It was a warm day on Saturday so we sat outside for our little meal, and then had great fun poking in some of the shops. As I was expecting my KavaKava shoe cabinet to be delivered that day, I was keeping my eye open for something to adorn the top of it. I had the idea of “shoes” in my head when I discovered these tiles in a little shop, and thought they’d be perfect!
Which, they will be, when once I actually have my cabinet. Yes, it did get delivered, but when it was unwrapped, it turned out one side was rather damaged, so it was immediately wrapped back up and taken away. I have no idea when I’ll see it again. I’m sad, and my shoes are sad. 😦
Don was home when I got here and we attended to a few ‘housekeeping details’ before getting cleaned up and changed, and off we then went with Sharon and Fred and Diane and Julio for dinner at a fabulous upscale Mexican restaurant called Maya’s, which serves the best margaritas in town. Or so they claim. We tested that claim fully with several pitchers, and while I can’t say for sure they’re the best, not having tested any others in Shanghai, I can claim they’re very, very good… and slightly lethal!! Maya’s has excellent food, as well. (I think. No, just kidding. I remember!)
Fred and Freda after a few rounds of margaritas
Another furniture purchase:
Don and I have been looking at “altar” tables – at least, we think that’s what they’re called – which we’ve admired for quite some time. After checking several different furniture stores, we decided on the one we liked the best. Originally we were thinking we’d get this table for our very long hallway, because the hallway really needs something, but when we placed the table there, it just didn’t feel right, mostly because it was too difficult to see the beautiful carvings. Luckily, there was a perfect spot, where you can see the table as soon as you enter the apartment, and also easily see the carvings. Now I just need to find the perfect things to place on it – more shopping required!!
perspective when you first enter our apartment
beautiful carvings
Mahjong:
On Monday (22nd) I was invited to a “craft” morning at Ellen’s (a GM wife) home, about 15 minute walk away. I went with a couple of women from our building, Janine and Robin. Some people do crafts, some people just visit, and as she has a mahjong table, some people play that, so I started to learn how to play mahjong. I say “started to learn” because it’s rather complicated! But, the woman (Dorothy) who was teaching me and Robin (the other two women at the table already knew how to play) was a great teacher and she invited me to her place on Wednesday morning for her “beginner’s group.” I decided to go, hoping it would help keep a few of the rules in my head if I played again relatively soon after my initial lesson.
On Wednesday, when I got there a little late, there were four “beginners” already in attendance and playing their first round. I watched, and then we rotated places each round, so one person always had the chance to watch all the other hands and learn strategies. (Or not…) We played several rounds, and I think I understand the basics, but it will take a lot of playing to remember the “special” hands, and I’m not sure I’ll ever master the scoring system!
Happy hour – Culture class:
Turned out I had met two of the mahjong beginners at “Tuesday 5:00 Happy Hour” that several women attend at the local Italian restaurant. Again I went with Janine and Robin, and when I got there I found I knew one other woman, a GM wife. Among many others, I met a woman named Daryl, who’s a Canadian, from Dutch parents, and who grew up in Langley (right across the river from where Don and I grew up in Maple Ridge) – how small a world is that?! Of course there was a lot of discussion on various aspects of living in Shanghai, and one woman told of getting passed counterfeit money at the fake market, which led to tips on how to tell if the bill is real and where to look out for fake money – thus “happy hour” beomes “culture class,” so Tuesdays at 5:00 seems a good tradition to me! It’s just for a “happy” hour or so, (with two-for-one cocktails), though those who don’t need to head home to cook dinner for (out-of-town) husbands, stay on for dinner. Don actually was out of town this Tuesday, but I still headed home for a quiet leftovers dinner in front of the TV because I was exhausted. The night before I’d hosted our first Shanghai Girls Book Club, and the gang had stayed until past 11:30. By the time I’d cleaned up and checked emails, I wasn’t in bed until after 12:30. Somehow I was in a bit of a fog all day – though likely the wine, not the late hour, was to blame! 🙂
It isn’t spring until the government says it is:
On Monday afternoon (22nd), while driving in the car with Mr. Shi, on our way to the grocery store, I looked up the word for spring and said “today spring” (“jintian chuntian”) in my trying-to-learn-Mandarin-way. We have been having lovely warm, sunny (relatively sunny, in that “high glow” way of Shanghai) weather and the magnolias are starting to bloom and it feels like spring. To say nothing of the fact the spring equinox was March 20th. Well, it turns out it’s not spring in Shanghai. Mr. Shi emphatically said, “no spring; the news say no.” I gave him my “what are you talking about” look and said, “but sun shining, warm, flowers….” Still, he insisted it isn’t spring yet. And then he taught me the words for spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Turns out I missed the article in the paper, which a friend helpfully pointed out so I could “catch up”…. It’s not spring in Shanghai until the city’s weather authority, Shanghai Meteorological Bureau, declares it to so! The start of spring is declared “once the average temperature climbs above 10 degrees for five consecutive days. It (then) considers the first of those five days the first day of spring. Therefore, the beginning of spring is always five days before the announcement that spring has arrived. In the same way, when the average five-day temperature climbs to 22 degrees, the bureau will declare the start of summer – on the first day of that five-day run.” Which basically means we are told that spring (or summer, etc) has arrived retroactively! So there!!
the magnolias are blooming
blossoming cherry or plum (?)
twin boys playing in the park
even our lobby has a 'spring' display now
So, “declared” spring, or not, it is definitely in the air.
Until next time!
freda's world adventures 
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