evans update #2

Tuesday, March 8

Dear Ones,

We started the day with the brilliant idea of going to Walmart to buy breakfast stuff. Cereal isn’t a part of the Chinese world, evidently, because they had just two different kinds sitting on the shelf and fortunately, one of them was Cheerios. We spent some time trying to figure out which of the milks was skim (we never did). Oh, and then it was time to find plastic spoons. Hah! If the culture doesn’t use spoons normally (they use chopsticks, of course) why would they have plastic ones? We scoured the paper plates/paper cups aisle to no avail. Finally I pointed to the plastic paddle/spoon that was included in the yoghurt that we were going to buy and asked a clerk where we could find such in the store. She understood my gestures and waved me over to the other side where there were, in fact, the plastic sort of scoops that they use for soups and also real stainless steel knives, forks and spoons. We decided to get the real deal and spent a dollar on two spoons.

Having made our purchases at Walmart we went back to the Paris Baguette to get coffee and a pastry. Both of those were superb but expensive—and we think the personnel there just really don’t like foreigners because they have been brusque and inhospitable to us, though, in truth, they were that way with everyone. Warm, personal attention is not part of the Chinese employee’s outlook. He/she is there to do a job and that’s it.

We enjoyed our purchased breakfast to the max, but it wasn’t long until sleep overtook us again. We were awakened at about 10 by the phone. Tongdong Bai, our host from Fudan U, was calling asking if we wouldn’t like to go to lunch with him. Of course! He explained that we could go to a “proper” restaurant, but he wanted us to have the local color experience in a food court. Food court? We didn’t know what he was referring to since we have seen lots of food on the streets and didn’t know if that was what he had in mind or a shopping center food court.

We needn’t have worried. . .or maybe we should have. It was a shopping center food court, but oh my, it was totally Chinese. There was a place at which you could place an order and then it was just the survival of the fittest for a table. We were instructed to hover over the tables and descend upon a table whenever it looked like it was near to being vacated. Our host ordered food at the concession where we would be entitled to park at one of the tables. He explained that the really wonderful food was from another place, but at least we had a space we could call our own. To say that we wouldn’t have attempted all this by ourselves is to say the obvious. So we watched while the most aggressive Chinese got a spot to sit at this particular venue. It wasn’t pretty. But our guide was as good as the rest and within 10 minutes we had a place to sit down. We waited another 10 for food to come and another 10 for our main host to arrive. He had wanted us to have the authentic Shanghai dumpling that is fried. We will attest to the fact that it was absolutely delicious and well worth the wait, the best food we’ve had since we came to Shanghai. It’s hard to describe the overwhelming population here.

After Steve’s class we determined that we would go out and walk for at least 45 minutes. It was rush hour and just crossing streets was a matter of taking life into your own hands. Even though there are lights and “zebra” crossings, Shanghai drivers are really oblivious or disrespectful to pedestrians, so one needs to be constantly vigilant. There is a tendency of drivers to lay on the horn at the slightest provocation. Thus, all of rush hour is a cacophony of car horns.

Since we had eaten considerably at lunch we were not in a mood to go downtown and get a high end meal tonight. After we took our walk we went to the local Pizza Hut. Oh my goodness. There were so many people, and people who do not know how to wait for their turn. There was a line outside the building and a line inside, but plenty of people who were willing to disregard any line and barge ahead on their own. We took one look at the situation and said that we would “take out.” I’m so glad we did. We waited 30 min for the pizza as it was, and we would have waited that for a table. I know you must think, “How could they go all that way and eat Pizza Hut pizza? Well, you just have to understand the press of the people and the craziness of the situation. We were incredibly grateful to be back in our little sanctuary of our hotel room after running the risk of losing our lives crossing streets in rush hour traffic.

We are hoping to get to some of the historic areas tomorrow morning. Steve is ahead on his preparation for his class so we should be able to do that. He’s working very hard, and the students are responding well.

Sleep well! Until tomorrow.

Love, Jan