Hello Lady DVD, Bag? or Paging Ryan

Shanghai time is passing in blur of sights and scenery. Noise is everywhere, mostly out of any range that I would understand, but once in a while cutting the air with a few staccato words like the above: Watch, Bag, DVD? Beatiful Lady, what you like? or Shoeshine? Shoeshine? I look at my sneakers, walk on and the moment passes, turning the noise back in to a magic wall of sound that surrounds me like green tea poky stick jello.

I've spent the last few days checking out most of Shanghai's main sights: The Old City (this was the China Town within China experience) with the Temple of the City God and the Yuyuan Gardens (a Ming dynasty garden, of which I must have a mio. photos, including one of me that i after much pleading convinced a chinese lady to take), The City Planning Center (a very fascinating testament to Shanghai's most recent urban development and and even more fascinating preview of it's next 20 years), the Shanghai Museum (where they keep "all the old stuff", bronzes, ceramics, jade and other good stuff from the last 6000(!) years), Xintiandi (a new part of the city made to look old and pretty, so that tourists don't have to deal with the real old and dirty stuff), The Moca (the Museum of Contemporary Art currently featuring an exhibit called "Fiction @ Love" -- the title says it all, just as you would expect this is manga bunnies with blinking plush hearts chanting korean lullabies and the like), People's Square (it's big and there's a lot of people in it, a good number of Shanghai's 17 mio. people seem to be hustling and bustling around here), Nanjing Lu (The oldest shopping street, a pedestrian zone with unlimited malls and craziness included), The Bund (the promenade that goes along the Huangpu river and faces the new Pudon development, Shanghai's "new" skyline, the Bund side itself houses the "old" (1930's skyline) and finally the "French Concession" (the part of town that the french were once granted the rights to, and which now houses all sorts of hipness in the shape of bars, restaurants, shops along plane tree lined streets.
I feel pretty succesful on the sightseeing part, only having a few more things left to go, such as the very important visit to a local SPA for example... however what i have enjoyed the most so far, is probably just being here, just observing and trying to understand this place.

During my first two days here i realized that this is probably the first time i've ever been somewhere, where i couldn't blend in, even if i wanted to. During my highschool year in Brazil i quickly figured out that there are enough blond, german immigrant descent, south americans (note: see mr. kufeld :)) to pass for one if you're able to mutter a few local words. Here however there is nowhere to hide, being blonde and caucassian) and it was a bit of a shock to have that many people staring at me, approaching me and yelling random things at me that i didn't understand (mostly trying to sell sh.. -- they're good at that), "shock" might be a strong word, but let's just say that it was a big shift from being in a laid back australian surf oasis where people couldn't care less. Second, for the spoiled linguista in me, it took a while to accept the fact that i really didn't understand a single word -- not a bit here and there, a word or two, but nothing, nada, zip (and this is where i started thinking about Mikhail's friend Ryan, who actually speaks chinese, and how brilliant it must be to travel around here with him). Luckily this phase passed rather quickly, almost too quickly -- it surprised me a bit how quickly the brain gets used to not only not understanding anyhting, but to not caring that it doesn't understand anyhting, and to enter a state of blissful ignorance where everything that exists is noise, visuals and new rules of survival, such as:

traffic lights are generally useful, they however do not apply to scooters, bicycles and taxis. Any of these will readily kill you while crossing at green. I'll elaborate on the scooter part: if at anytime you hear a scooter behind you: *jump*, in some direction, any direction really, a near death experience is approaching at lightening speed.

90% og beijing art students have relocated to Shanghai, where they are now desperately trying to get-by, by hosting an art exhibit, which you must come see - NOW.

sneakers are prime targets for shoe shine.

shanghainese people like egg in their food, doesn't matter the meal or the food (from beef stew to coconut bun) they will get egg into it (people with egg allerigies, like me, beware!)

the best way for western college students to make money in china is through modeling. at any time, expect a lingerie clad, potate nosed, midwestern gal to look down at you from a billboard with a look that is more "gee, i hope my parents didn't book that china trip yet" than "check out the hot ensemble".

beauty ideals indeed do vary: goal number is to be whiter than white and creams, lotions and special water will make you so. ear-widening surgery is a good thing (still don't know which direction this refers to?!). TV is a prime way to sell what looks like a bob-the-builder helmet with screws inside it, wired to an elictric current, that will make you mane grow to fabio dimensions (all of this is certified by professor dr. greenfeld, how works is a lab situated in something that looks like a scottish castle and who has many, many pretty blond assistants who marvel his skills.

And I could go on (and I might, at a later point :) - but in between 'learning' all of these things, there are other little moments of utter brilliance, like the english woman approaching me in the French Concesssion asking if I was lost (yes! - but not in a way you can help cure :)) or the little girl in the department store who shrieked with joy and giggles over my (blond) hair (-- while her parents where desperately trying to make her behave more 'appropriately') or the girl from the boonna cafe, who came running after me to give back what was meant to be her tip... ah yes, moments of sheer joy.

I have so much more to say, but am starting to fade a bit, after having spent the equivalent of 3 big mac value meals on the internet time for this update (don't ask how I know...). Next to me, the hotel cafe personel is engaging in a favorite chinese pastime (i'm speculating here, admitted) and are ripping cds like crazy, on the 'work' computer -- that's the way we like it. I am off to take some snapshots of the night-lit Bund and to prep for tomorrow, which will take me out for some more shopping (oh - did i forget to mention that the #1 activity in Shanghai, above any and all other popular activities, is shopping? - this place is hell, girls... :)) and to my chinese aroma-oil massage here:
dragonfly massge.