A Day Without Chinese Food . . .

After spending the past four days fighting with Expedia (and losing horribly) I needed an outlet. I haven't had a good night's sleep for the duration, and now that my wallet is at least 1500 dollars (yes, dollars, not RMB) lighter, well, I needed an outlet . . . a happy day.

And I got it : )


Stephanie (lives across the hall from Denis and me, is married to a Chinese-American guy, is from Brooklyn, and was an English teacher at home . . . scary, yes?) asked if we wanted to go to the Shanghai Museum, and we were all for it. An escape. I also wanted to go to the Foreign Language Bookstore, which was located in the same area. By the time we met at the gate, our group went from three to mob. It is kind of funny how that happens here . . . we lao wai travel in packs : ) As usual on a weekend, it started to pour on us as soon as we walked out of the subway station. Good times. It worked out though because there was a mall right across the street and we were all starving.
As soon as I saw it, I knew that it was the right thing to do. Subway, so good. Ordering was a bit stressful (they offer "more bacon" on everything . . . even my Italian BMT . . . I declined, thanks) even though the employees all spoke a bit of English. Sitting was more stressful. There are WAY too many people in China, and that issue is most apparent on a weekend at a mall during a downpour at lunchtime. Welcome to hell. But the very first sip of my fountain Diet Coke made all my stresses wash away. It was so insanely good. I can't begin to tell you how good. You might think I am being over dramatic, but if you saw the look on all three of our faces as we took that first life-sustaining sip of the nectar of the Coca-Cola gods, you, too, would understand. The sandwich was delicious, too. I love you, Subway. And after our Subway fun, how could we resist a mall frolic . . .
We got to play in a Japanese import store . . . I don't know if any of you have seen Grave of the Fireflies, but if you did, remember that candy that the little sister loved? Well, they had that exact box on the shelf . . . sniff : ( On a happier note, they also had Man Pocky. I have yet to try it, but I am told that it is the best Pocky. These mushroom people were part of some exhibition in the atrium of the mall. I have not the slightest clue what there purpose was, but all the Asians loved them and were taking typical Asian pictures, so Stephanie and I thought we would get in on the action. And of course, as Denis took our picture, so did a bunch of other people : ) Everyone loves a white girl! There were these drawing of t-shirts and bags that looked really cool. All three of us wanted something, but there we no tangible products anywhere, and, sadly, no English or Chingish to explain what was going on . . . we walked away empty handed, but our consumer needs were about to be met.As we were making our way down to the bookstore, we noticed that every store we passed was a stationary store. I remember Lillian (Whippany student who was in Shanghai this summer) had suggested this road when I lamented that there was a dearth of fun stationary in the city (especially after Japan, the land of stationary). It seemed pretty fun until we passed this one store, the mother of all stationary stores. I was in love. I don't quite know why this reindeer guy was out front, but he certainly did catch our attention. No joke, we were in there for at least an hour and a half. What a joy! And for 77 RMB, I got the best stuff (shown at the bottom of the post). Unfortunately . . . as we were paying, downpour number two began : (

We thought we made it to the bookstore, but it turned out to be the wrong bookstore. After hauling our butts up seven storeys, and fighting through throngs of Chinese people, we made it to what was supposed to be the mecca of foreign bookstores in Shanghai . . . a small corner of one floor? Wahhhh? After a quick phone call to the people who ditched the stationary store early, we found out that we had another two blocks to go . . . back out into the storm . . . while we were unhappy at the moment, it was totally worth it. The bookstore was literally called Foreign Language Bookstore, and there was a real selection. There was even a Murakami display! (Worth a picture, no less : ) I will be there often, very often. Talk about a refuge. Though I do hope I don't have to go to the bathroom there often. They have a particularly yucky squatter toilet.

By this time, we had wiled away almost five hours of the day. That is right . . . books and stationary . . . does it get better than that. It does when you add real pizza.
A few people dropped off, and the rest of us took a cab to an Italian restaurant called DeMarco's. Stephanie's husband claimed he found real pizza, and while I was hopeful, I remained skeptical. But with the first bite (just like the Diet Coke) I was won over. For about thirty seconds, I experienced pure joy as I held that first bite in my mouth . . . again, laugh all you want. Go away for two months and see how you react to tastes from home . . . now if someone could just find me a Chipotle.

Anyway, back to my point. The pizza was amazing. Denis was actually having violent dreams where he had to protect the pizza he was eating from the interlopers who were trying to steal it from him. This food expedition was more than necessary.
A bunch of happy (and contentedly full) expatriates. Devon is practically asleep in the back there.
Please take in the amazing chocolate cake. Amazing.
It didn't stand a chance . . .
Before we left whatever area we were in (I have no clue : ) we stopped at a "Blockbuster" and stocked up on some incredibly and totally legal DVDs (coughing fit). It was this TINY, hole-in-the-wall store, but it was more organized than any of the ones on Baise (our street). Stephanie found the most amazing treasure there . . . a 21 disk Ghibli box set for 126 RMB. How glorious is that! In case this means nothing to you, Ghibli is the studio that Miyazaki created and produced such animes as Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, and Howls Moving Castle.

So anyway, it was a great day. So great that even when Denis called JAL and they said that we would have to pay 3,000 dollars EACH to upgrade our restricted tickets to year long tickets, I only felt one brief (but intense) moment of wanting to cry, but then I just laughed and played with my new toys : )