Love on the Shanghai Metro

Valentines day comes in all shapes & sizes for the people in Shanghai, and the locals' embracement of western holidays hasn't skipped a beat here. The image below, a man, proposing to his would-be bride on Valentines Day evening, was taken on the Shanghai Metro Line 1. An odd place to propose indeed, but I've seen stranger.

From Shanghai, Chi...

Another couple on the Shanghai Metro Line 2 showed their affection for one another to an unnoticing crowd later that evening. As a man, I do feel there are certain places where public displays of heart-shaped balloons belong, and that's in either Kingdom of Loathing or the circus.

From Shanghai, Chi...

The Spring Festival Chronicles

Ahh, the Chinese New Year! Time when all the locals go back to see their families, and all the laowais go on vacation to some far off exotic locale, like Thailand, Xi'an or the pub. This laowai, however, is married and now has a Chinese family to go see for the holidays. Grace & I arrived in Jiangdu last night, just in time for dinner & drinking with some friends of the family. In typical style, they felt the need to teach me, the foreigner, about Chinese customs. After 5 1/2 years here, apparently I don't know jack shit.

Anyways, they re-educated me about the term "Gan Bei", which is no different than saying, "Bottoms Up!". Had they been around 3 years ago, they'd have seen that I certainly know "Gan Bei" as I out-drank two of Grace's Uncles who were trying to double-team me with Baijiu (Chinese White Wine - nasty stuff) just to see me drunk. As they staggered out of their chairs & into the next room, I popped open a beer & proudly said, Gong Xi Fa Cai! (Good fortune in the new year!)

They then educated me about language. My Chinese isn't so great, but I certainly know the chinese name of China & a few select other phrases. However, as I learned the majority of my Chinese in Jinan, near Dongbei (North East), I still have serious trouble understanding Southern Jiangsu language. What always surprises me though is that when I do respond to them in Chinese, my Jinan-hua is understood. I've no clue why I can't understand them, other than the fact that they were slurring their speech a bit.

Finally, they taught me how to use chopsticks. Considering I've probably gained a good 20 pounds in the last 5 years here, an inability to use chopsticks is certainly not the case of my weight gain. As always, a spoon is offered, and I proudly say "no! I can use chopsticks just fine!" and their faces light up. They watch as I eat, and they smile, thinking I'm one smart laowai! At which point, I raise my glass of beer & say, "Gan Bei!" (in MY chinese, meaning, stop staring & DRINK something!)

Anyways, I don't see that it'll be much different than the last 3 years here, other than the fact that Grace & I are having a small wedding ceremony. Should be interesting to say the least!

Fun with the English Language

A few days ago (yeah I know the server's been down, thanks, AIT!) I was chatting with a friend on msn who came tearing onto the IM client with questions regarding her USA counterpart's email to her. She & her all-Chinese staff figured out what the rest of the email meant quite easily. It's their job & their company, so generally, English emails are no problem for them, except for this one phrase. After consulting online dictionaries & various translator sites, this friend (who probably doesn't want to be named) finally decided to consult the one person she knows to be the foremost expert on Americans, me. The American.

She popped on msn & told me this dilemma and finally asked me to help her figure out what the phrase at the end of the email meant.

The phrase: "Go Bears!"

Superbowl Party in Shanghai

Yeah yeah, I know. The Bears lost. But still, the party over at Bubba's Texas Barbecue & saloon, (2262 Hong Qiao Lu by the Hongqiao Marriott) was pretty good. The place was absolutely packed, with half the place rabidly cheering on the Bears, and the others saying something about the Colts. They offered up a good breakfast of spare ribs & soft tacos, along with beer, martinis, bloody marys & other drinks (yes, all at 7:30 in the morning!)

KJ, the proprietor of Bubba's also ordered up his own halftime show complete with dancing girls. The girls, however were a bit lacking, and at least the upstairs crowd didn't seem to pay too much attention. But then again, with all the people, they didn't exactly have the room to perform in the first place. Whatever... it was a good time, and KJ did promise that next year's party would be better (suggesting that the downstairs crowd wasn't too into it either.