Working to pass the time and go back to our real home in HK!
I'm telling you - they we're obsessed and Gary was drinking it up!
A bit of our shopping escapades...So we took the advice of a few business people in the know…and I got’s to say…they DON’T know. We decided to come to Shanghai for the Asia International Textile Show in Shanghai. We made plane tickets basically overnight and were excited for the extended adventure we were about to encounter. I gotta say, we don’t die over this place. We feel so at home in HK with the dirty AC water occasionally dripping on us as we walk down the street (let me tell you that Shiz-niz smells worse than the worst case of Fish Bo!), the shopping malls that we now know better than South Coast Plaza (even if everything does in fact happen to be a repeat of the store next to it), and the MTR (where the hands are held high in an attempt to remain balanced and the whiff of the un-deodorized pits roams free). Granted, Shanghai has its own treats for us to enjoy such as the even greater inhalation of smoke (doesn’t anyone know that second-hand smoke kills) and the language barrier that stands stronger than the Great Wall of China ever did. (Oh has Gary gotten a bit irritated a time or two. No communication and an empty stomach do not rest very well with that boy.) The taxi and lack of communication started getting old real fast. The fun of hailing down a taxi lost it’s excitement after standing out in the cold (Yes it was pure winter in Shanghai) for 15 minutes. Then when we’d finally get in and show them the address of our hotel they’d talk back to us as if we understood their mother language fluently. Today, for example we finally hailed a cab and showed him the address. He immediately began pointing out that he wasn’t interested in going that way. Gary, acknowledging my rising irritation as I gritted my teeth and shot daggers at him through my eyes jumped in. After my defiant mumbling of, “I’m not getting out of this cab! Say whatever ching-chong stuff you want – but I’m not leaving so drive the car!” Gary displayed his negotiating skills and threw him a Benjamin (don’t worry…only like 15 bucks here…) and told the guy to get going. Apparently the green stuff speaks to all languages. One dolla to make me holla!!!
Unfortunately, or rather this time we’ll say fortunately – our stay here is very short. I mean I tried hard to fit in here. Once in the creepiest mall we’ve thus far been to, I tried to apply some of the culture I’ve taken in.
You see – here…especially in Mainland China – there is a lot of loogie spitting going on. Outside, inside, men, and even the dainty women cough up anywhere and everywhere! They are all hawking up the deepest gurgliest loogies they can muster and believe me that they don’t try to spit it out behind closed doors. I had to dodge a few flying spit wads while in Shanghai. So at this nasty mall I tried to gather a bit of saliva and toss it out like a Chinese pro. It just made me feel bad. If the floors weren’t already 2-inches thick with community dribble I would have cleaned mine up.
We will be going home to HK tonight. I’m sure our opinions would vary if we were able to take it in a little better and even see a sight or two. But we went to the show – shopped a bit – and worked. But the Chinese have come through as we’ve learned to expect and they served us well as we lounged/worked in their lobby the rest of our day.
