Shanghai Shennanigans

When you work all day, herding- I mean directing crowds through our Eagle winged doors, channeling them through queues, turnstiles, overtures, and finally pushing-um leading them out Act three-my lord, at the end of the day all you need to do is let loose. And Shanghai is particularly helpful in giving up plenty of places to do this. Last night we opted for a more laid back scene, less lights and glitz, more pool tables and cheap burgers, Windows 1! Of course, this was also largely due to the fact that our little friend Harry left last night, a 15 year old CEO’s son who we were told would shadow us so he could learn Chinese. Well, I’m not sure how much Chinese he learned….but we certainly tried to give him as many life lessons as possible, and we were sad to see him go. Anyways, blah blah blah, we drank, ate, danced, talked, good times, but the better times started after….
We’re running around outside, pole vaulting on old cardboard tubes, chasing each other on the sidewalk, and we finally get a cab. We’re in the cab on our way home, when suddenly we spot them. Two cab drivers out of their cabs, parked on the side of the street yelling at each other. They’re finger pointing, faces red, making jerky motions towards the two cars next to them, classic Chinese men anger, but then Ryan goes “Stop the car! Stop the car!” the cab driver slams on his brakes and we’re all like “Ryan, ryan, what the heck?” but he pops out of the car and takes off running towards the fighting cab drivers. We see him gesturing wildly at them, and then embraces them in a hug, we hear “just hug it out! Hug it out boys,” and of course we have to get in on the love, so me and Katie jump out of the cab too and race over, and I babble broken Chinese something like “ Americans like to help Chinese, if you have problem, we help, we help you, see how we help?,” and we keep hugging the cab drivers. And of course solved the problem, why would those boys want to fight after they saw what love could do?......nottt. the second we got back in our cab they were at it again, I’m pretty sure the one on the right was gonna lose, tiny man he was, one punch to the jugular and he was gonna be out. But thank God we left before we got to see that, so our last image was the two of them watching our cab leave, looking dazed and confused…before…. sucka punchhhh…

Goat Cheese and Nachos, yum!

Hey, how many places in the world can you spend your morning with Norwegians, English and Austrians, and your night with New Zealanders, Australians, and Americans? Well…. yes, that’s right, it’s actually the Expo, good guess. Yesterday was my day off (!! so few and so precious) and so I thought, of anything I could possibly do in this huge city what should it be…hmmm...why the North Korean Film Festival of course! So that’s exactly what Tine, Lars and I did (Another good guess! Lars would be the Norwegian). Honestly, I’m not going to say that the chance of free goat cheese (free goat cheese! Can you imagine??) and beer didn’t play a large factor in my attendance, but North Korea has been weighing heavily on my mind lately, so this was the perfect chance to give in and indulge myself in everything North Korean. That’s right, I used North Korea and indulge in the same sentence. North Korea is just so utterly fascinating. I’m a little obsessed, not gonna lie. You know that North Korea has a pavilion here at the Expo? It’s named “The Paradise for People.” I’m supposing this particular paradise consists of stolen liberties, concentration camps, propaganda, and famine, but to each his own. Anyways, back to the film festival, if you could just take a wild guess (just a wild guess) at the quality of North Korean films, you know are they exciting, adventurous, humorous, romantic, what would it be? You’re exactly right: none of these things. Basically they were proto-type propaganda: fighting the evil Americans, sacrificing your life for your country, encouraging your countrymen to daily sacrifice for your country. Women dressed in severe uniforms were running around shouldering stretchers one handed, throwing their bodies over their comrades, and yet still managing to pour the perfect cup of tea and saying no to cigarettes at the end of the day. Sexy. But lord, I mean, I already groan when one of my friends breaks out a violent, war movie for Friday night fun, but can you imagine if that was all you had available? Welcome to North Korean Friday nights.
In other news, the world cup is what it’s all about this summer. I mean, you get 204 countries all together in one city, and you’re gonna see a world cup fervor like no other. Signs everywhere advertise beer deals, times of the games, free fries! Not to mention this is seriously messing up my sleep cycle since all the games seem to be at 4 am Shanghai time. So last night was world cup time, New Zealand against Italy, whooo. What a game. And I watched it with a New Zealander, and a half Italian (if that even counts), so, yeah….things got a little tense. But it all ended well, because despite a rather humiliating tie for the Italians with a New Zealand team, the other American present knew just the cure, and ran out and got nachos. And who can remember a soccer game when facing cheesy, beef and bean laden nachos with a side of Guacamole and Sour cream, a little bit of salsa on the side with- I’m sorry, what were we talking about again?

A few shout outs:
Carson, I can’t facebook you back because China doesn’t let me. Sooo email me at hmj@clemson.edu and we’ll get skype set up.
Michael, I’m saving the North Korean pavilion for when you come to visit. Exciting, huh?
Dad, Happy Fathers Day, I love you so much.
All friends, Miss you all more than you know…..

A 21st Birthday in Shanghai....

Is amazing. And it’s just that simple. What makes the perfect party? Obviously alcohol, but add to that your own private room in a swanky KTV club in downtown Puxi with leather couches and marble counters, throw in your favorite unlimited music and mikes to amplify the worst peoples voices with the biggest egos, and then French fries (gotta have French fries at my birthday), all your favorite people in Shanghai, and then let me just dance in the middle of all this wonderful chaos and BAM. Best Birthday Ever. Of course, the taxi ride back from this all wasn’t the best one I’ve had in my life…..won’t go into details here…but I was just doing my part to fit the 21 year old stereotype, and I think I successfully fulfilled my role. Highlights of my birthday: Having my darling friend Caleb ( a once real professional singer) sing Bob Marley to me, coming home to a beautiful cake bought by my roommates ( mmm, coffee icing), Having over 2 thousand people sing me Happy Birthday at the Pavilion ( so I brought up that it was my birthday a few times…..), A Chinese boy giving me a stuffed panda bear for my birthday ( and selfish little children trying to steal it from me when I wasn’t looking- Oh I put an end to that), all the beautiful emails from my dear friends back home that made me wish more than ever they were here with me, is this the longest sentence you’ve ever seen because it is rather long but so was my birthday because I took into account the time difference and celebrated my birthday for not 24 hours but 36. The. End.
Of course, don’t let all the fun I had distract you, dear friends, from the fact that I’m expecting you all to take me out when I come back home- for my first legal drink in the states. Aight?

Finally, something to write home about

Typical day at the pavilion today, managing queues, waving people in, and then entertaining them standing on my regular rickety little chair, with that rather perturbing give in the wooden slats of the seat, I was all “欢迎来到美国管 ”and“请往前面走”（Welcome to the U.S Pavilion and Please walk to the Front）. There had been rumors earlier that morning that Al Gore might be coming, and they’d roped off the area around my little chair, but I expected to be pushed in a corner when the time came, told not to move my feet and keep away from camera’s or some such normal behavior. So this is why it was the shock of my life when halfway through welcoming a group through our Eagle winged Pavilion doors, I realized the large group of suits wasn’t a regular Vip group after all when Al Gore walked by me, looked up and said “Hey.” Needless to say I choked on my “Ni Hao” and had to take a few shaky breaths whispering mentally “get your stuff together Heather” to finish THAT little speel. And I thought that was all I was gonna get, I ushered the group safely to the next act, and was creeping over, ready to try and peer at him behind some plant…..and then had to run furiously back to my place when I realized the group was headed right back towards me! I took my well-known place against the wall, giving the group plenty of space to pass by as they stood in their group admiring our room full of…..of screens and corporate names. I guess, it being Hawaii week and such, my jarringly bright red luau shirt got their attention and our commissioner General beckoned to me, “Heather, come meet Al Gore.” My face turned as red as my shirt, but I walked right into the middle of that black sea and those camera’s and got formally introduced to Al Gore. He said he was impressed with my introduction! And then I made some silly joke about wearing this Hawaiian shirt (yeah…not so funny) and it was great. Hopefully I can get pictures up on this thing eventually (that’s right, our photographer got a few good ones). So yep, that was my day at work today. Can't wait for tomorrow...

Hot Pot and Sake Bombs

Whooo, last night got crayyyzayyy. Have you guys ever heard of Hot Pot? Well, last night the USAP paid for us Ambassadors to go to one of the best Hot Pot places in Shanghai, and I really think I gained 5 pounds in one night- no lie. Let me explain Hot Pot: Hot Pot is where you and some friends go to a restaurant and sit at this circular table that has a hot plate in the middle, where they put this bubbling, savory, steaming broth that has cilantro and spices, and lot and lots of msg. Then you order bunches of different foods, since we are Americans ours consisted of mainly meat, thinly sliced meat, and vegetables and tofu that you throw into this delicious broth. Every 10 minutes it seems like there is a new plate brought to the table, shrimp ( still squirming) skewers of thick junks of blood ( mmm, tastes like eggs), cabbage, 7 different styles of tofu ( shredded, chunked, sliced, dried, oh, the list can go on), and all these little red, rolled up meat slices that are so mmmm-delectable. Aaaand, I’m not even done. The best part is you go to this sauce bar thing and choose from all these different sauces, mix it with cilantro or garlic or chives, and dip all the food that has been simmering in the steamy broth in your own creative concoction. Am I using enough adjectives yet? The moral of the story is: it’s damn good. And then add some hot sake, all the beer you can drink, some sake bombs where you mix the beer and the sake together, plus some of your favorite people ever + your Bosses ( what-what?!) and you have a night to remember….or forget. What do I remember…oh yeah, befriending our waitress and pouring her a beer ( American friendliness right there), telling story after story of Chinese people’s attempts to cut in line ( the best is when they try and be sneaky and accidentally hit their head on the bar), trying really hard not to talk about work but not being to help ourselves, breaking a sake cup, watching Bree order 6 coconut milk milkshakes and Luke saying she was a coconut milk whore and then I laughed so hard I spit out my own coconut milk and it was just a huge coconut milk fiasco, and….well, I’ll stop there. It was great night, and I wish you all could’ve been there to join us. Greeting from China!