Tag: NaBloPoMo
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(101 Things About Shanghai) Grocery Photo Series
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(101 Things About Shanghai) Random Window Photo Series
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The illustration and text are wholly unrelated: Full Metal Jacket, Shanghai
Sometimes big cities really do my head in. Istanbul used to make me want to jump on the hoods of cars and kick people out of frustation for the stupid traffic, pervy stalky men and frequent lack of spacial awareness. It’s been a bit different in Shanghai. The traffic is actually better (though many here…
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These are the people in my neighbourhood
In other words, they are the people that I meet each day. We are moving in a week or so. Our landlord is moving back into our flat because we are in a very good school district and his small daughter just reached kindergarten age. By September, our threadbare, tired, scuffed apartment will…
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(101 Things About Shanghai) Laneways and Alleys, oh my
Shanghai’s got a lot of alleyways. I’m a huge fan of them, perhaps as a human level antidote to the carelessly changing skyscraper skyline of this city. They like things to be new, big and shiny here. I prefer smaller things in my line of sight. Some alleys are in the layouts for 1930s lane…
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(101 Things About Shanghai) I Know You Can See Me
I have no intention of singling out this city for its very thorough surveillance set up: In fact, I’d say London was worse in the privacy-violation category. However, this is definitely an aspect of Shanghai that is there, that isn’t always obvious, and that is kinda crucial. You are being watched. Up there in…
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(101 Things About Shanghai) Zoned for Crappy Pastries
ETA 12 August 2010 ExtraOrdinary has disappeared from the infamous corner and in its place is Bakery #4 in 12 months: Elysee (insert French accent aigu on first and second Es) Boulangerie-Patisserie. Yes. En Francais. Bien sur. And OMFG- they have real pastries hidden away inside, beyond the view of the shrimp-fluff-oily-cheese-kelp-bread in the window.…
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(101 Things About Shanghai) Getting from Here to There
After a bajillion years of searching real estate ads and a bazillion weekends and Wednesdays spent staring at worn, tired, spartan, absurd flats, we have finally found a new home. Unfortunately– as everyone has lamented to us– it is Expo year and housing prices have sky rocketed and, well, gosh, you sure don’t want to…
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(101 Things About Shanghai) Everyone’s a Florist
We are easing into the lush and sweaty long summer season, when Shanghai overcompensates for its appalling climate by making everything all rich and verdant. The florists have all started displaying their wares outdoors, blocking the already blocked sidewalk with potted plants of all sorts- flowering, scented, waxy, leafy. Even places that aren’t florists are…
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(101 Things About Shanghai) Trippy but Pointless Public Art
In the wilds of Pudong, deep down in Zhang Jiang Gaoke where I used to catch the bus to work in Lingang (don’t even ask how far away that was) there is a giant Delete button standing on one of it’s corners at the edge of a park. A Delete button, like the kind you…
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(101 Things About Shanghai) Chinese Laundry
I’ll readily admit I was reluctant to post on this theme as it is high up there in my list of cliches to steer clear of. However, a cliche is generally based on some tired, overused aspect of reality and that is true of this topic. In Shanghai, laundry is everywhere. It’s hanging on bamboo…
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(101 Things About Shanghai) It’s not the Heat, it’s the…
Sometime around now, Shanghai shifts gears and rather abruptly begins to feel like the changing room of an indoor public pool. It’s not hot out yet; Summer’s freakish sweaty heat has yet to descend. It is humid though. Your skin feels clammy and ever so slightly damp– but it isn’t hot. That will come…