Tag: Shanghai
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Nihilism in Shanghai: Everything Dies. Everything.
I’m a very optimistic person in spite of all my references to key words like ‘bleak’, ‘grim’, ‘awful’, ‘miserable’ and such. My character leans toward the melancholy but not in a depressing kind of way. I actually like rain. I like solitude. I like somber. I find them very calming. But can I tell…
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Another Series of Unrelated Photos (Part Trois)
Remember how cold and sick and coughy I was at this time last week? How dim and grey and grim the city was? How my toes would not warm and my bark continued to bite? Yeah, well, this weekend is much better, thank you. Look! Sunshine! Blue skies! Invisible pollutants! I’m not working this weekend,…
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I’m a foreign woman and I bought shoes in Shanghai
Just so you know, I’m a tall girl with size 9 feet. That’s about a 7 in the Uk, 39 in Europe and apparently 40 in China. Most shoes for women stop at size 38 here. Just so you know. From a tiny boutique in Tianzifang, the artsy alleyway complex off Taikang Lu, I present…
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Welcome to Tropical Shanghai. Today’s temperature will be -2 degrees.
According to official Chinese government regulations, if a city is located south of the Yangtze River it is considered tropical and therefore does not need to be heated in winter. Shanghai is located about one millimeter south of the Yangtze River, as can be seen from this map, stolen from the Wikipedia page on it.…
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Chinese University Students on Love, Lust, Dating and Marriage
ETA December 14: Now with more love, lust and dating! Added quotes! Part 1 in the series (Helpful Household Hints) was here I originally typed this up sometime last week, back when I still had the energy and wasn’t consumed by a great big ol’ ball of sickiness. I’m currently consumed in a non-tubercular way…
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Nibblies, cookies and crepes, oh my!
Today I stocked up on my coping-stash at work. The weather has turned frightfully cold after the loveliness of the weekend and it was quite difficult to haul myself out of the warm flat and out into the streets to go to work. I knew I needed some sort of incentive to deal with sitting…
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A Series of Unrelated Photos (Part 3)
Part 1 is here and part 2 is here. It’s a beautiful day today. Sun is shining, skies are blue. Scarves are too hot, a coat is nearly too much. Sunglasses are needed. Birds are singing, crowds thronging, babies squatting with split trousers, dogs in summer booties, veggie vendors out in multitudes. December? Nay, I…
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A Series of Unrelated Photos (Part 2)
For Part 1, go here This blog was left negligently unattended for much of November whilst I diverted myself and my energies with that blasted novella about goats and monsters and such. However, that doesn’t mean I neglected to use the camera on my phone. No, I’m still compulsively intruding on people’s privacy and documenting…
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Helpful Household Tips from Chinese University Students
Do you want to know one of the fastest ways to wrap your head around a new country and culture? Teach there. Let me show you some things I learned today whilst marking my students’ process essays. How to wash your hair First, you need to buy shampoo, wash basin and face cloth…
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After NaNoWriMo Passes, Inertia Sets In
First of all, I finished that novel(la): So yes, yes I did write that blasted thing. At work, my stack of writing to mark grew to unfathomable heights (sorry kids!) and my mornings and nights and weekends were spent trying to squeeze out just a few more words. I didn’t know I had…
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Shanghai rules the copyright infringement universe: The Book Carts of Donghu Lu
Back in the days of yore when I lived in Turkey, books were a rare commodity. In my first two years, when I lived out in the wilds of Kayseri, I lived off the half dozen books I had brought with me from Canada, chosen for their thickness, small type and slow reading. Family sent…
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The Fabric Market, Part Trois
I have been a very absent bloggist this month, which can be blamed partly on my faulty immune system combined with Shanghai’s post-Expo surge in atmospheric particles (record highs in smog, it seems!), and partly (mostly) on Nanowrimo, which has sucked up an average of 1667 of my creative words every day. I have been…