Last week it was announced that nearly one million toys were recalled due to lead-containing paints used for various Mattel/Fisher Price toys manufactured in China. Yikes - that's a lot of Doras, Diegos and Elmos! :( Scary that such a large US retailer would let unsafe toys be distributed. Don't they test toys for safety issues? I trust that the toy companies are doing what's appropriate to rectify this. I've bought a lot of those Fisher Price toys! Well, the real responsibilty lies with the Chinese company that used the paint in the first place. I'm guessing the company knew that [View Full Entry]

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My old roommate A was in Beijing last month doing research to understand Chinese childrens' perception of nutrition. On her way back to the States, she and her dad came to Shanghai to visit. So I just got back from dinner with my old SF roommate and her dad. I had dinner with them the other night too. It was nice for them to invite me to dinner (again). I got to taste some new cuisines and foods (fried pidgeon, sea cucumber). It was glad to see A too since I hadn't seen her since we switched apartments last year. Funny [View Full Entry]

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Last week I was studying the Lonely Planet book that E's friend had with him. I fell asleep with the book in my hands three times and had multiple dreams about travel routes. Pathetic, huh? I don't have my own LP because the last copyright was in 2005 and I decided to exchange it for a Shanghai LP. LP just came out with a 2007 edition, so I've been going to nearby bookstores and international bookstores looking for the new book. I can't find it! I read in book reviews that the book wasn't being imported to China because the book [View Full Entry]

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Let's see... what have I been up to since the last time I blogged? Chinese class Busy! I've been busy with school the past week and hanging out with some visitors. For my Chinese class, there are two teachers who alternate teaching. I recently decided that one of the teachers for my Chinese class is annoying. She chats too much during class - which is fine since I'm taking a spoken language class, but I'd like to learn more textbook, formal Chinese. I somewhat think she's too lazy to teach. So when it's lazy teacher's day to teach, I go to [View Full Entry]

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GGRRR! So as some of you might have noticed, the blog site has been down for a few days. At first, I thought that the site had been blocked by the government, and I went through the trouble of finding a free proxy server to go through to get to the travelblog site, etc... but then I found out there has been some "technical difficulties." Today, I get this message from the webmaster (quote): Firstly my apologies to everyone - I know the amount of effort people put into writing, updating and maintaining their blogs. On the 1st the main server [View Full Entry]

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So I've used my new bike 4 times: Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. I was coming back from school today, and guess what happened? The pedal came off! My right plastic pedal was on the floor! So sad. Can we say cheap?! I know my bike was cheap, but on my 4th use? Oh well, that's Made in China for you. So there are bicycle guys on every other street corner fixing flat tires, pumping air, etc., and I went to one of them near my apartment. He (bicycle fixer) told me that I should upgrade my plastic pedals to steel ones. [View Full Entry]

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That's the sound of my new bell on my new bike! :) I caved in and bought one! The bike is cheapo - 258 rmb and 45 rmb for a heavy chain lock. The seat is uncomfortable and hard, and I made the seat a bit lower for safety, although a pain to ride. I got back from the bike store in 7 minutes or less; walking would have taken me at least 30 minutes. I'm so excited - I can explore much more of my neighborhood this way! Today I bought skippy peanut butter and jelly to make my own [View Full Entry]

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More on Beijing and MMM's visit in Shanghai later! I am taking an intensive summer class at Jiao Tong University. My class started this week! I just spend an hour writing this blog about my Mandarin class... and then my Internet Explorer crashed and it disappeared. ARGHH! Here's a weak rewrite: Registration: I showed up for registration for my Mandarin class on Sunday morning. I expected to take a short placement test and pay my tuition fee. I didn't expect the crowds! I went fairly early (9:30 am) and there were already 140 people there! I waited to get my re [View Full Entry]

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MMM and I got into Shanghai around 5 p.m. on a Friday evening. The taxi line at Shanghai Airport (Hongqiao) was very, very long. It is recommended to walk out of the airport to hail your own cab, but since it was raining, we waited in the queue. Surprisingly, it only took 40 minutes. MMM and I got back to my apartment and relaxed a bit before walking to main Xujiahui to eat at Chamate. I forget how festive Xujiahui looks at night! All the department stores have pretty (or maybe tacky) lights. The next morning we grabbed some bread from [View Full Entry]

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Temple of Heaven and Hutongs "That's China" MMM and I went to eat zha jiang mian at a restaurant the hotel recommended to us. The noodles where pretty good. Zha jiang mian is noodles with brown sauce made from fermented beans, meat, soy beans, scallions, etc. The waiters mix all the ingredients in front of you. A tasty mixture. However, halfway through my noodles I found a short piece of hair! At that point I was already pretty full and I just continued to eat. I reminded myself that I'm in China and I've experienced a lot grosser than a piece [View Full Entry]

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