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Published: June 21st 2005
Oriental Pearl
Candy at the gaudy Oriental Pearl TowerFirst post from abroad and a bit overwhelmed by Shanghai! It's my first visit there and I am terribly jet-lagged... I don't remember being so exhausted on my last visit to HK. Must be getting old. Staying up until 4 am the night before leaving to pack probably doesn't help. Neither does two cups of (damn good) coffee from True Confections from the little gathering the night before. Speaking of which... I'll post the photos from that night in my next blog.
I don't have any photos to upload yet since I just set up dialup and need to soak up as much internet as possible... I've been deprived for over 24 hours!!! O_o There's no wifi in the apartment building here and the mall I went to today has restricted wifi for people with China Mobile accounts... arrggghhh!
I can still e-mail and MSN and Skype (username: straysheepie) though, so that helps a bit. I just won't be uploading huge photos which is probably a relief for you guys 😊
Highlights from today:
+ New haircut on a whim, a new Salon Esprit just opened and have 50% off on services... and the stylist suggested I
New Haircut
And curl. It's so bright I have to squint in the photo. Yup, that's hot... get my hair curled to make it more wavy, and it ended up being quite pretty - I look almost Japanese haha! I don't know how long the curls will stay though, and I'll post up a pic shortly.
- You think traffic in Vancouver's bad? It's a hellhole here!!! People don't signal while changing lanes, cut in front of each other without warning, ignore red lights, pedestrians, bicycles, scooters, and basically shove in front where they want to go. Even Beijing wasn't as bad as this... yikes!
+ Fabulous food! I can feel myself getting fat already from the heavy meals we've been having... great delicacies, lots of Shanghai-style dishes I haven't tried such as a sticky rice cake (nian gao), smoked whole fish (turbot or something like it?), and some favourites like roast pigeon and fresh prawns.
- McDonald's - Candy dragged me there this morning and I protested to no avail... we were both a little overwhelmed and homesick already, so for revenge I took her to...
+ Starbucks! It's *exactly* like the ones in Vancouver and it somehow made me feel better. Cheers to multinational corporations! Coffee was excellent, and they even have desserts such as
Hot Socks
A lot of people here wear ankle-length "pantyhose" socks... really stylish cheesecake and pastries which are much better than the scones and banana loaves we get at home.
- Chicken in a bag! They sell precooked chicken and vacuum seal it and just lay it out in supermarkets which is very very scary... poor naked chickens!
+ Stylish girls - everyone makes an effort to coordinate outfits and no one wears grungy sweats or runners like Vancouverites. Most women wear skirts and sandals with hells at least, and some wear fancier dresses. On the other hand, we're staying in Pudong which is the newer area to be developed in Shanghai with office tours a block or two away, so that may explain it.
- Humidity + heat = wilted Flo... it's crazy hot here, and when I'm in a building with air conditioning it's crazy cold! I just can't win...
That's all for now, will try to upload photos and post them as soon as I can! Take care, everyone, I hear the weather in Vancouver is now hot and stifling!!
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eunii
non-member comment
ohhh so jealous!
hey flo!! =) Shanghai sounds so great! I'm SOO jealous! I want nice hair cuts hahahha =)I should tell sister cuz for the past coupla weeks she's been goin to the salon to get her hair semi permed. It looks nice, but doesn't really stay. As for chicken in a bag... doesn't safeway sell that too? And, my cousin's from aussie told me to get skype, but i'm always too lazy to use it.. well, i don't konw exactly what it is either.