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Published: January 10th 2010
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Lounge 18
Happy New Year's!!!! (L-R: Me, Lizzy, Genelle, Cynthia, Fran) Lounge 18 New Year's in Shanghai was awesome! A group of us went to Lounge 18 on the Bund to celebrate New Year's. We had the best view of the Bund and the fireworks were amazing! Too bad we couldn't get a good picture or video of the fireworks though. Getting to Lounge 18 was quite the ordeal. Similar to Christmas Eve in Hong Kong, New Year's Eve in Shanghai got everyone out and about to celebrate! They didn't close the streets off in Shanghai, so that meant everyone was packed onto the sidewalks. There was lots of major pushing and shoving.
I found it a little strange because there was no actual countdown. At least we couldn't hear the 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1!!!!! We only knew it was midnight when there was a climax in the fireworks show.
At the time, I remember holding a Vanilla Sky in my hand and also thinking about how at home, it was still only the
morning of New Year's Eve.
Lounge 18 was a really nice and elegant place.
There were also all different types of people who were there that night. There was a group of people who were wearing some interesting, neon-coloured
wigs for some reason. I'm not sure why they were wearing costumes. And then there couples who were making-out intensely on the dance floor. Especially unpleasant was the 'old foreign man with a young Chinese girl' kind of couple. (and this combination is very typical here---old foreigner with young, pretty Chinese girl). Anyway, for us, we were there to hang out with friends and have fun!
As warned, it was ridiculous trying to find a way home. We stood almost in the middle of the main street trying to flag down a taxi. Some of the drivers stopped, only to demand that we pay 250 RMB!!!!!! So obviously, lots of drivers were trying to take advantage of the fact it was New Year's and turn off the meter so they could charge ridiculous fares. Fortunately, we ended up getting a good taxi driver who was still using the meter.
It was a wonderful experience to ring in the New Year here in Shanghai!
Queenie's Visit!!!! Then on New Year's day, my friend--Queenie--arrived!!!! She flew in from Tianjin. So sweet of her! This is also her first year of teaching! It was so nice to see a familiar face.
Lounge 18
in front of the Lounge 18 sign--Genelle, Cynthia, Mike (Lizzy's friend who was visiting from the States), Me! 😊
We had a great time catching up (and sharing with each other our struggles and challenges). hehe. Not surprising, I guess, we both were facing lots of the same struggles at work and with getting used to the cultural differences.
ANYWAY, since we really only had 2 days together...we tried to make the most of our time! We did lots of walking, looking, picture-taking, laughing, talking....and EATING!!! (haha...Queenie, I'm hungry!!!)
After Queenie arrived, I showed her around my apartment and we sat for a while talking and catching up and munching on a specialty Tianjin snack (a twisted dough stick, seasoned with different flavours) that Queenie had brought for me to try. Then we headed off to the downtown,
Xujiahui area to have dinner at
Element Fresh! The food was delicious as usual--it was my third time eating at Element Fresh that week! We walked around Grand Gateway and some of the other surrounding shopping centres...and we enjoyed some of the beautiful night lights. Queenie was on a hunt for a particular book, The Giver (that's dedicated teacher! thinking about her class even during the holidays!!!)....so went to the Marriott to ask the concierge for directions/contact information to
the nearest foreign bookstore. They were quite helpful!
On Saturday, Queenie met some of my friends when we all met up to go to an
Antique Market. After doing some bargaining (and Queenie is a pro at bargaining) and looking through some of the different stalls...we were successfully in making a few purchases. Then Queenie and I made our way to
Yuyuan Gardens. That meant lots more shopping!!! There were lots and lots of people!! And we of course stopped to eat some famous
Siu Long Bao (it's like a dumpling, but rounder...and it has a bit of soup in the bottom of it). Instead of paying 35 RMB for 6 on the dine-in floor...we just lined up on the street to get a tray of 16 for only 20 RMB! The trick to eating a Siu Long Bao and to avoid having the soup leak out...is to bite off a little of the top of the dumpling and then suck the soup out quickly. We also had these mega crab-roe dumplings! They came in a mini bamboo steamer and a straw for you to easily drink the soup inside of the dumpling.
We just found a little
spot by the water and rested our food on the stone fence/barrier.
After doing a little shopping, we stopped to eat some a
tiramisu Dairy Queen blizzard! Yes, there's Dairy Queen in the Yuyuan Gardens---there's actually two of them! There's also two Starbuck's! Yuyuan Gardens has lots of cool and interesting vendors selling everything that you can imagine! There was a lady selling kleenex cases in the shape of a tube of toothpaste or a tube of wasabi. There were also craftsmen who can do amazingly intricate paper cutting.
THEN, we hired a
cart-driver to get us to the Bund. Unlike the carts at the XinZhuang subway station by my house....the carriage on this cart was backwards. So we were sitting backwards! It was a fun ride!!! There is a lot of construction going on as you can imagine, since the Expo is just 112 days away (I know the number of days before Expo because there are countdowns posted everywhere!). Amidst all the cranes, piles of dirt, concrete, dust.....the lights of the buildings were shining bright. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Amazing.
It was a bit of an adventure to navigate our way closer to the buildings and to the
to the antique market
clothing as tree ornaments? other side of the Bund. After hitting a dead-end at the "Bund Sight-Seeing Tunnel"...and after walking to take a subway to the other side of the Bund...we made it to the base of the
Pearl Tower! It was much taller than I expected. They were playing songs by the Backstreet Boys. There were people trying to convince us to pay them to get our picture taken with the Pearl Tower. Queenie and I took our own pictures just fine, thank you!
Then we went to the Super Brand Mall. Unfortunately, we didn't know that it was already so late; the mall was getting ready to close. But it was ok for us! We were tired and pretty shopped-out already. 😊
The next morning, we made a trip to Carrefour to buy some things to make a
home-cooked brunch! Our menu was as follows:
-pancakes with maple syrup
-scrambled eggs (2 eggs each)
-kiwi and banana
-crispy bacon
-Bapple donuts!! hehee
-coffee
We were stuffed!! We were running late so we hopped onto a taxi to get to the 2pm service at church. Then after church, it was sadly time for Queenie to head to the airport 😞
On the subway ride to XinZhuang, her friend texted her saying that school was cancelled for Monday since there was a snowstorm in Tianjin. Yup, a snowday!!! Lucky!!!
That should have given us a hint...but shortly after arriving at the airport, Queenie was told that her flight had been cancelled due to the snowstorm. All flights to Tianjin and Beijing had been cancelled since the morning. Well, no problem!!! I guess that meant Queenie just
had to stay an extra night!! hehehee....yes, so tragic that her flight was cancelled!!! hehehee.....It was meant to be for Queenie's flight to be delayed, because she helped my roommate and I out with a situation with our neighbours (since Queenie can speak, read and write Mandarin)
and she encouraged me to try one of the little family-run restaurants in the alley by my house. It was delicious! The food also had good
"Wok hay-ness" (wok hay: "capturing into the food the hot breath of a seasoned wok").
We called it an earlier night since Queenie had to leave around 6am to catch her flight the next morning (on Monday).
It was a fabulous weekend---a great start to 2010!!! Thanks, Queenie McBeenie, for
coming!!!
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charlie
non-member comment
Cheap food
HEY, i was thinking of you this morning. We miss you here!!! I love your food picture, that's a really Chinese restaurant. I love all the menu, because you can't read it......LOL...which means that's really really great food there. I am looking forward to reading you more blogs.