Suit Up!!

Since planning this trip to China a few friends had mentioned that I should look into getting a suit made here in China as it's super cheap.  When we got here Percy's nephew and his roommates said they wanted one too.  So yesterday we decided to go to the Shanghai Fabric mall and get suits made.  I think there was 6 of us in total that got one.  A suit costs about 800RMB and a shirt 100RMB.  So around $130 you get a suit and shirt... it's crazy.  I think they're supposed to be done in a week.  We have to go back for a fitting then.  Everyone was pretty excited about the suits and we've decided to do a suit night when we get them.   I'll let you know how that night turns out.  My buddy Julian also has a guy that he uses for suits.  We're thinking of getting another one done by them to see if there's any difference.  Plus the price is so good, who wouldn't want two?

The last 2 days have been just walk around and enjoy the city.  I think we've done a lot of the major tourist stuff.  We went back the Bund during the day and there were a lot of tourists out and about.

We also got a chance to go sit in on one of Alex's english classes.  I think the kids were between 4 and 7.  They were so cute and hilarious.  They all seemed so excited to be there.

After we spent some time in the class we decided to go to the Shanghai Circus.  It was really amazing.  Unfortunately they wouldn't allow and pictures to be taken inside.  The acts were a combination of chinese dance and acrobatics and throw in some crazy flexibility and you get quite a show.  Here are a few photos from off the web.

One thing we were missing since we've arrived here was an authentic Chinese dinner.  So last night we went to a restaurant with Alex and his roommates and had a great dinner.  The food came out hot and delicious.



From L-R: Alex, Ben, Selena, Ellen, Dave

 For the 7 of us the meal came to 300RMB, which is approx $50cdn.  It's amazing how cheap and good the food is here.

The night before we decided to hit a Brazilian BBQ joint.  These places are fantastic.  I've been to ones in Portugal, Chicago, Niagara Falls and the one in Toronto a few times.  This one seemed to cater to more foreigners but it was still great eats none the less.

Today looks like a rainy day and I'm not sure what we're up to today.  I'm still looking to get out to Beijing really soon.  Hopefully in the next day or so.

Shanghai

Shanghai is a pretty amazing city. I think it's separated by a river. One side is relatively young, in that most of the buildings and development has occurred in the last 25 years. On the other side of the river is the older part and where you'd find some more historic sights.

Percy's nephew Alex lives in the Hongkov (sp?) district which is great as it's within walking distance to the metro and surrounded by local food stalls and small businesses. It takes some time getting used to crossing the street and seeing how people drive but to be honest it's not too bad.

We've had this crepe thingy a few times for breakfast. The lady makes it right on her hot plate.

She spreads batter over that hotplate and then cracks an egg over the middle and spreads it all over. She threw some unknown stuff into the middle of it (you can see them in the bowls to her right) and then fold it over and puts these fried tofu or something in it. It's actually really tasty. It costs about 3 or 4 RMB for it. So like 50 cents back home.

One day we visited the World Financial Tower. This building is approx 475m tall. I believe it has the one of the worlds highest observation deck. this building looks like a giant can opener. I don't think I got a photo of it from the outside but inside was pretty neat.  Actually it's in the pictures I took from the bund.

We've been to a bunch of places, like YuYuan Garden, Hongzhou, and a few temples.

We've also seen some funny things. Check out this photo of a guy on his scooter with his child sitting on a propane tank. Pretty crazy by our standards.

One thing I wanted to eat here was Xio Long Bao. One of Alex's roommates recommend a place. It's not a tourist place by any means and it wasn't exactly the cleanest place in the world. However the bao's were fantastic as were the dumplings/wontons in this soup. I think between the 3 of us we ordered 40 Xio Long Bao's and 2 soups. It came to like 50RMB, so like $7CDN.

Another night we also went out for Japanese Teppenyaki and we got to meet a bunch of Alex's friends. They were all here teaching English in different schools. A few British lads and a couple of American guys. All seemed like super nice guys. Turned out the restaurant was all you eat and all you can drink for 170RMB.

Last night I got a chance to finally meet up with Julian and his wife and son, Daley.

I'll get a chance to spend more time with them as we'll be staying with them when we get back from Beijing. We haven't pegged it down yet when we're leaving for Beijing but it should be soon.

China

So as most of my friends know I decided to take a trip to China.  More specifically Shanghai.  My friend, Julian is here with his wife and 1.5 yr old son Daley teaching at the Shanghai American School.  I'm not exactly sure when he started here but I'm going to guess over 3 years now.  Since I missed him so much I thought I'd come out to visit him.

It also turned out the my co-worker from work has his nephew here teaching English.  I think he's been here just over 2 years.  Since Percy (my co-worker) and I spend a lot time together at work (we sit beside one another) and have done some road trips together we thought this would be a fun trip to take together.  Since this was a vacation and not a work trip we decided to spoil ourselves and fly business class, it also helps that we have a bunch of Aeroplan miles. 

We decided to leave April 15th and we arrived here April 16th.  Yep, I'm writing this today from Shanghai China.  It took me a while to figure out that China censors what users can see on the internet.  So no youtube, facebook, or blogs.  Apparently you need a program to work around these social media sights.  Yep, you guessed it, I just figured out the work around (well, the guys we're staying with just showed me).  I'm trying this e-mail to blog program so even if I can't access my blog site I should be able to e-mail my updates, I've never tried it but we'll see how it goes.

I know I'm notoriously bad for updating my blog but I think at nights I'll have a bit more free time to update my blogs.

The flight over here wasn't so bad.  When you're in business class it's a whole different level of service and comfort, but don't get me wrong, you're still on a plane for 14 hours with limited space and tight bathrooms.  I think between the 4 or 5 cat naps, the 3-4 meals I ate, and watching 2 movies (Good faith and The Fighter) the time passed pretty well for me.  I was actually thinking that'd I'd get some work done on a proposal for work, but lets get serious… I'm on HOLIDAYS!!.

Percy's nephew (also named Alex) was great and met us right at the airport. We had to jump on this high speed train to get into town.  The highspeed train, known as the Maglev, hit speeds of 438km/hr but it was so smooth.  Really neat train.  Apparently they want to build one from here to Beijing and one to Hong Kong. 

Inside the Maglev.

Alex (Percy's nephew) lives in an apartment complex with 2 other room mates (1 Canadian and 1 South African/Zambian guy) and they're both really nice guys who also teach English but at a different school then Alex.
After putting our bags down and settling in we decided to go out and get a prepaid cell phone as it'll help us on our travels and keep us in contact with Alex, my friend Julian, and anyone else that we need to get a hold of.  We also got a Metro pass which is basically a reloadable transit card which makes life so much easier when moving through the subways.  Plus, subway rides cost us about 4 RMB (or know as YUAN as well) which is less the $1 CDN (I think it's about 6.5RMB = $1.00CDN).
I forgot to mention that Alex speaks pretty good Mandarin, considering he's Italian and Bolivian.  Me, not so much.  There are certain words that sound familiar to me, but since my parents spoke mainly Taiwanese to me, that's pretty much what I understand.  Even though there's similarities in the language there's a lot of words that I don't know and don't recall.
Basically everything is pretty cheap here, the taxi's, the food, the fake goods (more on that later).  Apparently electronics isn't any cheaper here.  I guess if you're going to spend a lot on electronics you don't really want to buy it overseas.
Our first meal in Shanghai was at a place called Ajisen Ramen.  It was really good. I got a Curry Beef Noodle dish and Percy got some fried rice.  We also got a few dumplings to share around. I think in total for the 3 of us our bill was less the 200RMB, but I can't remember exactly.

Curry Beef Noodles

After dinner we walked through this pedestrian street near the People's Square (I think) which was really neat to see.  Lots of high end stores and lots of people asking us if we wanted fake watches, purses, or even "pretty women".  We declined these offers of course.

Percy and his nephew Alex

Walking through this area took us to the waterfront area called the Bund.  I think it was a redeveloped waterfront completed for the expo.  It was nice to walk along and look across the river where a lot of lit up buildings were.

The Bund

Well it looks like we're heading out now to go get some lunch.  I'll write more whenever I get a chance. Which I'm sure will be today as we're just taking it easy today.

Swab and Save!

So if you happen to have read my last post you know that my friend is still looking for a stem cell match.  Her friends and family are trying to spread the word and hopefully find her that match to save her life.  There's going to be a event on the 19 and 20th of Feb, 2011 at the Sheraton Hotel at Hwy 7 and Leslie between 12-6pm in which members of Onematch.ca will be swabbing people for potential donors.  At the same time there will be a sample sale going on for you shopoholics!!

Feel free to pass the info around.  Thanks!!!

Help...

I probably have to admit that I'm not one to reach out and ask for help.  I know all my friends would help me in a second. But I think I feel like I'm burdening them and not giving them a chance to say no.  But on the other hand I'd help any of my friends that I could.  Actually I'd be upset with them if they didn't ask me to help them.  So really I can probably assume that when I don't ask them, they might get upset at me.

One thing that I'm asking people to help out with, or just consider is to go to onematch.ca and read up on being a stem cell donor. It's not for me, so don't be concerned about me.  Obviously some one close to me requires some help and this is one small part that I can do to help them.  If you decide to join all you have to do is fill out a questionnaire and they then send you a kit that contains a swab that you send back to them.  In the event you are a match they will contact you and you still have the option of refusing if you don't feel like going through with it.  The website has information about the process and should address any questions you may have.

Thanks, I really appreciate it and even if you decide it's not for you could you please pass it on to your friends as every one person that signs up, is one step closer to saving my friend's life.

Tar Sands

Again it's been a while since I've written.  I been doing so soul searching and trying to figure out the next steps in my life.  Speaking of the future I just finished watching the "Nature of Things" on CBC and it was a story on the Alberta Tar Sands. 

When outsiders think of Canada I'm sure a lot of things come to mind.  Hockey, Eskimo's, igloo's, beautiful and picturesque scenary that consists of lakes, forests, and snow covered mountains. What do I think of when I hear Canada?? I probably think of the same things, multiculturalism, poutine!, cottage country, NO right to bare arms, and maybe the country that I was born and raised in and that I'm proud to represent through work and when I'm overseas.  I didn't mention any of our sports teams, as to be honest we haven't been doing so hot lately... these Leafs are killing me.... just like the Blue Jays.  I still remember that game when Joe Carter hit that HR to win the World Series, I was in the Home Run deck with my buddy.  It was a great moment!!

Sorry, back to this documentary I watched.  It's amazing how powerful these oil companies are.  These companies (Suncor) can take a landscape like this:

 

To this:

 

I guess what amazes me is that the province of Alberta back these oil sand projects and companies like Suncor because it's a huge boost into the local economy, but it's not like this oil is even destined to be used in Canada.  Most of this oil is sent south of the border to the United States.  The largest consumer of oil in the world.

You may also hear about the Gulf oil spill:

and the large ecological consequences of the spill that are still being felt by all the coastal communities.  Deep sea drilling, even with the gulf disaster, as large as it was, is less likely to have an environmental impact then the digging and processing or the oil sands in Alberta.  To process the oil in oil sands it creates 3 times as much hydrocarbons then drilling for crude oil.  As well the stripping of the land is a guaranteed environmental impact that will be felt for generations.

You're all probably wondering why I'm even writing about this, but some of you may know that I actually have a B.Sc in Environmental Science. I guess it was the one course that was interesting in first year University and I kept going with it.  I'm by no means a "tree hugger" or an environmentalist, but I think it interests me because it shows how one or two multinational corporations have the financial and political backing of the government to basically strip Canada of it's identity and for most of us in Canada, it seems to be okay.

Don't get me wrong it happens in the USA and countries all over.  Another good documentary that I enjoyed watching was Food Inc.  It's based on the farmers that grow food for America and the influences that the huge corporations have over the government regulations which ultimately effect the small farmers who are struggling just to break even.

I'm not blaming anyone or anybody in particular but sometimes I have to think the reason these companies are so powerful and wealthy is because of us, the end consumer.  Is it because we demand food for a dollar, or want to drive big SUV's that guzzle tonnes of gas, I don't know.  But I also look at all the drugs coming into the USA and even Canada which I believe is the root of a lot crimes being committed today.  If there was no one consuming the drug, would it even be worth importing any more?

2011.. the new year...

Sorry for not posting in such a long time.  The holidays got really busy.  I don't even know where to start.  Hmmm, some friends just found out they're pregnant.  I'm really excited for them.  They'll make amazing parents and have cute kids.  I played with a bunch of kids over the holidays.  They make me laugh, but I have to admit, it's great when they're not your kids.  I can always give them back when start to cry.  Got a new phone (thanks Bro!) that has a better camera so hopefully I can start taking more pictures of the new restaurants I've tried.  Speaking of new places.  When to a Afghani place that sells Kabobs.  I can't remember the name of it, Bamiyan Kabobs maybe? oh yeah it is, here's the link: http://www.bamiyankabob.com/

The food was really good.  The place was packed on a Sat night.  I got the Kofta Kabob which is ground beef I think.  But they have Lamb, chicken, and a few other things.  The prices were relatively cheap as well.  I think we were the only asians in there... and one or two white guys.  Other then that all middle eastern folk.  Oh yeah, this was the one at 14th and Markham road.

Hopefully I'll be able to post more in the next few days... or weeks, we'll see.