remmy goes to shanghai

today’s avg. temp.: 80’s, rainy, sticky

today’s accomplishment: nothing special today, but i did take the metro by myself on saturday!
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seems there’s always something to learn here. life is a classroom and i am it’s sometimes unwilling student. but there are also other days when it’s fun to learn something new…or 10 somethings new! so here are some things i’ve learned:

1. a “really soft” chinese mattress is like sleeping on a board….you need to buy a mattress topper.
2. there’s an art to getting on a subway train…i haven’t learned it yet.
3. in some grocery stores, spread butter is translated into english as “little cheese”. this can be confusing to the average american.
4. a flower market sells flowers, a pc market sells computers and other eletronics, the phone market sells cell phones, and the wet market sells vegetables and fruit. this is obvious to everyone!
5. chinese people really like to set off fireworks.
6. you could show up to church and see a sign out front that says, “no dogs, no chinese” and the foreigners are not the ones who hung the sign.
7. the local iranian restaurant has great spicy wings and shows endless videos of belly dancers followed by a live performance….it’s ummm…interesting.
8. you can pretty much take a picture of ANYTHING and someone can make it (shoes, paintings, dresses, computer wires)…on the spot no problem and very cheap.
9. getting a text message from your boss or co-worker is common place and an acceptible form of business communication.
10. chinese taxi drivers have an excellent ability to comprehend the butchered american version of mandarin!

speaking of mandarin, i thought those of you that bother to read my blog would want to start practicing some words for when you come to visit. mandarin is pronounced the same but can be written with symbols (as you’d expect) or using english letters in something called pinyon. i’ll write the english word, the pinyon spelling and then the phoenetic pronunciation….best of luck to you all!

hello – nihao – knee-how
hey (shanghai-ese)- wei – way
name of a region of shanghai – jinqiao – gin-chow
name of the city – shanghai – shong-high
thank you – xiexie – shi-shi
bucks (like $3 bucks) – cuay – cwy
receipt – fapiao – fa-pee-ow
science and technology museum – ke ji guan – cu gee gwan
metro stop – di tie zhan – dee tee-eh jon
turn right – you guai – yo gwuy
turn left – zuo guai – d-so gwuy
name of my road – bi yun lu – bee yoon loo
name of cross street of my road – bai hua lu – buy hoo-a loo
name of road where work is – ming yue lu – ming you-eh loo