City of Contrasts 2

Rebecca's vpn, the way we bypass China's blocked firewall is down, so i have to resort to emailing my posts to John again. I think that I left off when we were getting reedy to go to the North Korean restaurant. It is fairly near the Chabbad House and Rebecca had been there once before. I guess the young women that work there are sent from N. Korea and things are very strict for them. They are allowed to work and go to their housing, but no internet or tv or interaction with people outside of work. They are all beautiful wearing lovely traditional costumes. The food is delicious. We really guess at what to order, actually I let Rebecca do it as she's been there before. They have a picture menu which is helpful! To start we have something which is a little like a sweet, chilled baked bean salad, a cucumber salad, kim chee (fermented chinese cabbage) and what looks to be a cake, but is actually sweetened, white, mashed potato served chilled. All are very good! Then we have a spicy translucent rice noodle vermicelli noodle/chicken and veggie dish and sauteed beef slices serve with a dipping sauce on the side and lettuce and carrot and cucumber sticks. You make a wrap with the lettuce to eat the meat and veggies with the dipping sauce…or so we guess. It is yummy. As an added bonus, these young women put on a show for the customers at 7:30. It is at once both charming and awkward. They all sing, dance, and play musical instruments, but it's not like being in a dimly lit club. The lights are glaring and it's mostly male customers. These young women are very demure and attentive and as they sing, they travel around the room shaking hands with the customers. We were enthralled, but also it was a bit odd. At the end of the meal, we paid (but something different here, in China they will never ask you if you are ready for your check, they will only bring it when you ask and you can linger for as long as you like.) We split a lovely mocha mouse cake at a pastry shop across the street called La Paleta and have chilled lemon green tea. We return to the apartment and it's so hot that for only the second time, we sleep with the air conditioner on…it is steamy outside.

The nest afternoon we make a pilgrimage to go to the fabric market area, Shanghai's garment district. The area is full of warehouse type buildings with floor after floor of fabrics and samples of clothing from the traditional cheongsam dresses to any manner of western wear. They will copy an item or you can deign it yourself from coats to suits to shirts and dresses to pants and even bedding and tablecloths, in leather or silk or linen or whatever. It is a veritable cloth explosion and a dressmaker's dream. We will come back at another time to avail ourselves of their services. This neighbor hood at 5:00 pm is humming with activity, vendors selling kabobs and stir fry. As I'm famished, we try a sampling of beef and eggplant and mushroom. The kabobs are cut thinly for quick cooking and are done before we know it. We mender in and around the neighborhood taking in the smells, the sights and sounds. At once disconcerting and fascinating is the chicken we see being bled in to the street shortly after his untimely death. Yes, this is a part of their daily lives. We grocery store shoppers think that there must be (as Gary Larson once satirized) boneless chicken farms. As we wind our way through this dark alleyway maze towards the metro stop, we stop in to a tea shop as I have been in search of a special tea thermos like the one that Rebecca brought back with her from her last visit. It is made of stainless steel and until now I have only seen them in glass. I've hit paydirt and we make our purchase before heading home. Once we arrive, I throw together a chef salad of sorts. I am careful to have washed the lettuce that I had purchased in water with a drop of bleach. Eating raw veggies is not done here very often, but I've been craving salad and so we take our chances. While we are eating the landlord barges in yet again. He is really obnoxious and starts to grill Rebecca. She immediately contacts Kevin ( our roommate who is on the lease) and he returns shortly for the tete a tete with the landlord and an interpreter. There are raised voices, but Kevin, I must say makes his argument in a clear thoughtful way never once losing his cool. The outcome is that we will be able to stay through August for a reasonable sum. Ugh…I don't like the drama. We go to see Rebecca's friend Asya later who is packing to go back to the US after more than 2 years. She is Russian born but lives in the US and can speak English, French, Russian and Chinese…perhaps more. Se spend some time there with her friends before going home.

Thursday was an interesting day. Rebecca wakes up very late and we make plans to go to one of Sun Yat Sen's houses, but then I go out by myself because Rebecca has work to do. I have my key, a bit of money and my metro pass in a small wallet which I must have dropped when I was on the subway car. I immediately go to see the metro officials and between my Chinese-English guide, pantomiming, some broken English and Chinese, and the "magic number" assisting us, I explain what has happened. Unfortunately, there is no centralized lost and found, so the chances of getting it back are slim, but despite the inconvenience of it all, it was not a bad experience. The women and men helping me couldn't have been kinder and more helpful. While I lost a little bit , I gained a better appreciation of the place that I am visiting. I manage to buy a new metro pass and go back to the apartment. I have been in contact with Rebecca because I leave her phone number with the officials in case something turns up. I get her keys and head out to make a new apartment key. Unfortunately, the guy who copied the key before i slowed, but I manage to find another hole in the wall with a key sign on the outside an inquire if he can meek the key for me. Again we pantomime and I get my point across showing him the key and saying in Chinese, "one!". he makes the key and charges me 5 RMB, about 85 cents and gets pissed when I pay him in some small coins. I may not understand Chinese, but i always say it's not what you say, it's how you say it…I return to the apartment with a surprising feeling not of frustration for the loss and the inconvenience, but with a feeling that if hard pressed, I can get around. I spend the evening trying to get in touch with Delta about the lost computer and have way less success with them than I had with the Chinese. Rebecca spends the evening with friends and I try to turn in aery, but sleep eludes me until around midnight. It's now about 5:30 and I am caught up with the blog which is good because I will shower and get out of Rebecca's hair. She has work to do on the computer and I think has been frustrated with having me around. As ist is friday morning here, I wish all of you a healthy Shabbat Shalom and will write more soon. Love to all.