Sunday in the Park

As the title suggests, Sunday in the park is a big day...families are out in force...actually everyone is out in force. Rebecca is intent on going back to Lu Xun park because she is hoping to show me the groups that congregate to sing Cultural Revolution patriotic songs. So we grab breakfast and that's a whole story in itself... my tummy is a little funny and I just want some normal basic fare, so I ask Rebecca if we can just go to Macdonald's for an egg sandwich...I really want to eat something kind of plain. Needless to say, she gives me all sorts of grief for this and in the end we go someplace else where I get a egg salad sandwich that is not bad at all. Even I couldn't believe that I wanted to eat that but that's what I was hankering for.
We head over to the park this time on the metro and plan to meet a friend of Rebecca's from Chabbad there. We arrive at the park and immediately Rebecca hears the music and leads me to it. About a hundred and fifty or more people are congregated in a circle around a woman who is leading them in rousing songs. They are accompanied by an urhu, an accordion, a violin and a trumpet. It's a kind of sing along that anyone can join in and it's this wonderful spontaneous concert. Some have songbooks, and they all seem to know their parts, but clearly this is not choir practice. It's a come as you can sing along and they are really quite impressive. Rebecca's friend Ayelet arrives and finds us. She is as entranced with this "concert" as we are. She's a Chinese major at Penn and in a short time we have many locals surrounding us trying to chat with us about where we are from and what we are doing here. They are as interested in us as we are of them. We spend quite some time listening and chatting before moving on to explore the rest of the park. Ayelet buys a flute made from a gourd which is quite interesting played more similarly to a recorder and then we wind our way to the badminton courts to watch the matches. We head in the direction of the museum and find an artist selling watercolors painted on thin wispy rice paper. They have some lovely scenes and Rebecca inquires about the prices. While she prepares to bargain a young diminutive Chinese woman approaches us to ask if we require an assistance. Rebecca tells her that she's okay, but the girl jumps in anyway and gets all of the paintings for a mere song. When the girls express their guilt at paying such a low price, this young woman says that this man does this just for a hobby and it's okay. Turns out she is 19 and an English major and is in Shanghai to sightsee with some other students who are shopping. We ask her to join us for the afternoon and she obliges providing an opportunity to experience some cross cultural exchange. Her English name is Nara and she desires to travel when she is done with university. She is from the north, 30 hours by train, but I'm guessing it was a local train making many stops instead of a high speed one. We go again to Lu Xun museum and then invite her to lunch to thank her for helping to get the paintings. She seems pleased to hang out with us and we find a restaurant to accommodate us. Ayelet is a vegetarian while in China as she keeps kosher, so that is sometimes challenging, but the place we pick has a dish with rice and steamed veggies and a fried egg on top, so it's perfect. We chat away and surmise that the girls that she has traveled with are wealthier than she and that they had spent the equivalent of $200.00 on shopping the day before. She explains that she does not think that they should spend their parent's money so easily. She is quite shy and demure, but I tell her that she is quite brave to have some so far away from home on her own (since this is her first trip away from home) and to approach strangers like us as well. We plan to meet some other friends of Rebeccas and go to Shanghai's version of SOHO to check out their art scene and so we ask her to tag along there as well. It is really hot this afternoon and my feet are tired, but we walk and walk and walk. The gallery neighborhood is very hip and chic and the galleries are much like in New York...converted lofts filled with interesting pieces of all sorts. I'm really too tired to appreciate them today and feel like I must come back another time to really give them justice. We depart and walk to the subway and Rebecca notices that many of the outside walls of these lofts are covered with graffiti, something that is rarely seen in China. It is pretty cool stuff and it's pretty apparent that Nara has not seen it as well because she takes plenty photos of the different scenes. We part ways with her as she is going to head back to meet her friends, and we head back to the apartment. While I'm exhausted when we arrive, I cannot seem to nap, so I head to the market to buy stuff to make soup. My stomach is in the mood for Western fare still and I pick up the ingredients for a big pot of beef stew. It turns out pretty well and it's just what the doctor ordered. Later I go with Rebecca to wish her friend Ciara goodbye. She's off to Beijing and then home to Ireland. I say a quick goodbye and Rebecca stays. I'm going home to bed...T-I-R-E-D! As I drift off i am thinking of Arty and wondering if he made it back...got my fingers and toes crossed.