Lucky Draw!

This Saturday I was heading to a party at a friend's place. Since he lives about 15 subway stops away (don't worry, I brought a book) I really didn't feel like carrying some snacks and drinks for the party on such a long trip. I asked him if there was a good convenience store near him where I could pick up some stuff. He suggested the 7-11 in the subway stop I would be getting out at. I got there and grabbed a few things and went up to pay. After I paid, they told me to pick 7 of these scratch ticket things. This kind of small lottery is pretty popular in China. Some receipts have a little scratch off area where you can win small amounts of money or prizes. Apparently the government started the program to get people to ask for their receipts more often.

ANYWAY. I was in a little bit of a rush because I thought i was going to be late (I was the first one there...I think I might be obsessed with being on time), so I just went to put the cards in my pocket to look at later. The girl behind the counter looked at in exasperation and told me I needed to scratch the tickets off right then and there. So I moved my stuff to the side and scratched off the cards as fast as I could. Six of them were all the same message and although I didn't understand it, I assumed it was the equivalent of "Thanks for playing, try again". One was different, so I handed it to the cashier. She got REALLY excited.

I won two tickets to the Shanghai Expo. I can't even remember if I have mentioned the Expo in my blog. It's kind of a huge deal and most of the people here (at least the expats I have been talking to) are pretty sick of hearing about it. I personally find Haibao (the Expo mascot that looks like Gumby's shorter, bluer and more annoying cousin) the worst part. He is EVERYWHERE. I will admit thought that the Expo actually does sound pretty cool the more I hear about it and I figured it's kind of essential that I go before I leave China. The cheapest ticket that I have seen is about 160RMB for a one day pass, so even if that's what I won, it's a value of over 300RMB, which is pretty cool. Apparently the 7-11 workers thought it was a big deal. They took a picture of me and took my name down. I'm assuming it's to hang up my picture and say I won there (like they do with the lottery back in the US). EIther that or they thought I was just so darn pretty.

So now I get to go to the Expo. And for free too!

By The Numbers

This weekend I went on a trip with some coworkers to Wuzhen. Here are some statistics about my trip.

1: The number of new cities I visited this weekend. (Wuzhen)

2: The number of new animals I ate this weekend: turtle (I felt a little guilty about eating one of my favorite animals but it was good) and sparrow (TINY but pretty tasty).

3: The number of boat rides we took on canals through Wuzhen.

4: The number of containers of tea I brought back. One was a free gift. The other three were part of a special deal for babaocha (one of my favorite teas), how could I resist?

5: The number of books in the Chinese comic set I bought about the Monkey King. I figured it would be a fun way to practice Chinese.

6: I can't think of anything for six so I will just use this place to say I bought the area's specialty: rice wine. It came in a bamboo container. I have yet to try it,

7: The floor of the hotel we stayed in. I shared a room with my boss, Luo.

8: The number of chapters I read during the trip in the book I am reading, "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson. I think everyone should read this book. I am enjoying it immensely.

9x10: The amount in RMB I paid for a hand carved driftwood statue with a Buddha face.

11: The approximate amount of weeks I have before I move back to America.  I told Pinghe that I will not be coming back for a third year. I may have cried. They told me I was always welcome here and that they hoped I would come back. I may have cried again. Now I just need to find a job back in America...

An Awesome Weekend

I had a very full weekend, mostly concentrated around Saturday night.

I don't think I mentioned it in my blog but I was asked to perform as an old hollywood actress for the American Chamber of Commerce Hollywood Lights Gala charity event. I decided to be Mae West. I put a lot of effort in preparing for my role. I had a dress made, bought accessories to match (including a wig), memorized some of her famous one-liners, etc. Friday night was some last minute planning for the role. I read up a little more about her life, watched some videos so I could get my voice to sound like hers, put the whole outfit on to check to make sure it was all set, and did my nails.

Saturday I had brunch with Sarah and then we went on a hunt for some lipstick that would be the right color and wouldn't cost me a million dollars. Then Sarah was very patient and super helpful and did my makeup and helped me get on my wig (even with my new short haircut I have a LOT of hair to tuck away). I even wore false eyelashes for the first time. I really liked them. :-) Then I grabbed a cab and headed to the Shangri-la for the event, threw on my dress and made my entrance.

There were two other actors for the night and I was surprised to find I knew them both already. There is a surprisingly small community in Shanghai when it comes to foreign performers. Serious case of 6-degrees of seperation. The other girl was being Marylin Monroe and the guy was playing an old timey director (John Huston?). I was a little disapointed because hardly anyone knew who Mae West was (although the few times I was "recognized" was a LOT of fun) and I was trying to stay true to character so I couldn't really go around all bubbly like Marylin Monroe. I still enjoyed throwing out a few one-liners and throwing smoldering glances at everyone I saw. Although I wasn't wearing my glasses, so I might have been throwing smoldering glances at flower pots, walls, or the backs of people's heads.

After that was done with I had to get out of costume really quick and head to Sound Blue for an improv performance. As soon as I got there I had to de-wig, pull off my fake eyelashes (OW) and wipe off all my makeup. We warmed up and then had our performance. We played a few new games including Questions Only and Props. A few people from work came, and I was also able to see Lucy for the first time since the beginning of February. The show went really well. The place was pretty full and we got tons of laughs. I had a lot of people I didn't know coming up to me after the show to say I was really good. Yay! This time the director also mentioned that we do this for free and put out a tip jar. My cut of the tips was enough to pay for the taxi home, which was nice.

Also on Saturday I got a text comfirmation from Elizabeth that our tickets are booked for our trip to Hanoi. The holiday ended up being for 5 days instead of just a long weekend like I thought it was going to be, so I am very excited for the extra time in Vietnam. Elizabeth has been there before so she already knows a good hotel to stay at and some good places to go. This will be the fifth country I've ever been to (America, Canada, China, Japan....VIETNAM!). I can't wait. We leave on the 30th of April.

The last bit of news really isn't mine to tell. A good friend of mine got engaged and asked me to be a bridesmaid! It's the first time I have ever been asked and both her and her fiance are good friends of mine so I am really excited. I won't put their names here, though, on the off chance that someone who knows them reads my blog before they get a chance to spread the news themselves. EEEE!

I suppose that's all my biggest news for now. Next week is midterms. I can't believe the semester is almost half done already. The seniors are taking their IB exams in three weeks. Wowza.Actually, I have a "mid-term" myself this week. We are at about the middle of my Chinese classes and we are halfway through our new textbook so our teacher is giving us a bit of a midterm this week. I haven't had a midterm in about two years!

Well, gotta prepare for classes. Leave comments to say how good I look as Mae West.

Much love,
Stephanie

HAIRCUT HAIRCUT

I continue to be horrible at updating. I know. But something happened this weekend where an update seemed kind of necessary. I cut off about 10 inches of hair.

My before picture kind of sucks in that it was taken about 3 months ago. I thought about taking a before picture right before I cut it but I figured I would be able to find at least ONE clear picture of my long hair from recently. Oh well.

I got tired of it being so long and the summer is coming so I figured I might as well chop it all off. When the time came for the cutting I was a bit frazzled so I completely forgot about gathering it up in a ponytail to donate it to Locks of Love. Oh well. Next time! My friend Elizabeth (the one from improv) was the one who did the honors and I think for no real training she gave me a pretty nice 'do. Liz cut my hair out on my balcony. I felt very Chinese getting my haircut outside. At first she was cutting off chunks and throwing it all over the edge of the balcony. After we watched it wildly blowing in the breeze we figured it was best to throw the rest away inside.

The comments on it have been mixed but positive. Walking into class for the first time after having it cut lead to a very fun reaction of "Woooooh!" and applause from the students. Most people say I look a lot younger. I look younger to myself as well since this is what my hair looked like when I was a freshman in college.

One interesting reaction was that a few people asked me if I was in love. I asked a coworker about it and I guess it's a saying or something that if a woman cuts her hair (at least as severe as a haircut as I had) it means there is some big change in her life. For the record, I am not in love. Just wanted a hair cut.

On a related note, as I was walking back to my apartment the day after the haircut and was surprised to find a dead rat by the side of the path on the school's campus. As I got closer, though, I realized it was not a dead rat but my own hair. Nice.

Anyway, what do you think?

Much love,
Stephanie

Bye Google

Crap crap crap.

Google has been talking for a long time about leaving China. Apparently there were censorship issues and other disagreements with the Chinese government. We all heard about it back in January but nothing had happened since. Until this morning.

Goodbye Google.com.cn. When I try to go to Google.com or use my toolbar google search I get automatically switched to Google Hong Kong. Weird.

Right now I can still get into my Gmail account and I can search in English using Google HK, but I am going to be up a certain creek without my paddle if China decides to block Google entirely. Not only do I use Google at least 10 times a day, that's where my e-mail account is. ARGH.

*grumble grumble*
Stephanie

Pay For The Funny!

I am pretty sure I mentioned before that I've been spending time with Zuloo Smack, an improv group (apparently the ONLY improv group) in Shanghai. I've been going to their weekly labs when I was available and have been in a total of three performances so far. The first two were at Bali Bistro and one, this Saturday, was at Sound Blue.

I did improv all four years in college and I was really excited to find an improv group here. I had done performances at Drew for mixed audiences in terms of size and reception. I still say the best show that I was in was the one we did as an opening act for a Thursday night comedy group in the Space (a hangout on campus). The two Bali Bistro performances had it's ups and downs. Two serious downsides were that the stage was TINY. I mean like the size of a large elevator. Try acting in that kind of space. The other downside was that the people there really didn't come to see improv but to eat, so it kind of felt like we were interrupting.

Saturday's show was the first time that I have performed in an improv show that people paid to see and it felt really good. The American Women's Club was doing a charity and we were the entertainment. The Sound Blue stage is a little bigger so we had more freedom and the people coming CAME to see improv. It was so cool.

I think one of my favorite parts of the night was the game Genres, where we act out a normal scene, then do it 2-3 more times in different movie styles. For example, the scene we did Saturday we did again as a chick flick, a western and a musical. I was in the scene with Matthew and Christoper. I've done scenes before where we have to sing, but this was the first time EVER we had someone actually playing the piano that we had to sing along with (think Whose Line Is It Anyway). I don't know if the fact that there would be a piano player for that scene was mentioned during a rehearsal and I just wasn't paying attention or what, but that was a HUGE surprise for me standing up there on stage when the music started. It went really well though, and someone from the audience later told me I had a lovely singing voice! :-)

It was a lot of fun doing improv for an audience that came specifically to see us. It was really cool to get a lot of compliments from people watching after the show. I love performing in front of people. It's a nice rush.

Afterwards, the actors all went to a bar called Bell and hung out a little while longer. It's a fun group of people. Especially Elizabeth! I'm hoping that she and I will go to Hanoi during a long weekend I have the first weekend in May. We'll see!

Much Love.
Teh Sprof

Nice Guy Taxis

I've had my bad luck with taxis in China. Especially in Shanghai. I've had taxis that have purposely tried to rip me off. I've had to deal with such things as them messing with the meter, taking the longest way possible to get to my destination, getting "lost" or even saying they had no change when I tried to pay with a larger bill.

I've learned to deal with it. Usually with preventative measures. I always repeat where I want to go at least twice to make sure we are both clear. I bring a map so that I can point out exactly where I want to go. I will say in Chinese which characters the street names are or by which route I want them to take me. I always pay attention when they are driving and if I know they are going the wrong way I make a stink. I've gotten the fare reduced a few times because I know they were doing something wrong. Still, on occasion, I know I've been ripped off and there wasn't really anything I could do about it.

With that mindset, yesterday was a really nice change. TWICE yesterday I was taking a taxi and before we arrived at my destination they lifted up the meter so that I got a reduced price. The only time a driver has EVER done that for me before was because I demanded they did since they had taken the long way around. Both times yesterday when I asked why they did it the drivers said they did it because they had gotten a little lost. I had been paying attention and both drivers went maybe the TINIEST BIT out of the way. Nothing I would bother complaining about usually. Instead they both realized what had happened and just made sure I got the real price. I was shocked the first time it happened and beside myself when it happened the very next time I took a taxi.

It's a nice change to have taken a ride with an honest and kind taxi driver.

-Stephanie