Zhongshan Park

Warning: This post will be very picture heavy and may take some time to load! 

The closest metro stop to where I've been staying is called the Zhongshan Park Station. Every day since I've been here, I've walked past this "park". About 100 yards back from the street, there's an entrance gate to go into the actual park part, but I had never really had any need to go back there. Yesterday, however, Ashley and I decided it'd be really fun to pick up a picnic lunch from the City Market (it's an international store--custom salads/sandwiches/pasta, several kinds of homemade soups, gelato, fresh bread, plus all tons of imported food).

Here's a wonky picture I took of the map. Notice the bright pink box that says "You Are Here". Yes, this is a MASSIVE park. We spent about 3 hours wandering around this place, and could definitely go back and spend more time there. It was a beautiful day in an absolutely gorgeous park.

First we walk in, and turn the corner to find this picturesque bridge. Look at that cute Chinese family having a fun boating adventure on the lake.

 

This is the view we enjoyed while feasting on our picnic. 

Mmm doesn't it look delicious? We had custom made sandwiches. I got roasted chicken, lettuce, homemade pickles, and mozzarella cheese on baguette and Ashley had tuna salad and cheddar cheese on ciabatta bread. We split a bowl of pumpkin soup (its wrapped up in this picture--sorry!) and we had some fresh mini baguettes on the side with butter and strawberry jam. For dessert, I had an apple spice cookie and Ashley had a banana coconut cookie.

We even had music to listen to while eating :)

Here's just a few shots of the scenery.

 

They even had a cupcake shop! In the middle of the park! Unfortunately, I didn't get to try one this time, but I did peek at them and they looked delicious. I grabbed a menu, for future reference. 

We did have a few "interesting" moments at the park. First of all, we were pretty much the only foreigners there, so we did feel a bit like zoo animals with all the stares we got. This park actually has like an amusement park area with 15ish rides (I'll get to that in a moment.) As we were walking through that area, an elderly man came running after us. We heard him, and turned around. He just kept saying "Hello, Hello, Hello. Where are you from?" and grinning from ear to ear. A few moments later, a lady who looked like a nurse, came up behind him and grabbed his arm and lead him away... maybe it was a nursing home visit? Not quite sure.

So the amusement rides. It was really dead that day, but they were all open. We decided to ride the "Viking". It's one of those ships that rocks back and forth, but get pretty high. As you can see, we were the only ones on the ride. As soon as it started, a crowd of about 20-30 Chinese people formed at the base of the ride to "watch" us. Of course, we had to put on a good show, so we had our hands up and were screaming the whole time. They loved it.

 

And finally, a picture of the actual "park". Notice the rope in the picture. Apparently, you can only step on the grass in certain areas. And, you have to take your shoes off to do so. Gotta love the Chinese!

Mmmm... yummy?

I love random food postings. My blog is a bit out of order, so if I mention things twice don't mind me, just keep reading. This "food" is from the first full day of on-boarding training during Disney's Traditions class. If you have read anything about China and their love of food, you've probably read about Chinese Banquets. The following meal wasn't a "banquet" but it definitely had a ton of food, and lots of different varieties. I didn't recognize about 50% of it, but luckily some of my new Chinese friends were able to give me the scoop. 

 

This is how lunch started.

Jacqueline and Ashley were super excited to eat! And here is the feast: 

Breakfast Buffet

Maybe this is an odd topic to blog out, but I want to remember and share the whole experience. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately), this includes the hotel breakfast buffet. I should add a side note here that I have only actually eaten down there once (even though it is free for me). I just can't handle all of the wonderful treasures it offers that early in the morning (let's face it--maybe I can't handle them at all).

Let's start with fancy offerings 1 & 2. Oh yes, these delicious delicacies are prepared daily. Notice I didn't use the word "fresh" in the sentence above, I'm still deciding on that part. To the left is a cabbage stew of sorts. Imagine the smell of German sour kraut and a random combination of Chinese spices--that's all included in this wonderful choice. To the right--that's scrambled (and a bit burnt) eggs with tomatoes. I thought the "brown/green" was meat (which may have been scarier), but it was really just overcooked eggs... I didn't know eggs turned that color.

 

This was probably my favorite part of the breakfast buffet (I just wanted to remind everyone it's still breakfast and we haven't moved on to lunch). To the left, little mini corn on the cob bites... just imagine eating that with chopsticks. Try it some day, it could be quite entertaining. To the right, fried dumplings. Usually they have pork in them, and they're pretty good, just not my choice first thing in the morning.

Mmm... tray number 3. To the right is little pieces of sausage cut up. I thought it was like kielbasa sausage, but no luck. I'm not really sure what kind of "sausage" it is, but it had a funny taste to me. Now the right... hard boiled eggs--in black tea. Apparently this is all the rage here in Shanghai, I see these babies sold at all the gas stations throughout the day, and on most street carts. I didn't actually try one because I don't really like black tea, but I hear they are "interesting".

There are a few other offerings at breakfast that I forgot to take pictures of, but just use your imagination. The restaurant serves a variety of dumplings/steamed buns. They're all filled with something different, and I'm never quite sure what will be inside. One had some eggy stuff, another had sweet red bean paste, and one didn't have anything.

Some mornings we are really lucky and they have yogurt, toast and jam. They also serve a few drinks, all warm... like orange juice. I think it is really like tang or Hi-C, but scalding hot. And of course tea. And hot water.

That's about it for breakfast time :) I hope you're hungry now!

Jing'An Temple

So I ride the metro pretty much everyday. And no matter when I go, it's always packed. By packed, I mean like sardines. There's literally no space to move. If you're lucky, you don't get trapped in the door as it is beeping loudly to warn you you're about to be smashed. Some of us aren't that lucky.

That's not the point. The point is, I'm nearest to the Zhongshan Park stop. Two stops away is the Jing'An Temple stop. Every day, I hear it announced as I continue on my journey to where ever I'm headed. So this weekend, Ashley and I decided to actually stop there and have a look around. Lucky for us, we actually headed out the right exit of the metro station, so we weren't wandering for hours (not really an exaggeration) looking for something that should be right in front of us. Oh yeah, we did actually have a map this go round, and we did actually use it. Go figure.

I don't really know much about this temple, besides it is a Buddist temple. It was just very ornate and very "Chinese". You know, what you think China should be like. So here you go. Here's your free look inside the Jing'An Temple (I already paid the 30 kuai cover charge, so you're good to go!) ;)

 

I really like the juxtaposition of the ancient temple surrounded by shiny, new high rises.  You can only see one high rise in this picture, but I can assure you they are all around the temple. 

 I think that is a lion because of the mane... maybe not? 

No idea what that says, just thought it was very Chinese.

 More lion heads on a pole. They had these gold lion poles in all four corners of the temple grounds. 

 The temple grounds had a wonderful incense smell. When you walked in, there was a little card with bundles of the incense sticks and you are supposed to take 2 and light them in the fire pit (the black thing behind the Chinese guy). Then, the Chinese stood in front of the main temple and bowed a few times with the lighted incense.

Here's Ashley with the main temple. 

I'm not sure what to call this either, but I'll describe its purpose. I think it is like a wishing well of sorts. There were people standing all around it throwing coins. They were trying to get the coins to go into those little window-like openings near the top. It was quite entertaining to watch, since most of the coins just bounced back on the ground.

Each wall around the temple had some sort of unique, intricate wood carving. Below are the highlights of the temple: all of the various Budda statues. In front of the statues were prayer cushions and an alter with fruit and flowers. It was very pretty and ornate to see this.

 

 

Pudong!

So this is kinda late coming. The first weekend Ashley and I were here we trekked over to Pudong. For those of you not familiar with Shanghai, Pudong is the "new" and futuristic side of the city. Less than 20 years ago it was apparently farmland and swamps, but now it is the uber-cool space age part of Shanghai with some of the tallest buildings in the world. Sorry my pictures don't reflect that, Ashley and I were lost for quite some time before we actually found this area, so I was tired and didn't take many shots.

This building is awesome. I really want to go up on the observation deck sometime, but it was really crowded the day we were there so we decided to pass. This is the Oriental Pearl Tower. Unfortunately these pictures do no justice to the shear size of the building. It is massive. This was actually the tallest building in the world until 2007, when the Shanghai Financial Center was built nearby.

 

I think this picture gives a little better detail about the massiveness. You can see in between the red diamond area a line of windows. That's one of the observation decks. I think its about $20 to go up there, depending on how far up you actually go.

This is a picture of some of the buildings in the other direction. See, they're so tall I cut off the tops ;) 

There is a giant, circular walking deck above the freeway. You can see it in the background of this picture. There's a very busy intersection below with the roundabout, and as a pedestrian you have to climb up a million (I counted) stairs to get to the pedestrian walkway. I just thought the landscaping was cool. Here's a better view:

See? Roundabout, Giant buildings. That's Pudong. Google it for better pictures ;) Also in Pudong was this gem:

An Apple Store... completely underground! Keeping with Pudong tradition, it is also massive. It's probably 7x larger than most Apple stores. I read online that the store houses over 300 employees, just to give you an idea. And there was around 2000 people in the store, if I had to guess. It was basically wall-to-wall people. I guess there's not a recession in China?

Last but not least is this beauty:

Look closely and you'll see why I took this picture. The castle on the front. Not sure what's in this building, I just liked the castle. And it lights up :)

Exploring the French Concession...and Mexican food

This weekend was much much better than last weekend. Ashley and I were determined to explore Shanghai. Last weekend we were perpetually lost, wandering around trying to find these supposedly "hard to miss" tourist sights. This weekend, we actually found one with no trouble at all.

Score for the team :)

So we learned that when we're looking for places, it is probably useful to bring an English map. And actually use it. Once we did that, no troubles at all. It was actually a bit chilly today which is a nice change from the sweaty/sticky hot weather we've had all week. I should have brought a jacket and umbrella... but I didn't. Anyway.

We got off the metro and actually came out at the right exit to the beautiful French Concession. We could have very easily been anywhere in the world at that moment, it definitely didn't look like anywhere else we'd seen in Shanghai. The street was lined with trees just like the Champs Elysees in Paris. We found a cute little French bakery and split a gorgeous cream puff and cheesy croissant.  Since there was no place to eat and it was raining outside, we ducked into a little Italian coffee shop and enjoyed a drink while munching on our pastries. Delicious. Seriously though, just like in France. And it was only 16 kuai for both. That's right folks, under $3. Our drinks at the coffee shop cost about triple that. (we discovered later that night that the same little bakery is actually a chain, and there's one in the super mega huge mall near our metro stop--score!)

We wandered around, looking into cute little shops along the road. Then we turned and went up a different little road, with more little shops. It was quite entertaining. The area had lots of exclusive shops, like Mont Blanc. But it also had lots of shops like H&M, Mango, and C&A that I recognized from Europe.

I had read on a blog a few days ago that there was a Mexican restaurant in the area. I know, I've only been here a little over a week but that's not the point. The point is there was Mexican food nearby, and I was going to find it. Shanghai has tons and tons of restaurants, and basically every type of American fast food you can think of, just not any Mexican. So it was an exciting moment. We did find the place (El Gato Verde). It was super tiny, only 4 chairs downstairs, and it had a little upstairs with about 12 chairs. They only had three main dishes that were Mexican--quesadilla, enchilada and burrito. Then the standard rice and beans, salsa, guacamole, chips (for a fee--we didn't get any). They also had some Asian fare, but I was too enthralled by the Mexican to even see what they offered.

I took the above picture from the furthest corner of the restaurant, just to give you an idea of the size.

I got beef quesadillas and they were quite nice. They were actually a bit spicy, even for me. But they did have that yummy Mexican taste. I'll definitely be going back there... and luckily, it wasn't outrageously expensive--45 kuai for the meal. That's about $7. Granted that's the most I've spent on any one meal yet, but still not horrible.

All in all, it was a successful day.

Disney, Demos, and Dancing?

This week has been a complete whirlwind. I didn't catch much of a break to recover from jetlag, and I have been going strong all week. This past week I started my onboarding and training program with Disney. Monday we had Traditions. Anyone who has worked for Disney before will know what I'm talking about. It's an all-day class where you learn about the Walt Disney Company (did you know they own ESPN, Miramax, Pixar, and the History Channel to name a few?) I also learned how to draw Mickey Mouse :) it's a fringe benefit... gotta love the perks. And I found out that I do get most of the standard perks for Disney (read: free parking entrance 12x per year for myself and 3 guests!! and some extra comp tickets for when I go back home... just so you know, I will have visited every Disney theme park in the world by the end of this. That's right, all 5! Check that off the bucket list :) Tuesday I had academic training. I spent the day learning all about child psychology, their ability to acquire new languages  and learning methods and theories. It was intense. I'm pretty sure that's like a 4 year curriculum at most places, right Kayle? I will be TEFL certified in a couple of weeks, I guess that's a big deal.

Tuesday I had my medical check. China is intense in general just to come to the country. To stay, you have to have a medical check done here. Not a physical, but an entire check. Basically you are corralled through several rooms. You get an ECG, ultrasound, blood tested, x-rayed and other fun exams performed. Then you pay them and wait a week to get results. Then you're able to apply for a residents permit to legally live here. You have only 30 days to get this completed. I'm waiting for the "okay" or I might be seeing Texas again soon ;)

Wednesday-Friday I learned all about the Disney teaching methods and the cool technology that we'll have available. I had to present a portion of my "demo" to about 30 people, then I did an entire demo in front of about 10 people and had a critique. Overall it went well for my first time. I did really well with my "energy" and "use of technology" but apparently I didn't do so hot with "classroom management"... maybe because it was in front of adults who didn't need to be managed? Just a guess :)

Disney does have some pretty sweet technology available for us. Each room is themed to a Disney movie--the pictures the other day were from Finding Nemo. Each room has an interactive white board (IWB) and project wall. The IWB interacts with the projection wall which makes it really fun for the kids because they can touch an image on the IWB and it will jump to the projection wall. The IWB is a smart whiteboard where you can write on any screen then just tap to erase it. If you pick up the "marker" a light comes on signaling the board that you're holding a particular color. Then you can write with the marker like you would a pen, or you can just touch with your finger and the color will appear. Disney likes us to pretend that the kids have a "magic finger" and we'll "color" on their finger then let them write on the board.

I also have 2 microphones in each room and can record the kid's speaking English for their parents. They also like to hear their voices. It's some really cute stuff. Each lesson has a hello and goodbye song, and lots of little activities/songs/games throughout featuring Disney characters.

Friday I was also able to observe other trainers and their classes. That was really the first time I saw the kids interact with the trainer, and it was interesting to see everything in play like that.

Wednesday night Ashley and I decided to go for an evening stroll so we wouldn't fall asleep at 7 PM, so we wandered through the streets of Shanghai. We stumbled across the most interesting thing--a group of about 20 couples dancing ballroom style in a little area in front of a hotel. It was mainly older couples. One of the ladies saw us watching from the sidelines and was trying to pawn off her husband on us so we could dance too. At least I think that's what was happening. I can never be too sure around here. 

I have pictures I want to upload, but they still take forever, so until I can get to a Starbucks or something I'll just write :)

There's a Church over there?

Why, yes there is. Funny you should ask. For those of you on Facebook, you've already seen the picture of where we meet, but I'll tell you a bit more about it now. There's actually two branches in Shanghai. The branch I went to had around 150 people I'd guess. It was the Sunday for the Primary program and I counted 45 kids. The size really surprised me because in France we were lucky to have 70 (on a really good day!).

Apparently this ward has different families host the young singles, and I was invited over to someone's house for dinner. They lived within walking distance, so Ashley and I decided to go. Never pass up a home-cooked meal, especially when they promise pumpkin pie :) So we went, got lost on the way as usual. There were about 15 people at dinner from around the globe--Australia, UK, Belgium, Sri Lanka, just to name a few. The host made us pasta and creamy tomato sauce or pesto and garlic bread. Now most of you probably don't consider that a great meal, but when you've been eating unknown foods for a few days it was a nice change.

One of the singles brought his kitten with him, it was a little black cat. It had a Chinese name that I can't remember or spell. The family had two little boys (2 and 4) and they loved having the cat there to play.

All in all it was a really nice night. Makes me kind of sad that I'm only in the area for a few weeks.

The Underground World

Here's the Shanghai metro map. I'm at the stop with the ice cream cone. I thought it was cute to denote where I'm located. That stop is about a 15 minute walk, in case you were wondering. An ride on the metro is either 3 or 4 yuan, which is 50-60 cents each way. No matter how many transfers, it's still the same. 

Line 2/Green line seems to be the line of choice. Luckily it is in both Chinese and English. :)

This picture was taken around 8 PM, which in my book is definitely not during rush hour. It is a whole new world underground. I guess I'm just not used to the metro system!