Madison in Shanghai

We saw this restaurant while out to brunch yesterday. I'm not sure if it specializes in anything beer, cheese, or cherry-related, but it was a nice touch of home anyway.

World Expo

After much anticipation, we finally made it to the World Expo yesterday. A modern day World's Fair, it is being held in Shanghai for six months, from May - October. The theme is "Better City, Better Life" and the focus is on sustainable urban living. More than 190 countries are represented - many in individual pavilions and some in shared buildings (i.e., the Africa Pavilion, the Caribbean Pavilion, and the Central and South America Pavilion.) Over 70 million visitors are expected during the Expo's run and the entire city has had a major overhaul to accommodate them.

 

We weren't sure what exactly to expect, given all of the hype we've been hearing since getting here last summer. However, it easily lived up to all of it and made for an incredible day. We walked through all of the country sections (grouped loosely by continent) and along the Huangpu River, where they've turned old industrial buildings into arts and exhibition centers and the banks of the river into beautiful gardens (see the middle picture above.)

The crown jewel of the Expo is the China Pavilion (the red structure behind Jeff in the top picture), but many other buildings wowed us as well. In the picture with Jeff, you can also see the Israel Pavilion, which is meant to represent waves crashing against sand. The bottom picture is Russia's pavilion. Other amazing buildings included the UK's, which looks like it was modeled after a porcupine; Spain's, which is made of giant baskets; the Netherlands, a Seuss-like maze of houses called "Happy Street", Denmark's, which had a spiraling bike track; and, South Korea's, which was a giant geometric configuration of cut-out shapes. Most of the bigger buildings had wait times of several hours just to get inside, so we were only able to get into Lithuania, Canada (styled by Cirque de Soleil), and Columbia, as well as the Africa and Caribbean buildings. We're planning on going back, though, before we leave, so will try to get inside some of the others (including Japan's, which is supposed to have the world's fanciest toilet.)

 

More pictures here: http://hsinchina.shutterfly.com/5223.

Mastering Gatsby

Today was the last day of our second-to-last unit. For this unit, I had my ninth grade class dive into The Great Gatsby. It was one of the most challenging things that we've read all year, especially so given so much of the cultural context that needs to be understood for it. They went from telling me that "it's too hard" to writing incredibly thoughtful, eloquent essays on who was ultimately responsible for Gatsby's death. I'm so proud that I wanted to share a couple samples from their work. The first is a sample of my student Aruha's depiction of the story as a graphic novel. The second is my student Ye Chan's attempt at diagramming the convoluted relationships between the characters. Not bad!

 

Monday, we'll start our eighth, and last, unit of the year!

EA Diamond League Meet

Thanks to some tickets from our boss, Jeff and I were able to attend a world-class track and field meet last night. It was the East Asia (EA) Diamond League Meet, featuring a wide variety of events. We were seated in the 3rd row, with a perfect view of the steeplechase, the pole vault (where Australian Steven Hooker, the 2009 World Champion, was competing) and near the start of the 200m, where we got to see Usain Bolt blow away his competition. Other highlights included seeing Americans Jeremy Warner win the 400m, Carmelita Jeter win the women's 100m, and  David Oliver beat Chinese favorite Liu Xiang in the 110m hurdles. All in all, it was pretty amazing. Our seats were so good that every time an athlete came around for a victory lap, we were able to yell their name and get a wave. Oliver was especially friendly.

The pictures are of the two of us at the stadium, Usain Bolt after winning the 200m, and one of many sets of "Bolt Arms" in our section. More pictures here: http://hsinchina.shutterfly.com/5124.

Glasses Market

Yesterday, we went with a few friends to Shanghai's glasses market, a multi-story maze of glasses vendors. There are literally hundreds of stores and as we walked by each, salespeople would call out to us asking us to take a look at their store. Bargaining is expected and it's possible to get a new pair of glasses (frames and lenses) for as little as $20. Despite it being a little overwhelming, we had a very successful trip. Jeff got this pair of prescription sunglasses and a new pair of "regular" glasses. They were able to copy his prescription perfectly from his current pair. More proof that anything is possible in China...

Noodle Bowls

This dish takes comfort food to a whole new level. Brothy noodle soups are easily found in local restaurants and are a daily option in our cafeteria. They usually consist of noodles served with hot broth and a variety of topics (meats, veggies, bean curd) topped with vinegar and spices for flavor. This particular bowl was one I ordered at a Japanese noodle chain that we frequent. It comes with carrots, mushrooms, scallions, corn, and cabbage. It's meant to be eaten with chopsticks and this giant spoon for catching broth.

Expo Fireworks

A couple of weeks ago, I was out to dinner in a restaurant with a great view and was able to capture these pictures of some of the fireworks that we being shot off over the Expo grounds (which spans both sides of the river.) The Expo has now been open for a little over two weeks. We've yet to go, but it's been fun to see how nice the city looks lately!

Congrats, Cait!

One of my good friends here is getting married in July so a group of us organized some bachelorette festivities to help her celebrate. These included some spa time, mimosa's, a pot-luck, games, gifts, and a marathon pub crawl with a list of things for her to accomplish. This picture is from the first bar we visited. Meanwhile, Jeff was out with her fiance and some other guys doing, among other things, some karaoke. We all met up eventually and made it home just as the sun was starting to come up. (The first time we've managed that here - I'd thought we were getting too old for so much fun!)

Jeff and I have both been able to make some great friends here - one more thing we'll cherish about this year. It'll be fun to keep up with them once we head to different corners of the world.

Hangzhou Tea Fields

On one of Beth's last days in China, we took a day trip to Hangzhou. This was our fourth time there, so Jeff and I were able to show her around some of our favorite areas. Those, of course, include West Lake, but also the National Tea Musuem. The above are a couple of pictures that we took while roaming through the tea fields. The area is famous for green tea and, beyond being beautiful, it smelled wonderful to walk among the plants.

 

More pictures here: http://hsinchina.shutterfly.com/5057.

Beijing Photos: Part III

Our last day in Beijing was another full one. We started with our (by then routine) street food breakfast. The top picture above shows some of the treats available. More pictures of the neighborhood are in the photo album.

After loading up, we headed to the Summer Palace, where emperors went to relax. The Palace is famous for having been enlarged in the late 1800's by the Empress Dowager Cixi. Reportedly, she diverted money from the struggling navy for this project, which resulted in China loosing ground to Japan. Evidence of her extravagance is best found in the marble "boat" that sits on the shores of the lake (pictures of this in the album, too.) The Palace is beautiful - ornately built and huge, spreading over lake shores and lush gardens. However, the day that we visited also happened to be a national holiday and it felt like all of China came to join us. For fun, we took a rickshaw ride the few hundred meters from the subway to the Palace and then spent a few hours shuffling along with the crowds to see the sites. (Can you spot Jeff among the crowd in the second picture above?)

From there, we went to the Temple of Heaven, on the other side of the city, where we found a lot more open space and relaxation. The Temple is surrounded by beautiful gardens and park space, which was full of people singing, dancing, and enjoying the beautiful weather. The Temple was also built for the emperors and has a very similar style to the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace. The flowers were in full bloom while we were there - see the last picture above.

We finished the day with some fake market shopping and then a picnic in our hostel courtyard. More pictures here: http://hsinchina.shutterfly.com/4979.