Finding the real Shanghai...

So in the last few days, I have felt less and less like I am in a Western city and more and more like I am actually in China. I think this is due to the fact that we keep exploring in the more local areas...the streets off of the main road. 

Friday night, my roommate, the Taiwanese girl and the Japanese girl who lives on our floor decided to cook a huge meal for all of us. They told us it would just be like rice and veggies and maybe some chicken, but it soon became clear that there was much more than that. We had rice, kale, something like potato salad with sausage, scrambled eggs with onion and green pepper, chicken with onions and each a cup of miso soup with tofu and some kind of Chinese vegetable in it. By the time we were done, Joanna and I thought we might actually explode. They actually let us help wash the dishes, and just as we were about to go back to our own business the Japanese girl brings this beautiful tea set into the room and starts serving coffee! And all they wanted in exchange for all of the work was for us to cook spaghetti for them sometime this week....that should be both entertaining and hilarious. There will be pictures. 

It is funny, though, how culture has so much to do with food. I feel involved in the Chinese culture when I'm ordering a special food that you can only get here or walking down a market side street like last night. I wish I had had my camera with me last night. We turned off of Fuxing Road and ended up in this tiny street with vendors on both sides. One guy was yelling at us to come look at his stuff, so we did. He had an assortment of live water creatures, i.e. fish, crabs, shrimp (yes live shrimp) and some other things I did not recognize. Other stalls were selling fruits or vegetables and I'm pretty sure most of the people were speaking Shanghainese (the crazy Shanghai dialect that Mandarin/English speakers cannot understand). 

Later, as we were wandering, we ran into the guy who runs this amazing barbeque stand at night. He has an assortment of meats and vegetables on skewers and you just pick out what you want, hand them to him and he grills them for you! It is super cheap, delicious and an all around good thing. The first time we tried this, he was very low on meat products, in fact I got the last of whatever it was...when we went back last night, Joanna informed me that she had ordered me chicken hearts last time. Thanks Joanna. Actually they weren't that bad, but it was kind of weird to think that I literally ate a stick of chicken hearts. Anyway...he actually had chicken breast this time with a delicious spicy glaze and cauliflower and asparagus and mushrooms (Joanna ate the mushrooms....I still don't like them).

Pick your poison.

Heat up the grill.

Grill delicious snacks.

Wait for delicious snacks.

ENJOY!

Seriously...these are like the best things ever invented. I love it. And it's super cheap. We got eight sticks for roughly $1.50 which is crazy! The only other bit of news to pass on is that we finally saw the first cockroach in the building last night. It's not like we expected that there wouldn't be any cockroaches, we just hoped against hope that we didn't have them. But there was definitely one scuttling around the common area last night. Ew. Guess I will have to thank Mun more profusely for picking up after me (she has to be one of the sweetest people I have ever met!).

Anyway...I'm sure I will have a lot more to say over the week as we will actually have time to do some exploring of Shanghai (not the area around school)! Yay!

...and things are looking up

Let me start out with a disclaimer: this is probably my worst day here so far, and quite honestly it wasn't that bad...so go me!

For the last two weeks, they have been doing construction on Fenyang Rd, the street that the school and dorm are on. They started with the actual street, then the curb and then two days ago, they completely tore out the sidewalk. Why? No one really knows. So we've had to walk either in the dirt sidewalk or on the street which seems rather dangerous when lugging a violin and a large bag of music around. But my very favorite part of this is that they told us that on Wednesday, that would be yesterday, they would turn the water off from 8pm to 5am to work on the pipes. However, come Sunday evening at 8pm the water goes off, coming back on promptly at 5am Monday morning. Then yesterday (Wednesday) they turned the water off at noon without telling anyone and it magically reappeared around 8pm the same day. How bizarre is that?

Last week, as you may or may not know, my power adapter for my Macbook broke, so I had to figure out where to take it. Turns out there is an Apple repair center on the 21st floor of this electronics warehouse. So I took it there last Thursday and they told me they would call when the new one came in. So I waited...and waited...and then finally yesterday I called them and they said it would be ready today. So I called back today just to make sure, and the guy on the line was convinced that he couldn't figure out what I was talking about. So I called back later and got someone else who told me that according to the computer, it was ready and that I should just go down and ask for it. An hour later, I have my power adapter!

My violin lesson was today and I was super excited, because I felt like I had really done what Mr. He asked me to do. However to my surprise, he told me that I was doing it in the completely opposite way and was actually kind of angry or maybe disappointed, either way. Also, he somehow assumed that I would be able to get the music for Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 and learn the first movement...this whole request was lost in translation and I ended up at my lesson without even the sheet music. Oops. However, I have three days to work my butt off and make up for it at a lesson on Sunday, so wish me luck (both for my playing and for the two of us actually understanding what the other one is saying!).

In other news, I have officially learned enough Chinese to ask for a metro card with 50 RMB on it, buy a hard boiled egg in the morning, order veggie or pork or sweet baozi, order noodle soup or rice with chicken or pork or dumplings or wonton soup, answer the phone in Chinese and say I only speak English, and tell a taxi driver where I need to go and when to stop! And today we learned some very important and useful phrases for shopping and bartering...so look out Shanghai!

Anyway, after a ridiculous morning/afternoon, the evening has been relaxing and fairly nice. And now I am going to rearrange the furniture in my room.

Just a quickie...

1. I ordered my first meal in Chinese all by myself! Dumplings...delicious. 

2. I have a residence permit! 

3. We went to IKEA yesterday and now at least my room feels something less like a prison. It has been made more cozy by the addition of some mats and pillows. 

4. Joanna and I made a salad for dinner last night with veggies from the market and it was also delicious as everything else here is either fried or steamed or drenched in oil.

5. The listening teacher, ting li laoshi, thinks that I look like Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth. This was explained through large hand gestures and broken English and was, in fact, hilarious.

6. I have a lot of work to do. 

7. I am performing in a few weeks and must memorize the Fuga from the G minor Sonata by Bach pretty much by Thursday (which is tomorrow), this could present problems.

8. I still don't know when orchestra begins.

9. It's 6:57 am here and I need to go practice before class. 

10. I miss all of you like mad! It's great over here, but there's something to be said about having family and close friends nearby. 

Sorry it's been a few days....

Things have gotten extremely busy over here! I have barely had time to breathe much less have time to write anything down (not to mention that my computer's adapter cable got fried, so I haven't been able to use a computer since Wednesday). Since our three day weekend, classes have really started to pick up and by classes, I mostly mean Chinese. I'm just going to say that Chinese has to be one of the most complex languages invented...it's really amazing, but incredibly difficult to try to learn. I think it's easier because I'm living here now, so I hear it all the time, but still. Fluency is far away, let me just put it that way.

I am practicing a ton and the music just keeps piling up. At this point, I am in three ensembles: orchestra, a piano trio and a string quartet, plus private lessons and 15 hours of Chinese every week. And I have to fit a practice regiment in around all of that, which is kind of interesting. However, it seems that whatever I'm doing is good. At my lesson on Thursday, He Xuan, my teacher, told me that I am going to perform the Bach G minor Sonata on October 15, at one of the student recitals. Mind you, he did not ask if I wanted to perform, he just kind of said that I was going to. All in all, I think this is a good thing.

What else...what else...so much has happened, so I forget things really easily. We went to a symphony concert the other night. It was at the Oriental Art Center: 

And before that we went to the Cantonese Opera. And we have eaten a lot of delicious food and have generally just been working very hard. From now on, the internet and my computer should be pretty stable, so I will update with more stories, etc. because I will actually remember them. Oh dear.

And here's a few more pictures just to make this update slightly less boring for you all:

Peking Opera House of Shanghai, Yifu Theater

The story I did not understand.

Badass dragon lady!

Seriously mini-fridge.

Joanna and a funny sign.

And here is the tiny kitten in the bag shop that they wanted to give us...it was adorable, but we live in dorms. Oh well.

Alright...goodnight on my end!

Wasn't planning on writing again so soon, but...

So today has been interesting to say the least. Let's just say it hasn't been my day. I practiced a little bit this morning for a lesson that got cancelled, so that was both good and bad. Then we made our way to the large grocery story, Tesco (it's like a Chinese Costco). Four of us went, myself, Joanna, Mun and the new German girl (I have no idea how to spell her name). We get there and basically split up immediately, thinking that it will be fine because everyone has a phone. Too bad that Karina's phone is German and she can't use it here. So after about an hour of shopping, Mun, Joanna and I check out, but Karina is nowhere in sight. So we decide to go to the entrance, leave one person there and then send the others back in to find her. Twenty minutes later, she is still no where to be found. Mun and Joanna go back into Tesco to try to make an announcement on the loudspeaker, when I see Karina walk out of a Japanese style restaurant literally ten feet from where I was standing. We then took a very quiet cab ride back home.

Then Joanna and I decided that it was time to try out another eatery nearby. We found the one that we tried to eat in yesterday (there was no where to sit then) and it was empty. So we went in and ordered two different appetizer items. They were both delicious. One was a steamed sort of dumpling with pork inside and the other was fried. Now this fried one was the kind, unbeknownst to us, that you are supposed to bite very carefully and drink the juice out before taking a real bite. Joanna took the first bite and the thing literally exploded all over both of us and the table, luckily no one saw. By about the fourth one of those, we had figured out the system, but it was still hilarious.

Outside of the eatery was an Indian guy selling like dried dates and walnuts, almonds and raisins. So I thought I would by something and have it for a snack. The almonds were delicious and I settled on those. I asked for a bag and he told me he wanted 50 RMB and Joanna and I looked at each other and went, "Heck no!" So I turned and started walking away, he then offered 40 RMB, which was probably still a major rip-off but whatever. So I pay the guy with a hundred kuai bill. And he gives me 60 back in various forms of change. On our way back, we stop at Lawson's to buy some more water. I had the lady one of the twenties I received as change and she says (thanks to Joanna for the translation), "Sorry, this is a counterfeit bill." So basically I ended up paying 60 RMB for some almonds that probably should have cost roughly 25. Go figure. 

Now it has started raining and I have some serious practicing to do! But I just thought I would let you in on what a funny/weird/crazy day it has been!

A little bit of Shanghai

Here are just a few pictures of where I am in Shanghai!

Between the corners of Fenyang and Fuxing is my dorm...

Here is the one and only door to the dormitory.

The most important thing to me....a Starbucks!

The second most important thing so far, a 24-hour convenience store - Lawson's.

Finally...here it is: The Shanghai Conservatory of Music

This is the tallest building, 18 floors...all of the practice rooms are here.

A practice room.

Here is my roommate, Mun, with the master set of keys the first time we locked ourselves out!

The common area...apparently it used to be an office building.

And lastly...my room, which I know is a huge mess in this picture. But at least now, you have some kind of idea of where I am!

Cantonese Opera

So I wasn't planning on posting at all tonight, we were exhausted when we got home...however, they have decided that 1 AM is a great time to be doing work on the street just outside the Conservatory dorms. Think drilling concrete non-stop for the last two hours. Needless to say, I'm still awake. I though I might do something productive with my time.

So we went to the opera this evening at the Peking Opera House of Shanghai on the Bund. The tickets were 20 RMB so like $ 2.50, which totally cracked me up. The funniest part is that we got there and realized that we probably wouldn't understand anything that was going on, so we bought programs. The programs were very helpful, they explained everything...in Chinese. Haha. Also, there were screens that had subtitles, also in Chinese. The opera turned out to be Cantonese, and the languages are different enough to require supertext in Mandarin. 

They told five different short stories, which took roughly three hours without an intermission. But the atmosphere was much less serious than it would have been in the States. People were getting up and down and talking (quietly...but talking nonetheless) and taking pictures, etc. so it was fun. I understood three out of the five stories and thoroughly enjoyed the first one (I think I understood it the best). It was about a prince (I think) who had been exiled and he had to save a damsel in distress who the usurper had taken captive. This of course necessitated a sweet fight scene, flips and acrobatics included. And of course all ended well. The second (that I only got a tiny bit) was about a monk who decides he's done being a monk and leaves. On his way back home, he meets a beautiful girl, falls in love and they get married. The third (which I didn't understand at all because it was just two people sitting around singing/talking) was apparently about a man who is out walking and he hears from a distance a woman singing and play a zither (sp?) and he comes to find her, etc. (I'm not sure how that one ended...it was realy long) The fourth story involved another monk who steals alcohol from a peasant, drinks it and proceeds to do fantastic acrobatic things for about ten minutes. The final story was about a bad ass warrior princess, who captures/kills a tiger or something...mostly I was fascinated by the costumes in that one, the woman had these two giant feathers (they were about a yard long each) coming out of her head piece (I promise to post pictures later!) It was definitely a taste of China that we haven't seen yet. In fact, it's the first cultural thing we've experienced besides the food. 

We are planning on going back at the beginning of October when the Peking Opera Troupe (the real one from Beijing) comes to perform. That should also be pretty amazing, and it will be interesting to compare the two styles...apparently they are totally different. Anyway, I think the drilling has actually stopped, so I am going to attempt to sleep again. 

Wo ai Shanghai Yin Yue Xue Yuan

Wow. (Oh...the subject heading means: I love the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in Mandarin) So I'm sorry that I haven't been able to write anything at all. We're still working on getting an internet connection going in the dorm rooms upstairs (it's now taken about two weeks...it was only supposed to take three days. Go figure). Things started out pretty crazy, but I think finally now entering my third week here in Shanghai everything is falling into place. 

Every morning Monday-Friday, I take three hours of Chinese. I have one 1.5 hour lesson per week, though more if I request it from my teacher He Xuan. I am working on forming a string quartet with myself, a German cellist who just arrived and I guess two students from the Conservatory. And if they ever contact me about the orchestra, then that will take place twice a week. 

The food, if you were wondering, is delicious. Joanna, my Polish friend, and I have decided to try out all of the tiny street eateries around the school. We are right in the middle of the French Concession area, so there is a lot really closeby. I think though, we've been to Lawson's the most of all (it's like 7-11 only Chinese, which is both cool and kind of weird. For instance, they sell like fastfood meals in little cartons you put in the microwave, but it's like dumplings or chow mein or a rice dish). Our other favorite place is a little stand about six blocks away from the Conservatory on Fuxing Rd. that sells all kinds of baozi (the dough balls with a savory or sweet filling)...now those are delicious and only cost 1 RMB each!!!

Tonight we are going to the Peking opera...though it might actually be Cantonese, we aren't sure...but we'll find out when we get there. So I need to go finish practicing and get ready for that. I am going to try to update here as often as possible, but until I have internet in my room, it's a little shady as to when I will actually be online.

Hopefully there will be pictures soon as well...but we'll see.