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aeroport_artI had a really fun vaca! But omg, China sucks (sorry to any possible f-listers living there. But it does).
Incident #1: I'm chilling at an expat cafe. An Israeli sits next to me. We make small talk. It starts getting weird when
a) he tells me he works at a financial company with about 5000 employees and he's the only white guy, so they "treat him like a god"
b) he invites me to drinks while I'm in Shanghai...
c) ...which wouldn't be weird except he also invites me to meet him in Israel on Aug 24
d) and when I decline, with probably an incredulous expression on my face, he asks for my number so we can hang out when he's in New York in six months.
When I leave an hour later, he comes after me and corners me outside. Panicked and cagey, I look around to make sure there are people around me. He proceeds asks why I was being such a bitch to him back at the cafe. Um, maybe because he was a CREEPER.
I wind up feeling icky and nervous the rest of the day :P The rest of the day includes going to the Shanghai museum, whose collection is painfully, obviously lacking in substantial history, as the majority of the pieces were dated in the 1900s...which is ridiculous for a civilization that's been around since BCE. Thanks, Cultural Revolution. Thanks a lot.
Incident #2: After the US-Ghana game (I don't want to talk about it) at 6am outside a convenience store, I'm hanging out with my girlfriend (Asian) and three of her white male coworkers. A male expat comes up and goes "NI-HAO. HEY, NI-HAO!"
Me: ...do one of you guys know this douchebag?
That quickly degenerates into an argument with the guy and I'm inches from punching his stupid face when as his friend comes by and hauls him away, apologizing for his friend being drunk.
The icky rest: Anything remotely touristy was torturous. Imagine throngs of loud, annoying, and pushing-prone Asians with their horrendous Little Emperor sons throwing tantrums left and right. (This happened the entire time on the plane ride home, too. 13 hrs of a screaming brat kicking the back of my chair....NNRGH) It got to the point where, by the end of my trip I ditched going to the World Expo because I was absolutely over the whole sightseeing thing. Spent my last day holed up in two different cafes, which suited me just fine.
The nice rest: Cafes in the French Concession. I knew that was going to be where I wound up the most, but I didn't realize to what extent. Literally, I spent 4-6 hrs in cafes each day just sitting with my iPad, writing. (Some of you may be glad to hear, western!AU is finished.) A couple of these places were drop-dead ADORABLE and quiet and tucked away, which I seriously appreciated after all the artifice and pomp of Shanghai's tourist destinations. In fact, it was probably all the more refreshing because the shabby cafes I tend to like in New York are actually the artifical, crowded destinations trying to be as low-key and authentic as the shabby cafes in Shanghai. Hell, one of the places even housed it's owners! I accidentally walked into it one day and they were like "Ummm...we're closed." Implied was: Get out of our home.
But I will maintain: America > China. So sue me.
As a footnote, I don't consider Taiwan or Hong Kong a part of the ROC. Taiwan and Hong Kong rock hardcore.
Incident #1: I'm chilling at an expat cafe. An Israeli sits next to me. We make small talk. It starts getting weird when
a) he tells me he works at a financial company with about 5000 employees and he's the only white guy, so they "treat him like a god"
b) he invites me to drinks while I'm in Shanghai...
c) ...which wouldn't be weird except he also invites me to meet him in Israel on Aug 24
d) and when I decline, with probably an incredulous expression on my face, he asks for my number so we can hang out when he's in New York in six months.
When I leave an hour later, he comes after me and corners me outside. Panicked and cagey, I look around to make sure there are people around me. He proceeds asks why I was being such a bitch to him back at the cafe. Um, maybe because he was a CREEPER.
I wind up feeling icky and nervous the rest of the day :P The rest of the day includes going to the Shanghai museum, whose collection is painfully, obviously lacking in substantial history, as the majority of the pieces were dated in the 1900s...which is ridiculous for a civilization that's been around since BCE. Thanks, Cultural Revolution. Thanks a lot.
Incident #2: After the US-Ghana game (I don't want to talk about it) at 6am outside a convenience store, I'm hanging out with my girlfriend (Asian) and three of her white male coworkers. A male expat comes up and goes "NI-HAO. HEY, NI-HAO!"
Me: ...do one of you guys know this douchebag?
That quickly degenerates into an argument with the guy and I'm inches from punching his stupid face when as his friend comes by and hauls him away, apologizing for his friend being drunk.
The icky rest: Anything remotely touristy was torturous. Imagine throngs of loud, annoying, and pushing-prone Asians with their horrendous Little Emperor sons throwing tantrums left and right. (This happened the entire time on the plane ride home, too. 13 hrs of a screaming brat kicking the back of my chair....NNRGH) It got to the point where, by the end of my trip I ditched going to the World Expo because I was absolutely over the whole sightseeing thing. Spent my last day holed up in two different cafes, which suited me just fine.
The nice rest: Cafes in the French Concession. I knew that was going to be where I wound up the most, but I didn't realize to what extent. Literally, I spent 4-6 hrs in cafes each day just sitting with my iPad, writing. (Some of you may be glad to hear, western!AU is finished.) A couple of these places were drop-dead ADORABLE and quiet and tucked away, which I seriously appreciated after all the artifice and pomp of Shanghai's tourist destinations. In fact, it was probably all the more refreshing because the shabby cafes I tend to like in New York are actually the artifical, crowded destinations trying to be as low-key and authentic as the shabby cafes in Shanghai. Hell, one of the places even housed it's owners! I accidentally walked into it one day and they were like "Ummm...we're closed." Implied was: Get out of our home.
But I will maintain: America > China. So sue me.
As a footnote, I don't consider Taiwan or Hong Kong a part of the ROC. Taiwan and Hong Kong rock hardcore.
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no subject
Date: 2010-07-01 11:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-01 11:27 pm (UTC)I realize foreigners are met with fascination and a sort of hardcore inferiority that's usually overcompensated for in unappetizing ways (Hell, just look at China's behavior during the Copenhagen talks and that about sums up the Plight of the Asian Male), so that's one thing that's annoying.
On the flip side, a lot of the expats I ran into while in Shanghai, and also judging from conversation with other friends who have lived there for years, the expats can be pretty unsavoury themselves (this is remarking NOTHING upon your mother, because I'm talking about the men here). I can't even begin to talk about how many gross white-guy/non-English-speaking-Asian-limpet couples there were. Gross gross gross.
Basically I have a problem with the patriarchal structure of the culture there, combined with its issues concerning the West and how they've internalized global Imperialist history (the West emasculating the East) as well as newer history (the Cultural Revolution robbing the people of a proud, ancient history).
Anyway..........I'm not trying to start trouble :\ These are just things I feel strongly about.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-02 01:43 am (UTC)And it is hard, going to a place with a society with very different values. None of it seems logical but there it is and you can't do much about it :\
I'm glad you at least had some fun. Also I'm answering these comments backwards so yeah xD
no subject
Date: 2010-07-01 11:30 pm (UTC)I really did have a good time overall. It's just so weird there...the place makes a girl feel really powerless, which is a shitty feeling yanno :x
no subject
Date: 2010-07-02 01:39 am (UTC)I think being in any city that's unfamiliar can be off-putting. I'm currently in London and I'm still a bit bewildered by the people here and everything and it's not even a place where I don't speak the language.
I would probably be scared shitless in Shanghai, just so you know. You are far braver than I for going. I'm scared of making a trip to Belgium because I just don't want to mess anything up.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-02 05:27 am (UTC)But yeah, being in an unfamiliar city was definitely stressful. Having to figure out subways and maps, often in other languages (luckily almost everything official is in both Chinese and English, but not the cabbies D:).
You're in London right now? AWESOME. I've never been. I totally need to o_o Are you there for vacation? How long?
no subject
Date: 2010-07-02 08:32 am (UTC)London is great :) I'm here for five weeks as part of a "study tour". Basically I'm taking summer classes with American professors here on the trip as well. It's 5 weeks long which is pretty amazing.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-02 09:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-02 01:52 am (UTC)Some of you may be glad to hear, western!AU is finished. -- Ooh! Me! Me! I am! *waves hands about*
Glad you had fun, despite the CREEPER and the more general suckage. Also, we can commiserate together. England suck balls. It was so painful to watch that I just stopped watching. Uck. Remind me why they're paid obscene amounts of money again?
no subject
Date: 2010-07-02 05:30 am (UTC)As for England, it's so interesting how almost every English person I've talked to, one of their main complaints about their team is that they're paid insane amounts of money. Are they tantamount to like...I'm assuming multi-millionaires, right? Is this something the media mentions a lot too so it's like "ARGH, THEY MAKE HOW MUCH???"
no subject
Date: 2010-07-04 11:23 pm (UTC)Are they tantamount to like...I'm assuming multi-millionaires, right? -- Yeah, it depends on the player really. Someone like Rooney can make somewhere in the region of 20k per game he plays and he plays a whole tonne a year for his club -- don't even ask me how much they pay him to play for England as I have no clue. (I'm assuming they're paid...?) It's like most professional sports though, the big clubs pay through the nose for the best players. It's just crazy. And the media does mention it a lot because we're always hearing how this player got signed to that club for this amount of money. It's sort of sick-making. *grumps* We're even more grumpy because of the economy right now.
In other news... SPAIN IS THROUGH SPAIN IS THROUGH SPAIN IS THROUGH! HECK YEAH!
no subject
Date: 2010-07-02 03:11 am (UTC)I want to hear all about the fun parts though. Preferably in person sometime next week?
no subject
Date: 2010-07-02 05:31 am (UTC)Let me know more deets later, like what time you get in next Thursday. Unfortunately I can't take the Friday off sinc I'd previously scheduled tomorrow off, so that's too many in a row :( You'll be fine though, you should enjoy your days before I start getting all up in yo biz over the weekend!!
no subject
Date: 2010-07-02 03:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-02 05:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-02 06:47 pm (UTC)You're right, China does kind of suck. I've been there. It's pretty poo.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-02 09:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-03 03:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-04 05:08 am (UTC)