Different nightlife scene

The difference between Suzhou and Shanghai really hit me this weekend. Despite the fact that I was dead tired when I left work on Friday I had decided that unless I felt as if I was about to die, I would go out with a girlfriend and drink cocktails and celebrate being back in town.

Since this girlfriend of mine works in media she pulled out an invitation to an Absolut Rock/Fashion party at some fancy bar in Xintiandi, just as we were finishing off our first cocktail at El Bar on Yongfu Lu. The deal of the party was simple: Jenny Ji fashion show, Absolut Rock specials with open bar (= free drinks), live band, flaring bartenders and a posh setting. We decided to give it a go.

I had almost forgotten the word pretentious since I have not experienced it for a long time in Suzhou (you go into a bar in Suzhou and the staff either pretends they don’t see you and continue chatting to each other, or, they become over-attentive and super friendly), but once we stepped into the lavish surrounding it became clear to me that we were two big nobodies to the not-so-friendly-staff. That was, however, until my friend pulled out her name card which set off a frenzy of air kissing and fake smiling. It was rather entertaining if you ask me.

The party itself was okay. The drinks were nice, the band was quite good. The fashion show… we kind of missed as it was held on the first floor and we had been sent to the third. My friend was only moderately impressed with everything, especially with the staff. However, I have to say that it was nice to be out and about again, even though I felt so tired in the end and almost fell asleep in the taxi on way home. Do I need to mention that when I eventually came home and went into the bathroom to wash my face there was no hot water in the tap? And that I, annoyed and maybe slightly affected by the amount of cocktails I’d had, decided that it would be a good idea to text my landlord about it, despite the fact that it was after midnight? Nah, well let’s just leave it there.

Back on track (finally!)

Forgive me for my absence. I started my new job this Monday and it’s been rather overwhelming. Also, living in a flat with no internet connection (and no microwave?!) for 1 week it quite unbearable. However, after extensive nagging-campaigns initiated by me and targeted at my new landlord he finally gave in and took the time to fix up my flat. And now, ta-da, I have the net. I’m connected. And I can blog again. YEY!

So how about work then? Well work is just work right?! I won’t go into details about my job in this blog but I can tell you that it’s an exciting new job with a lot of responsibilities and that I’ll be staying in China for quite a long time if everything goes as planned.

This (the new flat, the new job, the new…. Life?! Because it is a new life for me!) will be celebrated tonight with an old ex-colleague and the largest possible drinks we can get at a cocktail event in downtown. I am so, so happy about finally living in Shanghai again. No offense to Suzhou, but Shanghai is really the place where I want to be.

Moving time

Shanghai, I'm back!

My Suzhou days are counted: I’m moving to Shanghai today! After three hysterical days of house hunting (pretty much became BBF with one of my agents, another in the line of Chinese men who refer to me as You-LA rather than You Na 友娜!”) I finally found a perfect pad: fairly small but with a perfect location in the French Concession. 

I start my new job on Monday and my new flat still doesn’t have any internet connection, so I might not be able to blog/publish comments until the end of this week when things get sorted. So, if this blog isn’t updated for a few days you know why. Promise to be back in a few days time with some good stuff (like the story of when I went to the gym to let a friend take over my card, something the sales girl had promised me “wouldn’t be a problem at all!” when I asked her about it when I renewed my membership last year –yeah right!).

Different sense of humour

Just the other day me and my boyfriend caught a cab to a restaurant in downtown. We could not believe our luck when we realized that the backseat of the car actually had seatbelts that were usable (usually there are seatbelts in Chinese taxis, however, no buckle). Happily we buckled up and chatted away until we, five minutes later, were interrupted by a roar of laughter coming from the front seat.

We curiously looked at the driver through the rear-view mirror, keen to find out what had made him laugh out loud.

He, however, was cracking up so hard that he could barely speak. He simply laughed and laughed, making both of us giggle too.

Finally the words came through:

-He…. Use…. The…. Hahahhahahahahahhahaha! Seatbelt!

-Seatbelt what? I asked?

-Him! A man! His size! Use seatbelt! Hahahahhahaa! Such a strong, tall man! Use seatbelt!

Ahhhhhh, so that’s what it was all about. Out giggles immediately came to a halt, however, then we thought about the weirdness of this situation (an un-buckled-up- taxi driver laughing because we are taking the most basic safety measurements and use the seatbelts available when in a taxi that is completely oblivious to any kind of speed limits?) and it was our turn to start cracking up.

Oh China. Sometimes life here is charmingly absurd.

House hunting day 1

I know some people enjoy house hunting, moving, starting over and all of that… and although I admit to enjoying moving between different countries, I’m definitely not a fan of moving to different places in the same country. It’s dreadful and tiring, and in a place like Shanghai it takes forever (or more) to find a decent flat UNLESS you are on an unlimited budget.

I’m obviously not, so I need something fairly cheap and neat that has a good location. Yeah, try that in Shanghai and see what you get…. Not that much, actually.

Or OK, let me explain what I mean. Not all the flats that I’ve seen are bad. Some are actually really, really nice! But if they are nice, the location isn’t good, and vice versa. Finding a good place with a good location (that doesn’t eat up every single penny I earn) is quite hard. Shanghai housing is really for those with money.

Yesterday I had a total of 5 different agents that showed me 11 flats. Out of those 11, 4 were completely disgusting (old, dirty, falling-apart-like, overpriced and simply… yuk!), 2 were unfurnished, renovated but had a bad location, 2 were OK but had a terrible location, 2 were way too expensive (read: overpriced) and 1 was PERFECT, but when I was there oohhing and aaahing over what I saw another prospective tenant arrived and said he wanted it on the spot. A fierce discussion took place, and even though the lovely landlord preferred me, the sudden attractiveness of the flat made her realize she could make a real buck out of this flat, and therefore the rent went through the roof. In the end I had to decline. However nice a flat is it’s not worth spending all your money on. Or well, that’s just how I see it.

One of the agents I went with was this “we have a fancy website with pretty but overpriced places”-kind, and the places she showed me were the biggest disappointments. She took me to old buildings and showed me flats that were “cliché-Chinese” meaning: all the interior was made up of cupboards with Chinese characters, everything felt a bit dirty and old, and the shelves were full of typical Chinese tourist clutter that is most likely to have come form a fake market.

“I believe many foreigners want to live like this, it is very Chinese!” she said, beaming.

“I guess I’m an exception,” was all I could muster. I don’t buy for a second that any Chinese person would actually want to live like that (besides, I've been to Chinese family homes and they don't look anything like that). It’s like me filling a house with porcelain meatballs and Ikea and Volvo posters simply because I am Swedish, telling others this is a “typical Swedish home.” Would you believe me?

Anyways, today the hunt continues. At least I learn as I go. In the beginning I was all polite even when stepping into places I immediately knew wouldn’t cut it, simply because it felt rude to say “No thanks!” on the spot. But now I’m not that polite anymore. I have to say that a majority of the agents that I saw yesterday were really cool though! I made good friends with three lovely, senior Shanghai ladies that were running one agency at Wukang Lu. During a 40 min-interval that we needed to kill (waiting for a landlord to arrive) we had a real woman-to-woman talk where they curiously wanted to know everything about Swedish men. Were they all taller than me? Muscular? Handsome? (one of the ladies was still single and quite keen).

Another agent (a young guy form Anhui) was also really nice and ended up taking me around on the back of his motorbike, speeding up every time I told him to slow down.

Today’s a new day of Shanghai house hunting, let’s see what it brings.

Home, sweet home

Our troubled tub: pretty but problematic

There I was, thinking that this time my return to China was going to be smooth.

Exclusively enough, I enjoyed the privilege of being picked up from the airport by a company driver, since two important business people arrived on the same flight as me (normally I don’t get any pickup). “Wicked!” I thought (that saved me 400 kuai on a private car or the hassle of taking a train/ airport bus), until it was revealed that these 2 important business people had lost their luggage. So, to start things off, I had to spend 1,5 hours waiting at the arrivals at the airport, constantly being approached by strange drivers asking me if I was “Fanny/ Lisa/ Miss Frank/ Miss god-knows-who.”

Eventually we all gathered and could take the car back to Suzhou.

To say I was hungry when I came home is an understatement. Super sweet, artificial tasting cherry crepes as my latest airplane meal x hours ago had proved not to be that filling.

However, there were more important matters to be dealt with, such as:

* A freezing cold flat.

* A somewhat flooded bathroom.

* Angry neighbours complaining about one of our aircons making a noise, so loud that the woman (who’s pregnant – as they eagerly pointed out) downstairs cannot get her beauty sleep.

* A hysterical landlord calling me the minute I stepped inside (“Where have you BEEN?!” I just saw you step inside your building from my window!” –Stop spying on me, woman!) telling me that since our electricity bill from December has not been paid they will turn off our power on Jan 7 unless we take action.

….Ah, what better way to deal with it all but to simply pick up the phone, order in copious amounts of Chinese food (at a minimum charge), wait for it to arrive, eat, and THEN deal with everything?

Yeah, that’s just what I did. I don’t operate well on an empty stomach. Also, as usual, I've missed eating Chinese food.

Now the bill is paid, the bathroom is temporarily fixed, the noisy aircon has been turned off, the neighbours are happy, the flat is still freezing cold, and I have gotten my Chinese food-fix. Time to start house-hunting and dealing with new matters.

2010 must-dos

New year, new beginnings…

In 2010 I’m going to:

* Run more (and guess who's got a pair of new Asics to do so?! I officially refer to them as "my new babies"). Speaking of that... does anyone know of a running community that train together regularly in Shanghai?

* (Re) start doing yoga and really try to enjoy it

* Buy less shoes

* (Hopefully) travel more

* Start writing letters instead of emails

* Never complain about the weather (what difference does it make?)

* Start learning Finnish and/or Spanish (I figure I’ll give them both a go and then stick with the simplest one. I’m pretty sure it’ll be Spanish)

* Continue improving my Mandarin

* Continue blogging (yeah, one day went by and I felt that hm… I can’t stop quite yet can I?!)

How about you guys? Got any New Year resolutions that you've already broken?