Overeating

It's only my second night in Shanghai and I have to admit I'm overeating.

Let's see:

1. On the first night, I ate 拉面 小笼包 葱油饼.

2. This morning it was more 拉面 烧麦 蛋饼 (note that 烧麦 here are filled with glutinous rice instead of meat).

3. Lunch was an affair reminded me of my army days - rice, choices of meat and vegetables, soup and dessert, but all served in the most boring way on a metal tray
and consumed on rows of tables in a canteen.

4. Before I left my office for dinner, 1 of my colleagues passed me half a loaf of bread, the type called 枕头 due to its size and appearance. Thereafter, I ate it on the way back and bought more food to supplement - 豆浆 油条 手工饼.

Anyone wants to buy a spare tire, made in Shanghai, China?

Food is cheap in China (by Singaporean standards), with the exception of foreign cuisine. I think Taiwanese food is considered foreign cuisine despite China's efforts to integrate the people.

What I'm refering to in particular is the 手工饼. I came across a few stalls during my first two days in Shanghai, but there's always a few people crowding around the stall, so I never got to see the part of the sign that says "来自台湾". It wasn't called 手工饼 in Taiwan anyway.

Thinking it was just a local snack and a rather popular one at that, I decided to queue up for a try. Only just before my turn to order did I realise that it's actually a Chinese version of roti prata.

I like roti prata, and this one looks pretty close to the real thing, so I decided there's no harm trying. Well, it really was no harm trying until the stall-keeper told me I mistook the cost to be 75% lower than its actual price.

Imagine a piece of roti prata, wrapped around a piece of ham that's smaller than those frozen ones you see in the supermarket, costing about 90 cents (Singapore currency). I think these Mainlanders would love to be in Singapore or Malaysia where they can get prata 24 hours a day, and better quality for the same price at that.

Let's see if my pants can still fit me at the end of my 3 weeks stay.

The night before departure

It's always the night before the departure that makes one's emotionssuddenly swell up. 3 weeks in Shanghai is nothing compared to 6 weeks in Paris, but somehow I just don't feel like sleeping yet.

I really like the travel opportunities offered by my job. I get to meet different types of people, learn from them, see their culture, tour around during the weekends, train to be independent, and also, get away from Singapore for a while.

Don't get my wrong, I don't hate my country. Getting away from Singapore means getting away from all that I'm familiar with - family, friends, and even colleagues.

Sounds rather isolationistic, but sometimes getting away for a while is good for the mind. It gives you a chance not to have to care about anything, except work. Family problems, friendship problems, and even management problems are just thrown aside.

Until I return, that is.

This is not running away from problems, but allowing yourself to have some time to yourself. The problems still come back eventually, though after you've taken a break to free yourself of all worries for a while.

Right now, I just look forward to a fruitful trip to Shanghai.

Cultural weekend

Saturday

A movie and a concert on Saturday, followed by a photo-shoot outing on the festivities of Hari Raya Puasa and Mid Autumn.

I watched "I pronounce you Chuck and Larry" on Saturday, after strong recommendation from JunJun. Not sure what to expect because I didn't get to see the trailer, I was pleasantly surprised by its plot.

The following might be a spoiler for some: it's amazing how 2 guys who are pretending to be a married gay couple argue in the same manner as a normal, real-life wedded couple does.

The concert that I attended was "A piece of summer", by 陈绮贞. She's not one of the most popular Taiwanese artistes around, but she certainly has a strong and steady fan base.

Best thing is, a smaller crowd at her concert means less competition for the public transport after the concert ends.



Sunday

It was an ambitious planning on my part when I wanted to have a photo-shoot outing for 2 different celebrations from different cultures, on the same day.

Then again, it was unrealistic to expect anyone to be able to last a whole day outdoors at a temperature of about 34 degrees Celcius, and possibly higher near the food stalls where kebabs were being grilled over an open fire or Ramly burgers were being fried.

My friends and I took about 5 to 6 breaks throughout the whole trip, just to cool our temperatures down in order to avoid a human meltdown. During one of those breaks, I was lucky enough to bump into Ahqiang in a Banquet foodcourt.

A pity that we didn't manage to catch any shows for the celebrations, but I still took a fair amount of photos nonetheless. They're being uploaded to my Multiply website as I'm blogging now.

In case you're wondering, I'm not feeling arty-farty yet.