Shanghai Hooters

Well, we got our first real taste of American dining at its best when we decided to try Hooters Shanghai (jealous Morgan?). Zhu asked Denny when he dropped him off what the English word was for 'chases mice'. Obviously Zhu has never ventured into this joint and Denny informed him 'owl' and decided to leave out the rest.

Very similar to the ones back home (without the surgical enhancements), these girls have picked up English pretty well since they seem to be catering to many expat males. It is also a little reminiscent of Joe's Crab Shack as the lights start flashing, all the girls stop what they are doing to put on a choreographed dance routine to some American classic. Their enthusiasm seems to scare some away. One women walked in, looked around, grabbed her husband by the arm and escorted him out. Apparently, this routine was a little much for her.

They also scream 'Hello welcome to Hooters' (punctuation omitted intentionally) as soon as you come in the door. There also seemed to be a waitress for almost every table. The menu was very similar to the ones back home except we were disappointed not to find the fried pickles. The place has a nice feel of home including a Hooters, Novi, MI t-shirt on display. I was quite surprised when they started to sing "Dos a Beer" (a Ricks happy hour favorite) to a table full of men. I can only imagine some drunken state fan probably taught them that as you can't download that on iTunes! For a Tuesday night this place was jammed and probably does better business than most ones back home. This self proclaimed 'soon to be famous in China' joint seems to already have succeeded with expats and locals.

Do you like . . .fake?

If you are yearning to hear the English language in China you can head straight to the Science and Technology Museum for the Yatai Xinyang Fashion and Gift Market aka the 'fake market'. This market specializes in watches, leather products, shoes, jeans and other miscellaneous crap. As soon as you walk by your first stand they will beckon you with cat calls of 'hey lady, you want jeans!?'. There are probably only about 20 different products sold in a maze of hundreds of vendors. Negotiating is an art form here but buyer beware you probably already paid too much by stepping into this place. I quickly was duped once I found a business card holder that I had been searching for for one day. I am sure I could find it at another stand but I quickly paid probably 10x what it is worth because I have no patience for this sort of thing. Jeff, on the other hand, loves it. We were on the hunt for some house shoes in the form of 'sheepskin uggs'. We
found them at many different stands and prices ranged from 80rmb-180rmb depending on how stupid they thought we were. Jeff was deep in negotiating for 2 pairs of these for both of us before he got annoyed and decided to walk away. Now if the vendor still chases after you then you haven't surpassed their low point and they will usually yell a lower price at you or at least agree to your deal. We walked away with both pairs for about 110rmb (around $15) so we can be sure we still paid too much. Oh well because these slippers are the best. I am sure we will return to this spot many times as we have visitors but I am glad we got that hot spot off our list. On a side note, don't blame us if these places are not prevalent during the World Expo. The government has been cracking down on a lot of these vendors for appearance sake during this time.

Zhou

Zhou is Denny and Celeste's driver in China. I am still not quite sure how you say his name as Denny says it different every time and I feel like every driver we have met is named Zhou. Since he was the only one we have driven around with I assumed everyone drives pretty crazy. Well, after driving around with a couple of other friends drivers I have come to find out this is not the norm. Some of them don't drive around like a cop on a high speed chase. Zhou loves to honk at everyone and flash the highbeams when you are in the way at night. China instituted some kind of horn law since it used to be ridiculously loud but I think he chooses to ignore it. One of his favorite moves is to drive around cars in the left hand turn lane. The other day he cut off a bus and in the middle lane was a pole. I know this all might sound crazy or a little scary but I feel safer than I do when Jeff drives around. He speaks some English and now that he
is comfortable with us he likes to ask questions of how to pronounce things in English. He also stated that he thinks Yao Ming sucks and is very slow (he like Kobe). Zhou typically turns off his music when we get into the car for some reason. Every now and again he will turn on some Celine Dion for us which I am sure he thinks we will enjoy. However, when Jeff ran into he store to get a phone number for his new 'Iphone' he put on some sword fighting soundtrack that every once in a while would yell things out in English like "screw your mother". I found this quite amusing but unfortunately for Jeff he turned it off as soon as he was back in the car. I think we are going to learn a lot of each other.

04/02/10

We made it to Shanghai a few days ago and have had a jammed packed few days. We think we have found where we want to live and are in the process of negotiating all the details. It is not on the same side as Jeff parents place (in Pudong), but directly across from the river from them which would allow Jeff to walk to work in about 20 minutes. It has definitely been an experience so far. First of all, there appears to controlled chaos when driving, but it seems to work. Pedestrians do not have the right of way so crossing the street can be a little like playing a game of frogger. Jeff loves how people drive since they do whatever they want but we all know Jeff has always driven like a jerk! I am also not quite the amazon people thought I would be. Some Chinese people are actually quite tall. There are also a plethora of western stores. It feels like home when you see Sephora and H&M here, however some things are much more expensive probably due to the import taxes. Our slingbox has worked great so far (thanks Bill!) and most websites that we use work with the exception of facebook which we may be able to use once we have a way around that. We will not have our phone set up until we move in to our new place but feel free to call us at Celeste and Denny's place. The best time to call is between 7:30pm-10:30pm your time which is our morning (there is exactly 12 hour time difference EST right now). Jeff and I made about a 10 mile walk today which included taking the ferry across the river from his parents place to the place we would like to live. We then decided to take the subway to People Square (similar to Times Square) and attempted to find Jeff's work with our crappy map. We made it there with little trouble and walked back to through a few markets back the same route we came. We are going to have to get used to walking and discovering where to buy everything (along with the art of negotiating). I think that is all for now . . . we are definitely looking forward to those of you that venture over to see us!