Expo Countdown

World Expo preparations in Shanghai have been in high gear for a while now. Posters are up everywhere and I particularly liked this recent one, a quirky take on environmentally-friendly transportation choices (taxicabs with Fred Flintstone-esque legs, unicycles) and a slogan of "Love the Earth, Let's go!"

Weird, but fun.

Welcome Sophia!

We have a cat! Her name is Sophia.

We adopted Sophia from our friend Mara, who relocated to the Netherlands. Sophia is about 2 years old and is very sweet. She's exploring our apartment and is getting more and more comfortable in her new surroundings. The first night, she hid under the sofa and would not come out until we went to bed. By the fourth night, she was sleeping in our bed and open to affection.

She does have one weird trait - an attraction to the inner part of the elbow where she will lick your shirt and knead her paws. We think it's a nursing urge that she never fulfilled when she was a kitten, as she was a stray in a park.

We are enamoured with her presence and she is definitely part of the family!

Farewell for now, PhoKing

PhoKing has always been a trusty neighbourhood restaurant for us, offering a simple selection of comforting Vietnamese noodles at a reasonable price. Every time we have a visitor, we always end up there for at least one meal. Alas, we walked by the restaurant last weekend, to find it closed and the note at the door said they were shutting up shop because of problems with the management company of the building in which they are located. Apparently, there were cleanliness issues and the owner of PhoKing is clearly disappointed and frustrated with the lack of response and action.

Interestingly, the Chinese note adjacent to the English one was brief and only said that changes were in progress (duh). I bet the management company would not have allowed such a candid note in Chinese. Ah well, we'll be on the lookout for the next restaurant in this location, but hope that it will be clean.

First things first

Happy New Year!

Our new year's eve festivities weren't much different to what it would have been back home - venture to a bar/club with loud music, alcohol of some sort, then a long wait for a cab back home...am I being a bit Scrooge-ish here? The highlight of my night was seeing the sky filled with lanterns, like fireflies floating above the buildings along the Huangpu River. It made the night seem a bit magical!

Obamarific!

My friend Tony and I took a daytrip out to the city of Yiwu (义乌), approximately 3 hours away from Shanghai by train. I have fun pictures of the Shanghai South train station and of the Yiwu International Trade City (mega-mall of Chinese suppliers), however I'm dying to post this one picture - Obama pens! Clearly, they are not sanctioned by the Obama administration. Maybe someone wanted to produce a batch as gag gifts, or maybe they sell really well in some developing country, who knows! I had a little chuckle when I saw these, a real gem.

Craving

Sometimes, a good hearty sandwich can really hit the spot. It was one of those days, and we headed to City Deli to enjoy a Reuben (bottom) and Vietnamese sub, the Banh Mi (top). The Reuben was great - bread that was sturdy enough to hold everything together without being tough, soft layers of pastrami, sauerkraut, melted cheese and a sweet thousand island dressing. I believe the original Reuben recipe calls for corned beef, but this variation was just as good. The Banh Mi was not the best Vietnamese sub I've ever had (shout out to New Asia in Richmond, BC!), but this one has character. I liked the combination of pate with the sweet roast pork and it had a good portion of the pickled vegetables. The bursts of spicy from the jalapenos rounded out the sandwich nicely. Craving sated!

Hazy Days

So tempting...

Snoopy is my favorite!!! I may just have to go back to the store and get myself a pair of those fuzzy slippers, or maybe even a pair in each color.

Charity Flea Market at 1933

The 1933 building has always intrigued me. Something about it being a former slaughterhouse? A pharmaceutical manufacturing plant? (Started as the former when it was built in 1933, changed to the latter in the 70s.) Having only read about it in guide books, the charity flea market was a good excuse to go check it out. It's just a few minutes from Metro Line 4 (where along the way, we managed to score a super tasty scallion cake from a street vendor) and as we approached, we could see a large intimidating facade. We entered by the American Apparel store (only one in Shanghai so far) into the concrete maze. The building is full of stairs, walkways, passages...we saw lots of photographers taking advantage of the space. The building is essentially circular and the top floor has been transformed into an amazing viewing area, with a see-through floor, to the space below.

The charity flea market was pretty well attended and occupied most of the, was it the 2nd or 3rd floor? We found some small gifts there, then wandered around the building. The coffee at Ann's Coffee wasn't bad and was relaxing after the shopping. A trip to 1933 is definitely recommended!

While grocery shopping...

What more can I say? There's never a shortage of weird and entertaining uses of English in China. Those are chocolate bars, by the way.