American...huh?

So I wanted to go see some of the shops today and experience some good Chinese food. Before starting out, I stopped at the concierge to ask for a restaurant suggestion. He looked at me and said, "You want McDonalds?" I laughed and said no, I wanted a good restaurant. Then he said, "McDonalds is right over there," and pointed across the street. So I said I want Chinese food and he said, "You want General Tso's chicken?" Hmmm...this guy doesn't seem to have much faith in my desire to try new things. I told him that I wanted real Chinese food and asked him where he would eat. At which point he told me he wouldn't eat around here. Great. =( Big fail on the food so far.

So I decided to go looking at the shops and put off eating, thinking maybe I'll find something on my own. I'm walking along the main road that has all of the shops (and am completely melting in the humidity but that's another story all together). No sooner did I venture away from my hotel, I'm about three blocks down the road and see one of the most peculiar sights I have ever seen. But I don't know if it's because I'm from North America. Let me explain... I see a gentleman holding an infant (probably not more than a year old). And the gentleman is almost squatting on the sidewalk, holding the child in a seated position by her legs. I found it odd so I continued to stare (yes, probably a little rude but whatever) at which point I realized the little girl's pants were around her ankles and the gentleman had her legs spread apart so she could pee at the base of the tree on the sidewalk. I almost stopped to see if she was actually going to pee considering she is so young and I would be surprised if she could pee on demand. But alas, I kept on walking. I'm curious to know if this is normal practice here in China. Anyway, needless to say, I avoided any wet spots on the pavement after witnessing that.

So I continue walking and I obviously stand out amongst the crowd. Therefore I'm apparently a magnet for every street pedaler. Every other block is someone offering me a great price on handbags and watches. Ummm...thanks, but no thanks. I saw Sex and the City 2 and will not be going anywhere with you to look at your handbags. I don't know what the laws are here.

So I found all of the high-end shops and looked at Coach, Burberry, Gucci, etc. But I didn't see any phenomenal prices. So shopping was a bust today but that's ok. I got the opportunity to walk around a bit and experience some of the city.

I had to come back to my hotel, though. The humidity is killer!!! I know I complained about it in my last entry, but it's worse than I described. I don't even know how to describe it. I was wearing cropped denim pants today and went into Marks & Spencer with the intention of buying something cooler to wear. My jeans were sticking to me as I walked and I had this super sexy sheen of sweat all over my body. I mean this humidity is bordering on ridiculous. I ended up not buying anything because I decided I probably didn't need anymore clothes. But we'll see how the rest of the week goes and if I can handle this insanity.

Now I'm off to the Expo in a few minutes... will update later with those details.

Ok, so the Expo was interesting to say the least. Can I once again bitch about the humidity?!?! This shit is killer!!! I think I'm going to melt before I ever make it back to Montreal. By the time I left the Expo (after only 3 hours), I was completely soaked through and through with sweat. I was the literal definition of hot mess.

My oh so lovely hotel has a free shuttle to and from the Expo so I took that and arrived at my destination. There are loads of queues and apparently seven different gates in which you can enter the Expo. The Expo spans on both sides of the Huangpu River and is actually really huge. I wasn't expecting something so large and extravagant. The buildings were incredible. But there were so many people!

The Expo is a huge international event and therefore I expected to see more of an international crowd. But I can count on one hand the number of non-Asians I saw. That's ok, though, just an observation.

So all of the neater country pavilions were located on the other side of the river. So you have to wait in a queue to take a ferry across the river. As soon as I figured this out, I found the nearest ferry queue to take. While waiting in line, there are definitely some cultural differences that I noticed.

1. No sense of personal space. I was prepared for this considering that Shanghai has over 18 million people and is the largest city in the world. I figured that everything would be crowded. But I wasn't prepared for the young woman leaning against my breast while her boyfriend picked food out of her teeth. Unfortunately there wasn't any room to maneuver so I was stuck.

2. There isn't any order when waiting in a queue. I've been to a lot of amusement parks, the post office, the bank. And in each of those places, it's essentially first come, first serve; i.e. first one in the line, first one out of the line. That doesn't seem to be the case here...or at least at the Expo. The queue was just a formality. Once people got in line, they starting finding holes in the line and would push their way forward. And there were entire families that did this. At first I was getting really irritated but then realized that everyone was doing this and no one was complaining. So I figured it was the norm.

3. Public restrooms...'nough said. I know I've already mentioned peeing once today but it has come up again. The public restrooms have urinals in the ground where women squat over them and pee. I can honestly say I haven't squat and peed since I was thirteen and camping. I was so paranoid about going on myself but all ended well. I made sure to take a picture of the "toilet" so you all could live my experience. =) Unfortunately, after exiting the restroom and washing my hands, I realized that there were a few stalls that actually had a toilet seat (i.e. 6 stalls out of 25). I will make sure to keep my eyes open for them next time.

So all in all, the Expo was an experience to say the least. And I haven't even mentioned the actual Expo part. Well, my first experience with queues left me feeling very claustrophobic and nauseous. I really didn't think that I was claustrophobic but by the time I boarded the ferry, I had to make sure I went upstairs and got a seat outside because I thought I was going to vomit. I almost didn't even go on the ferry because I didn't want to have to deal with coming back in order to exit the Expo. But I went and walked around but didn't actually go into any of the Pavilions. The lines for each pavilion was even longer than the queue for the ferry and I didn't want to relive that experience more than necessary. And the only Pavilion that I really wanted to see was the Indian one and that pavilion had the longest queue times three compared to any others that I saw. So I just walked around and continued melting in the humidity.

Then all of the sudden a huge downpour erupted and everyone was scattering for shelter. However, the handy traveler that I am...I had my own umbrella. =) But I slowly made my way back to the ferry to go back to the other side. This time, no queue. =)

Lastly (I know, super long entry this time), I experienced some Chinese food. I had shrimp with some spicy sauce and chicken in some soya and spicy sauce. Not very adventurous yet but getting there. I'm working way up. On the menu, they had shark fin soup but for moral and personal taste reasons, I could not bring myself to try it. Furthermore, I would like to see trying to expense a $100 bowl of soup. Somehow I don't think they would have accepted that.

Today, I will go into the office and meet my colleagues here for the first time in person. And tonight I hope to try some of the famous seafood around here.