Sent: Monday, May 17, 2010 9:14 PM
Subject: China - Day 8
My phone has vanished. I am not sure exactly where or when, but I felt for it just after breakfast and it was gone. I had Sam call it and it went straight to voice mail which means either someone was talking on it or had turned it off. Either way, it was in someone else’s possession. I called the person at my office who manages the phones and she had the SIM card cleared and the phone disabled. They are going to overnight a new phone which will hopefully arrive by Monday. What a pain.
We visited a Japanese company in Shanghai today – a really odd experience. In the lobby, we all had to remove our shoes and put on one of the pairs of blue slippers on a rack near the door. Sam has large feet and none of the slippers were big enough – it was hilarious watching him walk with his heels dragging behind the slippers. The place was immaculate so I guess the slippers help. Keeping anything clean in a place with such poor air quality must be difficult. Since I arrived in Shanghai, I have seen crews scrubbing by hand things like light posts and mail boxes, just to get the grime off. Most of the apartment buildings, although modern, look seedy on the outside – discolored from constant exposure to dirty air. It sounds like I am painting a bad a picture of this city and that is truly not the intent. I really like Shanghai – it is very modern, very busy, easy to get around and very, very safe. I have walked all over these past few trips and never felt the least bit threatened – even late at night. I would have no issues living here, for a time at least, but the air quality would be a definite drawback.
Sam and I were on our own for dinner and we decided to eat something a bit more familiar. Walking around last night, I spotted Lawry’s – same as the famous Chicago restaurant, so we decided this was pretty safe. A piece of meat with no bone shrapnel in it tasted really good!! And the potatoes and creamed corn (I normally hate creamed corn, but at Lawry’s it is the best thing on the menu!) made it all work. A glass of wine and nice Cuban cigar later, all was well – system back in equilibrium. After dinner, Sam and I sat at an outside table at an Italian place nearby and ordered drinks. I asked for a vodka martini which completely confused the waitress and I wound up with something that was not a martini and contained no vodka – not sure what it was. She did better on the second try.
For the next two days we have no obligations – We shall see how much trouble we can get into
Day 9 preview – how to jump out of a moving taxi – or - no one is ripping ME off for $.0.75!
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