Random Thoughts

As I am writing this, an America guy came up to me and asked if I was a Nittany Lion. Seriously. It turns out that his parents taught at Penn State. His mom worked in the College of Communications. In a city with 20-million people, I find the one guy who knows the logo on my hat.

He said he went to Penn State for one year "to have his fun." Doesn't everybody?

I did not have my malaria shot.

I killed a mosquito today in my apartment. That sucked.

There aren't many things I don't like about Shanghai. Smoking is definitely one of them. So many people smoke. I heard the other day that there is more tobacco consumed in China than anywhere else is the world. I don't doubt that.

I had a good laugh the other day. Someone was talking to their dog... in Chinese. It's not like I expected them to speak English, I just didn't know dogs could speak Chinese.

Water is SO important here. They say it brings good fortune. There are fountains, canals, rivers, water art. The only problem is that all the water is brown and full of garbage. And, you can't drink it. What kind of fortune is that?

I still can't believe the uses for bamboo. I asked someone if there is enough bamboo for the Pandas? They laughed and told me that Pandas don't like dead bamboo. Dumb question.

It has been recommended to me that I turn off lights when I walk out of a room and turn off the water heater when I am not using it. The Chinese want to save electricity. Are you kidding me? Have you seen the lights downtown (I have included video)? It makes Las Vegas look like Tucson (where you can't have lights disrupt the stargazers).

People here are so nice, even when they are not. They are abrupt, dislike happy-talk or anything unimportant. Still, if you need something, they will do anything they can to help.

Everyone is getting prepared for EXPO 2010. It will be an opportunity for China to show off a new Shanghai. The construction is endless. The government has asked people to be "nice." It's amazing when the government has to ask people to be "nice." As I said in the previous entry, I haven't had that problem. Haibo, the little blue character is the face of EXPO 2010. Very cute.

New York might be the "City the Never Sleeps," but Shanghai is the "City that Never Sits." A local person told me that yesterday.

There are street sweepers in Shanghai... individual workers who use straw brooms to clean the streets. It is a job the government has protected to allow more people to work.

I had Nepalese food for lunch yesterday; Thai food for dinner. So different than home. My brother has told me the Thai Iced Tea in the U.S. is terrible. I laughed at him. I'm not laughing now. It is AWESOME!

There is a military jet that flies very low over my apartment and the rest of downtown every afternoon. I have asked a lot of Chinese about it. They don't even notice it. Well, the American guy notices it.