Some new pics and some news

this week has been the coldest since i got here. today at 1:00 a.m. it was -7 C !!! the day before yesterday we had the second snowfall of the winter and the first of 2008. i realize more and more how much i'm a creature of the caribbean and that snow and freezing temperatures are nice and all, but not something i think i'll ever learn to love as much as humidity and direct sunshine. anyway, winter will only last what's really a few more weeks. by the end of february temperatures begin to rise and spring is in full swing before april... can't wait!







my company had a "thank you party" for a great semester, over and done with. that's me with my two spic partners in crime at the office (left: tracy the panamanian, right: silvia la cubanita). it was a fun fun dinner in a western chinese food restaurant with a billion beers, kung-fu fighters, snake dancers, and roasted lamb.


i never introduced the new addition to the apartment. it's a cat. he's really big and though very shy initially he's now really really sweet. in typical chinese fashion we gave him a western name and a chinese name. i gave him his western name ennio, after ennio morricone. his chinese name is 大脸 (pron. TA! - liENNE) which means "big face." silvia gave him his chinese name because he's giant, heavy, and has an abnormally large head and face.

in other news ross will be going back to the u.s. for a few days!!! he leaves beijing for new york on january 28th and gets home to miami on february 4th where he'll spend something like 12 days. while i'm horribly jealous, i'll be in china for my first chinese new years which starts just a few days after my bday. as an added bonus, silvia's friend kristy will arrive here on the 4th and we're all going to make our way to shanghai for a few days. so i'm psyched to get my ass back to shanghai and hopefully get silvia to fall in love with that magical city from the future and get her to move there with ross and i in a year or two :)

Engrish!

chinese people often use "oh my god" to display shock or surprise much like westerners. it's especially strange though considering they're atheists and don't truly know what the idea of god is. like most things adopted without full knowledge of context it ends up misused and naming a mediocre boutique in shanghai.

this is another shanghai storefront, and one of the many many lacoste knock-offs available for purchase in china. this is actually a knock-off of the much more popular (and not that cheap) knock-off "crocodile" brand. btw, across the street is a knock-off superman paraphernalia store.

i bought this just a few days ago because i couldn't resist. the product is appropriately enough called BATHMASTER. it's a good enough soap...but i don't think the feagrant is long enough, and my horniness is still intact.above and below: more proof that there is very little respect or belief even in intellectual property. the store above has very few "disney" things inside and is mostly faked japanese-y stationary stuffs. below is but one example of almost convincing but obviously bobo products.

pics from home

our typical weekend breakfast, when we have time for more than cereal or toast

how we dry our clothes and linens

our living room

a chinese friend, ana. that metallic gray thing is our central heating and the wall behind it is where we hang our recently finished paintings

Shanghai Day 5

this was our last day and we tried to photograph as much as possible. we had very clear weather for a change and it was windy in the mid 50's. beijing today was in the high 20's :( we had one final walk around familiar parts and new equally impressive side streets and avenues

nanjing lu- one of the biggest shopping streets in the very center of shanghai

that amazing skyline!

shanghai was truly unreal, and it had me rethink a lot about what i can do here in china. i honestly feel i need to live there and will be able to in a year and a half to two year's time. this city impressed me more than i could have ever expected it to. we rode home by train that night bound home to beijing; sad because it was over, but happy knowing we'd had a great time and we somehow got a small peak into the future.

Shanghai Day 4: Chrsitmas Day

ross bought that turquoise fleece the afternoon before. we both did a hell of a lot of shopping that day...feeling a little guilty about it still.

i think part of what made me fall in love with shanghai is the rampant deco buildings. it often appears like a scene from south beach... kinda.

above and below: this is one of the art spaces in a pretty, arty part of the city with a ton of great, legitimate antique shops. the art inside was fairly awful as evidenced by this yucky worst of fiu type art. but the view and location are fantastic!

we photographed like crazy. for every photograph i post, theres like 10 more.