Half way around the World for Carl's Jr.

So the double decker bus dropped us off in People's Square (rather they kicked us off because you had to pay again to ride any further, explained to us by a nice Chinese girl after the ticket taker rambled to us in Chinese for 5 minutes, well only to me because the Chinese like to ignore my friend when speaking Chinese). So we decided to treat ourselves to the Carl's Jr. I had heard about a few weeks back. The first one in China and just opened 2 months before. So we walked into the mall, only to be described as the one with Hershey's store in it, and headed down to find our hometown craving (no In & Out yet).

Nothing like ordering a big juicy Western bacon w/ Cheese, fries and a 'refillable' drink! Here is my friend,Trent, enjoying some delicious crisscut fries.

During our delicious meal, I was trying to take in our whole experience. And during

this experience taking ining I noticed the Carl's Jr. cups... You would think nothing special right? Well half way around the world I have come across a slice of my home town. The all too familiar quote on the side of the cup, yup the review by the 'Orange County Register'! Nothing like coming to China, sitting down to a completely normal Carl's Jr. meal and being probably the first (ok I'm exaggerating...maybe the second) person to actually know where that quote on the side of the cup came from. Well anyway, I took advantage of my free refill and we left, having throughly enjoyed our tasty, yet expensive meal (38 kuai).

Sightseeing on a Budget...

So last weekend a buddy from Concordia (the only one living over in Puxi with me) decided to go exploring last Friday. Usually this just consists of us asking each other repeatedly what we should do, and neither one of us having any idea what to do. Usually we try to look up something on the internet, which doesn't turn out well. Usually it is some super touristy thing or something that costs a lot of money (usually one in the same). This time however we had a plan, and a rather good one at that...in theory. I had noticed a bunch of double decker public busses on the streets lately, and after getting a friendly tip from a Concordia alumni who works at my school I had figured out where to find that said bus.

So after meeting up and getting lunch at the usual spot (Metro City Mall Food Court) we headed off on our exploration quest. I went to the place where I thought the busses would be, a rather confusing bus depot. However, to our sad realization, the double decker bus we sought was no where to be found. After wandering aimlessly for a few moments our new "master plan" was to sit on the street and see if one drove by and then try to follow it to the nearest bus stop. Well ok, we thought of this plan out of desperation, so it was really a back up plan/the best thing we could come up with in 5 minutes. This was quite unsuccessful, but I did come up with my next photo montage, weird stuff on bikes. This was my first shot.

So anyway, we decided to head back to my friends place which was close by to think of a better plan and look it up on the internet. Well to our over joyous surprise we saw one of those darned busses at the back of the bus depot! We hopped on and in 15 mins we were being whisked away on our double decker sightseeing tour. And the best part of all this, is it costs a mere 3 kuai for about an hour of driving around and taking pictures. Better yet, there was no annoying announcer trying to explain every little nicknack on the road. So 3 kuai later we ended up in People's Square for the dinner of Champions....Carl's Jr.

Another one of those, What should I do moments...

On this particular day I had just bought some new dress shoes at the newly opened 'Big Toe' shoe store. And by newly opened this place had been completely gutted, renovated, and fully stocked up and running in what had to have been less than 10 days. On the walk back to the bus I had one a "Um, what should I do?" moments in my head. And this is what I saw that put that thought in my head...

Yes, it is what it looks like. A guy laying on the ground, eyes closes, in an awkward position that doesn't look like he is sleeping kinda of way, and a slight wound on his head. So upon approaching the scene I noticed at least 2 dozen bike riders look, stare, then ride away. O did I mention the guy in the black must have been there for a while because he is selling sweet potatoes on his makeshift oil barrel oven? So, yes I was confused on what to do, stop and nudge the guy? Ask him if he is okay in my non existent Chinese? Or just act like the locals and walk right by? Well none of the above, I took it upon myself to act like the look like a local tourist who lives here. Yup I walked right by, turned, stared for a bit, then decided it would be a good picture to share as my experience in China, and took a picture (quickly though). So now it is on the Internet for all to wonder and think about the same thing that I thought. Is that guy really dead?....

**Please don't think down on me, I am wary after hearing about the scams in China where no one will stop to help someone, and the one tourist who does gets blamed for injuring that person...Unlikely in this case, but I'm not falling for that one... ***

Hello, may I take your order?

After hearing about a place that has good burritos from Trent, I decided to check it out the next day. It is a place called, 'Pizza to Go.' Odd name for a place that sells burritos. It turns out it sells much more than burritos, sandwiches, cheese fries, fish & chips, hot dogs, pizza, baked pasta, nachos AND burritos! Well it turns out this place is the epitome of a whole in the wall. So after ordering our burrito combo with chips (21 rmb), we were waiting for our order. After admiring the size of a huge rabbit in front of the shop, the lady calls us over because our burritos are done. She is on the phone and now trying to convince me in Chinese (with my little to no Chinese) that she wants me to take an order. The person on the other side of the phone is obviously American, from the accent and probably has no clue who is taking her 12" Veggie and Hawaiian pizza order. This is as the lady shop owner is trying to tell me what information to get from the customer. O, and I forgot to mention that this was after the owner said they take orders in English, just ask for Stephen. So I wonder to myself, who is Stephen, and where is he to take this order? Maybe it was just the name of the last expat that happened to be there when a call came in. Next time she'll tell the customers, "We take orders in English, just talk to Brian."

I hope I get a discount for this the next time I have a burrito craving...

Out of the HOTEL!!

I have finally moved out of Qian Dao Hu Hotel, my home for 2 months. No more fuwuyuan knocking on my door in the middle of my afternoon nap. No more paying 100 kuai to do my laundry. No more slow internet... But welcome fast internet, a laundry machine, and 31st floor of downtown pudong located in the middle of the Xujiahui shopping center.