Susan's Shanghai Blog - Week 37

This week's blog is going to be a mish-mash of different things that we've done.

A friend of mine, Lanie, had invited me to play golf with her and another friend at the Shanghai Tianma Golf & Country Club. It is a private course that allows guests, and Lanie's friend's husband's company (did you follow that linkage) has a corporate membership and so they can play every week. It is a 27-hole course located in the Sheshan Natural Reserve, which is the only mountain range in Shanghai.

These are some pictures of the course and the villas that surround the course. It was a nice day of golf, and while it was my first round of golf in a year (I know, my friends will be absolutely shocked), I played pretty well.

So for those of you who have picked yourself up off the floor after hearing that Susan has spent a year without playing golf ... let me just explain why. We have no car, we have no driver, and they can't rent a car here (requires a Chinese license). So we would have to hire a driver or get a cab each way. Next .. most of the courses around here are private and the prices to join are not cheap (I saw one that was 1 million yuan to join). Some have a yearly membership and from what I hear, you have to play 20 times a year to break even. Next, most are not nearby .. Tianma took us approximately an hour to get to. So it just is almost impossible to play for me. Most of the people I know who play, their companys' have a corporate membership that all of the expatriates share. A couple purchase the yearly memberships, but they also tend to have a driver so that going there is much easier.

We went for dinner to a restaurant called Coconut Paradise, which is a Thai restaurant, and we wanted to take a picture of the outdoor seating area, which is sheltered with tons of trees and really feels like a little private garden.

This was Susan's first crack at Shanghai "street food". Outside of the DongChang metro stop is this little place that sells ice cream, drinks, and these things that I have no idea what are (so for my Chinese friends reading this, please tell me what they call this!) I walk by this little place almost every day, and this particular day, I had missed lunch and was starving by 3pm when I walked by. There was this really great aroma lingering and so it kinda pulled me in. After watching what was being made for a couple minutes, I decided to try it (what is that saying .. what doesn't kill you makes you stronger??) I figured it looked fairly safe! So let me try to describe it ... it starts with a piece of break .. think pizza crust .. that she puts on a grill and browns. You get to pick your toppings, which can include a fried egg, something that looks like bacon without all the fat, american cheese slices, and things that look like little hot dogs. I went with bacon and egg. Then on top, she squeezes mayo (I think it is mayo) and ketchup, then flips it over like an omlette and puts it into this little paper bag. I must say, it was tasty, and I've picked them up a couple more times trying different toppings but I prefer just the bacon and egg.

This is a job that I can NEVER do!! The building is the Shanghai World Financial Center, which is 107 stories tall. If you look about 1/2 way up, you'll see something hanging off the right-hand side. The 2nd picture is a closeup .. these are the window washers hanging out around the 50th floor. I'm not really afraid of heights .. but I don't know that I could do THIS job!!

For people keeping up with our pond saga, this is what it looks like at this point. I can't believe there was this much "stuff" in the bottom.

Next interesting thing ... I've talked about the Shanghai Tower construction site next door, and on 2 sides they have put up a cover, which I assume is to keep things from potentially falling on the people walking by on the sidewalk. Well, so they've been putting up sheet metal vertically on the sides and there are trees in the way, so they just cut holes out of the sheet metal to go around the tree limbs.

These pictures are a bit old, but they were taken around May Day, or the International Worker's day, which is May 1st. There were red Chinese flags out flying on almost all of the light posts.

I went over to one of the big shopping centers and between it and the metro stop, I decided to go through a park instead of keeping on the street. It was a nice little park with some flowering bushes so I decided to take a few pictures.

I know, nothing very exciting, but this is normal for us ... not every week is exciting here! Some weeks we just work, eat, sleep, and go normal things like grocery shopping and paying bills.