Shanghai

One of the most interesting places we saw outside of the EXPO was an Insect and Bird market. This place was really bizarre. More than anything, they had crickets for sale, which we learned the Chinese believe can bring luck. In the US when you buy crickets, you buy a cup full. Here, they sell them individually. Each cricket is in its own ceramic container. Before customers buy them they poke at them with a stick--I have no idea what this tells them.

They also have tons of giant locusts and plenty of bugs I've never seen before. There were weird turtles, exotic birds, giant fish, chipmunks, and squirrels. The place was packed. One guy told me I couldn't take pictures, but I managed to get a few.

Chinacountry

Do you know how expensive it is to get to China? Just to get into the country you have to (as an American) pay $200 for a travel visa. Thats before a plane ticket, a hotel, sightseeing, etc. On top of that, you have to get your picture taken at a "professional" photographer studio. I guess the Chinese government keeps this photo permanently, because you don't need it for your visa (the visa is a fancy sticker they attach to your passport).

All of that being said, it was worth it. Before we even got there it was worth it...the photo studio we went to was a large closet where this guy displayed some incredibly ugly portraits. He even had a persian rug that he got underneath to take the picture. Maybe you can see what I'm talking about in the picture.


This is an example of his work. This is hanging outside the place and I really think it displays a lot of feeling. This was probably the feeling that you get when you watch him use the first version of Photoshop to crop your picture on an incredibly slow computer, which is exactly what he does.



Like I said, all of this nonsense was worth it. China (specifically Shanghai) is an interesting place. Shanghai is full of architecture that would seem out of place for Asia, and it has come a long way in short period of time. In 1995 there was no subway system, now it boasts 13 different lines. Here are some views of the city.




The impetus for our trip to China was The World EXPO, a type of theme park that moves to a different city every few years, showcasing nearly every country in the world. Each country builds a pavilion and then brags about how smart they are. Imagine a temporary Disneyland but with substance. All of this magnificent architecture will be torn down/removed after the EXPO ends (the end of October) except for the Chinese pavilion.

The United Arab Emirates pavilion



China's pavilion (see if you can find a person close to the building...thats how big this monster was)



There were an insane amount of visitors; 500,000 a day was the average. This visitor caught my eye while I was eating Czech food.


We saw loads more...












More from China soon.

Jaws

Beth thought this building was pretty boring but I thought it was awesome. Doesn't it look like it has a scary set of teeth on it? That is not what they were going for though, you can see the other ornamental stuff on the side. I probably took pictures of it for about 15 minutes, and walked about an hour to get to it. Beth came along and didn't complain which was awfully nice of her.

The National Past Time

I love baseball. One of my favorite things to do in the US was to go to see the Braves play...an afternoon at the park was hard to beat. There's nothing quite like it.

That being said, baseball here is on a different level. Even though this sport was transplanted here Koreans have made the experience strikingly different than a game Stateside. The stadiums are smaller, the prices cheaper, and the crowd is insane. Every pitch is treated like it's the bottom of the 9th and a 3-2 potential game winning pitch is on its way to the plate. It's so much fun! Getting to the game is really easy, a quick cab ride to the stadium. There are all sorts of fried chicken/squid vendors outside the stadium. Inside, there is more fried chicken and squid. Beer is about $2 a piece, but if you don't want to put up with those high prices you can always bring your own in. Yes, you can bring your own beer here.




One reason the crowd gets so ridiculous is because there is a hype man that leads them in chants. For each batter, in between each pitch he gets them going. Some teams have two guys with war drums, they beat those things and the crowd follows the beat. There is so much energy, and there's no room for the wave (finally). Both the home team and the away team have a guy that does this cheerleading. Sometimes its a person, sometimes its a mascot.



This is the mascot for one team, we found him calling his girl after the game. We also found him smoking a cigarette in his outfit during the game.



In Atlanta we have those foam tomahawks. Their cool, but you have to pay 6 or 7 bucks for one and then you know you won't remember it next time you come. Plus, the chop only happens so much and you can always use your arm if you forgot your tomahawk. Here, they use those inflatable tube things that make quite a racquet. A lot of the games they give them out for free, but you can also pay about .85 cents if you want a nice new set. Plus, don't worry about blowing them up--they have a tent with pressurized air that will do that for you.




If you don't have a set of these you'll be the only one in the stadium. You are expected to chant and pound those tubes together with everyone else. One of the chants actually calls for a home run.

I ran into these guys at a game in Gwangju, they were awesome. This is a picture of them celebrating after their team won with a walk off homer.



There are plenty of other differences...there is no 7th inning stretch, and you don't get that relaxed feeling that we have at the American ball parks. There is a big net that goes all the way down the 1st and 3rd baselines that is a little annoying to look through. And I haven't found a hot dog yet. But there are things that we wouldn't do that make so much sense. They have cheerleaders that dance on the dugout. They have beer chugging contests that they show on the jumbotron. I still can't figure out the fried squid, but they love 'em at the ballpark here. It's a great experience!

How to Empty an 11th Floor Apartment

Almost everyone here lives in a high rise. Beth and I have (conservatively) estimated that each one of these buildings, at 18 stories high, holds about 400 people. I can see at least 17 of these buildings off of our porch, and thats probably about 3 square blocks. That's a lot of Koreans.

We found that to move things in and out of these high rises they don't use the slow, small elevator. Instead, they prop a crane on the side of the building and send a plank up and down that carries whatever the apartment is removing/adding. We'd seen this from a distance before, but last week it happened directly underneath our 12th floor apartment. I recorded some video, check it out:



They don't use any guard rails or tie-downs, they just throw the stuff on there. In the video they are just moving simple stuff (various media) but we've seen them throw couches, chairs, and small trees onto these things. Its really pretty crazy.