Signs

Any time you visit another country, you're bound to see some signs that make you laugh.  Either the grammar is different or wrong, or they just express things differently.  In Asia, at least in Japan and China, there are frequently misspelled words or phrases that just flat out don't make sense!  Sometimes, quite by accident, they are made funnier by the context as the restaurant sign many of you saw on Facebook was!  Here it is again for those who missed it:

Of all the places to mess up "Bar," it couldn't be funnier than at Coconut!

This sign on the subway is funny mostly because of cultural diferences:

Here's a sign that I took an illicit picture of:

It's a little hard to see through the glass.  It says, "Decline with thanks: Sloppily dressed, cameras (unapproved), Beverage"

This is one of my favorites (from our local grocery store):

Note that this is an eNergency exit.

This next sign is typical and yet not typical of China.  Things can be in a complete state of disrepair for a long time with no sign.  At least this time we know when the sign was posted.  (And can deduce that the jacuzzi is not, in fact, being repaired.)

Finally, a sign from another local imported grocery store that always makes me laugh!

Adventures in Driving, part 3 of 26: Red Lights

I know I've promised this blog post several times.  I've tried to write it many more times than that in my head.  It just never seems to work out.  This is probably because I can't really wrap my head around the "rules" (or lack thereof) for red lights in Shanghai.

Here's something I know for sure: you should never stop at a red light if you are turning right (except for the previously mentioned "all-cross" red light.  I can't say for sure how you know ahead of time if that's the kind of red light you are approaching, but I'm here to tell you that Mr. Mao knows.

In case you wanted to see, watch for the red van coming from the right (if you can tear your eyes away from everything else going on in the video):

Other red lights seem to be optional based on the surrounding traffic?  Maybe…  There are a couple of streets near our house that have traffic lights up but the cross streets are walled off (remember where the sidewalk ends?).  We don't stop at those lights when they are red.  We do stop at the one just outside our main gate when it's red, though there often isn't any traffic.  However, I have seen plenty of other cars go through this red light, sometimes going around us to do so.

M was riding his bike over the summer and came up full speed to a green light and had to slam on his brakes (not sure that's the correct term for hand brakes on a bike) in order not to hit the truck that, after stopping at the red light and looking at M, decided the road was clear for his truck and went on through.

Because I can't tell you all of the stories of going through red lights, and because I don't really understand it myself, I will leave you with another video.  Sorry for the low quality, I used my phone and it was a rainy day.

China prepares for a Typhoon

It's a bonus double-post day!  I ran across this article about the Typhoon that just hit Taiwan.  It's worth a look just to see the picture of typhoon preparation.  I can't help but wonder what the after picture looks like!

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-08/23/content_15699475.htm

Going up?

I've been going through my pictures and realizing that I have so many things to share with you about Shanghai.  Today I'll give you a picture of an elevator in a fairly nice shopping mall.  We had stopped at a coffee shop with the kids for a hot chocolate on a cold day.  Before heading home on the subway, we thought we would run into the attached mall and make a quick (freezing cold - bathrooms in Shanghai, along with many entire buildings, don't seem to be heated) potty stop.  On the way into the bathroom, we saw a bride in her wedding dress pop into this elevator.  We took it on the way out.  Wow.

Just wow.
*Note, not all elevators in Shanghai are like this, but this one was scary enough to make me think twice about passing the escalator by.

Back in the PRC

Well, we're back.  We've been back for about a week & a half and I think we're over jetlag, but it's hard to tell since school has started.  I keep wondering why I'm so tired every night.  It's either one or the other!

I've been trying to come up with something clever or eloquent to write, but nothing has come to me over the last week, so I'm just going to babble a bit to get going again.  After that, hopefully I can get rolling on posting some of the pictures we've taken over the last (almost) year!

The question I've been asked most frequently on both sides of the globe is "Does it feel weird to be back?"  I have to say, it didn't and it doesn't!  What was weird was feeling that way!  Here's a rundown of what was normal & what was really nice.  I'll try to throw in a few weirds for good measure.

Normal: Driving - or riding rather.  In both places.  Felt totally normal to get behind the wheel again, too.  And I didn't even flinch on the way home from the airport here.  That's kind of weird, actually.

Really Nice: My Buick Enclave.  Yikes!  Now I know what other people think when they climb in.  What a NICE car!  I didn't know how spoiled I was!

Suprising: The roads in Michigan are REALLY bad.  Shouldn't have been a surprise, but it was.  How could I forget that?

Really Nice: Farmer's omelette with hashbrowns, wheat toast and a glass of milk straight off the plane.  YUM. (Shout out to Olga's, Max & Erma's, El Koyote Loco, Bellacino's, La Rosa's, Graeters, and Penn Station for being as good as I remembered!  So good!)

Normal: Kroger, Target, Walmart, Kohl's, pretty much every store.  Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed getting to shop for things in normal sizes at normal prices (with coupons!), it's just that being in the stores felt pretty normal.

Faded to normal really fast (I forgot how great it was until I got back here): tap water.  Fresh, delicious, fast-flowing tap water.  Oh, how I miss you.

Weird: Having flashbacks to our arrival last fall when I walked into the house a week and a half ago.  I finally figured out that I was unnerved because I wasn't sure what we were going to eat.  I definitely feel like I'm re-educating myself in this area.

Weird: Feeling super comfortable in 90+ degree weather.  Very weird.  It only lasted a couple of days before I was sweating it out like the rest of you :).  Back here, it's 100 and HUMID.  Yuck is all I can say.

Really Nice: Spending time with our families and friends.  That part was hard to leave behind.

I haven't forgotten that I promised an Adventures in Driving post on Red Lights.  It's coming.  Stay tuned.