I am writing this blog post from our brand new teacher’s lounge that is ridiculously opulent. Mahogany tables, leather chairs, gigantic picture windows, French silk drapery, recessed lighting AND chandeliers. I feel like I will be spending a lot of my time here from now on, especially considering they have free coffee and cappuccino. I have an hour before my class from hell: 11th grade non-native history. Today’s lecture, the development of the French revolution. Not sure who decided I was qualified to teach that, but either way, I make it happen three times a week.
This weekend was a good mixture of calm coffee shop evenings, long and lingering days out, and risqué nights at some of the nicest bars this city has to offer. Nights out like that always bring with them notions of colonial imperialism, as I capitalize on the fact that being white, or being western, in this city brings with it exorbitant pay and, therefore, relatively undeserved privilege.
I took a nap on Friday after getting off work. I was a little sick, and needed a good rest before attempting to take on the weekend before me. After waking up from my nap, I watched a movie and knitted for a while on my brand new couch from Ikea, which I am unrealistically in love with (pictures to be posted soon!). Friday night I spent reading and writing at a place called Coffee Lox, which is basically just a cheaper Starbucks. There was a pretty big party at a co-worker’s apartment in the French Concession, but I opted not to go and recover from my illness completely instead.
Saturday I woke up in utter disgust with the status of my hair. It has taken a grand beating from two months of heat, humidity, hard water, cheap shampoo, and unreal pollution. I just knew I had to do something about it. I remembered this place that looked promising in the French Concession called “Eric Paris” and after checking out their website Saturday morning, I decided to give it a shot.
I have been getting much better and more confident with using various modes of public transportation less expensive than taxis. I decided to take the 824 bus, which goes more or less right to the French Concession, and dropped me off right in front of the hair salon. A huge shopping plaza is midway between school and the FC, so the bus got really, really, really crowded right before those stops. It was a little too crowded for comfort, but the fact that it cost only 2 yuan was hard to pass up.
I arrived at the hair salon about thirty minutes before they opened, but luckily for me there is a nice starbucks right next door. I sat out on the sidewalk right on Hengshan Lu, the main road in the FC. I had coffee and a muffin, and read a little. Right at ten, I walked in, and they just happened to have an appointment time open. A French woman by the name of Sylvie cut my hair, and I am really pleased with it. I headed back to school right after, and made it just in time to join Devon and Jess on a massage adventure in celebration of Devon’s birthday.
We found out about this place called Pheonix from some of our co-workers and were told to get the 88 yuan special. The 88 yuan special is a TWO hour message where they work on your feet for an hour and then take you to another room for a full body for another hour. It was quite enjoyable, and by the end of it, none of us wanted to move from the massage table. But, we had a busy schedule ahead; dinner and the opening of a new location of on of our favorite bars in the FC called Cottons. Because it was their grand opening, it was open bar until 10. Clearly, we wanted to get there early.
The new location of Cottons is quite nice, although like I said before, has a certain air of colonial imperialism. I stayed until 10, and then decided to head back home because I was still not totally over being sick, and I had a long and eventful Sunday in the city yet to come.
My plans for Sunday included the following; a good western breakfast, a trip to Shanghai Art Museum, a walk through Hengshan Park, and coffee and knitting on the starbucks terrace in Xuijawei. A late departure turned a western breakfast into a western lunch, and the crisis of potentially having had lost my Chinese bankcard weighted heavily on my once carefree spirit(no worries, though, I have retrieved it). Not the best start to a long day, but far from the worst as well.
After sitting at The Coffee Bean in People’s Square for about an hour where I read and wrote, we headed off to look for the Shanghai Art Museum, which alluded us for a while. After many map consultations a few scratchings of the head, we found our way to the museum, and waited in line to enter. I feel like the museum itself needs its own post, and I think I will give it that. The theme was “Translocalmotion” and was all about the vast immigrant worker population in Shanghai. The thirsty sociologist within lapped up the experience, and planned to expand research on this population, as it seems to be huge and quite a force upon the city in both social, ethnic, geo-political, and economic ways.
After satiating both my need for art and intellectual material, we headed back to the FC to wander through Hengshan Park, which was supposed to be having an art festival. Turns out the festival was less of a festival and more of a performance series, and the performances were not going to begin until later that evening. As such, we took a leisurely stroll through the park, and found ourselves at a very busy starbucks in Xuijawei, where I knitted and rocked out to modest mouse while watching the hoards of people below and attempted to comprehend the reality of my life at this intersection. I’d say I got a little further on the material blanket I was knitting than the immaterial questions of existence I was posing. Either way . . .
A not so quick trip to the Caoxi Lu DVD store on the way back, and 10 new DVDs later, it was time to finally return to my humble abode, pop in a film, pick up the needles, and calm myself for the week ahead. Sleep came easily and I woke up this morning without my alarm.
I have a feeling that it is going to be a pleasant and balanced week. Picture updates soon to come.
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