New Arrivals

Our apartment is facing directly opposite a pet market. It's quite strange that I only discovered it was there while shopping for houseplants, only to find a big blue macaw on a perch in the same room as about a half dozen chickens, some caged budgies and cockatiels, and a goose. Random. 

It is actually not a very nice place to be. In China, as with any developing country, pets are treated as as stock rather than respected as living beings. It's a hard fact to ignore sometimes. Last week, I found a kitten about the size of my palm in a bush outside my apartment compound. It was crying and crying so I wrapped it in a towel and took it upstairs only to find the little thing was covered in parasites and had badly infected eyes. I took it to the vet who said it was too sick to survive and would die painfully on it's own if it wasn't euthanized. Needless to say this was a shitty day for everyone involved, especially poor kitty. There are some organizations in Shanghai to help with the massive unwanted pet population but it runs on donations/volunteers and animal shelters are a pretty new and foreign concept in a country that still has sick and starving people to deal with. 

The mammal population of these "pet markets" are in a pretty sad state, but the fish are just strange.

This is not my picture, but they have the same ones here. They inject pockets of ink under the scales of the fish to make designs in their bodies, or in the case of this photo, Betty Boop fish. Not all fish look this ridiculous. They also sell all types and sizes of goldfish, tropical , and saltwater fish. 

Anyone who has met my boyfriend will know his strange obsession with Clownfish and yesterday we took the plunge and adopted two tiny babies, an anemone, a crab, and a whole lot of weird little mermaid flowers. This is the tank. The anemone is that orange blob in the front and the crab is in hiding.

This is our little clowny, Schumacher

And this is Button (Formula 1 drivers)

I hope they will be happy in our house. They already cuddle and rub each other at night and never swim far from each other. Apparently this is called "hosting" and eventually they will become a mated pair. Awwwwwwww!!!! <3

1/2 of Box of Cheerios is $7.50

Today Tony and I spent 50 cents on both of our lunch! It was a steamed bun concoction called 'bao zi' which can have all manner of things stuffed inside of it. Ours were stuffed with cabbage and noodles, and another with tofu and spinach. We tend to stay away from the meat options of any street food as I am a veggie and we both want to avoid three days of the shits. 

This is just one example of how cheaply you can survive in China. I'm also trying to keep some familiarity and nutritive value in our food by cooking at home a lot, using primarily Chinese supermarket stuff. Last night, I made Mexican black beans with my own salsa and sour cream. It was delish and I am a genius.

We have had to say goodbye to a lot of foods we love. They are either unavailable or extortionately priced. The pot of sour cream was the most expensive part of the meal at $5.50, as it's considered an import product. We haven't really had any dairy since we arrived, save for Tony trying every brand of yoghurt on the shelves in order to satiate his weird cravings for the stuff. Milk is a bit dodgy as they do some weird Chinese chemical thing to the cows and 100g imported block of cheese costs more than my daily commute to work, so it's essentially bye-bye dairy. Finding a good loaf of bread is like trying to find a unicorn. Chinese people put sugar in everything. I bought a loaf of bread labeled "Rye with Date Products." I bit into it expecting rye bread with dates, instead it was essentially chocolate cake with dried cranberries and chocolate chips. It was good and I ate it, but it lied to me. I still want whole wheat, toasted, with butter, not costing the price of a new laptop. These are the sacrifices we make. OUR BREAD IS CAKE PEOPLE!

There is a fun side to having a completely different supply of products to choose from at the supermarket. We often buy random fruits, candies, and drinks to see what they are like. Sometimes they are great, and sometimes they look like candy but are actually strips of dried, unidentified meat rolled into shiny foil wrappers with a fun little cartoon man on the side. Tip: In China, you can never judge a food by it's misleading description/appearance. Some things I have tried (these are not my pictures):

A sports drink containing the sweat of the "Pocari", whatever that is.

 

This fruit smells like pee. Do not eat, unless you like to eat pee.

This is actually fried wood-ear mushrooms. Very yummy, unfortunate translation.

Candied sweet potato. Really good.

In conclusion, upon traveling to China, or any country abroad, try everything and see if you like it (after risk assessment, if it looks dirty, do not consume). It might end up tasting repulsive, or it might be the most delicious and moderately priced thing you have ever eaten.

Cheerio!! xx

Our New Place

 Some videos of our place.

I feel a bit sorry for cockroaches. They look so unassuming and they have no idea they are not welcome in your home, scuttling up the curtains of your bedroom window. The next time you find one in your home, I suggest doing what we did and providing Mr. Cockroach with trade instead of imminent death. One hot air balloon ride from the 5th story in exchange for his vacating the flat immediately. Simply tuck him inside a discarded plastic sack, the ones that the bolts from IKEA come in works nicely. Open your window and let him fly into the wind. 

Anyhow, apart from invading creepy crawly friends, our apartment is assembling nicely. We repainted over the hand/snot marks on the wall and went to Chinese IKEA twice, which is MENTAL. Imagine a fusion of regular IKEA and a Chinese supermarket. Now double the amount of people inside on a Sunday. Now imagine all of them hanging out on the furniture, sleeping on the beds, and lounging on the sofas like they were in their own homes. Now add a an inability to queue and funny chinglish toilet paper dispensers in the bathroom explaining how this paper is "not from tree, but from life." I hope I have painted a vivid picture  of what our home furnishing experience has been thus far. 

Fortunately, our place is now almost painted, furnished, internet connected, and clean. It is situated right under the metro line and is just down the road from all of the foreign food shops and restaurants. It also has a spare room complete with sofa bed, awaiting it's first victim...I mean visitor, mah sister.

So, job? Check (I'll tell you about it in another post). Apartment? Check. Now we are just waiting for our visas to finish processing...dum dee dum dum dum and then (hopefully) check. After all of that is finished, I want to do some serious catching up with ya'll. I'm thinking...mid- September?

Sending love and humidity from Shanghai xx