Arrival

I didn't bother with deodorant today. 1) The temperature is so hot, and the air so humid, that I'm sweating again even after I shower and before I leave to go outside, and 2) I locked myself out of Rory and Julie's bathroom this morning. ALso locked in said bathroom were items like my contacts and glasses, so I spent the better part of the day not really able to tell where I was going. It did make for the first adventure of the trip, though. After Rory and I spent about an hour this afternoon trying to jimmy the lock and in the process nearly breaking off a key while still in the keyhole, we went to look for a locksmith. I looked up the word in my dictionary before we left (suojiang), since I hadn't used it before, and off we went. I also learned another word during the search process, apparently the word used to refer to "man on little blue bicycle with lots of tools," because that's the person we came upon after asking for directions a few times. I have since forgotten said word, and I hope I never have to use it again. He walked his bicycle and tools with us back to the apartment and about 5 minutes and 60 yuan ($9, or way too much money) later, the door was open, my contacts were retrieved, and the bathroom was ready for business. (The internet I'm typing on right now, by contrast, costs about $0.37 per hour).

Let me back up a little bit. I arrived in Shanghai yesterday. On the flight over, I still wasn't sure where I planned to spend my first night, but I decided to stay outside of Shanghai with friends and fellow bloggers Rory and Julie, in order to gather my bearings before moving on. So, I took a two-hour bus from the airport to the Shanghai South Train Station, then another 45-minute train to Jiazing, before I showed up much to the surprise of Rory and Julie (well, Rory at least, as I had indicated to Julie that I might be spending a night). After two nights here, I head out to Hangzhou tomorrow, to fly down to Guangzhou, near Hong Kong, site of a few meetings with professors. Let me also add that Delta' standards seem to have lowered considerably, as the only snack separating the 12-odd hours between meals was a bun with mayonnaise and a hard-boiled egg. Yuck.

When I say Jiaxing is outside of Shanghai, I mean only about 60 km, but I also mean devoid of any white people not working at the English school where they teach. Jiaxing probably has about 3 million people, but I was certainly the only white person on the bus, and I had to read a book in order to deflect stares for the entire trip. It reminded me a lot of Weihai, and I actually prefer these places to the larger cities of Shanghai and Beijing, because people assume you're not simply a tourist and therefore try to sell you less crap. The city itself offers nothing remarkable, but it would be a comfortable place to live. The weather is quite warm, but also free of the snow that I don't want to see more than once a year, anyhow. Palm trees can grow and are indeed abundant. Tolerable beer can also be located relatively easily.