So Friday and Saturday Kerry and I spent a lot of time with Peter Christianson, who offered to take us on a couple excursions of the city. Friday he took us to Sanguantang Temple, a Buddhist temple about a 20-minute walk from us. What an experience that was! The temples were beautiful, the smell of incense pervaded the air, and the golden Buddha statues shimmered. We could hear women chanting prayers and saw Buddhist monks. Near the end, we got to eat a noodle bowl with vegetables. ("Ask for extra vegetables," Peter advised. We got more that way.) The noodles also included vegetarian meatballs. Huge bowls of food that we couldn't finish and had to take home: only 10 RMB ($1.50) each!! Saturday Peter took us to Jiashan Market, an open-air market run by many ex-pat Westerners in Shanghai. Lots of amazing food: brownies, pumpkin soup, cheesecake (for Kerry). The highlight for me was the Lebanese food stand. They sold shwarma platters with tabbouleh and hummus. Plus we bought some hummus and Lebanese cheese to take home! Amazing stuff! We took a taxi to the market--Peter shared the cost--and Kerry and I managed to get one back as well (although the first taxi wouldn't take us, for some reason).
Here are some pics of our weekend adventures:
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| Peter, Kerry, and me in front of the temple we visited. |
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| The temple we visited with Peter in Shanghai. |
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| Monks at the temple. |
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| Jiashan Market, Shanghai. |
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| Shwarma wrap, with hummus and tabbouleh, Jiashan Market food! |
Sunday was a bit of a disappointment. I found out that Nanjang Normal University didn't want me to come this semester after all. I should have suspected as much when I didn't hear from them for over three weeks. They did give me a vague invitation for next term, but I'm still miffed. On a weird side note: we had McDonald's delivered for the first time in Shanghai--our first "take out" meal. They had a "double" Filet-O-Fish, which was pretty good, and a "Taro Pie," instead of the regular apple or cherry one. Kerry liked their BLT burger (no cheese); he didn't care for the sundae, though--I think it was "yunyuang" (sp?) flavor. When Kerry and I were looking at the English translations of menu items, one read "Chicken Chicken Box (with really big chicken)". I thought this was amusing.
Monday, things got even more insane. The day started weird: I forgot my lunch. While my classes were great, I was suddenly told (via WeChat, very casually) after my first class by Katherina, the Honors College coordinator, that I'm only supposed to be meeting with my Honors students--the American Literature class--once EVERY OTHER WEEK. What in the actual hell??? I was flabbergasted. So were the students, actually. When I talked to them about it, they had NO IDEA. Still, we had a great class, talking about Douglass and Stowe. For some reason, I like talking about African American Literature a lot. Fortunately, it didn't rain today, and the 745 bus to take me home came reasonably fast.
Tuesday and today, Wednesday, have been pretty uneventful. Mostly I've been prepping for the lecture and workshop in Taiwan. Also, I revised my American Lit. syllabus--Wang Xin asked me to capitulate and teach the class every other week as asked. However, I'm hoping that I can still do the rest of the Honors class next term; maybe I can use it as leverage and get rid of one of those huge undergraduate classes scheduled for me. That would be nice. One highlight of the day: I talked Kerry into going for China food. "No pizza," I said. "I'm tired of Western food." So we chose the Shanghai Restaurant in Hongkou Plaza. We had a 45-minute wait, but the food was pretty good: we had mushrooms with bamboo shoots; a crab and pork dish that seemed like it was mixed in egg drop soup; beef in oyster sauce; and a "creamy chicken" dish. The chicken was pretty inedible--too many bones, too much skin. Still, it had heart potatoes and a good cream sauce. Tasty stuff, but not my favorite.
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