Last week we decided to hop in a van and take a trip over to some Chinese markets. Within 2 minutes of hopping out of the van we had 3 or 4 new “best friends” that wanted to show us the best shops. Some of them even had catalogs for us to flip through so we could point to anything that interested us.

Everyone got corralled onto an escalator, up to the second level of what looked like a mall on the outside. Inside was a fake brand name free for all, and all of the shop owners were noticeably pleased to see a bunch of westerners.

These shops focused mostly on wearable items like polos, jackets, suits, underwear (yep), watches, and shoes. I can’t be sure of the quality yet, but this stuff definitely looked legit. I guess we’ll see after a few washes.

I’d post pictures of my purchases, but I don’t want you pointing out all my fake gear back in the states ;) Of course, if you see me rockin’ a $3000 watch, it’s a good bet that it’s not real…that is if it’s still ticking.

I like my friend Tad’s blog post about the afternoon.

The playgrounds here have some interesting equipment. This lady for example uses something that resembles the Gazelle in America.

I walked down to “The Bund” tonight and snapped this photo of Pudong from across the Huangpu river

As you may know, the real reason I’m here in Shanghai is for work. I’m here for three weeks of training actually. Our first week of class is over and it went pretty well. Here’s a photo of my awesome team burning the midnight oil before our final project presentation on Friday:

from left to right:
Patryck - technical design
Greg - technical design and project plan
Dominika - business case and financials
James - financials and capacity planning
Me - business case and financial benefits

Coolio resurfaced last night in Shanghai at a club called BonBon. The Grammy award winning rapper that brought us such favorites as “Fantastic Voyage” and “Gangster’s Paradise” captivated a crowd of Shanghainese and expats with such phrases as:

• “I’m 44, but this ain’t your daddy’s stomach” (while lifting shirt to show abs)
• “If I was your boyfriend…. that wouldn’t be your boyfriend” (while pointing to my friend Rachel)
• “If I was your boyfriend, we would have mansions, jewelry, and Cadallacs…and you would pay for all a dat” (still pointing to Rachel)
• “Ya’ll ready to go back in time?” (before singing Fantastic Voyage)
• “Ain’t no party like a Shanghai party ’cause a Shanghai party don’t stop” (a genius improv line in his song 1,2,3,4)

A couple nights ago a bunch of us went to the Shanghai Ice Bar. This place was a complete novelty (we were the only people there, and I’m sure the locals laugh at it). Basically you get a huge parka, with gloves attached, when you walk in, and everything in the bar is made of ice (hence the name). Check out some pics:

The weather in Shanghai has been pretty bad for the most part so far.  Everyday but one has been overcast and extremely humid.  It looks like Saturday should be pretty nice, though, which is good because we’ll be touring the city all day.

You would think that the Circuits classes I took in college would have resulted in a little real world electrical knowledge – but you would be wrong.

The first night here I asked the front desk for a power transformer (to account for the difference between American AC and Chinese AC), and they gave me a power strip. I assumed it had some kind of power conversion built in…but it didn’t. I plugged in my iHome, the power went out and I smelled burning.

I called the front desk, and 10 minutes later I had three Chinese maintenance engineers in blue jump suits in my room trouble shooting the issue. We struggled through a bunch of failed communication, and they finally left after the power got turned back on. To make matters worse, my key card stopped working later that night. After going to the front desk three times to get it fixed, they decided to relocate me.

Suddenly I found myself in a suite with a living room, an LCD TV on the wall, and a whole wall of windows. Check it out: