Easter in Shanghai

Easter is a Christian holiday and China is an atheist country which means I have to use a personal day to take off Good Friday. Here is what I did on my own created Easter break. 

On Thursday night I headed to Shanghai to my reserved hotel, Metropolo Jinjiang Hotels Classiq. I have been to the hotel before and it is in a great location and generally a nice hotel. Then I headed to Thursday night mass. 

Friday I slept in as much as I could and headed to the Shanghai Botanical Garden. It is a massive 81 hectares! There are a few green houses and conservatories, two children's play areas (one with bumper cars and a merry-go-round), and of course a lot of flowers and trees. When I visited, many of the flowers weren't in bloom or had just got done blooming but I still had a lot to see. There were a ton of students on field trips that day as well. I think I spent about four hours in this park.   

That night I went to Friday night mass, ate Italian near my church, and went home. 

Saturday morning I woke up at 8:00 am and had to do some school work. After that was finished I headed off to the Shanghai Aquarium and then the Power Station of Art. The aquarium was actually a lot nicer than I was expecting. They also had a lot more fish on display as well. My only problem was seeing shark eggs on exhibit because they looked real (the baby sharks inside were moving!!) and I didn't know how humane it was to keep them in those small boxes. 

In the martial arts exhibit they had the fish next to what their anime character would look like. It was weird. 

The shark eggs in their stages. The shark on the bottom of the picture would get up and swim around, so it was alive. 

They had a large underwater tunnel that patrons could walk through. I got dizzy after a while from looking at the contorted glass and had to hold on to the rail until I got out. Blast you aging! I spent about two hours in the aquarium and the lines weren't too long, but it was a bit crowded. 

My friend feels that she can't go to Chinese zoos or aquariums because she feels that the animals are suffering more in China than they would in other zoos. I visited Shanghai Zoo last year and definitely felt like they were mistreated and at this aquarium I questioned how well the animals were treated. 

The Power Station of Art was my next stop. The building is impressive but directly outside there is a lot of construction going on. The inside of the building was also incomplete. A few of the floors were closed off do to construction but there were art exhibits and it was free. I thought the museum was okay but would recommend the more famous Chinese Art Museum over this one, until the construction is done. Something you should know about China is that this isn't the first time a museum/shop/restaurant has been listed as "open" when really it is only half finished. Read the reviews for these places and know what you are getting into. 

They had digital media played on curtains. You walk through the curtains to get to the next media room. 

Saturday night I went to Easter Vigil mass and we didn't finish until midnight. To my despair, the subways are closed at midnight so I had to didi home. It wasn't too bad but since everyone was going home from that church, there was some traffic. 

My final day on Sunday I went to eat at a French restaurant called Cuivre. The staff speaks English, French, and Chinese and I thought the food was well priced and delicious. Then I went off to Century Park. This is also a large park and could have spent more time there if I didn't have to go back to the train station. It also started to rain on me which was a bummer. 

I wish there were more Easter themed things to do in Shanghai but found that on Smart Shanghai website they were either incorrect or catered more for children. I will be certainly happy to go back to America and get my Easter break and Easter candy that I miss so much. I am coming chocolate rabbits! 

Karaoke Rooms Help Your Nerves

My birthday happened a few days ago and I decided that to celebrate that I would take my English department out to eat at Pizza Hut and then go to Karaoke. It is very different than in the USA and wanted to share with all of you. 

*A big thank you to Susan who booked the room for us!*

Karaoke otherwise known as KTV in Chinese (Karaoke Television) is super popular in Asia. They even have these booths around malls that are small KTV rooms. They are mostly used by dating couples to sing to each other. It is cute!

Image from https://news.cgtn.com/news/

How a KTV works in China is that a person reserves a private room for themselves and the room is provided with snacks and tea. You can order room service in all of the rooms, change the A/C, and two televisions are provided. There are two wireless microphones and our room had a third standing microphone because we had ordered a "medium" sized room which is supposed to fit 6-10 people. There are large rooms which have one giant flat screen to project on (maybe 10 by 10 feet big) and about 20 chairs. 

The rooms lights change different colors throughout the night which gives it a fun atmosphere. 

Standing microphone seen here.

There is a smart screen attached to the wall where you type in the music you want to sing. They have a lot of English songs but nothing that has come out in the last year or two is available. You are able to mute or unmute the singer in the song as you wish and change the volume of the songs from the smart screen. 

I love these rooms because karaoke in America is, in a word, stressful. It is usually with one microphone by yourself on a stage looking out on a bar full of strangers. I would say that in American bars people drink a lot more on karaoke night due to nerves. While our KTV room did offer alcohol, we didn't have any that night. You are a lot more relaxed when you are around friends! 

I bought a cake for us, which the bar let us bring in, and we sang from 7:00 pm all the way until 10:00 pm! KTV can last until midnight at our mall and can last much later at KTV only places. 

I love going to KTV  and wish I had more chances to go. I really hope that America starts getting these private karaoke rooms instead of doing it in big bars. It would be so much better for everyone's nerves! I will always love you KTV. 

*Try* Not To Lose Your Mind

Living overseas can be hard. Especially if it is like my experience where I'm the only American in my school, one of ten foreigners living in my apartment complex, and maybe one of 200 foreigners in a city of 4 million. 
Top that off with no Christmas, Easter, Halloween and missing weddings, funerals, and baby showers. It can be overwhelming and emotionally draining. 

How do I fight that off? I have a few ways and maybe it will help some of you out there reading this. 

1. If you have a hobby-bring it to your new country. It is easier to cope to isolation when you have something familiar and comforting with you. Personally, I love to crochet and sew and bake (I'm basically a grandma in a 25 year old body) but in China finding quality yarn, sewing equipment, and baking ingredients was impossible the first year. The second year I was in China I brought all of that stuff with me. It has been nice to do something I love. 

2. Eating your regular food. When I first came to China I wanted to fully immerse myself in the culture and food but I got homesick. Everyone does! If you eat turkey every year for Thanksgiving and then you don't eat it one year, it just feels wrong. Going to the foreigner market to get turkey made me feel so much better. When I first got to China I ate a ton of oreos because they tasted basically the same as USA oreos. It was a nice touch of home when I was feeling down. 

3. Get out of your house! When there is a language barrier it makes it hard to even go to the grocery store so it is easier to stay holed up under a blanket. However, going outside once in a while is so beneficial for my mental health. Even though the language barrier is a problem, I find I need to get out and do something fun. I always find something enjoyable to do and inviting a friend to go with me gets me to be more social. Joining a gym, going to a class, or signing up for clubs is a good way to make yourself get out of the house as well. 

4. Stay connected. I find it very comforting to Skype with my friends and family at least once or twice a month. You need to catch up with them, vent, and laugh for your own sanity. There is a bittersweet moment when doing this because you both will miss each other but I still think this is necessary to keep the relationships relevant and to protect your sanity. You just need a friendly face and people who speak your language fluently.

5. Celebrate your holidays! I mentioned this a few times in this blog but you need to do your own holidays and celebrations when they come up. The first year I thought by working on Christmas day would distract me from my homesickness, but it instead filled me with regret and anger. Take the day off! Go to church! Hide your Easter eggs! Put up a tree! Carve a pumpkin! I guarantee it will be so much better for you to do that. Plus if you invite the locals, they think it is a ton of fun and they love learning about Western holidays. 

6. Go to the movies. Maybe you aren't a big movie fan but in China they do get most of the USA movie releases and in English. While you live overseas, you are going to be behind on Western cultural changes like new slang, TV shows, and music. When I first went back to the USA over the summer, I felt really behind culturally but at least my film list was up to date. 

Have any other questions or tips? Write them below!

Chinese Zombies Are Hopping Scary

On April 5th, China has a festival called QingMing or Tomb Festival. It is kind of like Day of the Dead in Mexico. I have never experienced it and probably never will since it is for relatives only but I thought I would share an interesting zombie story! 

While talking about the Tomb Festival at lunch my co-workers told me about Chinese zombies called Jiangshi and they are terrifying. 

Image from https://feng-shui.obsidianportal.com/wikis/jiang-hopping-vampires

While both the Western and the Chinese zombies are scary there are a lot of differences. 
Jiangshi are dressed in ancient and formal clothes. They don't eat human flesh but instead your life essence (in Chinese it is called qi). They don't walk but they hop towards you and they hop fast. However, the skin of both of the zombies are similar in that they are rotting corpses. 

The way that these monsters originate are similar to Western zombies in that you can be infected by being bitten or with a virus. However, Jiangshi can also come to life if they are struck by lightning, had a violent death, or were an evil person while they were alive. 

To defeat a Jiangshi you need either a peach wood sword or a rooster. In Chinese superstition it is believed that peach wood can scare off evil spirits due to the fact that peach wood lasts a long time. Peach also is a homophone with the word "scare away"  in Chinese. A rooster is usually a signal of the sun rising, and Jiangshi are afraid of sunlight. You can also set the Jiangshi on fire to defeat them. 
Some consider Jianghsi to be more like vampires than zombies because they can't go out in sunlight or be around mirrors. 

If you are interested in watching films or TV shows based on the monsters you can check out My Date with a Vampire or Mr. Vampire.

If you are coming to China and see an ancient clothed person, just be careful to not get bit!

Sources

Ireland, T. (2011, July 14). The History of Chinese Zombies. Retrieved from The World of Chinese: http://www.theworldofchinese.com/2011/07/night-of-the-hopping-mad/

Monstrum Athenaeum. (2016). The Jiangshi: History Of Chinese Zombies Predates Western Zombie Pop Culture. Retrieved from Monstrumathenaeum.org: http://monstrumathenaeum.org/the-jiangshi-history-of-chinese-zombies-predates-western-zombie-pop-culture/