Quentin's retour au pays des baguettes qui se mangent!

jiu yue san hao (3rd of september)

Today I woke up quite early for a week end... (10:20am) So I planned my daylike this : first finish my report for my first semester before doing anything else, and go to the silk market to take home my shirts and my jacket during the afternoon. A third thing to do was to go and watch the Shanghai Symphonic orchestra perform some Shostakovitch.
I worked hard and at 15:00pm, it's done, the first version is sent to my mum for a first check up. I hope it won't be the first of a huge number of versions... I hate doing reports...

A little while to get ready, and there I am taking the metro for Central Henan Lu, which was in my memories not that far from the silk market (half an hour walking). As soon as I was out, a girl talks to me with a strong chinese accent. I look around, nobody... then I look down... There she was! I had met Bao, a chinese flower seller that was on her resting day and was waiting for a friend of hers... We talked for about 15 minutes, it looks like she's interested in improving her english (it won't be very hard) and as I am interested in improving my chinese (won't be very hard either), maybe I'll see her again. I know that someone will tell me she only wanted to hook a laowai, but I don't care, it's a good way to learn chinese, and she was quite nice... I don't lose a thing in trying to meet some chinese people, as long as I stay in reasonable limits...

Then I have walked a long time (enough to realise how bad my memory was), and then took a cab to jiaojiabang lu, where the silk market is. aaaargh... it was hooooot!!! I'm sure, just from central Henan Lu to there, I have lost at least 1 liter of sweat... and an hour (at least because it was 5pm)

Anyway, I'm there, I go up to the first shop, looking everywhere to find an ATM... There is none... I try my shirts, and then ask then for an ATM... they indicate one, not far...but it didn't take mastercards... only visas... aaaaaaaargh
I had only enough for the shirts, so I bought them, went to try the jacket and told them I would come back another day to buy it.
All the time I was in that building, I really felt like someone was missing... It was so much funnier with Lara... So I created an imaginery friend to replace here, but I can't draw her correctly on my computer...
I went out, to walk a little further, and finaly found an ATM that liked my card...I took somemoney and headed back to the... oups... I got lost... A taxi later, I was bak to the market, but it was closing... Too late for me... I headed out of the shop, without my jacket (but with the shirts) and took a taxi back home.

I just had time to put my shirts in my appartment, change the shirt I was wearing, and I was on my bike riding to the concert hall of Shanghai (it is not far) to meet Jacopo, Elisa, Marco and another girl I didn't know, italian too.
The orchestra played some Shostakovitch, a famous symphony, the one that does tadadadam tidididi dudum tigididi tadadam... You know? It was really nice.

Then, we went to the Malone's bar, to eat and have a drink. (Yes, I didn't take time to eat during the day...) I had a burger, a huge one like I had in Barnabee's or in Rudz, back in Houston... I missed that! Then, I went back hom... oups, got lost again... Who was playing with the arrangement of the towers today? No way to find the towers I knew... I visited the north of Nanjing lu by night, and went back home. And here I am, writing this!

I got lost twice today and I couldn't do things properly in the silk market... I'm lost in Shanghai... I need my guide back!!!

posted by Quentin @ 9/02/2006 06:33:00 PM