Roshley in PRC

Some of you have already seen this picture, but for those of you who haven’t we thought we’d post for your enjoyment.

We’ve noticed many dogs here wearing shoes when they’re outside, so we thought we’d try some out on Cooper.  It rains quite a bit in SH and every time we have to take her for a walk when it’s raining her paws and legs get really muddy.  We thought the shoes might help with the muddiness, but as you can tell from her facial expression in this picture– I don’t think the shoes are going to work out.  I wish I had taken a video of her first time walking in them!  Even our Ayi had to giggle watching Cooper struggle with the shoes.

In other news, Rob’s parents are in town!  They arrived last Friday and are here until next Monday.  Our first house guests!!  They’ve agreed to do a guest blog post, so stay tuned for that sometime in the next few days!

Earlier this week we decided to go check out Toy Story 3 with a few friends.  It was our first time to a movie theater in China, so I was excited about the experience.  All things considered “going to the movies” is pretty much the same in China as in the U.S., but there were a few key differences.

The price– When we went to buy the tickets (a day early) I realized the prices in SH are similar to any of the major U.S. cities.  It was 100 RMB/ticket, which is almost $15!  That being said, you could buy a VIP card by paying 800 RMB upfront and save 20% off your ticket price as well as food– a pretty good deal.  The theatre was also assigned seating, which was really nice, although we had to get there 30 minutes early to keep our seats.

The concession stand– This was probably the biggest difference for us.  First of all, there were two concession stands.  One for beer (yes, BEER!) and ice cream and the other for popcorn, soda, and candy, etc.  I convinced Rob to order a beer just because he could, which you can see in the pic above.  I didn’t want beer, so I went to the other concession stand where they had tons of other stuff.  I wish we had taken a picture of the concession stand menu!  Just to give you an idea of some of the more noteworthy items– what you see Rob holding in the picture is beef jerky.  We also saw squid on the menu, as well as Pocky (yum!).  For any of you who don’t know what Pocky is see this Wikipedia explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocky.  Of course, popcorn was available, but it was definitely not the kind of popcorn we’re accustomed to!  There were two kinds available, which they called “sweet” and “salty”.  The sweet kind was in the front and seemed to be more popular with the locals (Shanghainese people tend to like sweet foods).  I thought it would be like Kettle Korn, but it turned out to be more like caramel popcorn, but not as sweet.  We opted to order the salty popcorn, but even that was a little sweet.  AND there was no butter available!  I rarely put butter on my popcorn, but it was still strange to not see it on the counter.  Although the ticket prices were a bit expensive, the food prices were much cheaper than in the U.S.  We got a huge combo (two large sodas and a large popcorn) for about $6, plus the discount!

The movie– Our overall movie watching experience was pretty similar except for the Chinese subtitles (in 3D) at the bottom of the screen, which didn’t bother either of us much.  Rob complained that the 3D technology was different and not as good, but I didn’t notice anything.  Although, the glasses were much larger and heavier, which was a bit annoying for me.

All-in I would say our first movie-going experience in China was a success!  I would definitely go back.  :-)

P.S.  Can’t believe it, but today is our 1 year anniversary!  Time sure does go by quickly!!

Last night, I went to Guyi, so far one of my favorite Chinese restaurants here, and ate my first spicy frog leg.  It was delicious!  The flavor was really tasty and the texture of the meat was kind of like fish.  I had no idea how to eat it, so I had to ask friends for a tutorial, which of course I got made fun of.  It was worth the humiliation though…. YUM!  I would definitely order again.  :-)

Rob is currently out of town at a work retreat, but I got a text from him last night saying a “highlight” of his dinner  was being served half a cow head!  Right now, I don’t have any other details, but I’m sure he’ll give a full report on the blog next week.  Stay tuned…..

As most of you know, we just recently returned from our first trip back to sunny CA!  We had a GREAT two weeks seeing friends and family (more on that later) and also spending time with our dog, Cooper.  Part of our plan on this trip was to bring Cooper back with us to Shanghai.  The pic above is her in her travel crate on the airplane.  It was a long flight, with the first leg going from LAX to Detroit and then onto Shanghai.  Total airtime was a whopping 19 hours and as you can tell by the look on poor Cooper’s face, it wasn’t a great experience for her!  That being said, she did really well despite only going to the bathroom one time (in the middle of the Detroit airport) and having to stay in the crate for so long.  Luckily, we were able to keep the crate on our lap for most of the trip and we could open the side flap a little, so she could look outside the window and watch the clouds.  Right now, Cooper is in quarantine, but she’s being delivered to her new home, our apartment, on Sunday.  I wonder what she’s thinking about this weather.  Right now we’re enjoying 95 degree temperatures with 90% humidity– lovely.  Hello summer!!!

We’re off to Seoul on Friday, so next week we’ll have a more exciting post, but for now enjoy a few more pics from some of our finer Shanghai moments.

We live within walking distance of a street called Wujiang Lu, which is somewhat similar to 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica.  Almost every weekend we see tons of food demonstrations on the street, which is always pretty entertaining.  Here, you see a pic with a very excited Rob posing with the Tabasco mascot.

Hot dog sushi anyone?

We went to an awesome Japanese restaurant for my birthday and our friend Brian, had to order this just to satisfy his curiosity.  The verdict??  I believe he said it “wasn’t bad.”

I believe in a previous post we mentioned that our friend, Austin, is opening a restaurant in Shanghai.  It took some time, but Madison is up and running doing splendidly! This pic is one of us from a Madison tasting.  You can’t see much of the restaurant behind us, but check out this link for a more complete view:

http://sixsixtystudios.com/madison-restaurant/

The amazing pics of Madison were taken by one of Austin’s friends, Tobias Chu.  His photos are great, so if you have some time I highly recommend you check out his website. Also, if you look closely you’ll see my blurry image in the background of Madison’s food shots.  I was working on a career as a Feiyue shoe model (see previous post)…. but I’ve moved onto food modeling now.  Too bad I’m not at all photogenic… ha!

A pic from Shireen’s blackberry of Toby shooting “me.”  Hee hee– I can’t wait to be discovered.  LOL

In all seriousness, we want to wish Austin and Toby the best of luck with their respective business ventures!!  They are both ridiculously talented and we’re sure they’ll see continued success!

Finally, see below for a few pics from our first KTV (karaoke) experience in Shanghai.  It was pretty similar to what I’ve done in the U.S., except the drink of choice was the traditional whiskey and chilled green tea.  I know it sounds gross, but man…. does it go down easy!

Dice seem to be available anywhere drinking is.

JT getting the party started.

One of Wei’s notorious karaoke performances.  I wish I had a video to post…. the girl’s got some moves.  Rah rah, rah-ah-ah-ah.

That’s all for now, until next week!  Enjoy your Memorial Day… we’re sad to be missing out!

I can’t believe it’s been three weeks since our last blog post!  It’s been one of those things that I keep moving toward the bottom of my to-do list… oops!

We haven’t travelled outside of Shanghai in awhile, so this post will only be quick update of funny Shanghai moments.  :-)

1. Vinegar drink

Tonight we tried a new restaurant called Qimin.  The food (hot pot) was great and very easy to walk to from our apartment.  My Chinese teacher told me there is a Chinese province where the people drink vinegar at the end of their meal, but I had never experienced it for myself until tonight.  See Exhibit 1, 2, and 3

Vinegar smoothie

Bottoms up!

Yes, I drank mine too.

Rob said he thought the drink was good, but I thought it just tasted like vinegar…. ick!!

2.  Chinese shoes

I had read on a popular Shanghai blog about a local shoe company and decided to go check it out.  I was happy to pay my 6 USD in exchange for a pair of pretty snazzy (yeah, you heard me…. they’re “snazzy”) sneaks.  See below for a display of my modeling techniques.  I’m thinking of submitting these pics to the company  to get started on my career as a foot model.

3.  Rob bought yogurt again, thinking it was milk.  He just never learns.

4. A coffee shop with no hot dogs allowed

85 degrees is a well known coffee and tea cafe in Shanghai.  We went there tonight to pick up some boba (for those that don’t know, it’s milk tea w/ tapioca balls mixed in) and noticed this hilarious sign.  I guess hot dogs don’t go well with coffee and tea.

That’s all for now.  I hope to add a few more things soon!!!