Matt's Shanghai

Thanksgiving in Shanghai

I realize it may be a surprize, but as commerical as most American holidays have been made in China, Thanksgiving seems to have fallen through the cracks. I heard a lot about Halloween, and from what Ralph told me, Christmas in Shanghai has lots of decorations and sales. He was especially excited about Starbucks...

(22:10:07) Ralph: i am thinking of Christmas
(22:10:27) Ralph: we might go to Starbucks
(22:10:35) Ralph: they have discount......
(22:10:41) ME: well.. that's pretty american!
(22:10:52) ME: they have a discount when ???
(22:10:55) ME: during christmas?
(22:11:00) Ralph: yeah.........
(22:11:15) Ralph: they supply a lot of options of different goods
(22:11:46) Ralph: for instance, Cup, Coffee Bean, Notebooks, Toys etc.......(22:12:23) Ralph: and if you were to buy some one, you can get the Coffee-Passport which could reduce your coffee payment remarkably

Looks like I'll be having Starbucks for Christmas. Haven't quite figured what Starbucks and Christmas have in common, but it looks like I'll find out soon.

On Friday night, I went to Jerry and Jodi Fox's for a Thanksgiving dinner with my Shanghai family. We had Vegitables and Tofu, Organic Brown Rice and Grilled Cheese sandwhiches with a side of three Magnum bars a piece for desert. Talk about a Thanksgiving feast! We had a great time talking about common acquaintences at Appalachian, looking through the Fox's new collection of DVDs and just catching up on the past few weeks.

On Saturday, I went to the clothing market to pickup my new coat! I went last Saturday to get measured for a wool overcoat and it was ready to be picked up. It looks awesome! I paid around 400 RMB, about $50. Of course, now that I bought the thing, it's been in the mid-sixties during the day here. Not too sure when winter will hit Shanghai.

After the market I went to City Market that's in Time Square on HuaiHai Zhong Lu, yes.. I know no one knows where this is... but it's a western food supermarket. They import everything, including Root Beer. They also import Coke and Sprite from the United Sates... so for $2 a can you can drink Coke from the United States that tastes just like the Coke you can buy on the streets in China for 30 cents. But let's remember the most important thing, I bought a bottle of RBC Root Beer in China. Saturday was a good day!

Saturday night I went out with Kyla to meet a few more Candadians and some Americans. They lived downtown, about a 40 RMB taxi ride. One of the girls we met lived in Conneticutt, but just graduated from Tulane. The others were from Ohio and Florida. I've met quite a few people from Ohio here... not really sure why Ohio.

Last night Kyla, Shannon and I decided we missed mashed potatos... so we made them. They came down to my kitchen with a pot of skinned potatos, a box of milk, a bag of salt and a stick of butter and we made enough mashed potatos for at least 10 people. It's funny the things you crave here.

Thanks all of you who sent me a Happy Thanksgiving wish. Hope Thanksgiving was full of too much food and left you thankful for your friends and family!

posted by Matt Dull @ 11:53 AM