Visa trip to Korea

I was lucky to come back to Korea for a week

for visa issues, but this trip was really sweet

I was happy to see my family & old friends

Time to go back to Shanghai..........

Seoul really spoiled me with great icecream waffles!!

Blogger Blocked in China

Blogger's been blocked in China since May - so I couldn't really update my blog!
I'm in Korea for visa issues, but will return to Shanghai tomorrow.
You can still keep in touch with me via email hanul.k@gmail.com

Since May, I got a job and I'm working full time in a semiconductor firm in Shanghai
I'm happy that I can stay here in a more stable way, now that I have a job
:)

Shanghai Aquarium 05-04

Bonus: Jay Chou & Edison Chen on a outdated Pepsi ad! BTW, the Aquarium is partially sponsored by Pepsi.





On a sunny afternoon, Erik & I went to the Shanghai Aquarium.

It was peaceful, quiet, not a lot of people (which Erik absolutely loves) and so many fish!

There were big ugly fish, fish with huge eyes, small eyes, we also saw sharks, spotted sea otters, penguins, deep sea crabs............

I'm actually scared of fish. I don't mind eating them but I don't like looking at them. I didn't tell Erik that I didnt like fish, because he REALLY wanted to go to the Aquarium. I later apologized for rushing Erik to skip all the fish to watch the feeding time of the penguins. I later told him it was because I wanted to get out of the aquarium as soon as possible!

Unfortunately, my secret plan didn't work too well. We ended up saying hello to most of the fish in the Aquarium. We didn't get to see the feeding time for the penguins. I got really scared several times in the underwater tunnel because I didn't realize some fish were swimming towards me and staring at me.


Aquarium was fun! We went shopping afterwards, which was even more fun! :D



Tickets:
120 RMB per person
No student discounts
Veterans /over 70 yrs old w/ ID: 70 RMB per person
Try to go on a weekday (less people)

Labor's Day Weekend at Zhu Jia Jiao (朱家角)

freshwater eel and the crayfish

cotton candy man and the bicycle man

Group pic w. Rhea who's hugging her bag

Rhea's old grandma is the only believer in her family. She displayed her Christian calendars in a row, dating back 5 yrs ago. So sweet!

line drying baby pants with holes. in China toddlers wear these pants instead of diapers. when they need to go potty, the mother/grandma conveniently sqats the baby in the right position, and it's all theirs. i dont know why, but my only guess is they do it so it's better for the baby's bottom since it has air ventilation.?! this is one custom that took me by surprise. anyways, this is a priceless picture of the actual bottomless baby pants! woo hoo!

Rhea's parents raise fish, shells & other edible water creatures here. We had a lot of freshwater fish for lunch!

Rhea's "Old House"

Rhea's pets - three hamsters in a tub. (the third one is not in the picture). Their names are 老黄Lao Huang (Yellow), 老白Lao Bai (White) and 老灰 Lao Hui (Gray). Very creative!

Rhea's "new house" - we're so exhausted.

yay! I mastered the perfect Asian "V" pose! We love this red couch!!!

Zhu Jia Jiao (朱家角)

also commonly known as the Suzhou Creek to foreigners

is famous for its "Water Village" because a whole village was built around the canals where people used boats to transport goods and people. Imagine the gondollas in Venice, Italy. Yeah, this is the Venice of China.

Our lovely friend, Rhea, invited a bunch of us to her hometown, which happened to be Zhu Jia Jiao (朱家角). We had lunch at her "old house", (because she recently moved to a "new house" and her "new house" has no kitchen stuff so they can't cook there yet) and "old house" in Chinese is synonymous with "hometown" (老家). If you know Chinese you'll get the pun :p

After lunch we headed out to the Creek Zhu Jia Jiao (朱家角), and we got on the boat, had cotton candy, walked around the village. It was FUN! :D

Then we came back to Rhea's "new house" and chilled - we were so exhausted. We explored her "new house" which, by the way, is BEAUTIFUL and modern - it has a 2 storey loft, a sun room, 5 rooms and super sweet red sofa bed! We almost didnt want to leave...

Thanks Rhea for your kind hospitality! :D

HSK test & Subway Lunch 04-18

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Last month - Erik & I both took the HSK test at Jiang Zhang Gao Ke (Jiang Zhang Technology Park). This was the most eastern part of Shanghai that we've ever been to. This station is the last station of Pudong. After the test, we were looking for places to grab lunch and we found this small yet pleasant outdoor mall area (with nice gardens). Erik and I agreed to treat ourselves to Subway (the American NY deli place). I ordered a 1/2 chicken teriyaki sub on italian bread with dijon mustard (you never find this anywhere else in SH). The sub cost me 15 rmb (approx$2.20US) since it was part of the daily special. And I wanted something to drink so I got a bottle of Peach Snapple. I asked how much it was and the cashier said it was 15 rmb. My drink and my sub cost me the same amount of money....*sniff* but I bought it and drank it anyway since it was the HSK.

(BTW, in SH you can buy a bottle of juice for approx 3RMB so a bottle of imported Snapple was like 5 times more expensive. And I stopped thinking stuff in American dollars otherwise I'll use up everything in my savings account in no time! )

Shanghainese Dinner @ Jing An Si

Hmmmm. It seems pretty obvious that I've been living my life around the HSK test these days. Well, this post is also related to the HSK. I've been attending a HSK prep course on top of the language classes I'm taking at ECNU. To cut to the chase, this HSK prep course was literally like a HSK boot camp! (No surprise, it's run by Koreans) They really work you HARD and people end up getting "miracle" results. Well, our HSK teacher promised to treat students to a nice meal if we never missed class. My lovely friend Sun Joo & I were the only 2 students who never missed class for the past 1mth & half. So our teacher took us to a REALLY fancy REALLY yummy Shanghainese restaurant, located neart Jing An Si.

The highlights:

• Stuffed Lotus Roots: Some Asian countries (like Japan, Korea & China) eat lotus roots and if you haven't tried it, it's SO yummy! It has a chewy sweet taste to it, and the one we had was stuffed with glutinous rice, with glazed syrup poured over.

• Green Pea Soup : this was absolutely DELICIOUS!!! it's a little bit different from the 'American' style green pea soup - it's served warm and it's sweet. They garnish the soup with peanut bits. It's SOOOO good! The texture is so smooth and I think they added some special broth or something. I really want to know the receipe!
  
  
  
• L'escargots aka the SNAIL : I don't think this is a traditional Chinese dish, but who knows! At first I thought they were some sort of sea shells with baked cheese stuffing (sounds delicious already), but after my first bite, my HSK teacher told me it was snail. To be honest, this was my first experience eating snails. But like they all say, "it tastes like chicken". HEHE! It was actually really good -

This restaurant is fancy and can be super expensive （some dishes priced at 1388元), but if you order smartly（there are 10元 appetizers too) you can actually have a really nice meal with somewhat of a reasonable price. Highly recommend to make reservations before you go.

Shang Hai Ren Jia 上海人家
(6 locations in Shanghai)
We were at:
1600 Nanjing Rd W. 南京西路1600号 （机场航站楼4F - the bldg next to 久光)

HSK studying @ Wagas

Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi, aka HSK! aka THE Chinese language proficiency test, aka the MONSTER that has been consuming my life for the past 2 months!

Yes, I really hate you HSK! You have caused me so much grief!

But on Thurs, Michi & Ying & Erik & moi made a trip to a coffee shop called Wagas and we had a spendid time sipping iced drinks and studying together! hehe

Thanks HSK for providing us such strong commeraderie among our friends.

Michi tried to hide from the sun by attempting to position himself just under the shadow of a lamp post. He's hillarious.

BTW, Wagas ice coffee is the way to go on a warmer-than-usual spring day! YUM! :D

Wagas (12 locations in Shanghai)

We were at:

Hongqiao Maxdo Building

86 Xianxia Lu. Rm108 (Near Zunyi Lu)

Mika's Bday - Bali Bistro

Last Sunday, it was Mika's birthday & she invited friends to Bali Bistro at Jing An Si to celebrate her early bday!

Indonesian food was soooooo awesome! *droool*

I loved everything! My favorite was their Beef curry and their Jasmine rice! Mmmmm :D

As Mika's bday present, Erik & I gave her a plant! haha:) A herb plant to be exact - we gave her a mint.

I wanted to get her something environmentally friendly or something natural - I was wondering around aimlessly for 2 hours in a mall and I found nothing. On my way home, I found a plant seller on the street selling small plants, and I found the perfect gift! I hope Mika takes good care of it and consume it tooo!!

Bali Bistro

Exit 1 at Jing An Si Staion (line 2)

from the exit, walk straight for 3 mins and you'll see it on your right.

万航渡路75号 (近北京西路)

They're open till 11pm!

Introducing my roommate!

Hi everyone!

This is my current roommate, Erina, from Ishikawa, Japan :D She's a 2nd year in college - studying at East China Normal University. She's the sweetest girl ever! Her mom sent me a small Japanese pouch from Japan :)

The 2nd bubbly girl in the picture is her hometown friend Shiori, when she visited Shanghai for the first time (back in March).