DAY 1

And God said: ‘Let there be light.’, and there was Tony.

My saviour, my guide...

He was a little man (more or less my height), with dark hair that seemed to grow in all directions, roguishly sticking out exactly where they were not supposed to. His very Chinese small dark eyes observed me inconspicuously through rectangular glasses as he swiftly grabbed one of my suitcases and we walked towards the elevators.  His movements were confident, although it seemed that the assuredness was a result of many times repeated routine rather than natural part of him. Under all that, I could sense he is nervous as I would have been if I wouldn’t be distracted by the tiny little insignificant detail of being in SHANGHAI.

I was tired to death so, naturally, I entered the last stage before coma- hyperactivity- and I ambushed the poor boy with questions and all the gibberish I wasn’t able to share with anyone during my never-ending journey.  He listened to me and calmly answered my question when I gave him a second to express himself. As we were trying to load the suitcases to the truck and find our way to the seats on the bus, he gently revealed to me the scary truth of our whereabouts for the day. We were to take the bus to my apartment, where I would sign the lease and sorted out the rent. Then we had to go to the police as to register me with public organs if anything happened... and he would take me to the super market to do some shopping... and... Apropos, the company wants to see you today to get to know you a little, he mentioned as if it was nothing.

I was slowly dying inside, little by little, while my mouth was saying we also need to go to the bank to exchange my money because I did not have time to do it at home. This was going to be the longest day of my life (I already had a few of those and the idea of having another one wasn’t exactly thrilling).

However, as the bus left the station, I ceased to care about any of that. I stared out of the window fascinated by every tree (even though it did not look special or different at all) or a road sign which would bare Chinese characters... along with English translation, this was a highway after all.

Step by step, with my unaffected share-it-all-or-nothing attitude, I gained Tony’s confidence and managed to also acquire some personal information which would help me find out who was the person sitting next to me.  If I was to spend a day with someone I wanted to know who I was dealing with. 

Well (in short because I do not want to compromise his privacy), Tony was born in a village close to Shanghai. He moved to the city after his graduation two years ago. Since then he has been working for the agency. He liked playing sports and did not like answering questions about himself. He was shy, but I sensed a bit of mischief hiding somewhere inside, contemplating whether it was safe to come out.

The city was... huge... filled with people.... full of contrasts... shaggy apartment buildings shadowed by futuristic giants made of glass and steel, the noise of traffic hungrily swallowing all the other sounds... Buildings so colourful it was hard to look at them, buildings so dull they were too easy to miss. Shanghai was not about tradition or history... it was a loud, proud roar of the future underlined by an impressive skyline.

Suddenly, Tony jumped up and told me we were getting of... it seemed a bit random and as I found out later that’s because it was. We got off the bus in the middle of an insanely busy street. Cars, bicycles and scooters were rushing by honking at each other.  He beckoned me to wait for him while he went to ask a random street vendor about some, to me unknown, business.

He came back to me smiling, ignoring my question whether my apartment was nearby... ‘We are going for lunch’, he proclaimed, grabbed one of my suitcases again and launched himself in direction of what I understood to be a pedestrian zone, leaving me to scurry behind him with very feeble reminiscence of energy supplies. He stopped and turned ‘Do you like KFC?’

I shrugged my shoulders and nodded. I vaguely remembered eating at KFC once or twice few years ago... honestly, I am not what you could refer to as a ’fast-food fan‘ (now speaking of the French fries and buns involving fast-food). I never was and I never will be simply because I like to indulge in the tastes and textures... and fast-food has a very limited supply of those... Firstly, I wasn’t hungry at all. Secondly, I would so rather go to any kind of Chinese food selling place but it was time for me to capitulate.  Tony looked excited, plus he would have to drag me around the city for the rest of the day during the time of sinister heat radiating from every inch of the surface (although no one seemed to mind it except me).

I scuttled behind him as fast as I could. For such a small person he could walk really fast. Despite the fact that I was absolutely unfit to mange two activities at the same time, I curiously examined my environment. We entered some sort of pedestrian area among buildings which seemed to be occupied by shopping centres, restaurants and offices. I noticed girls wearing umbrellas to protect themselves against the sun.  How silly, I thought. Tony said that all the girls tried to stay as white as possible, it was matter of fashion... strange but according to me still far more reasonable then getting an artificial tan and ending up looking like a dried out orange when you are only in your twenties. Despite all that, the umbrellas still seemed quite amusing to me (until I few hours later-after walking around streets of Shanghai under that pitiless sun shine- that it was, after all, a quite sensible and convenient thing to do).

We entered the KFC. If I was attracting unreasonable amount of attention up till then, this was ten times worse. I think the fact that I dragged along two suitcases wasn’t exactly helping. The place was heaving with people but we found us some seats at last. Tony asked me to wait while we went to order the food. I looked around and tried to watch people... listen to the tone of their conversations, watch their body language... it was insanely difficult to this without being caught. My ‘blend in and explore unnoticed’ strategy was not going to work in China. Actually, I knew that immediately but I was too exhausted to fully understand the consequences I would have to deal with in time to come.

Our next stop was the bank as I needed to exchange the currency. But before I had the pleasure to enter that financial heaven with air-conditioning I was forced to undergo a life changing experience: I crossed the road in Shanghai and survived! It was incredible... Green man or no green men... it did not matter...  cars, bicycles, scooters, buses... Plus the road was 50 meters wide...  Tony warned me that even though there is a green light, cars still can turn right which was quite normal except for the fact here they did not care whether they run over couple pedestrians. However, Tony seemed do poses a secret power to move at the right time to the right place... every time I was only a half a step behind him the cars honked like crazy in protest. I was impressed by his magic powers (Later I found out that cars in Shanghai honk while making their way through intersection just for the sake of it... to scare away the enemy and other poor inexperienced human beings like me.

My experience from the bank was pleasant and sort of funny considering I had to fill in tons of paper all written in Chinese characters so to me I could have been signing all kinds of things and I would not know about it... I was tired and completely dependent on Tony so, I did not care because it wouldn’t change a thing. When I gave my passport to the guy behind the glass, he inspected it seriously then took it to the back (but I could still see them) and summoned his colleague...  He pointed at something on my passport and.... both of them burst out laughing...  very funny boys, very funny... but I have a good and generous heart so I forgave them.  ;)

One thing I really loved was a little machine with emoticons as buttons indicating extremely happy face, happy face, neutral face, sad face and angry face... Well this was an opportunity to express your satisfaction with the service provided.

                                                                                                    SOHO ART HOME FROM THE OUTSIDE

Finally we took a taxi which would take me ‘home’.  The place was called SOHO ART HOME underlined with slogan: Living with art. Well, they weren’t kidding. On the ground floor, there was gallery which was just preparing for a new exhibition. Next three floors were majorly occupied with studios and companies all somehow involved in arts... the last three floors were crowded with small apartments. What I loved about the building was that there were statues, baiting and random drops of art randomly standing in the hall ways... I signed the contract, payed and finally entered what was to become my humble dwelling for the summer. It was new, clean and quite spacious considering it was just for me... there was small living room with TV and a sofa, desk and small kitchen in the corner (speaking of kitchen in very abstract terms as a corner with one cupboard, sink and a fridge with freezer)... then, naturally, bathroom and bedroom which gave on the city.

  VIEW FROM MY WINDOW

Oh God... this blog is becoming too long... I will just speed it up.

Being rid of my suitcases splashed me with a new wave of energy. I packed my bag with essential and we headed out to the streets of Shanghai once and again. First stop was police station as to get me registered as a temporary inhabitant. After that it was time to go to the company where I finally could give a face to the voice that interviewed me... but about that I will write more in a special edition dedicated to my job. :D

I was informed I would be starting on Tuesdays because Monday was a day of Chinese Dragon-boat festival. It is organised to commemorate a patriotic poet, Qu Yuan,  from Chu State in the Warring States period (around 340 before Christ)n who drowned himself in the river because he couldn’t bear what was happening to his country (whatever that was)...Now, that I call dedication. The most popular food during the festival is so called rice dumpling wrapped up in bamboo leaves.  The day of the festival, May 5th in the Chinese lunar calendar (which happened to be June 6th in the Western calendar this year) is therefore a national holiday... Thus I had one more day to breathe through the stages of total panic (alias Why do I continue doing this to myself voluntarily?) and crazy empowering excitement which would come and go in regular intervals during those few days.

RICE DUMPLING

QU YUAN, THE POET 

At last Tomy took me to the supermarket to buy some necessities... However, going to a supermarket turned out to be quite a cultural experience through which I go every week at least once, so I will take the liberty to write about it in some of the next bits...

I opened the door of my apartment... finally... I could sleep... as long as I wanted!

I took a shower and carelessly messed up my carefully packed suitcases to find my pyjama... Then, with such pleasure and joy you would not even dare to imagine, I jumped to the bed and..... OUCH!

The mattress, or what I thought was a mattress because it was disguised like one, was in fact a constellation if to wooden plates connected by more or less flexible strings ... strings or no strings, wood just stays wood. If I had at least a tiny little bit of power left I would probably cry... but I just took my blanket and my pillow, crawled to the living room, curled up on the sofa and passed out...