David's birthday party at DaMonico's Italian Restaurant
WOW - so yesterday was an all over the City type of day, from early morning downtown to Zha Bei, back up here to Jia Ding for lunch - a nice little nap (just have to become more local, eh? The Chinese seem to be very good at taking advantage of every minute one gets to take a nap!!! The Bus, a taxi, during break in between classes (we have back to back hour long classes - which are really 45 minutes each class with a ten minute break - very nice to get in a block of learning!). NOW *I* feel like *I* also am taking advantage of many of the little breaks to take a nap - or at least listen to my MP3 player!! grinning wildly! U2 or Melissa or Janis rockin' through Shanghai!).
THEN we headed down to Zha Bei again - the SILC free bus, which is why much of the traveling is possible - for David's birthday party. Of course the thing is, we almost always go to a different restaurant - like San Francisco, when there are so many restaurants, why go to the same ones all the time!! So WHERE is it - text me the address!!! Dang, but in Chinese, so that the taxi driver can READ it - AH, now there is a text message service that will translate any address into Chinese from English, Guanxi it is called - Guanxi is the name given to the Chinese use of "connections" to get things accomplished!! So in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing at least we're set with how to get an address in Chinese!
Turns out DaMonico's is waaaayyy down in the southern part of downtown! 30 yuan from Zha Bei, now you're going to say that's not much, less than $4.50 for a 10 km trip in the biggest city in China. Well, we get paid in Yuan, so ... well, it still isn't too bad! Especially since there were two of us! Always like going to new areas.
All totaled:
I spent 182 yuan yesterday traveling 156.2 kilometers or about $26.00 going 96.8 miles!!! Not bad for a foreigner!
Oh, the FOOD:
Antipasta was AWESOME, the pizzas were crazy huge, the pasta was excellent and Carlsberg, of course, was on tap and by the pitcher - yes, 100 yuan for a pitcher, so that's not cheap (1.25 liters). However, the food WAS cheap - for Shanghai. One can easily spend $20 on a dinner (140 yuan), beer and wine being extra. WITH beer, my dinner was 100 Yuan. OH, they had an AWESOME cake too - some of which was ice cream - for David, of course (Lanelle, his wife, brought it, I believe). The Chinese all love it when we sing "Happy Birthday" in the restaurant!
THEN we headed down to Zha Bei again - the SILC free bus, which is why much of the traveling is possible - for David's birthday party. Of course the thing is, we almost always go to a different restaurant - like San Francisco, when there are so many restaurants, why go to the same ones all the time!! So WHERE is it - text me the address!!! Dang, but in Chinese, so that the taxi driver can READ it - AH, now there is a text message service that will translate any address into Chinese from English, Guanxi it is called - Guanxi is the name given to the Chinese use of "connections" to get things accomplished!! So in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing at least we're set with how to get an address in Chinese!
Turns out DaMonico's is waaaayyy down in the southern part of downtown! 30 yuan from Zha Bei, now you're going to say that's not much, less than $4.50 for a 10 km trip in the biggest city in China. Well, we get paid in Yuan, so ... well, it still isn't too bad! Especially since there were two of us! Always like going to new areas.
All totaled:
I spent 182 yuan yesterday traveling 156.2 kilometers or about $26.00 going 96.8 miles!!! Not bad for a foreigner!
Oh, the FOOD:
Antipasta was AWESOME, the pizzas were crazy huge, the pasta was excellent and Carlsberg, of course, was on tap and by the pitcher - yes, 100 yuan for a pitcher, so that's not cheap (1.25 liters). However, the food WAS cheap - for Shanghai. One can easily spend $20 on a dinner (140 yuan), beer and wine being extra. WITH beer, my dinner was 100 Yuan. OH, they had an AWESOME cake too - some of which was ice cream - for David, of course (Lanelle, his wife, brought it, I believe). The Chinese all love it when we sing "Happy Birthday" in the restaurant!
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