*applause*
please welcome to the blogworld: ann and ruth!! i'm sure they are very nice blogs... i'll have to wait til i get back to hk to see for myself...

*apologies*
cheers to koryl, ann, nic & bonnie... will be back soon! 2 weeks...

i know i've been unforgivably slack at updating lately and i'm so so sorry! it makes it doubly hard because i can't even view my own page... blogs (but not xangas) appear to be censored in china... but know that the lack of updates is not due to lack of noteworthy happenings in shanghai. this is a great city (well, it's not like hong kong...) and i'm having loads of fun most of the time. it's been 3 weeks here and i wouldn't know where to begin if i were to tell you everything that's been going on... from milla's sob stories to crew gossip to peculiar cultural quirks to illegal activity to my many new insights and enlightenments....

the highlight of last week, of course, was d's visit. we had a whirlwind tour of all the must-do's: dinner at xintiandi, shopping at the xiangyang market, people 7 (heh, derek can tell you about the bathrooms..), art museum, the bund, and the obligatory hang out with my colleagues at park 97... but now he's gone, and i'm all alone again... :( i'm glad we've had lots of practice at the distance thing :)

i went to see cold mountain last night, and it blew me away. a beautiful film. i love surprises like this. i know i'm a little behind on these things, but i hadn't heard much about the movie, and just thought i'd give it a shot. was i surprised. the characters and story wove together so beautifully - it was a perfect blend of romance, action, conflict, mysticism, and feminist ideology... heh. and now jude law has a new fan.... ;) i was so shaken up by it, i needed the 20 minutes walk home at midnight to process it.

today was sunday, but it felt like a tuesday, because thursdays are fridays for me and fridays are like sundays... you follow? anyway, i had to remind myself that it was indeed the Lord's day, and i actually had the time to go to church! i will refrain from saying too much, lest the central government tracks my words and come busting down my door... it was an experience. tomorrow, i'm obliged to go to the zoo with cameron and his mom, and another crew member's wife and kids. we are going to call this a "fieldtrip" in order to bulk up his school hours, of which he is way behind. we had monkeys on set last week, which were apparently taken from the zoo. i wonder if we'll run into them tomorrow...

oh by they way, sorry if my layout is doing any serious damage to anyone's eyes. i can't see it here, and i can't be bothered to find a new skin at the moment so, in short... too bad. :P it's time for me to go to bed now.

ok ok.. i know i should be updating more often, since i DO have a lot to say. but i just have no time... and derek is visiting this week (YAYYYYY!!!) so i will definately have no time.. but i will try next week. sorry guys :P

*shanghai baby*
it hasn't even been a full week yet, and i've already had such an eventful time here in shanghai. for the sake of brevity, i will only write in point form (we'll see if this works in reality...). so, aside from work, this is what my week was like:

mon: first night. after settling into hotel, went for dinner with some other crew. got ditched by the girls and was left alone with the art & vfx guys...

tues: met up with vancouver friend jo and his friend mike for dinner at plaza 66 on nanjing lu. went to traditional shanghainese restaurant and ordered way too much. yummy though. shared mission trip horror stories. so satisfying to have some good fellowship with a total stranger and an old friend!

afterwards met with some of jo's shanghai friends for drinks at the glamour bar. bad name, mediocre & unintelligble live music. i accidentally tipped. silly me.

wed: walked around nanjing lu for a bit. met with new friend henry for lunch at the art museum restaurant on the roof. beautiful sun overlooking renmin park. shared about the christian life, and difference between church community and church building with said friend, who has never heard such things before. seeds being sown and watered.

met with cameron & family again at night. walked from hotel to the bund. insane crowds. toddlers with 'freedom' pants. cameron refused to eat at any restaurant. walked all the way back to hotel, and ate there. the chef learned 25 new ways to screw up a grilled cheese sandwich.

thurs: took cameron's family to the shanghai art museum, conveniently located right next to their hotel. had lunch as same rooftop restaurant, and cam refused to eat again. perused the amazing photography display entitled "humanism in china. had to buy souvenir book for 50yuan. enjoyed the sun while waiting for new xanga friend grace. went to flower market and another market. spent money i shouldn't have. starbucks and good conversation.

hk crew meeting and whole crew dinner at japanese restaurant in westgate mall. cameron refused to eat again - surprise surprise. appalled at enduring presence of squatty potties in modern american-style malls... unlimited sake and tsingtao meant certain disaster... which continued onto bar called L16. dancing is not the same without my baby.

fri: tried to walk around entire city circumference, but only got halfway before my legs and back started to give way... 3 hours later, took cab back to hotel. met grace and friend again for dinner at xintiandi, a shanghai-style lankwaifong. very cool. atmospheric and arty, albeit overpriced. mosdef need to come with hunny.

sat. (today): worked 11 hours (kind of). tired but thought i should still get out of hotel room. bad idea. wandered huaihai lu by lonesome self, had dinner by lonesome self, came home by lonesome self. chatted with my baby!!!

** sorry this is kind of a lame post. i actually have heaps to write about, but i'm afraid it would bore most of you to death. i wouldn't want that to happen. i figured this was much more informative.... i could be wrong. oh well. what really made this week interesting was rediscovering the connectedness between people in the Father's family all over the world, and beginning to understand my purpose for being here at this time through these connections. i'll try again another day when i'm not so tired...

good night.

*halleluia!!*
thank the good Lord i finally have access to internet in my room! i have been trying for the last two days, but apparently they have a problem with their hub, so no one had internet for days. i am now using my phone line.. hahaa how old skool!! oh well, it works...

so, a quick update on shanghai:
first, the hotel:
room - nice
roommate - pissed off that she didn't get own room, and has chosen to sleep elsewhere...
tv - mandarin only
staff - mandarin only :(
pool - non-existent
gym - consists of empty hotel room fitted with 2 cheap exercise bikes
business center - closed for holidays
buffet breakfast - only edible thing is the omelets

tbc...