Crazy Taxi Driver

Some things are much different here in Shanghai than America... Such as: barganing, shopping, and... taxis. The taxi drivers here pay NO attention to speed limit. Here's some basic information you might want to know.

• Taxi Drivers are ranked in "stars" one star is the worst, and five stars are extremely rare
• Hold onto your seat. Your going to need to!
• Crashes are negotiated on the spot. If an agreement for paying can't be agreed on, the police are called to help.

My experience goes as follows: Start at the Super Brand Mall. Here comes a taxi. I wave it down. The driver doesn't really know the way, and so we're telling him where to go. The average fare to our house is 15 yuan, and so when we get there, and the meter shows 27 yuan, we're not happy. We tell him that we should only pay him 15 yuan. He gets really angry, and starts to speed back to the Jin Mao as fast as possible. We tell him to stop, and he doesn't stop. Finally, my mom pulls open the door, and out we get (of course he stopped when my mom opened up the door!). We pay him the fair, and out we go.

Hope you don't have an experience like that!

~minkster

Photo from http://www.wangjianshuo.com/personal/places/shanghai/shanghai-qiangshen.taxi-head.jpg; http://farm1.static.flickr.com/201/476815738_2fb84f9e3f.jpg?v=0

Johnny Moos

Johnny Moos is an ice cream shop that is great, and yummy, and a little taste of home. It may seem like a lot of money, but hey, it's less than the US.

• Great Milkshakes
• Great Ice cream
• Sherpas "the 'bring to you' company will deliver to you"
• Free delivery within 1k of Johnny Moos

I recommend the cookie dough milkshake, but also, if you're feeling like you want a fruit, try the mango milkshake. It tastes like mango.

On the other hand, watermelon juice is great, becuase of how it tastes. Try it (when your sure that the watermelon used is not just the street watermelon).

Finally, there's the rain. It just keeps raining, and it's good, becuase it washes away the dirt from the sidewalk... just as long as it isn't polluted. You may not want to chance walking in the sidewalk, becuase really, do you want to know what's in it?

~minkster

World Financial Center

Here in China, the world financial center is a big hit. After all, it's tall. There's a tower being built that is supposedly going to be MUCH taller! When you look up, it's hard to believe.
Anyways, because it's so tall, many people want to go up, and would go up if... if it wasn't so expensive. I have a friend who's family went up (only four people in all), and it cost 70 US dollars! Very expensive.
I might go up to myself, later, and see if the price is worth it.

Also, the shopping is always fun here, and you should see some of the things there are. These include software, as well as tailored clothes!

Besides that there's lots of rain. Lot's and Lot's and Lot's of rain. The locals say it's unusual.

Bye for now,
~minkster

Lots of Places for SHOPPING

OK, so maybe I'm not the best of bargaining, but being here for just a little while will increase your bargaining skills tenfold.

Some places you should visit to shop for cool stuff, clothes, and software are:

International Pearl Market
The mall under the science and technology museum
NOT off the street
the turtle market (for pet turtles)
the Fabric Market (get custom fit clothes!)

Bargaining in key here

~minkster

New School

你好

A new school is always fun. Maybe not so fun if you don't know many people, or are unsocial, however, for my part, I lack neither, so a new school is fun. I got a mac for school, and so I can now download a whole barrage of things. I'll inform any readers for the blog on all of the downloads for macs and PCs. But back to school. If you are going to school overseas, take my tip. Most of these kids (if it is an international school) have gone through this experience, so you can count on them to help you. Also, people are more friendly than you may expect and so that you can make friends and feel at home more.

After a little while you would think that you would get used to it. I haven't yet. One thing you might want to know is that the spitting is a little bad (people spit even in the grocery store), so just wear shoes (big ones are preferable). 

Speaking of grocery stores, Carrefour is a great one to buy handy stuff. Carrefour Stores are massive things. Huge in every perspective, they are wildly popular with locals and foreigners alike. 

Here's my Carrefour experience:

Let's get this TV! Ok, it's cheap for it's size. It's LG. OK! proceed to check out. The man motions for us to put the TV not the DVD player on the check out counter. It gets rung up. Then we have to wait in line for the DVD player. We realize that we need to get a cord between the tv and the dvd player. Nope. They don't have it. wait. the man comes out of the storeroom. He offers us the cord with the price. We pay him directly, and he pays the store. Then they test the cord with the dvd player and the tv. okay, it works. We buy all of the other things in our cart and rush out. The time was over two hours since we went in!

Back to previous paragraphs: However you might want want to use Cityshop for meat and fish, because the Carrefour meats look a little bit "iffy," or if you might want a little bit of a taste of home. 

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~minkster 

我是很聪明。just kidding！