Saturday night on the Bund

Saturday evening stroll down pedestrian street Nanjing Lu and on down to the iconic waterfront, and the Bund. Tons of people out on cool fall evening doing the same thing. Scene changes as darkness settles in and the lights of the city come on.

This has got to be the biggest Apple store I have seen. Takes up a city block and packed full of customers.

On The Bund with the Huangpu River, looking across to Pudong and the huge modern skyscrapers.

Around town

Raining now in Shanghai and weather has suddenly changed to jackets and sweaters. Maybe when skies clear it will warm up again but I don't know. Maybe I did not bring enough warm clothes. I may just have to go shopping.
    Every neighborhood has a market and surrounded with shops for everything one needs. There is the egg store with your duck eggs, quail eggs, chicken eggs (brown and white,) and "thousand year old  eggs."  Then the local hardware store and fresh fruit stands that are always full of yummy stuff.

There is a lot of inventory in this little space.  I wonder if he knows where everything is?!

Spin

I was anxious to find a Ceramics Design House that I remember visiting several years ago called "Spin." We tracked it down and made our way there today in the rain.  Few blocks from subway but umbrellas kept us mostly dry. Worth the effort to see this contemporary porcelain ceramics store. Everything is designed in house and then mass produced in JingdeJiang for sale in thier two stores. Word is that they are opening a store in San Francisco, too.  Really lovely functional and non functional pieces, three floors to peruse. 

  This pic is front door, the glass is reflecting cars on the street behind me, I know it looks like cars in the building.

It's all pure white porcelain with very minimalist designs, or else black glazes. A few items in stoneware but mostly porcelain. 

Will is patiently waiting while I look.

Going to church

We decided to go to church this morning and instead of taking a cab, someone recommended we try Uber. Said drivers would be English speakers and nice cars. Wrong! Nice cars but driver did not know English. We muddled thru and when he finally understood destination, we were good.  We took subway back, was nice day to walk to and from stations, just took a little longer.
   This is Shanghai International Church, sanctioned by government, must show foreign passport to get in. Is in English and translated into Chinese. Quite an art for translater to keep up with pastor. It's not that we are not allowed to go to a local church, although at one time that was the case, but would be awkward as of course, that would be all in chinese. This was very worshipful, good experience. Music very upbeat, some praise songs we know, some were new.  It is held in ballroom at Hongqiao Marriott Hotel, lots of people. There are two services, we chose early service. Active, vibrant church with a very international congregation.  Lots of Christians in China.

Shanghai Pottery Workshop

Found my way to a place where I can take some classes and maybe learn something new. Easy enough to get to with two subway transfers and a short walk thru a very interesting neighborhood. Teachers speak English, in fact main teacher is from St Louis. Very friendly, helpful people. Had first lesson today, want to concentrate on the Wheel which is hard for me.
  They use all recycled clay and we only pay for the clay we keep.  Meaning I can practice and trash and practice and trash clay back to recycle bucket and only pay for successful pieces I might want to keep. Great Idea because I don't plan to bring much home. I just want to learn somethings from new prospective.

Shopping

Will and I went to a shopping center not far away that we had not been to before.  This is quite an elaborate place! Lots of upscale shops.  We were really going to the spermarket in the basement.  Big "Walmart - type" store called Carefour, that is two floors of goods and groceries. So you take your cart from floor to floor on this ramp/escalator that is kind of scary with a loaded cart, until you realize that as soon as your cart enters the ramp, it is magically stuck to the ramp--magnets or something--and isn't going to roll away.  You have to know that I am easily impressed, but I thought it was pretty inventive. 

About town

Monday morning.  Everyone off to do thier thing, I am home alone. Such a beautiful Shanghai day. Even the air quality is amazingly good right now. There is an ap you put on your phone to check every day.  Tells you all the stats and whether it is safe to excersize, warnings for elderly and children. .that sort of thing. I actually saw clouds in the sky this morning which tells me it is really clear! Fall seems to be best time anyway.
    I walked to a couple of shopping areas and took myself out to lunch. One has to get sensitized to dealing with traffic here.  You figure out pretty quickly that pedestrians are low on the scale of importance.  Even if you are careful to not cross the street until there is green pedestrian arrow, it is no guarantee.  Cars can turn on red lights and they don't necessarily slow down when they do. And scooters and bikes seem to disregard traffic signals all together. It's kind of a finesse as cars and people and all kinds of vehicles weave through each other.  There just has to be a lot of fender - benders although I haven't seen one.

Have to ask if this is what it appears to be. Phone booth turned into WiFi Hotspot on the street. Nobody has need for public phone, just like US, even more so here, everyone on thier personal device.

Yuz Museum

Steph and I went to this interesting museum this afternoon for a couple of hours. It's a contemporary art museum in the Xuhui District's new West Bund Cultural Corador. In a refurbished aircraft hanger that opened in 2014. Huge space perfect for the kind of large installations they do.  Steph was most interested in seeing work by video artist she was familiar with and we spent a good deal of time perusing that.  Quite engaging.
  What we found most amazing is thier permanent and very popular installation called "Rain". 
For an extra admission and up to 2 hour wait time you can enter this huge room where it is actually raining. There must be sensors in the floor because as you move through it, it stops raining where you are so you can observe it raining all around you but you stay completely dry! What a hoot.
  We did not "experience" it, only watched it in amazment.
 

Landed in Shanghai

I'm here and settled in for the duration.  15 hours ahead of Tucson time but all good. My body has to do a little catch up, however.  I was really tired when I went to bed tonight at 9pm Shanghai time.  But here it is, 3am and eyes wide open!! oh well blog time.  

  Is warm here, however thankfully, not as hot as the Tucson I left.  Took a very early morning walk yesterday and was almost cool.  Feels good being here as has become more and more familiar each time I come. Steph met me at airport and that was so fun. She had lots to tell me about her work here. It is going well and she is confident that the time here is going to be very productive.  

 

Suzhou River in early morning light. Shanghai sunrise.

Waiting at LAX

At my gate in LA airport waiting to board my flight to Shanghai. My Phoenix to LAX part was uneventful and on time. Now just gearing up to mentally getting ready for next 12 hours. How many movies can I watch today. Going to be worth the effort once I see my family.

Verna in Phoenix

Spent the day in Phoenix.  A couple of hours at the "newest" outlet mall where we managed to scoop a few bargains.  Lunch and then a movie to excape the high 90's temperatures. Very interesting and entertaining,  The Intern. Recommend it.
  Met up with Verna and her travel companion, Lois, for dinner. They got into town late afternoon. Much too short time together  but so precious visit.

Free Showers

Will and I and new friends, Wayne and Jan took St Andrew ' s mobile shower unit out today to a new location at Interfaith Community Services. We didn't have a lot of "customers" but gave us time to do some troubleshooting. Been having some problems of late with water flow and getting consistent hot water.  With it all hooked up and working we could more easily figure out what was going on. . .or not going on. Found a small rock in the line and a clogged filter and WhaLa!! It works.  If we look pleased with ourselves, it is because we were pleased with ourselves!
   It is such a worthwhile ministry.

New stuff

N

Been in the studio a lot as of late.  Finished up some things on the shelf from last spring and then some new items.  Doing a lot of sculptural items.  Have a load of bisq in the kiln right now that will need a glaze fire this week.

  See my sushi plates?  They are turning out nice.

Celebrating 48 years

We just look at each other and think, REALLY, 48 years!!! Wow. Then we check the math and yup, it is.  We went to Bisbee Arizona to "the schoolhouse B&B " for an overnight stay to celebrate. We started in Benson at Reb's for breakfast, a stop at Brown Canyon Ranch near Sierra Vista to check out a historic property, on to Bisbee where we did the underground mine tour at the old Queen Mine 

that stopped producing copper in the 40's.

Checked into the "music room" and then did Bisbee.  Ending the day on the patio of a Mexican Restaurant--the name excapes me--as the sun went down.

Lovely breakfast included in the morning, then a long leisurely drive through the Sulphur Valley, birding, checking out ghost towns, and local agriculture before stopping at Amerind Native American Museum near Dragoon.  I had free passes that I had been hanging onto for ever. Almost surprised they accepted them. Great collection.

Back to Benson for a dynamite gourmet hot dog at "Wild Dog" (Nothing but the best for our anniversary ) before heading back to Tucson.