day 1 in shanghai

i'm here for shoot with James Fallows for a 'business in china' documentary series, and my first day here was spent wandering the french concession since we're not shooting my stuff til Saturday. i should probably have been reading up on his brilliant articles on china, technology, etc, but i put that off for a day to get oriented. i left the hotel with sightseeing in mind: the French Concession, shopping areas, the Bund, etc.

shanghai is a strange mix of french colonialism and old china, architectural modernity, international ex-pats, and subtropical mugginess. all i can think about is 1) how i should break my vegetarianism for soup buns and 2) shopping. i realize when i go to a city and am not allowed to shop, i get overly anxious. when i did a 2 week shoot in korea and had nary a day to shop, i almost scratched my eyes out. in the end, i went nuts and bought a ton of shit i didn't need.

Today i was able get all of it out of my system in the beginning. it's a sort of insurance, for my eyes. among my purchases:

1. a (fake?) marc jacobs dress
2. 2 shirts i will never wear
3. a baubly belt i was pressured into buying because my chinese wasn't good enough

i've decided to also keep count of how many of these i see:
1. snot rockets/public loogies, and
2. shirtless men with weird distended bellies (bonus points for shirtless men working at a service place eg, restaurant, etc)

so far, the count for snot rockets is at 8, and shirtless men at 5, beginning at 10pm. god knows how many i saw earlier today.

may the fun begin!