Day 15 Monday March 13th - Shanghai

It was entirely too cold this morning to run, according to Accuview weather
it was close to 26 F. There was an optional trip to the Shanghai Museum
this morning. I went. There was an exhibit of Forbidden City items that are
not displayed at the Forbidden City. It was very good. I also walked around
the rest of the museum with Oscar and saw items like Stamps, Bronze work,
pottery, porcelain, Buddha statutes, clothing ranging from all regions of
china, etc. It is amazing what the Chinese were doing at times when
Europeans were still beating each other up with Rocks.

Later in the afternoon we all boarded the bus for the US Consulate and
Commercial Service. The presentation by the commercial officer seemed a
little canned, where as the comments from the Commerical analyst were much
more real world.

Upon returning to the hotel about 15 people made a pilgrimage to what has
now become known as Patrick's Tailor. This is really an open air (covered)
market place where there are hundreds of stall set up by tailors where you
pick your pattern (either from a magazine or what is hanging up), pick your
pattern, bargain the price and then get measured. You pick up your clothes
between 2 and 5 days later. I used Jeff and Jason as my clothes models for
Kevin and ordered a wool overcoat to be made for him. Jeff made me try on a
stunning Oriental silk jacket that I then proceeded to purchase. Many thanks
to Siska for getting me a good price. I have no idea what I will wear with
this jacket or what I will wear it too, but I couldn't leave with out it.
As people finished their orders they made their way back to the hotel. This
of course included a near death experience for Vera, Jason and I when we
tried to cross the street and got whistled at by the cop to get our butts
back on the curb as traffic was barreling down the street. Once we finally
made it across the street and caught a cab yet another cop yelled at our cab
driver because he picked us up in a non-cab spot. Really this yelling is
just some stern looks, lots of waving and some whistles on their whistles.

Once back at the hotel about 18 of us went for Hot Pot. Hot Pot is two pots
of boiling soup stock (typically one spicy and one not) that you proceed to
cook meat and veggies in. The spicy broth comes with tofu and duck blood.
The duck blood is congealed and looks like tofu. 2/3 of the way through I
finally tried it. There was really no flavor. So far the exotic foods I
have eaten are bull frog (fried and stir fried) and duck blood.

Yachin, Jim and Siska taught Vera, Patrick and I how to play Mah Jong later
that night. Vera and I lost every time with both Patrick and Siska winning
twice each.