A China Day

Thursday: I got to school and get a call from the school secretary that my flat is flooded, as of yesterday, and that my landlord needs to go in and fix things. This was rather perplexing since I was home that morning and did not notice any standing water, nor did I leave my place in a state that I wanted people go around in.
Shortly after that, the guards at our school and Ayis (cleaning ladies) came into my classroom half way through the day and started taking my tables. Of course we could not communicate and they did not understand that I needed them only that I was waving my arms around and pointing to the desks. Turns out that they needed tables and were just going to take all of mine, despite me having to teach. I got some back before my 6th graders came in….
But the real kicker of the day was after work when I got on a bus to down town, then a metro to the expo site to get tickets. Now a little background of the last month I have been trying to get tickets going to all the places that are supposed to have tickets. None of which have them, they seem to be “sold out” even though expo is not attracting the numbers in the first month that were projected. Also it is continual event and there are no passes that are different from day to do, besides 2 or 3 holidays. I went up to the desk, asked on the way in if I could be day tickets “yes you can”. Get up to the desk, “we only have tickets for the evening”, I question and say this is ridiculous. I only get an “I am sorry” and a few giggles. I ask to see a manager to see if I can get tickets, he has food in his hands and continues walking after saying no tickets. They refer me to all the places I have already frequented several times. I ask for a number to call, they give China Mobile’s number, who is the major seller of ticket “No we do not have any tickets”.
The next bright idea they have is for me to call the expo help line, which does not sell tickets and refers me to China mobile!!!!!!!!! There were vending machines for tickets but that area was closed. So for the major event in Shanghai there is no place to buy tickets in advance, organization at it’s finest. This is just the cherry on top of the miss information on the websites, and such. I will be going next weekend, but really question the slogan of “Better City Better Life” and some signs even include “Deeper friendship”. I walked back to the metro and went into a Lawsons that had an Expo ticket sign, but was not surprised with the lack of tickets.
At least there is still Expo Taxi.

And then there was Expo taxi

And then there was Expo-taxi.

Shanghai has a slogan around town “Better City, Better Life” in advertising for the world Expo that started last week (though only 80% of it all was finished). Since I arrived the city has been under a massive amount of construction for the roads, buildings and what seems like endless remodeling of stores. Things go up really fast here and it has been amazing to see. Out of all aspects of this facelift for Shanghai, my personal favorite by far is the Expo-taxi. Now it might seem normal to those in the West, but after months of smelly, run down, seatbelt-less taxis, the expo taxi is so refreshing and luxurious.
Here are the features of the Expo taxi:
1. Seat belts in the front and back
2. No white cloth on the seats (like all other taxi’s have here),
3. New car smell and not like cigarettes or weird foul smells,
4. Happy drivers (because they are driving Expo-taxi),
5. CLEAN
6. The doors are functional and one does not worry if you will break down.
The old taxis are still crawling the streets and you will see the expo-taxi sprinkled throughout all parts of town. When they first were sited about a month ago, I felt that every time I saw one empty I needed to hail it and just go for a ride down the block. Now when I need a cab, I will wait until a free expo-taxi appears. Today on my way home from the gym, I got a cab but before I opened the door, an unoccupied Expo-taxi came into my line of site and I ran for it.
I know I am not alone in this, as I was making my way home today in a fabulous Expo taxi, I saw a family about to get into a regular cab stop and stare with taxi envy as my Expo Taxi drove safely by. Yes “Better city. Better Life” Thank you Expo Taxi.