Empty Nesters

This morning we said goodbye to the last two visitors we will have in our little apartment in China.  Joel's brother-in-law and Uncle Bob both came to visit us for a little over a week, and we've had the best time hanging out with them and showing UB around the city. Dan used to live here and teach at the school where Joel now works, so he was able to catch up with some old friends and students and revisit all his old stomping grounds and of course eat at all his favorite restaurants.

The entire visit was like one big eating and tailoring extravaganza. There were mountains of food on every table we sat down to (Dan was usually in charge of the ordering, and he had a lot of dishes to revisit before he could go home) and a sea of fabrics to navigate at all the fabric markets.

By the end of the week everyone had caught the bug to have clothes made at the market. Even I finally went to get measured for the coat I've had my eye on since we got here.  Before we moved, I thought I would have clothes made all the time. In fact, I deliberately went light on the clothes packing in my suitcase because I fully expected to be filling my wardrobe with fabulous custom made pieces at laughably low prices the moment I stepped off the plane.

However, that was not to be my fate. Truth be told in the seven months we've called this place home I've only had one thing made since we got here, and when it didn't go exactly like I planned I had to come up with a Plan B for shopping here. Luckily they have H&M or else I'd be stuck buying everything in the largest possible size of the Chinese scale. Nothing like switching continents to give you a little body image perspective. "Oh no, you are much too fat for that. This is size like for me. Try biggest size!" Westerners, beware.

Aside from all the eating and the shopping we did one new thing that I've been dying to do since I got here: We went to the Shanghai Circus. It's called ERA, and it was amazing, truly.

Apparently reps from Cirque de Soliel came to train the acrobats and performers for this show, and you could tell by the magical mark they'd left. The whole thing had that other worldly vibe to it mixed with act after act of mind bending (and often body bending) wonders.

They had an act of four contortionist girls in trompe l'oeil leotards stacking themselves into mystefying shapes while a spotlight framed beautiful shadows of their silohouettes on a back panel that gave the impression you were watching moving drawings instead of real people. It was incredible.

Then there was a man who could spin huge vases all over his body- down one arm and up the other, throwing it into the air and catching it on the back of his neck. The he spun it on his head and flipped it from one rim to another, although the pot was clearly about five times the size of his head. I knew it was going to crush him any minute, but it didn't.

Next was my favorite act. It was a pairs routine.  A couple flew through the air dangling in each others arms secured only by the fabric sheets that one of them would have twisted around a wrist or an ankle. They tumbled up and down the fabric and spun in large arcs over the crowd. I think that's the closest you can come to flying. It was beautiful and terrifying. I loved it.

They had so many other wonders. Seven motorcycles flying at death defying speeds in a tiny cage. Tumblers having a show down by jumping through all kinds of hoops. A giant rotating metal wheel that nearly killed one of the performers when he tried to run over it blindfolded and lost his footing.

It is a little disconcerting going to the circus in Shanghai. In the back of my mind I can't shake the sneaking suspicion that the tricks and the profits are valued more highly than the lives of the performers. I hope I'm wrong about that, but it doesn't change the fact that when you're sitting in that seat watching the show that American feeling of "I know it looks like they could die, but there's no way the company would let that happen" doesn't ring as true.

After the circus we Whisked for the second time that week and went home to watch Sharktopus, the horrific tale of what happens when a half Shark-half octopus biomedically engineered by the government goes rogue.  It was worth every penny of the forty five cents we paid. This morning we waved goodbye to their taxis and came back upstairs to our empty nest. It's quiet, and I'm thinking it might just be a stay in your pajamas kind of day.