I first met Joan in the copying room and soon learned that she has a degree in English Literature and training in Library Sciences. At our temporary campus, there is no library, so they put Joan to work wherever she is needed. She has lent me three fabulous books to read from her own collection at home. She is the one who gave me the address of the International Book Store near Nanjing Road and told me about the Shanghai Library.
A lover of books- my kind of person!
I took a chance and invited her to lunch- on any day over this past long weekend. She chose Monday. She texted and asked me whether I had ever gotten a library card. I told her no- I need help with that. She said- meet me at the Library- we'll get you one.
That's Joan waiting for me at the bottom of the steps. It's huge, massive, beautiful, impressive library.
My pic does it not justice. (Thanks Internet)
Here's my library card!!!!!!!!! So exciting!!!!!
Foreigners have to put a HUGE deposit to get a card - 1,000 rmb- but I get it back when I close my account. I'll have to be sure to remember that in June ($166.00)
Joan worked as an Intern here as part of her training, and volunteers once a week. A true Library Science nerd. And PERFECT Tour Guide. It is light, airy, expansive and with super-comfortable chairs. On the fourth floor the "foreign" material is held- TONS of English material- fiction, resources, newspapers, magazines, Sociology, a FEW Gender Studies collections- fantastic! I WISH I had done this before the long , cold, damp weekends of Winter!!! I could have spent the whole day in the warm, lovely library. There's even a canteen in the basement. Food, Books, Toilets and Quiet. An Oasis in Shanghai!
I wanted to walk through the paces, so I borrowed Wolf's novel. I like his work and have not read this one.
On theground floor is a Book Store and Gift Shop. It has a small collection of English titles- but a WONDERFUL selection, nonetheless. I purchased this book- it looks wonderful. Because I have a library card, I got 10% off!
Lunch was a ten-minute walk away at a Cantonese Restaurant. We shared the clay-pot rice dish - Hong Long-style- with pork. It was delicious. It had a few ( four?) baby Bok Choy pieces, but the rest was meat. Wow! Joan ordered soup as well.
I forgot to take a picture of the pot before we started. You can see we were both starved. Cleaned the pot.
Joan's soup.
Below she is on her phone. She is shy and ducked out of every picture I took. But she did not see this one.
Joan asked if
I had any thing else to do and I said No, so we toured a near-by Park, went to an Art Gallery and toured through an old Catholic Church in the neighbourhood.
The day was sunny and beautiful. What a gorgeous day.
Joan is 29 years old, smart, funny and wonderful company!!! ( I KNEW she would be- I just didn't know if she'd want to spend a day with me outside of school- Lesson One: Just ask)
Crossing the road to the Park. This is XuHi District of Shanghai- a trendy, expensive district. This park used to be a factory and the local District Council pulled it down and built a park. Rich neighbourhoods always get to move the trash out- even in Shanghai!
This used to be the manager's station of the old factory. It made rubber parts for cars.
Kids' play area
Little pedestrian bridges zig zag the park
We saw some black swans in this man-made pool of water.
They preserved the Chimney of the old rubber factory in the park.
Exited the park and over a pedestrian bridge on our way to the Art Gallery. The gallery featured "contemporary female Chinese Artists" - Beautiful work! No pictures allowed- but I bought TWO!
Here are my new art purchases
The one below is Yu Garden which I visited back in October. I will bring Dawn back here. It's fantastic!
A few steps away was the celebrated Catholic Church. Joan attended a "high mass" one Christmas and was quite impressed. She is not a religious person, but loves the pomp and circumstance and the architecture.
No pictures allowed inside the church- but it was massive and beautiful!
My "Namesake" is my paternal grandmother, but HER Namesake is this woman.
Exiting the Church grounds I noticed these rules. Read them carefully. Joan read each one out loud and did not see the error- she said "KNEES"
Joan ended our lovely day with " Next time - ( next time!)- we'll go to Pudong Library"
Can't wait!
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