Rant, bitch, moan, gripe

Once again, it's taken me a while to get my blogging butt back into gear. Apologies for that, and without further ado... I'm starting to get really sick of Shanghai. Really, really sick of it. It's just all the little things building up. The way no one says please or thank you. The way people spit all over the street, jump queues and push like crazy on the metro. The way men here think it's de rigeur to wear silky white socks with suits. It just makes me want to beat them to death with their own bad fashion sense. This is supposed to be China's city of the future, their big push to be seen as a developed country. In reality it's artificial and seems like a draft copy of a real city. Small but important details are just missing. Even in the fanciest, most expensive department stores, the toilet stalls have no toilet paper. Okay, so maybe the janitor forgot to refill them. At least that's what I thought until I saw that there were no toilet roll holders whatsoever. The rationale is that people should bring their own paper with them. Really. Of course, some of us only realize this after it's too late. I won't go into details... It was bad enough in Taiwan having to dump used toilet paper into the trash can, but at least I knew where I stood there. Now, if I want to play it safe, I have to consider the state of my digestive system before I leave the house. What joy. While I'm on a roll, the Chinglish here is really starting to drive me mental. At first it was kind of endearing and quite a good laugh, but now it just seems so unprofessional. It's one thing for a small corner shop with a hand-written sign to cock up the language, but quite another when it's the municipal government. Why do they even bother using the language if they're going to use it incorrectly? How can anyone take the city, even the country, seriously when they see signs proclaiming "come live future 21 century apartment?" I'll have to admit though, that some of it still gives me a good laugh, like the "exploding joss-stick chicken fuck pieces" I recently saw on a menu. The worst thing though is that everything seems so short-term. I've got used to the constant slamming of jackhammers but the attitudes of the people and the government just freak me out sometimes. It's always a quick fix here. Things like people quitting their long-term careers to intern at L'Oreal, just so they can have a nicer brand on their business card. I'm sounding like a complete snobby expat now, but I'm really past caring. Maybe I just need a holiday, but most of the time I end up wishing I were somewhere back in the old world. This camel can't take many more straws before he needs a visit to the chiropractor.