On a sunny Saturday, our first non-rainy day in Shanghai, Holm met me at the Jiaotong University subway stop about a 15 minute walk from his home. The stop is near the campus' main gate. Holm teaches at a satellite campus of the university about a hour away from here.
We hit a pop-up market, one of the first this spring. Most vendors of Western-style foods (Holm got a burrito), craft beer, jewelry, shaving brushes were ex-pats, as were attendees. I felt like I was still in Portland.
Near Holm's apartment is a huge intersection of high-end shopping malls.
Holm wasn't sure if cosplay or business dress, seriously.
There's also a Tesla charging station. Holm says there's a lottery for a license to own a car, and the license itself it so expensive that only the already-rich can play. That explains why I've seen mostly high-end cars everywhere.
And if you're not driving a high-end car, you're driving a bicycle or motorized scooter or tricycle.
Right behind Holm's apartment building is an older residential neighborhood with thriving commercial streets and markets.
There are street-sweepers everywhere and their brooms are always made of bamboo.
Holm was able to make himself understood well enough at the post office to get me some stamps for U.S.-bound mail.
There's a huge indoor market with fresh/alive everything you could want. Seaweed selection...
Sauces and dried components...
I can't tell you what much of this is...
Wish we had noodle/wonton vendors like this.
Such a beautiful variety of shellfish, mussels, oysters, clams...
...and they're all very much still alive.
We're guessing abalone, jellyfish, huge prawns.
Just love her face.
And the squid marm's...
Again, the size of those prawns...
In Maine, catching elvers (baby eels) is hugely lucrative, something on the order of $2,000/lb because there's such demand for them in Asia. Elvers are much smaller than these so they're easy to ship, then they're raised for market in China.
She was quartering live eels, and the man standing nearby was talking to me the entire time.
Holm lives on the third floor in this building.
Streetfront view
And turning into the parking area
This is so smart! It's a delivery station inside the lobby. Stuff he's ordered (and he orders much of his foodstuffs and everyday needs because delivery is within 24 hours, Amazon take note) gets delivered to one of the compartments herein, and Holm gets a text giving him a code. He punches in the code and "his" compartment's door opens so he can retrieve his stuff.
He's got three roommates, each from a different country, a guy and two gals. I got to meet Carlos, 33, an architect from Colombia, who's been here eight years. Smart, funny, polite, really well-spoken and Holm says he's really well-connected.
Punching the door code to get into the building.
Kitchen features an irradiation machine as well as a dryer, two-burner stove, two small refrigerators.
The balcony is where the washer sits and clothes are hung to dry.
Holm's bedroom
He pays more rent than any of his roommates because he has a private bath.
The roommates together pay an older woman $10 to come in once a week for two hours to clean.
And up to the roof...
Holm has private tutoring students in those high-rises down the road, about $50/hour, which he says is way lower than average.
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