Happy Spring Festival, we love fireworks, and adrenaline rushes.

What an amazing week! After spending some great days with my parents, exploring some of the amazing museums, and restaurants of Shanghai, I was now on my own. The first cab ride I took alone, coming to my apartment, honestly brought about a small tinge of apprehension, and the thought of “what the hell am I doing?”….But, all of these feelings have quickly subsided and I’ve come to enjoy the adventures (and frustrations) that await me everyday that I walk outside.

What we call Chinese New Year, is really their Spring Festival, but I guess it goes by both names.. Here the holiday ends up lasting for a week, and one big tradition is to light off fireworks to help ward off evil spirits. But now, as my roommate describes, it’s also a competition of who gets the first one lit, and who has the biggest bang. This past Wednesday (Feb 2, 2011) I decided to wander the streets of Shanghai, and take photos of the fireworks — which had been going off sporadically for a couple days, but were in FULL EFFECT today!  Starting around noon. (it’s about the bang!) Sitting in my apt. at 7pm, working on a job and not being able to take it anymore, I grabbed my tripod and camera, and earplugs, and set out. Well I only had to go as far as my front gate for my first experience — 20×20′ area covered in the fireworks paper, and a gentleman lighting off the mortar shells.. no pretty sparkles, just one LOUD bang and light (with earplugs, my ears still were ringing! Honestly, this man has got to be partially deaf by now.)

Adrenaline rush, commence.

I snap a few shots, get pegged in the cheek by a piece of shrapnel (a good 30′ away from the lighting of the fireworks. Check. 50′ is better.) and head off around the corner. 1/3 of the way down the block, more fireworks going off. At the end of the block, they are being lit in the middle of the street. All along the block, random piles of trash from the fireworks. Constant explosions everywhere. I’m loving it. Laughing, in awe. Adrenaline, pumping.

I continue on around the block, and pop into the Belgian beer bar below my future intern office, deciding I needed a stiff drink to get back into battle. I’ve learned that a good glass of whiskey makes any situation easier.

Heading now toward in the direction of the Bund (river front area where I wanted to be at midnight) I hop in a cab, and ask him to take me to a neighborhood where I saw lots of decorations along some shorter streets, thinking there would be something interesting going on to check out. I say “Yongshou Lu” and point it and “Yan’an Lu” out on the map. He repeats the names, I repeat, he repeats, I repeat (typical for me in cabs). Ok, we’re off. Taking a new route to my destination (also typical in cab) I start to think “hm, we’re going a bit far east…it’s probably ok, different route.” and then see the large illuminated bridge ahead, which means I’m about to cross the river. Too far east! Two words in my current vocabulary are “no” and “there” which was convenient as there was an exit ramp there.. A brief moment of “shit! what do I do now?!” look through my phone, first number of an American (fluent in Chinese) that I just met – busy. Scroll down the phone. Ah! The concierge at the Ritz! Yes! Another American I met said – put this in your phone, you can call them for anything. Brilliant. I call. They answer. Language translation occurs. Yes. Back on track.

So finally, midnight, on the Bund. I have video, but you can’t hear the depth of hundreds of fireworks going off every minute, from every direction around you. Perhaps best described as if you were an ant on stage at the world’s largest tap dancing recital — without the choreography. Awesome. Loving it. And, of course, ran into my friends that gave me the Ritz number (in this small town of 23M) and got to share that antidote with them, first hand.

Ended the evening wandering into the House of Blues and Jazz, listing to a great group called Moonshine Society, from Maryland, of all places. Overpriced drinks, but awesome atmosphere. Made friends with a couple Italians I had a momentary encounter with along the Bund about an hour previously, and now, my phone has a whopping 10 contacts in it. 🙂 Life is good.