Party like a Midi rockstar

Just had a super fun weekend here in Shanghai. There's a great park in Pudong called Century Park - really beautiful and green. It was the host site for a music festival called Midi. Wow, I was in for some surprises. I wasn't sure Shanghai had all that many alternative people ... I'm pretty sure they were all at this event. Though North Chinese rock music, Danish rage jams and techno trance Asian style really aren't my forte, we had a BLAST! The rain held out, which was our biggest concern. Here's a clip of the concert (this is the North Chinese band, who some of our Chinese-speaking friends couldn't even understand):

Here are a few other pics from the concert. There is a beer in Singapore called Tiger, hence all the tiger get-up we've got on:

 The best part of the concert (and possibly of Shanghai) is the amazing range of fashion here. Because I am too nice to blatantly snap pics of people dressed ridiculously, you're going to have to give me some time to compile my best-of collection. I promise to blog and show a representative sample of things I've seen people wear here. One major "fashion" (or possibly necessity) here is the use of face masks. The air quality isn't great, but I've also heard they are a statement about being more environmentally friendly. We, of course, had to purchase the creepiest zipper ones we could find at the concert. For $3, I think it was worth it just for this picture:

Oh - great find this week! There is a store in the mall next to my apartment called Jessica. Apparently my name isn't so uncommon around here, even if they did name me Xiu Jie Si for my working permit (pronounced Shoe Jess-uh):

Another interesting cultural thing happened at work. This is the year of the Dragon in China, so there is a lot of baby-having going on. Apparently families are purposely trying to have their babies this year to have them born under this sign. When a baby is born, a tradition is to bring around candy for the entire office to celebrate. There's always red involved, since that will bring luck. Look at this fun surprise I had at my desk:

Next week is a Chinese holiday, so to make up for that here folks work on Saturday. Wish me luck on my first-official six day work-week!