Growing up, like many people, I had an unrelenting crush for a boy band: The Backstreet Boys. They made my world go round! Nick’s golden locks, they way they fell over his eyes and made my heart swoon. Brian’s perfect melody and how it echoed through my ears and into my heart… The five boy band-ers made everything about adolescents worth it. I was obsessed! And although it is no longer acceptable for me release high pitched shrieks of joy at the sight of them, a small piece in my heart will always be reserved for the guys that let me know I was Larger Than Life.

Now you can imagine my surprise when my favorite boy band circa 1999 is still alive and well in the People’s Republic.

It started one early Saturday morning when Garrett and I headed to my favorite bakery for some sustenance. Minna, is a delicious bakery a block away from our apartment that provides us with amazing Chinese desserts, breads, and pastries. As we perused the clear plastic windows with the delicious treats housed inside and decided on which of the delectable food particles would replenish us that morning I heard the soft unmistakable voices of the boys who never broke my heart. Thrilled, I pointed out the melody to Garrett and exclaimed with excitement.

It didn’t end there.

As Garrett and I sat down to breakfast the soft melodies of five charming voices continued. All of the Backstreet Boys greatest hits raged on. It was as if they had been expecting me.

Later, during an afternoon shopping trip with some friends I heard it again. This time Gina, who shares my passion, witnessed it and reveled in the excitement with me as we perused the shoe racks.

A few days later I heard my boys through the crackly speakers of a taxi car, then again in the tiny boutiques of Hengshan Lu. I even heard then through the blaring headphones of a subway passenger.

It’s as if they have returned.

Is Backstreet Back?

It started out as a rough day, Garrett had a million things to do and I had a bum knee. Braving the cold alone Garrett went out and caught up on all the things he needed for his Shanghai Debut. Guitar strings, straps, food… you know, the essentials.

At about 8:30 Garrett and I headed to Beedees a small hole in the wall bar that allowed Garrett and his Canadian band mates to play live in front of an audience. Having met only a week or so before the big performance, Garrett was a little nervous about what would come.

Nevertheless we braved the Shanghai cold, hailed a cab and headed towards rock and roll stardom. Or at least we headed towards the traffic. What should have been a 15-minute cab ride soon turned into 30 minutes. And soon turned into Garrett freaking out because he was suppose to be on stage in minutes. It’s funny how when you are actually in a rush, you get the cab driver mindful of red lights and speed limits… typical. Mr. Taxi Man took his time in dropping us to our location, even missing the exit and having to turn around. (Usually when this happens, Taxi drivers turn off their meters and drive you the rest of the way since they are making your trip that much longer. But not this taxi cab driver… of course not him.)

As we speed along the freeway, in one sudden jerk Garrett and I fling forward as the driver plummets his brake petal. He had missed the exit and thought it more logical to stop on the freeway from 60 to 0… in hopes of getting over to it. Unfortunately it was way to late and his attempts to reverse were not being had by the other freeway occupants. So with an “EEP” and a grunt he continued for another kilometer until the next exit. There he turned around and headed towards our street.

Once we got to the street where Beedees was, he tried to drop us off about a block away from it. We told him the address one more time and told him straight ahead. This did not matter, he continued down the block about as quickly as the old lady trailing along with her food cart. We tried to explain to him that the address was 4-3-3… and we were only at 4-0-5… and to go straight but he insisted on looking at ever buildings number at the same pace as a fat crawling infant.

Finally, Garrett spotted the fluorescent red sign that shined “Beedees” we quickly told him to stop, paid him the over priced fare and got out.

There among the cute tree lined street stood a whole in the wall that happened to serve alcohol. Tiny, smoky and basically empty, Beedees is the kind of place I imagine beatniks and hippies enjoyed in the 70s. Orange walls, old LPs, expats and big coaches cluttered the tiny room. Garrett really enjoyed the venue, it was much more his scene then my usual glossy floor, sleek table kinda place.

Garrett only had a few moments to settle in before they began playing there 6 song set. They were only granted the time to play 6 songs, until the nights headlining band took the “stage.” Which I thought was funny, seeing how there really wasn’t a stage and people continuously walked past the band to get to the restroom located in the back. But they had the set up, sound, and mood lighting… very hippie sheik!

Garrett’s band and the other band were both quite good. Garrett’s band played covers of songs everyone could sing along to; while the other band played songs I had never heard.

As the night progressed, the tiny bar filled with smoke and soon my eyes began to twitch with the irritation of cigarette fumes and visions of not so cute dancers. (I want nothing more than to not be mean, but if I could just explain to you the outfits that were being worn you would understand the dissatisfaction of my vision… schoolgirl skirts, daisy dukes, and chunky thighs… do with that what you will.)

By the end of the night I was eager to leave, slightly disappointed that I had worn my new sparkly, silver knitted mini dress to this place. (It was a much more jeans and boots kinda place!) My dress now cries out for a severe Febreezing especially when you get a whiff of the cigarette smoke scent I acquired while I was there. It’s no Chanel 5! But Garrett did an amazing job (as always) and shined bright among his Canadian counterparts (but I’m biased)!

Since the holidays are practically over, the stores and malls have changed their soundtracks. Now when you enter your local shopping establishment you’ll hear a wide selection of your country favorites, mixed in of course with Chinese pop songs I don’t understand.

Maybe country music is big here…

Maybe they think this music will attract foreigners…

Maybe I shop in the wrong stores…

Nonetheless the tunes of Nashville are loud and clear here in China. Awesome.

Yupp it’s 2002 all over again!! A local mall decided to bring it back when they made their 2008 holiday ad campaign read “Bling Bling Christmas.” It’s everywhere at our local Metro City mall.

Our neighborhood is great, there are 4 malls at an intersection like 3 blocks from our house. Their is Metro City, Orient Center Shopping Mall, Grande Gateway (my personal favorite), and then the Giant Best Buy and Boutiques. The Grande Gateway is the best because it’s probably the biggest mall I’ve ever been too. It’s bigger then Plaza Las Americas in Puerto Rico, which is massive. It has all the western stores I love; anna sui, marc by marc jacobs, see by chloe and all these new stores, which I will grow to love. It also has this huge Costa Coffee, which I’ve visited enough times so that the waitresses now know me.

This Christmas has been very interesting, to say the least. When we first moved into our apartment, I bought a small Charlie Brown Christmas tree, You know the kind; 3 feet tall, sits on your table top, and is basically bald. Garrett and I did the best we could with getting ornaments and lights but it was still scarce. Nevertheless with our Charlie Brown tree we ventured into this Shanghai Christmas. The city did it’s best to put up lights, trees, fake snow, and millions of signs that said Merry Christmas but there was definitely something missing/different about Christmas here. Every store you walked into, no matter where in Shanghai had the same Holiday CD echoing throughout. “Mamacita, donde esta Santa Clause, I look for him because it’s Christmas eve…” Gotta love it.

Usually at home, the family comes over on Christmas eve and we stay up late to open Presents at midnight, we eat way too much food and go to sleep. This year Garrett worked Christmas eve and didn’t get home until about 7, I ran around town trying to find the groceries on my holiday shopping list. Garrett and I wanted to do our best to create Christmas dinner here in Shanghai. I had no luck. I did get frozen chicken, potatoes, rolls and frozen corn. So like the good little housewife I’ve become (ha ha ha just kidding, this was Garrett’s once in a lifetime cooked meal from me) I made pasta with pesto sauce and chicken. I boiled some potatoes, heated up the corn and buttered the bread… all in all it was a descent meal. I didn’t give us food poising (yet). The night ended after about 5 hours of watching the DVD set Garrett got of Lost. Lost is an AMAZING show btw.

In Shanghai, nothing is closed on Christmas day, nothing. The malls, stores, restaurants, everything is open from 9 in the morning until 11 at night. But Garrett and I thought it best to follow the American tradition we like best about Christmas, doing nothing all day. We would have spent some time going to the movies but we have yet to discover an English language theatre. So in the morning we exchanged presents and continued to watch endless of hours of Lost. Garrett pointed out how their situation is similar to ours. Not that we are stuck on an Island playing survivor by any means. But they’re exploring this unknown world just like us.

After our Lost marathon we got ready for dinner… Christmas dinner was an experience. We were invited to dinner with Allen, a Chinese businessman who lives in the bay area and works with Garrett. It was an amazing experience, not like any other Christmas dinner I’ve had before. But I’ll leave that story for another day.