Tip #2: Don't pretend that you know how to paint.

My days so far have started exceedingly early because I keep waking up at 4 in the morning. I guess my body gave up fighting jet lag, resolving only to go halfway and settle with Hawaiian time. So now I'm here in smokin' hot Shanghai, enjoying an exchange rate that lets me buy a lunch for three dollars cdn, eating long donuts several times greasier than Krispy Kremes, and dodging crazy cars and bikes on the street. (I even saw an accident where the driver was trying to calm his bleeding bike-wielding victim with a wad of cash.) What has fascinated me the
most are the old residential alleyways, or tongs, of the city- narrow gated alleys with weathered brick, clothes-lines dangling everywhere, and old fragile people sitting outside with their wooden fans. This afternoon, I decided go to these places and do some watercolors. It felt like sketching school again, except that everything I did was horrible. People would stare over my shoulder, thinking they might see some Chinese master painter at work. Most walk away disappointed. One guy mumbled something incomprehensible, and briskly walked off. It's always neat to be famous, or in my case- infamous.