Into the Second Month of Shanghai Life...

It is hard to even know where to begin here…  Everyday is certainly an adventure.  I remember vividly getting off the plane and driving out of the Pudong airport and thinking just how different everything is… will I ever survive this???  Well, I am two months in and can assure everyone that we are all not only surviving but in many ways even thriving.   We are still waiting on our sea shipment and finding the camping life to be getting a bit old, but we all have made the best of it and find ourselves counting down until the magical day when “Christmas” (Our Sea Crate) arrives.   On any given day, our priorities change with what we miss the most.  I never thought I would ever last over three months with five changes of clothes!  It can be done and has actually simplified my life considerably.  No longer do I stand in front of my wardrobe thinking… what should I wear tonight.  Instead, I think to myself… ok… it is Thursday, today I wear jeans and the white shirt.  The complete replica of Mondays outfit.   

There are a few things I remember vividly when getting off the plane on our look see in April and again landing for good on August 1st.  Yes, the sky has a low haze cover and everything seems to have a layer of dust or dirt.  The buildings appear older and well worn, but the energy it takes from avoiding being pummeled by a taxi, van, or scooter really prevents you from looking up at them.    We are definitely not in Parkland anymore and gone are those days where the sun is out at full force and the pool is always so inviting.   We drive around looking out the windows for patches of grass to throw the ball around or to play tag.   I never thought we would find our little patch of paradise, but like most anything in this world… if you look hard enough, you will eventually find it.  

We moved into our high rise apartment the beginning of September and our skyline has changed from the palm trees to the building tops of downtown Shanghai.  Are we really living in China????   The kids will periodically ask, are we in China yet?   (Ummm can you not notice all the Asians around)  Like everything else though, what shocks you in the beginning  - you eventually will get desensitized to.  Just today I realized what it would be like to have family and friends come to visit and experience some of the oddities of living abroad.   Like, today I was out for a run…  I no longer see dogs running around and think to myself, “You better run and hide because you are going to be someones dinner tonight!”    I have learned to cross the streets and known the haphazard etiquette of “pedestrians right of way.”  At first, I thought there wasn’t one, but you learn to judge the speed and the honk and you can determine exactly where the car coming at you is going and what its plan is.   In essence, we have all become “traffic whisperers!”    

There are a few things that I do not think I will ever get use to. 

1.  Like the Chinese version of potty training - Split pants.

I can’t figure out if they cannot afford diapers or if their culture is such that it is okay to defecate where ever you decide.   Now there are a few specific situations I can recall where these may come in handy and I am pretty sure Chris will attest that after a few beers, these split pants don’t seem all that unreasonable, but it certainly adds new meaning to letting it all hang out.  

2. Chinese Toilets 

One of the first things I learned upon arriving here is that you need to carry a very large bag with a zip top.  Like anywhere else, you have your pick pocketers and you should always be cautious.  What I now carry in my bag?  A large pack of baby wipes, various packages of toilet paper and hand sanitizer.  Now there were toilets like this is some of the rural areas of Russia, but the stalls here seem so much smaller and it took me a few minutes to determine if I was to back my cattle in or go head first.  Either way, it is one of those things you just have to see to believe.  

3.  Spitting

Obviously, this is a problem because there is a sign for it.  

It isn’t the just act of spitting that is even the worst part.  It is the pre orchestrated “syndrome” that occurs just to gather all the phlegm to propel.  

4.  Grocery Shopping 

The shopping here is an adventure in itself. Even now I find myself closing my eyes and walking through the meat market until I find the individual packages of chicken or hamburger.  There are tanks and boxes everywhere filled with live animals ranging from fish to turtles, snakes, eels, and frogs.  Ayden was the quickest to acclimate and names the eels with each visit to the store and has been known to describe the exact fashion in eating these snake like creatures… “you just bite their heads off.”  (Not that I even go NEAR this tank for reasons obvious to those that know me well.)   The meat department is divided up according to animal.   It is here that you can buy most types of meat that has been freshly hacked by the butcher and flung, unwrapped and unmarked into the large open bins through which dozens of shoppers at a time can rummage. 

Meat bins at the grocery store

I will admit, the fruits and vegetables here are outstanding!!!!!

We have tried so many new fruits and we cannot get enough of them.

The best place to buy the fruit is nearly on every street corner.  We have one guy we like to buy from that parks outside of our gate and sells the most amazing fruits out of the back of his pick up truck.  When we see something we have never had, he cuts it open and has us all try.

Our recent favorites

The Pomelo

The Pomelos smell and look like grapefruit. They are typically larger than your average grapefruit, have a lemon-lime yellow skin with pale white or coral pink flesh, and can be sweet at times. They are rich in Vitamin C, Folic Acid, and Potassium.  Chinese believe pomelos are a sign of prosperity, abundance and good fortune.  But clearly, not why I love them.

  

Dragon Fruit

Much like a kiwi, the dragon fruit has antioxidants that helps our body and prevents certain diseases.  We will take whatever we can get to compensate for whatever this “haze” is floating in the air.   This fruit is packed with vitamins and best eaten by cutting the fruit in half and scooping the flesh out like eating sherbet.  It is wonderful in smoothies or even blended on its own.  

The grocery shopping in itself remains a challenge.  This problem is compounded, incidentally by the fact that it takes at least two to five stores to make a meal.  The nearby wet market I use for common fruits and veggies.  You may also purchase live chickens, killed, plucked and beheaded/be-footed too, upon request.  All while you wait!    The produce stands (including the ones in the back of pick up trucks or adult tricycles) offer locally grown fruits, vegetables and various herbs.  You have to venture to the grocery store for pasta, rice, milk, paper products and cleaning supplies as well as the open air meat bins described above.   If you are desperate, there is an expat supermarket (or Western Market) where you can find various imported items like coffee, palatable wine, and various baking products all for the amount it would cost you to obtain a vital organ in the states.  

I have to admit, I am a well kept “Tai Tai” and have hired an ayi to help me with the grocery shopping and I am convinced she can make dinner for less then half the money that I can so she pays for herself.  She has introduced us all to new ethnic meals that the kids love and opened our palates to various ethnic dishes that we normally would not have if I was the sole chef.   

We have two people that spend a lot of time with us and help us navigate this new city.   Our driver Mr. Zhu is from Shanghai and gets us around town.  I am pretty sure he tolerates me blasting American music and has been teaching us directional Chinese.  Jordan befriended him immediately, and they have been known to pass the time throwing the football around.    Driving here is an offensive sport with very few rules.  I am glad that I am not out navigating the roads here as they have a unique honking “system” that I am just beginning to figure out.  It is safer for me to get car sick reading then it is for me to look out the windows while driving.   Being chauffeured around was an adjustment, but Chris and I quickly learned that it is too convenient at times… particularly   after a Friday night happy hour.

I signed Chris and I up for the Shanghai marathon December 4th.  It seems like a flat route and a manageable race… I am  hoping the iron lung I will need won’t impede my race time.

 I am taking mandarin…  this is a joke.  But it makes me feel productive and I think it is necessary to learn how to swear no matter where you live (kidding).   I call the mandarin I am learning… more directional.  I can get us from point A to B, tell time and order cocktails and exchange pleasantries - like hello, good bye and thank you.  I can count to 100 which is more useful then I thought, but truthfully,  I spend the  majority of the hour and half gossiping with my new Chinese friend, Alice.    (And yes they pick their own “Western” name)

Like most things, Chris has immersed himself in the culture as well as learning the language.    He is obsessed with learning Chinese fluently.   (I am thinking this is his replacement for the Crusher.)  The type of language Chris is learning is… more concept related and a bit less useful at the moment.   Unlike me, he can say things like, The red donkey is at work or The car is going to work.  (work I guess is a pretty big word here)  Anyway, you get the difference.  I know he is on the brink of having it all come together for him.  I have to admit, I was secretly impressed that he was able to tell our ayi that pizza is coming and put them to bed by 8 o’clock in perfect Chinese.  Of course the bed time did not work so now we are trying to figure out what he actually said and apparently she spent some time washing the windows while we were out.   It is all a work in progress.   

 Ayden is learning mandarin through songs and Jordan and Garrett are learning conversational mandarin.  I can actually close my eyes and hear Garrett speaking simple mandarin and think he is actually Chinese.  Garrett is the one that actually talks to our driver and ayi and fills them in on the details.  For example, on our way home from a carnival this past weekend, Chris wanted to stop for a hair cut.  I got Mr. Zhu from the school to the hair cut place (with some near misses because Chris was trying to use HIS version of Chinese which was confusing us all).  While dropping Chris off, it was Garrett that told the driver, we are dropping Dad off to get a hair cut and we are heading home.  I am not sure what else he said and I can’t say that this may be a good thing.  You never really  know what is going to come out of his mouth.  

So this is where we call home now.  We have one of the top two floor apartments  that takes up half of the building.   I had to include this picture to show that in spite of the “smoggy” reputation Shanghai often has, there are days where the sky is blue and clear and yes we do have to wear sun screen. 

We have all met and made some friendships here and finding our bucket list growing by the day.     

There is a saying here that you may have Shanghai highs and Shanghai lows….  A blue sky day will always be a Shanghai high!