Like many things in China, the Shanghainese coffee culture is a little.. off. Drinking coffee in China is a rather bizarre experience, and I’m not quite sure whether it lags behind or somehow surpasses its US equivalent (probably the former). Below are some of…
Making things up as I go along
I gotta be honest, sometimes living abroad gets pretty miserable. The good days do absolutely outweigh the bad. For one, China is overwhelmingly convenient. The cabs are ridiculously cheap. There is an unending supply of Korean BBQ. Eating chuanr no longer makes me violently…
Understanding China
At times, I wonder about my ‘legacy’ in China. Now okay, that sounds a bit ridiculous. The last seven (almost eight) months that I’ve spent in Shanghai, my Chinese speaking abilities have rapidly improved (not as significantly as I would have liked them to, but…
Chinese New Year, and other reasons to not get out of bed
Yesterday, I came the closest I’ve come to facing my own mortality since coming to China. Strapped to the back of a scooter cab, clutching the overcoat of the 5’2″ shifu with one hand and my glittery cell-phone case with the other…
What it's like to write
All writers are liars. We exaggerate, spinning lies out of words in order to create a stronger, more compelling narrative. We disregard facts to make what we write feel more ‘real’ (which is kind of counterintuitive, isn’t it?). In my…
How I fell in love
I have never fallen for a place as rapidly or as irrevocably as I have fallen for Hong Kong. This past weekend was electrifying, rapid, exhilarating. And it terrifies me just how much I want to uproot the life I have created in China and move to…
My Morning Commute or "Ten Minutes on the Shanghai Subway"
42 minutes. That’s the exact length of my work commute (that is, if don’t count stopping at the milk coffee-tea stall along the way). Of those forty-two minutes, less than ten are spent underground, passing two subway stops on Line 11 of the Shanghai Metro –…
Why we become expats
Encounters with strangers in Shanghai always come with difficult questions. For one, ‘why did you come to China?’ is one that has been asked each time I have met someone new and over time, it’s become more and more of…
The problem with living in China aka "Thoughts on Housekeeping Part II"
One of the problems with living abroad is, that after a while, life in a new city can begin to lose its initial thrill or its sense of excitement. You become immune to the shock of only buying fruits at…
Blocks of butter and blocks of code
My neighborhood grocery must think that I’m insane. Over the past week, I’ve bought: A fifth of Jose Cuervo A 500 gram bag of instant yeast A block of cheddar A bag of kettle corn One red onion A dark chocolate bar…
"I'm a morning person who hates mornings" aka my daily routine in Shanghai
This week, I turned my daily routine on its head. As a result, I’ve worked four nearly 16-hour days. I’m groggy, disoriented, and exhausted. I officially and unexpectedly started my new job, caught completely off-guard when told we’d be switching offices last…
Good Omens
I’ve been told that the way we spend the first few days of a new year is the way we’re meant to spend the rest of that year. I don’t believe it one bit. My first few hours of 2014 were spent…