I used to dream about New York. When I closed my eyes, I dreamed of pillowy snow heaps falling outside my window in Astoria, about the hum of the radiator warming up the apartment. I used to dream about the entire…
Maria's New York
The past two weeks have been a little frustrating, because I’ve been just too overwhelmed by the experience of being home, and as a result haven’t really been able to write about them coherently (and isn’t that the mark of…
The L-Pocalypse and other (good and bad) impressions of being back in New York
Uber Uber has been such a lifesaver. On the grand scale of things, I really don’t think much has changed since I’ve left the States (Kombucha is still a thing. Everybody, calm down; there’s no need to panic). But the one thing…
What is an authentic New York experience?
This entry is being written from inside a coffee shop in Bushwick. I’m eating a gluten-free raspberry oat bar and drinking a 8 oz French Press. And it’s beautiful how happy those two things make me in tandem. It’s incredible how, on…
Reverse cultural shock or my first hours back in the U.S.
“For those of you coming home tonight, welcome home”. I had told myself I would be emotional during my ‘grand’ return home, but somewhere along the way, I started chocking back tears when my flight took off from Pudong airport (those being tears…
What it's like to come home
In less than 24 hours, I’ll be home. Well, not home, but you get the point. I’ve already been in airports so many times this year. I’ve been exhausted, scrambling to make my flights to other cities in China or to Hong Kong,…
The one where I take on Huashan Hospital (once more) and live to tell the tale
Walking into a Chinese hospital is never a pleasant experience. There’s always something to throw you off – whether it’s the process of sardine-squeezing into at least three elevators before your find one without an overload sign, or being asked to carry…
Springtime in Shanghai, or arbitrary questions without easy answers
We’ve finally reached the Shanghai Spring (and, I guess, the month of April) last week, and although it was short-lived and the weather is once more back to a 50ºF hazy and rainy mess, the past week brought me back to the temperatures…
The 30-day Countdown: One year later
In June 2014, a few days after coming back from Russia and just a month before departing for Shanghai, I wrote a blog post about counting down the days in the last month, but I decided against publishing it. I’m not…
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…
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…