This weekend I saw a side to Shanghai I hadn’t seen before. It was raw, crumbling, boarded-up, and really quite visceral. Saturday was one of those perfect afternoons where things just seem to go right (except the weather, nothing ever goes…
An Inordinate Fondness for Cheese
Four years ago, I spent a magical summer in Paris, capturing memories in a long-forgotten blog. Every Thursday, I’ll post my favorite entries from that blog. This is reprinted from 7-7-10. I have had so much cheese since coming to…
How do you say ‘kale’ in Chinese?
There’s someone intrinsically romantic about walking past the shimmering fountains and the glittering Hausmannian storefronts of Jingan in my pressed work Oxford shirt and slacks at dusk every night. Yesterday, I stopped by the fountain in front of the Gucci…
Shakespeare & His Bros
Four years ago, I spent a magical summer in Paris, capturing memories in a long-forgotten blog. Every Thursday, I’ll post my favorite entries from that blog. This is reprinted from 7-18-10. [yes, I know this one is late, but I…
Coming home
I am not ready to go home. I don’t think I’ll be ready for a while. And that in itself is kind of frightening. I’ve been having a few internal crises about being here in China. I can feel that I’m already…
La Comédie Française
Four years ago, I spent a magical summer in Paris, capturing memories in a long-forgotten blog. Every Thursday, I’ll post my favorite entries from that blog. This is reprinted from 7-20-10. Highlights of my day A white chocolate macaroon with…
The one-day weekend, or how I spent last Sunday between heaven and earth
I only have one weekend day (yes, I complain about this a lot, but it’s true). I’ve been in Shanghai for exactly four weeks, so here, presented in all of its (uncensored) glory, is how I spent my fourth Sunday:…
Making Friends
Meeting new people after college is hard. I am slowly starting to find my place in the beautiful crazy mess that is Shanghai and I’m lucky to have both roommates and co-workers who I love spending time with, but it’s meeting people…
The Sacred and the Profane
Four years ago, I spent a magical summer in Paris, capturing memories in a long-forgotten blog. Every Thursday, I’ll post my favorite entries from that blog. This is reprinted from 7-7-10. My day began in a church. My afternoon ended…
Fighting loneliness
I may write (mostly) about the silly and the inane, but sometimes life abroad get complicated. I go throughout periods of being so happy about my new life in China. It’s disorienting and enthralling (except for the poison water). But then,…
Salted Cheese Tea and other things I've put into my mouth.
One of my favorite parts of the Shanghai experience so far has been seeking the grossest food I can find — and eating it. Salted cheese bubble tea (many things here are mistranslated, so the reality can be much worse) is high on…
Understanding Chinese social etiquette: a primer
It was a 95ºF day and they were serving lukewarm beer. One of the hardest things about being in China (aside from the language, the language is quite hard), has been knowing how to behave around people in public. Yes, the expectations…