Things I’ve thought about this past week: D and I celebrated our second anniversary. To be honest, I’ve spent the past month dreading the day – and for absolutely no good reason. There’s something about being with a person whom…
Snow falling on Shanghai
I haven’t seen snow since I landed in China in July of 2014. It just hit me that I haven’t seen even an inch of snow on the ground in almost three years (D tells me that we saw snow…
Why do we stop writing?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot about over the past several weeks. Do we stop writing because we have too many stories to tell or because we have too few? And when we do stop, how do we get ourselves…
Christmas Markets and December in Shanghai
I spent most of my childhood cold.
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…
4 reasons it hurts to sit down and other ways to get fit in Shanghai
Picture this: you’re in a dimly-lit room and German techno is thumping through the speakers. There is a woman in spandex in front of you and she’s illuminated by a lone floodlight (eerie and unnecessarily dramatic). Her shadow is almost…
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…
"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…
Gutter oil, no soy sauce, and other things about Shanghainese street food
It starts at midnight. A ladleflul of oil and the cracked egg are followed immediately by two (heaping) teaspoons of white MSG powder. The street vendor asks me if I want to add chili to my noodles (they come next,…
The end of the (subway) line
This weekend I did something I’ve wanted to do ever since I got to Shanghai this past July.