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Published: October 7th 2007
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Huai Hai Lu
Autumn Festival wonderland at night. Sunday, October 7/07
Hey everyone!
Well, Shanghai continues to dazzle yet frustrate....regarding the latter, one of my colleagues uses the acronym 'TIC', for 'this is China' for every time something doesn't go the way you'd expect and lately we, too, seem to be throwing it into every other sentence....for example, on the first night of our holidays, the taxi took us to the wrong area in Saturday holiday traffic and after one hour in gridlock we ended up in the wrong part of town; our pay went into the bank for the first time but our money cards didn't work; the internet guy came to our apartment twice and we still don't have web access: TIC, TIC, TIC....TOC!!!
But then one late evening, walking down the major shopping street Huai Hui Lu (why hi loo), we discovered to our amazement that seemingly overnight it had been transformed into an Autumn Festival wonderland. As far as you could see, trees lining the street had been wrapped in purple twinkle lights, and strung between were multi-coloured flashing stars. As usual there were passerbys everywhere: parents and their children out way past their bedtime, flocks of shoppers (the stores here never
Hallway mirror
Interpretation by local artist......or is this really us after two months? close) young people out on the town, and grandparents in their pajamas out for a late night stroll -- and 'TIC' took on another quality of, well, 'this is China'??!! Truly it was breathtaking.So we're continuing to find the YIN (sorry about the misspelling in the last entry :-) in a sea of yangs, and such Autumn Festival celebrations have been a delightful example.
It also helps, we're learning, to plan a lot less. For example, a family of eight bumped us from a one-day bike trip in the surrounding countryside...so we set off to buy our own bikes and tour the local neighbourhoods instead. We've also used the week off for Autumn Festival to organize our apartment, and that has meant yet another trip to IKEA. Maybe it's time to branch out for more exotic shopping locales, ie "Taikang Street" is a renovated network of laneways, where you can pick up unique pieces from local artisans and designers. But that's been a recent discovery...in the meantime, here are the pics of our place...sorry if it's starting to ressemble a page from the IKEA catalogue. (But I have to admit, it's hard to avoid picking up those comforts from
Front hallway
Observing our new home. home, at ridiculously low prices!!)
So, here is the latest update as we await yet another typhoon and celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary.
And now that you all have seen our place, come on down!!
'Til next time....
Amy & Roel,
alias
Luolan and Li Ming
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Carly
non-member comment
Amazing apartment..
...can't wait until I move in! Eh roomies?