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Published: October 21st 2007
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My next career -- food editor?
Thanks to a local supermarket which carries many expats' favorites, these are some of the staples that have brought a little of back home fare to our nightly cuisine. Carlo Rossi never tasted so good! (And Singapore curry adds a dash of exotic spice!!) Ni hao,
And I'm ashamed to say that our Chinese has not progressed MUCH beyond that....so on my to-do list is taking Chinese lessons. Roel's campus provides him with lessons every other week after school, so I guess it's off the local Chinese for expats school for me.
Now that we're going into our third month we're getting quite settled -- no more jet lag and far less culture shock. In fact the daily routine is strikingly similar to our work schedules back home....up at 5:00 am in order to make our 7:10 am bus pickup, which is a 1/2 hr walk, work, work, work, come home, on early nights (ie. nights with no meetings -- which are far too few) another 1/2 hour walk back home from the bus (no need to join the gym!) dinner, maybe a movie (Hollywood Videos is the local DVD store, and has all the latest releases...legal copyright is another matter:-) sleep and then repeat the whole process all over again. If it were not for the fact that this is all being played out against the back drop of one of the most vibrant cities in the world, you could almost call
OK -- Minimalism only goes so far
Every kitchen needs a bit of Chilean wine and, I've discovered, a press for coffee and green tea...keeps the grounds and leaves where they belong. our days humdrum!! But life in Shanghai may be many things -- as my blogs have pointed out -- but boring, never!! For example, wé're both going to Xian in November on a four-day school excursion to see the Terra Cotta Soldiers, and next weekend plan to tour Xitang on our bikes. Apparently this latter locale, a small water town about two hours outside Shanghai, is the site of the Tom Cruise, Mission Impossible III movie...maybe we'll make another trip soon to Hollywood Video to buy it and check it out! (I understand the movie is terrible, but the location is stunning!)
Weekends, too, are the highlights of our week (just like back home!) Yesterday we took the bikes to the Fabric Market to pick up a winter cashmere coat I'd had made (custom fit for only 800 yuan -- about $100 Canadian) and today we took our bikes on the ferry across the Huangpi River. Similar to Hong Kong, Shanghai is divided into two parts by its harbour. We live on the western side called "Puxi", which is equivalent to the Kowloon side of HK -- and the Hong Kong Island's equivalent here is called Pudong except it's
Roel and Winds of War
Roel hard at rereading an old favorite on a lazy Sunday afternoon...just like at home. not an island, and in the past decade has been converted from farmers' fields to a peaceful and clean oasis of trees, boulevards, apartments, and restaurants. Our favorite restaurant is called "Element Fresh" and we sat today on the Pudong side, on the patio enjoying an egg salad sandwich (our first since we arrived) and a wonderful capucinno. Doesn't sound like much, maybe, but believe me it really hit the spot.
After we took our bikes to a bar for a Tsing Dao and waited for the ferry, making it back home just before dark. If we get lights for our bikes, we may consider joining a tour of Shanghai by bikes at night....but just as at home, we get around on weekends here mostly by bike, and the flatness of the city is very accomodating. Less so is having to carve out our space in the bike lanes with the scooters, street cleaners, pedestrians and people pushing wheelchairs...but the verdict is still out on which is more hazardous: walking or cycling. My bets are on the former. At least on our bikes we're going with the flow...and people on foot here lowest on the transit totem pole.
On route to Pudong
Ferries take bikes, scooters, motorcycles...and us to Pudong. But back to routines, and the theme of this blog -- more humdrum topics along the lines of day to day cooking, activities, etc., the pictures indicate certain foods we've discovered in the local expat market. Lately I've been back in the kitchenette...(more like, kitchen cupboard) because eating out EVERY night has become a bit monotonous. It's getting dark quite early (is it dark in Toronto now at 5:30 pm? I forget...but I don't think quite, no?) and we're finding that our two favorite local haunts: a Chinese food cafeteria where we can point and pay -- easy/peasy -- and the other a very healthy expat hangout that actually lists calories and fat content are nice, but can't match homecooked food. So it's back to eating healthily and for the most part cooking in my little cupboard which with all my IKEA gadgets started out as a challenge...but now I'm finding kind of fun. I'm also discovering that all you need are very few accroutement...a sharp knife, cutting board, toaster oven and some pots and pans (with a few frills...as the pictures attest). And thanks to help from a few of my Singaporean colleagues, I have a handful of options,
An oasis in the storm
Pudong is as promised...clean and quiet -- and made Roel homesick. And to think...five to ten years ago this was all farmers' fields. ie. Singaporean curries and even homemade yorgurt are now part of my cooking repertoire.
So, I hope this blog entry doesn't bore you all to pieces...but I thought you might like to know about what we're up to on a daily basis --when we're not working. (I'll leave work for a blog of its own...maybe :-) On the nights we do work late, to take the sting out (and as I said, we're not too happy with the number of late nights, but that's for another day...) we've also gotten into a routine of meeting in the lobby of a landmark hotel, reading USA today, drinking a chardonnay and listening to live piano music. Helps a bit to handle the late nights, because then it's off home to start the routine all over again...
So, I'll report back again after our field trips to Xitang and Xian...
For now,
Zai Jiang!!
Luolan and Mi Ling
(Amy and Roel :-)
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martha
non-member comment
hi
Hi you two, really digging the blogs, sounds like you are working hard. Carrie said she was talking to you, lots of school meetings. You mentioned Roel is feeling home sick, are you too? As you mentioned its getting darker here, probablly around 630. Winter is coming but that being said it was a beautiful day 24 degrees, I went down to Cherry Beach to walk Daisy and their were many sailboats out, I was thinking about you two. Carrie, Chalo, Chris P and of course the Feef are all off to Cuba next weekend, I wish Lauren and I could go but can't with Lauren's school, but we are going on a cruise during Lauren's reading week in Feb. Keep blogging, love the stories..Love Martha...here is Lauren....I like the blog. Its great hearing about your adventures in China. Glendon is slowly becoming my new habitat for learning. Its a lot different from Malvern, hard to get into how organized you have to be, especially how laid back Malvern was with due dates and all. I am talking to Carly, and it is great hearing her graduate adventures in Washington. It's good to hear that you and Roel are starting to get into the new life style of the adventurous, exotic travellers. Keep up with the blog and so we can hear all about your new life. Love you both. Lauren