Hey all, Yes, it's official. Along with Xmas coffee blend, lights and garland, the stores are rife with an array of gifts, and we say, bring it on! Why be a grinch or a Scrooge, we ask, when you can be Chevy Chase? Besides, even in an economic downturn, making the annual shopping effort helps hold up one's end in a flagging economy -- and it helps build Xmas spirit! And getting Xmasey in Shanghai, we're rediscovering, is no mean feat! So along with a charity fund drive for migrant children, to encourage a festive mood we'd started to elbow our [View Full Entry]

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Hey all, Well, as the title suggests...it's been very yangy around here of late. But then after living here for over a year now, you'd think we'd be used to that. However, after a succession of yang (bad?) happenings: losing our internet, getting locked out of our apartment, and then discovering Roel's bike was stolen -- we were hoping for the yin (good stuff?) to reappear, because after all bad things come in three's we thought...but we guess that's a western truth, unknown to the eastern gods, since the yang, yin, or whatever you want to call it, keeps coming. For [View Full Entry]

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Hey all, Well, autumm is well and truly underway, and we have acclimatized ourselves to life back in Shanghai. Rounds of fireworks at midnight last night barely shook us, as we realized they heralded the ongoing Autumn festival, which culminates this week with the end of a ten-day holiday break. We've even almost finished our annual complimentary boxes of mooncakes from management. Even though Roel disdains all mooncakes, save for the million-year-old egg ones I'm finding them a nice fix for a sugar-attack -- and then some. The minced coconut is positively yummy, but just like fruitca [View Full Entry]

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Hey all, Well, as to rumours that our blog has never been funnier, nor our apartment so sparkling clean....we have to confirm that's all true thanks to a certain pair of ghostwriters who inhabited our Shanghai apartment for the summer, namely one Carly and Craig. And thanks to their penchant for Shanghai, and specifically a certain Dongping Lu area, we're now happily enscounced there as residents! So for all that, our spanking clean old apartment, a beautiful photo of Shanghai we'll treasure always (but maybe not turning all of our sheets, towels and clothes into hazardous chemical zones [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everybody, Here I am at Starbucks in Toronto, and after ruminating on my experience in China, I must confess that the number one highlight of the entire year was the time spent with Craig and Carly. In fact, Roel came to realize that Craig defined the very essence of manhood. In short, we feel as if we have awoken for the first time. Thank you Carly and Craig, just for being you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hey readers! Have Aimsey and Roelie's lack of adventures in bo [View Full Entry]

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Hey all, Well, this is a quick note from the homefront...where we are whiling away a great summer in T.O., enjoying time with friends and fam, and gearing up for another year in Shanghai -- and the flight back! (hope we're over the first one by the time we have to get onboard!) It feels a bit strange just laying over in T.O....so since we feel like tourists, we decided to BE tourists! One of our favorite activities we're enjoying is biking everyday to the Distillery District. A national historic site, the district is a collection of forty buildings on one [View Full Entry]

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Hey all, Well, after a momentously quick decision to come to China for six weeks....and one very long flight...Carly and Craig arrived, and were immediately sucked into Shanghai¡'s orbit. Which on their particular arrival date was a coincidence of our first serious heat wave, accompanied by increased gasoline prices, which in turn resulted in people rushing to the pumps and horrendous traffic jams - even by Shanghai's standard! And so their adventure began... On our part, after hearing the fantastic news that Carly and Craig were coming and would be staying in our apartment while we'r [View Full Entry]

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Ahhh....one last trip to Qindao, the sight of the upcoming Olympics Sailing Competition....a little sand, a little sailing (if vacariously) FINALLY time to kick back and relax. No running around to tourist sites having to see things...after all,we’ve seen the Great Wall already, and it’s counterpart in Qingdao is just the beginnings of the Great Wall itself. Who needs to see a piddly mound of baby wall!? Or historic mountains! Besides, the hills of Qingdao barely pass, or so we’d thought. So we were off to seriously chill, and if that meant lying on the beach, taking [View Full Entry]

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Au Revoir Shanghai, It may seem strange to begin a wrap-up of our year in Shanghai with a pic of the Great Wall, but as a site we’d heard about all our lives, it certainly lives up to its name! Even if the trek to see it and climb its formidable height is so daunting that the Chinese themselves say: bu dao chang cheng fei hao han (You’re not a man until you arrive at the Great Wall) well…we feel it was well worth the trouble. The Great Wall is also emblematic for us….according to legend, it entwines the mountains like [View Full Entry]

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After months of Chinese lessons, practicing phrases such as “To the Airport please” (Qing chu ji jiang…Ching chew gee gee-ang), finally having the opportunity to say this was first on my list to begin our May day holiday in Beijing! But as it turned out, I'd been practicing the wrong language… In any case, this concern over language paled over our worries of even getting a cab to come to our place at 5:30 a.m. for an 8:30 a.m. airplane departure to Beijing. Venturing out onto the streets the day before, to see if any taxis were to be had at [View Full Entry]

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