Friday, April 25, 2014

Zhoumo kuaile!

It's crazy to think that I can count the number of free weekends we have in Shanghai on one hand. Today, we received options for our temporary housing back in San Francisco and plans are already under way for Shima's trans-Pacific travel. It's getting real!

I'll be back next week with more substantial posts. Forgive me as I recuperate from playing hostess with the mostess.
With our most recent guests, Emma and Paul

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Fatty Tuesday: Challenge Met

Remember the burger challenge Mike attempted last month? Well, my cousin heard about it and couldn't pass up the opportunity to leave his mark in Shanghai -- or at least attempt to do so.
Slightly nervous at the start, he made it look easy and destroyed the three-patty burger with minutes to spare.
Doesn't he look oh-so-proud of himself? As well he should be, immortalized on the wall of Burger Bistro in Shanghai, China.


Friday, April 18, 2014

Zhoumo kuaile!

As Shanghai emerges from a sleepy winter and before she retreats to an air conditioned refuge in the summer, the city is celebrating. There are so many cool events taking place this weekend:



It'll be hard to participate in all of these, especially with our British-Irish visitors in town (my cousin and his wife). But I was never going to make a showing at Formula 1 anyway (we all remember how I felt about it last year). The beer festival, on the other hand, is a likely contender for weekend plans.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Day Dreaming

It's eery here today. The air is once again filtered by a foggy lens and today, seems to be suffering from a bit of jaundice. With the weather forecasting thunderstorms, I'm not itching to go out. And so I sit here at my regal dining room table daydreaming about trips.

Up next is a mystery. I told Mike that all I wanted for my birthday was to leave Shanghai. He took that and ran with it. Here's what I know:
  • We'll be gone from May 15-19. 
  • The destination requires a layover, somewhere. 
  • We'll be at a beach, somewhere. 
  • We'll spend most of our time there (somewhere) scuba diving! (A very exciting prospect seeing as how I haven't dove in -- omg -- 10 years.) 

Who can help solve the mystery? 

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Chinglish Part V

You knew it was coming...

I don't know about you, but I'm not rushing to eat at either of these establishments:

They're not terribly confident in China:

Because in China, it's not a guarantee:

Sometimes I feel as if they just place one random English word after another:

This isn't Chinglish, but is it China's version of "the boot"?

Friday, April 11, 2014

Zhoumo kuaile!

Welcome to my 300th post! I suppose I should mark the milestone with some news:
We're going home! 
It looks like we'll be back in the States by the Fourth (of July). Fitting, right?

Emotions are mixed. After all, I've just begun feeling as if I've gotten my groove down. And there are certainly things I'll miss (crepurritos, mostly). But I'm anxious to get back to real life. 'Cause living here isn’t real. It's freelance chump change instead of a corporate paycheck; it's a driver named Bob instead of car insurance bills.

More on the move to come, but in the meantime, we're making our "Shucket list" (Shanghai bucket list) and anxiously awaiting our next (quite possibly our last?) visitors who will be making the trip from London, England.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Top 10 Things I Learned...

...from my various trips to Beijing:
  1. Beijingers aren't as friendly as Shanghai-ers, nor do they speak English as well. Let that be a warning to you. 
  2. There's an extra RMB10 added to your cab fare when traveling to and from the airport -- just in case you ask the driver about it and he yells at you when you don't understand his response (as if yelling in Chinese will magically make you understand the words that are coming out of his mouth). 
  3. The Forbidden City is boring. There, I said it. Instead, climb to the top of Jingshan Park (located directly behind it) where you can get a cool view of the whole thing. 
  4. And when you're at the top, drink a beer or two. In public. Because you can. (But buy them at the bottom where they're RMB2 cheaper.)
  5. You know what's not boring? Walking through the hutongs (old houses) and coming across the Drum and Bell Towers. Be sure to reach the top of the Drum Tower before 4:45 p.m. when they perform the last drum ceremony of the day. 
  6. Those Beijingers know how to roast a duck. Any of these are great: Dadong (perhaps the most famous, with the most number of locations), Made in China (great name, right?) and Duck de Chine. 
  7. Go to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall where it's less crowded and les smelly, and (perhaps most importantly) where you can ride a chairlift up to the Wall and take a toboggan down (really!). 
  8. Wear comfy shoes, bring snacks and let the Wall take your breath away. 
  9. Yes, Beijing is dirty and heavily polluted, but you gotta see the sites so mask and bear it. 
    NG HAN GUAN / AP
  10. And if you absolutely don't want to step outside, there's a way to travel from the airport to the center of the city, eat at Fat Burger (yes!) and get right back on a plane outta there. 

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Great Wallin'

Here's my Great Wall experience "by the numbers":

4: Number of times I've been to the Great Wall in my two years of living in China.

8: The month (in 2012) I scaled it for the first time -- with my then-fiancé!
6: Number of us that climbed the Great Wall together in May of 2013, hailing from the cities of San Francisco and Seattle.
3: Number of California girls that conquered the Wall in the winter (February '14).
2: Number of Hoyas (aka, Georgetown alumae) that scaled the Great Wall just yesterday.
I finally made it into the pic!


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Friday, April 4, 2014

Zhoumo kuaile!

We're lucky enough to have two of our very good friends in town this weekend. My college friend Rose arrived earlier this week from DC (via Chicago), winning the award for coming from the farthest location. And Mike's childhood friend Jeremy was in Beijing for work and just got to Shanghai for the long weekend (it's tomb sweeping time again!).

Now that most of the sights have been checked off, we can show Rose and Jeremy more of our daily life here. Mike's and mine. He's taking Jeremy to eat soup dumplings tomorrow morning; I'm taking Rose to yoga. Namaste, everyone!

Thursday, April 3, 2014

A Weekend in Moganshan

We made it out of Moganshan! In case you were worried since I've neglected the blog a bit this week...

It was beautiful, and such a nice escape from the city! Shima did well on our three-hour bus ride to and fro, and absolutely loved being outside and going hiking. She'd run ahead of us, looking back every so often to make sure we weren't too far behind. Still a city dog though, she didn't know what to make of the rooster crows and owl hoots.

I'd love to go back and explore some more, but it's not the easiest place to reach. A train only gets you so far -- though I've read that fancy hotels will arrange for transport from the station. We'll see if we can make a return trip to this bamboo paradise.

For more pics, click here.