One Year Ago

One year ago, Matt and I made our maiden voyage to Shanghai, spending 10 days exploring the city that has now become our home.

Things were a little different then.  For starters, there were only two of us, plus a little bump.  Over a fancy dinner at one of Shanghai's most famous restaurants, we opened an envelope with an ultrasound photo that revealed the little bump's gender.  Instantly, our “peanut” became a baby girl, and we knew we'd call her Tyler Julianne.

ah, the innocence of childless Shanghai newbies...

Our initial impressions of Shanghai were also quite different than the reality of our settled-in life here.

We spent most of our time up on Nanjing Road, the major shopping pedestrian street, and the Bund, which is the row of fancy old European-style buildings along the river.  Since living in Shanghai, I think we’ve visited each of those places twice.

When we left our hotel, we had the concierge translate all details of our travel so that we could simply hand the taxi driver a card of Chinese characters and sheepishly shrug to communicate that we didn’t speak his language or know where we were going.  Now both Matt and I can direct a taxi back to our apartment from pretty much anywhere in the city, using our newly-acquired navigation and Mandarin skills.

During our initial explorations, we were continually impressed by the complex urban highway system and elevated pedestrian sidewalks.  We never thought about the feat of heaving a baby-filled stroller up and down giant staircases just to cross the street.  

because painting crosswalk stripes is too easy?

We saw many many apartment complexes on that trip.  Since living here, though, I’ve realized we only visited the very tip of the iceberg.  I guess there’s bound to be more than a week’s worth of buildings to explore in a city of 24 million people.

I am a big water drinker.  For the life of me, I could not figure out how to order a simple glass of cold, clean water.  Either I'd wind up with ridiculously expensive bottles of Evian, or more often, glasses of steaming hot plain water.  A year later, I do know how to order one (yi bei bing shui), but I find myself preferring the Chinese drink of choice -- hot tea -- and if I want something cool and refreshing, I go for watermelon juice.

I remember walking into City Shop, the original westernized grocery store, and thinking that it was my best (only?) option for grocery shopping.  But now I’ve happily discovered many more shops that are closer/cheaper/fresher/better.  Okay, so it takes me four stores to fulfill my grocery list, but at least I have choices beyond what I originally thought.

On that trip last year, Matt had to go meet a couple of business contacts, and I was too scared to leave the hotel by myself.  Now, of course, I venture out daily, with a baby strapped to my chest no less!

Back then, we fell in love with fresh-squeezed juice stands, where you point to the fruit and it gets juiced & blended right in front of your very eyes, and for only about a dollar (US).  This is still one of my favorite things about living here.

my favorite, pineapple + dragonfruit

At least something is still how we first imagined it.