One year ago today, with a
sleeping infant, 13 pieces of luggage, and a mixture of trepidation and
adventure, we stepped off a plane and into China.
I wish I had something really
profound to say about this milestone, but it kind of snuck up on us. It's hard for me to believe
we've already been residents of Shanghai for a year, as I still feel like a
newbie in so many ways. Yet as I go about my daily routines, I am realizing how
much we've normalized so many experiences that were strange and uncomfortable a
year ago. I have many days that I distinctly feel like a visitor here, clearly
a foreigner in a foreign land. But I do think we are slowly carving our own
little niche in this city.
The first year was mostly about hanging on for dear
life as we were thrust onto the wild rides of new (foreign) city, parenthood,
and crazy consulting hours. Now I feel like we can take a deep breath, collect
ourselves, and begin a second year of more intentional living, deeper
discovery, and greater connectedness -- with China and as a family.
With one whirlwind year
under our belt, I'm really looking forward to the journey ahead.
Whoops, I just took a two-month sabbatical from blogging. I'll call it my "summer break", since that sounds somewhat more official and intentional...
Since my last post, we travelled back to the US, visiting friends in New York and family in Colorado and the shopping paradise that is Target. TJ celebrated her first birthday by outgrowing two sizes of clothes and many pairs of shoes in the span of a month. Matt has been working on the road like crazy, facilitating workshops in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. And between this kid who grows too fast, man who works too much, a frustrating house hunt for our next apartment, and a computer changeover (the old one is dying a long and painful death, hence the dearth of blogging and FB photos over the past few months), Val has just been trying to remain sane.
Hopefully I will get back into the blogging groove and more updates will be on their way. In the meantime, here are some photos from our wonderful time with family.
Tyler's first birthday party
back on our old corner in the Village, NYC
with (Great!) Uncles Dennis & Dan in Central Park
4 generations!
cousins go swimming
cousins!
all of the Williams siblings: whole, half, step, and in-law
with "Auntie" Sarah, who we got to see in NY and Colorado!
with Grammy and Big Kahuna
girls' retreat in Glenwood Springs (with both Grandmas, an Aunt, and the girl cousins)
Many of Val’s blog entries
contrast the US and China with an emphasis on how strange this place is.
However, I want to highlight that despite all of this strangeness, China can
also be awe-inspiring.
Take the subway system, for
example.
Living in New York City for
the past several years, we heard a lot about the 2nd Avenue subway line.
It’s been in the works for over 75 years, jokingly referred to as "The
Line That Time Forgot.” With powerful labor unions, pesky shop owners,
and conflicted Upper East Side residents, the project has faced a series of
false starts and plenty of dysfunction. Phase I of the project, which
runs a measly two miles up the east side from 62nd St to 96th St, still has yet
to open.
Contrast all of this with
the subway system in Shanghai, a city with three times the population of NYC.
Imminent domain, labor groups, and environmental concerns be damned, this city –
and country, for that matter – gets stuff done! The city is adding entire
subway lines (not just two mile sections) at a pace of one line per year.
Here’s a subway map from
2000, when the city had just a few lines.
Here’s a map from 2010,
after a decade of expansion aided by the World Expo.
And here’s the planned map for
2020.
Unlike the infamously
incomplete 2nd Avenue subway in NYC, I have no doubt that this aggressive
expansion will actually materialize on schedule.
PS – While NYC’s subway has
rats and Ninja Turtles, the Shanghai subway can boast of air-conditioning, underground
cell phone service, safety barricades lining the platform, and to-the-second
updates on arriving trains.
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.
Matt did a great job
presenting the oddities of Shanghai-style Christmas. But as much as we enjoyed laughing over the silly miscues of
the Chinese attempting to adopt Western holiday traditions, it only served to
remind us that we were not at
“home”. The absence of snow,
our families, and a work holiday made it tough for us to embrace the Christmas spirit.
Luckily, a visit from Sarah (Val’s best friend from NYC) gave us a reason to celebrate and decorate. New stockings (handmade by Matt’s mom)
meant the beginning of some new family traditions. We found a place in Shanghai (the Ritz) that actually
did justice to a real Western Christmas Tree. And our own little potted tree wasn’t so shabby once it was
trimmed and surrounded by presents.
(photos courtesy of Sarah)
the Ritz Carlton beauty
our own tree, with presents (including a suitcase-full from Sarah!)
Don’t believe what you’ve
heard about Communism in China. Sure,
the government makes centralized decisions, but the country is full of 1.3
billion – or 1.5 billion, depending on what you believe – raging capitalists.
As such, the Chinese have
gone nuts for Christmas, recognizing that it’s – for better or worse – a
commercial bonanza more than a Christian holiday.
Accordingly, Shanghai is
blanketed in Santa pictures and gaudy decorations.What’s funny is when the decorations are just slightly off, not quite what we'd see back home.
Take this kids t-shirt, for example
– “Pretty Christmas”?
Or this stencil, which was
plastered all over a local mall. “Merry Christmas 2012.”
My favorite twist, however,
is the Chinese take on the Christmas tree.
When we went to get our
1.7-meter Charlie Brown tree from the expat florist, it hadn’t been cut out of
the ground like in America.Instead, they dug it up with a shovel and wrapped a plastic bag around the roots. For a couple hundred RMB, we were headed home with a tree, giant pot, and two bags of dirt.
This is actually pretty
neat.Trees are plants, right -- so
why not put them in a pot for December, re-plant them outside from Jan-Nov, then re-use the same tree for multiple years?
Last Sunday I went with my childhood friend Paul, who is visiting, and two
expat friends to watch the final round of the Shanghai Masters.Golf is a funny game here, as it didn’t
really exist just a few years ago and now the upwardly mobile are latching on to their clubs
as status symbols. New, ridiculously nice courses are popping up everywhere, despite the absence of serious players.
While the golf was excellent – Rory McIllroy beat Anthony
Kim in a sudden death playoff for the $2 million 1st place prize – other aspects of the
day were probably even more interesting.
Highlights included:
·John
Daly’s pants, which reminded the Chinese that they are not the only ones
who can obnoxiously fly their flags
The old guy has slimmed down a bit, and still crushes the ball.
·Unruly
Chinese spectators, many of whom have ZERO understanding of golf, which led
to them answering phones (“WEI?”), screaming at their out-of-control kids, and
snapping pictures during players’ backswings
·Colin
Montgomerie’s wife, who provided further entertainment by going ballistic at
said ignorant Chinese spectators on the 7th tee box
·The
course groundskeepers, who somehow managed to turn a course with no sod on
it just four weeks ago into a PGA-level gem (ALERT: Crazy Chinese Chemicals?)
It's scary how quickly they finished the course
·Senior
government officials, who put Rory McIllroy through the most awkward 45
minute ceremony after he won, complete with rambling speeches in Mandarin,
half naked girls playing drums a la the Blue Man Group, and repeated (unsuccessful) requests
for Rory to do the Irish Jig in front of the cameras
He might've preferred 2nd place to avoid the whole awards show
During golf? You're kidding, right?
And, last but not least…
·The
Chinese Air Force, who decided that Championship Sunday was an opportunity to trot out their new fighter jets in front of the ESPN cameras, as
they performed deafening exercises directly above the course for a solid six
hours
I
can see how someone in the government thought this was a brilliant way to show
off their military might in front of a Western audience, but having a bit of a
clue about the nature of golf might’ve led to a different decision.Or, perhaps it was John Daly’s pants
that were causing the big fuss, and the Communist Party had to assert itself.
My first
blog post from China . . . and it isn’t going to be about China at all. Instead, to introduce this blog, I
thought I’d tell the story that answers the question we’ve been asked by our
family, by peers, by strangers in New York, and even by new friends we’re
meeting here in Shanghai:
Why move
to China?
I feel like this question can be broken into why move at all? and why someplace so foreign? And these questions begin with a simple premise, why travel? So I'll begin at the beginning...
Neither
Matt nor I grew up as travelers. I think Matt would agree with my childhood
idea of a "vacation" as either camping in the Rockies or visiting the
grandparents. This meant that we
truly appreciated the few special trips we did get to take. I can still recall every experience
from the week my parents took me to Boston, and Matt will never forget his
first hotel stay. Our only foreign
experiences before meeting each other took me to Canada and Matt to a resort in
Mexico. We were travel novices
when we met.
Matt and I
first traveled together for my 21st birthday. He surprised me with a weekend trip to
Napa Valley, including a plane flight, bed & breakfast, and wine
tours. It was by far the most
extravagant and adventurous thing I had ever done. While it wasn’t a long flight or extended stay, that trip
still taught us that we were compatible travel partners, and it gave us a brief
glimpse of life spent exploring new places.
oh so young in Napa
Then Matt
graduated from college, and when his mother asked what he might want for a
graduation gift, he somehow came up with the idea that he wanted to travel to
Europe. Next thing I knew, I was
being roped into this adventure as well. My parents bought us backpacks,
we stuffed them with snickers, film (yes, film!), a month-long train pass, and
a rotation of 4 outfits, and we were off! We spent a month trekking
through England, France, Spain, and Italy, and we had an absolute blast. Every day brought a brand new assault
on our senses. Even getting lost
provided hours of entertainment and discovery. We naturally fell into a rhythm of life on the foreign road;
Matt mastered the currency conversions and map-reading while I thumbed through
our guidebooks and translated the languages. The travel bug had bit in a big way.
on the steps of Sacre Coeur Basilica in Paris
Luckily,
Matt was about to embark on a year of study in Amsterdam. Not wanting to be left out, I graduated
early and headed over to the Netherlands to join him at the midpoint. We got our first taste of living
abroad, and it was delicious (like mussels, cheese, and good beer – mmm). Even though we were in a studio
apartment with a hallway that doubled as a kitchen and a shower that took up
the whole bathroom, we loved how simple daily acts are made so much more
interesting when done in a foreign way.
Riding the bus, buying groceries, even bicycling our laundry half a mile
through the snow . . . somehow it was all so romantic in Amsterdam. Due to the surprisingly small size of
Europe, our flexible schedules as student & nanny, and an austere budget,
we got to explore all over the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany, as well as
head back to Paris for a second tour.
Unfortunately, we were beginning to discover that the more places we visited,
the more we added to the list of places we wanted to go.
Rotterdam (Netherlands) dock tour; it was freezing!
We began
brainstorming foreign adventures that we’d love to take if only given the time
and money. Then we actually
started saving for trips, and planning out how to take advantage of the time
off granted to teachers and Matt’s precious vacation days. An extra-long spring break became a
tour of Scandinavia. A business
trip to London became an opportunity to spend a long weekend in Dublin. A friend’s wedding in St. John turned
into a weeklong shared villa and snorkeling with sea turtles.
Guinness mustache in rainy Dublin
King Matt of Denmark
enjoying a catamaran tour in the Virgin Islands
As much as we enjoyed these
short vacations, we lamented that they were just that – vacations. We looked back fondly at our time spent
living in Amsterdam, and agreed that we would love to live abroad again if the
opportunity presented itself.
Then Matt got a call from a
colleague who told him about an assignment his company was posting in Dhaka,
and was it okay if she recommended him for it? And somehow the next thing we knew, Matt was on his way
around the world to spend 6 wild months traversing rural Bangladesh. I got to join him for a week early on,
and then his final two months there.
If Amsterdam was our friendly introduction to the living abroad
experience, Dhaka was our merciless initiation. Yet despite the daily power outages, harassment from
strangers, and constant stench of human waste, we still walked away from that
experience with the attitude that we couldn’t wait to live abroad again.
[On the right of this blog,
you
can find a link to our adventures in Bangladesh.]
Two big Americans, one small rickshaw in Dhaka
Visiting a Royal Palace in Bangkok
While living in Bangladesh,
we traveled to Thailand and Malaysia as well. Upon his return to New York, Matt got a job that sent him
all over the world, including Milan, Prague, Peru, Turkey, Israel, Singapore,
and Beijing. But the more global
his job became, the more he noticed a distinct focus on China as the major
emerging market. And so he began
regaling me with news articles and random statistics and work projects that
somehow all led to one conclusion: we should move to China. With my blessing, he called an old
contact, applied for a job, and with a huge leap of faith (including quitting
our jobs, having a baby, and planning this move all at the same time), here we
are!
If you’re still reading,
BRAVO, thanks for humoring me as I ventured down memory lane, and welcome to
our blog.
