It is Sunday night here in Shanghai. As Phil plays his guitar in the study, I sit at our dining table turned temporary office space, attempting to concentrate on a writing class. My brain, swimming in a sea of pronouns, pronoun cases, pronouns with gerunds (??), seems to have taken a permanent break for the evening. Although my eyes read the pages before me, I haven’t taken in a bit of information in the last 20 minutes.
Instead, I find myself thinking about the end of another weekend. As always, it feels too short. It seems like the weeks and weekends run together in one seamless line. Today is really no different. I feel a little less rested than I normally do for a Sunday night, but I don’t mind. We had a very busy week. Aside from the usual Mandarin class and studying that comes with that, we had a particularly social schedule.
Monday night we went to our favorite Sichuan restaurant with our friends Alecia and Andy. Wednesday night I cooked a seriously American “comfort” meal for a friend of ours who has lived in Shanghai for over 10 years. Friday deserves a story of its own, but in the interest of not boring the brains out of you- I will say, with no exaggeration that I cooked all day long. (Living in Shanghai, there is no shortage of great restaurants in many different cuisines, but for some reason, until recently, there was no Mexican food here. Most Chinese people have never even heard of a taco! Needless to say, since Phil and I have moved here, we haven’t had Mexican food of any kind. Aside from the 1 Mexican restaurant we recently gained, 8 flour tortillas will cost you $11!) So a combination of wanting to make a favorite chicken enchilada recipe for our guests that night, and an absolute unwillingness to pay what it would cost to buy what I needed, I decided to take on the task of making flour tortillas, salsa, enchiladas, and a few other side dishes. I know I was crazy for doing all of it in one day, and although I was sore the next morning from rolling out 25 tortillas for 3 hours, it was sooooo worth it.
Saturday night I took a much needed break from cooking and we went out to dinner with our friends Sophie and Patrice who have just moved here from France. Along with 6 other friends of theirs, we went to a Chinese restaurant for some good old fashioned Chinese fare. It was nice to go out and be served, as well as meet so many new people. One of our favorite things about living here in Shanghai is meeting and getting to know so many different people from all over the world. It is really one of the coolest things. I never thought we would have to come to Shanghai to meet such a diverse community of people, but I am glad we have.
Instead, I find myself thinking about the end of another weekend. As always, it feels too short. It seems like the weeks and weekends run together in one seamless line. Today is really no different. I feel a little less rested than I normally do for a Sunday night, but I don’t mind. We had a very busy week. Aside from the usual Mandarin class and studying that comes with that, we had a particularly social schedule.
Monday night we went to our favorite Sichuan restaurant with our friends Alecia and Andy. Wednesday night I cooked a seriously American “comfort” meal for a friend of ours who has lived in Shanghai for over 10 years. Friday deserves a story of its own, but in the interest of not boring the brains out of you- I will say, with no exaggeration that I cooked all day long. (Living in Shanghai, there is no shortage of great restaurants in many different cuisines, but for some reason, until recently, there was no Mexican food here. Most Chinese people have never even heard of a taco! Needless to say, since Phil and I have moved here, we haven’t had Mexican food of any kind. Aside from the 1 Mexican restaurant we recently gained, 8 flour tortillas will cost you $11!) So a combination of wanting to make a favorite chicken enchilada recipe for our guests that night, and an absolute unwillingness to pay what it would cost to buy what I needed, I decided to take on the task of making flour tortillas, salsa, enchiladas, and a few other side dishes. I know I was crazy for doing all of it in one day, and although I was sore the next morning from rolling out 25 tortillas for 3 hours, it was sooooo worth it.
Saturday night I took a much needed break from cooking and we went out to dinner with our friends Sophie and Patrice who have just moved here from France. Along with 6 other friends of theirs, we went to a Chinese restaurant for some good old fashioned Chinese fare. It was nice to go out and be served, as well as meet so many new people. One of our favorite things about living here in Shanghai is meeting and getting to know so many different people from all over the world. It is really one of the coolest things. I never thought we would have to come to Shanghai to meet such a diverse community of people, but I am glad we have.
1 comment:
I'm coming to Shanghai for tacos.
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