Beckoning

Morning gives way and a gentle haze floats over the city. As I watch blue sky struggle to make its way through the clouds, a cool breeze blows through the windows. It is rare in a city as polluted as Shanghai that one opens the windows, but momentary desire to experience the refreshing sense that comes on a fall day overtakes me.

Today the city beckons. The streets below beg to be explored. It is the first day in a long time that the weather cooperates with my time and desire, so camera in hand, I am off to explore the streets of Shanghai, and hopefully capture a bit of its life and people.

Blog History in the Making

As some of you may know, I am a bit dramatic. While this may not be blog history, it is certainly a personal accomplishment for me to blog a third time in less than a week, let alone a month. For those of you wondering if I am sitting at home, bored out of my brains, having nothing better to do with my time than pontificate to what I suppose is an ever dwindling audience- fear not. This is not the case. I am instead, exercising my interest in writing by diligently doing just that- writing.

I have been learning and therefore putting into practice, the discipline of regular writing. As I sit at my laptop trying to concentrate on an article I am writing for a magazine, I find that I need a break. So I write to you.

I fear until recently, that I have not been so effective at keeping you all in the loop regarding life here in Shanghai. I have kept up on most big things, but as far as day to day life goes, I haven't done so well sharing those details. Currently, I am writing an article on Chinese tea for a magazine I am writing for here in Shanghai. Last week I had my first article- an article on Chinese wine based on a tasting I hosted- published. That was fun. I will include the article as soon as I can figure out how to scan and post it properly.

Otherwise, it has been a bit grey and chilly here in Shanghai. The sun is however, peeking through the clouds right now. I feel the fog clearing from my brain so I think I should take advantage of that clarity and get back to writing my next article.

(Feel free to comment and say hello here on the blog-that way I know if you really are reading ;)

-Jen

Sunday Night Rambling

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.

Awe

Sitting here trying to write, I find myself at a loss for words. I have been attempting to describe what life in Shanghai has been like over the last seven months, as well as give a single word conclusion to the sentence “life here in Shanghai has been___”. Well, I can’t seem to finish that sentence. I can say that life here in the “truly big city” has been an adventure, a challenge, a great blessing, and an enormous learning experience. If we were honest, I am sure that in our own private moments, Phil and I have wondered if we made the right decision. Eight months into this adventure though, I can say that we have. (Sorry mom and dad, I know you’re still hoping we will hate it and come home.)

After a few months of living here and getting comfortable, we were really ready to get out and explore all that the city had to offer. Right around that time, summer came and settled quite heavily over Shanghai. Many days were close to 100 degrees with humidity above 90 percent. If you were outside longer than 5 minutes and had to walk (as most city dwellers do), you were ready to take a shower and change your clothes. There were days we would literally change our clothes 3 times! Now that fall is here though, and the oppressive heat has lifted, the city has come back to life for us.

As if experiencing a re- birth of appreciation for this foreign land in which I live, I find myself just as fascinated and stimulated walking the streets now, as I did when I first arrived. With this re-birth though, came the realization that I had quickly, easily, and unknowingly grown weary of Shanghai. Shortly after moving here (some of you may remember my previous post), I decided that I didn’t want to become accustomed to the view from our 56th floor apartment. At night, you can see a myriad of colorfully lit cruise boats below, buildings and lights that stretch for miles, as well as the millions of lights adorning the buildings that so famously span the bund. It is a spectacular sight, but as with most things, we grow less and less impressed with that which becomes part of our daily landscape. Knowing that, I promised myself that I would work hard to avoid growing tired of the view.

It turns out that Shanghai as a city is like that as well. The crowds wear, the people annoy, their habits become less and less “culturally different” and more and more worthy of a good smack upside the head, and things just get tired. Most expats who have been here as long as Phil and I have, share many of these views. And although I understand why (as well as share those opinions many days myself), I have come to see that it is a waste of time, of experience and of life itself.

Like the decision I made to continually stand in awe of the view from my apartment, I have decided to stand in awe of the culture and city I live in. As many things in life, love, marriage, friendship, and commitment- we may grow tired and weary of the very thing we once cherished and worked so hard to nurture, maintain, and grow. If the view from my apartment hasn’t changed- what has? What is it in me that grows’ weary and tired? What is it in me that sees’ a once spectacular sight as commonplace? What is it within me that so easily bores and takes life for granted? I have many theories, but more importantly, is the decision to maintain a sense of awe.

Almost 8 months in, I am grossly aware of the blessings in my life, the sufferings of others and the selfishness within, that despite that knowledge, continues to fuel an apathy in me. I am humbled. Humbled and brought closer to that which Frees, Loves without condition, Hopes without fear, and Heals beyond measure. And so I continue a pursuit to see the country and culture around me with eyes of grace, understanding, appreciation and awe. Awe in the beauty of the people and this place. If I have been brought to Shanghai for this alone, it has been worth it.

Something tells me this is just the beginning.......

Oprah May Be Onto Something Afterall

It's Friday here in Shanghai and the weekend is underway. Yesterday I hosted a Chinese tea tasting and educational event. I'm not sure what else to call it, but I had a group of people at my house, along with the tea expert I found for Phils birthday (see previous blogs if you have no clue what I'm talking about), and we spent the afternoon tasting and learning about various Chinese teas from a health perspective.

As always our "tea expert" Brenton met and exceeded our expectations with the amount of time he spent on the subject, his willingness to answer questions, and the high grade teas he shared for tasting. We all gathered around the nicely placed table adorned with multiple tea pots, special mats, cups, snifters, and a variety of bags containing the teas we would learn about and soon taste. Brenton started with an introduction to Chinese tea history- turns out, there are over 300 tea varieties in China alone! But since we only had so many hours in a day, and we wanted to focus on Chinese tea from a health perspective, we would only address a handful of those teas.

The main teas we focused on were green tea varieties, red oolong and pu'er. As many of you may have heard (or seen on Oprah), tea is all the rage for weight loss. First it was green tea, now it is red oolong and Pu'er. Apparently, Oprah's favorite is the red oolong. Starting with the green tea, we learned about its antioxidant properties and immune boosting power. Then after tasting a few varieties of those and learning how to buy a proper clay tea pot and season it, we moved onto the red oolong. Now I have to give you all a little side note/ Jen observation comment here, and tell you that green oolong is also credited for having some amount of weight loss properties. This is the tea I have been drinking since meeting with Brenton the first time, and in all honesty, I have noticed a big difference. The red oolong is basically the super boosted version of the green in terms of its weight loss effects. Red oolong is also phenomenal for high blood pressure, antioxidants, lowering cholestrol, and detoxifying. The only side effect can be agitation, and if you ask my husband, I don't need help in that department. :)

Now Pu'er tea is an entirely different beast. This is the only tea that Chinese people will drink in the evening, because unlike the oolong teas, you can get to sleep after drinking it. (I spent a few nights wide awake until 1am before I realized I needed to stop the oolong after 5pm.) Pu'er is a "fermented", more accurately "aged" tea commonly found in cake- like round flat disks. In my opinion Pu'er is not the tea you drink because you want to sit down and have a tasty cup of something warm. For me, it's more like the, "this has got to be healthy- or nobody should drink this" tea. Okay maybe I am being a little dramatic. But after Brenton shared some of his top grade Pu'er tea, my dislike for this tea was had changed.

Today I started drinking the red oolong and Pu'er I bought from Brenton last night, and if I can keep my hands off the food, (due to the insane munchies one gets from this tea), long enough to notice any weight loss effects- I will report back.

Check Out Our New Photos

Life in Shanghai was back to its frenzied pace as soon as our feet hit the ground. Three weeks after returning from our European travels, I was exhausted and ready for some down time. Phil and I have both been busy with work and day to day life here in the city.

I finally found a day to sit down, go through our photos and post them online. For those of you who do not know how to access our photo albums, just click on the photo album link on the right of the page and enjoy.

I decided to do a little story telling along with the photos.

Will blog soon!

-Jen and Phil

We're Back

Phil and I have been back from Europe for a little over a week now. We are back into the full swing of life, so I thought I would take an opportunity to say hello while I have a minute. I have a lot of pictures from our trip and will update the blog within the next few days.

We hope all is well. Thanks for checking up on us.

-Phil and Jen