Thursday, January 17, 2008
Zhou nian 两周年纪念
2 year anniversary.
Today, Jan 17, 2008 marks our 2 year zhou nian in China. I really do remember our first day here like it was yesterday (and all those other cliches about time flying). Maybe it's the heightened sense of awareness you get when moving into a new environment. Making a concerted effort to focus on everything happening around you and catalog it somewhere in the back of the brain for later recall. Or maybe it's just because the chill of spending that first night in our frozen, heater-less shell of an apartment hasn't left my bones yet. This week's dreary weather has served as sufficient reminder.
In other ways, those two years feel like the longest of my life - in a decidedly good way! We've come a long LONG way from wasting an entire afternoon trying to accomplish the most remedial tasks like buying a mobile phone or ordering a bottle of water for delivery or even trying to iron clothes with a built-for-Chinese height ironing board.
It didn't take long to find someone (much shorter than us) to pay to do these chores.
After two years, the "fish out of water" type blog posts become pretty hackneyed. Honestly I don't feel like that kind of fish much anymore. There's always enough surprises and new things to discover to keep things interesting, you have to look a little harder to find them now. Riding the subway itself doesn't count as entertainment anymore!
Today, Jan 17, 2008 marks our 2 year zhou nian in China. I really do remember our first day here like it was yesterday (and all those other cliches about time flying). Maybe it's the heightened sense of awareness you get when moving into a new environment. Making a concerted effort to focus on everything happening around you and catalog it somewhere in the back of the brain for later recall. Or maybe it's just because the chill of spending that first night in our frozen, heater-less shell of an apartment hasn't left my bones yet. This week's dreary weather has served as sufficient reminder.
In other ways, those two years feel like the longest of my life - in a decidedly good way! We've come a long LONG way from wasting an entire afternoon trying to accomplish the most remedial tasks like buying a mobile phone or ordering a bottle of water for delivery or even trying to iron clothes with a built-for-Chinese height ironing board.
It didn't take long to find someone (much shorter than us) to pay to do these chores.
After two years, the "fish out of water" type blog posts become pretty hackneyed. Honestly I don't feel like that kind of fish much anymore. There's always enough surprises and new things to discover to keep things interesting, you have to look a little harder to find them now. Riding the subway itself doesn't count as entertainment anymore!
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Shui Guo 水果
Fruit.
The coldest days of winter are upon us, and although Shanghai is in a sub-tropical zone (we do get typhoons), Shanghai winters are cold. The concrete shell buildings and cheap doors and windows mean we wear long underwear, clothes and coats indoors, even at work. It rains quite often and other days it is foggy and humid and today it even hailed. The pollution levels are elevated and we hope for cold fronts to clear out the dingy grey-brown cloud that hangs over the city. Its really quite miserable.
But Shanghai winter does have its saving graces. A clear, crisp day or a hint of spring here and there (crocuses at my office this week). And then, in mid-January they come. From where I don't know, but in the stores, every corner you can now buy winter shuiguo. Strawberries, kiwis, pineapple right around the corner... and the star of the show: delectable, sweet, juicy, tender, golden mangoes. All fruit is sold perfectly ripe and ready to eat. This year we even found Organic strawberries.
And so, on this grey and dreary day, as I snuggle on the couch in my fleece and fur-linned Uggs, watching the sleet and hoping my 2pm flight to San Francisco is not delayed, I am quite content eating juicy strawberries next to a French bakery chocolate tart. Maybe it has something to do with knowing I could be standing on the Golden Gate Bridge in 12 hours, but Shanghai winter doesn't seem so bad, after all.
The coldest days of winter are upon us, and although Shanghai is in a sub-tropical zone (we do get typhoons), Shanghai winters are cold. The concrete shell buildings and cheap doors and windows mean we wear long underwear, clothes and coats indoors, even at work. It rains quite often and other days it is foggy and humid and today it even hailed. The pollution levels are elevated and we hope for cold fronts to clear out the dingy grey-brown cloud that hangs over the city. Its really quite miserable.
But Shanghai winter does have its saving graces. A clear, crisp day or a hint of spring here and there (crocuses at my office this week). And then, in mid-January they come. From where I don't know, but in the stores, every corner you can now buy winter shuiguo. Strawberries, kiwis, pineapple right around the corner... and the star of the show: delectable, sweet, juicy, tender, golden mangoes. All fruit is sold perfectly ripe and ready to eat. This year we even found Organic strawberries.
And so, on this grey and dreary day, as I snuggle on the couch in my fleece and fur-linned Uggs, watching the sleet and hoping my 2pm flight to San Francisco is not delayed, I am quite content eating juicy strawberries next to a French bakery chocolate tart. Maybe it has something to do with knowing I could be standing on the Golden Gate Bridge in 12 hours, but Shanghai winter doesn't seem so bad, after all.
Photos on Flickr
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