I’m not even really sure where to begin when describing our
life here in Shanghai so far. On the one
hand, after a very rushed 8 days here, things simultaneously seem very familiar
as well as exotic… depending on the minute.
I guess the important thing is that we are happy at this point, and
looking forward to more.
What has surprised us thus far is how the basics of life here are not all that different from Seattle or Izmir. We have our little family, I go to work while Pete and Reese go to the grocery store and the playground, and we do it all again the next day. It’s the details that make a life, right? Well, of course, but even some of these details are not so far removed from our other recent “homes.”
We still rely mostly on walking and biking for transportation. We use taxis and the subway system occasionally, but we prefer not to be enclosed. In fact, driving In the States this summer made us both very nervous and we are happy to be relying on our own feet again now. (Perhaps even more notably, the 5-10 pounds that each of us gained in the States this summer BEGS to be walked off.)
We still measure the distance between any two locations via our toddler. That is, for example, “this place is about 2 blocks from the nearest playground” or, “that place is 3 blocks from there but has better bathrooms in case she needs to potty.” Exciting? Not particularly, but such are the lives of the parents of toddlers.
We still enjoy eating LOCAL foods and cooking more often than eating out at restaurants or fast food joints. However, a couple nights ago, in an orientation effort, my school took a bunch of us out to dinner at this more-authentic-than-not restaurant and we loved every dish… even though we could only name about half of them. Turns out— sea cucumber is delicious. I never knew.
Of course, many things are radically different from all we have known before. The most obvious of these things is language and signage. Chinese, in case you weren’t already sure, is completely unrelated to any of the languages we have ever seen and we can’t even get by with kinda reading this or sounding that out. The characters are a mystery to us and I doubt we will get half as far with our Chinese as we got with our Turkish even if we were here twice as long.
Second, is the heat. Well, to be more exact, it’s the humidity that is getting us. Between Walla Walla and Izmir, we are all perfectly capable of handling a month (or longer) of 90 degrees Fahrenheit, or even the occasional or week-long 100 degrees. But, both eastern Washington and the Aegean air is DRY. Shanghai is humid on a level that I can’t describe and even Pete is wary of riding his bike too much in it. Reese, poor thing, was a flushed and sweaty mess running around the park earlier this afternoon, but still with much more energy than either of us could muster.
Third, is… well, everything else. I guess you call that “culture.” It’s unquantifiable and I don’t know how to tell you about it without showing videos or going into long descriptions. It’s the way everyone rides a scooter and when you see a couple AND their only child ALL packed onto ONE of them. It’s the way that getting in line doesn’t mean much unless you are more INTO someone else’s personal space than the typical American could tolerate. It’s the way that the little kids all have slits in their pants so that they can go potty whenever necessary— in the street, on the corner, behind a bench, whatever— and thus why they all seem to be potty-trained in regular clothes by the time they are 18 months old.
Another random thing I have noticed, and this is true (I remember when visiting other countries in Asia) that people here do not like to get too much sun. While many Americans I know (myself included) would like to have a nice “healthy tan,” many people here do whatever it takes to shed all of the sun’s rays. Despite the heat and humidity, while outdoors, many women (especially) will wear hats, carry umbrellas, don long sleeves, and even put on white gloves to keep their skin as porcelain white as possible. Americans have tanning lotion and in China whitening cream is being advertised. Hmmm.
There are lots of differences between here and Izmir, let me tell you! The costs associated with living here are quite different from there too. In Izmir, Pete bought fresh, local, and often organic fruits and vegetables that were always from very nearby, tasted amazing, and were ripe and picked usually only about 24 hours before purchase. This, for PENNIES, you guys. Ahhh, life in the Mediterranean! Here, while so far everything has been.. ok, we are wary and do wonder about where our produce comes from and how safe it is or isn’t. Plus, we’re paying more for it than we’re accustomed to doing. But, we’ve been spoiled.
On the upside, transportation here is super cheap. Maybe you’ve heard me tell you this before, but after you convert Turkish currency to dollars, and liters to gallons, gas for your car in Turkey costs about $12/gallon. Yup- you read that right; it is NOT a typo. It’s some of the most expensive gasoline in the world due to the way it’s taxed. So, taxis were pricey and we didn’t use them often and the same for rental cars, etc. (Public transport was subsidized.) Here, a taxi trip that would have cost us $25 in Turkey costs about $7 in Shanghai. Yesterday, we were on the subway for quite a while, and the trip cost us 60 cents apiece. Nice!
Other major differences? Well, I’ve mentioned weather so won’t go into that too much more except to mention how excited we are about September, when everyone says the humidity drops significantly and the temps are a sweet 80-85 instead of 95+.
Ah yes— got it! A key difference we’re noticing is people’s reactions to Reese. In Turkey, strangers would regularly (and I mean many times/day) pick her up, kiss and/or hug her. If she were fussing, or just extra cute on any given day, she’d be given candy, ice-cream, or even toys, for free. I know that this sounds “dangerous” to lots of people in the States, but it was totally legit, normal, and safe in Turkey. They just love kids there that much and Reese’s super-blonde hair and blue eyes really helped her to stick out. She’s still pretty unique here, but people are more reserved. She turns lots of heads and gets plenty of stares, but no physical contact yet and, thankfully, no free stuff to interfere with our parenting or to give her mixed messages.
On the whole, a week into this adventure, we really do like it here very much, but it’s not all perfect either. For one thing, we live in a bit of an expat bubble. Theirs is a Starbucks being built on our block and an existing one in the mall 3 blocks away. We shop at a French-owned grocery store and we’ve been to Ikea twice. Not that we love the place, but it’s what there is that is recognizable and easy when you are brand new to a totally foreign place. There is certainly more to explore, and we will, but this week at least, we’ve been leaning in the direction of the more “familiar” types of shopping, etc.
The other thing is the pollution— though we’re pleasantly surprised so far. That is, we are worried about what the pollution will be like eventually as that was a negative we have been aware of since Day One. But, with the exception of one kind-of-hazy day, since we have arrived it’s basically been all blue skies and loveliness so it’s easy to forget where we are in terms of the air quality. I’m hoping it lasts, but I also know better.
All in all, our initial transition has been smooth in that none of us has been hospitalized yet, we’ve had no traveling sicknesses, and ALL of our 9 pieces of checked luggage and 5 carry-ons arrived with us. That said, between the fact that we nearly lost one of our carry-on pieces and that we were rerouted through Tokyo due to a delay of our first flight and thereby arrived to Shanghai 10 hours later than planned, you’d think we’d have had enough for our first week in Asia. But, oh no! We like adventure and mixing it up. So, fate has thrown us another wild card in that we have apparently been issued the wrong visas from the Chinese embassy in San Francisco. Instead of getting the requested type (Z visa) we got another type (F visa) and this is causing some complications with my work permit and therefore a host of other things, most importantly among them our bank account getting set-up. No big deal, right? Who needs their salary and reimbursements after just having spent loads on flights, visas, shipping, towels and sheets, and a new kitchen?! Our motto this month: thank goodness for the credit card. J
Amidst all this change, I am, of course, starting a new job—the thing that allows us to be in China in the first place. Initial thoughts: I love it. My new school is stable, well-funded, in demand, and full of professionals. My boss and many of my co-workers are from the UK, and in several staff meetings everyone seems to be cracking jokes and being sarcastic 24/7. I love British humor and I can’t remember even having laughed this much at the office. I haven’t met any students yet (that’s happening on Tuesday) but I am positively giddy to do so soon.
Possibly the best thing about my new school is that it is incredibly family-friendly. At my past place, Pete and I were the only expat parents and we felt fairly isolated. It seems like here nearly everyone has kids and that they all attend the school so the commitment and camaraderie is palpable. It’s the most pleasant change in the world and everyone just “gets it” when it comes to balance between work and family, what it’s like to have and travel with a toddler, and why we’ve chosen this life for ourselves. I don’t think we knew how lonely we were ‘til we got here and realized we no longer felt that way. In this group of newbies (folks having just arrived, like us) alone, there are —count ‘em— 5 other stay-at-home Dads! We were hard-pressed to find ANY in all of Turkey and now THIS?! Hallelujah.
Whew. Ok, that’s a lot of typing I’ve just done. We’ve just bought iPhones so hopefully some photos will come soon as well (once I learn how to use my camera-phone). Or videos. Who knows? Also, we’ll be back on Facebook sometime this week (hopefully) once we get ‘round the Great Firewall of China (via VPN). Wish us luck. More to come, of course.
What has surprised us thus far is how the basics of life here are not all that different from Seattle or Izmir. We have our little family, I go to work while Pete and Reese go to the grocery store and the playground, and we do it all again the next day. It’s the details that make a life, right? Well, of course, but even some of these details are not so far removed from our other recent “homes.”
We still rely mostly on walking and biking for transportation. We use taxis and the subway system occasionally, but we prefer not to be enclosed. In fact, driving In the States this summer made us both very nervous and we are happy to be relying on our own feet again now. (Perhaps even more notably, the 5-10 pounds that each of us gained in the States this summer BEGS to be walked off.)
We still measure the distance between any two locations via our toddler. That is, for example, “this place is about 2 blocks from the nearest playground” or, “that place is 3 blocks from there but has better bathrooms in case she needs to potty.” Exciting? Not particularly, but such are the lives of the parents of toddlers.
We still enjoy eating LOCAL foods and cooking more often than eating out at restaurants or fast food joints. However, a couple nights ago, in an orientation effort, my school took a bunch of us out to dinner at this more-authentic-than-not restaurant and we loved every dish… even though we could only name about half of them. Turns out— sea cucumber is delicious. I never knew.
Of course, many things are radically different from all we have known before. The most obvious of these things is language and signage. Chinese, in case you weren’t already sure, is completely unrelated to any of the languages we have ever seen and we can’t even get by with kinda reading this or sounding that out. The characters are a mystery to us and I doubt we will get half as far with our Chinese as we got with our Turkish even if we were here twice as long.
Second, is the heat. Well, to be more exact, it’s the humidity that is getting us. Between Walla Walla and Izmir, we are all perfectly capable of handling a month (or longer) of 90 degrees Fahrenheit, or even the occasional or week-long 100 degrees. But, both eastern Washington and the Aegean air is DRY. Shanghai is humid on a level that I can’t describe and even Pete is wary of riding his bike too much in it. Reese, poor thing, was a flushed and sweaty mess running around the park earlier this afternoon, but still with much more energy than either of us could muster.
Third, is… well, everything else. I guess you call that “culture.” It’s unquantifiable and I don’t know how to tell you about it without showing videos or going into long descriptions. It’s the way everyone rides a scooter and when you see a couple AND their only child ALL packed onto ONE of them. It’s the way that getting in line doesn’t mean much unless you are more INTO someone else’s personal space than the typical American could tolerate. It’s the way that the little kids all have slits in their pants so that they can go potty whenever necessary— in the street, on the corner, behind a bench, whatever— and thus why they all seem to be potty-trained in regular clothes by the time they are 18 months old.
Another random thing I have noticed, and this is true (I remember when visiting other countries in Asia) that people here do not like to get too much sun. While many Americans I know (myself included) would like to have a nice “healthy tan,” many people here do whatever it takes to shed all of the sun’s rays. Despite the heat and humidity, while outdoors, many women (especially) will wear hats, carry umbrellas, don long sleeves, and even put on white gloves to keep their skin as porcelain white as possible. Americans have tanning lotion and in China whitening cream is being advertised. Hmmm.
There are lots of differences between here and Izmir, let me tell you! The costs associated with living here are quite different from there too. In Izmir, Pete bought fresh, local, and often organic fruits and vegetables that were always from very nearby, tasted amazing, and were ripe and picked usually only about 24 hours before purchase. This, for PENNIES, you guys. Ahhh, life in the Mediterranean! Here, while so far everything has been.. ok, we are wary and do wonder about where our produce comes from and how safe it is or isn’t. Plus, we’re paying more for it than we’re accustomed to doing. But, we’ve been spoiled.
On the upside, transportation here is super cheap. Maybe you’ve heard me tell you this before, but after you convert Turkish currency to dollars, and liters to gallons, gas for your car in Turkey costs about $12/gallon. Yup- you read that right; it is NOT a typo. It’s some of the most expensive gasoline in the world due to the way it’s taxed. So, taxis were pricey and we didn’t use them often and the same for rental cars, etc. (Public transport was subsidized.) Here, a taxi trip that would have cost us $25 in Turkey costs about $7 in Shanghai. Yesterday, we were on the subway for quite a while, and the trip cost us 60 cents apiece. Nice!
Other major differences? Well, I’ve mentioned weather so won’t go into that too much more except to mention how excited we are about September, when everyone says the humidity drops significantly and the temps are a sweet 80-85 instead of 95+.
Ah yes— got it! A key difference we’re noticing is people’s reactions to Reese. In Turkey, strangers would regularly (and I mean many times/day) pick her up, kiss and/or hug her. If she were fussing, or just extra cute on any given day, she’d be given candy, ice-cream, or even toys, for free. I know that this sounds “dangerous” to lots of people in the States, but it was totally legit, normal, and safe in Turkey. They just love kids there that much and Reese’s super-blonde hair and blue eyes really helped her to stick out. She’s still pretty unique here, but people are more reserved. She turns lots of heads and gets plenty of stares, but no physical contact yet and, thankfully, no free stuff to interfere with our parenting or to give her mixed messages.
On the whole, a week into this adventure, we really do like it here very much, but it’s not all perfect either. For one thing, we live in a bit of an expat bubble. Theirs is a Starbucks being built on our block and an existing one in the mall 3 blocks away. We shop at a French-owned grocery store and we’ve been to Ikea twice. Not that we love the place, but it’s what there is that is recognizable and easy when you are brand new to a totally foreign place. There is certainly more to explore, and we will, but this week at least, we’ve been leaning in the direction of the more “familiar” types of shopping, etc.
The other thing is the pollution— though we’re pleasantly surprised so far. That is, we are worried about what the pollution will be like eventually as that was a negative we have been aware of since Day One. But, with the exception of one kind-of-hazy day, since we have arrived it’s basically been all blue skies and loveliness so it’s easy to forget where we are in terms of the air quality. I’m hoping it lasts, but I also know better.
All in all, our initial transition has been smooth in that none of us has been hospitalized yet, we’ve had no traveling sicknesses, and ALL of our 9 pieces of checked luggage and 5 carry-ons arrived with us. That said, between the fact that we nearly lost one of our carry-on pieces and that we were rerouted through Tokyo due to a delay of our first flight and thereby arrived to Shanghai 10 hours later than planned, you’d think we’d have had enough for our first week in Asia. But, oh no! We like adventure and mixing it up. So, fate has thrown us another wild card in that we have apparently been issued the wrong visas from the Chinese embassy in San Francisco. Instead of getting the requested type (Z visa) we got another type (F visa) and this is causing some complications with my work permit and therefore a host of other things, most importantly among them our bank account getting set-up. No big deal, right? Who needs their salary and reimbursements after just having spent loads on flights, visas, shipping, towels and sheets, and a new kitchen?! Our motto this month: thank goodness for the credit card. J
Amidst all this change, I am, of course, starting a new job—the thing that allows us to be in China in the first place. Initial thoughts: I love it. My new school is stable, well-funded, in demand, and full of professionals. My boss and many of my co-workers are from the UK, and in several staff meetings everyone seems to be cracking jokes and being sarcastic 24/7. I love British humor and I can’t remember even having laughed this much at the office. I haven’t met any students yet (that’s happening on Tuesday) but I am positively giddy to do so soon.
Possibly the best thing about my new school is that it is incredibly family-friendly. At my past place, Pete and I were the only expat parents and we felt fairly isolated. It seems like here nearly everyone has kids and that they all attend the school so the commitment and camaraderie is palpable. It’s the most pleasant change in the world and everyone just “gets it” when it comes to balance between work and family, what it’s like to have and travel with a toddler, and why we’ve chosen this life for ourselves. I don’t think we knew how lonely we were ‘til we got here and realized we no longer felt that way. In this group of newbies (folks having just arrived, like us) alone, there are —count ‘em— 5 other stay-at-home Dads! We were hard-pressed to find ANY in all of Turkey and now THIS?! Hallelujah.
Whew. Ok, that’s a lot of typing I’ve just done. We’ve just bought iPhones so hopefully some photos will come soon as well (once I learn how to use my camera-phone). Or videos. Who knows? Also, we’ll be back on Facebook sometime this week (hopefully) once we get ‘round the Great Firewall of China (via VPN). Wish us luck. More to come, of course.
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