Shanghai Expat Life - Where the Mundane Meets the Spectacular

Dear Reader,

If the last post was a bit dull, traffic, work, the market, the bakery, talk about relatives with my huzzband on his lunch hour, well, I do ramble, but the point is, the upkeep of life here goes on in the same fashion as it does elsewhere and it is about as exciting as your perspective and energy level. I wasn't surprised last year when two twenty-something teachers complained, "yeah, our exciting life" confessing to going home tired and watching DVDs during the work week instead of making a tour of a vigorous night life one hears about.

To say that Shanghai is spectacular is banal. But we live away from the vistas of the Bund, the Huangpu River, and the wrecking ball is upon most older homes that aren't villas, and then some of those.

Scroll down to photos of how neatly it's done, the razing of streets. We're not really in "the burbs" but you just don't keep up the "where will we go to sightsee today?" when you have to work during the day and at night, often plan for the next day. It can be draining to speak Chinese all day and it's no secret that the expat magazine reviews advise saving a new full-seasons of TV series for when the weather turns damp and drafty cold.

FYI, after the notoriously hot summer, which isn't always as bad as people complain, the weather changes quickly and as of this evening, I hear a gust of wind outside my windows - if it is like last "autumn" we've just started with a 10 degree fahrenheit drop and fall may even last as long as a month!