June 2005 Archives

Carrefour is an institution for many expats here in Shanghai. This large French chain of supermarkets is somewhere between a cross of Coles and Big W (and yes, I'll claim creative license over Lin's description of it). It has a lot of the day to day conveniences that most Westerner's take for granted back in their home countries, and well, its also dirt cheap. Hence Carrefour is really popular. Initially, Lin and I believed our local Carrefour at Wuning Lu was the duck's guts - but that was before Lin stumbled into the Gubei store. Gubei is expat central - and hence the standards in that store are really high, much higher than our Wuning Road store. So we decided on an expedition tonight out to the wilds of Gubei, and found it to be a pleasant shopping experience, well except for the multitudes of people. Since I have resolved myself to document more of the day to day routine events of an expat here, I thought I would take a few snapshots on my mobile phone camera. There's a heap of things to see and eat (and yes, the pig's faces are for consumption), so there's a few shots in my gallery page to check out. I'll try and build on it over the coming months.

Gee this post is boring... The pig's face is cool though.

Technorati Tags: Food, Shanghai, Shopping

its been a long week. my boss from across the ditch has been in town, and well, its all been go. so, coming to this friday evening, you would have thought that i would have spent it deconstructing the week over a few quiet Tsingtao somewhere in expat-friendly bars in Shanghai.

Nah, I've spent it at home surfing the web, reading email, chilling out to the dulcet tunes of The Shins amongst others. To top it off, I've retreated into my expat shell, ordering out for food using a super popular English-language delivery service.

Lin's just arrived home, I'm feeling tired and hungry. I can't wait for this weekend - I really need the break.

Currently Listening To...

The album "If You're Feeling Sinister" by Belle & Sebastian

Technorati Tags: The Shins, Shanghai

Shanghai has many pluses, and many minuses. One for me is dealing with the Chinese way of commuting. Although one of the cool things about Shanghai is the overwhelming popularity of various forms of 2 wheel transportation. Bicycles of all types, wind-up bicycles, scooters, motor cycles, tricycles full of stuff - its all here. Its great. Lin's a convert to cycling around, and well, she's leaning on me to get a bike as well.

Most of my friends might have seen the deeper and darker side of my personality back in brisneyland when I talked for my disdain for cyclists that ride on footpaths. I don't like it at all (well, I'll let toddlers off the hook on this, maybe young kids too). It really sh!tted me off. I've nearly been knocked for six a few times back home, and well, I don't like it.

In Shanghai however, I couldn't hold onto the anger. It would have sent me mad - and no, that's not the reason why I flipped out in the last week or so. The dawdling masses of the city include pedestrians, people pushing carts, trolleys, and the rider's of scooters, bikes and trikes all seemingly intent on using the footpath.

It seems I'm not the only Shanghai expat that has found difficulty adapting to the different rules here. I think I'm not so angry, but hey, its a funny read.

Technorati Tags: pedestrians, Shanghai

Lin said i already had a post with this title, but i thought that this new post deserved the 'bigger, better, uncut' version.

i'm busy at work. hence no posts. sad for my lurkers and other readers. but also sad for me. its been a big adjustment with a new job, on top of learning a new system, a new way of doing things, helping to start a new group, find new recruits, cure cancer, beat big blue at chess and kick arse. well, some of these things aren't true.

the 3 month stage is when a lot of people start to feel home-sick. this has been repeated to me over and over in the last couple of weeks as this feeling of discontent has grown in me. but more so i realise that it isn't necessarily homesickness, but sick-of-work sickness.

worksickness? maybe its a big adjustment from being in neutral to going to full-throttle. i'm definitely tired, and i'm not eating much right now either. since arriving in shanghai, i've dropped about 8kg without the help of shanghai belly, star gym, or lin's minimalist cooking (joking!). it doesn't match my 2001 Deutschland weight drop of 12kg in 3 months, but its getting close. Maybe i'm missing too much of Mum's Lasagne or Corned Beef in my life.

I know i'm not in my element here yet. The lack of usable Jongwen makes day-to-day tasks all that more labourious, on-top of which my colleagues keep dropping hints about me learning the language. Its not insidious comments, but moreso them asking me to be a part of their culture than what I currently am.

more later. i'm a little confused about this all. still working this one out in my head really.

No, this isn't a rave about my relationship with my gorgeous girlfriend, but our newly-found, collective passion for...

Sherpa's!

Yes, Shanghai's food delivery service to the lazy expat. Ahh, so nice. Far from using my broken Mandarin trying to find an English-speaking phone operator at Papa Johns, Sherpa's presents an easy alternative to ordering home-delivered tasty meals for the verbally-challenged here in Shanghai. And no, the language lessons aren't going that well.

I'm sure we're going to get past the Malone's menu at some point though.

Technorati Tags: Shanghai

You ROCK my sweet!

Mwah!

It has been a while since my last post. Perhaps a little too long - I just haven't felt like writing too much lately. I've been much busier with work than what I could've thought before I came here. Subsequently, I've been thinking of doing anything other than spending a lot of time writing on a blog or indeed spending time in front of a computer on those rare hours of free time. I'd say Linda would disagree with that!

The majority of my weekends spent during my first 2 months in Shanghai kept on following the same pattern of me spending time lazing around the apartment, trying to do some work or catch up on correspondence. This tended to snowball, so I wasn't really doing to much on my weekends other than doing my best impersonation of a person scared of the outdoors.

I decided that this had to change. I wasn't enjoying my weekends here greatly, and when faced with the great indoors, I usually ended up working. Not good for the stress levels.

Hence, I've gone a little mad recently and have done a heap of things.

Technorati Tags: Dragon Boat Racing, Kid Koala, Shanghai, V8 Supercars

One of the selling points of relocating to Shanghai was the opportunity to see a part of the world with cultures, people and customs that were totally foreign to me.

I've been thinking a lot lately about what I want to do while I am here. Lin and I are thinking mainly about short trips, maybe 3 to 7 days around the place. Hong Kong is a place that I really want to visit, in particular to get some more electronic devices, shop and generally enjoy Cantonese food.

But before I came here, I was thinking about doing something epic. Lin & I discussed one particular trip, we've bought the guidebook from Lonely Planet, and thought about when we could go about this.

Trans-Siberia: a rail journey from Vladivostok to Moscow. 2005. ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corp):

I came across this link on the ABC News website this morning. I'm glad to see the same inspiration motivates people to get outside their comfort zone and see something quite different. I can't wait to get my chance at it.

Technorati Tags: China, Hong Kong, Trans-Siberian Railway, Shanghai

I'm sitting in Sasha's bar/brasserie right now. I've just enjoyed a lovely breakfast consisting of Eggs Benedict and a hash brown. Life's really tough!

And, I'm taking advantage of the free wireless in this place. Noice. I'm supposed to be meeting up with some fellow Mac lovers, but so far I haven't found anyone remotely looking like owning a piece of Mac hardware. Not that I'm complaining. Its much better than lurking around the apartment. I've been tending to do that too much lately. With Linda working weekends, I haven't had too much motivation to get out and about to enjoy the sights, people and experiences of Shanghai.

Hence, in the last week I've taken a few steps towards getting active and social. Here's what I've planned/done in reverse order...

• Meeting with fellow Mac geeks (right now)
• Enjoying drinks at the China-Australia Chamber of Commerce drinks at the Raddison Plaza Hotel on Xingguo Lu
• YPHH wine night at Senses Wine Lounge on Wednesday night.
• Work things...

I'm not really going to talk too much about my work things except for every time a visiting research visits my workplace, we always manage to have a team-building exercise that usually involves dinner at a Sichuan restaurant. If you're lucky, a Shanghainese restaurant!

I've also plans to consistently hit the gym (to get rid of the Eggs Benedict ;) ), and also see if I can get into a regular basketball pickup match. Still searching for that one. I'm also looking for another Mandarin novice to start lessons with. I've located a school that's near to my place, but unfortunately they don't usually do weekends. Introducing my newly acquired negotiation skills (thanks work!), all I need to do now is find another crazy that wants to learn Mandarin for 3 hours on either Sunday or Saturday morning. Shouldn't be too hard...

Besides my workmates, and LuckyLowaiNo.7, Lin and I haven't really met too many other people here in Shanghai. With Lin changing jobs recently, she's struck up friendships with some interesting people (all of which seem to have sidelines in publishing for some strange reason). We've got burgeoning friendships going here right now. Early days, but we've both decided its time to come out of our shells.

I've also got a special event planned for next weekend. I'm lining that up today, so keep an eye out for that one.

Technorati Tags: Hengshan Road Shanghai, Shanghai