There are moments of peace here in this loud busy city. My apartment complex is one. Generally walking anywhere is not. The honking, people everywhere. I realized this morning that part of my "get out of my way" complex which yes is selfish is also a defensive maneuver so that I can get where ever I need to go quickly to get out of the chaos.
I spent the first six months of living abroad trying to be happy about living abroad. It took my impromptu trip home in April for me to finally admit to myself and to others that "Living in Shanghai is not always great." In fact many days it is not fun at all. It is humbling and frustrating and occasionally beautiful. The beautiful moments usually involve times with my hubby or friends.
I finally came to terms with the expectations that I felt were on me from others-that it must be wonderful because it is exotic and living in another country. Yes, I do get to experience some pretty amazing things and eat awesome food but now I'm ok with the fact that it's also SUPER hard to live away from family and friends. How freeing it is to allow one's feelings to be what they actually are and not hide from them.
Everyday I am blessed with technology to communicate with those that I love back home. Home is not a specific location since people I love are all over the country. As my 3 week, 8 flight trip back to the US demonstrates, home is everywhere.
It's always an adjustment arriving back, not only are you sleepy but you have to remember little things like, waving down waitresses.
It is a crazy place Shanghai.
I thought I would try and share some of my daily life occurrences: the good and the bad so that you might experience China too.
For those of you that like heat, you would enjoy Shanghai. But only if you like humidity to be 50% or more. Why bother taking a shower, you're dripping after walking outside. You want to know my trick? Walking through malls? I happen to live in an area of Shanghai that's pretty ritzy and mall-filled. I can walk two whole blocks indoors. While not totally cooler, it makes a difference. Small wins.
Also, something I didn't know until moving here is how great our weather system is. Not as much access to weather radars. Recently, I've found a basic one on wunderground.com but just different.
When you live in a country that you don't speak the language, little moments of English tend to be glorious. Take the other day, a friend and I hot and tired from a walk outside decided to see if any channels on the TV were in English. We were in luck! We got to watch a ridiculous Selena Gomez Disney Channel movie. Something about Witness protection plan princesses. It was pretty comical but fun to watch something in English and on Cable!
Stay cool!
