Shanghai List

Writing a list of things I'll miss and such. Why? Cause I feel like it...

• Ayi. What am I going to do without a cleaning lady that will do everything from washing and ironing my clothes to collecting and paying all my bills, all for the price of 3 bucks an hour? Seriously, spoiled!
• The food. Not necessarily Chinese food.... But the restaurant scene in Shanghai is amazing. There is always a new place to discover, and the cuisines to choose from are from all over the World. You can choose from street food, xinjiang, hunan, sichuan, french, german, american, australian, thai, mexican, korean, veitnamese, japanese, italian, indian, I could go on!  Mmmm I <3 the food in Shanghai. 
• Riding my bike in the city. It's so fun! 
• Courier Services. Free flights to random cities in the world with only 12 hour notices? Amazing experience. 
• Volleyball. 
• Living in an International Community. I now have friends from all walks of life and i'm so grateful for them! It's been an amazing experience.  
• Fruit stands - going to miss buying my lychee breakfasts for dirt cheap every morning!
• Fabric market. Even though I hate bargaining and sometimes getting completely screwed over, I really do love going to the market, picking out the fabric, and designing myself what I want to get made!
• Weekend Brunches.  
• Weekend pool days. 
• The insane amount of days off work. Seriously, people.. China does one thing right: holidays. 2 weeks off for Chinese New Years, 1 week off for National Holiday, and various other days throughout the year! PLUS.. being an expat, I get all the US holidays off work as well. It was amazing. 
• Nights in with Kellie. A workout, coldstone, indian food + a movie. Perfection.
• Nights out with Gaux. Late night at 88 for some crazy dancing? Yes please! 
• Speaking of: 88. I will miss you ba shi ba! My liver won't.. but my heart will.
• Dinners with Jeremie. Love our catch up sessions with massages and dinners! 
• Boxing with Jenna. An amazing workout buddy! 
• Random hangover days with Phil, and McSnooshie's in the morning :-P
• Story time with JAFM. 
• Ryan the Bartender. He's made me fall in love with far too many cocktails! 
• All of my friends. 

I will NOT miss...

• The incessant hawking and spitting. ... learn some manners people.
• Getting coughed and sneezed on. Nobody quite understands covering their face over here. :( 
• The Chinese Squat. I just don't like it. 
• Getting ready in the dark bc the fuse in my apartment blows way too frequently! 
• The Stank... Shanghai is really stinky.
• Pollution... I'm very, VERY excited to see blue skies and puffy white clouds. Also, to run outside again and not fear for all the exhaust I inhale. 
• Applying for Visa's
• 24 hour McDonalds delivery. I can't wait to not have this option at my disposal! Waking up to mcdonalds bags after a night of debauchery may be the worst feeling ever!  
• The lack of shoe shopping.
• The locker room at the gym. I have seen far too (ridiculously) hairy cha cha's for an entire lifetime. Seriously people, at least trim that shaz! And since when did using towels to dry off become a thing of the past!?? If I have to walk by someone blow-drying their cha cha dry one more time... I might pass out and die. 
• The lack of customer service. Everywhere. 
• Ordering fish/or prawn for dinner and having the entire fish or prawn, scales, head, and all be delivered. I went out to eat for a reason: so I didn't have to do any of the work, please be-head the fish before serving it to me. 
• The lack of diapers. If I have to see one more baby shit on the side of the street......... 
• Idiot cab drivers.
• One way thinking.
• Absurd Construction, all the time. 

One chapter closing, another about to begin.

I can't believe I'm actually making the official move away from Shanghai. It's strange to say that, as when I first left the States that is exactly what I thought about leaving there. I remember being terrified to move to a completely foreign country with no concrete plan ahead of me. But from what I've learned: you adapt. And that's exactly what I did. Now three years later, I'm completely terrified all over again. A new chapter in my life is about to begin.


I never thought I'd be scared to move home. How backwards is that? But I am. I'm nervous for a million reasons, and not just the obvious ones:  No job, no money, no car, no plans, are all just the tip of the ice-burgh. Culture shock is a real thing, and so is reverse-culture shock. I think I'm most nervous for that. I like to refer back to my favorite lecture from a professor of mine back in college... an excerpt: 


"There is a story that I like to tell my students about a fish in a fishbowl.  There is a way in which a fish swimming around in a fishbowl knows nothing at all about water.  Because water is so much a part of the fish’s life.  It is surrounded by water.  It is embedded in water.  In that sense, the fish does not really know water.  If you want the fish to really understand water, you have to take the fish out of the fishbowl and say, “Look, that’s water.”  Now…if you put the fish back in…the water never looks the same again.  Well, in a certain sense, we’ve all been taken out of our fishbowls.  You have been out of your fishbowl for 3½  months.  Now you have to go back."

But even though I'm scared and nervous for the new chapter to begin, one thing I have learned and am sure about is: I'll adapt.