I won’t lie.  Being an expat can be hard.   I know, woe is me… right?  But really.

Getting around can be a challenge… usually the cab drivers can understand me, or where I am heading has a ‘taxi card’ in my iPhone application, but sometimes, my Chinese is faltering and they don’t understand me.  This happened once- wanted to go to the train station and ended up at some university… problem cause I told him I wanted to go to the “flower station”, hua- third tone is ‘fire’ – first tone – ‘flower’.  Sometimes, I just want to get in a cab and use English.  On the metro- they shove and push and don’t say ‘sorry or excuse me’ when they shoulder check you.  Shanghai people DO NOT know metro etiquette.. meaning: If you are standing in the door way, get off, let people exit, then come back onto the train.  Don’t just stand there and look annoyed when people run into you. Shoving your way onto the metro in the AM will not make you get to work faster- it holds up the whole train when they can’t close the doors!

Shopping.  Grocery shopping is the other tough one. I know, I could go native and learn to cook chinese (I have tofu stir fry down PAT), but sometimes you want some home cooked western food.  Then you have to hit every Western grocery store looking for ricotta cheese to make lasagna… not to mention it’s ghastly pricey to buy dairy for some reason…. and then you see something in the store and you are like “I HAVE to have that” and get it.. knowing full well you are about to pay $10 USD for a jar of pizza sauce, but you realize you haven’t made your own pizza in 6 months and all of a sudden are dying to have one… along with the Betty Crocker chocolate chip oatmeal cookie mix that found it’s way into your basket.

But then, you stumble upon something that makes your day, and you smile, and realize you can probably make it another day, lugging your groceries home in the taxi… like the Cadbury Creme egg that also ended up in your basket that is now sitting in your fridge, waiting patiently for Easter so you can enjoy  a little bit of home.  But I won’t eat it on the metro.

When I realized I hadn’t written a blog post in a few weeks (um, maybe months) I thought to myself, well, that’s cause I haven’t been doing anything particularly interesting of different.  Then I realized, well, hosting two birthday parties, training for the Great Wall Marathon (I’m only running the half), figuring out the high-speed train system and just living in Shanghai is interesting.

My friends Danielle and Dom had birthdays in February.  I hosted dinners and pre game at my house- full on dinner spreads along with birthday cake made in a toaster oven in disposable pie plates.  For Dom’s birthday we got a table at Richbaby- a full on Chinese club.  Table service in China is essential if you want your own space and the ability to sit down, which is a fantastic luxury when in Shanghai and in 4″ heels. The price is reasonable if you don’t like well liquor as well. And at my age, I don’t do well liquor. Unless I’m at Phebe. And the next morning I remember why I don’t drink well liquor. We had a blast at Richbaby- dancing’, drinkin’, chillin’, laughin’.

I finally signed up for the Great Wall Marathon on 5/19 . We do run on the wall for a portion of the race, but not all of it.  It’s going to be here before I know it, so it’s time to enter training mode.  I ran 5 miles around Jinji Lake in SuZhou, where Dom and Danielle now live, and then yesterday 6 miles in Shanghai.  I found a new route along SuZhou Creek in the city, which was WAY less crowded than Beijing Lu, where I have to bob and weave around strolling smokers and electric scooters driving on the sidewalks. Now if the sun will just come out….

Dom and Danielle moved from Kunshan to SuZhou, a little further away from Shanghai, but a larger city with more expats. More to see and do there when compared to Kunshan, so I have been spending time out there… which means the high speed- gao tia – which means Colleen had  to do some trial and error to determine best station to leave from and arrive at… which means Colleen got frustrated more than once. But, I got it a little more dialed in that when I started… The high speed is a very convenient  way to travel in China- there are a few train stations in Shanghai- one out at the domestic airport, one close to my house. You need to buy a ticket ahead of time or you risk waiting in the station for an hour or more if the next train is sold out. Another reason is the lines at the station are CRAZY long and people love to cut in front of you. For some reason Chinese people don’t find this rude.  But a quick “I’m buying a ticket, get to the back’ in Chinese usually gets my point across.

In other news- I hired an ay yi… meaning a housekeeper.  They are not costly here- everyone has one.  I just felt so lazy hiring someone to clean my house, and then I realized that freed up hours to train for GWM and it balances out the hours I spend traveling to SuZhou on the weekends. DONE!  So far she has only been twice- and does a decent job cleaning.  I’m nervous to trust her with my laundry- but I’m sure I eventually will cave and have her do a load here or there.

Now all I need is the weather to warm up and the sun to come out and I will start to explore Shanghai and other areas in China.  I made a list of places I want to go using the UNESCO website.  Top on my list:  Tibet, Sichuan province, Hangzhou and Suzhou.  I wanted to do Tibet for my birthday but the government closed it to foreign visitors until April. Not going to book a flight until I know I can actually get in there….so until then I’ll just stick to traveling to places we can get to on the high speed.  And I’ll keep buying my tickets ahead of time.