The next few are from the Shanghai Library, it looks neat
from the outside and has a beautiful lobby but a sad little collection of
disorganized English books. However, they have a great selection of foreign
newspapers and I parked myself and read the Asian edition of the NYT, which was
really enjoyable!
You can also see the famous Laowei Street in Hongqiao.
Laowei (pronounced La-ow Why) means foreigner in Mandarin so whenever I hear
people say it I know they are talking about me! This street has some really
good restaurants all concentrated in one area right across the way is the
Hongqiao Pearl Market where Rebecca has introduced me to some awesome jewelers.
Next up are Trent’s photos from the Liuli China Museum,
which is a glass museum in Shanghai that has a beautiful exterior and some
really interesting pieces inside. It just so happens to be right down the road
from the infamous Tianzifang art district, which is one of the only places in
Shanghai with legitimately old buildings. The photos of me are in a coffee shop
there and in front of a ridiculously expensive home furnishings store…check out
that butterfly fabric mom, its so me right?! We also discovered a coffee shop
in Tianzifang that has household cats, I want to steal this idea and open a
coffee shop with cats in Pudong but Trent says not with Gus because he’s too
mean. Anyway, the cats that live here are named Prince and Princess and they
are ridiculously adorable. Not only do they live there but also photos of them
are all over the walls and for sale as postcards out front. Finally, for all of
my fellow coffee lovers and former baristi they served me a latte with decent
latte art! This is a rare find in Shanghai, sadly. Trent ordered an Irish coffee, which was neat, because they
lit the sugar cube on fire! I also threw in a favorite Chinglish sign for good measure.
The last part of the post is our little Christmas tree with
presents from Shanghai and the US alike. I had to get creative with the
wrapping paper, in spite of the fact that China is known for excessive
packaging there was a lack of wrapping paper at least in the Carrefour near our
apartment. Anyway, I’m pretty sure my gramma would have been proud of my Gap
bag wrapping paper. Trent got more fancy and used the decorative H&M bag
which was actually cute gold polka dots and went really well with the bows he
found, I was proud.
Finally, we spent Christmas day with friends, which was
bittersweet. It is of course wonderful to have friends to spend time with but
we were both missing our families. I think all of the expats that we spent the
day with felt the same way though, so we made the best of it together. We had a
wonderful lunch at Todd and Rebecca’s apartment in the French Quarter. Todd is
a phenomenal chef and we had a great group together from all over the US and
Europe. After lunch we went to the Nutcracker Ballet with my friend and
coworker Melina at the Shanghai Grand Theater. We weren’t allowed to take pictures during the performance,
but the lobby and outside of the theater were really beautiful. They had a
really neat Christmas tree made out of old show posters. The performance was
beautiful and as you can see from my photos inside the theater before the show
we had amazing seats! I haven’t seen the Nutcracker since I was really little
and Trent and Melina had never seen it. The Shanghai Ballet did a spectacular
job and I think we all really enjoyed it. It was wild to think about the fact
that around the time millions of Americans were opening presents with their
families I was walking around People’s Square in Shanghai, China. No matter how
long we’ve been here I still have to pinch myself to remember that it is real. I
guess these photos are a good reminder too! I know that someday this blog will
be a great place to come back to when we are no longer living here as a
reminder of the crazy, exciting and always interesting adventures we have in
this city.
