Saying goodbye to Shanghai

After three eventful years in Shanghai Trent, Gus, and I packed our bags and headed back to the USA. Our next home will be in a suburb of Chicago. We're super excited for some new opportunities, fresh air, green spaces, and to be so close to the shores of Lake Michigan. (Ask me how excited I am about living in the path of lake effect snow around Januaryish and I might not be as enthusiastic.) After three years of working in marketing and communications at Shanghai American School, I've learned a lot and met some wonderful people. For the past year and a half I've had the pleasure of working with a really creative colleague. We worked on a very successful print ad campaign for the SAS graduating class of 2013 last year, you can see it here. So this year, we had to try and outdo ourselves. With a little bit more planning we pulled off a cohesive print and digital campaign that I'm really proud and excited to share. The print ad, which runs in local publications this month, is below. I wanted to have a heavy web presence this year since we launched our new site in February, and I wanted to have "shareable" content for social media purposes. So we created a special page on the site, which featured the experiences of 12 students to highlight the variety of opportunities our students have and the different options our students explore after high school. You can read their stories here: www.saschina.org/classof2014. My favorite part of the campaign were the words of wisdom that I gathered from current faculty and staff that our awesome graphic designer turned into mini works of art, they are also below. I shared these out on the different social channels in the days leading up to graduation. I'm really proud of the work I've accomplished in my three years at SAS. I developed and cultivated a social media marketing strategy that will continue to drive traffic to the new site. I was also able to design and roll out social media guidelines to make sure we have a healthy and beneficial online presence as a school community. I'm sad to be leaving this community, but really excited to tackle new opportunities and to be closer to friends and family in the US.

Shameless self promotion: I'm back in the US, so if you like the work that you see here I'm available for hire in the greater Chicago area and would love to help run your social media marketing presence.

Nankeen Exhibition Hall

I discovered this place on a recommendation from one of the expat magazines, I've been there twice since and I love going every time! Lucie and I spent an afternoon together snapping photos here and around Shanghai. I can't wait to take my parents here, especially my mom the quilter (!) when they come next month. The interesting photo of the fish hanging out to dry is a common site in Shanghai leading up to Chinese New Year. You can read more about the Exhibition Hall here: http://www.cityweekend.com.cn/shanghai/listings/art/museums/has/nankeen-exhibition-hall/.

Next up on the blog, hundreds of photos from our trip to Borneo!

Recent work

I thought I would share some of the photos I have been taking for work that have run in advertisements or are hanging around the school. I also included photos from my trip to the Peasant Painting Village with the fifth graders in Pudong. Enjoy! 

The Peace Hotel & the Bund

Shanghai American School, where I work, is the oldest international school in Shanghai and this spring we hosted a group of alumni who graduated from SAS pre-1949. While they were here we went to a salon addressing education in Shanghai at the Peace Hotel. These are just a few photos from the Bund, the famous riverfront in Shanghai. It's really fun to go there because a lot of Chinese tourists go there and request to have their photo take WITH you which makes me feel famous! I always tell Trent to smile big for someone else's family Christmas photo. It turned out the room that the salon was held in was the former dining room of Victor Sassoon. The entire Peace Hotel has been restored to match the art deco architecture and history of the hotel. It truly is a breathtaking view, and being in that hotel on the 11th floor able to see all of the Bund and think about how much it has changed and how rapidly reminded me of how lucky I am to be living here.

Spring!

Spring in Shanghai is easily my favorite season, and I've almost been here long enough to have experienced all four. These are just some photos from around Shanghai. I loved the two weeks when all of the Magnolia trees were in bloom. My friend Lucie says it's even better in Beijing, I'll have to get up there next year in the Spring. I've noticed a trend as I go back through all of my photos, we have a few places that we frequent in our free time: Taikang Lu, the bird and flower market, and the fabric market. We have been branching out more lately but this Spring had a pretty predictable routine! Anyway, we went to Taikang Lu and some other places with Lucie, Dorian, Kathy and Chris. While we were waiting at Starbucks we noticed a handsome man in a ridiculous vest to help him carry around all of his super important, expensive, professional camera gear. I'm not sure who it was that suggested that Dorian go and inquire about said vest, probably me, but Dorian did. Much to our amusement the avid photographer was very pleased to discuss his vest, which it turned out was a fishing vest hence the fishing gesture he is making while Dorian considers trying the vest on. So very entertaining, as always, when Dorian and Lucie are around! We did branch out another weekend, and took the ferry across the river. It's pretty awesome to be out on the HuangPu with all of the barges and ships, it is also cool because you can use your metro card to pay the 2 kuai to get across. My photos are not flat due to lack of contrast, that is the beautiful Shanghai haze that hangs in the air most days. You can see on the skyline the building going up next to the can opener, it is going to be the tallest building in Shanghai, Asia, and I think the world upon completion. Architect gurus feel free to correct me if you know. You can also see from the close up of the construction, it is going to have this really cool spiral around look to it when it is finished. I'm not sure if we'll still be here, I think it is supposed to be done in 2014. I am also in love with these white flowering trees that bloom in April. They blooms have that trumpet shape and the trees are huge! If any botanists, master gardeners or tree enthusiasts know the name I would love to learn more about them.