The colors of life, Shanghai, and the family

My thoughts, like our new apartment right now, are scattered about and unorganized.  It was a journey to get to Shanghai, but we made it.  Tired.  Jet Lagged.  We made it.  

Not much can be said so far.  Not because of my scattered thoughts or our scattered life, but because it is SO MUCH.  China is no joke.  It’s huge.  I mean HUGE!  Driving from the airport to our new place and you see these massive buildings and complexes.  It stretches and keeps going.  We’ve seen LA, Thailand, Chicago, and HCMC, but this puts them all in the dust for size and sprawl.  

We are rolling with it a bit better than we did in BKK for the first few days/weeks, but in a very different way.  We can roll with the punches and language.  Our first full day here (landed mid day on Monday, customs, declaration of goods, etc) was a Tuesday and we got up and figured out how to get a Didi (think of Grab or Uber) and went to IKEA to get things needed and price out things we might want in the future.  We got some kitchen and bathroom gear, got some plates, glasses, silverware and chopsticks, and checked the price on storage and a TV stand and things like that for if and when we want to upgrade in the future.  The SMIC group that J is part of was amazed and blown away that we ventured out on day one.  For us, it was normal.  Things needed, go find things and acquire them.  

I’m sure some of you are reading this and wondering…. Do you like it?  

I don’t know, is the answer.  The SMIC people we have talked with or interacted with have all been very pleasant and nice, the few places we’ve gone to get food or goods have been pleasant enough - although not speaking Mandarin well, maybe they are not saying hello but calling us buttheads - and we’ve gotten groceries enough to have lunches and breakfasts.  I’m still working on the kitchen and figuring that out, but by this weekend we should be back to me making most of our meals at home.

It’s nice to walk.  It’s nice to see walking lanes.  It’s cool to see lanes dedicated to scooters and bikes and, yesterday, at the mall/grocery store we went to, there was a huge collection of bikes and scooters parked.  Also, when I say bikes, I mean peddle bikes, not mechanical bikes.  It’s actually really cool and I can’t wait to settle in and find our niche and get my own bike, electric scooter, or what have you, because that will be beyond useful here.

Kiddo is settling in as well.  She finally has her toys and books back, so she’s been great sinking into them as J and I set up life and try to figure out China and how things work here.  She’s also been great with going out and doing.  IKEA was a 4.5 hour trip (broken up with a lunch in the middle) and she was a trooper and helpful the entire time.  She walked most of it as well.  Then slept like the dead.  LOL.

It’s been an adventure and it’s only day three.  We are still unpacking and figuring it all out.  We are still climbing the mountain, but at least this climb has some support with the SMIC groups and the climb is towards settling, not scattering us.  All the effort goes towards getting a groove, not getting out of the groove.  It’s nice to know that once these efforts are done that we can rest and settle…. At least for a year and a half or so.  We are excited to explore more - both Shanghai and China - and see more of the wonder and beauty of the world.  See friends and share our thoughts and experiences here and in person with them.  Settle in and have the funny moments at home, the embarrassing faux pas when we go out, to just be us and a family and love each other as best we can and enjoy the big moments that we have, but more than that, to enjoy the day to day that we make for ourselves.  My cooking, Kiddo playing, J and her teacher stories shared over dinner or with music at night.

I’ve said before… This isn’t for everyone, but it’s for us.  This is how we like to live.  Not the scattered and need to settle part, but the expat life.  The enjoying the strangeness and the culture of other places.  The food.  The people.  The cities.  The quirks and little things that are different in each city and place we see.  We add those colors to our palate and make a beautiful painting that is our family.  Sure, it’s like Kandinsky meets Escher meets Pollock interpreted by a 4 year old and an alien mixed together, but that’s the beauty of it.  The chaos.  The colors.  The straight lines that become swirls that become straight again.  

Let’s go, Kiddo…. We have more exploring to do today as Mumma has her first day at work.  Maybe we get no further than the playground that’s 200m away, but we’ve not seen or been there yet.  Let’s see as much of Shanghai as we can.  Do you think we can see more of it than we did Bangkok?  Let’s color the world with our uniqueness and let it color us with it’s own.  Next stop… Who knows, but it’ll be an adventure getting there.  We love you.