Salty silliness

While it has been heart breaking to read the news and see the clips and pictures of the devastation in Japan, the Chinese’s reaction to what’s been going on has been borderline laughable. Of all the times to get in a frenzy the Chinese chose now? Now, I’m not trying to play down the real and plausible threat of a nuclear meltdown, or make light of the fact that thousands of lives have been lost and there are some still risking their lives to prevent another catastrophe or negate the potential for radiation to make its way over to the big dragon. But latest of “dumb ideas” is sweeping China by storm and taking all the salt with it. That’s right. The country is buying up all the salt.

New sources are now reporting that the radioactivity from Japan could contaminate the food supply, and supposedly a SMS is being spread throughout the country (and possibly Asia) that is saying that people need to buy all the salt they can get their hands on. Other reasons for the stalk up on salt are that these people think that salt will prevent thyroid cancer. But this CNN article dispels that myth pretty assuredly. And here are some pictures to show the mayhem.

What is so ridiculous about all of this is that there have been countless food safety issues in China in the past year (past week even) and people have just gone about their marry way. God only knows what is in the food over here (literally, I think God is the only one who knows) and I just don’t get why now, of all times, there is this sudden need to take precautions – that are useless mind you.

I kind of wonder if the country would be in the same panic if the radiation was coming from somewhere else (like Indonesia). Part of me thinks that this whole uproar doesn’t partly stem from their attitudes toward the Japanese. Now I am not going to generalize and say “the average Chinese person hates the Japanese,” but there is still some clear hostility toward their island neighbor (which can be seen in the paper I work for). So I wonder if these people who are so panicked about salt aren’t subconsciously, or consciously, doing so because this radiation isn’t just any old regular radiation, it’s Japanese radiation; really bad radiation. There’s no report or analysis to back this up. It’s just by passive observation.

Despite the salty silliness, my heart aches for the Japanese, those who have lost loved ones, and those who are putting their health and lives on the line to prevent another disaster.

Eagles...and my 100th post! woot woot!

I’ve only been to a few concerts in China and most of them involved a lot of foreigners. I’ve never been to one of these outlandish concerts where male popstars walk a fine line between tacky and cross-dresser like. I wasn’t sure that Chinese people even liked music where the singer’s sex was virtually indistinguishable, let alone 70’s country-rock.

But then I got to go see the Eagles in Beijing and my perceptions of Chinese and their music tastes changed – for the better.

First of all, I was a little surprised that the Eagles, of all bands, were coming to China. They didn’t start advertising it until about January and I wasn’t sure if it was going to be another hoax (Bob Dylan was supposed to come to Shanghai last year, but someone up in Beijing put the stop to that). I knew I wanted to go see them and knew a few other lao wais who would want to go too. I didn’t really know any Chinese friends who would be interested because frankly, I didn’t know the Eagles were popular among the natives. Sure, I’ve heard cheesy renditions of Hotel California playing in the mall and Desperado is a go-to song for non-Chinese singing KTVers, but I didn’t realize how popular the Eagles were until I asked around about a week before the concert.

I told the mother of the little girl I tutor on the weekends that I wasn’t going to be in Shanghai the next weekend because I was going to Beijing to see my brother. She asked what I had planned to do and I told her we were going to the Eagles concert. “Oh we’re going here in Shanghai.” Oh really? I was surprised this conservative-looking family (who is definitely racking in the money) knew about and even liked the Eagles. She went on to explain that her husband was a big Eagles fan in college. “He used to want to be in a band like the Eagles. He used to play the drums.” Ok, I thought. So maybe this guy is like Chinese 30-year-something-old version of my dad.

Then I was talking about the concert with some coworkers. While the post 80s generation (those born after 1980, younger than 30 and are only children), might not be too keen on the Eagles, a lot of the 70s-born are it seems. My coworker was telling me that she and her classmates learned English in high school and college with help from the Eagles. “A lot of us grew up listening to the Eagles, and it brings back happy memories of younger years for me.” I told her that I also grew up listening to the Eagles – not to improve my English but from my dad playing on the stereo all the time.

After learning that the Eagles do actually have a significant fan base in China, it was time to go to Beijing. The concert got off to a slow start with the Eagle’s playing some stuff from their “new” album, which I equated to my mom was “Grandpa music.” But about three songs in they really got going. Now, I’ve been to about 5 Eagles concerts in my life and this was by far the most unique. The band is getting on up there in age, but it was neat to be sitting with a bunch of Chinese people who appreciate the same music I grew up listening to. They cheered, danced and were a pretty energetic crowd! And boy did they go crazy for Hotel California and Desperado.

My brother, who has been in China for going on 5 years, said it was the best concert he’d seen in China. I was glad to not only see a really good show, but also share in an important part of my culture and my home country’s culture half way around the world.

From NYAFC to CD

There are many, many times when I look at my life and think “Wow, how did this happen?” – both good and bad. And luckily this post is all about the good. I’ve been holding out with telling you few readers about my life plans, but I’ve got a column being published on Sunday that I’m kind of proud of and think it’s time to let the cat out of the bag.

Well, dear readers, yours truly will (eventually) be co hosting a TV show here in China… and for now, I'll have a weekly column pertaining to the show’s topic. I secretly have always wanted to do broadcast journalism, but just thought that my passion and interest in writing would be better fulfilled in print media – although I also never saw myself working at a newspaper! But when my psuedo boss told me about this new opportunity I was all over it. It's not exactly "journalism" (but what in China is?) but it is TV experience and something that is one step in the right direction for me to achieve my goals.

Not only am I excited about a potential break in to TV, I’m also really excited to have what will soon be a weekly column. I’ve enjoyed posting on NYAFC because I feel like it’s kind of column like and I can make it my own. When I got started writing this new column, I had a little trouble with the first few though. I mean, I'm young and what could I possibly have to say that is that original and interesting? But after some advice from the editors up in Beijing, I think I’ve found what can be my “voice” for this CD column.

The TV appearances have yet to start, but you can be sure I’ll let y’all know when I make my TV debut in China. Actually, it will be my second debut as (I’m told) my appearance on Wheel of Fortune also aired in China.

By the way, if any of you are interested in seeing past articles I’ve written go here and you can see what yours truly has been up to. I realize that this kind of gives up my attempt to be “anonymous” but whatever. This blog really isn’t that popular anyway. The list is a little slim, but keep in mind, most of my job is rewriting what the Chinese staff have (usually poorly) written.

Lamien Love: Dating plunders

I realized that I haven’t posted a Lamein Love in a while and now that I’m a single gal again I should probably reinstate the series. People who date in China always seem to have funny stories, and while I’m not too sure I’m ready to go and get myself attached again, I hope to at least get some entertaining stories from it.

China’s most recent census (completed in November) revealed that there are in upwards of 23 million people living in Shanghai. That’s a lot of people. And while the foreign population probably accounts for a small, small percentage of that (less than 1 percent), you would still think that in a city of 23 million people there would be plenty of people to court/date/meet/etc. Well I thought that at least until a most unfortunate blunder.

On a lark, I made a profile on a dating site that is part of Shanghai’s best online entertainment guide. I mostly did it to see what desperate guys had written and how foreign-seeking Chinese women were trying to win over a potential green card holder. But then I came across this rather witty profile. From their book, music and reading tastes I thought “Hmmm… this person is interesting. I will send them a message.”

I did, and we exchanged some funny messages back and forth about our experiences in China and aboard, what we do here, future plans in China and the other “get to know you stuff”. By about the third or fourth message, I realized that this person sounded eerily similar to my former boss from when I was in intern in Shanghai back in the day. After a little “investigating,” I was 99.9 percent sure it was him so I signed the next message with “-MK”.

Sure enough about 12 hours later I got the awkward response of “Is this (insert my name)?” and luckily he was “quite amused” while I was, in a word, mortified. The worst part is he is a reference on my resume! What’s going to happen when someone calls him up and asks about me as a potential job candidate? “Yes, she’s a hard worker and may even approach you on a dating site”? Oh no.

Needless to say, I deleted the profile, apologized profusely and am resigning myself to meet guys the old fashioned way, in person, where I know they’re not someone I shouldn’t be approaching.

The world's market place

A girl unpacking goods at Yiwu... I love all the pink in this picture!

Have you ever wondered where those trinkets from the dollar store come from? Have you ever wanted to see every possible good you could ever want to buy all in one place? Have you ever wondered what 15 million square feet of shopping looked likes like (that’s 6 times the size of the Mall of America)? I think I sufficiently say that I’ve seen it all.

Late Friday afternoon I was assigned to go to Yiwu, home to the world’s largest small commodities market. If you’re asking yourself “what is a small commodity?” it’s basically anything and everything you could ever imagine buying. They’ve got fake flowers, arts and crafts, hair accessories, make up, jewelry, toys, stationary, pins, pens, clocks, watches, flashlights, MP3 players, kites, kitchen appliances, cooking supplies, hardware supplies, furniture, art, bikes and a whole lot of other things that I’m leaving out but am too lazy to type.

I’ve heard and read about this place and have actually been secretly hoping to get to go. While the circumstances weren’t ideal – I was assigned TWO 1,000 word articles on Friday to be due on Wednesday –  I was excited to go and see this place for myself. It was only about a 2-hour train ride away from Shanghai in neighboring Zhejiang province and definitely felt like I was in hundreds of miles away from Shanghai in Podunk China.

I was awestruck walking around the labyrinth of corridors and hallways of different vendors. I have never in my life seen so many products in one place. And I only went to the International Trade City – the place that’s 6 times the size of the Mall of America. There are countless other markets that specialize in other products. After the awe wore off I began feeling a bit uneasy; the kind of uneasiness I get when I go to a suspect restaurant and wonder about the quality of the food. It not only seemed to me incredibly wasteful, but also troubling about what was in some of these products - especially the makeup and the jewelry.

My suspicions were confirmed after chatting with a senior executive of a global supply chain company. “Our clients (multinationals) would never come to Yiwu to buy their products,” he said, later suggesting one could get an unpleasant disease from wearing the jewelry sold at the trade market. It was kind of a miracle that I had met this guy, because I think his insight really made the story.

But one thing he said really stuck with me. As he was going on about how these products don’t pass social (like worker’s rights) standards (or safety or sustainability standards for that matter) the workers don’t care. In fact, he said, they want to work overtime. So while I (or some of you more China-adverse readers) could get on my high horse, all these useless trinkets do provide jobs, food, a living for other people.

I kind of left feeling disheartened. I just felt like the market, the city even, epitomized so many things I find wrong with China - wastefulness, greed, unsustainability, workers abuse. I had heard such rave reviews about Yiwu and the market. And while it was something unlike anything I had ever seen, I have the same sentiments about Yiwu as I do about some “reconstructed temple” or “scenic spot.”

Fireworks, oh fireworks

Fireworks are everywhere at CNY!

By now the country - for the most part - is back to work on a regular schedule and, more importantly, the fireworks around the city have subsided. It’s about time after 14 days of around the clock blasts. It wasn’t necessarily 24/7 - but it was off and on 24 hours a day. It’s not the best way to be woken up in the middle of the night (or 5 in the morning).

Although it was neat to look out the window from my apartment on the 12th floor to see fireworks exploding right outside the window and to see the skyline exploding with the kind of show you only see from professionals - you know, like you’d see at a theme park or on the 4th of July. But as I was watching them out my window, thankful I hadn’t accidently left a window or something open as ash and debris would have without a doubt come in, I really wondered how safe all the hyper-pyromaniacs were.

I was enjoying setting off the fireworks with Ellen and her dad on Chinese New Year eve In Changzhou until it started getting a little irresponsible. Even though we were in a safe place, I was really nervous when they started setting off the fireworks not even a foot away from the box of 10 other fireworks - including what looked like M80s.

And then the family started setting off fireworks 5 feet away from a busy intersection. We’re not talking about the lame Roman Candles we were holding, I’m talking about the big boys; the box of fireworks that’s like three feet long and two feet high.

But the worst offender was the genius that lit fireworks in the middle of the street when cars were passing by and even driving over them! Luckily we did not see an accident, but that was a close call... Maybe too close!

Happy New Year in Changzhou

Happy New Rabbit Year! All you kiddies born in 1987 better get ready… this is NOT your year!

So I just up a 7-day holiday from work, which has gone by oh-too-quickly. I decided that between all my trips in 2010 and some more upcoming trips and weddings I would save some cash and stick around China. Besides, I’ve heard all kinds of crazy things about Chinese New Year in China. I debated sticking around Shanghai, but knowing I would probably just be lying around on the couch for 7 straight days I decided to put in a phone call to an old friend.

After Ellen was so disappointed that I was going to Thailand last year for CNY, I thought I would see if she and her family would be around Nanjing for the holiday. She was really excited when I told her that I was going to be in China and invited me to spend the holidays with her and her family in Changzhou, where I went to the dinosaur amusement park. So I told her I would come over for a few days, because, selfishly, I wanted to experience a real, traditional Spring Festival.

So I got in last Wednesday afternoon, greeted by an excited Ellen and happy Chinese family. I wasn’t expecting much, as its Changzhou and there is not much to do there, but I had an interesting (?) time full of eating some new oddities – like pig’s ear and beef tendons, lighting off fireworks and watching CCTV. I also got to accompany the family as they paid their respects to ancestors and burn incense and candles said to bring good health and wealth. I’ll let you know later about the wealth part!

Truthfully, though, it was kind of overrated. It wasn’t just the language barrier, although when the family wasn’t speaking in the local dialect, I could understand a lot of what was being said – I just couldn’t say it back. As mentioned in my earlier forced fun post, I just felt like it was somewhat uninspired and lacked the excitement and mystery (you know, like Christmas usually has.

 A friend posted this card to my facebook and I thought it pretty accurate of my experience. While I enjoyed my time with Ellen and think my Chinese may have improved the most it ever has in a two-day span, I wasn’t convinced I need to stick around China for every New Years.

生日快乐!

So today is my birthday. Yippeee! Another year older and none the wiser. It’s kind of anticlimactic having a birthday so close to the spring festival (which is on Tuesday), because everyone is leaving. I made sure to schedule a little pre-bday celebration on Saturday so that I would for sure have some kind of tribute to my 25th year of life. If I were to describe it in one word I would have to say: Wow.

But today was nothing overly special at the office. In fact, I made my own birthday cake – which was totally worth it. I haven’t eaten a cake-from-a-box in a long time. Chinese people don’t really like super sweet things (their loss) and so that majority of the cakes here are pretty unappetizing. But this cake? Another wowzer. And luckily not everyone wanted a peice. More for me at home!

So I brought the cake to the office and it was a big hit. Except when I told my psudo boss that is was my birthday he goes “Are you going to treat everyone to a special meal?” It’s strange, but that’s the custom: you buy on your birthday. Luckily It’s week four of a crazy busy week and I didn’t have time to treat everyone to a big lunch. Hopefully they won’t remind me on Friday.

Forced fun

So, back when I posted about winning my iPad, I neglected to mention just how fun exciting lame the New Year’s party was. The best part of the party was that I had the afternoon off. And since I technically don’t need to be to the office until 10 am (love me some Chinese working hours) I really didn’t have much of a workday.

The girl planning this thing was the same one who planned our stellar trip to Qiandao Lake, which I still haven’t blogged about. For our CNY deal, she basically she rented out this like private recreation area that was part of an apartment complex. To give her some credit, it was really nice. They had a really nice pool, workout area, area to play cards and probably a slew of other things I didn’t notice. The only problem was that nothing was organized – we just showed up and did whatever we wanted.

Not that having an afternoon to just mess around this place was worse than being in an office, but when I think of “company events” I tend to think that they should be something you to together, like with your coworkers. My colleagues, although very nice, can be painfully cliquey. So not organizing an activity for everyone to do together only reinforced this cliquiness.

I was talking about it with the other laowais and we were all in agreement that there are a lot of cool things to do in Shanghai as a group – bowling, paint balling, go-karting, roller skating, etc. Hanging out at this oddly located apartment clubhouse was not on our list of “cool.” It would have at least been nice to do something together with all the coworkers. A scavenger hunt, perhaps, where you actually get to meet with people from the other departments.

Side note: There is little to no mixing between the different departments, at least in editorial. And I don’t think it’s because editorial and advertising/marketing have the same kind of strained relationships as they do in “real” publications – you know when the advertising department wants the writer to write about this instead of that because this is a potential/current advertiser.

Anyway, it was a nice treat to get out of the office, but I thought it would have been a little more of bonding with the staff rather than “forced fun.” But I guess I like forced fun. I mean, they’re forcing me to have fun, so I have to have fun, right?

Mama Hu Hu in America

This will be my only commentary about Prez Hu’s visit to America, and I'm sharing China Daily’s front pages on Thursday and Friday. Great headlines, eh? No, I was not the mastermind behind those, unfortunately. I also like the the picture choices. Obama admiring the great Hu. And then a friendly handshake between the leaders of the two biggest economies in the world. This is not a fashion blog, but I do have to say I loveee the first lady’s gown. Red was a good choice.

Update: For you non-Chinese speakers, I guess I should have explained the title. There’s a famous Chinese idiom/word “mama huhu” to which the literal translation is “horse horse tiger tiger.” Basically it means “so-so”

A: How to you like your fried rice?
B: It’s “mama huhu” (so-so)

The title was meant to be funny – although I don’t know how funny it is if I have to explain it.

Lucky, Lucky Draw

Overall I would say I’m a lucky person. Yeah, I have great family and friends, have a stable job, like my stable job, etc.. But I mean I am abnormally, randomly lucky. When I was like 6 I won a $50 gift card to K Mart because I guessed the right number of legos in the display. I’ve won free bottles of wine from a Shanghai-based website. I was even on Wheel of Fortune and made out pretty good. Now I can add the winner of an iPad at the company’s Chinese New Year party to my lucky streak list.
 
Yes, that’s right. I won an iPad. At the company Chinese New Year’s party no less. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it seems how I don’t have wifi in my apartment, but now I have an iPad.
 
This New Year’s party has been the talk of the office almost ever since I got back. Everyone was talking about the iPad that would be the top prize of the office “lucky draw,” and everyone wanted it (Chinese people LOVE apple products). While I love my MacBook and my iPhone, I saw little need for an iPad, but still tried to get in the excited spirit of the office. I even said half jokingly “If I win it, I’d probably sell it,”

So Friday night comes around and we have our Chinese New Year party (which is worth a separate blog post in itself) and the lucky draw. They get rid of the cheap prizes - the towels, bath soaps, gift cards, phone cards - and we get to the good stuff - the coffee maker, the video cameras, the iPods and finally the coveted iPad. My number remains undrawn and my fellow foreign coworker looks at me and says “I bet your going to win it.”

Well as my obvious luck would have it, my number was drawn. Honestly I felt kind of guilty about it because, well, what am I going to do with an iPad? I also felt guilty because I’m the foreigner and one of the newest staff and I shouldn’t be winning the coveted iPad. I couldn’t tell if the Chinese reporters were annoyed that the “laowai” got the iPad, but seems as how all of them either have one or could get mom and dad to buy them one, I wasn’t too worried.

So now I have an iPad. If you have any suggestions on what to do with said iPad I’m all ears. Any cool apps I should try? Do they have scoops for the iPad? Anything that will help me with my Chinese? Oh and can someone get an wireless router? That would also be helpful.

Chinesey food

One interesting aspect of living in China is observing how others adapt to it. The common response from people I know is that their English has worsened or that they slowly start thinking that Chinese fashion isn’t quite as bizarre as they once thought it was. There’s some people who turn a lot more Chinese than just wearing glasses with no lenses or mess up an English word here or there. Then there are others who start commenting on other people’s eating habits – a very Chinesey thing to do.
 
Over the course of several lunches with some of my foreign colleagues, I’ve come to realize just how easy it is to turn “Chinese” about food. One time I was at lunch with some male colleagues (one Chinese and one foreign) and after the meal the English guy remarks “Is that all you’re going to eat… it doesn’t seem like a lot” to my tofu dish and rice. I sheepishly said something along the lines of it was enough for me.
 
Then on a separate occasion with the other foreigner in the office I had the opposite experience. We were at a popular vegetarian restaurant seemed to order just a little too much food for two (keep in mind it was like some stir fried tofu, mixed veggies and some dumplings… not like we were eating steaks and potatoes). Afterward he goes “You really have an appetite.” I will never forget the look of annoyance I shot him after that and probably said something snide back.
 
Seriously though. Isn’t there like a written rule somewhere where a guy NEVER comments on how much a girl eats? To both experiences I just thought, “You are so Chinese” because I’ve only ever known Chinese people to make comments about peoples eating habits.
 
But then I had my own Chinesey “judge you about food” moment a while back in Beijing. I was visiting my brother with my dad, and he (Dad) treated my brother, some of brother’s friends and me to a nice dinner. As the other three and I were loading up our plates from the all-you-can-eat Teppenyaki, one of my brother’s friends, who I am also friends with, was barely eating. I knew he was a vegetarian but he was barely eating anything. On more than one occasion I said something about it. “Are you not hungry?” “Are you sure you’ve had enough?” and finally, the doozey, “You should eat more.”
 
Finally I realized what I was doing – being a typical Chinese person buggering him about eating. I quickly apologized and left him to his half eaten plate.

The Chinese Mom

There’s been a big hubbub on the Internet over this article from the WSJ. I don’t know if it was a publicity stunt for her new book, but it’s shocking in a borderline physically/verbally abusive kind of way. The stories she cites in the column make you wonder how her children came out not troubled or depressed or serious rebel against “mean mom”.
 
Oh wait, it appears one did. This thread on Quora eludes to the bigger picture of what her book is about – and its not that her parenting methods are indeed superior.
 
My two issues with this column are 1) the xenophobia of it all (read the comments if you want validation) and 2) that this type of parenting style should not be put on a pedestal. One Shanghaiist blogger writes about her own experiences and its not pretty.
 
Mrs. Chua’s styles are not limited to ABCs, or American born Chinese. Children in China are more often subjected to such parenting styles. I’ve never heard a Chinese person say that he or she enjoyed his or her childhood. There is little talk of any other memories besides studying or playing musical instruments for hours on end.
 
While working in Nanjing, something I considered a bonus was getting to know some of the students in the programs. On more than one occasion I remember some of these students saying, I have little time for free time. Or cited merely “playing piano” as their “hobbies.” It was also eye-opening reading their essays of their weeklong exchange in a US high school. Many students remarked that they were envious of the students’ shorter school days, the plethora of extracurricular activities, the opportunities for students to have part time jobs and the more relaxed nature of these students’ parents.
 
One clear example I can give is Ellen, who at 17 seems completely burned out of school. She’s dropped out of traditional Chinese high school in order to focus on her English so she can go to school abroad. When she told me about this over text message, she spelled Engnish wrong.
 
There are a lot of things about Chinese/Asian culture that I admire, like the strong sense of family (when not borderline abusing a child) and the filial piety they exhibit for their elders. But this is one aspect of the culture that doesn’t deserve praise.

Black Out

It’s been a chilly winter here in Shanghai ever since I got back about 10 days ago. My apartment was a refrigerator when I got back last Tuesday. I’m not sure why, but Eva thought it would be a good idea to open the bathroom window, which was a little bit of an angering surprise after what was already a long, arduous flight back home. Maybe she thought I would like some fresh air? At below freezing lows at night I don’t think so.

After leaving my close-to-worthless air conditioners on for two days straight and not feeling any warmer I decided it was time to bite the bullet and get me some space heaters. Luckily I remembered the $100 gift cards to some department store the newspaper gave us (in lieu of a bonus, I assume). So on New Years Day I pried myself off the sofa and out from under the four blankets I was wrapped in and set off to buy my heaters. I arrived home two heaters richer and my apt was finally warming up. I wasn’t really too concerned with how much electricity I might be using and just let everything go.

Everything was fine for the first two days. But then on Monday night I made a fateful mistake. I wasn’t really thinking as I had the two heaters, all air conditioning units and most of the lights on in my apartment when I decided it would be a good idea to dry a pair of socks with the ultra high-powered hair dryer I had recently acquired.

After about 10 seconds my entire apartment (all 50 square meters of it) went black. Uh oh!

I knew exactly what I had done. And luckily I knew what to do. I keep up with a good friend’s blog and she had a similar experience, although I don’t think it was in sub-zero weather. Dressed in my finest PJs I went down to talk to the (almost worthless) guard/I-sit-here-because-they-pay-me person. In my limited Chinese I explain that I have no electricity and she says I need to call an electrician. Electrician? I just need to know where the fuse box is (or so I thought). Who knew how long it would take for an electrician to show up … and I was sure it wasn’t going to be that night.

After a frantic phone call to Eva, some bickering with the guard/I-sit-here-because-they-pay-me person and after a few more phone calls, we wake the electrician, who emerges from some underground cave-like place under the apartment complex. Unfortunately it was not as easy as flipping a fuse box switch… or maybe it was and he just made it look like it was harder than it appeared to earn his 20 RMB reward. Either way, 20 minutes after I had foolishly turned on every possible appliance in my apartment, I was up and running again.

And now I’ve learned my lesson about the hairdryer... but those heaters will stay on!

Hello 2011!

Happy 2011 NYAFC readers. I hope you all have had a wonderful, restful holiday season and a great start to 2011. My holiday – ok, more like the last three months – have been wonderful but not so restful. After a weeklong holiday in Hungary over Thanksgiving and a two-week trip home during Christmas (my first trip home in more than 16 months), I’m really excited to be back in Shanghai.

I was sad to say goodbye to 2010; it was a good year. But I think 2011 is going to be a even better – I’m rejuvenated and excited for a new of working, improving my Chinese and blogging.

I do have one worry, a very Chinesey worry, actually. So my birthday falls almost directly in between the new year on the Chinese lunar calendar (even though the actual date of the new year changes from year to year). Some say I am a tiger (the year we’re about to finish up) and some say I’m a rabbit. Contrary to what you might think, the year of whatever animal you are is not supposed to be good. It’s actually supposed to be pretty rough The year of the tiger, as mentioned, was good for yours truly and I’m anxious for what the year of the rabbit has in store. If it’s bad then I’ll know what animal I really am; if its good then I’ll know I’m just a lucky tigget.

Then again, there are still four weeks left in the year of the tiger, so I guess I’m worrying a little too early.