American in Shanghai

  An actual conversation with a sixth grader...   "My fish died"  "Oh, really?  Did you have to flush it?" "Nahh.  My turtle ate it."  "How is your turtle?" "Well I don't have it any more. It grew up and got big so my mom released it to the pond by our house."    

Here's a rundown of what things still cost...local and international.  Today I bought: a package of scrubber sponges, produce bags for the fridge, 2 boxes of 5-pack facials (rose and cucumber), 2 cans of Sprite, 2 boxes of liquid orangeate, a bottle of coconut yogurt, a bag of brown sugar and a bottle of hair conditioner for about $8.    Tomorrow I'll fork out about $40 for a bunch of organic and imported groceries to be delivered right to my apartment:  a can of refried beans, extra sharp Land O Lakes cheddar, Kraft parmesan cheese, organic red potatoes, organic carrots, organic purple onion, globe artichokes, beetroot, parsley, basil, canned salmon, organic cauliflower, organic green onion and fresh mozarella cheese.    My groceries are a mixture of imported luxuries and very reasonable local ingredients.  If I never bought the import stuff and only ate at home, I could eat extremely well on about $50 a week.  But I'm in Shanghai...where there's yomocoffee.com an

It has turned into the wonderful period of about 3 weeks of gorgeous, comfortable weeks of weather when finally we don't need the heat on and don't yet need air conditioning.  It's a very short spring but beautiful while it lasts.    Here are a few pictures from last weekend.  My friend was visiting and it always seems I take a mini vacation myself when friends visit and see all the cool things I'd like to see but never get around to.  So the first few photos are from Qibao Old Street, one of my favorite places early in the morning; the last are of inside the Expo.  We went on the third day of it and I do recommend this experience. It is truly amazing and extremely educational. I plan to buy a multiday pass because it is just too big to see in a day; we saw maybe 20% or less walking for about 6 hours.