eat drink seth liz

We are conquering jet lag and quickly adapting to big city life. Shockingly, Shanghai is nothing like Ann Arbor. For starters, Shanghai women carry parasols, a custom that I hope arrives in Ann Arbor shortly. With my purchase of a frilly pink umbrella, I am now a near doppelganger of the modern Shanghai woman. Someone asked me for directions yesterday. Now I am working on getting non-tourist price quotes.

In the spirit of soaking up local culture, Seth and I switched from coffee to tea. We are after all in the motherland of tea. Yesterday, I bought some fantastic loose teas at a large shopping center. As I was making my selections, an old man approached and pointed with vigor at the 2 dollar porcelain teapot in my shopping basket. I don't speak Chinese, but I understood his message: Lady! It would be a shame to steep such nice tea in such an awful pot. Soon a group circled around my basket, campaigning for a switch to a terracotta pot. Unfortunately, the terracotta pots are cost prohibitive, but I am keeping my eye out for a good deal.

In our quest to adjust and ignore jet lag, Seth and I are quickly ticking items of our to do list.

1. Eating our first soup dumplings (delicious fresh dumplings with soup and balls of meat wrapped in soft dough) = CHECK

2. Joining a gym (sauna, steam room, and crazy Chinese drill sergeant style yoga classes included) = CHECK

3. Eating our first hot pot soup (boiling soup with raw meat and veggies for dunking) = CHECK

4. Seth learns how to travel to work = CHECK

5. Liz signs up for language classes (I start Monday) = CHECK

6. Liz finds a running track and swimming pool (I am never returning to that swimming pool for many reasons, but mainly because swimmers here hurl huge throat clearing gobs of spit over the side of the pool after every lap.) = CHECK

We miss everyone and our cats dearly.

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Some of the pictures below are rather detailed. Be sure to click the "Full Screen" button (typically a box in the lower right corner of the slideshow) to make them big.


Shanghai Cuisine



Tea, Teapots, and Parasols



Around Town



Seth's Campus, our Gym, and the Giant Glowing Ball which Houses our Gym.