Let it Snow... Let is Snow... Let is Snow!

It has been "snowing" here in Shanghai for a few days now. This morning we have the most accumulation we have ever seen. They are saying that this is the coldest winter they have had in a long time. Of course that is our first winter here! And the summer was one of the hottest. Don't figure. Shanghhaiise are NOT adapted to this type of weather. The "snow" is actually more sleet than anything. It is pretty to see when you are encapsulated within the Villa environment. But I am sure that the view out on the street is a little less peaceful. Turns out that our driver is sick today, probably made him sick thinking about having to drive like a maniac out in this.

Unfortunately, Natalie is sick today and I have to take her to the Dr. So, we will have to go in a taxi. She has pink eye (we think) and will home all day! Ah well, the life of a Tai-Tia...

One Week Back - a Short Theosophy

So, one week back in Shanghai. Got to see most of my friends back here already. Natalie is finally adjusted to the time change. And I got to exercise again. Back to NORMAL? Maybe. I had intentionally scheduled this week with a lot of down time so I could take my time getting back into the rhythm of life here. But I really spent more time considering the pluses and minuses of my first home visit. I have talked a bit with my friends here and realize that when you go home, every one's lives, including your own, continue to move on. But the lives we chose to live here in another country seem to put us on a very different path. So when you go home you find that the commonality you had before is harder to re-establish. Don't get me wrong, it is wonderful to see your family and friends. Catching up is just a bit different when you know you will separate again to lead dissimilar lives.

Maybe that all sounds negative, but really it is not. It was just insightful to learn about what has happened to me over the past year. If I judge myself against who I used to be, then I feel that I have come quite far. I set some personal goals for myself before I came and I have realized many of them. Not ready to share them here, but hopefully if you know me it is noticeable!

Well, gotta get ready for Mandarin class. That is my latest focus. I want to try to get "Conversational"!

New recipe: Shelly's Shanghai Pork

Well, I have been spending a lot of time playing with recipes here in Shanghai. Due to some miscalculations cooking a different recipe, I came up with this recipe. I had to tweak it a few times to get it to come out right. I know some of you have misgivings about deep frying, buy trust me, if the temperature on the oil is right and you use fresh corn or vegetable oil, it primarily gives the pork a beautiful sheen and cooks it fast so it is extremely tender. I use this for group dinners as you can make quite a few pieces in a good size pork roast. I use the roast as it is slightly larger in circumference and the slices end up being a nicer size. But if you buy tenderloins, they will work too!
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SHELLY'S SHANGHAI PORK
1 lb Pork Loin or Pork roast, whole, unlaced
1/4 cup corn starch
cooking oil
Marinade:
3 TBS Lime Juice
1/4 Cup Dark Soy Sauce
2 Cloves Garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp Coriander
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp Sichuan oil (can substitute 1/4 tsp cayenne powder)


Slice pork into very thin slices, like you were slicing a roast. Slices will be rectangular in shape and only 1/8# thick. The trick is to use thin slices so they are very tender and cook quickly. After slicing, mix marinade together. Pour over pork and let marinade in fridge for at least two hours. Can leave overnight. An hour before ready to cook, mix wet pork mixture with corn starch. Use hands to mix thoroughly. When ready to cook, heat cooking oil in wok or pan. You should have at least an inch on the bottom. Heat to medium high. When ready, place pork slices into hot oil and cook quickly, about a minute for each slice, turning once. Adjust oil so that it doesn't cook too fast and brown too much. Place cooked pork slices on paper towels for draining. Can be served with rice or with bread for sandwiches. Enjoy!

Return to Reality OR Back in Shanghai

Natalie and I just returned from the U.S. What a LLLLOOOONNNNGGGG trip! We arrived in Chicago on Dec 17 and left Tampa on Jan 17. I have decided NOT to blog the entire trip. It would take forever and probably not that interesting. However, I am going to hit the highlights (which sometimes are actually low lights). Oh, and one of my New Year's resolutions was to be a bit more timely on this blog, so please check back and send me an email if I don't keep that!

Trip Highlights

• After arriving in Chicago, we had to drive south on U.S. 41 to my parent's house in Indiana. The rental car was packed with luggage and poor Natalie had to sit in the backseat squished next to the bags that wouldn't fit into the trunk. And it was really cold. About 45 minutes into the drive Natalie started to complain about having a tummy ache. I finally climbed in back and held her on my lap (yes, we didn't have a cars seat). About 10 minutes later, she said "Mommy, I think I am going to throw up" and then immediately she threw up! Trying to help, I held my hand over her mouth to catch it and just ended up getting it all over her face. When we finally pulled over, Natalie and I had it all over us. But, we stripped her and got some clean clothes on her, cleaned the coat in the snow on the side of the road, and climbed into the front seat. Luckily I had grabbed a cloth bag and emptied it in case of another emergency, which came about 15 minutes later! Poor thing! But, she survived. We got her to my parents and cleaned up!
• I slept in 9 different locations in with 16 location changes (some were back and forth).
• We had a wonderful time with all of our family. Lots of time with friends too!
• Taco Bell, which I had been craving since before I left from Shanghai, was the biggest disappointment. I guess that is a good thing.
• The real Mexican food and Skyline were NOT disappointments!
• We played Wii for the first time. What a trip! Natalie one time bowled a 177. Tom knocked me out in boxing in about 30 seconds. Diane Schrimpf and I boxed until we were both totally sweating!
• Met some friends in Indy for a great one-night sleepover. Julie shared some GREAT news (sorry, not for public consumption) and had a great steak at St. Elmo's.
• Ended up with a dent in my rental car bumper. Never noticed until a day before I dropped it off. We think it happened while parked at a restaurant. Will have to wait and see what that ends up costing me!
• Took a trip to Sanibel Island in Florida with my girlfriends. What happens on Girl's Trip NEVER GETS BLOGGED...
• Natalie made a couple of snowmen in Indiana. Nice to see the snow!
• Everyone saw their doctors. All is good with all of us. Tom's physician was very proud of him for losing 43 lbs!
• Observed that the U.S. has much better looking military dudes!
• Spent New Year's with Natalie, Tom, and my parents at Hooter's!
• Natalie had three Christmas': One in West Lafayette, on in Fowler, and a final one here in Shanghai after we returned home last night.
• Helped my friend Julie paint at her new house. She had me working for my room and board. I stayed at her place while I was in Dayton.
• Went and saw the World Famous Lippizzaner Stallions
• And finally, we ended the trip the way it started. Natalie threw up on the airplane on the way home. Just before we landed. She was complaining about a sore tummy. Went to the bathroom three times, but then the fasten seat belt came on for our landing. So, she had to use a big Ziploc that I had packed (luckily) into my carry on. Again, poor thing! She said afterwards "I don't look like I throwed up, do I?"

So, that is it. I really missed Shanghai. I was glad to see everyone in the U.S., but we really have made this our home now. Oh, and sleeping in my own bed was a huge luxury last night!

Thanks in Shanghai

First of all, sorry this blog comes weeks after the event! But we are so busy here! Not enough time in the day... But we are getting ready to head home for the holidays and I thought I better get up to date if I could! So sit back and enjoy the story of a Little Shanghai Thanksgiving...

We celebrated Thanksgiving here in China, with Turkey, two different times. On Thanksgiving evening, we went up to the clubhouse and ate turkey. You can see in the picture that we had turkey and all of the trimmings. Yummy! The turkey was very moist and the sides were really faboulous. Very good! Though it seemed weird since Natalie went to school that day and Tom went to work. But it was good to have real American Thanksgiving Day food. Natalie had fun until she spilled Sprite onto the table and her lap! Then she cried and snoozed on my shoulder for awhile. You know the kind of parents we are, take a picture of the kid when she is at her worst! We chatted quite a bit with a couple who had gone to Purdue. She was from Fort Wayne and he was from Lebanon. Such a small world!

Saturday we went Ceyda's for a carry-in. Many of our good friends here made it so it really did seem like family. Of course we had lots of food and ate WAY too much. Ceyda's husband Haken made the turkey, which he marinated for 24 hours before cooking so it was marvelous!

You can see that we all had a great time and the men looked especially hungry before eating!!! We also had a lovely day and a few of them even took out the football and tossed it. Of course you can see that most of the kids enjoyed the day watching videos downstairs.

So what to be thankful for? Lots of things.

• Thanks to Tom for letting his wife de-stress and adding years to the end of her life
• Thanks to our family for understanding why we have to be so far away for so long
• Thanks to my friends in the U.S. for making me feel less lonely
• Thanks to my sisters for chatting at weird hours to accomodate us!
• Thanks to our daughter for making our lives complete (even with the tears!)
• Thanks to ASC for delivering wine to my house (don't worry, it is just a coping mechansism!)
• Thanks to the Fansets for the 3 seasons of House (isn't House just a wee bit HOT?)
• Thanks to my friends here in Shanghai for making this adventure much more than just an experience and for making the Holiday's wonderful!

Walking Tour - French Concession (Again)

On November 8, several of us went on another walking tour. This one was again in the French Concession area. The focus was the "leafy streets" and focused on the residential living of the lilongs. These were apartments and villas that were built between 1915 and the 1930's. Many were originally home to expatriates, but most now house 5 to 10 times as many families as the homes were originally designed to hold. This tour included, besides myself. Kathy Miller, Kathy Kane, Sherie Chen, and Karen Goh. We started from the Old China Hand Reading Room, on Shaoxing Lu. Several of us had been there before, some to hear Tess Johnson speak, a very knowledgeable American who has lived here for 15 years. Actually she co-authored the book we have been using to guide us on these tours. The descriptions I am including here come from the text of that book.

The French Concession was established in the 1840's in a small area between Yan'an (originally a creek, but now an elevated road!) and the Bund and the old Chinese walled city (Nanshi). But by 1914 it had expanded to its current size of around 600 acres. The architecture we saw on this walk reflected the need for rich mansions for the fortunate and high-density lilongs for the Chinese. Many Chinese revolutionaries, Communists, and intellectuals made this concession area their home. In 1949, all foreign-owned real estate became state property. While the lilongs are still in use as residential properties, the large mansions, estates, and villas have become restaurants, hotels, or museums. Many of the larger villas, which used to house one family, now may house 8 families!

The first lilong was the Cite' Bourgogne. This is an example of shikumen lilong, built in the 1930's. It has one of the grandest gates in Shanghai. There are 78 homes in this area, and right now, they are replacing all of the drains and water to the individual buildings. It is odd to see renovations on building that frankly look like they should be torn down! It was quite the bustle inside though. Many women were out with the daily food they had probably purchased that morning, cleaning fish and vegetables out front of their homes. There was a small wet market within the gates, so you didn't have to go far for you fresh food. The picture on the right is of a cute Chinese couple wondering why 5 westerners were wandering through their apartment area. Many smiles and "Ni Hao"'s were exchanged. That is what I love about China!

The picture here on the left, from the Joffre Terrace, shows an alley inside the lilong. This lilong is known as a garden lilong, built in the 1920's. There are 200 houses in this with a complex hierarchy of lanes. You can see the small window, known as a Ting zi jian, in the stairwell that is extending out from the main building. In hard times, this "apartment" was rented to writers and artists as they could not afford the rent of a larger space. The broad lanes of this lilong are very wide and almost spacious. Not at all like the other lilongs. And it is neat that while the insides of these apartments are dark and seemingly uninhabitable, they The small place on the right here is the local "Senior Center". All of you AARP members out there ought to feel good about the resources available to you. Here they look like they use the room for storing bags of rice! Not a lot of other activity going on here today!

Traffic is still an issue no matter where you are in Shanghai. The picture here on the right is of the bike and scooter traffic at a main intersection in the area we were walking. There are just so many people living and commuting from place to place. Oh, and the picture on the right was just for fun. The sign on one of the buildings reads "Urban Vegetable Garden". Marketing is not an art form here in China!

After looking at the lilong's, we moved on to private villa's that have been converted into apartments. Some of the homes are really beautiful and the gardens are still very attractive. We also stopped briefly at the former home of Dr. Sun Yat Sen. We didn't pay the 20 RMB to get in this time, we will have to wait until another day to tour inside. There was a small textile museum with some interesting textiles. But no one bought anything.

Our final stop was at the site of what is now the Ruijin hotel. This was originally the home of the British Moriss family, owners of the "North China Daily News". There are many building making up this compound, many which now contain the hotel itself, restaurants, and stores. It is a beautiful oasis in a very busy area. We wandered around the gardens and I had a good opportunity for the only good "Chinglish" signage. In a small lane between buildings, we saw the sign to the left which was a "Boiler Important Area". It was just a door which I will assume housed a large boiler. We at lunch at Face, which has two restaurants and a bar contained within in it. The picture on the right is a view from our table at the Thai restaurant. Very quiet and luxurious. A great way to finish a nice walk!

BOO! Halloween Time

We enjoyed our first Halloween in China last night. Vizcaya, our compound, had trick-or-treating for the kids. Then we headed to the Miller's for a Halloween party. So it was a full night of candy and fun. Believe it or not, it was actually pretty easy to get some basic Halloween decorations and a costume for me. Carrefour does have it's value. So you can see from the picture that

Lauren and Jamie Miller came to Vizcaya around 4:30 (they are the beautiful vampires in the picture). We headed to the clubhouse around 4:45. The Miller's arrived dressed as vampires, and I was a vampire as well. So, we were a scary vampire family with a cute princess daughter! Tom stayed and took the job of handing out the candy, tough life! By the way, for those of you who are familiar with Natalie's trick or treating experiences in the past, you are probably wondering how excited she really was. Well, having some friends go with her that were older helped a bunch. But I still caught a bit of hesitation on her face a few times. Overall though she did great! When the trick or treating started at 5pm, there were about 150-200 kids streaming from the clubhouse down to the first street of villas. Needless to say, that first house got quite a hit of kids all at once. In fact, the whole street was a steady stream of kids. After about 15 minutes though, things spread out a bit.

So you are probably wondering what kinds of candy we had here. The girls all raked in quite a bit, an interesting mix of Chinese crackers to a single Reese's cup. Some families had brought a lot of candy back from the states for just this reason. Makes you a bit homesick to see real Tootsie rolls and Twizzlers! But you know, kids are kids, and I think they were all pretty pleased with the "take". The gummy Eyeballs were the favorite treat of the night. I would show you a picture, but they ate them all! But, I think the picture of Jamie to the left shows what happens after about 5 of them! After hitting about half of the houses here in an hour, we headed up to the clubhouse for haunted houses and pumpkins. One funny thing that happened was that the bartenders were making drinks with sprite and dry ice. The kids thought they were great. Natalie finished her Sprite and then said "This ice is REALLY cold!". Geesh, I told them then not to swallow it. How dangerous!! I wonder how many kids drank some of that ice last night? Anyway, turned out that we did not have pumpkins to carve, so we went ahead and walked back to the house.




And headed to the real party. The Miller's celebrate big at Halloween as they were married close the holiday. It was a great evening with good friends, good food, and fun games. Lots of good things to eat, good friends, and many laughs.


In the picture to the left, you can see Cave woman (Kathy), Ms. Cell Phone (Ceyda), and Ms. Pirate (Angie) checking out the good food. Ceyda's kept coming up and telling us "hit 555-8888", it's hits all my favorite areas!". Ceyda! You can't take her anywhere... Everyone had really good costumes (except for Tom, see below). And that is quite the accomplishment in China!



We got a good picture of the men: Caveman (Brian), Viking (Heinrick), Tom (oh, he went as himself), Matador (Haken), and the "Best Dressed Man Here" (Michael). Wasn't Tom clever? Who knew his sense of humor went so deep?


The kids really had a good time. Lots of fun games and everyone won something (good job Kathy!). Grace the bunny looks like she is having a good time. Natalie and Jamie won the "Make a Mummy" contest (sorry, I probably helped her too much!). They also had a fun game with string, counting peanuts and candy corn, and a fun word game. Natalie was beat by the time the evening wore down. We had brought her pj's and so she ended up staying the night for her first sleep over with Jamie and Lauren. She did really great too! She said she got to have pancakes in the morning for breakfast. We are so proud of her for not being afraid. Now she is asking for sleepovers every night!

The Miller's had a copy of Rocky Horror Picture Show and so we stuck it in the DVD player, but the put sound down. Of course all the kids were drawn like flies to honey! The picture here is of the scene where Brad is floating in the glass fish tank. What we let our children do when we are entertaining ourselves!



At the end of the evening, I was gathering up our belongings, and I found Brian (see picture) in the entryway. I swear that there was no staging involved with this photo. Now, there might have been quite a few drinks before this particular shot, though I doubt that Brian would EVER drink more than 2 or 3 in an evening!
There are three choices for the real action behind this picture:

1. His caveman costume was not actually a costume, but his normal day-to-day GM uniform
2. His love of the Chinese toilet goes way beyond normal admiration
3. He is showing us how REAL Chinese wait on the corners with their bread

Oktoberfest In Shanghai

[DISCLAIMER: I NEED TO EXTEND A WARNING AND APOLOGIES TO ANY OF TOM BRAMER'S FAMILY AND CO-WORKERS WHO WILL BE SHOCKED BY THIS ENTRY'S PICTURES AND VIDEOS. IT ONLY HAPPENS ABOUT ONCE A YEAR. NO NEED FOR AN INTERVENTION!]

Ah, you know that fall has arrived in Shanghai when the Lederhosen and Schnitzel arrive! Wait, is this Munich? No, of course it is Shanghai. The Holiday Inn Pudong was host to a wonderful event, lasting 10 days this year. Tom had attended the event last year as it occurred during on of his trips here to Shanghai and he stayed at the hotel. He had such a good time, he wanted to go back again. We attended with a few of our favorite beer-drinking friends this past Friday evening. Who needs to spend the holiday with real Germans? Well, there were a few real German's in the house, but mostly it was local Chinese. And an authentic die Blaskapelle (band). Oh, and a few good-looking Russian women, but wait, I get ahead of myself...

Our attendees at our table that evening were Dan, Marty, Tom, Craig, Shelly, Brad, Jamie, Dave, Kathy, and Brian. All you can eat and drink. Das Bier was good and though none of us ever finished one glass to the bottom, we seemed to drink a lot of pitchers of it. Tom started the evening by trying to steal one of the band member's hat. Though he does look pretty good with that little thing perched on his melon. Marty, Craig, Brad are the three blokes performing one of the many cheers that night. I am afraid I do not have a good picture of the table, though I seemed to have plenty pictures of Tom.

Many Chinese attended, they were probably 60-70% of the attendance, and they were true to character. When the buffet lines were opened, 60-70% of the room got up and jostled for food! It was all you can you eat! Not many buffets here in China for a good reason. They go crazy! And they ate in a typical Chinese fashion: individual plates piled high with a single item for sharing at the table. So the women at the table, or the lowest ranked man I guess would slog into the line and grab a plate of Sausages, etc. I don't know why, but this really cracked me up this time. I guess I should not be so surprised that the Chinese do exactly what anyone else does: adapt the situation to your own known culture. It was still good for a laugh or two. The table behind us apparently had no faith in edible food being served as they brought 7-9 bananas and some apples and oranges. Or maybe they took them from the displays??? Brian Miller, bless his heart, took pity on us westerners and went and filled quite a few plates of food and brought them to our table. We felt so Chinese, but it was good to have some food, which was actually pretty tasty. So, we ate. OK, enough about the other stuff we saw, let me tell you about us...

We watched the band, which was really good at getting the crowd involved. They played your typical German polkas (the darn Chicken Dance is still playing in my head) and a few other songs that tended to be heavy on the horns, but good crowd pleasers. It was difficult to talk and to see, and we found quickly that the best way to watch the whole show was standing on the benches at the table. The band did a really funny song, I am sure there is an appropriate German tradition for this, that consisted of one of the male band members to dress like a German woman and then periodically "gong" two men naked except for a cloak and metal pan. The "gong" song was hilarious. Check it out.

I could tell Tom was having a good time as I had to suggest he "slow down" half an hour after we got there, but there was no slowing the man down. He had a huge grin on his face all night. He also found a slightly smaller version of a bald man that he attached himself to for part of the evening. In the picture to the left you can see mini-Tom, Brad, Marty, Brian, and Tom enjoying the evening. I am not really sure what Tom is yelling here, but you can be sure he was screaming as he had no voice for 36 hours afterwards!

About 3/4 of the way through the night, it was time for that wonderful German tradition, Russian girls dancing on tables. And no, I am not kidding. The picture to the left is not of one these girls, that's Tom doing part of a "Y" in "Y.M.C.A.". Dan and Tom, who had attended this event last year, were giddy with excitement all evening, but I am not sure they rest of understood why. But yes, 8-10 Russian girls were escorted in, surrounded by "handlers" and assisted to the the table tops. I think the boys were disappointed that our table was not one of the selected "table dance" areas. Irregardless, we didn't see Tom for quite a while! Well, that is not exactly true, as the other video uploaded to You Tube shows. Now, many of you might think a wife would frown on this sort of chauvinistic, demeaning, insulting behaviour. I learned a long time ago with Tom that his "bad boy" image never goes too deep especially at the point of intoxication that he had reached at this point. I guess you gotta luv him...

So, The man in the chef hat at the left is Tom. As you can see, he still has a smile on his face. Though I have no idea where he stole the hat from! Now that would change for the worse in about 2 hours, but he was a happy camper at the end of the party! A fun time was had by all that evening I believe. Tom gave Craig his goodnight kiss (see why I wasn't worried about the Russian dancers!) and got our coats. We grabbed a taxi along with the Millers and headed home. Unfortunately, Tom lost a day of his life the next day, and he swears he will never drink again... Well, at least until next Oktober...

FIFA Women's World Cup Finals

The Women's World Cup finals were played here in the Shanghai area last week. We were fortunate enough to get tickets to the final night of action, Sunday, September 30. Actually, Kathy Miller got our families the tickets (Thanks Kathy!). The picture here shows the whole crew, from the left is Tom, Natalie, Jamie, Brian, Lauren, and Kathy. We loaded the kids up Sunday afternoon and headed to Subway for some sandwiches. That turned out to be a good idea as the local food inside the stadium was pretty limited. Our driver had originally indicated that he would not be able to drop us at the Hong Kou Football Stadium and would have to drop us at another subway stop. But, that turned out to be a false alarm and he was able to drop us just half a block away. The stadium itself was really nice! It is very new and is located in the northeast portion of the city. Neither Tom nor I had ever been to a soccer game before, so we didn't really know what to expect. It was actually really fun to watch. Jamie and Lauren, Kathy and Brian Miller's kids really enjoyed it. Natalie had a good time too, but mostly because she got to spend the evening with Jamie and Lauren. The short walk into the stadium was actually pretty quick. We had assumed that it might be more like shopping at Carrefour, lots of jostling and a bit inefficient, but it was not at all. The only slight wrinkle was not being able to take our water bottles into the stadium. It was also amazing to see all the food that people brought into the stadium. KFC did a good business that night, that's for sure! The girls made signs and held them up during the games, the Miller girls even had German flags on their faces for the final game!




The first game was 3rd place, between the US and Norway. The US team looked pretty good, though I didn't know any of the players! Well, I guess we knew one, Lilly. The US won, 4-1. Not a whole lot of US fans there, maybe 4-5 pockets of them scattered throughout the entire stadium. The stadium was not quite filled when this game was over, but it filled up before the final. The second game was between Brazil and Germany. Hard to say of there were more Brazilians or Germans there! The majority of attendees were Chinese and they seemed to basically cheer for offense. We left at halftime, the game was zip-zip. But Germany ended up winning, 2:0.