Who Is Al Gore Kidding?

Global warming took a vacation here in China, as snow blanketed the country in amounts unseen in recent years. This is the most snow Tiff and I have seen since we’ve been here. Shanghai usually never gets any snow, or if it does, it’s a few of those wet flakes that melt upon ground impact. But this week the mercury dropped, and we’ve actually gotten a slight accumulation of the white stuff, which has had mixed reactions from the locals.
On the one hand we’ve seen crowds of delighted children dancing around in the falling snow. Trying to form snowballs as it melts into mush in their hands and throwing goopy handfuls of snow slushee has not diminished their enthusiasm. Amateur photographers emerged from around the city to capture this rare event from all angles. And generally curious pedestrians bundled up and braved the elements to wander the city transformed into a grey/brownish/white winter wonderland. Umbrella sellers enjoyed record profits as couples huddled under cheap Burberry knockoff umbrellas found that sudden gusts easily snapped their snow shields and forced them to shell out another $2.50 for a replacement Gucci-branded parasol. For others, however, the snow can’t disappear fast enough. Armies of public workers received the call to duty to sweep away the snow, a task worthy of Sisyphus as each completed sweeping of a block was rewarded with a return trip to sweep away the equally messy snow pile that built up in the interim. The everyday bike peddlers and outdoor laborers were granted no respite and performed the same grueling work under colder, markedly worse conditions. And street intersections were manned by squads of traffic police, tasked with the thankless job of directing the unruly demolition derby of Shanghai drivers. I watched one particularly harried policeman (at a four way intersection that had traffic flying in eight different directions) alternately hop around to keep warm and jump aside to avoid getting run over, all the while attempting to establish some order of traffic flow. My instinct was to give him a tip, at least enough to get a mug of hot cocoa, but from the warm cocoon of our heated van, I couldn’t bear to open the door and expose myself to the cruel cold. So instead we drove on, and as I looked back through the rear window, I said a silent prayer to the weather and traffic gods instead, to keep watch over him.
Hopefully this cold front will move on soon, and in any event we leave Friday for Chinese New Year’s holiday, which we will be spending in tropical Vietnam!

Welcome to the Jungle

We got fun and games...

On the island of Bali, where Tiff and I retreated into the lush quiet of the tropical forest for some R&R following our one week, whirlwind U.S. Christmas tour, we found nothing so dramatic as a GNR concert. Instead, we found maybe our favorite hotel in Asia.

While trying to sort out the disorientation from crossing back from US to Asia time zones on New Year's Eve, we toasted the New Year on a flight from Shanghai to Bali, and arrived at Nusa Dua, which is home to Bali's luxury resorts and beaches. The first few days were a relaxing blur of falling dead asleep at 3pm, waking up starving at 5am, and generally just enjoying our task of doing nothing but readjusting in a beautiful environment.

After that, we headed deeper inland to Ubud, where much of the historic culture of Indonesia is still maintained, and less tainted by the stink of commercialization for the sake of foreigners like us. Which is not to say that it is completely untouched, for that would have meant that we would potentially have slept in huts among the rice paddies with the locals. And while Tiff may have found that adventurous, the thought of accommodation sans hot water, fresh sheets and room service is too horrific for me to contemplate ;)

Ubud turned out to be incredibly lush and green, with winding roads taking us into dense, leafy forests, which then gave way to vast open fields of flooded rice paddies packed with sprouting green stalks and then back into more forest. All along the way we spotted a colorful array of tropical flowers and plants streaked across the green backdrop. Enveloped in a blanket of warm, humid air, we also ran for cover with everyone else at least five times a day, when sheets of rain came falling out of nowhere to water the jungle.

Ubud is predominantly Hindu, although a modified "Balinese" Hindu is what we were told, meaning that beef was still on the menu. But they did make a traditional offering twice a day to the various gods, to both good gods for luck and blessing, and bad gods for appeasement and mercy.

The population in Ubud was divided into very small villages. In a brief tour driving through the countryside, we probably passed 30-40 different villages, each of which may have comprised a clump of only 10-20 families. But each village had at least two different temples, for different gods. And in front of each temple, and in front of each home, we saw the little offering dishes, usually made out of leaves and containing some rice, and a combination that seemed to comprise whatever was in the house, which ranged from flowers, to crackers, cookies and incense sticks, to cigarettes. We were told that offerings didn't have to be big (and at two times a day who can afford it?!) and it was more the thought that counted.

Also, one's responsibility ended as soon as the offering was put down. This became apparent when we watched the large number of dogs roaming around, sniffing at each offering and snacking on them at their leisure. Here you can see me getting stared down by a furry local over a collection of offerings in the doorway.

Our hotel in Ubud was an unbelievable blend of subtle comfort and Balinese culture. Each of the villas were hidden from the naked eye among the natural blend of trees, flowers and stone carvings. You can see the thatched roofs of the villas below emeshed in the trees.It felt a bit like staying in one of the temples from Tomb Raider. We stayed in a villa built into the upper part of a hill, with a large outdoor balcony that enjoyed a beautiful view across the valley. With our stack of gossip and fashion magazines from the US, we plopped ourselves on the balcony couches and alternated between reading and napping. It was the perfect antidote to jet lag!

Merry Christmas from China!

This year we couldn't decide on one version of our Christmas card, so we ended up doing three. Enjoy!

Wishing you a peaceful environment this holiday season!

Merry Christmas Comrade!


Livin' La Vida Local in Shanghai!

See you in 2008, Year of the Mouse!!!

Nothing Says Christmas Like Owls and Spoons

It's the holiday season and Shanghai is definitely getting in the spirit! We walked around town last weekend to see a sampling of what our city had to offer in terms of Christmas cheer. While not necessarily traditional, the decorations were oddly entertaining......

Pretty in Pink!

We couldn't figure out if this mother/daughter couple is dancing or dueling with a fork and spoon...but we dig the lemon-yellow bell bottoms and the pilgrim outfit!

Who knew owls were a popular Christmas animal? In this picture, the owl's house is the main centerpiece of the decoration. But look closer in the lower left had corner....

Santa appears to be springing an elfin girl trapped in what appears to be a birdcage. Perhaps this is what happens to kids on the 'naughty' list....

A HUGE tree made of ornaments, Tiffany is in the middle with a white scarf for perspective on how large this tree is...

And finally, what Christmas wouldn't be complete without the 7 dwarfs with hatchets making their way into a huge stocking?

We hope you're enjoying your surrounding holiday decorations as much as we are!

Time For Me To Fly

From our experience, the Chinese seem to be on the emotionally expressive side in their writing. This could not be more evident than in the mass, company-wide 'goodbye' emails some of our colleagues have sent out as they've moved on to better opportunities:

Example 1.
RE: Ciao Ciao Shanghai Centre, Ciao my friend
Dear all,
Tomorrow will be my last working day in Shanghai Centre, up to now it’s complicated mood in my heart as the people who likes you no matter know me or not know me it’s all in a bravo memory, I will recall those time when we were together.

I wish all of you will have a great life like chocolate’s sweet!

Keep in touch and all the best!
XXX

Example 2.
Re: Farewell
I am so happy to be working with you guys for five months. Now I am leaving and I wanna say Thank You to everybody here who has ever helped me.

Winky, Your humour is the flavour in our life.

Vivian, Cute and nice girl. Like you very much.

Amy, I hope one day I could be as elegant as you and have half of your equanimity when in a panic.

George, You are like a senior friend and sometimes silent observer.

Elian, Quiet impressed by your big and watery eyes. Thank you for your encouragement when I am in depression.

Tiffany, The most pleasant and considerate “lao wai” I’ve ever met. If only I could have a boss like you!

Sophie, You are sweet and your daughter is sweeter.

Although we are going to be apart far away from each other, I trust our friendship will last forever.

Yours Faithfully,
XXX

Zach and I plan to use thesaurus.com heavily for our eventual 'farewell' emails, something tells me the usual 'nice working with you, here's my personal email address' note won't quite cut it here.

Elephants, Tigers and Lionel

It's easy to see where Zach got his interest in international travel. His parents, Lionel and Lorraine recently took a wildlife-filled trip through Asia. They spent a few days visiting us in the urban jungle of Shanghai...




Then won the hearts of the elephants by handing out watermelons and pumpkins at the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai, Thailand......


And taught some tigers how to meditate in Bangkok, Thailand.


Lionel and Lorraine have learned what we've been finding all along, the idea of 'human handling' limits is not very prevalent when it comes to wild animals in Asia. While I'm sure organized animal rights groups would protest and throw fake blood on us if they saw what we've been doing (holding penguins, feeding monkeys, etc.), we've decided to take our chances. Who knows when we'll be able to get up close and personal with such incredible animals again!

One Night In Shanghai

All of Shanghai was abuzz last Thursday with the arrival of the Most Inexplicably Famous Person in America, Paris Hilton. Apparently in town for an MTV event, Paris shunned her family's own Shanghai Hilton for the newer, recently opened Grand Hyatt on the Bund.

















In any event, Tiffany and I were too busy with our own big party -- Thanksgiving at our house! We hosted my Credit Suisse colleagues as well as Tiff's Shanghai Centre co-workers, about 15 people in all, to celebrate and give thanks. Most of our guests were native Chinese and were excited to be celebrating their first Thanksgiving.

















One of Tiffany's coworkers brought her 5 year old daughter, Yao Yao, who provided much of the entertainment for the evening. The turkeys arrived in an insulated styrofoam carrying case, and little Yao Yao was curious and scared that when I opened the case, the turkey would fly out and start sqwuaking! You can see her cowering behind her mom in the picture. She soon learned it was a little too late for the poor turkeys. Yao Yao also discovered a love for corn. After polishing off her plate, we caught her later shoveling corn directly from the serving bowl on the food table into her mouth! Luckily everyone else had already served themselves corn.


Tiffany took the opportunity to work on her cooking skills and spent Wednesday and Thursday cooking up a feast. We found an American diner to order in the turkeys (we ordered two, 14-pound birds), sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes, but Tiffany whipped up homemade cranberry dressing, corn bread, herb vegetables, brown-sugar honey coated carrots and a honey-lime-ginger coated fruit salad. She also cleaned out some leftover foods from my cousin Josh and our friend Meredith, by preparing the corn, carmel yams, baked beans and a vegetable curry that we inherited from them.



We gave thanks for something that is rare in China, our kitchen oven. Not a common item in Chinese households, we are the only people from both our works to have an oven in their home! Amazing how the Chinese make do with steamers and a few stovetop burners. But we wanted to show them what they were missing.


Tiffany bought two large cans of pumpkin pie filling and found a recipe for homemade crust using olive oil. The recipe for the pie was somewhat generous, and she ended up baking eight pumpkin pies! She also baked a blueberry and peach crumble. My contribution was my world-famous homemade cookies (I am generously assuming that if people have eaten them in both the US and China that they are now "world famous" :) I baked an assortment using chocolate chips, oatmeal, dried cranberries and macadamia nuts.

I think it is safe to say that we have now left an American footprint on the waistlines of China!





Everyone had a great dinner - most of them were tasting these traditional Thanksgiving dishes for the first time. And we explained in the other Thanksgiving tradition, everyone had to take home leftovers. Some people we even convinced to take entire pies. All in all it was a huge success.

We'd like to wish all of our family, friends and blog readers a Happy Thanksgiving!!!