Sep 10 (4 of 5) - The upside is that both Tiffany and I are developing excellent pantomiming skills. Hand gestures have gotten us directions, gotten us home in a cab, ordered dinner, purchased home goods, and many other practical tasks!  

Sep 1- (3 of 5) - And surprisingly, there are very few English speaking citizens. You can definitely find them in hotels, or expatriate bars, but the greater population of cab drivers and store workers doesn't speak English at all. I bought a journal to keep track of the various challenges we have faced on a day to day basis. It probably won't ever come to fruition, but it would be great to ultimately produce some sort of guide to moving to Shanghai for expatriates, with how-to advice covering basic living requirements like food and shelter, as well as shopping, work, getting around, etc. Kind of like a Lonely Planet for expats versus tourists. 

Sep 10 (2 of 5) - And I know I've mentioned this before, but if Tiffany says "Ni hao" ("hello"), the whole city erupts into cheers and dancing. But they all assume I speak Chinese (go figure), and they start speaking at hyperspeed to me. So of course I have to shrug my shoulders and tell them I don't speak Chinese (one of the first phrases I learned), and then the city collectively sighs and shakes their heads in disappointment. It is a fantastically humbling experience to feel stupid every time we walk out our door. 

Sep 10 (1 of 5) - Learning patience has been one of the most frustrating experiences here in Shanghai. Tiff and I have moments where we just want to scream because we can't make ourselves understood. Literally, we could tell the cab driver our home street in Chinese, and they'd look at us like we were aliens. Because the language is tonal, even if we say the correct letters for a word, we might not use the correct tone, and so what we say sounds like jibberish to them. 

2 of 2 of the Bund. This is a shot across the river looking at Pudong, a reclamation project (I believe it used to be paddy fields) that is the government's focus for the future business growth area of Shanghai (there's no more room on this side!) The really tall tower on the left is the Pearl TV tower. 

Did I post these? Well, here's 1 of 2 of the Bund. 

Tiffany's first day at work in Shanghai! Very exciting.