Totally Tai Tai

Allison -- what are you doing now that the kids are in school?  I get that a lot.  From all of you.  And even if you haven't asked it outloud, I know you're thinking it!  What is it that you do now that you are a stay-at-home-mom without any stay-at-home-kids?  It is rather ridiculous.  Am I really a Tai tai or an "accompanying spouse" or a "lady who lunches"?  How did this happen?   Should I just embrace it and enjoy it or run for the hills? 

Naomi and Townes started piano lessons.

I checked out the American Women's Club of Shanghai.  I tried to find my people there among the sparkly shirts and expensive shoes.  I spied one woman in a t-shirt and ponytail and no makeup.  Hey, there she is, my people.  Turns out she was a college kid visiting her mom who dragged her to the meeting.  Fail.


I've been to a few coffee mornings sponsored by Shanghai Mamas.  These are nice.  Women from all over the world, UK, Singapore, Brazil, USA, Netherlands, all trying to figure out their new identity and where to buy cheddar cheese.  One new friend from the group and I took a sightseeing bus tour together and have plans for other outings. 

Tips for the Day

Two important things, always use the tooths and never leave your baby on the road.

And in Shanghai, they got bored...

Just a quick post to share this great article from the China Daily News -- the largest English language paper in China.  It highlights the work of our friend and Matthew's colleague Pan Tao, and his amazing farm -- Eco Land Farm (NOT Ego Land as stated in the article).  Completely ridiculous picture of Matthew and Naomi and I.  I wonder if people now think that carrots at "Ego" Land Farm come out of the ground with eyes and a nose?

A Triumph of Packaging

Last week was India – 3 days in New Delhi, 2 days in Hyderabad. I traveled with my colleague Elaine, who was delighted to find a road in Delhi named after renowned Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy. Elaine and I share an erstwhile passion for 19th century Russian novels, and we both found it odd yet characteristic of India to have a road named after a man who lived thousands of miles away, never visited Delhi, and most likely never gave the place much thought.

India is that kind of hodgepodge. A melting pot that puts the United States to shame. It has 22 official local languages (Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Kannada, and so on), yet the lingua franca is the imported language of English. People from different parts of India – close enough to travel back and forth in an hour – can’t communicate in their own languages, but can often get by in English. Although it’s not uncommon for an Indian to speak 5-6 languages as a matter of course, either (another way that India puts the United States to shame).

India is all cultures at once, and yet quintessentially Indian. It absorbs cultures, absorbs religions, languages, art, and whole peoples like a sponge absorbs liquid, and yet, like a sponge, doesn’t really change as a result. It stubbornly, admirably, retains its own distinctive form and function. Wring all of those external influences out of it and there, still, is India, incredible India (as the motto goes), baking under a sweltering sun and deliquescing under torrential monsoons and bedazzling you with the sheer, titanic, interminable hammer-hammer-hammering of its colors, and chaos, and cacophony. It can be exhausting, to say the least.

But today is not about making sense of India. Better men than me have tried. No, today is about trying to make sense out of something even more crazy and unbelievable than India: the insanity of product packaging.

Tough Times

There are many hard things about living in Shanghai.  These, however, are not two of those things.

My first pedicure in Shanghai.  Electric blue.

OMG.  It's a dumpling.  Then they fry it.  Until it carmalizes on the bottom.  And cover it with toasted sesame seeds.  It does spew boiling hot pork juice on you when you bite into it.  But whatever, there's ointment for that.

First day of school pics coming soon...

Walking in the Neighborhood

I thought some of you might be sick of pictures of my children.  Instead, here are some pics of my walk through the neighborhood this morning on my way home from taking Eli to school.  It is downright cool out -- in the 70s.  Heavenly.


Every morning, there are 3-4 women chopping the crap out of giant bags of vegetables.  Here's the aftermath. 

The End of Summer Vacation

I've always found the last week before school starts is filled with random activities.  Maybe eating that last Dairy Queen sundae (don't tell Matthew and Eli that we did this), watching a jazz concert on a hot summer's night, buying a new electronic keyboard, shopping for pig shaped red bean buns, or really just killing time before the structure of school starts.  So, here are some random photos from the last few weeks:

Eli made a self portrait at school.