As many of you know, we traveled back to the US in late March/early April for my best friend Kim's wedding. It was wonderful to see some of y'all, as well as to delight in aspects of US living that we took for granted before China: talking openly in person as opposed to through Skype or email (self explanatory, I'm sure), beautiful skies (the air is so much more COLORFUL when there's not as much pollution!), inexpensive and high quality groceries (I never thought I would consider Whole Foods to be CHEAP, yet it is in comparison to the premium we pay for imported and organic food in China), empty sidewalks (even at rush hour in the heart of the city, DC felt so open and vast compared with the always packed streets of 20 million people in Shanghai), and birds chirping (only possible to hear in the VERY early morning here). I wish we could have had more time at home, but we're grateful for the visit stateside nonetheless :).
We also just returned from a few days of R & R in Malaysia. It was wonderful to travel for the sake of rest, and to enjoy some tropical nature. I hope we can blog about our adventures in Malaysia soon, so stay tuned to see if I get around to that :).
Today, however, I wanted to respond to a question our friend Sarah asked recently: what is a typical day like for us? I thought this was a good question, and one that I can respond to more easily than some of the blog topics I typically have percolating in my mind. Describing our daily tasks and habits is a bit easier than trying to formulate deep ideas comparing cultural tendencies :).
So, without further ado, here's a day in the (Shanghai) life of Brian and Melanie:
We get up around 7:15am. I'll jump in the shower and get ready while Brian prepares breakfast. Breakfast typically consists of All Bran cereal (48% of our daily fiber!),* a banana, Australian milk (we've found it to be the most reliable of the imported milks), imported Italian coffee (made in the French press), and 1-2 packets of sugar to put in the coffee (it's quite difficult to find artificial sweetener in the grocery store, so we use sugar).
After breakfast, we spend some time reading daily Scripture passages and praying together. We've found this daily devotional time to be quite important--our days feel tangibly more difficult on days that we don't spend in devotion and prayer. I could write a whole other blog post on this topic! :)
I then throw together a simple lunch of PB&J (jelly either from Ikea or the French grocery store Carrefour), apple, and sometimes some nuts or other salty snack. I brush my teeth, then leave the apartment around 9:15am. Brian works from home, and/or runs errands nearby.
I take the Metro to work, changing lines once (about a 5-10 minute walk and many staircases between lines--helpful for daily exercise! :). I arrive to my office about 30-40 minutes later.
I spend my workday responding to emails, planning lessons/classes, having staff meetings, and/or traveling to different parts of the city to meet people. For an afternoon pick-me-up, I'll either grab a coffee at Starbucks (gotta love their frequent user card in China!), or make a cup of hot tea in the office. I'lI stay at work until about 5:45pm, then return home via the same Metro network, arriving home around 6:30pm.
Dinner is sometimes at a local Western restaurant (buy-one-get-one free hamburgers on Mondays!), a Xi'an Chinese restaurant (good noodles and veggies!), a frozen pizza (an amazing comfort food now that we have an oven!), noodle curry dish, spaghetti and salad, tacos, or lentils. After dinner, we wash dishes (always by hand because we don't have a dishwasher). I'll sometimes do a workout video, and/or we'll stream TV shows online to watch for some chill time. We'll then get ready for bed, and read for awhile before falling asleep around 11:30pm.
There are obviously variations to this schedule (especially on Thursdays, which is my day off). This schedule will also probably change soon after Brian starts a job in July with a Chinese law firm and will have to commute himself. But for now, this is a glimpse of a "typical" day :).
A few aspects of our lives that take up significant time and energy:
1) Buying groceries. Quite a challenge, and one that keeps us busy. No store has everything that we need, and since we don't have a car, we have to schlep everything ourselves (though thankfully, my colleague gave me her old cart. Many people here have these carts to haul groceries). I go 1-2 times/week to the French grocery store Carrefour near my office, we sometimes order frozen meat and produce from a good (though expensive) home delivery shop, we'll buy some staples at another good (yet VERY expensive) imported food store nearby, and we often buy cleaning supplies and storage items at a Chinese supermarket that's also nearby. The prices and inventory at each of these places can vary considerably, since the market is so new here for so many items. In short, we are constantly buying groceries and comparison shopping, and have to plan ahead based on when we'll pass what store.
2) Exercise. As mentioned above, I thankfully get some exercise in my daily commute of walking and going up and down Metro steps. However, finding other forms of exercise is quite difficult. I occasionally do workout videos, though I confess it's hard to work up the motivation. Running is stressful here with the bad air, crowded streets, and psychotic drivers. The gym nearby is very awkward: it's right by the Metro exit in the bottom of a mall, with glass windows for the world to watch people bobbing up and down on the elliptical. Ick. I'm hoping to try out the local pool, though some have warned me the sanitation standards there are....substandard. There's also a small (and free!) gym near my office, but it closed for three months starting in March to "redecorate." So for now, I'm biding my time until the end of May when it will (supposedly) re-open. I sure hope it's quite fancy now after THREE MONTHS of being closed.....!
3) Paying utility bills. Possibly our biggest headache. Some bills (i.e. electricity and internet) we can easily pay at local convenience stores: they simply scan the bill, collect our money, and it's paid directly to the utility. Our gas, water, and cell phone bills, however, are quite annoying: the meter for the gas is actually INSIDE our apartment. So if we're not home when the attendant comes by to check (always unannounced and sporadic, of course), then they'll charge us an "estimated" bill. This estimate is QUITE high, and is more than we'd ever use in reality. So for now, until we can figure out if there IS actually a schedule for the attendant to show up, we pay an estimated (i.e. EXPENSIVE) gas bill.
The water bill requires us setting up a (Chinese language) account. Our Chinese is not good enough to do this, so I'll (yet again) need to depend on my Chinese-speaking colleague to help me out. Sadly, however, the lack of account hasn't mattered much because our bill has been messed up after an attendant a few months ago charged us both for our neighbor's water AND our water.....
The cell phone bill is still a mystery--we thought we signed up for a monthly plan a few months ago, but apparently not. Yet again our limited language abilities are an obstacle here, but we've learned the hard way we must actually have a "pay as you go" plan since our phone service has twice cut out on us in the middle of calls. Argh!
Okay, that's enough "day in the life" for now. I'm sure I'll think of more later, but I'm sure that's more than you ever wanted to know about how we get around in the Middle Kingdom :).
*Some of you may remember from an earlier blog post that I was lamenting the lack of All-Bran for awhile. I suppose All-Bran also went into hibernation for a few months, but we are delighted that it has RETURNED to the shelves, with new and shiny packaging :). What was dead is now alive, and we are quite thankful for this ultimate comfort food :).