Expat Summer

Dave tells me that I should be writing every day. He tells me that something interesting must happen to me every day. I'm not convinced it does, and wary of turning this into a mouthpiece for my ramblings, I've kept mum while life is dull. But maybe he has a point - dull life in Shanghai doesn't quite match my life 1 year ago.

We've had a pretty boring week. In the interest of a potential adoption and a potential international move, I'm trying to pinch my pennies a bit. This has led to lots of walks, evenings at the playground, and mornings at the grocery store. We've made some new friends, because the social dynamics here change dramatically over the summer. Most families leave Shanghai for the summer. They generally choose to go home for 6 weeks or so, most of their children's break from school. Contracts also tend to end in the summer, so many people move out entirely in June and July. And suddenly the expat community is much smaller. Luckily, a few of our good friends and neighbors have stayed for the summer and so we've not felt the change too dramatically. But we met a family this morning who live in a very family-oriented suburb (by contrast, our neighborhood is more young couples, possibly with very young children). Most of the units in their complex are sitting empty right now - she says her neighborhood feels like a ghost town.

Its always fun meeting new people, especially after having rested in what has become a strong group of friends over the past few months. I've enjoyed broadening our scope and adding in new playmates for the girls. The best news has been the availability of older children for L-- to play with, which has made a noticeable difference in her social interactions.

Its a joy to meet so many new people, and to watch the girls interact with new children. But we have hits and misses. And every time I make a new connection, I feel like I have to put them on my calendar within the next week. And now our calendar is just a bit too full - I'm feeling overscheduled, much like I felt back in March when I was still searching valiantly for friends at all.

By the way, "a bit too full" as mentioned above in reference to our family calendar means that the girls and I are now scheduled 2-3 hours a day, 4 days a week.

I know - the standard is low.

Its not a bad life - not at all.