Monday, September 28, 2009

This Magic Moment

Friday night, our family went for our regular evening walk. We wore the girls out, and we enjoyed the cool air. We returned home, walking up our lane in the dark. To reach our home, we walk straight toward the doorway of the small apartment block pictured above and below. The photo below shows our house, as the grey building on the left. Generally, on our walks we turn in at the house. We walk through our small garden and rather asocially enter our home.


But on Friday night, the girls waved at the crowd gathered on the steps. They may not have expected any reply, but the gathering of neighbors waved us over. Lai, lai, lai. Come, come, come. The magic must have already entered the air, for the girls followed the simple beckoning. They felt no fear of our Chinese speaking neighbors. They walked through the darkness to the brightly illuminated doorway, where everyone sat gathered around a large potted plant. It was lovely, with large white blooms dropping beautifully.

Most of our neighbors speak no English. We speak a pitiful amount of Mandarin. We heard the word piao liang tossed about frequently in the conversation. Piao liang means beautiful, and often refers to our girls. But we soon realized that they were speaking about the plant as well as the girls. They were right - it was piao liang. Someone pulled off one of the large blossoms and handed it to Lilly. She accepted with a polite xie xie. Thank-you. As we mingled with our Chinese neighbors, another young man joined the crowd. He spoke English and explained that this flower - tan in Chinese - only blooms for 30 minutes, one evening a year. The flower became even more piao liang with such rarity.

I came back home and googled the tan flower. He had spoken the truth. Genus epiphyllum, the broad-leaved epiphyllum bears large, strongly fragrant flowers that bloom for a single night only. And the Mandarin name of the flower is also a Chinese saying. tan hua yi xian means a flower that blooms briefly.

A Heady Place

I just read an article in the Kansas City Star (go, go, hometown rag!) with a pretty succinct description of life in Shanghai right now. The author sums up the apparent attitudes of people living here - both local and expatriate - that the economic downturn has had no major impact on the attitudes in this boomtown.

China's Shanghai is New York on steroids

Stephen Wong strolled out of the Porsche dealership with a bounce in his step, having just spent time looking over a silver beast of a sports car with beautiful lines and curves that made his 25-year-old heart ache.

Standing on the stairs outside and gazing at the lights of this mega-city of some 18 million residents - give or take a million or two - Wong said he was certain that someday the car would be his. Never mind that he's an office clerk with a monthly salary that wouldn't pay for a set of tires for a Porsche 911. Never mind that the world is battling the worst recession in more than half a century. Never mind that the financial crisis has stomped China's export markets.

Forget all of that: This is Shanghai, New York with more bustle, an appetite for hyperbole that rivals Dubai's and a strut that would make Wall Street blush.

As Beijing's $585 billion stimulus package bankrolled China's world-beating growth this year, Shanghai has remained the country's capital of swagger - and swag.

Although the port city's economic growth through June was reportedly its slowest first half since 1992, in upscale neighborhoods Louis Vuitton bags still seem to grow on cafe tables and Maseratis dart around beat-up taxis in noonday traffic.

There are questions aplenty about how strong China's financial fundamentals are, but most Shanghai residents don't have time for that kind of talk when there's cash to be borrowed, made or spent.

The result is a striking, if unspoken, tension between the sparkle and glitz on top and the complex issues in the shadows. Is the city riding an investment bubble funded by the government's bailout spending? How will things look after the stimulus plan stops? What happens if Americans stop buying so much stuff from China? Can China shift from an export-driven economy to one fueled by domestic consumption?

Or perhaps the country's future is so robust that those sorts of problems can be worked out along the way.

Wong, for one, couldn't care less.

"I've been thinking about buying a Porsche," he said in a confident tone before wading back into the crowds milling along the luxury boutiques of Nanjing Road, Shanghai's answer to Rodeo Drive - but bigger.

A recent report by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. predicted that in less than a decade, China will have the world's fourth-largest concentration of wealthy people, jumping from 1.6 million households in 2008 to more than 4.4 million in 2015.

Many of them will be in Shanghai.

Asked about China's rich, the deputy head of an economics institute at Shanghai's Fudan University reminded a reporter that the affluent represent a small part of the population - about 1 percent of the urban work force, by some estimates.

A moment later, Yin Xingmin smiled and added that if the wealthy were to grow to just 5 percent of the country's 1.3 billion people there'd be about 65 million of them, "very similar to the population of France." In fact, a little bit bigger.

"Even in the downturn, China remains one of the world's few growth markets," the McKinsey report says.

That word - growth, GROWTH! - is spoken in bold letters and with exclamation marks here. By the banks of the Huangpu River, skyscrapers dominate the horizon in a series of geometric boasts of economic might, among them the Shanghai World Financial Center, whose roof disappears into the clouds and smog some 1,614 feet up in the air - taller by a football field than New York's Empire State Building.

Down below, the cash seems to flow in every direction.


Leaning back in a chair at a downtown stock brokerage this week, Zhu Yu was wearing dark sunglasses in a dimly lit room and watching people scoot from one computer screen to the next. Zhu, who owns four clothing shops, said he had about $298,000 in the Shanghai stock market and had lost 5 percent of his portfolio during the past half-year. His friends have lost a lot more, he said, so 5 percent isn't bad.

The market's benchmark composite index is a wild ride, down by more than 65 percent from October 2007 to November 2008, and then up by more than 90 percent earlier this year, followed by a 20 percent dip in August.

In talking about the market, Zhu sounded more than a bit like a gambler at a roulette table.

"I think that one day I'll make really big money," Zhu said. "It hasn't happened yet, but I know it's coming."

If he does, He Wei will be ready to sell him a Mercedes. In the showroom of a Mercedes-Benz dealership on Nanjing Road, He said that his business was up by about 20 percent this year.

Asked how that was possible, given the global downturn, He shook his head.

"It's not surprising at all; manufacturing might be affected by the financial crisis, but here in Shanghai we haven't been affected," said He, who was surrounded by sleek, black sedans that cost as much as $300,000.

During the first seven months of this year, as credit lines dried up in much of the West, lenders extended some $1.1 trillion in new loans to companies and households in China. "There's a ton of liquidity in the system. ... I would not expect a significant slowing of credit growth over the next few years," said Stephen Green, the head of research for Standard Chartered Bank in China.

Even those hit hard in China's manufacturing and export sectors - the tip of the spear of the country's economic advance - said they were confident about the future.

Cecilia Xu owns a firm that ships goods overseas, mostly clothing to America and Europe. Business has dropped at least 40 percent since late last year, Xu said over an ice cream sundae at a Haagen-Dazs cafe in central Shanghai. Still, the 38-year-old with a large Louis Vuitton bag - locals call them "LVs" - and many rhinestones on her shoes didn't seem worried.

"I've made a lot of money, I'm still young and there are many chances ahead of me," Xu said. "I'm thinking about investing in other things, like restaurants. As long as it makes me money, I'll invest in it."

There is something that's been bothering her, though. Her purse seems a bit pedestrian.

"LVs have become the norm," Xu said, pondering the implications. "I'm thinking I need to buy an Hermes."

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Ferrets? Rats.

Many of our evenings lately consist of the same walk. The weather has been lovely; just on the edge of warm, with a nice breeze. The girls always get edgy by evening, and we're always happy to get out of the house. Lilly rides her bike, and Sophia alternates between pushing and riding in the blue stroller. We first ride down Wulumuqi - the picture of a Chinese street. People cut meat on large butcher blocks in the middle of the sidewalk. They sell live bullfrogs in styrofoam containers, big green blobs staring out through a thick net. The roast chickens still have their heads on, curled painfully upon themselves and with the eyes glaring open through bare heads. In the right mood, it is riotous and exciting. In the wrong mood, it is nauseating. This Is China.

We quickly turn down a lane. Too small for cars, this lane carries the odd bike passenger directly to their home. It connects one street to the next, but passes by the front doors of small apartment buildings and has a very low-key vibe to it. Listening, one can hear people practicing the piano, the quiet blare of a television set, someone dribbling a basketball by their front door. My children racing each other down the lane.

In one such race, Lilly were far ahead. We sat on a small step, waiting for Daddy and Sophia to catch up. As we waited, we sang a song, This Little Light of Mine, I'm gonna let it shine. Until I screamed.

It must have been a ferret, right? I remember having ferrets in our classroom in 6th grade. These things were long and skinny - their size and shape quite comparable to my arm, from elbow to fingertip. They were light colored and slinky. This must have been a ferret. Because my picture of a rat is short and stumpy, black and greasy, wild red eyes, and yellow teeth that hiss at you. Plus, there's just no way that rats the size of my arm are running around Shanghai, right?

Of course there are.

We hosted a party a few nights ago. One guest inadvertently left the porch door open for hours. This door opens directly onto my bedroom. As I lay in bed tonight, I couldn't help but see scurrying creatures out of the corner of my eye. The cockroaches are gone - praise God. But if they left to be replaced by rats the size of my arm, I will not last in this place. A person can only be tested so far before they move into a hotel.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Nothing to Say

I've been writing and rewriting this particular post. Problems seem to arise out of thin air, requiring much more attention then they are really worth. In the midst of dealing with them, I inevitably write a posting on the challenges of accomplishing even the simplest tasks in China. Upon re-reading my writing, I realize how bitter and rambling I sound, and leave the writing until later. Later arrives, and the problems which so angered me before do not seem so important.

Simply put, small problems take immense amounts of energy to fix. Removing the dishwasher. Spraying for bugs. Hanging a fire alarm. The details of these small problems are so complex as to be impossible to convey in simple blog form. Believe me - I've been trying all week.

China is hard. No doubt, China is hard. Wendy agrees that its not nice to push people, and that it can be nauseating to walk through a fish market. China is hard.

But I really must remember to keep things in perspective. An ugly shelf replacing a faulty dishwasher is only worth so much of my energy, before we simply say TIC. This Is China. The energy and bitterness caught up in trying to control my home is simply not worth the end result. We can live happily with an ugly shelf in the middle of our kitchen. And who cares if the fire alarm hangs by a thread, as long as it hangs at all.

The contractors plan to return tomorrow morning, possibly for the last time. I can't decide if I should be here to take answer any last questions and take responsibility for their final actions, or if I should just disappear. It really is not worth the heartache.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Fully Aware

My life in Shanghai has become... well, it has not become simple. China is a far cry from simple. But I have found my comfort zone, such that I often lose track of what kind of life I lead.

This afternoon, church reminded me. In a few different ways, sitting in church reminded me.

When worship began, we sang a song that reminded me of our home church in St. Louis. The tune and the rhythm, the level of energy, everything sounded exactly the same. And just as a scent or a taste can bring back a powerful memory, this song brought me to tears. It was not the words or the message. It was the simple, strong memory of singing this same song in such a different place. Hearing these same words with the same intensity, but by a wholly different group of people. And the reminder that my home has changed regularly, and will continue to do so. I may sing the same song in many different places, surrounded by many different people. Rather intimidating. But how awesome, to worship God in the same way but in such different circumstances.

The song changed. We sat in the balcony, and I enjoyed looking out over the crowd. The government of China strictly regulates all houses of worship, and keeps foreigners separate from locals as much as they can. To attend our service, one must hold a foreign passport. But the city has only allowed two Protestant churches for the English speaking community. I do not know of any for another language, beyond the local languages. One Catholic church exists for foreigners as well, and so our church makes up 30% of the foreign Christian community in Shanghai. At least, of those who attend church. The foreign population in Shanghai is estimated at around 175,000 people representing countries around the globe. Looking down upon the congregation this afternoon, I watched a beautiful diversity of people worshiping together. On the stage, I saw Western, Asian and African faces. People worshiped with different styles and in different clothes. And we all worshiped in a beautiful building. A building in French architecture built for the foreign community of the early 1900s. A building which sat empty once the foreign population left, and then became a storehouse for grain during the cultural revolution. This afternoon, we worshiped in a building only recently allowed to be a house of God again. We worshiped in a city where our worship is strictly regulated. We worshiped in a country where Christianity was illegal only recently. And we worshiped with people who may have stricter regulations in their homeland.

And we sang,

I am free to run,
I am free to dance,
I am free to live for You.

I am free to run,
I am free to dance,
I am free to live for You.

I am free.


I felt rarely and fully present in my surroundings. Grateful that I have always felt that freedom. But also cognizant of the power of those words in a land where freedom does not come from the government.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Security Clearance - UPDATE

Dave had his Interview for Security Clearance last week. It seems that this was the first of many, as the interviewer had only a few questions.

The Good News:
This process began quite quickly. The interviewer followed up quickly as well, reaching every one of Dave's named contacts within a few days. This bodes well for a quick clearance process, moving us to DC sooner rather than later.

The Bad News:
The interviewer acted as if Dave would be mighty difficult to clear. Apparently, he had never seen a list of foreign contacts as long as Dave's. My assumption? He has not seen many lists of foreign contacts. Still, Dave's foreign contacts are primarily Chinese. Apparently, the Chinese currently make the US government nervous. It seems that foreign governments can be quite aggressive at recruiting spies, and many of Dave's contacts are members of the communist party in China. Still, they are benefits consults and actuaries - hardly the international spy type.

It is my hope that as they investigate Dave, they quickly realize that you can't hide a terrorist inside white bread. And Dave is definitely white bread. We're currently assuming that security clearance will take 6-9 months for Dave, bringing us to DC somewhere between March and July of 2010.

Return to Crazy

I spent a lovely week in the states last week, playing photographer at a good friend's wedding. The week was beautifully relaxing. No children slept in my bed with me, waking me with kicks in the jaw. No one woke me at odd hours, or struggled with jet lag alongside me. I spent time with my parents and my brother, enjoyed a wonderful dinner with friends from church, and loved all of the time I got to spend with the bride.

The week served as a wonderful reminder that I do have a comfort zone, whether life is simple. And of the value of old friends - people who knew me before I had children, when I had a career, and have watched me progress and change throughout. People who I knew while they were still in skill, before they became parents. It was wonderful to catch up with friends, and watch them gracefully adapt to life's major changes.

Upon my return, life quickly stopped being simple. The DVD player still doesn't work, although the remote has been changed. Wireless is still a mess. And although we rarely find living cockroaches stalking our halls, we do still find a few dead bugs every day. It seems they are wandering in through the holes in the walls, and will continue to do so as they please. No one else seems very concerned about these holes. The chairs need to be replaced and the chairs need to be sealed. Always a new problem. Always another fight.

Life was relaxed in St. Louis; everything was bright and beautiful.
Life in Shanghai is never boring!

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Flying Solo - report

So, as it turns out, flying without kids is a fabulous way to cross the Pacific!

There's movies; there's books; there's sleeping pills.

I never got bored once!

And wow, that adjustment to jet lag is so much simpler without two preschoolers adjusting along with you!

Who knew?

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

The House

a quick tour of our new home...

enter through the garden.
although the "gardener" never waters the grass,
and the mosquitos are rampant,
the view of trees and grass out our windows
is priceless.




through the lovely, leaded doors,
neatly framed with white linen curtains,
you are facing the living room.


turning right just before the stroller,
you enter the girls' bedroom.
they requested no photos are press-time.


open to the living room,
the kitchen and dining room.
please note that only 2 of these cabinets
is eligible for holding food
or dishes.
all others conceal major appliances
or house processes.

and so, through the black door
at the center of the photo you reach...

...the closet,
billed as the 2nd bedroom.
note the food on shelves on the left.


up the stairs and you reach
our bedroom - entirely too far away
from our babies,



...our bathroom - far too small,
and an incredible rooftop terrace.

Flying Solo

I leave Shanghai for a week in the states this afternoon. And I leave this mess of a house in the nervous hands of my sweet, overwhelmed husband and our entirely capable ayi. Something apparently caught fire in the dishwasher; the Pest Control Company will return tomorrow to avenge any leftover cockroaches; the remote control for the DVD player comes straight from the cartoons - actions have nothing to do with the button pressed, and I keep expecting the windows to open or the toilet to flush when I press a new button. Oh, and Sophia has given up her nap... about half a year too early.

I am not nervous to leave them. Everything will be fine - or at least, no worse than if I were here to manage it myself.

I am not nervous to visit the states. On the contrary, I am so excited. Excited to spend time with my family, sleep in a house without cockroaches, and go shopping. Excited to spend plenty of time with my good friend Michelle, and to share the joy of her wedding on Saturday. Excited to see a few close friends from church, and to meet their brand new babies. Excited to get a haircut.

Wildly excited that I fly back in Business Class. Whoo-hoo!

The only thing that makes me nervous is this initial flight, in coach. I've flown 14 hour flights plenty of times before. I know they're not fun, but that they're over eventually. I know that from flying with two children, and trying to convince them of that very fact. But flying alone? Who will I have to amuse and distract (and to amuse and distract me)? Who will I have to cajole to sleep? This flight will yawn on interminably without any preschoolers to keep me busy!

Sunday, September 06, 2009

Roach Count

Sighted: 9
Killed: 6
Removed from the house: 2

To kill a roach:
1st - knock it onto its back with a broom (this will remove its superpowers)
2nd - place a glass over top of it (warning - this will give it power!)
3rd - fill a sink with hot, soapy water
4th - slide a plastic cutting board underneath the glass
5th - move the entire operation to the sink, and dunk until roach is definitely in the water

The roach will have drowned within 30 minutes, but the soap will have killed it in under 5.

Friday, September 04, 2009

The Unthinkable has Occurred

The roach count is now up to:

Sighted: 6
Killed: 3
Removed from the house: 2

And then the unthinkable happened this afternoon.

With the move from one house to the next, Sophia moved from her crib to her toddler bed. As such, naps have been a chore for the last week. I find that convincing her I am napping next to her generally lulls her to sleep. This is where by afternoon napping habit began, by the way. The same was true of Lilly.

However, on this afternoon my To Do List had too many unchecked items for me to fall asleep. I lay awake next to her, listening to her breathing slow. I scratched my arm, and inadvertently moved a bug. So little, I assumed it was a mosquito - this house has plenty of them inside as well. But just to be safe, I sought the little bugger out. Crawling along the folds of Sophia's purple blanket, I found him. Long antennae twitching away.

Lucky for everyone, Sophia was asleep and I had my Mama Bear hat on. There was no way I could allow a tiny little roach to crawl all over my sleeping baby, or to wake her up. Thoughtlessly, I batted him onto a magazine and quickly removed him to the bathroom where he died quickly in a sink full of hot, soapy water.

And now that the unthinkable has happened, I will admit to feeling a bit less frightened by the whole affair. Unfortunately, the creeps have not gone away entirely. New unthinkables have arisen - what if I found a roach in Lilly's birthday cake, cooling on the kitchen stove? And we have firmly established that roaches are creepier at night. How will I fall asleep in a bed my mind tonight will believe to be crawling with bugs?

The landlord has graciously agreed to have an exterminator to the house on Monday morning. He promises to return again within a week if the problem is not solved completely. We should be okay, soon. Plus, I get to sleep in America next week - my parents' house will be bug-free! But we look forward to a creepy, crawly weekend. Or maybe we look forward to a weekend in a hotel. Sounds like a great birthday present for Lilly, right?

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Oh no

In the span of 4 hours, we have found 3 cockroaches.

#1: Lying on his back dead in the girls' bedroom; about the size of my pointer finger

#2: Crawling down the side of a kitchen cabinet; about the size of my pointer finger

#3: Crawling on the living room shelves; about the size of my 2nd toenail.

Screw charming. I'm ready to move out.

I take it Back

I take it back.

I just saw my first creepy, crawly bug inside the house. It is 3-4 inches long, it may be a roach, and thank God it is dead.

My love of the house has just dropped significantly. Were the bug alive, there may have been some hatred in there.

Settling Further In

I now have DSL, and can write to you straight from my couch.

My couch, where I can hear a loudspeaker speaking through the neighborhood.
My couch, where I can hear the vibrations of a jackhammer breaking apart the sidewalk.
My couch, where I can watch my children play in front of me.
My couch, only steps away from my kitchen, so I can listen to the computer (and the children) while I cook.

Even with the noise of the neighborhood, I love my house.