It’s been a little over a month of us moving here and it really feels like we’ve been here longer. We have been living out of a hotel (a really nice one at that) and I feel awful for complaining that it’s still not a home. No matter how luxurious a place is, home is home. Right?

We traveled between Shanghai and Hongzhou so much and I’m happy to say that we are in Shanghai for good. I really disliked Hongzhou, mostly because our hotel was so far from anything fun so I felt trapped in my hotel room. It’s a much smaller city so my broken Chinese couldn’t do much. Taxis didn’t understand me, let alone the hotel and I didn’t do much there.

I also got very sick in Hangzhou, had to call the hubs to take me to the hospital. You have no idea how awful that was for me. No, no… The hospital experience was fine, actually better than America. The awful part was not being able to go to the hospital by myself. The ability to communicate is a gift that is often taken for granted. In NY/NJ I could say anything, understand and do things independently. I miss that. I know that once the Mandarin lessons kick in, that will eventually get better. I’m just letting you know my experience here.

So yes, we went to the hospital. I got antibiotics that made me want to puke all the time. The doc said they give super strong meds in China, much more than America or Europe. He was very kind, his English was ok and at times I couldn’t understand him but he was nice.

I couldn’t help but feel really sad during that time. You see, I don’t have my own family. I have my husband and my in laws as my legal family. My biological family… I have none or had communication with for years. I had a convo with my BIL, breaking down.

Me: my family hates me… I’m so sad
BIL: I don’t hate you!

Me: Maybe I’ll be an awful mother, maybe that’s why we don’t have children yet.
BIL: You’re going to be a great mother, I don’t doubt that for a second.

Me: I feel like I have nobody to talk to here.
BIL: You can talk to me anytime.

That’s just a snippet of our convo that made me cry so much. Actually writing that out makes me cry. I have quite possibly the best in laws ever. Father, mother and siblings. I am blessed.

My BFF HJ has been a great source of comfort and all my life have considered her a sister. She strongly suggested that I write the good and bad experience as an expat.

Most of my blog has been rainbows and unicorns, because it really has been like that. But then I have days where I had two strangers yell at me (in Hangzhou). One lady asked me for my iPhone (in English) and went ballistic when I said “no”. Another guy asked me for my laptop and he kept screaming “I want your computer!” over and over again. Both scenarios were in a nice coffee shop. One of the cafe people felt so bad for me and gave me a free drink while bowing.

I love the food here, that isn’t a big adjustment for me. Maybe it’s easy since I cook mostly Asian food anyway. Plus you can get any kind of food you want in Shanghai. Though, their Korean needs some work. I’ll have to try Koreatown, I’m sure it’s more authentic there.

I seriously live on my phone. I don’t have many friends here… Maybe three? I was blessed with friends in the states, I really was. I spend most of my time on email, kakao, twitter and Facebook to kill time. If it wasn’t for friends reaching out to me I think I would be really depressed. I actually am so thankful for HJ, my NCMC girls and Elyse who have reached out to me so much. They all check in on me and almost everyday, one of those girls talk to me. Any time I feel remotely lonely, someone always pings me. Blessed, again.

I do have to say that W’s friend, Kin, has been amazing… He always hangs out with us, takes us to karaoke and really has been the reason why our move here has been so smooth. I would go crazy if we didn’t hang out with him and wife. They have been unbelievably kind and generous with their time.

W bought me a bouquet of flowers as a surprise!

If it weren’t for W, I think that I would actually be freaking out everyday. My husband is the sweetest ever, he feels bad that we moved out here. He says it’s easier for him since he’s Chinese but I know he also left his life in NYC too. W often says he appreciates that I left my life to move here with him especially since I can’t understand everyone. (he knows how much I love to chat with people – I am an extrovert.)

I tell him (and telling you who are reading) that moving here wasn’t that hard for me. It was hard leaving my friends, my family.. Yes. But I was excited because how often do we get opportunities to live in a different part of the world? I love learning about different cultures, languages and I love traveling. Being in Shanghai is what is right for us. Not to mention having a husband who makes you smile and laugh every single day!

I wonder what my role will be here. Will I continue my music here? Craft for a living? I would love to be a mother soon and hopefully that will happen. Whatever life has planned for us, I am ready.

The Bund

You ask if I’m happy here? Yes. 100% yes. I have bad days, just like I did in NY. I have awesome days too. But yes, I am positively happy being here and it wasn’t until I was at The Bund at night, by myself that I felt that way. I saw the lights, the skyline and for the first time my heart fluttered a bit (kind of like a first date) and realized that we are more than OK here.

 We wanted to eat food that was primarily from Hangzhou so we asked our hotel concierge for his recommendation. We trust his judgement since he is from Hangzhou and I’m so glad we listened to him! We went to a place that is right on West Lake, it must be a tourist attraction as well because it was packed even past breakfast and before lunch hours!

This is where we went, you have to walk through a parking lot that is guarded. There are swarms of people walking around and we didn’t have too much difficulty getting a table. Maybe because it was only the two of us? But there were lots of people, mostly Chinese but I saw a few foreigners here and there. 

Lotus Root with a sweet glaze, fresh longan fruit on the side. It was beautiful to look at, it was so pretty with the blossoms and the red hue. But not my favorite to eat, it was so sweet that I could only eat a few bites. 

Classic pork and crab soup dumplings. I thought it was only a Shanghai thing but Hangzhou does it too. It was delicious, plenty of soup and the meat was so tender. Definitely get this here. 

Hangzhou’s most famous dish is called Dongpo Pork which was named after the famous poet Su Dongpo. We read at his museum that he made improvements to the dish while he was in Hangzhou and what we eat today is the result. Smart man, if you love pork belly (as you should, everyone should love bacon… unless you’re vegetarian) then you’ll love this. 

It was such a small piece but it was so delicious. Since it’s so rich, fatty and flavorful, you would only want a small portion. My mouth is watering while I’m writing this post. ((((DROOOOOOLS))))

We had chive dumplings, the skin was especially good. I feel like the skins on most dumplings are so mediocre, they usually get soggy or really rubbery but these were delicious. They were pipping hot, which is the only way I like my dim sum!

Fried daze fish with black beans and you would think it’s a hot dish, but it’s not. It’s cold and extremely tasty. I love daze fish so I knew I would like this and I’ve had a dish similar to this while we were in Hong Kong. If you enjoy eating fish, you must get this!

This was my favorite this of all. It’s a type of jook or rice porridge. It had duck and napa cabbage. I love putting rice in my soups so this kind of reminded me of that. It wasn’t too salty but very flavorful. The bowl was gigantic and I could have easily eaten it myself because I loved it so very much!

If you can read Chinese, this is what we ate! Only 116RMB for all of that food, which was probably too much for two people. It’s a nicer place so it’s definitely a treat. Has anyone been to Hangzhou? How about Shanghai? I could use some recommendations for food and things to do that aren’t listed in my guidebooks.

We have been in China for a month now and during this month we have been traveling from Shanghai to Hangzhou. The hubs works in Shanghai but he was sent to Hangzhou as a intro of sorts to the way things work in China. No complaints here since it’s absolutely beautiful here. Hangzhou is famous for their rich history from the Song dynasty and Marco Polo is rumored to have been there and loved it.

West Lake is the main attraction and the guide books are right, it is one of the most beautiful natural landscapes I have ever seen. People from all over China, Korea and Japan come to visit… It’s true, we saw them all there and even saw quite a few Europeans.

We walked all around the Lake and over the bridges. Each bridge had a really beautiful name, my favorite was “Melting snow hanging over broken bridge”. I took this picture of the sunset from that very bridge. The name was so epic in my opinion. W was telling me that in Chinese it’s very poetic. I think even the direct translation from Chinese is lovely, I told him we’ll name our first born after that bridge. He laughed, I was serious. Come here little MSHOBB! Mama loves you!

There were many boats around the lake for tourists and it really reminded me of the gondolas in Venice. The boats were narrow, one man in the back with one giant paddle and as we were walking we saw the boats rocking from side to side. If you get sea sick easily, it might not be the ride for you. They do have the more commercial boats that are gigantic but I always feel like you miss out on stuff if you ride those. We decided not to ride any boat and walked instead, it was the most perfect weather and we enjoyed it very much.

There were lotus pads everywhere. Sadly it’s not the season for lotus but it was still an amazing site. I can only imagine how impressive it would be with lotus flowers everywhere.

Everywhere we walked was unreal. We felt as though we were walking through a painting. The trees on the walkway, the reflections in the water and all the koi swimming in the lake. It was truly dreamlike. When W and I were looking at the photos I took, he said that we look like we had photoshopped ourselves on there and nobody would believe we were actually there. I laughed because… I don’t know how to use photoshop.

We walked to the temples and tombs that surrounded West Lake. It was a long day and by this time we were both a bit tired from walking around and through the causeway. But we love history so we really enjoyed going through the temples and for W it was especially fun for him since he really knows his Chinese history. Everything he read as a child had come to life when we visited Yue Fei‘s temple.

That’s him! Don’t let the photo fool you, he’s probably 10 times bigger than you think he is. It was really impressive and there were paintings on all the walls surrounding his statue about his life. My favorite moment was seeing a father telling his son about each painting and telling him about the great Yue Fei.

One of the paintings was telling the story about Yue Fei’s mother tattooing the words:

Which means “serve the country with the utmost loyalty”. Remember what I said about the Chinese naming their bridges with epic names? Well this guy got this tattooed on his BACK. That is commitment and if that doesn’t show that you love your country… nothing will. I’m starting to think the Chinese have a flair for the dramatic.

Poor guy was arrested under false charges and so did people close to him. But now they are immortalized by having a temple where people come and pray to him, give offerings and for people like W and I… to learn about the history of Hongzhou during the Song dynasty.

It wouldn’t be us if we didn’t insert some kind of random picture. We were terrified of this guy, who is Yue Fei’s most trusted right hand man. He has his own section that is next to Yue Fei’s temple. His eyes follow you no matter where you are in the room… like the Mona Lisa but scary.

Hangzhou was fun and Saturday was our last day there. W’s colleague was so kind to us during our stay there, even took us out to lunch. We tried durian (aka the stinky fruit) for the first time and it was actually pretty good. I’ll have to post about the food we ate in Hangzhou, it’s mouth watering!

I love that West Lake still looks preserved and I hope it stays that way forever. It’s really so beautiful.