Shèngdàn kuàilè !! - Merry Christmas

There was one box in our seashipment in may which we didn´t unpack but stored in a cupboard. It was the one box containing our Christmas decorations. When I got it out a couple of weeks ago, I held this ornament in my hands and wondered - "Wow - wasn´t it only yesterday that we packed it away? Where did this year go?"

If I would have to describe our first year in Shanghai than I would say: It was at first like going white water rafting - exciting, mad, fast and sometimes we were thrown into very cold waters. But over the months we learnt how to paddle,how  to steer our ship and since a couple of months now we can probably say that we are riding on fairly smooth waters.

Paul has settled very well in his job and with his company he can look back at one of the most sucessfull years ever. I for myself can say that I feel like have learnt so many things for my life and also starting to see now a path forming taking me forward in my professional live.

We have made some great friends here and overall we can say that we have been very lucky with all people we have met and the network that is supporting us in our live in Shanghai. We have also learnt that people are just people and it doesn´t matter what nationality they are. We all have our weired and funny sides. It is great to experience and to live in a different culture. As long as you have room for a laugh when things go wrong or you don´t understand, you will be fine. "Just go with the flow" became kind of a mantra for me in 2011.

But most of all we are thankfull  to look back at a year where we both stayed healthy (apart from the minor incidents..) and that we can say: "yes it was worth coming here, it was worth the effort". There is no better Christmaspresent this year than beeing able to say this.

With this we close the blog for 2011.

Thanks for keeping in touch!! This year would not have been possible if we wouldn´t have known that so many beloved people support us, nevermind how far away we are!!

We wish wish you all a very mery Christmas. Have a wonderful time with your friends and families.  Relax, enjoy and have a healthy and good start in the new year..!

Be proud of everything you challanged this year.

All  365 days.

Nevermind how difficult.. you walked them!

Time for a rest - Time for Christmas Season

With Love and Hugs from Shanghai

Shèngdàn kuàilè!

Geli & Paul

My camera goes on stage

The great thing about living in Shanghai is that it is full of surprises and opportunities that sometimes seem to appear out of the blue. Here is an example:

Two weeks ago I was sitting in Chinese class when my phone rang. "Hi, my name is Jon, you may have heard about me from Greig".. mhh..Yes I have...you are a friend of his  and I know also that you are a professional photographer doing cool stuff for no one less than "Der Spiegel, ect.." - I thought to myself.

 "I was wondering if you can help me" he continued " I made this commitment to a friend to shoot pictures during a concert. But I have to leave the city for another job. The concert is going to be in the Shanghai Oriental Art Center and I was wondering if you can - jump in for me?" ....?!!!?!!!!!!!!??!!! I nearly fell of my chair....

"Oh my God!"- was my first thought. I had absolutely no idea what I was letting myself into. All I was sure about  that it was going to be a low light event, not too easy to tackle. But if I learnt something in my previous job than it is there is no need to be scared because nevermind how cold the waters - I can swim! And Jon said "I think it will be fun, just enjoy it".  "OK" I said "Let´s do it!"

The next day I shouldered my bag and went Pudong to find out what it was all about.
The event was called AMRATA MUSIC SCENE. It is an ongoing music project with Chinese music on it´s core but incorporating styles of eastern, western as well as specially made instruments.

Five musicians, some of them professors for music, created some of  the most beautiful and pure music I have ever heard that night. It was just wonderful and whilst they were playing you could feel that each one of them truely loves what they do. They didn´t just play music, they WERE music.
This is what I tried to capture with my camera which didn´t let me down despite the low light :-).

In invite you to virtually enjoy some of the moments of  AMRATA SONG 2011 at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center on December 1st 2011:

Enter HERE

Friends, Murder - and a Mystery to solve

Last weekend there was a murder going round in Gao An Lu! It was 1939 the "Lincoln In" was hosting a dinner party and somone was killed just before that.

No panik - we were hosting a murder mystery party in our apartment. In case you haven´t heard about it, here a brief explanation what it is: It is a game played through a 3 course meal. There is a story to it and explains that someone has been murdered.  Each guest  receives an invitation upfront describing a character they need to act and play whilst investigating who the murder was.

This particular game was actually called "Murder in the Orient" and was set in Shanghai in 1939. There could have been no better place than our apartment to play this. It was built around the same time and is situated in the French Concession where a lot foreigners used to go out and  live already back than.

Since we haven´t talked about who we are hanging out with in Shanghai I decided to take this as an opportunity to introduce you to some of our friends - and suspects of this crime:

E voila - the hosts:

Lady Marmalade (French wife of a British Diplomat)

and Reverend Spooner (An American Missionary)

The guests:

Benno - alias PEKING TOM (an Australian adventurer)

and Kerstin - alias MOUSY TUNG (a Chinese House keeper)

I think she should wear this black wick more often!

Leno - alias BRUCE LYE ( a professional dancer and kung fu specialist)

and Marianna - alias SU SUKI (a glamerous Japanese actress)

and last not least:

Ati - alias WAN TON WILLY ( A chinese business men with suspicious background)

and Judith - alias XENA SPOONER (Indian born and wife of Reverend Spooner)

The whole night was great fun. Everyone acted so well that we sometimes were not sure anymore about what was made up and what was part of the skript

By midnight the muder was found - of coarse it was the suspicous looking Reverend Spooner!

Sure his wife knew about it, too:

Several bottles of wine and some Sake later everyone left around 3am.

It was a great night and we will make sure that someone will be murdered again next year!

You can´t be lucky twice...

Upfront: Yes, this is an X-ray - and yes this is MY left foot. I thought I take this opportunity to tell you a little about our first hospital experiences in Shanghai. You read right:  I it is experienceS because Paul and I have been somehow, let´s say, a little unlucky in the past few months.

A whole series of little accidents started already during our holiday in Australia where Paul slipped in a cave and managed to break his little finger. A week back in Shanghai he managed to also bang his head very badly on a cupboard. So bad that we had to send him off to hospital to get his eyebrown stiched up again. That experience alone would be worth a whole story by itself. But I leave it to that much: It happened on halloween and for a split of a second I thought Paul is playing a funny joke on me.

A couple of weeks later my sister and her boyfriend arrived in Shanghai. Maybe for sypmathy with Paul, or  maybe because of the cloud of bad luck was still hanging over us I managed to drop the corner of my laptop on my foot. It happended just after they had arrived whilst I was dancing round our kitchen table of sheer excitement and didn´t recognize the stretched out cable connected to my computer. Before I realized I had about 2,5kg of weight landing on middle toe- Outch!

It didn´t take long until the toe started swelling up and half way during our shopping stroll on Nanjing Lu I couldn´t help but noticing a crunchy feeling. I decided to pay a visit to doctor. Thanks to our insurance we can go to any private hospital and so we went to the parkyway health clinic to see a taiwanese- american doctor.

The first question he asked me was: "So, how is the laptop?"...jokingly of coarse and sent me straight down to the X-ray room. I was a bit concerned about the x-ray because despite seeing a private doctor I knew that they are still using the facilities of official chinese hospitals. And having had some x-ray experiences in India (Paul is probably still glowing..) I was prepared for the worst.

To my surprise the machine didn´t seem any different to what we know in Europe. The only difference was that besides the normal aprin I had to wear also a little metal helmet on top of my head...Not sure why.. "That´s China.." - was the only comment my doctor was giving with a grin me when I asked about why I had to wear that. A couple of minutes later the results were back and with great relief I was sent home knowing that I had been lucky. It ws just a bruise and the doctor let me off with the advice "To look better after my laptop in future".

Literally 3 days later (I was still limping) bad luck struck me again when I managed to bang my left foot very (VERY!) hard on the corner of a wall at home. I somehow kicked the corner between my little toe and the toe next to it. This time the reason was just sheer stupidity and Mr. and Mrs. Jing looked a bit concerned because they were just up for reading our water meter when it happened.

To be honest it hurt quite bad but not much different to the pain I had before. "Sure" I thought " it is just another bruise". And since the internet informed me also that under no circumstances you can do anything with a little toe,  I decided to not worry about it and to get on with my life. Well, a bit of a painful life. My neighbours at the kitchen stall down the road started looking at me a little funny every time I walked normal TO the yoga studio and ended up limping BACK home because my toe had swollen to tripple size after class.

Last friday it was 2,5 weeks after it happened and it didn´t seem to get any better. I therefore decided to go back to the doctor and let him take look at it. I got an appointment with the same guy who started welcoming me with "Hello, it´s you again - maybe you should start wearing safety shoes at home?"...and sent me straight back down to the x-ray. This time it was a different room with only a small table to rest my foot on. Thanks to yoga I was able to hold my balance quite well with one foot whilst trying to hold the other one still under the x-ray machine. I could not help but wondering what kind of shutter speed they are using on x-ray pictures??

The first thing the doctor said when I got back up was "Oh dear, when you had no problem  you came to see me, and when you  had one  you waited nearly 3 weeks to come" - Diagnosis - little left toe is broken!.. Ooops!.

There I am 34 years old and experiencing my first broken bone in my life and it has to be  in Shanghai. I had to go back to see a specialist on monday because the bone is not growing back straight. The second doctor I went to see is working in a brand new hospital at People Square. In fact it is in the same building than the Mariott hotel. When you enter reception you would never believe you are in a hospital. Big chandaliers hang from the ceiling, the reception is layed out with fluffy carpet and there are huge comfortable sofa´s to sit in. It felt a bit like the set up for an american hospital series.

Unfortunately the doctor didn´t turn out to be George Clooney but a cheerful guy who assured me that I don´t need to worry. I shall just go ahead wearing not my normal shoes but  a special sandal for a while so  that the swelling can go down. And I shall also not practise any standing postures in yoga for some weeks. I can cope with not going to yoga class, but wearing this sandal makes me looking like I´m about to go snorkling with one fin: They had it only in size 45 and it looks really ridiculous. But hey we are in China - people walk around in pyjamas in the streets -  who cares?

When I left hospital it was a beautiful sunny and warm morning. I waddled to Starbucks on Peoples park and sat down on a bench. As I enjoyed the sun, the colouring leaves on the trees and an old men practising tai chi right in the middle of the park I could not help but smiling to myself and thinking that I might have had a bit of bad luck. But Paul and I are well on the ment and sitting here in Shanghai and to be able to experience this moment and this year make me feel that despite these little incidents I´m the luckies person on earth!