My friend Alex..

Today we are getting a little side tracked and look back to Germany. Alex is one of my oldest friends back home and we both share a passion for photography. Whilst I like to focus on adults and documentaries she has a great hand and beautifull view to capture families and children.  I´m ever so happy for her decision to launch her own photography business this month  that I want to share her link with you and to invite you to take a look at her work:

Alexandra Feitsch Kinder & Familienfotografie: http://alexandrafeitsch.blogspot.com/

Best Wishes for your new Future, Alex!

Someone is watching me!

I may have told this little story to some of you during my trip to Germany. But I just found the picture again and decided it is worth telling everyone here.

When I got up a few weeks ago I did my normal morning routine: going down to the kitchen, put the kettle on and starting the washing up. The washing up sink is located right under a window  which makes the actual  process a lot more fun because there is always something to look at and going on in our lane or in Gao An Lu.

That morning I noticed that some of the electric cables, laying on the other side of the window were moving.

Like little black snakes they were sneaking from the left to the right side of the window. As my glace followed their path I found myself all of a sudden staring into someones face - some guy who obviously had to fix something in the mess of wires which connect us with the rest of the electronic world.

To be honest I was a little shocked, because it is the last thing you expect that someone is watching your on the upper floor and I´m that sort of person who definately doesn´t want (and probably should not) to be seen straight after getting up.  Although I should have learnt already from a few days before when I walked  from the shower straight into the kitchen just to find out that someone was walking along the roof of the cafe below our kitchen to fix the aircondition and that granted him free sight into our apartment.

I think this falls in the category " Expect the unexpected" and  it is as it is and there is no way around that: After all we are in China and someone is ALWAYS watching you..

PS: I wish we would have such great bamboo ladder when I locked myself out the other day! :-)
PSS: Just realizing the windows need a clean...
PSSS: couple of days later ..reporting, windows are clean now :-)

Impressions of Shanghai Streets - Zizhong Lu

It seems like yesterday, but it is already 3 months that it was June and we got to experience the plum rain. I told you about the rain in the  post "It´s raining cat´s and dogs" but I have not shared with you the pictures which I took on the first sunny day after 2 weeks of rain.

I happened to be out y in town when the sun decided to come out. And with it all the streets came back to life. The every day picture of a grey  was over sudden exchanged by clear blue skys with white clouds and colourful washing dancing up in the air. That was the first time that I decided to get my camera out and to try a first street documentary. 

If you are curious, about what crossed my lens that day than follow me back to Zizhong Lu which is based in the former Luwan District in Old Shanghai. Just klick on the link below:

A. Lincoln Photography - Shanghai Documentaries

With the heat gone I had more time and fun to shot many little documentaries in and around Shanghai .You can look forward to seeing more picture stories,  soon :-)

Aaaahhh! a Spa...

If you know me a little then you know also  it was only a matter of time until I had to write about my favorite topic: Spa´s!!!

I don´t just like Spa´s. I´m a Spa-aholic. I L O V E them and I can´t help it.
It is all the fault  of a few trips to Thailand and me beeing ill some years ago. Ill enough for me to having had to stay off work for several months and finding out about this llittle ayurvedic farm beeing located next door to us in Nierstein.

With more than enough time back then and good reasons to do something to make me feel better I dived into  the world of facials and massages. And since then I could not help but making it a routine of not only going back to our neighbours but also to explore all sorts of treatments during my travels in  Asia.

The great thing about living in Shanghai is  - hooray !!- I´m living in Asia now! And the city is fringed with massage and spa salons. Even our Yoga studio is offering a massage service. Most  places provide the traditional Chinese massage which to be honest is not really one of my favorites because it makes you  feel like piece of unfinished edam cheese and they are poking the holes into your body - or they try to squeeze the  kidneys out of your back (aparently helps the body coping with toxics..). No, my favorite  here is a Japanese Shihatsu where you still wear a pyjama but it is much closer to a Thai  massage without the twisting and bending bits (That´s what I have yoga for now..)

Of coarse after 7 months here I have also found my favorite place - DRAGONFLY! I can only blame my sister in law who introduced me 3 years ago. I was on one of those marathon conferences in Shanghai with work and needed somewhere to recover from it.  I loved Dragonfly instantly. The athomosphere is relaxing, it smells great and there is always some plinki plink musik in the air. It has the style of a 5 star spa - but not the price level. Curious? Take a look: Dragon Fly

So last week Paul came along to have his jetlag (and hangover from his birthday celebrations ..) massaged out. When we checked out the dialog was as follows:

Lucy @ Dragonfly:      Did you enjoy your massage?
Us:                                 Yees!!.. (..followed by a big jawn..)
Lucy:                            Are you a member? You come here lot, Lina! (my chinese name)
Me:                                No I´m still no member...
Paul:                               Why not?
Me:                                Because you have to pay a deposit to become one
Lucy:                            Yes, but you can use the credit  and get 30% off every massage in future
Paul:                              So why don´t you sign up?
Me:                                ????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hooray! And here I´m sitting with a brand new club card from Dragonfly. The next 30 massages are payed for and when I openend my fortune cooky which I got after every treatment I found the following message:

Seems like my membership was a well and soon required investment! :-)

Please don´t pee in the Taxi!!

We were confronted with this sign in the Taxi the other day...

Not sure who has put it up, but please, PLEASE don´t pee in the Taxi... they smell already bad enough!!............

Locked out..!!!

I wasn´t even 24 hrs in the country when I was thrown into my next adventure: I managed to lock myself out from our apartment. You want to know how and what happened after that?  Come back with me to last Friday morning:

What a nice morning. The sun is shining, the temperature seems to be bearable and I can´t believe that I slept through all night. Wow! No jetlag at all! Probably thanks to the little kid behind me who instead of sleeping on the plane insisted on kicking my chair for 9 hours leavng me feel l (and for sure look) like a zombi when landing and going straight to bed once I was home.

I start unpacking my suitcase and find this nice little ornament which I bought in Bavaria for our front door.I get the hammer out and walk barefeet down the stairs to fix a nail in the door. With my last bang I´ m watch the door closing like in slow motion - CLACK - the door is shut!

"Ooops"….my frist thought and looking stupidly at my hammer in right and ornament in left hand. "Double Ooops" - I have no key with me! ...Oh dear.... "Ahh!- I have an Idea": Mr. and Mr.s Xing (the older Chinese couple who live below our living room ) have a ladder!!.. sure with that they can let me climb back again into the aparment via our balcony!

So I knock on their door and explain with my limited Chinese, hands, feet and my shut door, what trouble I am  in. Immediate reaction: "Mei you" and pointing at my feet: "You got no shoes on!!!" - here are some plastic slippers (to keep your feet warm - it is only 28 degrees outside…). And we all venture into the back garden.

Mr. Xing get´s the ladder out and tries to position it somehow between the palm tree and the house.
Looking at the arrangement it is very quickly very clear that I will NOT climb back in through the balcony because a) the ladder is too short and no matter how much I would try, I´m not Tarzans Jane, b) the ladder is already missing the first rung and looks so rotten that it would most likely not even carry lightweight Mr. Xing. So that was a clear "No go".. we all agree about that.

By that time the guy from the office - which is based below our bedroom - comes out and asks what is wrong. We all together explain my little problem and  he´s got an idea. I understand that someone he knows (either father, friend or god knows who) can be found round the corner and can unlock doors. Of coarse! After all I´m in China, someone capable of such skills can´t be too far away from us. OK -we wait for him.

Meanwhile my legs start to feel  very very itchy. As I´m looking down I can see squizillion mosquitos enjoying the meal of their live on my bare skin. "Ahhh!!!" I shout, a strange look by Mrs. Xing and we all rush into the house into the Xing´s kitchen where Mrs. Xing comes along with some bottle which at first looks like soy sauce.
I somehow understand that I shall put that stuff onto my legs. By that time I don´t care what it is because I ´m already so  terribly stung I would have put anything onto my legs which started looking like the popped up islands of Micronesia in the ocean.

Only 10 minutes later the office´s friend turns up and gets going on the log. Another 10 minutes later he gives up. "Bu keyi - can not".. bugger! For a minute we thought again the ladder option through the kitchen window. But we all agreed that even if I would make it up, I´m slightly too large to be able to slip through the metal bars - to be honest  no human but a monkey would fit through it. But since we have no monkeys in Shanghai we needed a new idea.

Ha! The Ayi has a second key! Great idea- but won´t work because
a) I don´t have  her phone number and
b) actually no ones phone number with me -  my phone is upstairs..
c) don´t know any others phone number out of my head.
d) which means also I can´t consult Sophie from the relocation agency who is somewhat like my personal telephone joker for anything needing help with..

Bugger!-- New Idea: I can ask the office if they can let me use their computer which I can use to log into my emails and that way find out all numbers and try Ayi or Paul´s driver to come and help - Brilliant!
So I knock on the office door who guides me straight away to one of their desks, I finally call Paul who sent Wan Chang, his driver, on the way - Sorted! All I have to do now is wait half an hour for the keys to turn up. "Xie Xie"! - Thanks everyone - I´m ok now. I wait here on my door step.

And as I´m waiting I watch the rain outside  and I can´t help myself but smiling and feeling somehow very happy for having managed that challange and life continues as if nothing would have happened. The office is working away, Mr. Xing comes and offers me a glass of water, I listen to the office´s Ayi cooking lunch. A few minutes later she walks past me with some yummy smelling Chinese stir fry and before I know it the office has pulled up a chair and invites me to join their lunch.

The funny thing is that I always wanted to know who works in this office and what they are actually doing. This was my chance to get to know them, to findout that they are dealing with antique furniture and they only shout loud into their phone sometimes because they are using satelite phones which seem to have pretty bad reception. I managed to spend an entire half and hour with them - the best language practise lesson I ever had .

Later on Wan Chang arrived - everyone welcomed him as if it would have been Santa Claus himself - And finally I got back into my appartment to continue with the Birthday preparations for Paul.

So what have I learnt in these 2 hours?

• I know now who lives with us in the house and have some fine neighbours
• We have a very safe flat
• Never leave the house now without mosquito repellent
• I can manage a fine  conversation in Chinese even without my telephone joker Sophie

Next week I will go back to school and learn how to say:

"I´m sorry I´m an idiot - I locked myself out -AGAIN!"

Return to Shanghai

Even the longest holiday has to come to an end. And so did my 4 weeks in Germany.  After a grand finale shopping trip to Frankfurt I found myself checking in at the airport for LH 726 to Shanghai leaving at 10:30pm last Wednesday. No actually I need to put this right: I tried to check in - and got into trouble since the scales screamed: "she´s got 52 kilo´s of luggage!!!" at me. I know what you think now: What on earth did she have in her suitcases???

Well here ist the answer:  Half of the portfolio from “DM” ( a german drug store) and half of REWE (supermarket). Why? Because everything imported is either mega expensive or it includes whitening cream - and once you know what toiletry shopping is like here you would agree it is like entering heaven when you walk through the doors of any European drugstore.

So there I was with 6kg overweight and no ex Lufthansa colleagues in sight who would for sure have let me off..
Smart as I am I  had parked my rental car outside with all my (another 15kg!) handluggage. So the check in agent asked if I can maybe shift some of my weight into my carry on bag since I didn´t seem to carry anything with me. “Sure!!, I widly grinned.. and unfolded a little travel bag which I always have with me for such occasion.  I re-loaded 6 kg into that and eventually got my boarding pass.

When I dropped off my rental car  I instantly regret having that much hand baggage. The amount of stuff I had to carry was as much as I remember Indian families carrying with them for 4-6 people.
Too late I noticed several liquids in my bag and therefore made the guy from Sixt rental cars very happy by donating to him a huge bottle of honey, a bottle of contact lense solution and  a very expensive sun taint lotion - bugger!.

Fortunately my flight was 30 minutes delayed and therefore I got the chance to relax from all this stress in the Lufthansa lounge,  phoning friends for  last good byes and  to enjoy once more “Brezel and Leberkäs” (traditional Bavarian meat loaf with prezel).. (at least my silver card is worth something if not extra-extra luggage..)

At 10:30pm  I ventured to the gate and got slightly overwhelmed and excited by the look of a Chinese crowd. Even though through my shopping trip to "Kaufhof" in Frankfurt, I was somewhat prepared to meet again so many of  my potential neighbours again. I was  thrilled when hearing the boarding announcement in Chinese. Because I noticed that it sounded familiar to me and I was actually able to understand most of it.
All of a sudden it hit me: "Oh my gosh! I´m  living in China!!!"

I just could not believe that only 6 months ago Paul and I entered the very same plane into a totally new life, not really knowing what it would be like. And there I was, understanding elements of Chinese and feeling actually comfortable with the hussle and bussle and the noise of the crowd as it pushed itself onto the plane.

And you know what? It felt good. Just like flying back to Germany 4 weeks before it felt like that this was the right thing to do. Flying back to Shanghai, back to our old apartment right in the heart of the city, back to Paul and back to friends waiting for some mad birthday celebrations for Paul ahead (Side note from Paul - there will be no post of that. Three days later he is still recovering from it..)

And as I´m writing this post I´ m sitting on the Huangpu river again, drinking my  favorite star bucks coffe latte, the sun is shining and I´m watching the ships and the chinese world go by Yes, it is good to be here and to know that many of you follow our stories from this mad city.

Sometimes it feels like I want to hug the world!  :-)!!!!!!!!

Summerbreak!

When the thermometer climbs to 32°C in the shade of our balcony at 9:30 in the morning- and when you start seeing shaved "hot"-dogs walking around - than you know it is Summer in Shanghai and that it is about time to take a break and to escape the city for a while.....

Will be back with more Shanghai stories towards the end of August.

Zaijane - See you, soon!

Dining out in "Fish street"

 

Last weekend together with some friends we decided to give the overpriced expat restaurants a miss and hit "Fish street" right in the heart of old Shanghai. All it is is a little road just of Xizong Lu and it is fringed with street vendors barbequeing their latest catches. If you don´t mind that it is a very chinese experience you will enjoy going there and mixing with the local crowd which later at night (that means after 9pm in Shanghai..) seem to be mostly young Chinese on their way to a night out.

You can look forever to find an English menue - you won´t find it. But that is no issue, because all you do is "Zhe ge -it" (point at the uncooked stuff and and say Zhe ge" which means "This! which by the way is any expats way of getting round anything in Shanghai  - or you do it even lazier like us and bring an experienced brother with you who has done this already several times :-) They than BBQ your food an bring it into one fo the many the dining rooms you are choosing to eat it in.

It is a truly messy way of eating which is why you get (and need!!) plastic gloves (need many of them!) and if you want you can also get an aprin. Food is served on skewers or in bowls and comes with a nice sauce which we have not figured out what it is.. Looks like soy sauce and tastes a little sweet.

Winners again this time were the garlic bbq oysters (less than 1 EUR each!), smoked fish on a stick (see piture above), BBQ prawns and my personal favorite "miàn bao" which are sweet tasting little bread dumplings roasted over fire

After dinner the restaurant weighs you and depending on how many kilo´s you put on you pay...

.....only JOKING!!

this guy just tried to make a little money with his scales.

You probably wonder about how our tummys felt the next day?

Mei Venti! - No Problem!! - We will be back again!

Today we are just looking at the frogs - and go to cooking school

  

Last month I wrote about how expensive it is to cook western style in China. (See Post from 30.06). After 6 months in Shanghai now it was finally time for us to learn a bit more about how to cook Chinese food.  Not that we (or to be fair I should really say Paul..) didn´t know how to do it.  But the challenge was always that when we wanted to use our brand new wok we struggled to find the ingredients or didn´t know what they were called in Chinese, or most of the times - we saw something looking good but didn´t know a) what it was and b) what to do with it.

So together with our friends Silvia and Andi we signed up for a Chinese cooking workshop at "Shanghai Kitchen", which is luckily located round the corner form us (- and the Paulaner Beergarden for that matter :-) )

Our teacher was a young Shanghainese called Jimmy, which I soon wanted to start calling "Jimmy Oliver" because he approaches cooking with no less passion than his famous English colleague. When Jimmy is not teaching he is a chef at the Ritz Carlton and therefore we were very excited to find out how he prepares every expats favorite Shanghai dishes:

• Shanghai fried noodles
• Eggplant cooked with spicy sauce
• Kongbao chicken
• Fried Pork with Pinapple

But first we went on a tour to a local wet market. From fruit and vegetables to tofu, meat, fish, rice spices - you can get anything here, see for yourself:

Below Left: Making of Fresh Dim Sum

Below Right: Tofu Stand

Below Left: Frog was not on the menue (maybe part of advanced cooking?) but it is  worth mentioning that Paul had it last friday and aparently it does really taste like chicken.

Below Right: Hairy Crabs - they are a delicatessy in Shanghai. We were told that you take them alive and boil them for 2 minutes in water. After having to swim stacked up in a drum filled with a marinade of ginger, sugar and vinegar probably in some way a relief....

Once we had completed our shopping it was time for the kitchen:

I think Paul was probably ready to kill a chicken....

no worries.. it was already dead...

Hobby Chef vs. Domestic Science Degree:

Here we go - my Shanghai noodles - approved by Jimmy!

 

Now guess how much this 4 course dinner feeding 9 people cost?

100 RMB = ~ 12 EUR!

I just hope that Paul doesn´t expect me to take on the lead in the kitchen now ... :-)