My dream coming true..

Everyone has a dream in his life. Mine started forming when we went to travel India 2 years ago.

I was fascinated by this country which is so different to anywhere else I have been to in this world.  They say, that "You either love it, or hate it". I fell head over heel in love with it from the first day on and ever since  I wanted to return again for some time.

You probably wonder why. But I have so many and no words to describe what it is like. If you wanted to get an idea I could only share some moments I captured during our vacation back than. Feel free to take a look if you want CLICK HERE.

Every day the world is asking us to take on new challenges, new identities, improved skills and productivity. But what we forget in all of this effort is to keep in touch with our base, the most essential of all of it - ourselfes. Our mind, our  breathing, our heart and our soul.

For a long time it has been  my dream to return to India, to re-discover my base and to  learn how to never loose touch again despite all the waiting challenges out there.

Today my plane is taking off to take me to a yoga and ayurvedic retreat high up in the mountains of Kerala. I can not tell you how excited I am to go on this one month journey, not only to India, but to myself.

And therefore we are taking a little break here.

Not only from the blog, also emails, mobile phones - switch OFF!

I want to say "Thank you" to my friends and family who have encouraged me to do take this step and supported me in my decision - any decision in my life.

But most of all, and not only because it is Valentines Day I want to thank Paul who will be spending Valentines day evening saying good bye to me at the airport and the coming weeks without me.

My dear Paul:

Thanks for beeing a wonderful husband,

for sharing my path,

for supporting me in my decicions

for believing in my dreams,

sometimes more than I do.

Thanks for letting me go,

and come back again

You are my life, my HOME!

I love you.

and I will miss you!

Lights On! - for Lantern Festival ( a Photostory)

With the start of Chinese new year, the Spring Festival season begins in China. It lasts 15 days and during that time you never know when walking around the streets whether someone is about to shoot you up in the air with a rocket or if you if you get a good night sleep. The whole country is in celebration mood. It´s great!

This year it was a little extra special because we entered the year of the (water) dragon. Of all Chinese symbols this is the most important one standing for wisdom, intelligence, enlightenment, energy, leadership, good fortune, optimism and success. For anyone who is planning on having children- this is the year you want to start a family.
I read somewhere that China is expecting to see an increased birthrate of 10-20%!! (of 1,4 Billion People) . Anyone working in the nappy-industry? This is where you want to be NOW!

Anyway...
So the 15th day after Chinese New Year is the last day of Spring festival and celebrated big style with the Lanternfestival which marks also the start of spring. (Funnily enough the temperatures dropped drastically straight afterwards).

The place to be for this event and to see  the lights is Yu Yuan Garden in Old Shanghai. It is THE tourist attraction in Shanghai and famous for it´s Chinese architecture. It is also home of the oldest teahouse in Shanghai and set amontst one of the most famous Chinese gardens in the country.
It also contains usually squizillion people and tourists...

So when I left school to go there I was mentally prepared for seeing the place from a "sandwich perspective". However it was cold, windy and tipping it down with rain all day long - which was great because this way Yu Yuan garden was - relatively spoken - quiet.

By the time the lights were switched on at 6pm the rain had stopped and I could not help but feeling ever so overwhelmed with what I saw. It was truely beautiful. And even I started feeling like a little Child wondering  through Disney Land at night.

Come with me and experience this Chinese fairytale in a photostory I put together:

3...2...1... Lights ON! (Click HERE!) 

The (big) city we live in...

Shanghai is BIG.. - not just that - it is VERY BIG!. There is an estimated  25 Million people living in the city, ~300.000 taxis driving around and a bunch of the tallest buildings decorate the skyline. When you arrive here at first  the sheer size of it all is breath taking and in the first few months living here you can´t help it but feel like you moved into a huge maze. Everything seems to look the same. Wherever you go you are surrounded by people, cars, buildings, noise, smells - and  that it is not changing much wherever you end up going to.

Last sunday Paul and I decided to learn more about our new home town and decided to walk right accross it -  about 6km across Puxi down to People suqare to visit the Shanghai's Urban History and Development Museum.

On our way we came across one of those multi story motorway juctions in town which I still find absolutely fascinating. In particular when they are empty like last week during Spring festival, - or scary when busy as usual.

The entrance to the Museum is only 35RMB a real bargain for what you get. If you plan to come to Shanghai one day I highly reccomend you go and visit it. It is an awesome place  get a first overview about where you are.

For example you can learn about historic and present architecture of all 19 districts which together form the province of Shanghai. This way we  learnt that alone the district we are living in "Xu hui"   holds about 1 Million People and covers 55km². 

It is also known for it´s typical European architecture and  it is fringed with buildings refering back to the times of Spanish, French, German  and British settlement. Until today it is often refered to as  "The French concession"

The city also shares in the museum their future plannings and visions for each district. And believe it or not this includes also their plans concerning improving enviromental protection:

But the real attraction and why you want to come here is to see the model of Shanghai in a ratio of 1:500: It is enormous!!!.. The picture is taken from the balcony one floor up) and it is showing only the "inner core" of the city - about 40km in diameter.

Now let me help you a little with orientation:

The area left hand of the river is called "Puxi" meaning "West of the river". The area right hand of the river is called Pudong  meaning "East of the river". The river itself is called "Huangpu" and joins the sea about 40km east of the city - near Pudong airport. 

Every building with more than 6 floors can be found in this model. And not only this, it also includes buildings which are still work in progress, such as the next tallest building for China (Shanghai tower 632m) which one day will stand  next to the World financial center (also called "bottle opener"492m) at the riverfront in Pudong.

Do you want to know where we are living? Let me show you:

Make a mental cross and devide the picture above into four boxes. We are living in the lower left part of the bottom box.  And just to give you a bit of contrast: Bruv and Sis Lincoln live in the top part far right -  even a little outside the picture.

 

We actually  managed to find our road  in the model. It is exactly in the center of this picture:

See the junction? We are living right behind it:

Below is the view from Xujahui Center (10 min walk from us)  looking East. The distance is about 10km to the river. Did you see that the center in the picutures has no lights? This is the French Concession. Xujahui is also where I go to school - in # 99 and #100 in the raking of tallest buildings in the world (according to Wikipedia)

The next picture shows you the view from "Garden City" in Pudong based on the eastern side of the river.  We are now looking west to east. This is  Jinqiao district where the other Lincolns live. Right on the other side of the city.  Our home in Gao An Road is located near the far back left column. Or in real live: about 45 minute cab ride away.

Can you imagine that only 10 years ago this side of the river was not developed at all  and was mostly covered by marsh land?? That gives you an idea on how fast the city is changing.


Disorientating and huge as it seems - after a while of living here even Shanghai starts to take on shape. You start to get to know your places, your way round and one day you catch yourself thinking that  it and isn´t that big after all! You even start bumping into people you have seen before in bars and restaurants because the actual expat community is estimated to be  ~250.000 people here - a small village within a mega city.

Sometimes we still can´t believe that we are living right within it.
Two little "ants" within a mega ant nest. After all it´s all a matter of perspecitve :-)

No hangover for China

In my last post I tried to show you a little what the night of Chinese new year is like. This time I want to show you that China didn´t suffer from a massive hangover and that  many of our friends here were wrong with the information: Shanghai during Chinese new year is a deserted place.

It is true that last week Shanghai was, relatively spoken, quiet - in the residential areas. Pudong was empty because the area existis mostly of the financial district and many foreigners who live there  had left city for the week. On our side of the river (in Puxi), in the back of the  French Concession, it was also wonderfully quiet and it almost felt like living in a tranquil villag inside a mega city (with only the odd fireworks explosion kicking us out of bed).

However, even a half empty city of 25 Million still leaves a couple of people around to enjoy a sunny new years day. Paul and I were two of those few left in town and decided to go venture down to the riverside for a walk along the Bund on new years day. The initial idea was to go for a nice quiet stroll as we hoped to have the city all to ourselves. It also seemed like a great opportuntiy of trying out my new wide ankle lens (14-24mm!!) to capture this emptyness ..

Well.. we were proven wrong. Instead of a deserted riverbank my lens quickly filled up with thousands of little ants - all wondering along for their new years stroll.

And so Paul and I went with the flow and dived into this crowd which still is a lot more relaxing than walking along any Xmas market in Germany, simply because we are relatively tall ants and are able to keep our heads free :-)

I invite you to come with us  for a stroll on a  sunny monday in the new year of the dragon.
Just the three of us .. and a couple of others :-)

Zuo ba! - Let´s go: Click here

Chinese Fireworks are - LOUD!!! (A video Post)

Last Sunday we took part in a huge party in China. We all said good bye to the (metal) rabbit and entered the year of the most important symbol - the (water) dragon with a big BANG - or two.

Chinese new year is more than just a new years eve celebration. It is the most important festival in China and it is something like a cross between our Xmas and New Years Eve celebrations. Everyone is going home to see their families and therefore the whole country (1,4 Billion people and us) get a holiday for one week.  There is a LOT  to tell about the customs of and around Chinese new year, but for this post I keep it short and let you be part of our celebrations which we enjoyed german style.

The actual "Chinese New Years eve" was on sunday. So the six of us met up at Benno and Kerstin´s place for a nice raclett dinner followed by games night - and beeing blown away from fireworks all night long. We chose their apartment because they live on the 17th floor overlooking Century park in two directions allowing us to enjoy a great view over Pudong and the fireworks around us.

Since taking pictures didn´t make much sense I decided to film some of the activity and the NOISE!!!
It is absolutley mad but well worth sharing with you. If you wouldn´t know it you could easily think that these films are part of a war documentary somewhere.

I appologize already for my (non existing) filming skills and in case you speak Chinese you might notice  that I shout "Happy Chinese New Year" completly wrong..(good that my Chinese teacher doesn´t know anything about this blog :-).

So sit back, relax and turn your speakers up on full volume. You might catch a bit of what it was like..
(Ah.. and please try to ignore my shouting...:-)

Here we go:
11pm - the neighbours are practising - and I feel like a war zone reporter:
click here: http://youtu.be/wLzvYUV2rt4

5 to 12 - Shanghai is exploding..
click here: http://youtu.be/n0jRAmQemWE

12 o´clock - Xin nian kuai le!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
click here: http://youtu.be/J-e7Ip8Tt-U?t=5s

If you wonder what Shanghai was like on the next day, if  China woke up with a big head from boozing too much, than wait until the next post.. you will be surprised!

My Chinese habits, discovered in Germany..

Xin nien kuai le!Happy new year to you!

I know we are already well into the new year and you haven´t heard from us, yet. But no worries everyting is fine here in the middle kingdom. Just our internet was playing some jokes with us. This combined with a nasty jet lag and a bad stomac delayed the first posting for 2012.

However, before going ahead telling you more about Shanghai,  I must share with you an experience I had during my stay at home. It is almost scary: I´m seem to become Chinese! or at least I seem to have adopted some Chinese behaviour which I found a little disturbing when noticed.

Want to know what I´m talking about? Here we go:

One of the major differences between Shanghai and Europe is definately the driving style. I LOVE driving every time when I´m back because for a change it is me who has control over a steering wheel and not some crazy maniac who you never know if he got up with the right foot on the day.

I didn´t find myself driving very „Shanghai“style. Actually the opposite was the case – I was just cruising in no hurry with my little rented Polo to be able to enjoy the beautiful green countryside and the space everwhere... (we call those kind of people "Sundaydrivers" in Germany.. a very popular species of people, ususally already grey haired).

BUT – if there was anyone in front of me not moving when the lights on a traffic light changed  I forgot all about my grey hair and was the first one to press my horn extensively. Talking to my friend Silvia today I learnt that this is quite normal behaviour for anyone who has lived in Shanghai for some time. Even though none of us is driving ourselfes - we just learn from the taxi drivers.

I remember one particular scene in Frankfurt where I had to stop for a group of people who were demonstrating and crossing the road. After they had passed someone sneaked up from behind on me with his car. He overtook me from the left and immediately afterwards undercut me in front to  take a right turn. (The ususal Shanghai manovering..) Thanks to my relaxed cruise mode I didn´t crash in to him, just shouted something like „mf**!!!?..and just before I was able to press the horn a much louder horn came up from the left: A police car who had seen everything took over for me. I could not help but wondering how efficient Germany is.

The next thing about driving and worth mentioning is wearing seatbelts. This is something that does not excist in China – and yes, Paul is working for a car safety company who develops seatbelts and -whohoo!! – Airbags.

None of which are ever beeing used here. Pauls driver is actually a great example! Driving for a company who works on increasing safety in cars, he has managed to get hold of a seat belt buckle from production - just to click it into his seatbelt pocket. This way he gets away with not wearing a belt and the electronic system is not going crazy with warning lights and bells!!

Anyway, it is scary how quick you get used to not wearing a seatbelt (also because you can´t as they are put away behind horrible cotton covers on the back seats of taxis). In Germany I noticed how used to it I have become when during several occasions I sat in the car – belt up – but completly forgot about it and than -“urrghh“ was pulled back by it when I tried to leave the car. Ask my sister. She  had a very good laugh about that!

Another thing we don´t do in China – and that is simply because it is just not common practise – is giving tips. This is something which takes a bit of adjusting to when you arrive here at first, but you get very quickly used to that every cab driver here will insist of giving you the right change. The same goes for restaurants (except for the very facy ones which are too expansive in the first place).

So back in Frankfurt I´m sitting with my friend in this asian style restaurant. When the bill arrived I didn´t think one second. I unconsciously paid the waiter and next thing I noticed is my friend staring at me pretty amazed and asking me „are you not leaving a tip?, the guy was just standing there waiting for you to say something..“.. Oh my god!!.. how emberassing!! No I really had not noticed and had taken back every single penny I was owed. Latest than I noticed that I had learnt a little more in Shanghai than Mandarin.

Well, there is another whole year in front of us. Do I need to worry about what comes next?

Will I start burping and spittig in public? Or will I start wearing leopard printed pants and glasses frames with not actual glasses in whilst taking my pink dressed dog for a walk?????

Well, we can only wait and see and I share it with you after my next trip to Europe.

Hopefully you won´t be my witness when it happens :-)

Zaijane!

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!