Spring has sprung

Current location: The north of Shanghai, Zhabei district.
Current status: moved in. settled. excited. exhausted.

The month of February is quickly speeding by and I don't see the pace letting up any time soon. This city has already flooded me with experiences to the point where I have currently switched into an overload setting. That is why I now sit here on the couch with my feet up, relaxing, reflecting and writing to you.

These past weeks have set the foundation for this outpost. The housing hunt has taken up a good portion of our time while we have also gone out, explored, battled sickness, set up the homebase and have begun our client projects.

On Sunday my friend Frankie and I moved into our new apartment just around the corner from the Shanghai Circus World (a huge dome building that looks like a golden golf ball). After visiting a handful of different flats we chose this one. Mint green décor with a hint of Miami Beach in the 90’s. 6th floor. Balcony. Heat. Washing machine. 40 minute walk from the Fashion Hub. Perfect. Home.

Living in China and not speaking Chinese creates many daily challenges in the area of communication. It’s a constant exploration of my drawing skills, my use of body language and of course a test to see how fast I can flip through my Mandarin/English pocket dictionary.

Tomorrow I will be leaving Shanghai and will be going to Ningbo where the China headquarters for our client Hape is located. We will spend a few days there, learning more about the company and the product before we move on to the bamboo forests of Anji where we will explore the material of which the toys we are going to market are produced.

There’s never a dull moment. I’m snapping more photographs than I am writing down words. I hope some of these shots fill in the gaps.


THE FIREWORKS NEVER SEEM TO STOP


FIRST DAY AT THE HOMEBASE







CHECKING OUT ISLAND 6




VISIT TO TONG LI








Sky

Shanghai: Getting to know you

Shanghai by night @ Bar Rouge:


"The Welcome Banquet":


Flowers in our room:


Around the neighborhood:




Anna eating Japanese:

Xin nein kuai le!

Happy Lunar New Year to everyone! Last night we welcomed the year of the rat along with the other 1,321,851,888 people in this country. Our team went out to have a traditional Chinese dinner where we sat and ate for about two hours. After consuming squid, octopus, jellyfish, cucumber, pork, beef, shrimp, rice, noodles, deep fried bananas, bok choy, broccoli, chicken, fish, carrots, dumplings and beer we found ourselves full and extremely satisfied. As I'm sure you can imagine, I opted out of a few of the dishes but made an effort to try as much of it as my taste allowed.

Traditional Chinese tables are equipped with a rotating round piece in the middle (like a lazy susan) where the dishes are placed. Everyone at the table shares each dish as they come in one by one from the kitchen. It's nice to taste many different things over the course of the meal and talk with the rest of the people about the flavors, textures and spices.

After dinner last night we went on to a club called Mao where our contact person from the Fashion Hub (where we will have our Homebase during the next three months) had arranged entrance for us as well as a welcome drink. At 12am the sky exploded with fireworks in all directions. On the street crackers went off by the thousands and big clouds of smoke rose up around them.

Shanghai was quieter than I had expected for the festivities. Because most people spend this holiday with their families, many have left the city. We have been told to expect the traffic to be much thicker, the subways to be much more crowded etc in the following days/months.

I'm experiencing a couple technical difficulties at the moment so the photos on this posting are not my own. Stay tuned though...I'll sort out the issues with power cord, camera and internet connection and will keep sending updates out to you in cyberspace. It seems blogspot is blocked in China. So although I can sign in and post I am unable to view my own blog. Ah well!

The cafe is closing, so I'm off.
...Until next time, zai jian!

Landed

The city lights of Shanghai glow through the curtain of my hotel room… or should say, “my new home”. We touched down this afternoon around 3:30 pm. The mist hovered over the ground like a blanket but the sun still managed to shine through clouds and welcome us to China.

Yesterday I packed up the last of my things in my room on Paradisgade and said goodbye (temporarily) to Denmark. I will return in the spring when the skies are blue and the sundresses are out; when the city bikes are back on the street and afternoons are spent lying on the terrace or perhaps on the beach with your toes dug in to the sand.

I am excited to begin this new chapter in the East. And I must say, I am doing it in good company. We of Team13 have been picked up, shipped out of Denmark and dropped off in the exciting and mysterious city of Shanghai: population 18 million. No doubt we will create some stories worth telling.

It’s just after midnight on this side of the world. That’s 7 hours ahead of Denmark and 13 hours ahead of Cape Cod. So good morning, good afternoon and good night to all of you…

love. sky.


Packed up

Mille and Anders on the train

Frankie, Phillip and the cheater chopsticks

Our first view of Shanghai

Landed

Heading to DongHua Univeristy in the evening traffic